North Otago Times FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1884.

North Otago Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3644, 9 May 1884, Page 2

North Otago Times FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1884.

The worthlessness of popular favor, won or given at a popular meeting, has juat been delightfully illustrated by the estimiable people of Christchurch. Perhaps, however, we should not 3peak thus of the people of Christchurcb, but should qualify our remark by the statement that it applies only to that portion of the population which seems, as a rule, to constitute the majox'ity of popular meetings, and which, while at such meetings, appears to exercise but very little lpflective power. Indeed the average public meeting appears to be the most farcial feature of British society. It is supposed to reflect the deliberate convictions of the country or community, but as a rule it only reflects the character of its own impulsiveness. The orthodox public meeting is worth nothing as a trustworthy guide to what m«n think in their cool and sensible moments, that is, if we judge the meeting by its own formal resolutions. These aro usually the result of some transitory electrical emotion, for which, next day, the units of the meeting generally fail to see any justification in the proceedings. Still the resolutions remain and are too frequently treated as the proofs of a living force, though the feeling that gave rise to them died away at tlie close of the proceedings at which ib arose.

It afc least appears that the monster political meetings held this week in Chriacchurch should be looked at in this light. On Monday night Mr Montgomery, as the acknowledged leader of the opposition, addressed a large meeting iv that town, and at the close of his address ib was demonstratively resolved, with, only one dissentient, " That this meeting ia of opinion that Mr Montgomery is worthy of the confidence and respect of the electors of the colony ;" while an amendment, "That this meeting having heard Mr Montgomery on the principal topics of the day, thanks him for his address, but defers passing a vote of confidence in him as our leader until the views of Sir George Grey have been placed Ijefore them," waa disdainfully, if nofc ignominiously rejected. Thus, according to the way in which the results of public meetings are usually regarded, the people of Christchurch virtually, and with demonstrative determination, pinned their faith to Mr Montgomery as their political guide,, philosopher, and friend, and as the man who, in their opinion, was best fitted to be leader of the present opposition and chief of the next government. However, only two nights later — that is, on Wednesday evening — Sir George Grey appears upon the same scene and before the same people ; and these same people with sublime celf-aafcire, with supreme testimony as to the value of resolutions popularly arrived at by them, declared amidst a storm of cheers, and with only four dissentients, "That the meeting having heard Sir Geo. Grey's opinions on tho present political crisis, heartily approves of them, and considers that the future welfare of the colony depends on the carrying out of the principles therein expressed, and recognises Sir Geo. Grey as the most fitting leader for the purpose of doing so." And with thi3 piece of transcendant disloyalty before him and the country, what does poor Mr Montgomery now think of the free

and independent and highly reflective electors of Christchurch ? We can only think of the poor man sitting mournfully under a St. Helena willow, in the town of social cads and delirious democrats, and apostrophising his erstwhile applauders as Henry the Sixth did the English peasants ; Look, as I blow this feather from my face, And as the air blows it to me again, Obeying with my wind when I do blow. And yielding to another when it blows, Commanded always by the greater guat ; Such i 3 the lightness of you common mon.

Perhaps it may be worth while to look briefly at tho political programmes of the two men whom the charmingly intelligent people of Chriatchurch have just eltcted with enthusiasm to the high post of leader of New Zealand public opinion. Mr Montgomery's specialties are insular separation, the special taxation of absentees — persons who have money invested in the colony but do not personally reside here — and the imposition of protective duties. On the other hand, Sir George Grey appears to believe in none of these things. At any rate he distinctly deprecates setting settlement against settlement, or island againafc island ; and the only argument, pertinent to the practical politics of the colony, which we can discover in his speech is an argument to the effect that the people musi look for ! their social and political sah.tion to a land tax. Sir George also says that he I will follow no leader, and that he must j be C»sar or nobody. That would seem to be a fair summary of his address, and on the whole Mr Montgomery's programme, though contemptibly vicious, is of a kind that is believed to appeal more readily to unreflecting pc 'sons that Sir George Grey's It is like'y enough though that the highly intelligent people of Christchurch were led to forget Mr Montgomery's trump cards by the mere gush and glow of Sir George's oratory. We are told that Sir George is to address a public meeting in Oamaru this evening j and if he does we hope that the people of Oamaru, however much they may feel the charm of his eloquence, will mainthin an att'tude of respect cowards their own int?lligenco, and will remember Emerson's saying, that any undue or demonstrative deference to any great man of the world is a clear proof of intrinsic unworthiness in those who show it. The psopls should certainly respect their public men, but they should still more certainly respect themselves j and respect for themselves cannot co-exist with such a despicable display of self-effacement as that indulged in by the Christchurch people at Sir G. Grey's meeting on Wednesday evening.

