Notes.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1056, 26 May 1892, Page 30

Notes.

Ifc is not quite correct that the whole of the evidence given before the Polhill Gully Commission was given before the Public Accounts Committee la-t session. The Committee had no expert evidence before it as to the suitability of the site for a range, and none about the amount paid to the Native owners for their lands. It was not therefore possible for that Committee to make as complete a report as the report made by the Commission.

Perhaps that is the reason why one of onr contemporaries published the report, while declaring in the same issue that its columns had already published everything.

It certainly is not the reason why the Public Accounts Committee did not make a report. Though it c ;uld not cover the whole ground as the Commission has done, the Committee was quit 9 prepared to publish a report. It instructed its Chairman to prepare a draft report, and the Chairman, having obeyed that instruction, submitted a draft report. At this stage business was obstructed by leading members of the Opposition, and so much time was lost that the Committee was unable to consider the report before the session closed. Ihat is the reason why the appointment of a Royal Commission became necessary. But for the reference of the znatter to the Commission, the story of this unpleasant episode would never have been written.

V7heu we said that ‘ the story having been written would nob easily be forgotten, except by those who object to Royal Commissions on principle,’ we were not quite correct. These are the very people who display a desire not to forget the story. They are actually using it to whitewash their friends. According to them, the report exonerates everybody ; everything has been proved to he exactly as it ought to be ; everything was perfectly right and proper. That reminds us that these gentlemen are always calling themselves Liberals. They think it right, in fact, for Governments to pay such liberal prices for things that those supplying them may make not less than LIIGS out of every L2IOO of the public money. True Liberalism consists in being liberal with the country’s coin, and if your friends get the advantage of that enlightened policy, why then, thank Heaven that you have enabled tbern to combine principle and profit. Beside this view of Liberalism, the extreme rectitude of all the other points sinks into insignificance. They may not make the right way to purchase property for individuals, but there is no doubt that is the right way to buy property for the Government. Pay through the nose for everything you can never hope to make any use of. Of course, that is the essence of good administration. It is the sort of administration the country is invited to put into the place of the Administration which has had the bad taste to object to the [only right and proper method of doing business. As the Op : position critics have all along said consistent men t—the Government is not Liberal enough for them. We draw attention to the memorial presented to Mr Seddon by the miners at Skippers. We notice that these dissatisfied petitioners live within the boundaries of the district represented by Mr Fergus. We have come across some pungent verses which a writer in the London Star has been Inspired to write by certain diatribes in which Lord Salisbury prophesied the flight from Great Britain of all the capital there, alarmed by the eight hours agitation. They will do passibly for the New Zealand croakers, to whom we beg to present them, leaving them to make the necessary alterations —a task to which their ingenuity is, we believe, nearly equal. We shall send the Mines and Farms to Amsterdam, The Houses and the Railways to Peru, The Trams will go to Russia, The Waterworks to Prussia, The Army and the Navy to Vitu. We shall ship the site of London off to France, The Factories and Castles to Japan, The Moors to far Gibraltar, The Mountains off to Malta, The Lakes, Canals and Rivers were we can. We shall ship the Hills and Valleys off to Spain, We shall go to live in Paris or in Rome, Our people will be healthy, Hard working, wise and wealthy, Whilst you will all be starving here at home. The decision of the Judicial Committee of Privy Council in Deeming's case has not taken any one by surprise, but it is likely nevertheless to make people reflect. They will reflect upon the value to the subject of the inherent right of the Crown-in-Councdl to exeicise appellate jurisdiction over all Colonial Courts, and in all colonial cases, civil as well as criminal. That is the right which has given the Crown’s Privy Council its Judicial Committee pneiically the highest Court in the realm. In civil cases the procedure of appeal to the Privy Council is regulated by Statute, or Order-in-Couucil, or both, an l is well understood, of course. The modus operandi in criminal cases la less familiar, and to most c doubts who have not heard ot the few casea of appeal, it was a surprise to lehrn that appeal was possible to the Cr.own-in-Council. To those familiar with the subject it was known that the Privy Council, as the Lord Chancellor in giving judgment said, never review or interfere with the course of criminal prrceedings, unless it can he shown that * by disregard of the forms of legal process, or by violation of the principles of natural justice, or otherwise, grave aud substantial injustice

has been done.’ We quote from Chambers , who relies upon Dicey and McPherson. Plainly j put, we presume, that means that without j new evidence, or evidence of malpractice, such as might be expected in a time of violent political or social excitement, no appeal can be sustained.

