THE New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1875.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4371, 16 November 1875, Page 2

THE New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1875.

.The deputation'that waited on the Premier yesterday from the Education, Board and the various deputations that have waited on him at the Thames, bring the people for the first time into direct communication with the General ' Govern-: ment for the satisfaction of veiy cerious ; wants. It is the first fruits of the Alioli.tion Bill and of the paralysis of Provin- ■ cial Institutions which the carrying of the ;bill was designed to accomplish. The , of these deputations will be nvatchcd therefore with conquerable inj terest and the course taken Ly the. General Government will be closely 1 ' scrutinised. -The Goldfields deputations had 'certainly a hard case to bring forward. They are using great energy for the ,de T 'velopment" of the fields new and ; old. ;They are. spending years of toil and large ■sums of money. They contribute very largely t6 the general revenue of the colony and' pay a special export duty to :which no other industry has to submit. ; Yet they, feel themselves blocked for .the I want of afewthousandsspentin roads. The present state of the goLifields is one that, demands the most prompt attention if a i disaster- is to be avoided. The Blight Smile pumping machinery has ceased, and the surrounding. ..claims must before long be more or less affected by the stoppage. Hundreds of our best men will thus be thrown out of employ. With good roads'th jy would, soon settle down at Tairua and prospect that country,, but ;at present there are no roads and machinery cannot be provided at anything 'like a reasonable outlay. It will tax the means and the energies of the miners .quite enough to find the wa.ter supply, which must be brought to the batteries at Tairua from a distance of some miles, and to open up the claims in which they, are engaged. It is too much to expect , that they should provide themselves with roads as well; yet if roads be not made, and made quickly, we shall assuredly see a considerable exodus of our best miners from the colony. If only 500 go, they will with their families represent some 2,000 people. "VYe are paying at least £15,000 to £20,000 to introduce this nam- ! ber and are burdening ourselves with a large, loan for immigration purposes. The expenditure will avail little if, while introducing new and raw settlers, we allow our best and most experienced men to leave tlie province simply ibecause we do not expend a few thousands for purposes that will permanently benefit the country by opening it up to settlement and exploration. The Provincial Governs.ent are helpless and have no funds. The General Government shewed on the other hand a large surplus of receipts over expenditure. They have done so for several years past and yet in face of this succession of surpluses, the province has been starved in some of its most essential needs. Hitherto the people have been told that it is the existence of the Provincial Government, that stood between them and the share of these continued surpluses to which they had an undoubted right. The objection no longer applies and we trust the Tairua and Ohinemuri roads will be undertaken while the weather is fine. If this be not done the season will soon pass away and winter prev.nt any operations for another year.

The claims of the Education Board are equally pressing, although in a different direction. The Provincial Government helped the Board freely and subsidised it to the extent of £12,000 or £14.,000, to enable it to meet demands upon it 3 funds. The General Government have stepped in and are ready to provide £13,500, which is the estimated amount required to meet current expenditure till 30th September next. But in addition to this current expenditure there aie urgent demands from the town and suburbs, from the goldfields and from the country districts for schools and teachers' houses. The Board have estimated that £25,000 will be required for this purpose ; of which £10,000 will be recouped from the loans to be raised on security of the Supreme Court site. The balance of £15,000 they ask for from the £50,000 which the Colonial Treasurer, in his financial statement, said would be appropriated for school buildings in the colony. Dr. Pollen informed the deputation that the money was not yet raised, but in this there .must be some mistake, as no mention is anywhere made of a special loan for schools and there can lie no reason why they should not be classed with other public buildings. The proportion asked for cannot certainly be regarded as unfair in a province contributing so largely to the revenue, having so laige a population to educate, and without the land fund in which other populous provinces have luxuriated. The deputation that waited on the Premier was^- 0 - quested to make an estimate of the lowest sum with which they could carry on till the Assembly met, and they will no doubt be ready to reduce their estimate to the lowest possible point. The Board owes however a duty to the people of the province and cannot be expected to perform that duty if sufficient means are not placed at its disposal. If it make the attempt it can only create discontent, and bring discredit on itself—a result which all who wish well to the cause of education

