Hawke's Bay Herald TUESDAY, MAY 7, 1878.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5069, 7 May 1878, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald TUESDAY, MAY 7, 1878.

Now that the Victorian crisis is over, what will be the verdict of posterity is •gradually framing itself. The land tax is at any rate a measure in accordance with the will of the majority both of the business people and the artizans, and the general impression among the commercial classes, we believe, is that it will ultimately do good. As to payment of members, the opposition of the Legislative Council has made it permanently a part of the Liberal programme. The wholesale dismissal of the Civil Servants, however, stands on a different footing, and is warmly disapproved by many who approve of the other two measures referred to. There was unquestionably a partizan element at work in the system on which the dismissals were carried out. Good and useful men "who were supposed sympathisers with the Opposition were discharged, and useless persons who had connections on the Ministerial side were retained. In future, all the gentlemen in the service of the Government in Victoria will feel themselves at the mercy of the Ministry of the day in a degree in which they have not felt that to be the case hitherto, and the l'esulfc will necessarily bo a serious deterioration iii their morale. It is not -well that in any department of the Civil Service the propitiation of the party in power should be felt among the officers to be necessary or desirable. They should be made to feel that, if they prove themselves efficient, that is all that can be expected of them. In the judicial department, however, the mischief that such a state of things is calculated to produce, is of a more serious character than in any other. On that question, as affecting this colony, we have recently remarked, and we observe that our contemporary, the Otago Daily 'Times, which, under the new proprietary, has modified its tone greatly for the better, takes a similar view. It makes the following just and weighty observations : — " We do not know anything more perilous to public and personal safety than any attempt to humble the Supreme Court, or to make it subject to the dominant feeling of the hour as expressed through the action of any political party which may happen to be in the ascendant in the Assembly. If there is one institution that all good citizens should like to see raised and dwelling above the ordinary storms of life, it is the Supreme Court of the colony. Let it once be established that the Supreme Court or its Judges are subject to the caprice of the Ministry in power, and a very heavy blow will be dealt against public safety. Only a few years ago Ministerial influence — and we believe vindictiveness in some cases — were brought to bear on the Judges of the Supreme Court, and it will be greatly regretted by all upholders of the cause of Liberalism, if the wretched example is followed, and another blow without grave cause is aimed at the independence of the Court. Rumor, we are told, is busy with the names of several Judges who are likely to be superseded. There are not so many of them altogether, and if ' several ' are removed from their positions the procedure will be a revolutionary one in truth." It goes on to remark that whatever serious charges there may be to make against the Judges have certainly been ' kept very secret hitherto. There has been no public outcry about them. But there would be a very serious public outcry if such action as is hinted at were taken.

The Poverty Bay correspondent of the New Zealand Herald says : — " The topic of most interest here is the sale of the Patutahi block, for which many are saving money for the purpose of investing. The general impression is, that the price fixed is high, though there are many who think that all the flat land will sell over the limit. One thing, there is no possibility now of a number of persons banding together and going in for the lot, then selling it out to the working man at £12 to £15 per acre, on deferred payments. There is no doubt as to tho yielding qualities of the flat land, and those who are fortunate enough to get a few hundred acres each, at a shade abovo tho limit, may congratulate themselves. Property adjoining keeps from eight to ten large sheep to the acre all the year round, — Harris and Fergusson, two of the most successful runholders here, having a run abutting on to the eastern boundary. The bridge which will connect the two sides of the river is being pushed on, and should the present weather hold up a little longer, every tiling will be secure as against freshes. It is believed that the executers in the late Mr G. E. Read's estate purpose holding a sale of that part of his property between the town and his late residence, on the same day. As this was formerly part of the township, considerable competition is expected for the lots abutting on the main road. There are few small towns in New Zealand that are going ahead more surely than this. The settlers have had an abundant harvest, and money is plentiful ; the consequence is, that improvements of all kinds are going on rapidly."

