THE New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1876.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4480, 23 March 1876, Page 2

THE New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1876.

We learn that, since his return to the colony, Sir Julius "Vogel has expressed great astonishment at the turn which affairs have taken in Auckland. He cannot shut his eyes to the fact that, with the exception of a few, who are powerless to attempt to stem the current of public opinion, the people of this province have expressed disapproval of the acts of his Government. There can be no mistaking the expression. It is not the ebullition of a few heated public meetings; not a merely temporary frenzy, stimulated by the speeches of "popular orators." The question has been put to the people in the most formal and solemn way, and they have answered it emphatically and decidedly. We do not wonder therefore, that Sir Julius Vogel is somewhat disquieted at what has taken place, and is asking the reason why. He has, we believe, come to a conclusion which is entirely erroneous, and has set it down that Auckland has assumed its present attitude because its people are fickle and impulsive. We think, if Sir Julius will look into the matter, he will find several far better reasons than that—reasons more creditable to us, and which will convey impressive lessons to himself. Merely to name these reasons would take up to-day all our space, but we may specify one, and. we have no doubt that, before the end of next session, the Premier will have abundant opportunity of familiarising his mind with the whole catalogue. And the reason we would now advance is, that while heavy additional burdens have been laid on the people of Auckland by the Public Works scheme, they have reaped no advantage from it. No country has been opened up in this province by any works done under the scheme, and we doubt very much whether there is a single acre additional in cultivation because of the Public Works and Immigration policy. Sir Julius must confess that that is a very sad thing to say, and is conclusive th,at liis policj r has not benefited this province. There can be no doubt at all that Auckland might have greatly benefited, and everybody can easily see how. In the fiist place, every acre of land that could have been bought from the natives ought to have been acquired. The Assembly felt this, and granted to the. Government ample supplies of money wherewith to purchase these lands. The Northern members saw the importance of such a course of action, and the Southern members were willing to grant a few hundreds of thousands out of loans in order to keep us quiet about the millions of Colonial moneys which they were pocketing from the land fund. The Government have managed to spend most of the money, but where is the land ? Lying exactly in the same state as it was in fifty years ago. The natives have still complete possession, except where large capitalists have acquired far-stretch-ing estates. The ..most conspicuous instance of Government opportunity and Government failure is in the.Thames and Piako district. There was a larg# and fertile district, with a splendid market close to it. The natives were willing to sell immense tracts of land, and at

£ixiy Mtime, -if the Go 1 such land into - small blocks; and^piit; them up to auction 1 , a. great advance have been] obtained 'on the price paid to the natiyes.\_.lt is, sufficient to look to the result —to the fact that as yet no land has beeen settled—to be compelled to condemn Ministers. It is easy to see many mistakes which ! Ministers have made. They employed an ao-ent to purchase, -vrhose "payment was at the rate of 3d or -4d per acre; and, of course it was more to his interest to buy 100,000 acres than 10,000, whether the larger block was worth anything for settlement or not. "We understand, also, that he wa3 very much restricted in the price which he was authorised to give, and as the natives knew that the land in that valley, which was favourably situated for cultivation, was of far.more value than the maximum 1 which was offered, they declined to deal. | It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if, of .all the land which the Government have acquired, or are negotiating for, only a very small proportion is lit for settlement. On paper, the operations of the Government look very formidable. In last session, Sir Donald McLean stated that during the past year 35,656 acres had been acquired, and that 745,661 were ■under negotiation of purchase. The amount advanced on these lands under negotiation is £46,792 14a 4d, and, considering that the most of that has been advanced for some years, we think that, by this time, most of the transactions might have been completed, and the land opened for settlement. Sir Donald McLean also informed the House that the land purchase transactions in the district we are more particularly referring to during the last four years have been as follows :—Thames and Coromandel peninsula, 110,264 acres purchased, 496,661 under negotiation ; Piako and "Waitoa, 31,170 purchased ; Waikato (Patetere), 249,000 acres under negotiation. It is rather curious to come across the following paragraph in the' statement of the Native Minister :— "The Government have steadily kept in view the twofold object of providing land for the large influx of population, and of securing those districts to the colony through which public works and undertakings are being carried on." It seems to us that the policy pursued has been exactly the reverse. Instead of land being provided for the people who .were willing to ' occupy the Thames valley, the district has been kept shut till the people who were willing and able to have paid for the land, have been driven actually out of the country, and "the large influx of" population" could not at the present time get an acre. Immigration has been going on for some years, but no land has been provided for the people; while as to securing districts through which large public works will go, we are afraid it will be found that these|favourable positions have been secured, but not by the country.

