Talk of the Week.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 230, 5 February 1876, Page 13

Talk of the Week.

The last Gazette contains returns of tlie number, tonnage, and crews of vessels entered inwards and outwards at the several ports of the colony during the quarter ended 31st December, 1875. From it we gather that there were entered inwards at Wellington 32 vessels, aggregating 17,272 tons, with crews numbering 516 men ; outwards, 29 vessels, aggregating 15,554 tons, with crews numbering 421 men. Comparative returns for the whole colony during the years 1575 and 1874 are also forwax-ded. These show that during 1875 there were entered inwards 926 vessels, making 416,727 tons, and having crews, 16,275 ; outwards, 940 vessels, 417,520 tonnage, 15,317 crews. During 1574 there were entered inwards 556 vessels, 399,296 tonnage, 15,924 crews ; outwards, 822 vessels, 385,533 tonnage, 14,255 crews. The return of imports and exports at the several ports of New Zealand during the quarter ended December 31, 1875, is before us. Drom it we take the following :

A comparative return of the total imports and exports of the colony for the quarter under notice, and for the corresponding quarter in 1874, gives—

A general statement of the liabilities and assets of the banks trading in New Zealand is published in the last Gazette. The total amount of liabilities is £7,207,765 12s. Id.; of assets, £11,325,946 ss. 3d. The business of the local banks is as follows :—Bank of New Zealand : Notes in circulation, £439,570 2s. Bd.; bills in circulation, £28,974 Is. 6d.; Government deposits, £1,125,075 17s. 2d.; deposits not bearing interest, £1,246,387 Os. 3d.; bearing interest, £1,145,928 6s. 6d. Its assets include coined gold and silver and other metals, £543,814 14s. 6d.; bullion, £84,602 2s. lid.; notes and bills discounted, £2,000,946 11s. 6d.; and debts due to the bank, £1,969,629 15s. 2d. The National Bank has liabilities, £773,216 19s. 2d., and assets, £1,482,163 19s. 6d.; whilst the Colonial, the latest of our local banking institutions, seems to be gathering a good business apace, having deposits not bearing interest of £154,107 10s. Id.; and bearing interest of £94,378 4s. 4d. Its note circulation is £43,296 16s. lid.; its stock of coin, £83,483 18s. 6d.; and its notes and bills discounted, £291,979 7s. Bd.; with debts due to the bank of £189,838 12s. 9d. Not long since we had an article on certain revenue returns in the New Zealand Gazette. The article commenced, “The New Zealand Gazette contains,” and this seems to have been looked on as a Godsend by the sub-editor (or ■whoever does the scissors work) of the Dunedin Evening Star, who, without reading further, accepted the whole article as a mere summary of the Gazettes contents; and, having cut it out, inserted in it the Star without acknowledgment, in order to save himself the trouble of writing a summary, and proposed, no doubt, in case of a charge of plagiarism, to aver that it was original on his part, and was merely identical with our article in that each gave the same information from the same sources. But unfortunately our article contained a good deal of comment on the Gazette returns, and also a quantity of comparative statistics not obtainable from the Go~.ettc, as the Star's sub-editor might have found had he read further than the first line. But he did not do this, and accordingly has in the first case by his shallow cunning, and in the second by his laziness, succeeded in convicting himself of as a pretty a piece of plagiarism as we have ever seen. The steamship Edinburgh, with the shore ends of the cable to connect New Zealand and Australia, has ax-rived at Sydney, as is known. The Morning Herald gives a very interesting desex-iption of the vessel and her belongings, from which it appears that the portion of the New Zealand cable which she has on board is comparatively short, only 240 miles. The remainder is on board the Hibernia steamship, a much larger vessel, which left England the same day on which the St. Osyth left, and which may therefore be expected in Sydney in a week or two. The laying of the cable will not commence until the Hibernia arrives. The paying-oxxt of the cable will then be proceeded with without loss of time, and will occupy under favorable circumstances about a foi-t------night or three weeks at the outside. We may thei-efox-e expect to be in telegraphic communication with Australia within about two months, or less, of the present time. The steamer is a finely built, well appointed vessel of about 1800 tons ; is upwards of 300 ft. in length, and about 45ft. width of beam. She appeal's to be in every way well fitted for cable-laying, in which work she has been employed for tlie last five or six yeai-s. One of the most recent cables she lias laid is the one which connects Lisbon with Pernambuco. She

