THE COURTS.-TODAY.

Evening Star, Issue 7259, 9 July 1887, Page 2

THE COURTS.-TODAY.

OITY POL?OB COURT. (Before Messrs A. Burt and D. Brent, J.P.S.) Drunkenness.— Bridget Biggt was fined 6s, in default twenty-four hours' imprisonment. Unregistered Dogs.—Three owners of un-registered-dog,s were fined Is and costsi Larceny.— Annie CfflTi? was charged with having stolen a watoh and chain of the value of L 6 from Gilbert M'Nicoll, at the NorthiDunedin Hotel, on the 11th January. Mr Catamore appeared for the defendant.—Aooused was committed for trial, bail being allowed in her cwa tecogais&uce for LlO, and two sureties' for a similar amount. '■■ •,<

NOTES.

The expenditure on Laijd Boards offers Borne peouliar grounds for reTlioCostof flection. When the JtarliaLniul Boards, ment, in a fit of virtuous zeal,

passed the self-denying Ordinance *' for preserving the purity of Parliament"—entitled " The Disqualification Act, 1878"—which provides that no member of either House shall " within twelve months after he ceases to be a member, be capable of being appointed a Civil servant," the net was skilfully framed so as to allow ail sorts of loopholes for evasion. In the oane of a direct appointment a special Act of exemption and indemnity has always been asked for and passed ; as, for instance, iu that of Sir Geokge Whitmork on his appointment as Commander of the Colonial Forces. In other eases, men have been appointed without salary until the expiry of the twelve months. But Ministerial patronage must have an outlet somehow, and there are a number of lesser loopholes, of which appointments to Land Boards and Education' Boards are prominent. At the present time no less than fourteen members of the House and one member of the Gotinpil are sitting on these Boards, And ar e paid apparently upon no rule but that whipp is measured by the elasticity of their consciences. From Parliamentary papers we glean that sometimes thpy get L2 per day, and oa other days LI, for travelling allowances, In addition to fees, This, with Education Board allowances to those who occupy a dual position as members of both bodies, together with stray pickings as Commissioners to Victoria or elsewhere on occasion, make a very pretty addition to their honoraria. The biggest offenders in this respect are, we regret to say, those of Qtago. During the financial year ended 31st March the nonofficial members of the fttago Boaid cost the country L 689 ; whilst those of tfa;nterbury barely reaqhfld 1/93. Are thp cirr cumstanpes of tiie two provincial districts so dissimilar as to justify this difference ? The returns furnished show that Mr Clark received LISB ;Mr Duncan, Ll4B ;MrJ. C. Brown, LI 74 ; Mr J. M'Kenzie, Ll2B ; and Mr C. S. Reeveg (for six months), L3O. We have no desire tp undervalue or disparage the services these gentlemen render to, thg country i but their pharges are rather more than the occasion warrants. Jn no other district is the cost so great. Wellington comes next with L 372. In this, as in Ministerial oharges, it is the travelling allowances that eat up the bulk of the money. For instance, Mr Brown's travelling expenses mounted up to L 124, and those of Mr M'Kenzie to LBl, which, considering that they hold " free passes " for the railways, is rather astonishing. How could they spend the money? '■' ;.'!'-•'• v :

The educated tf rough "has been making himself disagreeably ponspicuoifs Educated of late, and the police seem to bo " Nought)." helpless and' resourpeless in the

emergency. We do not pretehd to dispense legal opinions, but we feel quite assured that any young ruffians brought before the Bench for disturbing publio meetings by their insensate clamor would be satisfactorily disposed of. It appears that there is too much stickling 'for the letter of the law and too little regard for its spirit. It cannot, and rnust not, be permitted that a pack of youths should interrupt political i rneeting9''" qifer thfl 'fashion they have been gupre.d/ tp dp pf lafe. The electors who desire to heap thp Premier, or any other candidate, speai; on affairs of State must be protected against the annoyances to which they Ijave been subjected. It will not do to allow public qusfness (o be converted into* a farce which may some day end in a tragedy, by the young ''roughs" who infest these meetings, ff the police will not do their duty iby ejecting them, other means will have to be tried. The outrageous proceedings that have-lately occurred at such meetings are a disgrace to civilisation, and offer a very poor prospect of the future men of New Zealand. If such conduct is continued, and riot 1 checked, as it should be by the authorities, the 'men will hjjvp to drive the boys out m et armis, •"■*•'

There is $ parliamentary paper which professes" to ' gfve an " apVanished proximate estimate qi returns Hopes. f rom proposed alterations in Tariff. The amoupt of extra taxation set down is palcu-; lated on the basis of last year's imports—a sum equal to an average of 7s 6d per head; for every man, woman, and ohila in the Colony. There are evidences that the, estimate is below the mark, and competent! critios assess the increase at L 200.000 oi\ more. This is the threatened infliction j from which we have escaped by tho vote of j the House. But, taking the figures as pre-! sented, the |" estimate" shows Borne curious inoonsjstencies. The bulk of the articles upon whi.oh nsw aift duties were to have been'leyied are not, cannot be, produced in this country at ■ all. So that thfi proposed Tariff meant taxation without even $£ sour Baiice pf Protection to j a very large extent. '■ An extra shilling' per barrel was to have been levied onj cement, which'wpuld stopped its jmpprtfttion, 90 that jnrjncrease,! but a decrease of revenue could have been J anticipated from that source, Duties on' fruit, fruit pulp, and vegetables were esti-j mated to bring in L 5,000 a-year; but the two last items would have been withdrawn, front'the list of imports perhaps Wrtild'bew) loss to fthe community! —and the S perucentl duty on fruit would; have had no perceptible effect onimporta-j tions,. It'speaka very little* for NewZea-i 1

