THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, MAY 17, 1897. REFORM IMPERATIVELY NECESSARY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVX, Issue 3130, 17 May 1897, Page 2

THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.)

MONDAY, MAY 17, 1897. REFORM IMPERATIVELY NECESSARY.

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

Mb H. Eyre Kenny having failed to make any recommendation .to the Government after admitting that the Rev H. Tan Staveren had proved some of hia chargee wholly and some partially, it becomes imperatively necessary that that portion of the public who are the subscribers to the funds of the Home for Aged Needy should demand that there shall be at once instituted such reforms as the enquiry just concluded has shown to be desirable. The Commissioner apparently had no desire to deal with the main issues. He has passed them on, as it were, to the public. That the matter can bo left where it is, is impossible. No one, save those who look upon these poor old people as do Mr Kenny and the evening paper, could possibly bo content to leave the institution under the management of Trustees who. by Mr Kenny’s own showing, are either incapable or unwilling to visit with their displeasure acts which neither redound to the credit of the Home nor of humanity. That Mr Van Staveren should have been called upon to resign after he has done what every man with a heart knows to have been a solemn, if unpleasant, duty ; after he has been admitted to have proved many of the charges—and those of a serious nature —brought by him against the institution; that he should have been called upon, we say, to resign under these circumstances argues one of two things: strong personal animus, or failure to grasp plain truths and alarming details. One of the charges, that of the assault on Mrs Ford, would have beau sufficient to justify an enquiry, and yet our evening contemporary attempts to gloss tho whole thing over, and, further, would seem to encourage the use of violence under provocation ! Let us again quote the Commissioner’s remarks on tho subject, and then let us ask our evening contemporary, or any one of tho Trustees, if the finding in this instance does not entirely justify Mr Van Staveren ? Here are the words : Chakob 3. —Assaulting Mbs Fobd. I consider that it is proved that Mrs Ford used provoking and impertinent language to Mrs Short on the occasion in question, that Mrs Short lost her temper and seized Mrs Ford by the shawl round her neck, forcibly compressing her throat and shaking her, and that she gave Mrs Ford several slaps on the back with her disengaged hand. I do not agree with tho resolution in the minutes of tho Trustees that this was an assault of “ a very trifling character.” Jn my opinion it had serious elements. No amount of provocation could justify or excuse Mrs Short iu her position as matron of tbe establishment for assaulting one of the inmates, and, in this instance, the condition of health of Mrs Ford was snob—she had heart disease, and was paralysed on one side—that Mrs Short's conduct might hare occasioned a serious illness, or even have cost the inmate her life.

The question to which the public will demand an answer is not whether the Rev H. V an Staveren should resign, but whether there is to be any guarantee afforded that there is to bo reform in the management which shall preclude the possibility of such acts being treated lightly, even jocosely, by the Trustees ? What guarantee is there, if Mr Van Staveren were to resign and if no change in the management occurs, that the inspection of the Home will be such that the subscribers may rest satisfied of tho fair treatment of tho aged poor ? How, if in their querulousness, any of the inmates become provoking ?

No unprejudiced person is satisfied with Mr Kenny’s inconclusive, illogical, invertebrate report j but it would be by no means surprising if the Trustees were now to meet, and in chorus sing “ You are right, and lam right, and all is right as right can be.” We trust, however, that Mr Yan Staveren will steadfastly retain his. position ; that he will continue to show mercy to the poor, and defend those who are defenceless. With a Board of Trustees incapable of realising what is and what is not proper conduct on the part of its servants (vide the Commissioner’s report) ; with a Commissioner who condemns the acts and words of the Board's servants, but makes no recommendation as to what shall be done to remove the reproach which has fallen upon the institution; and with one public newspaper which thinks personal violence excusable under such provocation as is said to have proceeded from an old and partially paralysed woman; it is surely necessary that there should at least ba one man with some bowels of compassion who shall remain a Trustee of an institution which ought to be, but is not, a credit to the community.

One of the many interesting letters sent by Mr Cooper from New Zealand to The Scotsman concludes as follows: —“ New Zealand scenery was a surprise and a delight. To have seen the Otira Gorge and the Bailor Gorge is to have seen some of the finest scenery in the world. In itself it was worth the journey to New Zealand. If many leisured people could know what in the way of natural beauty is to be seen in New Zealand, they would make the voyage there and leave Europe to itself for a time.” It is to be hoped that these excellently descriptive letters—for the desorip-

tions throughout *re graphic and lifelike—will, when completed, be gathered together and fcrm a volume which will not fail to be of permanent interest as regards this and the sister colonies on the other side of the Tasman Sea.

