The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1898. AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 9109, 9 March 1898, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1898. AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Wro presume Iliat the Government will take ?ome notice of the Poxt —if they consider themselves justified. According to that journal a far worse state of things than has ever been alleged against Tammany has been in evidence in Wellington during the last few days. The Premier, who with a crowd of Ministers, members of the house, and a tag-rag-and-bobtail of hangers-on has been electioneering for his marionette nominee, Mr Kirk, is accused by the Pest of "spending his days and much of his nights in roaming the streets and pervading public bars as an active electioneering agent." It is also said that there can be " hardly a public house in the electorate where he has not 'shouted,' regardless of the law which is supposed to deter such practices," and it is argued that the very men who drink with him must feel that he is besmirching his high office. Wβ go a little further. We say that if what the Post alleges is true the Premier's conduct is a scandal and a public danger, and that he ought to be ashamed of himself. We say this on the ground thet the conduct of which he is accused is highly unbecoming in anyone holding any position in the Government of the country, let alone the position of Premier.

We say nothing as to the rights of individuals to do as they please if they act as individuals only. If we could regard Mr Seddon as merely an energetic West Coast publican, or as " Digger Dick," then for him to spend much of his nights pervading public bars as an electioneering agent, "shouting " for other people presumably voters, might be treated as a matter of " taste " so long as he did not break the law. But for that conduct to be charged against the Premier of the colony, and one who in that capacity was recently honored in England with the titles of D.C.L. and Privy Councillor—surely nothing could be more out of place, nothing more calculated to bring the whole colony into contempt. So shameless would such conduct be that we admit we do not quite believe the Post, We do not charge it with deliberate falsification, but we cannot help thinking it must have been deceived. We have tried to conjure up the Post's picture—the Premier roaming the streets and pervading grog shops " shouting " and electioneering— and we could not succeed. IE the Post's statements really are accurate, then we can only say with Hamlet

O Shame ! Where is thy bluah f

Wβ yesterday published a cable message which gave details of a disturbance among the mining community of Western Australia. This was attributed to unpopular action by the Minister of Mines. We confess to not being able to see why the miners should be enraged. That we fail to see why they should seek to break the law and commit acts of violence because they are enraged goes without saying, but that is a question apart. The reason for the discontent is a decision of the Mining Department of that colony which fixes the limit of alluvial mining operations at a depth of ten feet from the surface. It is obvious that a limit must be fixed at some depth, if the distinction between deep mining and alluvial mining is to be kept up. Otherwise alluvial miners might bore through to Europe, or if that be considered improbable, then might bore shafts of unlimited depth without coming under the regulations which affect deep-level mining as such, A man who claims to be an alluvial miner has certain advantages with regard to surface area and modes of working which are denied to those who undertake deep sinking, and it is obvious therefore that a limit must be set for the alluvial miner at some depth. Whether ten feet is the most suitable limit is possibly open to argument, but when the alluvial miners wish to argue the ques-r tion by outrages it is time they were taught a lesson. Iα another part of this issue will be fonnd a further contribution to the muddling litigation now in progress in connection with the affairs of honorable Ward and his Farmers' Association. The news relates to a petition by some shareholders that honorable Ward and his man Fisher should be prosecuted by the liquidator of the Association. Incidentally it will be noted that this liquidator, who opposes a prosecution, has as his solicitor a lawyer in the pay of the Government as Crown Prosecutor, and that two other lawyers who were recently said to have been appointed Crown Prosecutors are looking after the interests of honorable Ward q,nd his friend McCaughan. This matter was raised in connection with a suggestion—a most unlikely one, we should say—that the prosecution might be taken up by the " Crown," which

means the Government. That the Seddon Government would prosecute honorable Ward and his man Fisher is about as likely as that ready roasted larks should grow on trees. We yesterday asked why it was the Government had not appointed an AttorneyGeneral since the office filled by that functionary wag rendered vacant in 1895 by the appointment of the late Sir Patrick Buckley as Judge. The litigation now in progress adds point to that query, since if the Government had appointed an Attorney-General, as it ought to have done, his opinion upon what is transpiring before Mr Justice Williams might have some value.

The Anglican Church may have its faults, as other denominations have theirs, but it is pleasing to notice that in the matter or contributing to deserving British charities it maintains its high reputation. For years the Anglican Church's contribution to the fund raised in London annually on " Hospital Sunday " has been threefourths of the total collected, and the last collection is up to that standard. As is generally known, once a year a Sunday collection is made in all the churches in London for the hospitals of that gigantic aggregation of bricks and mortar, and it is usual for the sum collected to reach a total of forty thousand pounds. The latest collec- ] tion falls short of that by nearly three i thousand pounds, the following being ' the contributions from the various denominations :—

Church of England ... 29,08.5 17 2 Congregationalists ... 1,622 1 6 Jews 1,006 $ 0 Presbyterians ... 1,010 0 0, Wesleyans 909 19 C, Baptists ... ... 966 5. t Roman Catholics ~, 395 12 5, Uqitariana ... ... #55 5 9 Foreign Protestants -.. 107 1 1 German Lutherans ... 100, 10 6, Church of Scotland ... 105 Iβ, 0 Society of Friends ... 102 2 1 Greek Church ... 93 9 0 Methodists 68 2 7 Catholic Apostolic ... 01 5 1 Reformed Episcopal Church 39 2 1 Swedenborgians ... 21 14 8 Froo Church of England 12 10 7 Moravians ... ... 2 V/ 0. Various ... ... 248 1$). 3. £37,373 ID 10 The statement that United States troops are to bo despatched to pull down the Canadian flag at White Pass is probably an invention of the New York World, which is a very unscrupulous paper even as Yankee journals go, its only real competitor for " honors " in that direction being the Sun. <>n the other band it id very likely that tho United States has demanded that Canada shall cease to lay claim to that portion of territory, for so far as we can gather it is extremely doubtful as to which country

it belongs. We have consulted two excellent maps, one issued by the Canadian Government and the other by a British shipping proprietary, and they differ materially. The map issued by the Canadian Government shows White Pass well within Canadian territory (fully sixty miles) while the oilier map places it twenty or more miles to <ho south of the Canadian border. Which if? right will probably ba decided in a year or two's time, after claims and counter-claims have resulted in the appointment of a commission of surveyors to delimit the territory of each country. In the meanwhile we must expect Yankee papers in search of sensation to assert that war is likely to result because of an incompletely surveyed frontier line in a barren region of precipices and frostbitten valleys, of absolutely no service whatever except a3 a means of reaching gold-bearing country in the interior.