WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9496, 27 April 1894, Page 5

WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES.

[by telegraph.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Thursday. LOAN OR NO LOAN. Mr. John Plimmer is now the most venerablo of the old identities of Wellington. He is an octogenarian. His name figures among the " half dozen" whose owners projected and carried to completion the Manawatu Railway Company. He compassionates the position of the unemployed. " The Government can gain," he says, "and rightly the blessings of thousands that are at the brink of starvation instead of curses, for starving men will curse or do worse if they are not relieved." His remedy, however, is a loan. He says in a letter to the Times this morning :—" The fact is there is such a scarcity of money in New Zealand at the present time that though there is work for tens of thousands of men those that have work to do have not the money to pay for it, and the labour that is wasted is a disgrace to our humanity. It is simply this, and it is no use in trying to hide it. The Government is to blame in this matter. We ought to be the most prosperous people in the world, and instead of going ahead, we are retrograding. The people of the colony have by a large majority elected a Liberal Government to manage the estate of the people, having full confidence in them that they are true, strong, and wise men in tho right place. On the faith of this hundreds of men have come to the colony expecting to find work, and are disappointed. I still have faith in the honest intentions of the Government, but their intentions are no good except they have the courage to carry them out and go the right way to it." NATIVE LANDS TITLE VALIDATION COURT.

The question relating to the delay in holding the sittings of this newly constituted Court has beoome, like others, just now a very vexed question indeed. The Ministerial journal this morning winds up the controversy arising out of the learned Judge's remarks on the subject as follows :—"The Court, moreover, cannot meet before May, the day of the meeting having been fixed by Judge Barton himself. , As. to the regulations, so far from being returned unaltered by the officers, they were much altered, some being struck out and others amended, while some few, which are doubtful, were passed as nob likely to nffect important points. Judge Barton knew when he made his attack from the Bench that the Premier and Mr. Carroll were within 40 miles of Gisborne and en route for that place, and it is not seemly that the Premier should have heard on his arrival at Gisborne from the local press, for the first time, of these demands, which had never been made either to him or his depart We have a shrewd suspicion that if certain other matters had gone smoothly, the public would not have been troubled with this curious controversy." THE MASONIC INSTALLATION. An episode occurred at the installation of Mr. H. U. Bell as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New Zealand which is deserving of a record. Being a sort of *' aside'' during the speech of the new Grand Master it might be missed, lb is of a " national," not " political" import. Turning to Mr. Malcolm Niccol, of Auckland, the retiring Grand Muster, both gentlemen having been born in the colony, the newly-installed Grand Master, said:—" Like yourself lam a native of New Zealand. My patriotism begins, though it does nob e%id in this country. Like yourself I know we are are capable of governing ourselves whether within or without the walls of the lodge, and like yourself I desire that every cooperation with the Mother Country should be encouraged." UNEMPLOYED. Since yesterday 85 men had applied at the Bureau for work, 40 single and 45 married men. Twelve men are selected for the ICketahuna Woodville Railway, 10 go to the Pemberton Bush farms, 10 to Alfredtown, 32 men go to the Otago State farms, and 30 to the Catlin River works. PERSONAL. Lieutenant Goring and the two now Professors of the Auckland University College (arrived by the Aorangi) go to Auckland to-morrow. Mr. W. J. Morpeth, Registrar of the Native Land Court at Auckland, resigns his position, through ill health, and returns to reside in Wellington. Judge J. Wilson, of the Native Land Court, suoceeds him. WELLINGTON LAND BOARD. At the ordinary meeting, held to-day, the expected communication from the Secretary of Lands was read. It was in effect that the village homestead sections were not within the jurisdiction of the Land Board. The Minister of Lands had expressed agreement with the Under-Secre-tary's view. The Commissioner said these sections could only be dealt with by the Commissioner of Lands. Mr. I'irani, &LH. K.| dissented from the view taken by the Under-Secretary. Mr. Hogg, M.H.R., said it was a cruel thing to treat settlers as these men had been treated. He wished bo know whether the Under Secretary, or the Beard were to administer theso lands. He was sorry that the Parliament wan nob sitting, or this matter should be before the House. The whole thing was most unfair to struggling settlers. He could not believe that the Minister was cognisant with all the circumstances, but the Board was not going down on its knees to Mr. McKenzie and the Under-Secretary. Mr. Piraoi moved, seconded by Mr. Hogg, and it was carried "that this Board does not consider the judgment referred to in th« secretary's letter (Gormley v. Mclntyre) affects the rights given to the Board by the Lands Act, 1892, passed subsequently to the gazetting of the regulations of Ist September, 1886." WELLINGTON SPECIAL SKTTMSMKNT. Mr. Hogg, M.H. li., said at the Land Board today that it did not redound to the creriit of Minister of Lands that he had refused land in the Tewawa Block to deserving settlers. These men (the Te Aro settlers), had been cruelly deceived. Ho affirmed that the Government, has practically got the land although ib might be some time before they were in actual possession. Such treatment was really discreditable.