THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, JULT 9, 1883.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6752, 9 July 1883, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, JULT 9, 1883.

The politics of Queensland have not commonly that interest for the people of New Zealand -which attaches to those of Victoria and New South Wales. With these we have more intimate commercial relations, and a large number of our fellow-colonists retain associations with them as their first colonial homes. But the tropical colony has questions at issue in which we have an interest, and the defeat of the Government in that colony, announced in our last issue, in its bearing on those questions, is an event of no ordinary importance. This is the Administration which had originated the annexation movement which has I so agitated the colonies; and that the Governor, who ordered the planting of the English flag on Papua, has since died at Aden on his way home to England, and the Ministry which advised him has now been defeated by a large majority, might be regarded as auguries of' ill in relation to the recent awakening of national life in the colonies. But happily this crisis, any more than the Governor's death, has not been brought about by the annexation movement, in favour of which all political parties in Queensland are enthusiastically one.- But the measure which has led to the defeat of the Ministry, and on which it is expected there will be an appeal to the country, is one of general interest in this respect, that it contemplated a new departure in the promotion of public ■works, and was one on the principle of which there is the widest possible divergence of opinion. Hitherto in all the Australasian colonies the railways have been constructed by the State and from moneys borrowed on the public eredit, the exceptions only being in the case fo district or branch lines of no very great importance, nor materially affecting the general principle, and themselves constructed on conditions of being very easily taken over by the State. But Queensland had essayed to construct a gigantic trunk railway stretching from the inland terminus of their main trunk line at Eoma, and stretching all the way to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and having strained the borrowing powers of the colony already to as great an extent as was considered prudent, had entered into arrangements with a wealthy syndicate in England, on the conditions of large areas of land in alternate sections, and amounting in the aggregate value to a sum apparently sufficient to pay for the entire cost of construction, being handed over to. the syndicate. This the first introduction of the American system of railway extension into the colonies, met with the most strenuous opposition on the part of a large number of colonists, and it is on this question 'of the construction of this socalled "Transcontinentalßailway" that the Government has suffered a defeat. Whether the development of their resources demanded the construction j of this extended stretch of railway j through a district uninhabited at present, and destined never to have anything but a very sparse population, ; is a matter upon which the people of that colony are themselves the best judges; but anyone who knows anything of American institutions knows what a curse to that country has been the surrender of their interests to huge railway syndicates or "rings," the only object of which has been the extraction of all the possible money that could be: squeezed out of the public, in utter disregard of the general welfare. It cannot be denied that the system adopted in America has spread settlement with great rapidity into the wilderness of the far west. The immediate effect was good, and, as intended, although the cost at which it was effected in the sacrifice of the public estate, was out of all reason as compared with what it might have been if the States had either pledged their credit or their lands, constructed the lines as State works and recouped the cost, and gathered the profits from the vastly enhanced value of the lands in the territories opened up to settlement. But the loss falls far short of the contingent evils brought to pass, for the conduct v," the American railways in the hands of the rings that own them, and the "railway kings" that control them —both of which are the product of the vicious system on which the railways were originally constructed, constitutes the greatest commercial scandal of the age, and is a veritable tyranny and oppression under which that republican and exquisitely democratic people grind in apparently irredeemable bondage. The Vanderbildts and the Goulds of American life are the real rulers of the country, and with the power of the purse and the control of the railway systems, can make and ruin districts, towns, and cities, people aad enterprises, exactly as they please. The American people know it, feel it keenly, and bear it hopelessly. In the absence of any seeming possibility of deliverance from the railway kings and their rings, the best and most public-spirited' citizens are obliged to follow in their lead, in I the hope that from evil they may

extract sonie" good >; arid it.;is" this' general and almost* necessary; "submission to the rule of-the rings that has forced into existence tho universal demoralisation of-American political life. .-."'.