For there is much that Mr Cooper has seen in New Zealand, especially in the North, which has still to be told by his ready pen, and many of the institutions regarding whici he mad© special enquiry will receive due attention. So, also, will the Australian colonies, to which, as in our own case, tne visitor has made his first visit. Equipped as he is with large experience as a traveller, a keen power ot observation, and the sagacity which half a century of high-class journalism necessarily confers. Air Cooper ought to produce for the general reader a volume on Australasia second to none that has as yet made Its appearance in these days of almost universal travel.

Choice expressions of the proletariat are not confined to the halls of legislature iu the British colonies, though sometimes some of these re-echo phrases which have their native homo in the purlieus of the East-End. In the House of Commons occasional slips occur. For example, Mr Curzon, replying to a statement respecting the action of the Powers regarding the blockade of Crete, said “ the one object of the Powers was to restore peace in the island/' Whereupon this happened: —

Anhon. member: Tommy rot. Mr Speaker; Order, order. If I knew what honourable member made use of that expression I should call the attention of tne House to his conduct. (Cheers.)

Xjlkb 11 Bunkum," <c Tommy rot" is always deemed a vulgar expression, but while the latter is inexcusable in a legislative assembly, the former has a legislative history which not only redeems it from the imputation of slang, but makes it applicable to a practice which is still prevalent in many assemblies. Once, many years ago, the word “ bunkum " was used in the House of Representatives here, when either the late Sir Harry Atkinson or Mr Rolleston took strong objection to the word. The member employing it narrated its history, pointing out that it cam© from an American source ; that a member of one of the State legislatures, who represented the town of Buncombe, was making a long speech meant merely for his constituents, and of no value otherwise, and was told by a fellow member that he was only speaking to Buncombe. Hence the use of the word and its survival in its present distorted orthography. Doubtless there always will be a good ; deal of talk to Buncombe, and probable keon critics may be disposed to characterise much of it by the peccant phrase condemned by the Hon Mr Gully.

Xo one appears to know what the Wellington City Council proposes to do with regard to the tramway. That the lino is not in the best condition must bo admitted, and the rolling stock is getting old. Of course the proprietors will endeavour to make the best bargain they can with the City Council, and the Council, in such bargaining, is by no means endued with sound commercial wisdom. Not to go farther back, it is sufficient to recall the dealings;of Mr De Castro, the representative of the Electrical Syndicate, with the Council, and how the members granted a concession which has been and is likely to remain a costly bargain to the city for the next five and thirty years.

At all hazards, any such sacrifice of the rights and convenience of the citizens must be rigidly avoided in any negotiations connected with the tramways, and whatever is done or whatever scheme may bo proposed, there should be gathered from expert sources the beat information regarding the working of tramways by electrical motive power, for evidently that is the power of the future best fitted for city tramways.

In the United Kingdom there are about 1009 miles of tramways in operation, carrying annually 760 millions of passengers, and of that mileage only a little over 100 miles are operated by electricity. A very different aspect is presented by the United States, where it is reported there are no less than 12,000 miles of electric lines at wort. In England the net earnings of tramways is 75 per cent, of the gross receipts j but electric traction is declared to be far better, cleaner and cheaper than horse traction. We commend to the attention of the Mayor and Council of the city the following sentence from a lecture by an eminent member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers recently delivered in London:—

“ Electric traction provided a far more secure investment for capital, and was more speedy and convenient than horse, or cable, or steam; and it was the hounden duty of those in authority to provide such means of locomotion which the developments of science had rendered available, thereby shortening the hours of labour by giving speedy means of transit between home and work to thousands of daily toilers.”

City Councillors should bear in mind, regarding the supply of water, gas, electric lighting and city tramways, that these are so essentially part of a community’s absolute requirements that they should be entirely under the direct control of the municipality. At Homo the tendency is all in that direction, and here in young communities there is still greater necessity for progress in the same direction, let vested interests and speculative syndicates say what they may.

That the four daily journals of Sydney should he fined .6100 each for contempt of Court fqr publishing detailed accounts respecting Butler, his history, his _ capture, his statements and what not, mainly published after the committal of the accused, is not surprising, though decidedly unusual. All the papers, through their counsel, pleaded guilty to the charge, but denied that they had any intention of interfering with the course of justice. Of course they had not. They were only supplying the demand of an over-excited population of readers for particulars regarding a vulgar ruffian who seems to gloat over his crimes, and, who, on the voyage from San Francisco to Sydney, and especially daring the short stay of the steamer at Auckland, was permitted a freedom of intercourse with the outside public and the press unexampled even in colonial experience, and in total disregard «f the ordinary rules of police supervision.