An attractive programme has been, we aro informed, arranged for the concert which takes place at Maheno this evening, After the concert a ball will be held.

A cab will leave the post office thia evening at 5.15 to convey those ladies and gentlemen to Awamoko who take part in the conoert whiah is to be held in the schoolhouss at tnat place this evening.

Mr Shrimski, M.H.R., and Sir George Grey will speak in the Public Hall, and not in the Volunteer hall, aa at first intimated. A charge of la will be made for admission to the dress circle.

Two stacks of oats were destroyed at Windsor Park on Wednesday. When the fi e was first discovered the staok3 were nearly destroyed. It is surmised that they were wilfully set fire to by someone, and this BUipioioa it strengthened by the circumstances which attended the fire that occurred a short time ago on the same estate. The two »tackti were insured in the New Zealand office for LSO.

At a meeting of the fira brigade, held on Wednesday evening, it was decided to endeavor to arrange for a concert in aid of the plant fund, but in order to ensure the concart being a success, it was resolved to ask the ass'.stauce of several gantlemen in tho matter. The assisUnce asked for was promised, and at a meeting held yesterday, tho date of the concert was fixed for the sfch of June. Messrs Fleming, Humphrey, Aitken, and Rule, in conjunction with Capt. Mainland, Lieut. Matthews, and Mr Bain (secretary), have been appointed a committee to carry out the necessary steps for the concert. The assistance promised by vocalists and instrumentalists is sufficient to Induce the oommittea to believe that the concert will be one of the most successful ever given iv Oam aiu,

At the courthouse yesterday, before the Resident Magistrate, jag. Tobin vas charged with malicious dam ige to property belonging to B. B. Welsh, of Dantroon. Accused had j?one to the hotel, and askeJ to be sup. plied with liquor, which wa3 refused him. He thereupon became abusive, and hia swag was put outside the hotel. He went out, and with stones broke two pane 3of glass and several articles inside the hotel. He was fined 40. 1 , and ordered to pay the damages, LI 6s 6d, in default, five days' imprisonment, A. C. Patterson v. R. H. M Pheraon, olaim L2O. for 4 daya' board and lodging for forty volunteers at 10a each. Mr O'Meagher appeared for plaintiff, and Mr H slop for defendant. The plaintiff's evidence was taken, and Mr Hislop raised the point that the wrong person had been sued, and produced an agreement with Major Sumpfcer, which had been signed by plaintiff. Mr O'Meagher accepted a non-suit, with cost 3, L 2 2g.

The following peculiar sentence occurs in a leader appearing ia yesterday* Daily Times : " The announcement that Sir Julius Vogel would stand for any one of the seats which have been recently offered to him would, we feel confident, be reoeived with jicclamation by all except the personal adherents of the ministry or the opposition." Does our contemporary mean that Sir Julius is to form a party that comprises only himself? The "peisonal adherents of the ministry or the opposition" include nearly all tho members of parliament, the exceptions being men that even Sir Julim would hardly care to form a " party" out of. Perhaps, however, our distinguished contemporary means that if Sir Julius Vogel " announced himself" the announcement would be received with acclamation by himself, our oontemporary, the proprietors of the Waimea Plains railway, and, maybe, Sir George drey, who appears to bo a personal adherent of neither the ministry nor the opposition.

We were in error in stating that the whole of Mr SeweU's greyhounds were destroyed in yesterdi»y morning's fire. Fortunately those engaged in yesterday's coursing meeting were sent out to Papakaio the evening before. Those destroyed were the stud dog Glucose, by Hock — Banner, full brother to Champagne Charlie and Banshee, Hocheimer by Hock— Camelia, and a dog puppy by Bellsarius out of Dione. The origin of the fire cannot be accounted for, Mr Sewell states that there was no fire upon the premises the previous day or evening, and he estimates his loss at between L4O and LSO, which was not covered by insurance. The fire brigade were promptly upon the spot, and succeeded in subduing the flames before much damage had bean dono to the adjoining premises, The door at the rear of Messrs Menzies and Co. was charred a good deal, and the woodwork of the fan-light above the door oaught fire. In extinguishing the flames a portion of Messrs Menzies and Co. 'a stock was injured by the water. Their losb ia covered by Inaurance in the National office.