would seriously deplore l -andiwhich we may reasonably hope Dr.jPolien will be glad to do all in his. own power to prevent. ■"■■'• , J- ■» ■To-night Mr. 'Bees will' deliver a lecture ia the Lome-street Hali!on the question "Is "the British Nation a the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel ?" The subject = pf the lecture is stated-m_a question,_and Tve ,have no idea whether. Mr. Rees.intends to answer it in the affirmative oi the negative. - Lately, there has been formed in England-an association called "The Anglo-Israel Association," whose object is to prove that the English nation is lineally descended from the Ten Tribes, who have been so long lost, and who hare been so often found, or imagined to be found, over the whole world, from the North Pole to the South, and from China to Peru, Some time ago we received a set of the publications of this Anglo-Israel Association, arid looked over them. In the first place, -we may remark that the persons connected with the Association are men of" no mark as scholars ; and as for their publications, anytlnng so inconoequential and baseless as the attempt made at proving that we all, Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen, made up as these races are, of Saxons, Normans, Danes, and' Celts,' are Israelites, we never have seen. "We hardly think it was worth Mr. Kees's trouble to shew the absurdity of these publications. We assume he is going to do so, for we cannot conceive of anyone who is at all accustomed to weigh evidence to be in any doubt; and we are afraid that if Mr. Rees answers the.question of. his lecture in the affirmative it will endanger his chance with the electors of City East'. ■ Nowhere have there been so many inquirers after the Lost Tribes as in Great Britain. English travellers have found them in China, Tartary, South and even amongst the Red Indians of North America. The inquiry has been going on for cepturies,-and really it would be curious i£ these Ten Tribes had all this time been literally under our own noses, in ourselves, the truth is, that the search after the lost tribes is one of the world's pet puzzles, like the search after the elixir vitas,' or the philosopher's stone, or perpetual motion;'and' it would be an injustice to the foolish who are to come after us of whom no doubt, there will be plenty— to settle the question now. But, indeed, the tribes are lost, and never can be found. The great body of the Israelites were carried into captivity by the Assyrians, and got' , thoroughly mixed up with their Everyone who has read history knows how an Oriental despot treated-prisoners of war, and the king who took the Israelites'has no great character. for. clemency. About 150 years later the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were taken into the Babylonish captivity, and between fifty and sixty years later a portion of theni returned, but the other tribes had been- hopelessly amalgamated. A large number of persons will be disposed to ask, — TVeH, if it is proved "that we are of the Lost Tribes, what of it.2 What good will it do us ? Into these questions, however, we do riot propose to enter, for the present at all events.

|This vexatious disputes respecting the Hero and the conduct of the captain, on the : famous trip on which the Marquis of Normanby came to New Zealand, do not seem likely to terminate soon. We observe by our latest files, .that the Melbourne Jirgus jhas a leading article on the subject. Our .contemporary quotes the current story, that Lord Normanby said he would "make it hot" for the Hero, and then proceeds to give the narrative about the measurements and the conviction, and the subsequent denial by the Commissioner of Customs that His ..Excellency had anything to do with the prosecu- . tion. We cannot helptbinking that it is a pity that the question of whether or not the JJfero ivaft overloaded or • overcrowded got mis:ed up with the demeanour of Captain Logan to the Marquis of Normanby. There seems now to. have, been no doubt that an error was committed on the first measurement though whether the error would have made a difference in the judgment of the Bench, has not yet been made clear. We quote a portion of the article "Of course, in the face of the emphatic denial that has been given, it cannot be said that there was any connection between His _ Excellency's displeasure and the Commissioner's stem determination to vindicate the law on this particular occasion. It was only a most remarkable coincidence a striking proof of .official synrgathy with a noble mind. We would point Out, .however, that if the merejpirfiour that a (Governor has been incomnfotled or crossed' in- any way on board to be by such unpleasant consequences as those which befell Captain Logan, the representatives of Royalty may be put to some inconvenience. They will find it difficult to procure a passage from one port to another. It is stated that Captain Logan intends to bring an action against the Commissioner of Customs for having improperly measured his vessel; and should he do so, this official will have an opportunity of explaining how the idea of explaining the Hero's passenger accommodation, on this particular voyage, originated in his mind. Doubtless the conception was entirely spontaneous, but we should like to be assured on this point by the only gentleman in a position to satisfy our curiosity. We may remark, in conclusion, that the cavalier manner in which the certificates issued here and in Sydney, were treated by the New Zealand authorities, should not be allowed to pass unnoticed. We trust shat [both our own Government and that of New South Wales will officially protest against the indignity thus offered to their official acts and vouchers." j