*|>Jan4 that our people cannot boat the im- .': tpbrtewi of ftjese things'on their own ground ; j but .'that does not justify the Tariff, the only There is a creature called the chameleon, 1 effect 1 of which would have been to which possesses the property of ( ren ijer fruit: and Vegetables yet more The Chanie. changing ita color by assimila- a Juxury than they are now. Then leon Policy, tion to the color of surround- the duty on calico goods plain and ing objects. There are politi- printed—could have served no purpose excians of the* same type, equally capable of cep t Increasing the revenue and taxation, assimilating themselves to surrounding cir- The contemplated duties on sashes and cumstances. They claim to be consistent, floors were supremely ridiculous. Our and they are consistent-to their object, not importaftoni r of sashes in 1885-86 were constant to their colors. Thus Mr Ballance only twenty-five pairs, of the value of now discloses his hand on the subject of £,24, and of doors 452, valued at L 271. Protection in the following terms, in his The only trades that seem to have been conWanganui speech :—"lt had been said that s i,j er ed from a Protectionist point of view extreme Protection was not wanted. His are t i loS e of the bootmakers, iron-workers, answer was that we should not quibble an d brasß-workers; and many of the articles about names ; what we did want was not name d in connection with these trades canthis kind of protection of 5 per cent., or 20 not be fairly well manufactured in the per cent., or 50 per cent. We should have Colony. It was a Tariff of a character sufficient protection, whatever that might ne ither to satisfy Protectionists nor to be, to adequately protect our industries. a pp ea se Freetraders—" a thing of "shreds With reference to the Tariff introduced by pa tches," and we refuse to believe the Government the other day, he said it that t |j e Treasurer, who prides himself on was an indication of the direction in whicn his knowledge of commercial affairs, had a Ministers ought to go ; and although that hand in its p re p ara tion. Nothing better Tariff might not have afforded the amount could have'befafien than its relegation to of protection required by the industrial the Umbo of unfulfilled intentions, classes, they should not forget this important fact, that it was a great first step towards protection of our industries. . . . We were prepared to test the feeling of the country, and boldly launched the Tariff. If the people wanted a better Tariff, let them aay so ; it was for them now to make the response, and he felt sure that whatever Government were in power a Tariff would be introduced, and they would have Protection Protection in earnest, and, as he had said, a sufficient Protection." When Mr Ballance was Colonial Treasurer, in 1878, he held different views. He told the House that " we should encourage, as far as we possibly could, a spirit of Freetrade and of commeroe, believing that New Zealand was more adapted to be a great commercial country, situated as it was, with its extended seaboard, its splendid ports, and unrivalled position, than any other country, perhaps, in the Southern Hemisphere." He declared that "we" his colleagues in the Ministry, of whom Sir Robert Stout was one—" believed that if Freetrade was firmly established, the result would be a very largely increased prosperity in this country, and that there would be a large trade opened up with the sister colonies and many other countries, which does not now exist." He pointed out that " the true policy is to cultivate trade " with the other colonies, and to remove our tariff restrictions until we are as free in our commerce as England herself is." And he stigmatised the protectionists of the day as being possessed with "a selfish desire to have themselves protected, and to tax the whole community for the benefit of particular trades." Can it be questioned that Mr Ballance is a political chameleon of the most pronounced type ? Protectionists may allege that he has been converted from the error of his ways. Truly he is a "vert"of some sort; but most people will say that he has been " verted " to, not from error. It is instructive to observe that he speaks not for himself alone, but for his colleagues.' *' We' were 'prepared' to test the feeling of the country on this subject." 'So runs the record ; and it must therefore be assumed that Ministers have adopted Protection as an absolute plank of their platform, Premier has not yet given any pronounced utterance on this question; but, after Mr Balance's avowal, it Surely behoves him to do so

One of the Wairarapa papers inquires if Sir Robert" Stout gained his title Sir Robert's on account of his offer in Jingoism. August, 1885, conveyed through the Agent-General, to place 1,000 men at the disposal of the Imperial Government if war had broken out with Russia. It will be recollected that the Secretary for the Colonies was told that " if war had unhappily broken out with Russia, the New Zealand Government would have recommended to their Legislature to make an offer of 1,000 well-trained men to Her Majesty for service in India or elsewhere ?" Where were the men to come from ? But Mr Fred Fultop is not here to answer that question.

Sib Robert Stout has been very industriously making speeches during a e nd r the the week in order to convince 'DallyTimes.' the electors of Dunedin East that the 'Daily Times' is wrong in its figures and he is right. A course of proceeding more advantageous to that journal we can scarcely imagine, nor one so little likely to advance his own game. Numbers will be induced to read the 'Daily Times' who perhaps otherwise would not have troubled themselves to do so. Numbers will now accept fta version of the financial position <of the country under Sir Robert's premiership, who, but for the enormous efforts put forth by him to prove that journal wrong, would not have troubled themselves to question his specious statements. It is a weakness that Sir Robert has always had a tendenoy towards, that he seems to enjoy tripping an adversary on a trifling slip,' rather than establishing a cause on broad' principles. He sJioulc|' remember, if the ' Daily Times' is wrong, he may be wrong also. We know many persons who sometimes indulge in a harmless game at euchre, who enjoy the pleasure of euchring their opponents far more than winning the game. Just such roguish play is Sir Robert at now.' He had rather trip the 'Daily Times'on a question between 7 and 8 ihan point out a way of getting New Zealand out of the difficulties in which his Government have involved it. He may find that in this he has played his cards badly, and in attempting to euchre others he himself may be euchred.