THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam aut faciam." DUNEDIN, TUESDAY, JUNE 3. 1802.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 171, 3 June 1862, Page 4

THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam aut faciam." DUNEDIN, TUESDAY, JUNE 3. 1802.

Evbhy additional information thrown on Mr. Crosbie Ward's intricate negotiations bears out the frequent' reflections we have made on their reprehensible character.- As one by one the mysteries disappear, we see reflected in their naked deformity the actions of the public man, who, having undertaken more than his abilities qualified him to carry through, braved the difficulties he called up against himself by recourse to the worst kind of political action, —the holding out of inducements to sections ol members to support that which in itself wa s deserving of opposition. It will be remembered that we called attention to the peculiarity of the first: public announcement that was made of the-mail arrangements that Mr. Crosbie Ward had entered into. It appeared in the Lyttdlon Times, Mr. Ward's own organ, : and must have come through that gentleman, seeing that he was the only one in possession of the information conveyed. In the Melbourne'and Otago table, we pointed out, Canterbury was included' although it had no connection with this branch of the mail service. We inquired why this was done ; whether Mi-. Ward,'in the interest of the Province which claims his best affections, had .taken upon the General Government the expense of a very stupid contract entered into by Canterbury with Messrs. M'Meckcn & Black wood. The contract, which was published afterwards, bore no evidence of this, and the mystery. was still unexplained. At last it is cleared up. The Lyttelton Times states that Mr. Crosbie Ward has offered, "on behalf of the General Government, to undertake ..£1,000..: of the expense of the contract referred to.. It is necessary to explain the nature of that contract. It is one which purports to be for .bringing down the English mails, but which, asfar as that purpose, is concerned, is entirely useless. Messrs.: M'Meckan & Blackwood bring down the mails for all; the Provinces, under,contract with the. Otago Government, to Port. Chalmers,, and thence a vessel, under contract with the General Government, carries them oti to their several destinations. So far then the contract with Canterbury is. useless ,• and to prove it, it is only, necessary to add, that not on one single occasion have the contractors carried on to Canterbury the Englsh Mails. But it appears that there was a clause in the contract, which, whilst it released the contractors from the necessity of carrying the Mails further- than Otago, made it imperative on them for commercial purposes, to send each .month a steamer to 'Canterbury. This, it must he observed, answers no purpose connected with-'Mail Service ; and yet, towards this the Lyttdton Times

states that Mr. Ward has pledged his Governto contribute a thousand pounds. Words are inadequate to properly stigmatise the transaction. Its bare statement pictures an amount of political delinquency, which it is impossible to exaggerate. Whether the grant be made out of favor to Canterbury, or to secure its support in the House, to Mr. Ward's Mail Service arrangements, is equally the same; cither aspect is so. bad that there is no choice between them. Otago already pays the entire cost of the service from Melbourne to its shores. From thence the General Government has a steamer to carry on the mails. The Canterbury service is purely a commercial one, and on what possible plea should the other provinces be called on to contribute a fraction towards it ? Mr Ward may think that by bribing Southland with a special steamer, and by giving the same from Sydney to Auckland, Wellington, and Nelson, he will secure a majority of the House, but we have sufficient trust in the purity of the New Zealand Legislature to doubt this conclusion. Even supposing his arrangements good,—and, seeing that he has acted on the assumption of unlimited means at his disposal, they ought to be, —Mr. Ward's mode of conducting the negotiations has been a reproach to his political character that no time will efface. His breach of faith with the Superintendent of Otago, his taking off the Sydney steamer without a moment's notice, and his playing into the hands of individual Provinces arc circumstances quite independent of the intrinsic merits of his. mail arrangements. Tn regard to these arrangcments,their advantage is very doubtful when contrasted with their cost. The down steamer, with the Provincial Mails for transmission to England, has so narrow a margin to catch the steamer at Dnnedin, that it is quite unavailable. So much was this felt to be the case that last month a special steamer was sent from Wellington with the English mails to Dunedin, and three or four Canterbury merchants, to whom it was important to catch the post, chartered a steamer from Lyttclton to bring the mails on. In regard to the expense, here are »■ few of the items of extra cost incurred by Mr. Ward, the return for which are the increased facilities with which our readers arc acquainted, but from which have to be deducted the Sydney steamer to Canterbury and Dunedin, which is taken off. We give the annual cost: — Otago to Melbourne, at the rate of per annum £6.600 White Swan 5,000 Queen 7,000 Special Steamer from Sydney to ) o nrm Nelson and Wellington J ~>[)w Canterbury donation to 1,000 £21.000 This is in addition to the subsidy to the Coleman Company, —to the contribution towards the Australian arrangement with the P. and O. Company, and to the cost of the service from Melbourne to Otago, provided solely by the last-named Province.

