The Old. Cat Story.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 239, 25 December 1888, Page 3

The Old. Cat Story.

Auckland, yesterday. In an action in the Supreme Court by a settler against a neighbor for £77 damages, for trespass and for an injunction, Justice Gillies said on Saturday, “This seems to be a very absurd case. The costs will be more than the value of the cattle and land on both sides put together.’’ Mr Mahoney, for defendant, concurred with the remark, and expressed regret that they were there at all. The jury returned a verdict that plaintiff was entitled to nominal damages of £1 for the trespass. Mr Palmer asked that costs might be allowed. His Honor replied, “ I look upon it-as a perfect scandal that such an acion shou'd have been brought, and therefore I shall not make any order as to costs.” Mr Mahoney asked that costs might be allowed defendant, but His Honor said he should make no order, as defendant had also acted foolishly.

Mr Bradlaugb, in the cour 3 of an address upoiKsocial questions to the working men of Wolverton, made the following remarks :— “ I want to put it to you,” said Mr Bradlaugh, “ as a governing principle, that Parliament ought not to legislate for adult people on any matters on which the people are able to protect themselves ; that it ought not to enact what people shall do or shall not do'in respect to self-regarding matters on which people can do the same things fnr themselves ; that in respect to social reforms and domestic concerns the duty of Parliaments is to interfere as little as possible, and only for the purpese of preventing those frauds which are in the nature of crime ; that, in fact, Parliament should do nothing which robs man of that self-reliance which on the whole makes society progressive wherever it obtains with the individual. And I want to point out this especially because it seems to me that there is a feeling, and a regrettable feeling I think, on the part of the democracy of Europe, and an attempt is being made in this country to convert many of the workers in it, that all ills are to be remedied by the State.” The following letter appears in the New Zealand Herald, but we think it has been written in a vein of thoughtless sarcasm, for we cannot believe any true working man could stoop to write anything so disgusting. “ Sir,—l know that you are not above taking the part of a true Englishman, and I feel sure you will not help Messrs Mays, Goldie, and the political people who are with them, into forcing poor working men into the bush of New Zealand, It is all very well for the early settlers who came to this colony when there was no civilization, to have to rough it in tents and bush houses, but we didn’t come for any such purpose. We cams when you had your city built, with its hospitals. asylums, and old people’s refuges. If we had slopped in the old country, when we became old we had the workhouse and soup kitchens in the winter, and we ought to have something as good hare. If the settlers didn’t intend to give us as good as we had at home, why did they invite us here? Oh, no, the bush potatoes and pipis are not the kind of food for old people ; let us have some of the blessings of society. The Salvation Afmy is for the poor people, and we want their prayers and songs,—l am, etc., Workingman.” If we have many of that class of men in New Zealand it would pay to ship them away. The following paragraph ia from Truth The Servians are with very few exceptions the most thorough scamps that exist on the habitable globe. They have acquired all the vices of civilization without losing those of savages. A friend of mine once advanced some moaey on mortgage. He never got it back. Judges, lawyers, and citizens united to rob the stranger. He changed his lawyer frequently, but he only fell from Caiaphasto P.lifce, and after a varied experience he acquired the conviction, at the cost of several thousand pounds, that there is not one honest man in the country. lam not, therefore, surprised that these scamps tolerate that aroh scamp Milan as their King. Milan was brought up in Paris. His proper sphere would be making cannons on Paris billiard’ tables or hanging about the at Monte Carlo. By all accounts, he wae an arrant coward when the Servians were engaged in war with the Bulgarians. His wife may have been foolish ; but, married to such a man, it was difficult to be wise. He was perpetually engaged in some intrigue, which he blazoned forth with all the pride of & petit crevt. He has capped his former exploits by the mode in which he has secured his divorce. The Metropolitan, who ha- ao more power to grant him a divorce than I have, ht>s taken the matter out of the Synod, and has obsequiously, and without even hearing the wife, pronounced a decree, and two Bishops who protested, have been threatened with pains and penalties. . Henry VIII was somewhat arbitrary in his matrimonial views, but he never ventured upon so oulrageoua a deiianoe of law and decency.

The following is from the Otago Daily Times:—The facta which have come to light relative to the manner in which certain farmers in the Waikaka district have been taken in by grain buyers, indicates a state of commercial morality which we may hope is not the standard in the trade. The principle is no doubt universally accepted in business of buying in (he cheapest and selling in the ■learestmarket, and the purchaser is under all circumstances justly entitled to variation of the market in his favour. The case is however, altogether different where advantage is taken of the ignorance of the vendor, and palpable misrepresentations are made as to the ruling prices. Such proceedings are clearly not honest, and the purchasers may conceive he is at least sailing very near th wind of false pretences. We quoted on Friday from the Mataura Ensign to the effect that one buyer from a Dunedin firm had made some remarkably good bargains 11 the expense of struggling settlers ; but there is good reason to believe that this particular buyer is only one among several who have been working the country .districts in the interests of grain speculators, and sweating the unfortunate producers to a very considerable extent. Whether those victimised have any legal remedy we are not prepared to say ; but we understand that in at least one instance proceedings are contemplated. Exposure and restitution might effectually stop all such malpractices in the future. We might point out, however, to the settlers generally throughout the provincial district that it is much to their interest to keep them selves well posted as to the ruling prices, and that in default of information being to hand they should not be in a hurry to sell to the first comer who may offer what seems a satisfactory price.