is fitted up with machinery specially designed for cable-laying. The cable lies in a huge iron tank in the hold amidships ; and as it is paid out it traverses a series of ponderous wheels or sheaves worked by steam, the last wheels being at the stern of the vessel. At the bow is a powerful trunk engine of 65 horse-power, with powerful breaks and fittings for worldng the picking-up gear. Paying-out is easy enough, so long as the cable does not get a twist in it ; but picking-up is a much more tedious operation. The wire rope used in picking-up will bear a strain of from 20 to 25 tons. One of the cabins under the hurricane deck is fitted up with most delicate and beautiful electrical instruments, which are used for testing the cable as it is paid out, for the discovery of faults, and for testing the strength of the current. At any moment communication may be had with the shore, and messages are frequently transmitted with the view of testing the cable. This is one of the most delicate operations in connection with telegraphy, as the reading of a message is obtained by closely watching the movements of a small streak of light on a dark ground—the reflection from the marine galvanometer. In ordiuary land telegraphing the reading is obtained by sound, or by long and short dottings on a paper, each set of dots representing a letter of the alphabet. But the current of a cable is too weak to permit of such an operation, and the utmost that can be obtained is the movement of what most people would call a faint electric light on a specially prepared disc. As might be expected on a vessel engaged in such work, with a number of scientists on board, everything is in the most perfect order on the deck. There are several huge buoys for use in rough weather. If a gale comes on while the cable is being paid out, these buoys, by a simple arrangement are cast overboard, with the cable cut and made fast to them. The ship beats about until the storm has subsided, when she again seeks the buoys, which may be seen at a distance of ten miles, and joins the cable again, and proceeds with the laying. The Eastern Extension Telegraph Company lay the cable, receiving a subsidy from the Governments of New South Wales and this colony. The officers connected with the ship are Mr. J. C. Daws, chief electrician, with the following staff of electricians : Messrs. H. C. Donovan, T. Clark, E. Stringer, W. Granville ; and E. R. Lucas, in charge of the engineering department, with the following staff :—Messrs. E. Piddle, H. W. Walter, and J. Sherwin. The cable will connect at Botany Bay, New South Wales, and at Blind Bay, about six miles south of Nelson, New Zealand. The Melbourne Argus notices that an interesting proof of the way in which public opinion in England is being gradually leavened by ideas and principles derived from the colonies is furnished by the publication, in Birmingham, of a pamphlet written by the Eev. T. H. Gregg, vicar of East Harborne, and warmly praised by Mr. John Bright, recommending the disestablishment of the Church of England. Mr. Gregg seems to have been influenced in the course he has adopted by a visit which he paid to New Zealand, where he saw something of the wox-king of a non-established church ; and he adduces a powerful array of arguments in favor of the complete dissociation of ecclesiastical from political authority in the mother country. He asserts that the institution to which he belongs is behind the religious thought of the age, and is not in sympathy with the times we live in. She is dying of a Chronic disease, he says ; and that disease is dignity. Her cathedral establishments, instead of being centres of spiritual life, are more frequently centres of mere fashionable respectability. Her bishops are very much given to nepotism; and those among the clergy who receive the most pay do the least work for it. She is not only rent asunder by internal divisions, but has become a sort of recruiting ground for the Church of Rome. She has succeeded in alienating from herself the affections of the people, and it is only by disestablishment that she can be reformed and remodelled. Mr. Gregg quotes what the Bishop of Peterborough said the other day, in his pastoral charge, about the "scandalous evils" and "notorious abuses," which are not only connived at but encouraged by the Church's laAvs; and declares that she is no more likely to reform herself to suit the times, than the Church of Pome was to suit the principles advocated by Luther. Sentiments like these are by no means new ; but the novelty of the thing is to find them put forth in a pamphlet by a beneficed clergyman of the Church of England ; while another minister of the same body, the Rev. H. J. Alcock, M.A., tells a public meeting in London that " there is no class in which are to be found so many robbers of God as amongst the patrons of the establishment —including peers, prelates, and commoners." It must rather startle the Church to discover that " her enemies are those of her own household." It is quite evident that some newspapers at least in Otago are aware of what an unholy alliance Sir George Grey and Mr. Macandrew would seek to effect. The Bruce Herald of the 25th January, in a forcible leader, says : Some of the members of the "noble band" that fought against the passing of the Abolition of Provinces Act during the last session of Parliament, can scarcely be complimented upon the consistency of their public utterances. We have upon several occasions compared the tall talk indulged in by several of the provincialists while Parliament was in session, with the humble-pie they felt called upon to eat when before their constituents for re-election, but as an out-and-out " trimmer," Mr. John Sheehan has not his equal even in this land of vacillating politicians. Residents of this district will remember when that great political planet, Sir George Grey, made his appearance in the South, Mr. Sheehan was one _ of his attendant satellites, and announced himself as a preacher of the " political gospel" that was to lead the electors of the South Island to everlasting bliss. At the