« Within the. last three years, the Board of Trade has established in London, an unproductive but vastly useful department,—The Meteorological Office—from the operations of which already incalculable benefits have arisen. In a late number of" Once a Week"' we find an elaborate description of the system pursued; and as the circumstances under which it is called into action are so similar to those that rule in New Zealand, we cannot too urgently direct the attention of the Central Legislature to it. Says our authority— Meteorology is a science that lias engaged philosophers for centuries ; but it is only'since the discovery of the electric telegraph, that they have been able to make simultaneously and transmit to .head-quarters instantaneously the results of their labors over a wide fiiilil of observation. Since this has been done, immense strides have been made, and it is rapidly becoming an exact science. This system was first commenced by the Meteorological Department ot the Board of Trailu, in SeDt, 18G0. Thus the nation of shopkeepers has been the first to lead the,world in a new and most important applied science, which must ultimately save the lives of thousands of sailors and boundless wealth to the merchants. The observers at the ont-stations, which arc all situated at sea-ports of the British Islands, are the telegraph clerks—a very intelligent set of men. The Board of Trade provides them with every requisite meteorological instrument, and provides a manual of instruction for their use. In this manner a staff' of skilled observers are being drilled in all our important seafaring places. They are instructed to send reports to the central office in Parliament Street twice a day, at 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., and oftcner when any great disturbance of their instruments warrants special notifications to Admiral Fitzroy. These telegrams give in symbolic figures the condition of the barometer and" thermometer, wet and dry ; the direction of the wind ; the force of the wind ; the amount of the cloud ; the character of weather, and the sea disturbance. Tims the chief is supplied, in a compact form, with all the lending features of the sum he has to work. When all the telegrams for the day luivo arrived, the various corrections for local peculiarities are male, and the condition of the weather is forecast. As the knowledge of circular storms is becoming more thoroughly known, the value of this daily sum worked at head-quarters is becoming of the last importance. It is now known that all great hurricanes move in cyclones or ovals, in northern latitudes, giving circling winds from left to right, but moving bodily from the south-west towards the north-east. These cyclones are of all sizes, and they move at a rate sufficiently slow to enable warning of their approach to be given to outports some time beforehand. The first well-noted cyclone was' that known as the ltoyal Charter storm. • This -hurricane commenced in the southwest, about the Bay of Biscay, and finally passed off along the coast of Norway, sweeping on its way across this island, and visiting the west, south, east, and northern coast with gules which based the compass within twenty-four hours. The passage of this great storm has been most accurately mapped, and its whole course in every particular worked out in the most perfect manner, by Admiral Fitzroy and his staff of observers. The present system of warning our out-ports was not establisbed in October, 1859; otherwise that noble ship—the Royal Charter—could have been warned of the approach of the great circle of wind at least twenty hours before it swept iouml upon her, as she lay at her fatal, place of anchorage, on a lee shore; and probably she would have put to sea, and been saved. The telegraphic communications are recorded at the office, and a forecast of the weather made which is published every morning in the Times. But to serve the purposes of the seafaring .community, who are not in the habit of reading the newspapers, a special system of signals for" night and day is employed:— •.'...■ . As our seafaring population are not in the habit of reading.the morning papers, a special method of notifying to them .'• squalls a head" is adopted. Thus, a system of signals for uso by night and day has been adopted, and is now in operation in all our principal seaports.