' This is the thing that the Mcll wraith Ministry has endeavoured to acclimatise in Australia, and it will be of no common interest to watch whether the general elections approaching will endorse the action of the majority in their Assembly who have said they will have none of it. It is a wholly different thing from the system which we haYe already in existence in New Zealand under our District Railways and Railways Construction Acts, and which in relation to sections of railwaygives encouragement to local effort for the construction of district lines which I would not be undertaken by the Government for many years to come. Nothing could be better adapted than this for the promotion of legitimate local enterprise and settlement of population, arid it is guarded by the conditions that when the exigencies of the public service demand it, these sections of railway can be resumed by the Government without embarrassment from their magnitude. The only parallel to the American system that might be found with us is in the idea sometimes advanced and perhaps cherished by some, that' in order to get rid of a large portion of our public debt at one swoop we should i sell the railways of the colony. But this idea has been so universally condemned by the leaders of every party, that it may be regarded as a dream of timorous colonists, to whom the magnitude of our indebtedness is as a chronic nightmare. Still we cannot be indifferent to an attempted departure at once so novel and so far reaching in its effects,inanyone of thegroupof colonies, for we may rest assured that the setting up of suoh a huge plutocratic system of railway control in any one of the colonies, as this great Transcontinental railway ring would have established, would not end with the district affected, but ultimately tend to produce throughout the vast and yet unoccupied areas of Australasia that predominant influence of railway rings in all the affairs of political and commercial life which has proved such a misery to the people of the "United States. There is much in the procedure of our trans-Pacific cousins from which we may learn, and even copy with advantage; but from their gigantic scheme of trunk railway construction through the surrender of the public estate, such as that now urged in Queensland, we pray that the Australasian colonies may be long spared.

-*»'■ '"vftlrfMM corporal punishmentas "to AiMft, or four time, when he forgive hl »." hen he aoes not leave off to -does TfWf.S'/£ third affirms that " cor- . should be used when corio2 is otten b" . inches." "Menrfltrioity a -only a ™ .. is the orbit deScity/' a nn s r o Un d the earth, but in sC lt d fteS round the sun." m Road Board have received a l T be Epsom Boa ?o re daDgers afc Bird reply to the* g" that th e District, Eng,:Grt \ eß ht g n'inßtruotedto report upon the rb33 £"hi3 is exactly what en engieatle. rbnt w do two B e , o> tne -««;K 5 - re consider the reply to be of a •gujjij. does " isfaCtorr: e en prisoners in the lock-up jjst jught,- » a ? fo r vagrancy ; and John gwy Bamfora, *' ehawl , value Property of Elizabeth Lennard. 113 ' tJisin* columns will be found a In our ad^e.tom & Qffer & re _ of the scoundrel ward f the hoce at the late fire m the •who'cat -we , jce have t EOme now being traced up, bat with i, nW » vet been got of the missiug - Tad 5 Webh, B believeu to have •aea Faughey ana (Kaipara). A coat Sot"hlthin^ha y 3 leen l found belongVJ*Z hi completed, the shop, 5 ™ and proprietors of other bus.ieep KWishmeats in the vicinity are «& n ?££Tthe holding still obstruct; fftbe thoroughfare and remaining an eyesore passers by. Oα Thursday morninglast the dead body fvratveVas found floating down the WaitlZet- above Cambridge. It proved to ■U to tody of one Hoani Paheha, who had ? ■ j nwned iu the Waikato river at the falls in the Taupo district itat ten days previously, and for the reco«rr of which his people or tribe were Sn" a reward of £20. The distance from ■Se the accident occurred by ri»er;to CamS about 100 miles, and there is a large ' xSlwiß andrapids along the route VMch shows that the remains of the untor"£S native had a very rough pas-age down the river. Deceased was a member of the Igatihourangi tribe. Hoani and two Other -natives were either returning from or going •toatan°i; They were proceeding down the Waikito river in a canoe, when on approach--•ine fte Orakei Korako Falls two of the piriy. . tavin-i an eye to their personal safety. jumpsdout and swam ashore, leaving Hoani to navigate thefrail b«k over the falls.. Ihe canoo capsized, and Hoani was not seen after -until picked up at Cambridge. • Certain popular beliefs are gradually be" coming things of the past. The author of ."Eiohteen Months'lmprisonment, a work just out of the press, writen :— "It is a prevalent and very erroneous impression to '. fsancitite voracity and sharp dealings with • the Hebrew race, for I have found, from ex- ' perience (and I am admittedly an authority), ' that for meanness, haggling, and exorbitant ■terms, with a cloik of hypocrisy to cover this multitude of sins, tbe Hebrew is considerably - outdistanced by his Christian confrfcre. I might, indeed, go a step further, • and add thr.t, barring a repellant manner ' during the preliminaries of a transaction, but .'.' whictTis superficial, the dealings of the clul- '■■ dren of Israel are based on strictly hono-ir- • able and considerate grounds. No one has V-orer heaiA of a Jew robbing you first and then prosecuting you. They are invariably • satisfied with one course or the other."

