THE New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1876.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4665, 26 October 1876, Page 2

THE New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1876.

The proceedings in'the Assembly on; Tuesday evening and yesterday were not of particular inferest. The question of encouraging the manufacture of paper .waß raised by Mr. Burns, but many jpeople will think encouragement unnecessary—for the manufacture of negotiable paper at' all events—ae we have been engaged rather extensively in that business during the last five or six years. The Public Accounts Committee Lave brought up a report op the expenses of Sir Julius Vogel's. last two missions to Europe, which are about £12,000, inclusive of salary and travelling allowances. An apparently very important change has been made in committee on the Waste Lands Administration Bill. The clauses which secure tenure to the present lessees of the Canterbury runs, which lapse in 1880, on such terms as the Waste Lands Boards may fix, have been thrown out by 22 against 20. The struggle has evidently been a tough one, but had the Wasle Lands Boards been given theee great powers, the struggle would have been very much more tough to secure the appointment of members to the Waste Lands Board favourable to the views of the runholders. Ministers must feel that they are thus relieved from one great embarrassment with which they were threatened. The Lotteries and Art Unions Bill has been abandoned, and the Thames Harbour Board Bill passed. The Legislative Council insists on its amendment in the Debtors and Creditors Bill, which the House of Representatives will not accept. The Financial Arrangements Bill, and the Goldfields Acts Amendment Bill were read a second time in the Council.

The Eastern Question in Europe is assuming a new phase. It is attributed to Lord Derby that he desires to mediate on the basis of the status quo, but events have been too rapid to allow of such a possibility. There has been organised in London a League " to aid" the Christians in the Turkish provinces. A meeting of this Association was held on the 27th of July, at which forty Members of Parliament were present, although not one of them spoke. The reason of this silence was stated to be that the important debate in the House of Commons, which was to take place the following night, commanded their eloquence. That debate, however, turned upon the policy of the British Government in refusing to be a party to the Berlin Memorandum. Meanwhile, the Turks have been victorious in the eastern provinces, while they have sustained a signal defeat in Montenegro. They have pushed their successes as far as Saitchar, on the Mbrava, which is within two days' march of Belgrade. The Servians evacuated the place upon their approach. It is admitted that the Seraskier (the commander of the Turks) has exhibited much ability. But the defeat of the Turkish forces on the Adriatic side of the theatre of war is more than a compensation for Turkish success. The numbers were unequal. In Servia the. Turks had three army corps, numbering in all some 30,000 men, while the Servians did not exceed 16,000. In Montenegro some 12,000 mountaineers defeated 25,000 men under Muchtar Pasha, who was flushed with recent victories. The Turks lost 8.000 men. So signal was the success of tho patriots that if they wero but a little stronger in point of numbers the campaign would be ended in a week. But the accounts forwarded by eye witnesses of the horrors of the war are absolutely sickening. It should be borne in mind that these atrocities are disclaimed by the Turkish authorities who have hanged several Bashi Bazouks for being concerned in them. Tn Philopopolis there- is a gallows with its human appendage in front of every house. As many as 25,000 persons are said to have perished in a single district, while as many more have been deported in a condition of slavery, the female children being reserved for a fate more dreaded than death itself. A very important feature of the meeting of the " League" was the stress laid upon the promises given to the allied Powers in 1856 upon the conclusion of the Treaty of Paris. It is now admitted upon all sides that not one of these promises, which included recognised rights and liberties to all the Christian subjects of the Porte, has been kept. If anything the Government of the late Abdul Azziz was more reckless in its extravagance, more emasculate in its power to prevent wrongs to Christians than was the Government of Abdul Medjid. Nor is it true that the people of the Sclav provinces have been the willing subjects of the Turks. Some part or other of these Trans-Balkan territories has always been in a state of chronic discontent. Every two or three years the people of Western Europe have heard of some cmeute or armed protest against excess. Then in Bulgaria and Roumelia the relatious of Christians and Turks have been very intimate, and it is said there is a large section of the Christian people who would prefer the strong government of a Great Power rather than the intermeddling vexations of a small one. It would, for these reasons, appear impossible to revert to the position of things at the commencement of the disturbances. In the presence of these events a new programme of government has been published by authority of the Turkish Government. This includes a Constitutional 'overeign,a Council of eighty members with the form, if not the substance, of representation. This programme may be regarded as well authenticated since it was shewn to the correspondent of the Times, and is published upon the responsibility of the leading jonrnal. It will be readily intelligible that in the state of such events the status quo cannot be a basis for mediation. The Montenegrins are elated by the achievement of the greatest victory since the outbreak of the war, and the Servians, though for the present retreating, are not discouraged. Lord Shaftesbury, at the meeting of the " League," expressed an opinion that it were better Russia should be on the Bosphorus rather than that the Turkf, should resume the government of the provinces. This expression of opinion was received with slight dissent, but the question is being asked, "suppose Russia at Constantinople —what then V Tho expansion of the; Russian Empire is now admitted to be a fact which armies cannot control, and if Russia is ever to be fought, she must be fought on her frontier. Napoleon, who tried his arms on Moscow, afforded in hji} misfortune a lesson for all time. If $he is ever to be fought by England the scene of the fight "will he on either immediate side of the Golden.: Horn. But. what reason is there for supposing that if Russia advanced towards Central Asia she

