OUR LETTER HOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11824, 29 November 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR LETTER HOME.

The Parliamentary session of 1901 closed just as the last mail left, the impression left on the country being that the session was generally void. It was void in the sense that a considerable number of revolutionary Bills were dropped and a still larger number so modified as to be comparatively innoxious. It was proposed to make fire insurance not merely a State monopoly, but compulsory upon owners and occupiers at any premiums the Department saw fit to charge ; to prevent farmers combining to raise prices as workmen do to raise wages; to rate on unimproved values ; to so alter our political constitution that we should deserve the title of the Switzerland of the South and not of Brita'n ; and to interfere in a dozen diverse ways with the ordinary and everyday doings of the average citizen. Such proposals were dropped, whether they emanated from the Government or from private members. Their fate and the ./modifications made to the usual Factories Act Amending Bill showed that the colony is losing its passion for experimental legislation. Nevertheless we have placed a cumbrous and mutually unsatisfactory Accidents Compensation Act on the Statute Book—an Act which is not to be compared to the German measure and is clearly doomed to frequent and continued amendment. We have also had State coal mines authorised and provided for. Last, but not least, of important measures, our overworked members have raised their own salaries —at our expense, of course. But, as might be expected, the chief actual work of our legislators consists in amending their own handiwork. If the session has been happily barren of any j startling departure it has made the usual contribution of many minor measures, often ill-advised and always ill-digested. There seems a mania nowadays for legislation, more legislation and again legislation. Doubtless much of this is necessary and advisable, but Parliament wastes so much time and energy over objectionable and nonsensical business that it has neither time nor energy left to pass even necessary and advisable measures in reasonably satisfactory shape. Besides, the Premier's dictatorial style would in any case prevent the House from working harmoniously together for the getting into shape of even the most unanimously-desired Bill. We can see the result of this in the everlasting and unceasing stream of amending Bills which flood the session. Every Act passed now practically entails an amending Act within a session or two. Instead of improving our legislative methods we are becoming more and more slipshod every session. Even if the colony could bring itself to totally abstain from the making of new laws for a term of years it would apparently take a generation before yearly sittings of Parliament had amended to reasonable practicability the hasty and clumsy legislation of recent lustrums.

An uncomfortable feeling has been prevailing in Auckland with reference to the North Island Main Trunk railway on account of large numbers of the men having been discharged. The cause of the discharges has not, so far. been satisfactorily explained, but the idea has got abroad that the Treasury is short of cash pending the completion of the loan now on the London market, When' the last mail left General Sir Hector Macdonald was in Auckland. He -was received and welcomed on his arrival in the city by the Mayor, dined the same evening with the members of the Northern • Club, and on the following evening was entertained to a banquet by the Scotsmen of the city. He also reviewed the public school cadets and had a meeting with a number of the Highland settlers of Waipu and their descendants, who came to the city for the purpose. The General also visited Wellesley-street school, the hospital, the gaol, the Colonial Ammunition Factory, the Parnell Maori Boys' School, the Oostley Home, Cornwall Park, and other places of interest. At the Scotsmen's banquet he gave the colony some advice on the subject of defences and the training of volunteers, and during his stay in the colony he never missed an opportunity of impressing on the colonial volunteers the necessity for drastic discipline in order that the best results might ensue from their training.

Since last mail left the Australian Federal tariff has undergone some changes, to the advantage of New Zealand, notably that all New Zealand white pine entering the Commonwealth is now to be exempt from duly. Before the session of the New Zealand Parliament was prorogued authority was given to the Governor-in-Council to put an export duty on baulk timber sent from New Zealand if found necessary. This course was taken so that the export duty would only be resorted to in the event of the timber duties as contained in the Federal tariff as first brought down being adhered to. So far as white pine is concerned the necessity for the export duty has now disappeared, but the question of kauri timber, which is largely exported to Australia, has yet to be considered. The matter will be left in abeyance till the Federal Parliament has completed the revision of the new tariff.