..' The Welsh service was held last night at : , ■; the i-niali lecture-room of the Young Men's Christian Association. The speakers were ' Mr. Thomas Ellis Jones and. Mr. Geary. ; The former preached, in Welsh, from the 1 - il2tli chapter o£ St. John's Goapel, 1-10 A verses; the latter in English, from the24th chapter of St. Luke's Goapel, 20 th verse. Both speakers were very earnest, atd the audience was exceedingly attentive. There , ; .T?ill he two service s h-.-ld next Sunday, of which doe notice will be given. Considerable complaints are made of the """ state of the crossing between Messrs. J. and D, Oxley's warehouse on the Queea-street ■ Wharf and the toll house. This is a matter : tbatwehavefrequentlydrawntheattentiouof ' the authorities to, and urged upon them to do ■ something towards putting the crossing into order fit tor font traffic, but the authorities do not seem to show the slightest desire to meet the public wishes in this direction. It is not at all creditable to the authorities to see young children and ladies forced to wade ' through :the slush and mud over their boot : tops iri , . dirty weather on their way up or ■ down the wharf. The RevV A. Fairbrother (Baptist missionary in the Lake country), in the New Zealand Baptist for this month, complains . -of the-demoralising influence exercised by many of the Lake tourists on the native, race. JflCe ssys :—" The visitors whom we ought to be aba to rejoice to eee, we have learned to dread. Instead of encouraging these poor people to keep the Sabbath,: the tourists—some of these members of Christian Churches, and in one instance a clergyman— pay them to break it and to dance the haka, which is lewd in many of its poetures, in- ■ decent in its language, and demoralising to all. Atlhome, these professors sing, 'Fly .. abroad', thou mighty Gospel;' but when they •■ ate abroad, they do all they can to impede, its flight. A fortnight ago, a gentleman—l beg his pardon, a visitor—paid the natives to dance, on a Sunday night, and offered .'. one boy five shillings to take off the blue ribbon and drink beer ! No tbanks to him that he failed. In the name of Him whose command is to 'Keep the- Sabbath holy,' and on behalf of the poor Maori, I appeal to visitors who come to see these wonders of Nature, the terraces, that they will not tempt them to desecrate the Sabbath, and to drink." The same journal also-states that the Key. DavidTVhytock, sometime town missionary in Perth, N. 8., but lately pastor of the Baptist Churcb, Waikato, has accepted a hearty invitation from the Wellesley-street Baptist Church, to assist the pastor, the Rev. Thomas Spnrgeon, in visitation and other work. The Bev. W. C. Spencer, of Lincoln, Canterbury, who' Mas invited to tho Thames Baptist Church: pastorate, has ultimately decided to "remain in his present charge. Mr. Rusden.in his ponderous and jaundiced " History of Kew Zealand," is occasionally wguiled into metaphor, and then he becomes unintentionally and unconsciously comical, as when he tells us, for instance, at page 259 .Of.Mβ first volume, that " The company were aot Blow to reflect upon New Zealand the malign rays with which they had deflected the Colonial Office from its uprightness under Normanby into the crookedness of Wd Russell." The reflection and deflection of a ray of light are very familiar phenomena, but we never heard oi such a ray, Bialign or otherwise, deflecting a political department into the deformity of a statesman. r Following the example of Mr. Costley, Mr. John. Liriay, of Melbourne, has died and bequeathed his substance to the charities. The Sydney Morning Herald thinks heshould have leit his money to his poor relations. The matinee at the Opera House on Saturday afternoon was well attended, and the diorama of the American War greatly appreciated by. the children of tne various schools present, who bailed each striking scene with exclamations of delight.. At the close of the performance, on dispersing, «very child was presented with a toy, and scut home happy. Iu the evening the diorama • was again well patronised. The following among other prizes were distributed :—Snite of furniture, Mrs.'-Whiting, , Ponsonby; dining service, Master Porteus, Norfolk-street; tea and coffee service, Mrs. ' Allan, Church-street, Onenunga. The performance will be repeated this evening. A correspondent, who is a visitor to the Opera House, complaine that ■on njghtie was annoyed by the presence of a \ dog scratching itself beside him, and desires ( fco krow whethor dogs are admitted, there, 1 as, if bo, ho will in future give it a wide .ferth. i *

