WELLINGTON ITEMS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 8902, 19 September 1889, Page 6

WELLINGTON ITEMS.

[By Telegraph.] [FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON, Sept. 18. TAWHIAO, Fears are freely expressed here lest the Government should get up a quarrel with Tawhiao, but the knowing ones say that probably the stiff message sent to the old King, of which you have doubtless been informed, was despatched in the blissful expectation that the Native Meetings Bill would be passed by the Legislative Council. If that be the case, the failure of the Bill, of course, leaves the missive in the unpleasant position of a hrulum fulmen. With the dreadful Te Kooti experience of last year before them, the Government is, I imagine, hardly likely to do anything precipitate. In the meantime, as Tawhiao is very leisurly in his movements, matters are not likely to be burned in any way. SIB JULIUS VOGEL. A letter received here by the San Francisco mail has been given as authority for the statement that Sir Julius Vogel has secured six miles of the foreshore of Taranaki, and is now busy trying to float 'a Company called the “ New Zealand Mining and Smelting Company, Limited,” which seems in a fair way of success. As you are aware, the success of the Onehunga Ironworks has demonstrated that the iron sand of the West Coast promises to be one of the big things of the future. ' AVERTED HEROICS. The local bodies in the Wairarapa having decided to pay the charitable aid contributions, the heroic measure of going to gaol, once threatened by a deputation from that set, will not be resorted to. ALAS ! THOSE CHIMES. The people gifted with what may be called an ultra musical ear, are angry with Mr Parker’s decision about the chimes, if we may judge by the letter of a correspondent in the evening paper signing himself ■'■‘Triple Bob Major,” who declares that Mr Parker is incorrect in stating that the bells could not be tuned at the foundry; that the only possible reply to his favourable comparison of the bells with those of Westminster is a “ flat denial; ” that the hour bell is sharper than its octave, and that the G bell is an eighth of a tone sharper than the three above it. I assert, with the necessary diffidence, that the great majority of the ratepayers are not disturbed by this terrible aberration of the G bell. SPECIAL SETTLEMENT.

The Woodville correspondent of the Evening Post says that “ A lot of stalwart young men from Banks Peninsula have formed an Association under the Special Settlement Regulations of the Land Act, to take up five thousand acres of land in the Mangahoa survey district, and that the block is to be granted to them on the condition of residence on the land as the Act provides. These men,” says the correspondent, “ would desire no better home. They were born in the bush, and their first ambition was to fell a tree.” He congratulates the Government on relaxing in favour of these most desirable settlers their determination not to have any more special settlements. The agitation, you see, of the other day against the lottery system has borne some fruit. May it bear more, say we all. THE OA3IAEU ELECTION. The Evening Press has a warm article to-day on the Government and the Oamaru election. The Government, it says, is no more a Government than the Railway Commissioners are a Q overmen!, holding office solely on the condition of bringing forward nomeasure of importance distasteful to the people who keep them in office for their own purposes. Ot Mr Hislop’s tactics at Oamaru—about which I observe. Sir, that you have had a word to say—the Evening Press, adverting to the failure of the Opposition candidate (a would-be candidate) to induce the local nobodies to retire, says that the return, practically unopposed, of an ex-Minister under such circumstances is a grave public calamity, and is injurious to the political morality alike of Parliament and people. The remedy proposed is the immediate and complete organisation of political parties, and to that end the article is headed “ Organise ! Organise!” my own impression, of course diffident, is that this being the very thing which all parties have been striving to effect for some years past, is easier said than done. Tne advice is, nevertheless, as good as it is well meant. _________________