A youth named Patrick Floyd was unfortunately killed yesterday while working at a quarry on the Town Hall reserve. He was getting earth from the quarry to cart away for filling in swamp sections, and while so employed there \\ as a fall of earth from the bank above, which coining down over Floyd, killed him immediately. He had only just a minute before been warned by his employer, Mr Cartwright, that the place where he was working was unsafe. It was the Hon. Mr Fisher who paid a visit to Napier on Sunday morning, and not the Hon. Mr Ballance, as was stated in yesterday's Herald. The Italian Opera Concert Company, which includes a number of the leading artistes of the Royal Italian Opera troupe that recently appeared in most of the large towns of the colony, will give their opening performance at the Theatre Royal

to-night. The programme will consist of operatic selections, duets, violin solos, &c, and also two acts from the well known opera of "II Trovatore," in which Signora Caranti Vita, the prima donna, will appear as Leonora, Signora Venosta, contralto, as Azticena, and Signor Catnero, one of the tenors, as Manrico. Signora Caranti Vita will also sing, in English, from the "Bohemian Girl," the song " When other lips and other hearts." It is a long time since we have had a visit from operatic artistes of such high reputation as this company brings with them, and we hope to see them well patronised during the week. We hoar that the section on tho Athonrcum reserve behind the Institute is in course of being handed over to the Gymnasium Club, and subscriptions are being raised for the erection of a building. Several gentlemen have already contributed liberally, and we can cordially recommend others to follow suit. Gymnasiums receive very liberal support from the public in other colonial towns, more perticularly in Dunedin, where there is a spacious and commodious establishment. The importance of such institutions in promoting the muscular development of young New Zealand is there fully recognised, as is also their great value in occupying the evenings of the young people in a salutary manner. "The propriety of increasing the salaries of District Court Judges from £1000 to £1500 a-yeaiy' the Sydney Morning Herald says, "has been discussed in the Legislative Assembly ; and, although the lion, member who brought forward the matter failed to carry his resolution, which included provision for a pension to the Judges, there is reason to believe that the Government will be prepared next session to propose a substantial addition to the salaries of the Judges of the smaller Courts." We have been favored with a copy of a pamphlet on the "eye and its cure." It contains a report of a lecture delivered in Sydney by Dr Schwarzbach, who some time ago was in New Zealand, and was expected to have paid a visit to Napier. The pamphlet has some very useful advice on the subject on which it treats. Mr M. R. Miller announces an im portant sale of stud merino sheep, to take place on Saturday next, at the Aorangi station, Maraekakaho. The sale is by instructions of the executors of the late Mr H. W. P. Smith, and will comprise 500 stud ewes and hoggets from imported Learmonth ewes and the well-known champion Learmonth ram ; also eight stud merino rams. The Rev. Mr Spear announces in our advertising columns that he will attend daily at St. John's parsonage on parochial business, from 2.30 to 3.30 p.m., excepting on Saturdays and Sundays. The Toronto Globe, of January 29, contains the following telegram from Winnipeg, of the same date : — " The bill taxing all lands of proprietors holding more than 600 acres, passed through a committee of the Legislature to-day. Residents are taxed one cent per acre ; non-residents, including the Hobson Bay Company, five cents." The Lyttelton Times says :— " The Hon. Secretary of the Reform Association has kindly placed at our disposal the following telegram, which he has received from the Premier on the subject of overtime to railway employes on the Canterbury lines — ' In re railway employes your letter to me on this subject is dated April 17. You will find upon enquiry that on April 13 an order was issued providing for overtime allowances being paid to employes on the Middle Island railways. -G. Guky.'" In another column will be found an announcement of a sale of Mr Witty's land, cut up into sections, which is to take place at Wairoa on the 16th instant, a plan of which may be seen at Messrs Dinwiddie, Morrison, and Co.'s. The land is very rich, but wants clearing. Mr Witty, we hear, has just stored potatoes from some of the same land, cleared of manuka this season, and it has yielded 15 tons to the acre — that quantity being good potatoes, besides seed and indifferent ones for pigs — and he intended exhibiting maize and mangel wurzell from the same land at the show of the Hawke's Bay Agricultural Society, had it not been postponed indefinitely. If other of the property holders in the Wairoa district would also cut up some of their land, Wairoa would soon get a population and go ahead. The New Zealand Sun of the 25th ult. has the following : — " The people of Wairoa, a small village, situated about 40 miles north of Napier, are desirous that Sir John Coode should visit their river port, and offer an opinion upon its suitability as a site for harbor works. The total number of the inhabitants of this ambitious place may be stated, with safety, as under 100." We (Free Press) regret that the editor of the Sim cannot find time to peruse the census returns for this county, but are glad to observe that he reads his exchanges. The health of the Wairoa district, we regret to state, is not in any -way improved, although, fortunately, there have not been any deaths. The arrival of Dr Bestic here was most opportune, and we fancy that that gentleman must have his hands quite full. — Free Press. The following notice from the War Office appears in the London Gazette of January 22nd :— " English Hussars — Sergeant Frank Jame3 Carandini, from the LOtli Lancers, to be second lieutenant, vice L. H. Jones, transferred to the oth Lancers." Lieutenant Carandini is a son of Madame Carandini, who has for so many years been known to us as a popular vocalist. We have reason to know (says the Melbourne A rgus) that his promotion from a non-commssioned to commissioned, oflicer has been earned by genuine merit, as may be gathered from the fact that in the official communication conveying the intention of the Duke of Cambridge to promote him it is stated by the military secretary that the promotion was " with a view to the adjutancy of that corps." The Timani, Herald s&ys: — iC A contemporary informs us that 12 commercial travellers met at an hotel at Timaru on a night last week, They were nearly all Dunedin men. Two of them were so scared by the host of competitors, that they turned back on their journey and went home." Referring to the murder of the Earl of Leitmn, the Brisbane Courier writes : — ' ' The terrible crime perpetrated near Milford, a small town in the County Donegal, is a grievous episode in a grievous history. For many years past the late Earl of Loitrim and the tenantry on his estates in Donegal have been at enmity. He was a man whose ideas of the rights of the lord of the soil belonged to the old feudal times, when the owner of a large estate was master of the lives and fortunes of all who resided on it, and they were merely his serfs. The ways of his tenantry were not as his ways, and they wore not prepared to adopt his •'newfangled notions.' He did not recognise in them any right to their farms, but the narrowest they could claim under short leases, high rents, and hard conditions. They believed in sticking to the land on which they and theirs had for generations lived, and when their leases fell in they claimed renewals, payment for improvements, or other concessions. He, on the other hand, was anxious to get rid of those whom he could not bend to his will. There also existed between them other causes of feud, religious and political ; and he, using tho moans the law furnished him. with, did get rid of most of them. When their leases ran out lie would not renew on any terms, and his agents, accompanied by what in Ireland was familiarly known as ' the crowbar brigade,' and, protected bylarge bodies of armed police, evicted those who clung to their holdings, and would not give up peaceable possession,