The point for reflection gro»V3 out of the Lord Chancellor’s remark that the Committee was not concerned with the affidavits now on the way from Melbourne. They were the new evidence relied on to sustain the charge that an injustice had been done. Now the Colonial procedure is for execution to follow sentence within a month or three weeks. But as no evidence can get before the Privy Council in that time, of what value is the privilege of appeal to the Privy Council in capital cases ?

When Lord Salisbury said the other day that there was not a cloud of any kind on the European horizon, the only thing of interest to be seen there was the golden wedding of the King and Queen of Denmark, the preparations for which were beginning to occupy an iinpoitant place in the news of the day. This state of serenity has been suddenly disturbed by the news of the deposition of Prince Ferdinand, of Bulgaria.

It will he at once concluded on all sides that the hand of Russia, which upset the 1 russian influence to which Prince Alexander of Battenberg owed the Bulgarian throne, lias now proved too strong for liis successor, the Austrian protege. The conclusion, however, is not the only one open. It is) possible that the revolution fatal to Prince Ferdinand may have been brought about by the tyranny of the Prime Minister, M. StambouL ff, which notoriously has been for a long time intolerable. Stambouloff ruled on the principle of Bulgaria for the Bulgarians, but he none the less ruled with an iron hand and without respect for Constitution or L nv. The Cromwell regime, brilliant as it was, became impossible in England because the Cromwell Party, having ceased to hold the majority of the nation, was reduced to govern by force. It is possible that the less Brilliant, less solid, less worthy regime of Stambouloff may have produced a shorter method of settlement than is recorded in our history. The Restoration in England was only possible after the death of Cromwell, in whom personally the nation bad faith, having faith in Stambouloff, because he had not earned it, the Bulgarians have got rid of him by revolution; and with him, of course, the master of whom he had made a puppet. It remains to be seen which of these two explanations of the revolution is the right one. If it is the hand of Russia there may be war ; if it is only the natural rebellion of Bulgaria, there is nothing to disturb peace. As we write the news comes that the report of revolution is denied.

Three months’ imprisonment for resisting the police, and two months for damaging uniforms ! Is this possible ? It is the fate of one of the unemployed who landed at Napier from the s.s. Australia en route for Gisborne, as the Press Association has chronicled. Either the man behaved like a demon, or the Magistrates have behaved in a manner which ought to effectually prevent their ever having another opportunity of exercising judicial power.

Sir John Hall’s departure for the Islands means nothing disastrous, we trust, to his health. Of course he seeks those balmy climates in order to find rest and recovery. Whether Sir John will ever find the former may seriously be doubted, for he has an active mind which was disciplined into activity by a long series of years of indulgence in his leading passion, which 13 work. It is, in fact, due to the excesses Sir John has committed in this indulgence that he is unable to take a more active share in the business of the Party which he virtually leads. But for that he would have been, not the dry nurse, but the hea l of the late Government. It is an open secret that he is required now to he the real, not the virtual, head of the Party which is dissatisfied with the want of elasticity and readiness for which Mr Rolleston's desperate earnestness fails to compensate. The great question then is, will the delicious breezes of the tropical isles restote to the brain of the Party the vigour without which he can never lead them? For the sake of Sir John Hall, whom we esteem greatly, we fear not. About the Party which must have him at their head or die, we confess we are not troubled in any way. The hopes of that Party in a Grey-Rolleston intrigue have been long since dissipated, chiefly because they never had any foundation in fact. The Party and their organs were led away by some expressions of Sir George Grey’s, which, after all, as he has himself pointed out, told nothing new to anybody. Everybody knows that last session he fouvht with all his might to remove the tax from all improvements. As he never concealed his opinions on that subject, this sudden discovery by Opposition organs is amusing. In default of Sir George, the hard pressed Opposition is going to use General Booth to upset the Government. Nobody believes, however, that they care two straws whether any Booth emigrants arrive or do not arrive in the country ; and everybody is quite certain that for their attack on the Government in this matter they have not any jot of anything that can pass for a decent appearance of a foundation. I heir position on the whole is so hopeless that we can well imagine Sir John Hall prolonging h:s stay indefinitely in the pleasant islands he is now making for. Asa veteran, he knoivs quite well that the Edwards judgment (accompanied by the severe comments of impartial observers) together with the Polhill Gully revelations, to say nothing of a host of other matters which need