The usual evangelistic service was held last night, at the Theatie Royal. Mr. Brackeniig presided, and Mr. Tucker gave the usual'.address; There was a good attendance. ■ ; i There wae a crowded meeting at the Salvation service laafc night, in the Temperance Hall. About two hundred were turned away from the doors, unable to obtain admission. Captain Pollard is expected back from. Dunedin early next week, when it ssiurended to hold a social gathering ora somewhat similar character to that held in Dunedin recently. . . ; The next concert by the orchestra of the Choral Society is to take place on the 19th of July, in. the Choral Hall. It bids fair to be one of the moat interesting yet giyeD, including some of the finest orchestral works written. Among the numbers is the overture of Mozart, " Zauberflote," which was composed only two days before the first performance of that opera at Salzburg, on the 30th of September, 1753. Mozart conducted himself at the piano. Another overturo on ihe programme is Mendelssohn's " Fingal's Cave," completed in Paris in 1831. As writer of concert overtures, Mendelssohn is toe firet composer, who represents effects of sc-nea and pictures of nature by musical sounds. The above overture represents a description of the "Grottos of Fingal," in the ieland of StaSa, in the north-west of Scotland. The music beantifully illustrates the rolling of the waves as they surge up and gently retreat again. The two first bars of the overture, which is the leading 3ubjeet of the work, was written by Mendelssohn whilst he was sailing in a small bout through tUe cave. Anothe- number is Haydn's Military Symphony, written in the year 1794, and a. young' lady will play that celebrated composition of Mendelssohn's the " G minor concerto," with fu'il orchestral act-ompaniment. This was one of the great events of the composer's second visit to Munich, where he played it for the first time on the 17th October, 1831. The young lady has studied most energetically, and, we hear, will perform her part with great excellence. Another number worth mention-

ing is the march "Turkish Patrol," not a work of great pretensions, but wherever it was played it had to ba repeated. It is a timple- composition, but produces great effects through the piano, crescendo forte. The patrol is heard approaching from a distance, comes nearer, passes, and- gradually again the sounds die away. The concert will be varied by operatic duets, solos, and two Orpheus quartettes. Tho musical public ought to be thankful to Herr Carl Sohmitt, the energetic conductor, giving them, by this recherche concert, to hear this highclass music, w'uieh otherwise would probably be unknown htre for a long time.

Mr. McDonald, the recently elected member for Bruce, in declaring his opinions to the electors, said he would " strive to harmonis? \vith the party in power, and try and get what good things were going."

The Fiji Times says :— The New Zealand steamer brought with her Oα her late trip a number of visitors, anxious to see for themselves what :-jro?res3 the colony is making, and to furm an , opinion fiom personal observation as to its future prospects. Amongst those wer<; Mr. Reader Wood, formerly a member of the New Zealand Ministry, Mr. Cargill, a leading Dunedin merchant, Mr. Warrick Weston, the Inspect"! of the New Zealand Insurance Company, Mr. Street, a gentleman prominent 'in business circles, Mr. Andersou, largely interested in pastoral pursuits, and a number of other gentlemen of New Zealand note. These visitors express themselves as being very favourably impressed with the prospects of the colouy, and as being surprised at the amount of capital now invested in prosecuting its industries. They have also expressed surpr.se <>f a different character at the form of "government under which the colony is expected to progress, and declare themselves a-tosiisbed that Englishmen should be called upon to submit to it.

