NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10409, 6 April 1897, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The issuing of summonses against sereill ' ' Maoris at Kaikohe, Bay of Islandi, for i . breach of the Cemeteries Act by carrying out i?\ A an ancient Maori custom, must surely be th| : . unauthorised act of some officious constable! >';. From the earliest times the Maoris hav< %:■• practised peculiar burial rites. No race ; exceeds them in respect for the reV|v ; mains of the dead. Iu this respect f>V if they are far more scrupulous than any' European people. When a native of anjj '. consequence died, the body was put in v.' sitting posture, the hair was dressed witji . ■ albatross feathers, and . the ,faqe ytuiu smeared with oil and red ochre. The body ! ■ was wrapped in a mat. It was placed on i v stage, or temporarily interred. After some time, generally about a year or eighteen!; I.'1 .' I months, the remains were taken up.thf !~'-| bones scraped clean, and deposited in thi :-':•■ ; recess of some cave. This was tylfod thp '■} ] hahunga. The custom is failing into;.' disuse, as many natives are nowburied in European cemeteries, in the V ■ European fashion. Bub where it u still carried on, there is surely no need to <■, i interfere with it. The clause in the Ceme- ; teries Act under which action is now taken was passed to prevent desecration and need' i| ; ; ; less interference with the remains of thei-i' dead. Bns with the Maoris there was' nothing approaching to desecration in the | V ceremonial of the hahunga, It was one of they' '. most solemn duties of a Maori to the bodies • ■; '| of his relatives who had gone before to thi ■ ■ fi world of spirits. ' fi

The Premier of New Zealand (remark* the Sydney Morning Herald) has made one important observation during his travels in Australia, and he has announced that wheii he visits England he will have important reforms to suggest in the management of the sea-borne colonial traffic. What seems to have staggered Mr. Seddon is the fact that New Zealand is not the centre of the Australasian trade. He haa discovered that there are great steamship lines which call at the Australian ports and have their terminus in Sydney. It is natural thai he should be both indignant and prophetic. Until the last election in New Zealand, 11 r. Seddon was alway9 sure that he could carry matters in hie own way, and that he had only to pass an enactment to regulate everything, from the errands of a message boy to the work of» bank manager. Some of the old jauntiness clings to him still. Having suddenly die- ' covered that Australia has a large com' merce, he calmly suggests thab the head- ■ quarters of this extensive trade should be in; New Zealand. With that prophetic viriotf ' which has often daunted his followers W brought them into obedience, he profeasei , to foresee the time when ths great Auett*' ■ lian liners will touch at Sydney as a way aide port arid awing to : feheir anchorages i» the harbours of New Zealand. The accomplishment of this object is the principal cause that decides Mr. Seddon to make» trip to London. He U convinced that he has only to describe the enormous care that is takon in New Zealand concerning busi< 1)638 men, especially in the matter of taxation, in order to make his colony the centre of shipping in the Southern eeas.

It is to be hoped, continues our Sydnej contemporary, that iJr. Seddon will travel widely in Europe and America. He is evidently one of those interesting touriati who think that thoir own little village can supply better facilities for trade than the great industrial and commercial citiee ol the world, and the self-complacency ot sueli men is always amusing. At the same time the Premier of New Zealand would earn more respect) in other countriea if he were occasionally accurate in bis facts. He asserts, for example, that) the liners lie idle in Sydney fora month, and be thinks that this time might be filled by a - trip to New Zealand. Anyone who has read the shipping reports knows that there is not this amount of idleness, and that the owners of the large liners are always anxious to save time, both in Sydney and London. If the vessels were despatched to Auckland, they would have no time, as the saying is, to turn round. But even this isnot the worst. Were an Anglo-Australian liner tooallatone New Zealand port, ib would have to pay a visit to all of them. .'. If it only touched ab Auckland, the people of Wellington and Dunedin would COP . ,

pliia, *nd the ebips would probably be jxMc'ted to dodge round the New Zealand auk It >' notl ' ike ' y, however > that Mr ««idon will induce the mail companies to tend their baeinese to his colony. They ■ ioder contract) to the Australian Go»ernmente, who pay part of their eubiiilv, and they are not likely to disorganise their serrice for the mere sake of showing lindnete to a colony that pays them jotting.

Farther fighting has occurred in Crete B okirithßtantlinß the decree of the Powers U promulgated by their admirals. On this occasion the Moslems appear to have been the aggressors, am ' t '-' e London Times egrets that the admirals had not the jourege to show their impartiality by firing upon them. Mr. Curzon, in the couree of a ipeecb in the provinces, said, as we remarked yesterday, that if Greece forced gn war it would be the most wanton w d wicked act that could bo conceived. However, he believed that the concert of the Powers would prevent such , citastrophe. The Austrian Emperor Ijii declined to accept Count Badeni'e Kiignation. Russia is raising a loan o f nine millions for railway construction. She will no doubt get the money from France. Some sensational but groundas statements have been made in the French Chamber of Deputies by a memjer respecting the intrigues of Britain in Siatn and Madagascar. The worst ,[ it is that, although idiotically ftbe, they are sure to be implicitly believed in by a large section of the French people. Butler has, it is said confessed to the murder of Preston, but illcges that he killed him in self-defence. Mr. Rhodes has left England for the Cape -without serving a term of imprisonment. Wβ give to-day particulars of the OxfordCambridge boat-race. The Dark Blues iron easily. Affairs in the Transvaal lie eaid to be in a very alarming condition. The Africander Party at the Cape have warned President Kruger that be cannot rely upon them for help. It is believed that but for the Queen's deeiro to bare her diamond jubilee celebrated in peace twenty thousand British troops would be sent to the Transvaal.