not just now he mentioned, so notorious are they—Sir John is quite aware that these little things make a very big cloud, under which the Opposition must remain for some time eclipsed.

In the aflPction he lias sustained Mr Scobie Mackenzie lias the sympathy of the whole Colony. We do not care to intrude on any private grief, hut when a public man is reuc.ied by a sorrow outside the region of politics it would be ungracious and improper not to follow him with an expression of condolence. < man’s a man for a’ that and a’ that.’ Ihe words were not originally used fer a case of this kind, but they apply. Nothing that can be said can serve to relieve the p eternal grief, one of the most sacred of all the feelings of human nature. We can only express our hope that in his work Mr Mackenzie may find distraction, and offer him our heartfelt sympathy in liis sad and sudden bereavement.

The Deemiog history has reached the inevitable ' finis.’ The wretched culprit has passed beyond the fallible judgment of men; his case has now been revised by the only Power competent to declare who is worthy of love or hatred ; clearly it is not decent to pursue him beyond the grave. All this is very solemn and very true. But it does not prevent one last word from being said in . this terrible case. The great question remains— Was the murderer fully responsible for his actions? Human justice has answered with the very best intentions after full enquiry. But where do we stand ? The Judge told the jury that to draw the line between sanity and insanity is almost impossible for the leading experts, and then he asked them to draw it. That they did so was unavoidable : in the imuei fection of human knowledge and the circumstances of human life no other course perhaps was open to them. Nevertheless, it is the duty of all in authority to allow every light to be thrown upon the case for the possible increase of the sum of human knowledge. Deeming having forfeited bis life to justice, might have been permitted to give his brain to knowledge. There are ways of doing such things without outraging decency or flying in the face of right. That the brain of this criminal ought to have been studied for the sake of human nature and the guidance of human authority, admits of no doubt at all.

Has anyone considered the subject of political reporting in this country ? Certainly ; and nearly every politician considers that be ought to be reported when he speaks in public at full length. To them the study of the London practice will be a salutary lesson. The Pall Mall Gazette sums it up laconically. Having divided the speakers into four classes ‘verbatim,’ ‘column,’ ‘halfcolumn,’ and ' paragraph ’ —the compiler of statistics gives us the numbers of each. In the first class are four, Mr Gladstone, Lord Salisbury, Mr Balfour, and Mr Chamberlain. We may wonder at the latter name being in that company of the highest, but there he is. What is wonderful really is that out of all the vast number of political speakers in Great Britain only four ever invariably reach the verbatim stage in the newspaper reports, involving space up to not less than three columns. Five others occupy the second place—the Duke of Devonshire, Mr Morley, Sir Win. Harcourt, Mr Goschen, and Lord Rosebery. These sometimes get verbatim reports, but generally have to be content with not more than a column in the third person. The third class, consisting of third person column men, number only four, Lordß. Churchill, Sir Henry James, Sir M. Hicks Beach (only when he speaks on trade). Eleven get up to the dignity of half a column, and the rest have to be content with paragraphs. The colonial press is far more liberal ofi’s space to the colonial politicians. But these latter are generally so dissatisfied—we do not speak of the leaders —that tlie best thing they can do i 3 to get the3e figures of the Pall Mall Gazette and study them carefully.