The growth of olive trees in the province is slowly but steadily extending. In many different places a few trees, which may have been planted years ago, and one by one bf-ginniug to bear fruit. If the habit iu persisted in for several jears to come of patting in a few olive trees around the homes of our j eettlers in coui.tr} , districts, the time would cume insensibly when a very" large number of bearing tress would be found in every district. If cate in the meantime were taken to preserve the nam; of the different sorts planted; the means of extending olive cultivation, in suitable districts, would be at the disposal of our settlers, without incurring the annual trouble of paying nurserymen fur the trees they require. The other day we received from Air. Jame3 McGregor, Coromandel, a specimen of the olives grown in his garden there. The trees he has are part of thost brought by Mr. McLeod, from Italy, some dozen years ago. Unfortunately ho has lost their names, but they are both of the oil-producing varieties. The berry of one appears to be very much larger than the Other, bat b:>th. would no doubt yield oil in abundance, if care were taken to crush the the berries and extract the oil. He has informed us that the enp this season is a very large one, anJ that bushels have fallen off as they became dead ripe. Iu the course of time these olive trees will become sources of wealth, but they require to be planted in greater numbers.

For some time past the teaching of music has been a prominent feature iu the primary schools of t:io colony, and if this has been properly clone, we should now be seeing some results. We quote the following from an English paper :-" Several of the girls and boys elected to the scholarships of the Royal College of Music arc from the artisan and labouring classes. Remark able among these are (in singing) a mill girl, whose wages are 14s a week, and hours from six a.m. to half-past seven p.m. ; a young blacksmith, and the daughter of a briekmaker; and in tho violin playing, the sou of a farm labouier. It" might have been antvei> pated that a large number would be the children of musicians or persons connected with music, but there are only eight of suiH_j in the whole number. The average ago is between 16 and 17, the oldest being 22. Master Herbert Laubach, v/ho has gained a scholarship, is a son of Bandmaster Laubacu of the Q.E.R.V. Brigade, and has been for five years a chorister at St. Mary's Cathedral."

Messrs. J. Grey and Sons, of Sden Crescent, has prepared a ginger ale to meetthe demand for non-intoxicating and refreshing drinks. The ale is sparkling, well-flavoured, and is likely to be iu large demand, as the ! warm weather of summer advances. It is being sold at current rates, and should go far to take the place of the heavy draught and bottled beer in such common demand. Q'he Rev. J. T. Pinfold, who has recently been transferred to Gisborne, lately delivered an address at a social meeting of the congregation. The Circuit Steward exhorted all to show sympathy to the minister, and support all the interests of the church. Mr. Pinfold then referred to the Circuit debt, which he ' found on his arrival, and asktd whether it could not at once be wiped off. Several promises were ?.t once made, and ere the meeting closed about £40 was promised, In a New Zealand Gazette published ou the 2Sth June, are several lists of lauds which are to be taken in different party of the Auckland province for the purpose of laying off roads.

It has been decided by the various Christchurch city and suburban Orange Lodges under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of the Middle Island to celebrate tUo anniversary of the Twelfth of July by a tea meeting, concert, aud ball. Five members of the British Cabinet are credited with . being total abstainers—Earl Granville, Lord Spencer, Sir Charles Dilke, Sir William Harcouvt, and Mr. Childers. A special report of the recent Congregational Jubilee proceedings in Sydney has been published in a book of 250 pages demy octavo by Messrs. Lee and Pioss. It is an interesting record'of what many regard as an important commemoration. ' ' In Wellington the anniversary of the declaration of the American independence was permitted to pasa without thjj slightest recognition. The American Consul even failed to hoist the Stare and'Ssripes ov.er.hie warehouse. "What will Congress say to this ? His Excellency the Governor and Lady Jervois have consented to* be Patron and Patroness of the Wellington Early Closing Association. The Wanganui Chronicle records the arrival there of Mr. Goldie, of Auckland, the Grand Master of the Orange Institution for the North Island, on a tour of inspection of the various lodges. All claims as>ainat the estate o£ William Kelly, of Tauranga, Itatetu, and Ohinemutu, are requested to be lodged with Messrs. Heskoth and Richmond, on or before the 20thinrtant, with the view o a fiist ar.d find dividend being declared.;