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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4240, 22 October 1874, Page 2

The telegraph informed us a few days ago that the Hon. A. Macalister, the Colonial Secretary, and the Hon. G. Thorn, the Postmaster General, of Queensland, had proceeded to Sydney to discuss with Messrs. Vogel and Parkes various subjects in which Queensland, Hew South Wales, and Hew Zealand are jointly interested. What these really were we know now from the information which has found its way to the journals of the Australian colonies. It is worth while, however, to road what the Brisbane Courier had to say on the subject before the meeting took place. What the leading journal of Queensland said is as follows :—“ The business to be discussed will include the subject of providing telegraphic cables from Normanton to Singapore—a matter which, having been assented to by the Parliaments of Queensland, New South Wales, and New Zealand, now rests with the Executives of these colonies—and a similar cable from Sydney to New Zealand. The possibility of arranging for a joint understanding with reference to the Torres Strait mail service, with a view to the expansion of the present contract so as to secure swifter steamers, and generally to popularise and add to the utility of the route, will also, we understand, be mooted. Mr. Macalister will, it is expected, take the opportunity to propose the question of registration of Government debentures on the London Stock Exchange. The objection which that institution has long maintained against such a course has now, wo believe, been withdrawn on the understanding that, should the inconveniences foreseen actually be found to exist, the Exchange shall be at liberty to cancel the registration and resume its original posture in the affair. This registration it is sought to have made, with the sanction of the Imperial Government, free of duty, similar concession having been allowed to the Canadian Dominion. The object of registration is to secure bondholders from loss in case of the accidental destruction of their debentures. It is hoped that our Postmaster-General will seize the occasion to endeavour to bring about something like reciprocity between the colonies in the matter of the carriage of each other’s ocean mails, and so free us from constantly-recurring irritation and loss caused by the detention of correspondence at the London Post Office.”

The Torres Strait route, we are glad to see, has now, in the hands of the Eastern and Australian Steam Navigation Company, lost much of its difficulties to navigators. The company carry the mails by way of that Strait, and one or two of their vessels having met with misadventure in sailing along the coast of Northern Queensland, where nearly all the dangers from coral reefs lie, now employ a small staff of competent pilots, who take the np-steamcr from Moreton Bay to Somerset, returning with the down steamer. Since these pilots have been employed, and the new steamers have begun the service, the voyages have been accomplished with safety, and with a great saving of time. The last inward steamer, the Somerset, in fact, readied the south of Queensland five days before she was duo.

The Provincial Treasurer of Nelson is carrying matters with a high hand. He lately gave Mr. Knyvett, a respectable resident, into custody, for refusing to deliver up a document which he had presented when claiming payment of an amount duo to him, which lie claimed as his own, but which the Treasurer regarded as public property. In a case brought before the Resident Magistrate for the recovery of the document from tho Treasurer, who seems to have forcibly detained it, the Magistrate ordered it to be restored to the plaintiff, Mr. Knyvett. An action for false imprisonmcnthassince been commenced against the Treasurer (Mr. E, J. O’Conor), and the latter is charged with having dismissed from the service of tho Provincial Government an old servant, Mr. George Hodgson, for giving evidence in the witness-box, in his official capacity, adverse to tho Treasurer. The Mail writes on the subject in tho following terms : “ Our present position is really serious in the last degree. Hero we have absolute in all provincial matters a gentleman who deems it consistent with his duty to the public not only to override the law himself, hut to regard with disfavor the simple discharge of a public servant’s duty as a citizen. If Mr, Hodgson could have been shown to be inefficient in his present post, it was Mr. O’Conor’s duty to have discharged him long since. If he has been guilty of any misconduct wo have a right to know it. But certainly to degrade him tho day after he gave evidence in a court of jus-

tice, which was not favorable to his employers, is worse than undignified spite. It is an action calculated to dispirit the provincial servants, and to lower the morality of a class whose high honor should be their first qualification.”