At the Resident Magistrate's court yeaturday, before Mr H. W. Bobinsc^, R.M., the following civil case was disposed of : Daniel Toohey v. John L. Davis. This was a judgment summons case for L2O 3s, and defendant was ordered to pay the amount by instalments, and failing the psylnent of any of them, to undergo seven days' imprisonment.

Short/y &ffcer the fire at Mr Sewell'e premises yesterday morning, and after the brigade had mustered at the shed for dismissal, another alarm of fire was raised. The brigade immediately started off with the hose and reel in the direction of Awamoa near wb'ch place the fire was supposed to be, On reaching the top of the hill, however, it was discovered that tho fire was some distano outsi 'c tha town boundary. The members of the brigade, •who proceeded along the south road, learnt that their energies had been thrown away. One of the settlers neir the Fortification had risen betimes, and was burning off a Btack of pease s'raw.

A football match will take place on the old cricket ground to-morrow afternoon, botwoen a team of twelve and all comers. Tho following comp v ise the opposing teams — Twelve : Buick, T. ; Brooks, E. ; Fife, Gitchrist, Hewat, 1\ ; Montgomery, Robh, Snow (oaptain), Sfcronach, Steel, Todd, and Wi Tako All-comers : Grenfell, Jardine, Feren=», Austin, Brooks, E. ; (Jhurch (captain), Buick, A. ; Butt, Crawford, Collie, Christie, Cork, Hewat (2). France (2), Godwin, Gordon, Hawsou, Johnson, Mullon, Macdonald, Maofarlane, Purcell, Robert*, Stevenson, Todd, Townsend, Wilding, and Wright. Play to commence at 3 p.m.

The Rev. Mr Todd will preach hia anniversary sermon in St. Paul's chinch en Sunday firat. This will be the fifteenth anniversary of Mr Todd's ministry iv Oamaru, aud the 25th in New Zealand. Mr Todd has been associated with the cburch in New Zoaland from ita infancy, and the associations of the time which hia ministry ha? extended over will be familiar to thane old identities who have lived through the hardships whioh befel the eaily Otago eettlera The subject of Mr Todd'a lecture in tho evening will be " Tha Seven Churches of Asia," whioh s i to be given by special r-> quest, A very successful trial of Messrs Tomlinson and Hayward'a sheep dip took place at Mr J. Camer n's, Papakaio, yesterday, in the presence of a number ot farmers and others. The trial was made in order to suit the oonvenionoe of settlers ia thu northern part of the distiicfc, and ab the samo time prove the efficacy of the dip for the purposes which are claimed fov it. A very substantial iunchoon had been prepared for those present. Mr Hiyward superintended operations at the dip, in the yards adjoining which 1000 lousy sheep were ready to undergo their ablutions. At ai-out 12 o'clock a start was made, aud in a little over two hours the lot had been put through the dip. It would ba difficult to say whether there are or are not dips equal to Messrs Tomlinson and Hay ward's, but the fact of the firm courting the closest investigation into the qualities of tho dip hao helped to popularise it amongst flock owners. As mentioned above, the trial was a successful one, the aid of the microscope revealing the fact that the lice, after the immersion of the sheep, bad succumbed to the effect? of the dip. Aa is the case with nearly all long-woolled Bheop, and more particularly Lincolns, those operated upon yesterday were not without aul'jocts for tho dip to try its value upon. Both she Lincoln aud Glycerine dipa wer<2 used, the effect of the former upon inaeot life, and of the latter upon the wool, being more marked when used in combination. These ahcep dip trials havd afforded those anxious for the improvement aud comfort of their flocks the opportuuifcy of witnessing practical demonstrations of the valus of the dips, and these have been eminently successful.

