Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4134, 20 June 1874, Page 2

The news by the Otago, telegraphed from the Bluff, is of no great importance. Tho intelligence from England is extremely meagre, and that from the Continent is but little more extensive. It will be notieed, however, that in France the political horizon is not free from clouds. The Assembly, which is evidently passing away from extreme liberal views, has resolved—notwithstanding the efforts of Gambetta—to restrict tho franchise to persons who have arrived at tho full age of twenty - oue—-thereby, it is said,' “ defeating a vital clause in the Municipa Act.” The President .and the Ministry are accused of favoring the Bonapartists, and the evidences seem to tend that way. In Spain the Carlists have sustained a defeat in Arrngou; but, beaten in one Province, they seem immediately afterwards to appear in greater force in another. The Australian news is also of unusually little interest. On the bill to reform the Constitution Act the Government anticipate that they will have a small majority, with the certainty of having to amend the bill considerably in committee. It is of some interest to Now Zealand fanners at present to know that tho market for breadstuffs is unchanged, and that oats are selling freely at ss. 4d. for good feeding qualities. Tho Challenger', we regret to say, had been forced to return to Sydney, but sailed again on Friday of last week to resume her voyage towards New Zealand. The Government of New South Wales have only escaped defeat by the casting vote of the Speaker, on a resolution disapproving of the release of Gardiner, the once notorious hushranger.

It is an article of faith with a goldfields population, or with those who give greater attention to matters temporal than matters spiritual, that as the number of church spires increases in a mining township, so the yield of gold and the practical prosperity of the place exhibit a decrease. This heretical notion is not, however, borne out by facts on the goldfields of the West Coast, for the existence of churches or chapels is thoro as much affected by the actual yield of gold as any institutions of a purely temporal character. When the township of Ross, for instance, was a favorite field for sluicers, deep-sinkers, andpumpingassociations, churches flourished ; but as the yield of gold in the district has become small by degrees and beautifully less, tho clergyman, like others, finds his occupation gone. Two years ago a Presbyterian clergyman received a call to the district, which was signed hy 140 persons, but so great has been the local change and the decline of the mining industry, that of that number there are now only thirteen individuals locally resident. It is a credit to this remnant of thirteen that, according to the statement of the clergyman himself, they “ had stood nobly by him, and hitherto maintained his full stipend,” but there is an end to all things, and, with no prospect of an expansion of his flock, the reverend gentleman has betaken himself to another field, hoping to amalgamate it with his present charge, and to be able to undertake the spiritual supervision of both. In the same way, at Charleston, a once flourishing congregation in connection with the Episcopal Church find it necessary to decline the services of a clergyman whom the Bishop of Nelson had brought for their benefit from England, tho assertion being that “the district is no longer able to support two Protestant clergymen, and that amalgamation of the two churches to the satisfaction of both is much to he desired.” Even in the rising district of Eeefton there is an indisposition to invito the presence of clergymen when there is only a prospect of paying them more than a paltry pittance, and an equal disposition to abandon denominational distinctions, the Presbyterians, with the assent of the Presbytery, confessing themselves content with the services of an Evangelical minister of another denomination, and ready to contribute to his support.

It is duo to the representative of Hokitika, Mr. John White, to state accurately the facts regarding the exceptional position which he assumed when he accepted the Speakership of a Provincial Council, and insisted that the occupant of the chair should hold and exercise tho right of taking part in tho debates, not alone in committee, but at any. time in open Council. Such, it appears, was only Mr. White's theory on tho subject. His practice was different, and the principle upon the recognition of which he so warmly insisted was one upon which he himself never acted. Such, at least, was the unchallenged statement made by him when, under tho name of Provincial Secretary, which dignity ho shortly enjoyed, he took objection to a modification of the motion which at his instigation was carried during tho first session of the Council to which he belongs. When it was proposed, in refei'ence to the Speaker taking part in the debates, that the word “not” should be inserted in tho clause empowering him to do so, Mr. White suggested that the clause should bo struck out altogether, as tho proposal would bo like putting a curb upon the Speaker for which there was no necessity, “During hia term of

office he had never opened his mouth in debate, nor did he think that his successor would do so either. Ho wished to mention that fact, as editors of newspapers at a distance had commented on the fact of the Speaker being privileged to take part in debates, evidently under the impression that he had availed himself of that liberty." Another member of the same Council, Mr. Wickes, reminded Mr. White, however, that on being appointed Speaker he had threatened to resign unless the privilege of joining in debates was granted. As already said, the anomaly for which Mr. White theoretically contended was ended by the clause being struck out, and by his successor - , the Hon. Mr. Cabman, asserting that “he was opposed to everything exceptional.”