CASUAL RAMBLINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8680, 24 September 1891, Page 6

CASUAL RAMBLINGS.

("BY A. tramp, ESQ.] [FROM THE AUCKLAND WEEKLY NEWS.] MOKAU MEANDERINGS.. MOKAU CO-OPERATIVE COAL COMPANY (LIMITED) — SHAREHOLDERS — MOKAU JONES* ' ROYALTYDIRECTORS HOPEFULA PLANT ON THE WAY TO MOKAU—LIKEWISE A. T. AND CO.MOKAU THIRTY YEARS HENCE— CHICAGO —COLONEL CAMPBELL — DOODLETHE WORLD'S FAIR—A HEAVY DEPOSIT —A FEW INVITATIONS —LIBERAL INGRATITUDE — MILITARY SUPREMACY — THE ONE POLICEMAN NOWHERE—JOHN'S JANIZARIES — THE JARRING JACKS — PLAGUE O' BoTII YOUR HOUSES— HON. MINISTER FOR PUBLIC WORKS — HIS SNAIL'S VROGRESS POLICY — SEDDON IN SHACKLES —A BOX SEAT—OFF TO MOKAU. The office of the Mokau Co-operative Coal Company (Limited) is in Wellington.- The capital of the company is £20,000, in 20,000 shares of £1 each. Ten thousand are allotted to the associated miners who work the mine; a thousand are taken up by Mr. Joshua Jones (Mokau); the balance, less the number hold by. the five Wellington gentlemen on the directory and a few others, are held by the company for sale to the public, on the following terms: 2s 6d on application, 2s 6d on allotment, and the balance by calls nob exceeding 2s 6d, at intervals of nob less than one month. The mode of calling up the capital on the working men's shares is by deducting 25 cent, of their gross earnings and carrying the same to capital account until such time as the whole shall be paid up. Tho shares taken up by Mr. Jones are tho ordinary shares. - , The directors do nob seem to be possessed of any great financial influence or diplomatic ability, and, as a consequence, the bulk of the balance of the 9000 shares offered to the public are still unsold. That there should be a difficulty in placing the shares is not a matter to bo surprised at. I confess I should be chary about investing therein myself, not ou account of any doubts regarding the bono, fides of tho promoters or the genuineness of tho mine, or tho facilities for putting the coal on tho market, but simply because, from the way tho shares are held, I think the outsider would have but a small say in the management of tho company. Tho associated miners with Mr. Jones —and even without Jones—can at any time assume complete control of the concern arid manage it to suit their own interests, and to tho disadvantage of the minority whose liquid capital developed and established the business. I do nob say they will take advantage of the power which the possession of the majority of shares confers upon them, but looking at the prospectus I see nothing to prevent them doing so if they choose. The working man h ambitious to govern (I believe with'-Mr. George McLean that it will take him 50 years to learn how), and, having the power, our associated miners will early find the will. Tho mining area of the company consists. as I have before stated, of 2000 acres, and is leased from Mr. Jones for a term of - thirty years, at a royalty of one shilling per ton—which will be a nice little income for Joshua. They spoke very hopeful'v at the office of the prospects of the company, and informed me they had recently purchased a fleet of barges and steamers, which was on its way to Mokau—like ourselves. I was assured by the miners' representative on the directory that Mr. Jones was acting rightly in withholding his signature to the lease until I all the stipulations in tho agreement were complied with, and which, lis added, tho company were strenuously endeavouring to accomplish and he professed himself sanguine as to the satisfactory termination of the struggle to place the company oil a sound substantial footing. I hope with all my heart that his anticipations may be realised, and when I visit Mokau thirty years hence I may find a city as big as Waiu—Chicago. I I like Mokau so much I cannot make up my mind to let ib go, and begin to feel sorrowful at the thought of having to part with it. The gentle readers of tho Auckland Weekly News, who, I doubt not, by this time feel as much interest in Mokau as I do myself, will not, I am sure, remain unmoved when it comes to the final hug. Final hugs are awkward and disagreeable proceedings, and procrastinating persons like myself dodge them as long as possible, but at last we have to too the mark, and the thing has to bo done—to be done !— and so must Mokau. Here goes to finish up Chicago ! Bother ! Just as I was preparing to wend my way to Mokau, Colonel Campbell, the Chicagan Exhibition delegate, invites mo to dinner and Chicago. Think I will go—to dinner ; I'll consider about Chicago. It was a wise resolve of the managers of ; the Exhibition to send Colonel Campbell here. It assures us there are gentlemen in the United States. From the goateed, 1 lantern-jawed samples of the American that pass to and fro with their double-barrelled nasal twang and Cork accent, screaming that they can lick creation, and the ! c-tarnal, con-demned Britisher into tho bargain, wo had begun to doubt their ' existence in that locality. After dinnei, I believe I consented to go to Chicago. It is the easiest thing in life to say yes after dinner. How I am going to get to the World's Fair at Chicago I ; have nob the remotest ideaneither has ' Tom Henderson, but to-morrow we are i going to deposit sixpence between us in tho Post Office Savings Bank, which, as Tom says, will be something towards it. I havo a pocketful of invitations to visit • places, wide as the poles asunder, on hand ' just now ; I cannot accept them all even if ' I wished ; some may probably bo acceded [ to, others I find ib impossible to comply with. London, Chatham Islands, South ' Seas, Chicago, Melbourne, are a few of , the out-of-the-way places on my list. Tho Hon. the Premier learning of my arrival in the capital, sent for mo and presented me with the Agent-Generalship. I handed it buck without much thanks, and [ with it tho opinion that tho man above all i others most entitled to it, and best i qualified for tho office, was Sir Julius » Vogcl. ) "Jews are not in favour just now, and 1 the party will nob stand it," the Premier I said. . - ■; . " Then tho party ought to bo ashamed of ! itself," I retorted. He winced a little, but ! did nob call the attention of the Speaker to ' my unparliamentary remarks; no, ho just . called v{;ho sentry that guards the door, and i I was removed at the point of the bayonet. The Hon. John Ballanco has no con- ' fidonce in his one-policeman - policy where . his precious person and property are conr ccrned, and Parliament House the place t where one would expect to find his pet on exhibition — is garrisoned with soldiery. The lobbies are festooned with artillerymen in spiked helmets. Fatigue parties may be found in backyards chopping firewood, 3 cleaning drains, or polishing somo prominent politician's boots—to such base uses, ' Horatio, does the commander-in-chief put. , our intelligent defenders. Promotion in 1 our permanent army does nob depend so . much on a man's efficiency as a soldier as b upon his skill as a scavenger.' Ib is said t that during the Bryce insurrection Colonel : Hume, who has a place behind the Speaker's > chair, stood with his finger on an electric button waiting but the word to pour in his : troops and " purge" Parliament of the V obnoxious Opposition. The word was not spoken then, but it will bo somo day*That army is too handy an instrument for unscrupulous leaders to have at command. I sent in my resignation as a member of the Liberal party, but tho other seces- [ sionists of that party spread no banquet to , afford an opportunity of making a speech , accusing tho Premier of malice afore- ' thought and a design to humiliate and expel me from the House. Tho Hon. John Bryce did so, bub I don't think he has succeeded in convincing any sensible person that the Hon. John Ballance is - either a Mephistopheles or an Oliver 2 Cromwell. £ | I was present when the disgraceful row ' 1 between the two leaders of the House took ! place, and I felt that our suffering country had good reason to exclaim with Mercutio, t . " A plague o' both your houses." Taking l ; advantage of the weakness of the Speaker, £ the two Johnnies bucked at one another