These signals arc of large size, and arc hoisted by the telegraph clerks, in view of the seafaring oominunity. It is not intended that these signals shall be hoisted, except in great and dangerous disturbances of the atmosphere, as the central office does not attempt to give notice of local changes, however sudden and dangerous. These should be noted locally, and it is to be hopei that observers on the spot will be able to supply this intelligence to the seafaring community. As only the larger outports can be thus warned from the London office, the coast guard is requested to diffuse the intelligence they forward along the coast. These signals are intended for day use ;si separate system of night signals is adopted, which arc made visible by lamps. The form of the signal refers to the direction of the. expected wind ; thus the cone with itsupex uppermost refers to a north wind, and the reverse to a southern one, whilst the simple drum alone, or square, gives warning that dangerous winds may be expected from opposite quarters, whilst the combination of the drum and cone predicts dangerous winds coming at first from the quaiter indicated by the position of the cone. Of the uses which these observations and the intelligence they are made to convey, subserve, our authority, says— It is quite clear that to a very large part of our population a daily approximation even to the coining meteorological changes is of the utmost importance. Let us take the agriculturist, for instance. What a saving it would be to the farmer if he could be forewarned of the approach of a week of wet or frost! the same may be said of all out-of-door trades. Weather affects all of us, from the landowner down to the costermorigcr. Let us rcllect for a moment on the wide-spread misery that fulls upon the poor by even one week of hard and continued frost. Yet, day by day, the possibility of being surprised by the Ice King is becoming more and more inexcusable as the science of meteorology, as expressed in these weather tables, progresses. It will be asked, however, has this system of warning our sailors of the approach of bad weather been put in practice effectively ? Yes ; every storm of any importance has been thus notified to our maritime population, and as the predictions have always been verified by subsequent bad weather, our sailors are beginning to place very great confidence in the system. To the less affluent fishing villages, with which there is no telegraphic commnnication, the Meteorological department lends barometers of a character suited to the habits of the people. The barometer manual teaches that the approach of a dangerous wind is always indicated by any sudden fall of magnitude in that instrum. Nt, or the fall, say for three hours, of the mercury at the rate of a tenth of an inch per hour ; and also that the longer the signs of change of weather have appeared, the greater chance of the change lasting. Much of weather-wise wisdom is expressed in the old couplet— Long foretold long last, Short notice soon past. The fall of the mercury in the thermometer ten degrees is also a notable sign of a coming hurricane. Bat it is not the sailor alone that requires instruction in the use of the barometer ; there is scarcely one person in a hundred who hangs up a barometer in his hall who can read it properly. It will generally bo found that it is hung too high. The vision should be on a level with the top of the mercurial column, as it is according to what that fluid is doing at the moment of observation that good forecasts can bo made of what is to come. Thus the condition of the surface of the mercury is especially noteworthy ; ' when it is rising it is convex, and concave when falling—a symptom very clearly visible in modern barometers and thermometers in which the column of mercury is large. Admiral Fitzroy, In his instructions to observers, is careful not to cut off any source of information, as he especially notes that the observations of nature arc to be watched. Thus, when sea-birds fly out early and far to seaward, fair weather may be anticipated ; on the contrary, when they..-hang about the land or fly inward, stormy weather is indicated.. When animals, instead of spreading over their usual range, seek sheltered places, storms may1 be expected. Dew is an indication of fine weather, so is fog ; but clearness of the atmosphere near the horizon is a sign of wet. When a mountaineer sees the hills cutting sharp against the sky, he wraps his plaid around him. A good hearing day is also an indication of coming wet. It is proposed to lay on the electric spark to the lighthouses near the coast to enable them to give warnings to passing ships. Admiral Fitzroy does -not despise the ordinary signs and tokens which tested by lengthened experience, .seem to indicate the coining state of the weather. There are some who would not exchange the peaceful victory which by perseverance and energy Admiral Fitzroy is making over one of the greatest scourges of mankind —the Storm King—for the noblest conquests that history tells of. To the A'Lniral, who delights in warfare and whose stuly h to destroy, Fitzroy bears the sama relation tint the scientific surgeon who devotes his whole attention to saving limbs, does to the dashing operator who only cares to cut them off. His is a noble aim, and coming ages which will witness the perfection of the science which ha is the first to pui to a practical purpose, will revert with gratitude to its early founder.. As we commenced by saying, New Zealand is a place where the system could be put into operation with great advantage. Its coast is much expose-.1, an 1 is subject to violent elemental conflicts. A large coasting trade is carried on, aul the v.ilua of the shipping constantly exposed is im nense. The yerirlj' losses sustained in consequence of storms, that, by Admiral Fitzruy's plan, could have been foreseen, and the c >nsequencos guarded against, are very considerable. Within the last three months the saving would have covered ten years of the working expenses of the department. We presume that during the co.nin* s.:ss'iom arrangements will be made for constructing a line of telegraph along the coasts of the two islands. Could not a system of meteorolo^ica I observations be at the same time provided for ? The extra expense would be trifling. The salary of a superintendent and an assistant, and the cost of the instruments, would include all the outlay. Doubtless, on application to Admiral Fitzroy, he would send out a competent person, and see that proper instruments were provided. In the causa of hunnnity— for where loss of property is involved life is endangered, and frequently sacrificed —we commend the subject to the Nesv Zealand Parliament.

The performance of Othello was repeated last night at the Princess's Theatre for the benefit of Mr. Hopkins, with great success. It is so short a time since we had occasion to notice the first representation of this tragedy at the Princess's that it is hardly necessary for us to say more than that it went as Trell as on the first occasion. Mr. Standwell fully maintaining his previous reputation as an amateur of really remarkable ability, and the professional performers playing with a degree of care which did them the greatest credit. A very lively afterpiece iv which Miss Harriett Gordon sustained successfully the characters of four sisters, concluded the evening's entertainment. A violent and unprovoked assault was perpetrated last Saturday evening, about 7 o'clock, upon the wife of the Court-house keeper. The occurrence took place in Princes-street, and was

attended with violence of an unusnal character. Mrs, Gowans was knocked down and* severely injured by a parcel ef scoundrels who bad no pretext o»iexeusc for the wanton infliction of such brutality. We observe that the mail by the Aldinga, for Melbourne, closes to-day. On Saturday last a lamentable accidcntoccurred on the North Taoiri, resulting in the death of a boy, 12 years of age, the son of Mr. Win. Fisher, Princes-street, Dunedin. It appears that the deceased had approached too near a threshing machine which was at work on the premises of MrJames Stevenson, and, by some means or other he had been drawn into the machinery. Tha poor boy at first had his leg broken at the ancle, and a moment after, by another revolution of the machinery, his thigh was broken through. As soon as possible messengers were dispatched to town to procure medical assistance, and to carry the painful tidings to the boy's parents. We have learned no particulars further than that the unfortunate boy ultimately sunk under the fearful agonies he suffered, and died shortly after the accident. Mr. Howorth, the Coroner, proceeded to North Taeiri yesterday for the purpose of holding an inquest on ■the body. The Provincial Council will meet, pursuant to notice of adjournment, on Wednesday (to-mor-row) at four o'clock p.m., in the Court House.