by levelling their cabins to the ground. Some of these evictions occurred under circumstances of peculiar severity, and attracted attention all over the kingdom, and severe comment from the Press both of England and Ireland. Tho evictions took place in the depth of winter, and old and infirm persons, women and children, were put out in the snow on the mountain side, absolutely without shelter. Of course, when this once occurs throughout a whole village, it means terrible destitution and misery. If we remember rightly, these events created so profound an impression, that The Times sent over a commissioner, who travelled through Donegal and Leitrim, visiting most of the large estates, and reporting on the condition of the tenantry. His published letters led to some severe comments in Parliament on the harshness of Irish landlords."

About a fortnight ago (says the Timaru Herald) we drew attention to the fact of the leaves of the Koromiko shrub possessing valuable medicinal properties : and we are glad to learn that the information has proved of benefit to more than one person in Tamaru. One gentleman, we may mention, had been suffering very severely from dyspepsia for several months previously, and not having been able to obtain any relief from the ordinary doctors' stuff, determined to test the virtues of the Koromiko. He procured a quantity of the young leaves of the shrub, and treating them the same way as tea, took two or three cupfuls of the decoction warm every day for a week. The result is that he is now almost completely cured of his complaint, and has regained strength as well as spirits. We believe an enterprising person might make a fortune by distilling and selling a medicine from the Koromiko ; as it would, we feel convinced, prove much more efficacious in curing bowel complaints than ninety-nine out of every hundred of the advertised pills aud drugs. — Verb. sap.

An illustration by a teacher or lecturer from real life (says a writer in the Timaru Herald) impresses a precept or explains a "point" far better than the most eloquent disquisition. I once heard a professor in the course of a lecture to his students use this lever very effectively. The subject was " Presence of Mind," which cropped up in the course of his remarks on mental science. "Let me illustrate what I mean," said the tutor, "by an incident that occurred to myself last year. I landed in Dublin late one very stormy night, and having a heavy valise with me, I engaged a man to carry my burden home. Arrived at the door, I put my hand into my waistcoat pocket and took out (as I thought) a sixpence, and put it into the porter's hand. As he turned away, however, it flashed across my mind that I had had in my pocket a halfsovereign (not a sixpence) and a shilling, and acting on a momentary impulse, I called out, ' Stop, my man, give me the sixpence ; here's a shilling instead.' The man, who had not, in the two moments just passed, detected the real state of the case, innocently and promptly returned the small coin and received the larger, with a profusion of blessings and thanks."

The Lyttelton Times hears that proceedings have been instituted by Sir Cracroft Wilson against about fifteen young men for incendiary conduct, in the shape of firing the grass at Cashmere.