NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9481, 10 April 1894, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Waitemata election which took place yesterday, must prove i. bitter disappointment to the Governmsit, who spared no efforts to secure the retirn of their candidate, Mr. Jackson Pamer.' For a second time within a few months the electors o! Waitemata have refused to send him tu Parliament. Although tie complete return* have not come to band, it is known that Mr. Massey'* election is asacred, and that he is likely to have a substantial majority. Great importance was attache*! to this contest by the Ministry and their supporters. Tha only question submitted to the electors wa.i the policy of the Government The Premier was so concerned- about the verdicb of the people ,of Waitemata that he made a personal appeal to them, and the Government whip was sent to stump the electorate in the Interests of the Ministerial candidate. Nob a stone was left unturned to secure Mr. Palmer's election. Bub, notwithstanding the stupendous efforts iof the Ministerial art the electors were nob • to be coerced or cajoled into pronouncing in favour of the Government. By their votes yesterday they have put on record for the second time their emphatio condemnation of the Minis- \ try and the policy of the Premier. The significance of their verdict is not to be blinked. They were asked to say whether they approved of Mr. Seddon's administration. They have given their answer. ' We congratulate them upon their good ! sense and manly independence, and we : hope that their verdict will be a salutary I lesson for the Government.

The district of Clutha, Otago, is the only one in the colony in which the necessary three-fifths majority was secured for prohibition, therefore it will' hare for some time all eyes directed to it. The Rev. A. M. Dalrymple writes to the Otago Daily Times from the Manse, at Puerua, in explanation of the position of the district. He claims that what has been attained has not been the result of any spasmodic effort on the part of Prohibition It is due to the experience which a large number of the electors have already had ot the excellent effects produced by the closing of liquor bars. For six years now there has been no traffic in drink over a considerable portion of the electorate, and many who voted for " moderate " licensing committees three and six years ago have been so satisfied with the improvement which the closing of the drink traffic has made in their own neighbourhood that, at the recent poll, they voted with the Temperance party. When the Puerua Hotel was closed, six years ago, a respectable minority of the people were opposed tp the action of the. licensing committee; but such has been the educating influence of those six years of local prohibition that at the recent poll 64 votes were recorded in Puerua in favour of prohibition, and only one on the other aide.

The " Tenth of April," famous in connection with the Chartisb riots, is perhaps the only day in tho year whose name has been appropriated in England to designate an important historical event, though the practice is rather common in France. I" 1848 the English Chartists were pressing their claims, and they arranged that a monster petition should be presented to Parliament on. the 10th of April after a great procession through ' London. -the Government, alarmed, by the Parisian revolution in April of the same year, feared that an outbreak of violence might take place. " Large bo-Hes oi troops were in readiness, cannons were placed in the vicinity of Westminster Bridge, and the public offices were garrisoned. Besides this ib was though expedienb to swear in a vast number 01 citizens as special constables to patrol the streets of London. The Chartists were overawed and abandoned the procession, and their petition was q^ , T**JJJ2 to the House of Commons. Thatnultiwda dispersed, and by four o'clock in.the afternoon London resumed its ordinary appearance, but the scare fixed itself upon the mind of the people, and the occurrence «M m long afterwards, and is still, known by the name of "The Tenth of April." , *™ have the element* of lawlessness and d« order in the older coupes of JhewgW. and the recent developments of Anarchism

threatening to society than » re far Hve demonstrations of the ignorant ' • „» cable message referred to a A tier's confession as to the stealing dying , S li..K of King Thebaw's jewels, » nd P lis that the romance connected "V..treasure trove" is not yet quite Wit t; 0 f the past. To-day, April 10, * * to be the anniversary of a most bsp[H fvo„ occurrence of this description jeoiarkaNe olace at Tuffnell Park, near * hicl ' ? England, in 1843. Eight labourers Wjf l'in grabbing up trees, came across BmP Containing nearly 400 sovereigns. tW ° a- del the spoil, and one of them They I -share; but soon the lord of the ,pe Mr Tuffnell, heard of it, and U,SIIOr d the whole as "treasure trove." fl : l ,T the labourers were worrying themtthlle over Mr. Tuffnell'i claims, the tel owner appeared on the scene r• [ « most extraordinary story. He ■A that pome nine months previous to T time of the find, while under a ternlß.' v mental delusion, he one night took P< "' 8 ! ia-s of sovereigns with him, and £ them in Tufnell Park. Being able rove these facts his claim was ad- '° V \\ Another of these peculiar cases of fried treasure occurred in 1820, when some bU e n on clearing out a ditch near Bristol found a number of guineas and halflinea* in a silver snuff-box. Some time f a sailor was found grubbing around !ha B pot and it turn * d out upon enquiry L t he 'had hidden his treasures before starting upon his last voyage, and had out • notch in a tree to denote the spot. The innocent sailor evidently did not have a W ryhigh opinion of the safety of the banks 0 f 70 years ago, when he had to hide his little savings in a gutter.