The annual show of the Auckland Provincial Agricultural Association was held s.t Alexandra Park on November 15 and 16, and proved the most successful of recent years. The weather was favourable on both days, and on the closing day there was a record attendance, the total drawings at the gate being close on £500. Following arc the championship awards: — Draught entire: Thos. Eeid's Salisbury Yet. Draught mare: Wo. Taylor's Christina F.

! McCormick. Pedigree shorthorn bull: New Zealand Land Association's Duke of Manchester XV. Pedigree shorthorn cow: New Zealand Land Association's Larkspur V. Pedigree Ayrshire bull: Lunatic Asylum's Prince. Pedigree Jersey bull: Mr. C. Day's Sailor Boy. Pedigree Jersey cow: Mr. C. Day's Sweet Pea VI. Lincoln ram: C. J. Crago. Lincoln ewe: C. T. Barriball. Leicester ram : Matamata Estate. Leicester ewe: Matamata Estate. Shropshire Down ram : Thos. Coates. Pen of Shropshire ewes : F. W. Burnett. Romney Marsh ram: New Zealand Land Association. Eomney Marsh ewe: Woodward Brothers. Berkshire boar : H. and J. Binstead's Prince. Berkshire sow: Edwin H. Kelly. Yorkshire sow: Lunatic Asylum's Tilley. Champion butter: Miss Jenny Johnstone, Northcote.

Following the show an important agricultural conference was held in Auckland, at which Mr. J. D. Ritchie, Secretary for Agriculture, and Mr. J. A. Gilruth, chief Government veterinary surgeon, were present. Among the subjects under discussion was a proposal for the federation of all the agricultural associations of the province, on which it was resolved: —"That this conference instructs the executive of the council to take such steps as may be necessary to bring about the federation of agricultural societies, farmers' unions, farmers' clubs, and any kindred associations, fat the purpose of holding periodical conferences, to promote the interests of the agricultural section of the community." Another important discussion took place on a statement from Mr. Gilruth with regard to anthrax in New Zealand. From Mr. Gilruth's statement it appeared that cases of anthrax are rare in New Zealand, and all that have occurred have been directly traced to the use of bone manures made from imported bones. He urged the establishment of a plant for sterilising bones at each port of entry and the conference supported the suggestion, but at the same time passed a resolution urging that the Government should pay compensation to farmers who suffered loss through outbreaks of anthrax.

A series of rather severe earthquake shocks have been, experienced over a considerable portion of the South Island, but more particularly in Canterbury. The most serious shocks were felt on the morning of Saturday, November 16, when the spire of Christchurch Cathedral was shaken and considerable damage done at Cheviot, a small settlement near Christchurch. One child was killed in Cheviot and a number of settlers have been practically ruined, many buildings in the settlement being levelled to the ground.

The difficulty with reference to the erection of St. Matthew's Stone Church, Auckland, has at length been settled to the satisfaction of the parishioners. The fund for the erection of a stone church for St. Matthew's parish now amounts to over £30,000. The parishioners have been urging the erection of the church, and after some difficulty and an appeal to the Supreme Court they got the trustees of the fund to consent to calling tenders for the erection of a church according to plans prepared in England. All the tenders, however, exceeded the available funds, and the parishioners, led by the vicar (the Rev. "W. E. Gillam), requested that the church be built without the spire, and that Oamaru stone be used instead of King Country stone, so that the work could be done with the funds in hand. This the trustees opposed, and another appeal to the Supreme Court led to the Judge authorising the Building Committee to build the church without the spire, and after some further opposition on the part of the trustees the matter was satisfactorily settled by the acceptance of a tender for a church of Oamaru stone without the spire, the contract price being £24,335.

The question of the material to be used in the paving of Queen-street, Auckland, has at length been settled by the City Council accepting the tender of the Neuchatel Asphalt Company to lay the street down in asphalt for £27,492. About a third of the total cost is to be borne by the Tramway Company.

The annual summer exhibition of the Auckland Horticultural Society was held on Friday and Saturday, November 22 and 23. There was a good attendance of the public, and the takings were very satisfactory. The show was a most successful one. The champion school banner provided by the society for presentation to the school securing the greatest number of points -in six classes open to school children, went to Mount Eden school (which carried it off last year), and Remuera came second and Papatoetoe third.