Sir Henry Parkas was asked to stand for tho representation of Glaßgow ia the House of Commons in the event of a general election, but declined, stating that if he re-entcra politics he prefers the New South Wales Legislature to the House of Comsnons. In round numbers, the duties collected by the revenue officers in the United Kingdom

on spirits amount in one year to ou beer to L 8.000.000 or L9,000,0Q0, on tobacco L8,0q0,000 ; but little more than LI, OOO 000 is paid as duty on wine 3of all kinds from all countries. The Parisian doctors have taken to prescribe shreds of raw beef, spread upoa tartines of bread and butter, as the panacea for divers diseases; but far worse than the injunctions of this carnivorous diet is tint which thay have imposed upon the fair sex especially. Crowds of carriages carry youag ladiei from schools and convents to the abbatoirs — the public slaughter-houses: The butchors briug forth their prey ; after the preliminary tap on the head, its throat is cut, the hot blood gushes forth, and is aerved to the young ladies, who quaff the loathsome boverage as a certain cure for consumption, Others submit to a blood bath, and some are content to drape their nnde peraous in the reeking skin of the newly-flayed aninul. A very interesting series of statistics aa to the population of France, apart from the quinquennial census, ii being issued by the Miuister of Agriculture, the obiecc of them beiug to obtain an approximate estimate aa to whethor the total number of inhabitants in France will be greater or lesa at the close of the century than it is now. The figures so far wo ked out tend to prove that there ia likely to be a de resse iv the population, for though from 1806, when the total population was 29,107)425, to 1872 there whh an annunl increase of 38 per 10,000 inhabitants, that increase haa since dropped to 26 per 10,000. Thare is reason to bt-lieve thai the rite of inorease is still further declining, and that there aro not upon the average more than two children to each family, Tae returm a^o state th\t out of every 100 inhabitants of Paris, only 36 are born in the department, 57 coming from the provinces, and seven from abroad. Moreover, while the number of births remains nearly stationary in France, the rate of infant mortality is enormous, being as much as 27 per cent in Normandy, and 15 per cent for the whole of France. A extraordinary stowaway oaao occurred on board the barque Claymore, which arrived at Newcastle on Sunday from Bockhampton and Bundaberg. The stowaw «y was an immigrant, who could not find employment in Queeasland, and in order to secure a passage to New South Wales he jammed himßelf against aome timber. The boatswain, according to custom, went around before the

vesacl left with a forked stick, prodding amougst tho timber, and, aa subsequently transpired, inflicted a deep gash ia the stowaway'B side. The latter wasthree days and nights in an upright position, jammed in by timber which had been stacked after ho had stowed himself away, one arm only being free. He had two small biscuits, on whioh he lived, and would not have been discover d alive but for a gale of wind, which caused the captain to order an inspection of the timber to see that all wag safe. The boatswain, hearing a groan, unstacked the wood, ancl discovered the unfortunate man nearly dying. When food was placed before him ho ate, or rather dcv ured, 2stb of merit, and the ciptain then ordered him to bes put on a wine and gruel dieh. He was f rightfully emaciated, his face being like the skull of a skeleton, with sunkon eyes, cheok bones protruding, and skin piach.Bd and drawn. Ho Bubaequently recavered his usual energies.

A parcel addressed to the Comte d-5 Paris, at hia house in Paris, waa deposited on March Bth, at the railway statiou j,t Lyons, and seeming suspicious, w»3 opened by a police commissary. It contained dynamite and olookwork machinery for exploding it similar to that in the boxes found at the London stations. The incident caused s passing flatter, but tho Paris corresnondonS of the Daily News s»ys that the prevailing opinion now is that the affair was a fumisterie, or hoax. The well-dressed gentleman with double eye-glassea, who sent a porter to the railway Btation at Lyoaa with a box addressed to Monseigneur, at his house id Paris, and declared it to contain ironmongery, ailk, and samples, oould

scarcely have supposed the Pretender would have opened Buch a parcel in porßnn, Moreover, the superscription "wus « alculsted to excite the suspicion which it did. Hi is not long since that a Legitimist iiotltsinan was convicted of a &ham attempt; t blow up his own ob&teau in Brittany t" throw discredit on the Reymblioaaa. The great probability ia that aome wrong-headed loyalist ot this c!a3s haa thought to servo hi* o~nso by representing the Comte do P iris as a des-«-ned martyr.