Intelligence has arrived of the death of the Re- George Douglas, LL.D., the blind principal of the Montreal Theological ColLie, a man who has had a moßb interesting career. He not only enjoyed the reputation of being the most eloquent Methodist divine in the Dominion, bub, owing to his remarkable history, held a peculiar place in the popular regard. He was born in Ashkirk, Roxburghshire, Scotland, in October, i«25 but left for Canada when only seven years of age, and, when still at an early age, was apprenticed to a blacksmith st Montreal. He "managed, however, by working overtime to secure a limited education at a private school, and later on he abandoned the forge for a clerkship in * book shop, where he was at last able to indulge his taste for reading, civing to that pursuit so many of the hours vhicli should have been passed in sleep that his health received injury from which it never wholly recovered. Forced on this account to give up his clerkship, he entered into partnership with his brother as carpenters and builders. Abonb this time it was discovered that the young carpenter hid a natural gift of eloquence, a palished diction unusual for his age. He joined the Methodist Church. In 1847 he went to England with the idea of attending the Wesleyan Theological College, bub upon his arrival there he was at once sent as a missionary to the Bahamas. After his ordination in 1850 he transferred his work to the Bermuda Islands. Here he remained for IS months, when feeble health compelled him to resign and seek a more bracing climate. He returned to Canada, and for 11 years occupied leading pulpits of the Methodist Church, establishing the reputation of the greatest pulpit orator of his j»nomination in Canada. At the close of hi* ministerial work he became principal of Wesleyan Theological College at MontaiL The disadvantages of his early days Bade him a hard student throughout life, »nd as the result of this perseverance he rams to bo recognised as an authority on literature, philosophy, the natural sciences, led metaphysics. In 1567 the McGill Unirersity conferred on him the degree of LL.D.

In these days, when men are being referred back by a certain class of religious teachers to the philosophical conceptions of i stationary if not an outworn civilisation, and to the ancient religious systems of India for the highest religious conceptions, it conies as a decided shock to be told by the Bombay Gazette that the existence of cannibalism in India among the revolting sect of the Aghori, is placed beyond a doubt, both by the testimony of travellers in the past, and the records of the Indian Courts of Law in more recent times. References to ancient , Sanskrit literature 'how that human flesh was sold publicly in the markets. The Aghoris, it is proved, still exist, and practice their foul rites. The astonishing thing, in the opinion of this writer, is that these ghoul) are permitted, or were until quite recently permitted, to frequent the burying phar.ts of Benares and in Naseik to levy blackms.il, which was given them lest they should devour the remains of the defunct. To them, it is said, there is no distinction between castes, or between the righteous or the unrighteous. Their "doctrine" is to reverence no one except God and the " guru," or religious teacher, to have no care in life, to sleep anywhere, to have no scruples about anything, to subdue the natural tastes by eating human Besh and all else that is human, as well as the carrion of reptiles.

It is reported that the Imperial Government have decided to retain Uganda, and -hat its affairs will be administered locally. taws from Brazil seems to show that the »ar is not yet at an end. It is announced May that the rebels at Santa Boaga exploded the citadel, killing the whole of the garrison. The Russian deficit is stated

to amount to thirteen millions. Trust in

toe brotherhood of arms id, according to j «e opinion of Kaiser William, the best friend, of Germany and Austria. A land | wmpany in Kansas has suspended with I labilities estimated at six million dollars. i fne -nine owner- and miners in NorthumI berland have formed a Conciliation Board «r the settlement of disputes, A motion j ln we House of Commons for the abolition J « mining royalties ha* been defeated by a ! »■<■& m ijority. The Home Secretary stated ! J 1 at the adoption of the proposal would weajitate the State acquiring the mines, I J" 0 " would cost one hundred and fifty Billions,