We have to acknowledge the receipt of a series of Parliamentary papers, &c., from the Government of New South Wales. Amongst them are two bills, one " for the further amendment of the law of evidence"; the other, a bill "to enable Atheists to give evidence in Courts of law." The first named provides that parties to actions for breach of promise of marriage may be witnesses ; also, that every person called on behalf of an accused person, as a witness to his character, shall be permitted to give evidence not only as to the general repute, if any, of the accused, but also as to the witness's own knowledge of his habits, disposition, and conduct. The like may be permitted where a person is examined respecting the character of any witness ; but the following provision in the clause will press hardly upon a certain proclivity to which a large portion of the colonial public are prone : "No witness shall be allowed to state that he would not believe another on his oath." The second bill—the Atheists Evidence Admission Act—provides that "from and after the passing of this bill it shall be lawful for any Judge or Magistrate, in any Court of justice, or any other person authorised to administer an' oath in any other tribunal, to receive the evidence of any person who is an Atheist or unbeliever in the existence of a God or the Christian Religion, on their making the usual affirmation made by Quakers, Moravians, and others." It is also provided that any person making such affirmation, and who shall be proved guilty of uttering false statements, "shall be liable to all the penalties that at present exist under the law of perjury." We think it will be generally agreed that it is expedient that such a change should be made. The time has passed away when men should be subjected to civil disabilities for their "views" on matters religious or metaphysical. No one who has noticed the deftness with which the hahituis of the Police Court ''kiss the Bible," and then commence "to skirmish around and corral good,' healthy, square-built lies," but must feel that that operation furnishes a very poor test of a witness's truthfulness. In the particular matter under notice, the right of Atheists to be heard in evidence, it has sometimes happened that a grievous miscarriage of justice has taken place, and the rights of unoffending third parties cruelly sacrificed, through such evidence being disbarred. Even in Auckland, we have had illustrations of the fact that important legal issues sometimes hang on a witness maintaining personal opinions in the domain of theology. A case in point will be fresh in the memory of our readers, where a member of one of our Legislatures barely succeeded in getting that meed of justice which was his due— legal redress for the greatest wrong one man can inflict upon another—simply because he held peculiar views touching the personality of the Deity, and was in some doubt as to the doctrine of future punishment.

The submarine tunnel project between England and France, one would have thought, would have been sufficient to absorb the at- | tent-ion and strain the resources of the highest talent in the engineering profession for some time to come. With that profession as with others, however, " ambition grows with what it feeds on," and already its ablest members are looking round fer fresh conquests, and further trium phß over nature. Given the primary factor, capital, and there is scarcely a scheme within the bare limits of possibility which they are not prepared fco undertake. The latest example, if four millions sterling are forthcoming, is a scheme for widening the Jewell below Manchester, so as to make a seaport of Cottonopolis. The engineers propose to give the river 4 * tidal navigation, with a channel 33 miles in length, 200 feet wide, and 22 feet deep"—a miniature Suez CanaL Even the phlegmatic Dutch have been roused into something like enthusiasm by these new engineering schemes, and their engineers contemplate a feat still more.daring, namely, j that of - draining dry and reclaiming the Zuyder Zee. £9,000,000 has been voted for the work, the plan being to build out a great wall, 25 miles in length, and then when the tide is excluded, the water will be puaped {

'ofl the lands,' a&d a. large terrztory.of fertile spil adtledfto the territorial and agricultural, resources of Holland/ *- •' • .•.

- received' a copy .of the annual, re-: port, for iS7S-6/*of the Sydney* Free Public" Library, some items from which may be of interest to our. readers. The institution was first opened in September, 1569, and on taking stock at the beginning of this year, it was found 1 that the ■ bound volumes amounted to 26,350, and the pamphlets to 1442. As is the fashion in our own Mechanics'. Institute, petty pilferings and mutilation of books and magazines go on, though not to any large extent, owing to the vigilance of the librarian and his staff. Here is a sample from the report: "Tenth volume of Wilson's * Tales of the Borders,' value Is, taken from the library on the 15th May; and the third volume, of Dickens' 4 Oliver Twist,' value threepence, taken from the library in December. The portrait of Mr. Parkes, M.L.A., was also torn out of his poems, in the' itfohth of January. Some volumes have been tacitly replaced after a reward had been offered for the detection of the offending parties; others have been brought back by persons who found them in public places." The ' total average of volumes used during the year was 152,006, giving a daily average of 502 volumes, or "an increase of 47 per diem upon the reading of last year. .The number of signatures on the visitors' sheet was 66,990, being an increase ©n last year, and shewing an average of 221 daily. Nearly 1300 volumes, including 151 in donations, have been added to the library; a large shipment of works ia on the way out, purchased with the amount granted' by Parliament. The insurances, effected on the library amount to >£12,000. It is now proposed to establish ti lending branch, after the plan adopted iu Melbourne . Free Public Library, and' as the trustees, do . not recommend that any books -be taken for issue from the reference library, they propose to send home an order for 2000 volumes as a nucleus to commence with, so soon as the necessary sanction of Parliament has been received. - - .