! would attack the Indian possessions of England. Is oar Tnflian government so baa that the native people would revolt ? And assuming that they did sbj would they perc&ive any advantage, immediate or v insiaccept2ig Iguasia ||! If f ortbftirlove of liberty. jHugsia isp ;foi%d presence there. It costs her many millions of money yearly to maintain her position there. .whoJiink, "that"if, in the T pfesent state* of opinion iff Europe, v 'she were in Constantinople her power 1 could be crippled. War" with Russia cannot be carried intoitheinterior, but the interipr:feels the reflects of war by having to payfor it. Russia has played the part of ,-" old -bogy.!! in modern diplomacy. It is alleged oa all sides that religious .rancour has begun to work towards its intense desires. The Mahommedans have appealed to their Koran for a warrant to slay the Christians. Unhappily the principal authors of the recent atrocities have been renegades and apostates from the Christian ranks. A manifesto read at the league meeting denounces the Roman Catholics as encouragingthe Turk, because he oppressed the Greek worship. The Magyars and Hungarians have declared that they will oppose the creation of a Sclav Sovereignty, and General Klapka, the " kero of Kars," has taken service under the Sultan as the pledge of Hungarian hatred. It is possible that the meshes of the political net are so strong as to keep all the disturbing influence in the position of protracted armistice. This, however, will be no settlement of the difficult questions involved. The present attitude of the Powers towards the belligerents, and towards each other cannot be long maintained. There is only one favourable aspect of the situation, and this is that all parties are sincere in desiring to restore peace. But there can be no peace until substantial guarantees are taken that the rights of the Sclav provinces sind their Christian inhabitants shall be respected. Turkey is not only enfeebled but she is ' pauperized. They possess all the elements of growth, and might be made more useful friends to England in the future than the Turk ever can Self-government of some kind is the only condition of peace that can be recognised by the provinces, and supported by the Christian Powers. So far civilization shall have made a step in advance, and if it should be from this time a peaceful step, so much the greater will be the security for its permanent value. Whether the issues shall be # decided by war or peace, the Turk has given a proof by his extravagance, his licentiousness, his fanaticism, and his ignorance, that he cannot stand in the way of Europe to her ultimate object.

Wβ publish elsewhere some farther correspondence between Mr. John Lamb and the Minister of Public Works, with reference to the extension of the Kaipara Kailway. Mr. Lamb certainly deserves credit for following the Government through all their windings, and turning them out of qvery corner of refuge they have run to, and when the line is made he will be recognised as having been the instrument of having got the work done. The reply to his last letter by the Public Works Department is somewhat curious. After several years' delay, and after the money had been voted several times, wo do not see why the subject has to be again brought before Parliament. We are not well acquainted with the merits or demerits of the new line which is being surveyed, but we have no doubt that the objections to it are fairly stated by Mr. Lamb. The safest plan would be to go back to the line surveyed some time ago, and on which all the claims for compensation have been settled.