THE New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, MAY 22, 1894. MR DIBBS AS A FEDERATIONIST.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVI, Issue 2212, 22 May 1894, Page 2

THE New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.)

TUESDAY, MAY 22, 1894. MR DIBBS AS A FEDERATIONIST.

With which are incorporated the Wellington Independent, established 1845, and the New Zealander.

The Prime Minister of New South Wales is one of those individuals who like to do the best for both political worlds. He is a Liberal by word of mouth, and he is an autocrat by act and deed. Consequently people who know his little peculiarities—they are, let us hasten to admit, the peculiarities of a type common enough in every part of the world, oven in this favoured portion known as New Zealand—find it very interesting to watch Mr Dibbs whenever he poses. He is always posing, and he never poses as anything but an autocrat of the first water. Whether he be engaged in a bout with some implacable creditor, or whether he be at half sword with the Opposition in his Parliament, or whether he have some little affair of persuasion on with his friends of the Cabinet or otherwise, Mr Dibbs only has one character that he can perform to his own satisfaction. His favourite and only drama is the play of “The Tyrant." It has many prologues of the sweetest character, worthy of Cato and Brutus rolled into one, speaking radical Liberalism through their united ana trumpeting mouth. But the solid play that comes after the prologue is the unvarying, remorseless, consistent play of “The Tyrant." To judge him by his speech no liner philanthropist or more supreme radical was ever seen than Mr Dibbs. But if his actions are anything there never was such a rampageous out and out autocrat. The only motto that he has ever been known to respect is the motto of “Woo to the other side.” Whenever a man differs from him on the smallest matter in the smallest way the Dibbsian guns are at once treble shotted, the Dibbsian forces are drawnupin battle array, all the engines of torture and destruction and petty annoyance are put into position, and the welkin rings with the wrath of Dibbs and the screaming of his projectiles. It is the usual attitude of men who have risen from nothing, by sheer force of character, to power which they have not been schooled by training of any kind to wield with judgment. Passion, vanity and ignorance make up between them a triple expansion force which destroys the balance of intellect. The result is, a 3 Wp have said, not at all uncommon among men who' have risen by sheer force of character without any training of any kind, and without any attempt at self-discipline, Of this type Mr Dibbs is one of the leading examples in Australia, When wo heard that Mr Dibbs, who had opposed the Federation proposals of Sir Henry Parkes, was drawing up proposals of his own, we felt a little curious. But when we saw the outline of these proposals wo were not astonished. Mr Dibbs, true to his. natural instinct, aggravated as that instinct |e by the unbridled enjoyment of power, wants to set up a huge octopus of filoyeynment in Sydney. Under his system of Federation every part of Australia must bp govpyne.d from a centre —Sydney, of conrse-rrapd pyery shred of local government must be bgdishbd IfhSf Australasian soil. The proposal is worthy of the overbearing brain that conceived it, and has the temerity to expect that reasonable people will consider it for a moment. Without laying any claim to the possession of prophecy, we venture to predict that Jfr Dibbs’ absurd scheme will fall stillborn.

ME PEWS ESS4Y,

The Investors? Review takes up the ease for Mr Peel, the Treasury clerk whoso essay on colonial finance got out unexpectedly, and brought the New South Wales Prime Minister to the front with a tremendous article —just the thing to bo expected of a jbfcaijsfwng politician with more force than judgment, piore remarkable for successful adrancemeni tliau mental ballast, more distinguished foy loye gt “smashingup” somebody than by knowledge ,of the world .or a sense of proportion," ilia gej.dey naturally does not spare the weak point in (the reply. Wo are entitled to conclude ■from til® admission of that implacable critic that there vqg only One point on which Peel was fairly mot, sst fl/o young man ■was beaten on all jibe others, $e gj fjf pjay, the one point is'interesting and especially after its handling by the Review. Ifr Peel wrote that the banks imported into lyondw bales of wool—in 1989, which shows .that the young .critic was somewhat antiquated—of whibn ft yery largo share Wb W'tdW 9Wa

account. In proof of which statement he gave the following table of estates owned by the banks :

Bank Now South Wales ... 127 Union Bank ... ... ... 34Bank of Australasia 23 Commercial Bank (Sydney) 101 A.J.S. Bank 53 Bank of New Zealand ... 4 E.S. and A. Chartered ... 11