Thomson banquet, in the presence of his venerable leader, Mr. Sheehan warmed to the work he had to do, and declared himself a provincialist to the backbone and spinal marrow. " Let us keep up our form of Provincial Government," said he, " and by curtailing the powers of the General Assembly, give the people of New Zealand the fullest power of local self-government." Mr. Sheehan went on to say that " he would be found in the struggle that was to come taking the same stand he had done in the past, for he was a provincialist," and the expression of this determination was received with rapturous applause. He then told them that " he thought if the powers of the provinces were properly exercised and dealt with, there was never a time when they could be better used in the development of the resources of the country than the present." He denied that provincial institutions were obsolete and effete, and was quite sure that nine-tenths of the native-born popidation would vote for their maintenance. How delightful to hear this young lawyer, a native of the colony too, expressing these patriotic sentiments, and how touching to see the honest settlers of the Clutha looking up ! to him as one who was politically inspired ! What must be their grief, now that their idol has been broken, to find that his feet are only of clay. Mr. Sheehan is possessed of a versatility that would make him the envy of a Yankee " carpetbagger," and appears to be able to come out with a policy to exactly suit any meeting he may have to address. A few days ago, before his election for Rodney, he addressed a meeting at a place called Mahurangi, and there said "he would tell them that any attempt to resuscitate the provinces was impossible. He was prepared, at all hazards, to hold to the unity of the colony, and the land revenue of the colony ought to be the common revenue of the colony." So, after all, this man who was feted by the provincialists of Dunedin and the Clutha —by the very men whose great fear is that our land fund will be made common property—is not a provincialist, but is one of the horde of Northern robbers who wish to seize upon a portion of our land revenue whether we will or not. T© quote from the report of the meeting, contained in the Southern Cross —" Mr. A. Cruickshank asked : Is Mr. Sheehan going in for one united colony ?—Mr. Sheehan : Provincialism is a thing of the past. He was a supporter of a united colony.—Mr. Gubb : Will you vote for the repeal of the Abolition Bill?—Mr. Sheehan : Certainly not ; the provinces are gone." What are we to think of the newlyelected member for Rodney after this. Is his word worth anything ; are not his political opinions as unstable as water ; and shall we not regard him as a fair representative of the body of men with whom he identified himself during the last session of Parliament ? There are many men of the John Sheehan type in the new Parliament; but it is a fortunate thing for New Zealand that their influence will not be felt amongst the large majority who have determined to bring about a better state of political affairs in the country than Ave have enjoyed for years past. We have been told upon several occasions that our Provincial Councils are worth all they cost, simply regarded, as training schools for young politicians. Mr. Sheehan received provincial training ; but we think that the sooner he and the institutions that enable men of his stanm to come to the front are relegated to oblivion the better. Mr. J. M. Perrier has requested us to give insertion to the following letters and enclosures : Wellington, January 31, 187 G. Ma. J. H. Shaw, Esq., Solicitor. Sib, — Re Perrier. —We have to acknowledge receipt of your letter of to-day's date, demanding an apology on behalf of Mr. Perrier, for certain remarks affecting his character which appeared in Saturday's Argus. Prior to receipt of your letter, a telegram from Mr. Darrell, addressed to Mr. Gillon, had been received, and it had at once been determined by us to publish Mr. Darrell's telegram, and to express our regret that the paragraph in question (which was not written by any member of our firm, and found admission without due editorial supervision) should have been published. "We enclose you a proof copy of what was in course of being set when your letter came to hand, and trust it will prove satisfactory to Mr. Perrier. We have added to it an intimation of the receipt of your '.etter.—We are, &c, Gillon, Kent, anb Waters. Following is the proof referred to : —" We regret that in our issue of Saturday evening a paragraph was inadvertently inserted reflecting on the professional character of Mr. J. M. Perrier, of the New Zealand Times. The pai'agraph in question, under a thin disguise, made charges which Mr. Perrier not unnaturally regards as injurious to him as a newspaper writer, and as we have reason to know such charges to be uttei-ly groundless, we have no hesitation in withdrawing them, and expressing regret that the paragraph in question should have been written by any member of our staff, or by an oversight have obtained admission into our columns. Our attention was first specially directed to it by receipt of the following telegram from Mr. Darrell: — ' Napier, January 13. Perrier telegraphs Argus accuses him demanding money from me for notices. Must be grave mistake. No foundation. Please rectify. George Darrell.' With Mr. Darrell's request we at once resolved to comply, as a simple matter of justice to Mr. Perrier." In respect to this Mr. Perrier writes :—"After the very frank and ample apology which the editor and proprietoi-3 of the Argus have promptly made, it is unnecessary for me to say that I accept such apology in the spirit which dictated its insertion. I am not ignorant that at times the conductors of newspapers are forced to employ people who take advantage of the trust reposed in them to indulge a private spite, and to prejudice their employers' interest by procuring the insertion of libellous paragraphs, which none more sincerely regret than those who are in law responsible for them. Having always and in many matters experienced the utmost courtesy from the editor and proprietors of the Argus, I am not inclined to permit an accidental injury, so quickly and completely atoned for, to rupture the terms of professional