like a brace of schoolboys. Tho words 1 slung at the Ministerial nob by the Opposition dux were not by themselves particularly offensive it was the tone and gesture that" accompanied them that aggravated the other fellow, and caused him to heave the stone that sent his adversary to grass.; • ; • ' ' ! The remote original cause of this trouble was the waywardness or weakness of the Manukau electors in rejecting Sir Maurice O'Rorke as their representative. Had Sir Maurico been in the chair both leaders would have found themselves promptly sat upon, and the deplorable episode never have disgraced our Parliamentary records. The Honourable Mr. Richard Seddon, I member for .Kumara, the Minister of Mines and "Public Wordshe is inclined to bo punctilious, so I spell his name out in full, and pub all his clothes on—consulted mo concerning the public works of the North Island, inquring which railway works were the most urgently required. Without hesitation I replied : "Complete the Rotorua railway right into the Government township ; fill up the gap of 27 miles between Eketahuna and oo'dvillo, and if you have any money to spare spend it in completing the road system in the interior as rapidly as possible." Ho is doing these urgent public works after a' fashion., Thus—{vide his Public Works Statement)— " Every mile of railway made either from Eketahuna or Woodville will promote settlement, and bo a great benefit to the district and the colony. We propose, therefore, to ask the House to vote a sum of £27,000, which will be expended partly at one end of the line and partly at the other." At the average cost per mile of New Zealand railways, this sum will make about four milestwo at each end. At this rate of construction it will take about seven years to close tho gap of 27, miles between Woodville and Eketahuna. The district and the country might become intoxicated with too much prosperity if another £27,000 were expended in the middlesay, 'partly at one end of Pahiatua and partly at the other, and another four miles added to tho New Zealand railways. I fear that, like his predeces ors, the preseni) Hon. Minister of Public Works is shackled by the same pernicious influence that has hitherto prevented the completion of this line. Mr. Cadman, the Hon. the Native Minister, is the only other member of the Ministry 1 met in Wellington. He wanted to make me Pro-Consul for the Chathams, but I could not see my way to accept it. The Hon. Mr. Cadman is a man who says little and does less. At Waitara we invested in a clean shirt, took a box seat on Boomerang, and sailed away for Mokau without more ado.