He went cn to observe that “ all this simpl means that the banks had lent on lan mortgages, had foreclosed when the morl gagor could not meet his debts, and ha now become extensive landowners payin rent to Government.” Mr Dibbs’ repl was, of course, crushing. “ He has evidently obtained possession ( a publication entitled ‘ The Pastoral Posse: sions of New South 'Wales,' in which thos banka are registered as the ‘ holders ’ of th estates in question. Under our title to lan the State recognises only the registere holder of an estate, and it would be in th power of anyone who had mortgaged hi property to a bank to sell it over their heac unless they took the precaution of registerin the bank’s name as nominal holder. Tran: fcrs of land are so easily and expeditiousl made here that it is the practice of banks an other companies in taking a mortgage ov< one or more estates as security against a advance thus to register their names, and th numbers quoted by Mr Peel, therefore, sho the mortgages thus secured, not the estates ( which the banks are in possession owing i foreclosure upon the mortgagors. But th: is by no means all. Mr Peel might have see that the great bulk of these mortgages ai not on freehold but on leasehold estates. A a matter of fact, they secured advances upo stock (a liquid asset), and the banks registere their name to the leasehold run to aeoui their title to the live stock upon it, the arc being of less value to them than the stool The number of these foreclosures I have no correctly furnished in a leading instance and, considering the enormous extent of th operations of the bank I have named in th: colony, it in truth indicates a remarkabl freedom from the very class of busines which in this State of paper it is accused c conducting.” Mr Peel, however, is not left in the lure by the Review, which, while accepting th further statements of the Premier whic showed that very few foreclosures ha taken place, pointed out that the raortgag business was enormous, and insinuate that it was unsafe, and asked “ what abor the 88 millions classed as advances an bills held for collection ?” which questio: is sufficiently deadly in that connection t prove that Mr Dibbs would have done ver much better if he had left Mr Peel to h own devices. THE END OP THE WORLD. We regret very much that it is our duf this morning to record the death of Ec mund Yates, who founded The World news paper, and thereby opened a new phase i journalistic history. Mr Tates, who he just died at the age of 63, was one of tl most prolific writers of our time, but ce: tainly not one of the most distinguishe< nor in any way to be ranked amon our leading men of letters. Unlit many a more famous man the incidents c his life have been for some ten years publi property —a fact due to the publication < his memoirs in 1884. A very readable an interesting couple of volumes they madi we remember, of gossip, of informatio about famous people, adding to the sui of the minor knowledge which give flesh and blood to the outlines of ceh brated reputations. The leading inclden was his expulsion from the f Garrick Clu for his attack on Thackeray in some publ cation to which he contributed gossip. H was considered to have broken unwritte club law, and at the insistence < Thackeray he was expelled. Th publication of the facts did not ad to the reputation of either Thackeraj who could have afforded to treat with coi tempt the frothy article of a junior hard u for copy, or of Dickens, who gave his youn friend remarkably bad advice on that oeci sion. What astonished many people wh read the memoirs was that a man so var ous, so well informed, so practised a a litterateur should have stuck f that wretched Post Office billet of his s long. People could hardly understan how a man so well furnished should hav possessed all the qualities; required for literary career except the quality c courage. It was also a surprise that Civil servant, should have been allowe to do so much literary work outside of h: office hours. The amount of it certain] was prodigious—embracing as it did novc writing, the editing of a magazine, poetr; essays, dramatic composition, dramati criticism of the regular and substantia order, and special correspondence. Tate and Sala were the two most promising ( the young men taken up by Dicken Both, it is curious to not;, found thei level in journalism, Sala in the Dail Telegraph, of which journal he was fo years and is now one of the main prop: and Tates eventually in The World. Tha newspaper he started very soon after h took heart of grace and gave up the Poe Office. lie started in conjunction with Grer ville Murray, who, to avoid the wrath of Lor Carrington, was living in Paris, where he ha established a sort of journalistic depo whence issued all sorts of pungent writing But Grenville Murray was too dangerous man, and Yates bought him out early, H had to pay a long price owing to the celt brity their joint property. The Work obtained by winning libel actions brough by certain dishonest money-lenders an financial touts, which it had exposed by th pen of Mr Labouchere, who was in those day on The World’s staff. Yates and Laboucher very soon brought the paper to a profit o some £4003 a year, and then Laboucher thought it high time to do something fo himself, and established Truth. Tha journal prospered amazingly, but Th World held its owi) nevertheless. Thi skirmishes of the info proprietors in thei several journals amused the town fo several years, during which the exohangi of civilities on the part of “■ Henry ” am “Edmund” was much relished. In 188‘ Mr Yates distinguished himself hy hi fidelity of journalistic principle in refusin' to give up the name of a oorrespondon who had libelled Lord Lonsdale in hi columns. He wont to gaol rather thai divulge, and though he was released be fore his sentence of four months (as i first-class misdemeanant) had expired, hi health was much impaired by the con finoment. As one of the most brilliant though not one of the most useful figure; in London journalism, Mr Yates will bi much missed. THE APPEECIATION OP GOLD. When a man tries to make a point by re fusing to accent the correction of a slip ii writing, he must be very hard up for i case. But that is not the point. The poini is that from gentlemen who understand the ordinary courtesies of written debate, one expects, as a matter of course, the acceptance of such corrections. It is a case of the Post’s own rule of one gentleman tc mother” Prom a pig, on the other hand, no one expects anything but a grunt. We expected the grunt from the Post, and we were not in the least degree disappointed. As the grunt represents all that our friend knows about the ippreoiation of gold, he requires no further answer. We are loth to treat the ' Superior Person ” in this offhand way, But the “ Superior Person ” should underitand that he has not got a monopoly ol dips of the pen, or of the imagination, or whatever ho may condescend to call thorn, Ele made one the other day, crediting to Bret Harte convenient poem yy somebody else? When ho corrected limself no one jeered at him. He really >ught to reciprocate these little kindnesses. Ie would if he were civilised. Let him avilise. It is a mere matter of polish. Chore is any quantity of polish in the own to be had cheap, and there are plenty >f people about the “ Superior Person " vho will be glad to spread the stuff over um till he shines. A TIMELY SUGGESTION. fnsTEUDAT’s earthquake was not very errible, nothing in comparison to many bat can bo ' mentioned, But it was uggestive. It wan prolonged as yyelj ,s sharp, the consequence being that omo plaster was here and there dig’ daced, and many people doing their office ,nd other work under plaster ceilings had , rather rough experience. Hundreds, re hear it whispered, of stalwart powerul people took refuge under their iffioe tables and counters in the audahle hope of defying the plaster they bought was .about to] fall, some of ihich did actually come down with n ugly thud. There is no doubt at ll jthat chunks of plaster falling from hove woirid pot bp good for the heads hey might come ‘ in’ contact with, festorday’s experience was a warning, he City Council should take that warning o heart, and amend the “ Building Byiw " by the addition of a clause forbidding he use of plaster for ceilings. There is othing like wood for' that purpose in an arthquake country. THE MINERS? CONEEEEEGE. . p one Conference out of five has really eeu a “ fizzle ” there is nothing to be disouraged at in that. The four first of the aries wore successful enough to sot a great lovoment going. Nobody over oxpeoted bat the movement would go on for ever -ithout friction, especially without friction f tho international order. Nations have oen at war so often that it was wonderif that four Congresses wore held by liners qf all nationalities without friction, he fourth, to vhiph we alluded yesterday, presented ‘ 910,000 British minors, and bout 600,000 foreigners.' The fifth, which said to have failed, is 'described as re. eventing more British’ miners I 'than all ig res#’ put together. Naturally,' there lenjs to boon malpnsy on the part of m foreigners, and equally naturally 'a ttle domineering on - the part ‘of the ritish. The fifth Congress has ended in poise in consequence. thp cqwnjqn