friendship which, I am happy to say, have hitherto prevailed between us. In justiee to myself I may notice in connection with this affair, now that a stoppage of law proceedings releases my pen, that I have asked but two favors of theatrical managers since my ai-rival in Wellington. Each was asked on an occasion when I gave my services in assistance to those of the dramatic company, and fretted and strutted an hour upon the stage. The favor both times consisted of a request for a free admission for one person. In the first case, as Mr. Hillsden, of the Theatre Royal, remembers, the free admission was asked for a Mr. George Eisher, then a member of the Hansard staff, and now, I understand, a reporter on the Evening Ai'gus. I may add, as a matter of fact, that for months I have not written a line concerning theatres or theatrical affairs." It is pleasing to be able to note the success of the experiment of introducing salmon into Tasmanian waters. The ova were brought out from England at great expense, but for eight or nine years scarcely a sign of a salmon has been seen, and the pi'omoters of the scheme have come in for a fair share of abuse. However, all doubts on the subject now seem to be at rest, for, says the Launceston Examiner, " Mr. Morton Allport states that on the night of the 6th January six dozen and four fish, varying in weight from fib. to each, and which undoubtedly belong to one of the migratory species of salmon introduced to this colony, were caught at one haul of the seine net in Sandy Bay. He says he had again and again given his reasons for believing that similar fish belonged to the species salmo saler, or true salmon ; and to the angler or consumer the importance of the capture was equally great—whether the fish are salmon or salmon trout, and, as a matter of fact, the difference in quality between the two species was so slight that numbers of salmon trout are constantly sold in the English markets as salmon." In another letter he states " the fish must be salmon." In a later issue,the same journal saysi —"The wholesale catches of young salmon by means of seine nets in the Derwent are needed to be checked. Expectation has so long been excited on the subject that it is not, perhaps, to be wondered at that the veritable ' finds' already reported should have caused a, furore among the natives. From a letter received yesterday from Mr. Morton Allport, we understand that eighteen more young fish were brought in on Thursday morning, making the total about 150 fish." The Government have since issued regulations against netting. The Auckland Regatta people, as will be seen by our telegrams, have acted rather unfairly to the Thames crew. It being somewhat rough weather, and advantageous to the Thames boat, the race was postponed. The Thames people will unfavorably contrast the Auckland treatment with that received at Wellington. Here, it is true, one boat took an advantage of an error in laying out the course ; but that was not the winning boat, and the Thames crew were beaten for the championship fairly on their merits. In connection with this, it is curious that in Otago they now discover that we have an advantage in Wellington in the excessive calmness of our weather. Up to this time we always understood from the Otago papers that Wellington was the home of storms, but now lo and behold a writer in the Otago Daily Times, says that the Southerners lost because " at Wellington and other places men have more opportunities of practising in good rowing boats than we can hope to get here. Moreover, their climate allows them to build and use rowing boats which here might all be sunk on a regatta day. People who are fond of sneering at our rowing men seldom think of these difficulties." The only thingthat can be said about this is that whether Wellington weather is unsettled or not, opinions about it change around a good deal. We have no desire to offend any one. We are certain no one is to blame for the state of things to which we desire to draw attention, and therefore all that we intend to ask for is a little reform. Some one is putting down road metal in Willis-street that would not be fit for a track frequented by iron-shod elephants drawing 80-ton guns. It is too rough and illassorted even for the heaviest drays. It strikes terror into omnibus drivers. Even butcher boys pause in their wild career when they approach it, and private carriages have to go to the coachmakers for repairs every time they pass over it. It fetches that stout reformer, Mr. Moody, to his shop-door daily, to address offhand meetings of a brace of citizens on its horrid state. The urbane and gentlemanly writei's for this journal find themselves saying nasty things as they walk over it in crossing the street, and forgetting the esteem and respect in which they hold the Mayor and City Council. Is there no remedy for this state of things ? The arrival of Sir Julius Vogel, the fate of the Ministry, Sir George Grey and posterity, the new form of government for the colony, all these things sink into insignificance before so confounded a nuisance. No one is to blame, as we said, but cannot somebody do something? Smash the heads of his Worship the Mayor and the Councillors, and put then* down in place of the metal that is so objectionable. Mixed as is their nature, they would yet possess a uniformity of dulness preferable to the porcupine sharpness of the pieces of road metal so plentifully distributed along Willis-street. Our November files (says the Melbourne Argus) give us information in abundance of what we may call the municipal gas movement in England. In all parts of the mother country there appears to be a growing desire to charge the local governing body with the work of lighting the district, and arrangements to buy up private companies are rapidly proceeding. Thus we are told that the Town Council of Exeter have instructed the town clerk to open preliminary negotiations with the local gas companies. At St. Helen's, the Town

