The Bruce Herald. " Nemo mt impune lacesset." TOKOMAIRIRO, JUNE 27. 1890.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 2178, 27 June 1890, Page 2

The Bruce Herald. " Nemo mt impune lacesset." TOKOMAIRIRO, JUNE 27. 1890.

It is reported elsewhere that a party was fined at the Milton Justices' Court on "Wednesday for unlawfully assisting in conducting and being a member of a lottery of a horse, the drawing for which took place in his house. The penalty was only nominal, but it was stated by Constable King, who prosecuted, that in any future cases of the kind he would press for a heavy penalty. Possibly there may be a lot of private gambling going on in the district, his knowledge of which led Mr King to make this remark, but on this subject we are completely ignorant. If such is the case it should certainly be put a stop to. But iv the particular case adjudicated upon

by the justi^s tte belief that the \ parties really, ignorautly "did t j Vtl that good might come." The laffle was got up as an act of charity, and the proceeds were presented to a perßon in great need. The law allows the totalisator to be worked upou racecourses ; it permits with tbe approval of the Attorney-general of raffles in connection with church bazaars, and, although the authorities are not unanimous i ■ their interpretation of the law in such cases the comparatively harm ess '' Yankee Grab " for " a shilling in and the winner shout" is not regarded as a very heinous offence. m fact iv more than one instance it has been decided that it is not an offence at all. Our contention is that if gambling in any shape or form is immoral and illegal, it cannot be rendered moral — however legal it may be — by the consent of the Attorney-general being given, and, moreover, it cannot be more moral to work a lottery box at a church bazaar than it is to operate a totalisator on the racecourse, or to raffle a horse for a charitable purpose in a country village. Under the Act the person who raffled this horse might have been fined £200, and as he admitted his offence, although pleading ignorance of the law, the magistrates might have inflicted tbut penalty had they so chosen. Fortunately they had the option of reducing the amount, and still more fortunate- | ly for the accused party they thought that the interests of justice would be met by fining him 5s — one eighthundredth of the full penalty. It may be, and no doubt is, right that the law should do all it can to suppress the tendency to gambling which unfortunately prevails, but the law should either recognise and provide for the punishment of gambling in every form and in all possible connections, or leave ifc alone altogether. And so long as the totalisator is legalised, gambling of all kinds ought to be permitted.

Mb Gifpen, of the Board of Trade, is one of the highest authorities on statistics in the Empire. Before a Select Committee of the House of Commons on Emigration and Colonisation, he gave it as his opinion that while there were congested districts in Great Britain, as there were in every other country, there was an increase in the general well-being which kept pace with the increase of population This is at once a very interesting and a very encouraging piece of news. The congested districts mean of course East London, and the large manufacturing centres, to which crowds of men flock in the hope of obtaining work. In many cases tbey are discontents from the rural districts, who, tiring of a quiet country life in places where they can always command a living, gather all together and go up to the great metropolis. Having nothing but unskilled manual labor to place on the market, it naturally follows that the bulk of them are pushed to the wall by those who are more at home in London and know the ropes. They are also attracted to the large centres by the prospect of higher wages, failing to perceive that high wages do not always mean increased means. The market value of a sovereign is wonderfully different in many parts of the country. Ifc even varies very considerably in these colonies. In some parts of England a pound a week will go further than two pounds in others. And the lot of the agricultural laborer is not by any means so hard a one as is generally supposed. In not a few counties he is as comfortably off as many a colonial cockatoo. Ifc seems thafc, taking all things into consideration, the working class in the Old Country are in fairly comfortable circumstances, and that in carrying out any future emigration policy the colonies will not be called upon to go into an enormous expenditure in order to flood themselves with people who cannofc sustain themselves at Home. Such being the case, it would appear that just now is the time to start a new immigration policy, more especially as there seems to be a disposition on the part of Great Britain itself to assist and encourage such a scheme. For, although there may not be such a plethora of population as to render an outflow immediately urgent, there is always a vast contingent constantly ready and willing to seek fresh fields and pastures new beyond the seas, and we are certainly much in need of more settlement.

Now that the Resident Magistrate pays such comparatively infrequent visits to Milton, the work of presiding over the Courts comes rather- hard on the great unpaid. Almost every week for some time past there has been a Justices' Court, and this week there are two. Three of the Justices do nearly all the work. There are only four justices residing in the town, and we think only five in the district. In some parts of the colony they are so plentiful that people complain there are too many, and that they have, been appointed for political purposes. How such ' appointments can be expected to serve any political ends it is hard to imagine, although it is certainly a fact thafc each new Ministry gazettes a large batch very soon after getting into ofiice. Bruce has in any event been sadly neglected in this respect. The number will have to be doubled if the Police Court is to sit ao^re- .':■" ■■;.<■■• i

quently as it hits dniie of late. Were this done, the Ju-iiices would b-J able to arrange a roster, aud take the work in turn.

The retirement of Major Campbell from the position of Cierk to the House of Representatives has led to the more radical portion of the Press calling attention to the great cost of clerical work in connection with the proceedings of the House. It appears that Major Campbell has been 35 years in the service, on a salary of £700 per annum since 1881, prior to which it was only £600. Hia duties are fulfilled during about four months of each year. He also had two assistants, who have received £500 and £4-00 annually each, and other assistants whose salaries amounted in the aggregate to something like £750. These are really big figures. £2350 a year for the clerical work of the Houbb of Representatives looks enormous. But there is another side to the question. The gentlemen thus engaged were undoubtedly qualified educationally and otherwise for the responsible, if not very onerous, duties they discharged. And the chances are that they could, have earned as much or more had they been engaged in mercantile pursuits. Every man has his market value If for some reason or another he cannot always secure it, he is simply the victim of circumstances over which he has no control. We suppose nobody finds 'faulty with Major Campbell and his assistants for drawing the salaries to which their personal abilities amd their contract with the Government entitled them. But before honorable members on economic thoughts intent decide upon reductions in this branch oi the service, the question of who is responsible for its costlinesei ought to be considered. Every sessiion, for instance, members move for elaborate and for the most part us eless returns relating to general and local expenditure which must cost a good deal to prepare. True, it is often stated at the bottom of these returns that the cost of preparation was nil. But this is a mere euphemiaim. It can mean no more than that no extra labor had to be employed. The big staff, the cost of which the- economists complain, has had to be kept on very much for the purpose q f preparing these returns. Our office and every newspaper olfice in the co u,ntry contains many hundredweights of these returns, which are preparnd, priuted, laid on the table of the I'clouse, and circulated, and no further interest is taken in them by anybod y. Storekeepers up country often use them to wrap up pats of butter and other merchandise. If some chec k could be placed on this practice of preparing and printing so much useless matter, not only could the clerical expenses of the House be cut down , but the cost of running the Governn lent printing establishment might be _ very materially reduced. Weresimi lar expenses in connection with the Bi itish Parliament made on a similarl y liberal scale, the annual cost would be something astounding. "We havo no desire to be classed with thos e stingy economists who would go in for universal cheeseparing, but we are convinced that an enormous savin g might be effected in connection w ith the incidental expenses of Govern ment, a saving so large as to have a n laterial effect on the annual balance- sheet of the colony, while no department of the Civil service need suffer to the slightest extent by Buch reducfe ions.