interests remain, and they will produce more congresses. A great movement, we feel sure, is not going to be paralysed by a few hard words. The hard words have evidently been forgotten already, because the British delegates, who were described as having returned Home, are now described as having stayed, and as having compelled their foreign colleagues to hear reason on a very important matter, viz., the question of limiting production. _ The fifth Congress seems, after all, certain to do useful work. MAGISTRATES AND PUBLICANS. The Lyttelton case is the talk of the country, because the Stipendiary Magistrate, Mr Beetham, to certify that a certain applicant for a license was a fit and proper person to hold a license. It is said freely on one side that this proves that the Act has given despotic power to the Magistrates. To that view we object in toto. Magistrates are men accustomed to act judicially, Recording to evidence. When they are called upon to give a character to an intending licensed victualler, they have before them all the evidence procurable, and it becomes to them a guide to justice. That is not despotism exactly; it is rather the entrusting to competent hands of the power to take a very salutary and very necessary precaution. That is in the interest of temperance. It is also just to the trade, because it prevents the refusal of a license to a house on account of the bad character of the applicant. When applicants of bad character are warned off, the question of granting licenses comes before the Committees to be decided on its merits. The provision, being both just and expedient, is not one of the worst in the Alcohol Act, THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS. Our friend has thrown up the sponge. It meets our contention about “ forthwith” fairly enough, but can make nothing of it. Of the rest of the case it pretends to dispose by describing it as made up of “ misrepresentations.” There were no misrepresentations. The Post is simply unable to reply to our exposure of his attempt to use both Mr Ballance and Mr Macarthur as his supporters. When beaten he “ lies ” down in the literal sense, as usual.