SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

Evening Star, Issue 7238, 14 June 1887, Page 2

SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

AUCKLAND, A gentleman who returned to Auckland last night from Wellington reports that on the overland journey from Napier he found the Natives at many points near the scene of last year's eruption in great fear, and thoroughly believing that a second and similar disaster was about to visit the country. At Ohinemutu bells were rung all night and prayers incessantly offered by the Natives on the anniversary of the appearance of the vast ash cloud. Judge Ward, in charging the Grand Jury, said that the first and most important case on the list was that of Regina v. O'Neill, for manslaughter. In this case the husband was charged with the manslaughter of his wife by gross and wilful neglect, It appeared from the evidence given at the coroner's inquest that the unfortunate wife had taken poison in a state of distraction through the treatment of her husband ; that he was fully aware of her having done so, and deliberately withheld from her all proper care, attendance, and nourishment until it was too late for them to be of any avail. The physician who attended her stated that with careful nursing and proper treatment and diet she would have recovered, but she was utterly neglected. No one was with her, and she seems to have died from exhaustion, caused partly by the poison she had taken, and partly through the want of proper diet and care and medicine. With these last it was her husband's duty to furnish her, and if the evidence proved that he had failed in his duty, and that the death of the wife was caused or accelerated thereby, it was the jury's duty to find a true bill. CHRISTCHURCH, June 13. A strong Political Association is being formed here for the purpose of influencing the elections as far as possible throughout Canterbury. Although the matter has not yet been made public the membership already includes some sixty notably good workers. The programme adopted is as fullows:—(1) Further retrenchment; (2) fair taxation; (3) encouragement of colonial industries; and (4) a united Canterbury. A fair amount of preliminary work has been done. The Association is distinctly opposed to the return to power of the Continuous Ministry, and strongly objects to so-called independent candidates. On the subject of independent candidates, the ' Lyttelton Times' urges the electors to distrust all who come forward on that ticket. It says:—" Of the various kinds of independent politicians, the rarest species is a man who honestly sannot make up his mind to work with any party. Of this kindj Mr Montgomery is, we should think, a solitary example." Strong efforts are being made to induce Mr John Holmes to stand again for Christchurch South; but he has not yet consented to do so. It has for some time been understood that for various good reasons Mr Holmes desires to retire from political life, at any rate for a time; but the electors are so exceedingly desirous that he should again represent them that he may be induced to reconsider his determination. In any case, Mr Holmes would be a decided advocate for further retrenchment.

WELLINGTON, June 13. In an article on Mr Ballance's speech at the Protectionist meeting at the Opera House on Saturday, the ' Post' says: "The main interest in the Minister's speech lay in the declaration he made as to the policy on which the Government intend to go to the country. There was no mistaking his words. He boldly unfurled the standard of absolute protection to local industries—protection to the extent of prohibition of outBide competition, It is well to understand this, bo that there may be no trimming and no sailing under false colore. Subjeot to one limitation, Mr Ballanee said that there must be sufficient protection, whether it meant 5 per cent, or 50 per cent, or more on the cost of the imported article, The limitation In question greatly militates against the: thorough character of the pohoy he pro* terns, The limitation is b regard to the 1 application of protection to skilled manual labor only. If Protection is bo good for the artisan and manufacturing dais as he makes out, why should its benefits not be extended to all classes ? He denies that the effect of Protection would be to tax. one portion of the community for the benefit pf another. If, therefore, one class' would benefit by its operation without injury to any other class, why should not each and every class derive the full advantages of Protection to itself ? If it be such a good thingi why not let us have it all round, and all become prosperous and happy beyond,our most sanguine dreams? It is complained that our young artisahs cannot find work, and that Protection will afford it. The same complaint is equally just with regard to workers with the brain, instead of with the hands. Why not try the same remedy ? One of the most productive manufactures in this Colony at the present time is that of school teachers of all kinds and grades; and it is carried on at the expense of the State. Another productive manufacture is that of lawyers; and our State schools are turning* out at the public cost thousands of youths who, having passed the sixth deem the mechanical arts derogatory, and aspire to genteel employment as clerks of one kind or another. The difficulty of finding em< ployment for these classes iB daily becoming greater, and yet they are-all "exposed to * free competition from abroad, and not only is the foreign article frequently preferred by the public, but as the Government, despite their protective policy, send Home for such articles as the Hinemoa's boilers, so do our educational authorities often import at the public cost foreign occupants for prise situations. Surely this is very wrong. There-ought at once to be imposed a heavy poll tax on all arrivals whose object is to seek a living in this Colony by competing in any line of life with those already here. The tax should be graduated, according to educational attain: ments, (from the standard required for employment as a Government messenger up to that of the university professor or member of a learned profession. Indeed there should, in eommon fairness, be a tax to prevent competition from abroad with the hornyhanded sons of toil who are already in the Colony. Then, indeed, when we are protected all round, wages will be high in every class, and the patriotic aspiration of ' New Zealand for the New Zealanders' will be fully realised. We shall then become a second Pitcairn Island community, and be able to turn our attention to devising means to protect us from each other—one island from the other, one district from the other, and so reaching the ideal' acme !of prosperity. If there be any truth in Mr Ballance's principles, we are, in thus suggesting an extension of their operation, only carrying his arguments to their legitimate conclusion, absurd though that may be. We have to express <rar surprise at some of his assertions in reference to the relations between town and country, and our wonder that a Minister in charge of the Lands Department, who has shown himself so desirous of promoting settlement, should, in his advocacy of Protection, have apparently entirely ignored the fundamental principle of political economy as bearing on this subject, that the land is, and must be, the ultimate standard of value by which wages and the cost of living are alike determined in any country." Mr Bracken's lecture last night at the Theatre Royal on the Queen's Jubilee, in aid of the Catholic Literary Society, was a great success. The crowded audience at the termination of the lecture gave three cheers for the Queen and three more for the lecturer.