Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5359, 20 January 1879, Page 2

The second annual Message of the President of the United States for the year 1878 has just readied us. These periodical statements respecting the public affairs of 30 great and influential a section of the human family, are always matter of universal interest. Now, when American breadstuft'a are so largely exported to Europe, and when there is so much distress at the present moment in England, it is a fortunate circumstance, generally as well as locally, that the year's harvests throughout the United States have been " abundant." The great republic herself has just gone through some severe phases ef distress ; and in regard to that of ail in- ; lus trial character, we are glad to learn ihat her "manufacturing industries ire reviving, and it is believed i that the general prosperity, which has j aeen so long anxiously looked for, is at last within our reach." Our readers are iware that the yellow fever has been linking terrible ravages in the Southern ■ States, and President Hayes tells us that :here have been 100,000 cases, of which 1 -0,000 proved fatal. " The suffering and destitution that resulted oxcited the luepcst sympathy in all parts of the Union. Physicians and nurses hastened : rom every quarter. Voluntary contributions in money and supplies, in every leeded form, were speedily and generously furnished." The Government, mticipating the sanction of Congress ' was able to respond in some measure to :allafor help by providing tents, medicine, md food." In response to the public entimcnt, there is likely to be a "national lanitary administiation," for the general ooking after of the public health. We ee by enc of our latest telegrams from jondon that this dreadful pestilence 3 now also committing fearful lavoc in Jamaica, and is there preading rapidly. Like the cholera n some of the cities of India, and ike the plague in certain ports of the .levant, the yellow fever seoms to be lways lurking in the fall of the year bout any low-lying ports of tropical America and the West Indies. Georgeown, Demerara, on the swampy Guiana oast, and New Orleans, below the level f the Mississippi, from which it is proected by huge embankments, used to be specially scourged. Sanitary science has .one something to lessen the fury of this s well as of the other epidemics; but ccasionally it still breaks out,' and mrsts its bounds with all its old violence, nd the present appears to be one of its rorst visitations.

The recent award of the Halifax Commission upon the fishery dispute between the United States and England is, of course, prominently referred to-in'the Presidential Message. The dispute arose from the practice, long pursued by fishermen from the States, of taking fish, contrary to treaty, within the "three-mile inshore bounds of the neighbouring British colonies, among which Newfoundland has i within, as well as without, the inshore line the best fishing waters in the world. And the dispute wa3 complicated and brought to a head by a row between the local fishermen and the strangers. The crews ®f 20 American fishing vessel* landed and encamped on the Newfoundland shore to dry their fish, when the neighbouring fishermen assembled and drove them off. The English Government despatched an agent (Captain Sullivan, 11. N.) to inquire into the particulars, and from his inquiries it would appear that the strangers were not only fishing in-shore, contrary to treaty, but were fishing during the close season, and also on Sunday, both things being contrary to the local Newfoundland regulations. Respecting those local regulations, the Americans say that no proper notice of their existence was given, and they wish to keep the Fortune Bay affair distinct from the general question. At any rate, the Commission wliieh was jointly appointed by the two Governments, and which sat at Halifax, has finished its work. It decided that, as compensation for the fishing illegally pursued by American fishermen, and to in future legitimise for them the practice hitherto illegal, the sum of five millions and a-half of dollars should be paid to England. The American authorities declared the sum to be excessive, and objected that the award was not made unanimously, but only by a majority of the Commission. There has been a long correspondence between Mr. Evarts and Lord Salisbury. Lord Salisbury courteously, but firmly, insisted on the decisiveness of the award ; pointing out that the Commission was jointly appointed ; that in such a Commission a majority has been always held sufficient to ensure a decision, unless there had . been a previous agreement to the contrary ; and that unanimity in such a r Commission would be so unlikely, and even impossible, that his Government would never have consented to waste time by referring the question to a Commission • which could only decide it by being unani- , mous. The money has now been paid, • accompanied by a notice that this ( has been done in obadience to the i award, but still protesting against the justice of the award, lest the payment I should become a precedent. The American Government ought to have j paid the money straight oil* when the Commission they referred it to decided the question. The President's Message simply notices the general facts of the disputo and the payment. We perceive by the Message that a ■ treaty between the United States Government and tiie Samoan Islands has just been ratified, "and that a survey and soundings of the harbour of Pago Pago have been made by a naval vessel of the United States, with the view of its occupation as a naval station, if found desirable to the service." The necessity for some care of the forests is at last beginning to receive attention in America, where their rapid destruction is "an evil fraught with the gravest consequences, especially in the mountainous districts, where the rocky slopes once denuded of their trees, will remain so for ever." Existing forest laws are to bo made more efficient, and "a general law concerning this important subject appears to me an urgent public necessity." Some time ago invitations were sent from Washington to such foreign Governments as expressed a willingness 011 the subject for the holding of un " International Monetary Conference." The purpose was the adoption of a common ratio between gold and silver, in order to establish the use of bi-metallic money. The Conference met in Paris last August, dux; it seems to have decided to leave things just as they are. We learn that the public revenue for the year ending 30th June, IS7S, was in round numbers 257,000,000 of dollars, and the axpenditnre 230,000,000. Now, when there is much agitation in the States on the subject of currency, we are told that the Government mean to abstain from all radical changes in financial legislation. '■ We confidently expect that the resumption of specie payments, which will take place at the appointed time, will be successfully and easily maintained, and will be followed by a healthy and enduring revival of business prosperity.' 1 Indian affairs receive a large share of attention in the Message, several sections of which are devoted to the subject. There have been no Indian wars during the year, with the exception of two on a very trilling scale with tribes which wero removed from their country to the appointed reservations. There was an outbreak among the tribe known as the Bannocks, '' which appears to have been caused bv an insufficiency of food on the reservation at a time when the Indians could not supply their wants by hunting." In the other case, 300 Cheyenues broke away simply from a desire to return to their old hunting grounds. They traversed two whole States, using the tomahawk on the white men they met along the line. " Many of the tribes are now quiet orderly, and self-supporting, both as husbandmen and herdsmen. Wo are told that there is an almost universal desire among the Indians to have their children receive the white man's learning — " even among Indians belonging to wild tribes." It is a wellauthenticated fact that they are apt to be peaceable and quiet when their children arc at school. Fifty Indian childrenboys and girls—have been taken from dilierent tribes and sent to the Agricultural School at Hampton, in Virginia, where they will get ail elementary English education, and be trained in farming and other useful work and then bo returned to their tribes. It is reported by the officers charged in selecting thorn, that instead of those, . fifty " thousands of young Indians" would gladly have been sent by their parents, had provision been made to receive them. Ilic conduct of the central Government i to the aborigines has always been en- i lightened and humane, though that of 1 many of the States has been too often the i reverse. i