Council is in treaty with the companies, and a satisfactory issue is expected. The lown Council of Longton have made their first application to the local government board for an advance, to enable them to purchase the property of the district gas companies. The local authorities of Llandudno are preparing to take over both the gas and water supply of that favourite and beautiful place. The Liverpool Town Council have appointed a o-as committee, which has brought up a report, pointing out " that the profit derived by the Liverpool Gas Company for the present year was £69,000, while the profit derived by the Manchester Corporation from their gasworks, with a charge of 7d. per 1000 feet less, was actually £37,000 in excess of that made by the Liverpool company." In the same connection, it may be mentioned that the Town Council of Aberdeen, which has possession of corporate gasworks, has reduced the price 2d. per 1000 feet for the year, and still sees its way to a handsome surplus. It has made a cood coal contract ; the consumers get the benefit at once. The ratepayers of Ramsgate, at a town's meeting, have sanctioned the proposal of the local board to promote a measure for the compulsory purchase of the Isle of Thanet Gas Company, and also of the Ramsgate Waterworks, and the progress of the Bill will be watched with interest by all the corporations and all the companies, for it is the first really compulsory proposal yet put forward. At Ramsgate the charge for gas is only 4s. per 1000 feet, but still the citizens consider it expedient that such necessaries as light and water should be in their own hands. There is no need of a compulsory measure in Melbourne. The Acts under which our local gas companies are constituted contain clauses allowing the civic authorities to purchase, and the way is clear before lis whenever we wish to follow English precedent.

Imports. Exports. Auckland .. £295,821 £178,854 Wellington 290,240 79,473 Lyttelton 302,215 104,990 Dunedin 078,133 302,972

Imports. Exports. 1875 £1,S83,65G £1,039,105 1S74 .. .. 1,859,899 773,181 Comparative returns for the years 1875 and 1S74 ffive— Imports. Exports. 1875 £8,029,172 £5,828,627 1874 8,121,812 5,251,269.