Talk of the Week.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 241, 1 July 1876, Page 14

Talk of the Week.

The number of passengers who arrived at the port of Wellington by sea during the past week Was 318. Of these 126 came from ports in the North Island, 187 from the South Island, and five from Australia. The total tonnage of all the vessels arriving at the port of Wellington, coastwise, during the past week, was 5276 tons. 4854 tons of this amount was contributed by steamers. Eight sailing vessels entered, and nine steamers. One vessel, with a carrying capacity of 481 tons, arrived here from Austi'alia. Sixteen vessels cleared outwards at the Customs for ports in New Zealand. Ten of these were steamers, whose tonnage combined amounted to 5232 tons. The remaining six were sailing vessels, with a carrying capacity of 353 tons.

The question of erecting new public buildings in Christchurch cropped up in the House of Representatives on Thursday, and members from all parts of the colony took the opportunity of drawing attention to the wants of theix* disti’icts. Mr. Pearce did not forget Wellington, and for the first time the condition of the Resident Magistrate’s Courthouse and the Postoffice was brought under the attention of the House. Pie described the tumbledown postoffice most graphically, especially the little box, 3ft. square, around which people crowd on mail days to obtain registered letters. In reference to the Resident Magistrate s Court, Mr. Pearce spoke in strong tei-ms, and said he was sure, ..if any Minister of the Crown had been inside it, he would not have, failed to urge his colleagues to do away with such a dingy hole. It is to be hoped Mr. Pearce s appeal will not be useless.

The debate on Wednesday upon the constitution of the Finance Committee was the most absurd of the absurd discussions of the present session. The Opposition speakers attempted to give no direct reason whatever why Mr. Rees should be placed on the committee, but seemed to wish to convey that he was an eminent financier, as proved by the pamphlet he issued some time since. The Government and its suppoi'ters had no occasion to refer to the chai’acter of the pamphlet. Even some of the Opposition speakers said the pamphlet was the most arrant rubbish, and that the writer had displayed such ignorance, even of elementary principles of finance, that no sensible man could wade through his production. The result of the division was to place. Mr. Rees in a lower position than the exceedingly low position he has hitherto occupied in the House. His merits as a politician were discussed by the whole House —a circumstance the peculiarity of which is only equalled by its rarity—and by a large majority the House twice recorded its opinion that he had no qualifications for a committeeman. It would be interesting to know how much more time is to be wasted in purposeless discussion.

We observe that the question of the conservation of forests is attracting attention in the other colonies. The Melbourne Argus of a recent date has a strong leader on the subject, calling’ attention to the fact that in Victoria the destruction of timber has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished. The magnificent forests of Gipps Hand, upon which Melbourne may, before long, have to depend for a supply of timber, are being ruthlessly destroyed, and only those who have travelled through the country can form any conception of the magnitude and recklessness of the means employed for their destruction. The Argus continues: —“We may therefore say, that all over the colony the utmost efforts are being used to denude the country of timber, whilst the recuperative work may be set down at just nothing at all. For many years there has been much talk about the wickedness and folly of what is being done ; bxit it is a fact beyond dispute, that there is no more chanee of a remedy now than there was five or six years ago.” This is not the first time the matter has been mooted in Victoria, for previous Ministers have promised to inquire into the feasibleness of forest protection, but nothing has been done, and in the meantime the New Zealand Government has taken active steps towards establishing a system. There have not been wanting people to sneer at the proposal, and it is satisfactory to note that the Government is not to be put cff its purpose by the opposition of a few.”

A little matter claims the bi'iefest attention. Mr. Robert Stout, M.H.R., on Thursday said something in the House which was understood to have reference to the New Zealand Times, and by which the fairness of our reports was questioned. A word will explain matters. Our Parliamentary reports this session have been less extensive than they were last session. East session, in order that neither party in Parliament might have cause for complaint, we reported the debates very fully, and in consequence printed a very large amount of nonsense. It was this, we presume, that caused Sir George Grey on more than one occasion to compliment a member of oui' staff on what he was pleased to term the fairness and accuracy of our reports, and it was this, perhaps, that made him shortly afterwards in Auckland insult us and the Press Agency by classing both as unfair and under Government influence. This session it was determined that the reports of the debates in Parliament should, in the New Zealand Times (so far as speeches were concerned), be confined to records of what was said pei’tinent to the matter under discussion. Now it unfortunately happens that whilst Ministerialists have not refrained on more than one occasion from talking trash, some members of the Opposition, and notably Mi'. Stout, have overflowed with nonsense and “ stood in the slops. Consequently it is possible that, length for length, there has been more space taken up in our

reports by Ministerialists than by Oppositionists. We do not admit at the moment that such is the case, but it may be so. Should it be the case, Mr. Stout and others have an easy remedy within their l’eaeh. Eet them learn to talk less frequently than they do, and let them earnestly endeavor to talk sense, ffhe Ministerialists may not be so wise, and then the Opposition may obtain the apparently coveted distinction of occupying a little more space in the New Zealand Times.

Str Julius Vogel intimated on Tuesday that he would make his financial statement on Tuesevening next, and added that had it not been for the delay in consequence of the Piako Swamp motion he should have made it befoi'e.

A scene which occurred in the House on Thursday is not even referred to in our summary of Parliamentary proceedings, and the. suppression is not the result of any desire to screen him who disgraced himself, Mi'. Reader Wood, but because it would be sad indeed that the representative institutions of the colony should be dragged through the mud for the sake of exposing the indecency of a man who is not possessed of the ordinary feelings of honor and has no regard for the understood rules which govern the amenities of public life. Unfortunately, personality has tinged to a greater or lesser extent, it mig'ht be said, every speech during the session; but; nothing this session, or in any Parliament, has approached the low vulgarity of Mr. Reader Wood last evening. The Speaker might well interfere and the House cry “ shame.” If the member has any regard for his reputation as .a (we were going to say gentleman) public man, he will take steps to place on the records of the House an apology for his offence.

The Wellington correspondent of the Otago Daily Times must own a master in his craft. The Dunedin Evening Star has taken to itself a Wellington correspondent, who, doubtless, jealous lest he should be beaten by the Times correspondent, actually tops the infinite of untruth with a calmness that would do credit to his rival, and with an ease alongside which the best efforts of the latter are but clumsy concoctions. Thus in a late letter he devotes a quarter of a column to a diatribe on Detective Farrell, and says that Farrell was not justified in arresting the man Nicholson, whose case is fresh in everyone’s memory here. He gives an account of the matter as ingenious as it is innaccurate, which we shall not quote; but we may point out to the Dunedin Star what the exact circumstances were. A coat was stolen from a shop. Detective Farrell found the coat in the possession of a man who refused to give a proper account of how it came into his possession, and the detective arrested him. With the after circumstances ofj the case Farrell had nothing to do, but that he acted up to his duty in arresting the man, our Dunedin contemporary will find from any law authority, and notably from the “ Manual of Police Regulations” published for the guidance of the Constabulary Force of Otago, which distinctly says that if a constable suspects a person to have committed a felony, he shall arrest him, and if he have reasonable grounds for his suspicion, he will be justified, even though (as in the very case under notice) it should afterwards appear that no felony was committed. There may be two opinions as to the subsequent punishment of Nicholson for a crime of which it seemed that he was guiltless ; but there can be none as to the justice af his arrest, seeing that he was found with the stolen property in his possession only a few hours after it had been missed, and that he would give no proper account of how he got it. Of these circumstances the correspondent in the Star must be fully aware ; and he should not have so mistaken them as to have perhaps injured an officer unable to defend himself in a newspaper.