THE Otago Daily Times. DUNEDIN, FRIDAY, AUGUST 28.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 2048, 28 August 1868, Page 2

THE Otago Daily Times. DUNEDIN, FRIDAY, AUGUST 28.

The debate in the Council on the Eevision of. the Tariff is not. suggestive: of great practical ability on the part of its members. The speeches of those who took part in the debate are as meagre as they could well be. There is not <* vestige of conclusive argument on one side or the other. The subject was handled with reference to a few isolated facts, as if the hardships entailed by the Tariff on particular classes were the only grievance it gives rise to. But the strangest part of the matter is that, when the anomalies of the Tariff were under discussion, so* few of them should have excited the attention of the Council. The Tariff "is full of anomalies, and those of the most ludicrous kind. It is so full of them as to force upon us the conviction that its framers were not only ignorant of the principles which should govern financial legislation, but indifferent to the results which must ensue from mischievous schemes of taxation. We wish to foster our commerce-; we have got a Tariff which subjects it to the most harassing restrictioas, without affording anything in the shape of compensation. The Tariff is not satisfactory to those who require the aid of protective duties, while it is equally unsatisfactory to those who abhor the idea of' Protection. Kb parties are satisfied. Free Trader and Protectionist alike condemn itj while the Government, though for very different reasons, condemns it to. Under such circumstances, a good prima facie case exists for the immediate revision of the Tariff; but the revision is demanded, not on behalf of the. general interests-of the country, but those of a special class.

The nervous and apologetic manner in ■which Mr Holmes exposes his Protectionist weakness is decidedly amusing While the tenor of his remarks was obviously an argument for Protection, he took care to declare - himself a Free Trader; but none of his fellow Council-

lors was imposed upon by the declaration. 1 The grounds on which he asked tor a re-vision-were, the failure of the Tariff to promote the interests of the industrial classes; but the only industrial class iii1 whose welfare Mr. Holmes appears to' be.' interested is the agriculturists. He com-., plains, for instance, of the duty on spirits; and suggests that, by reducing the duty from' 12a. a gallon to 9s. or 10s.,''and legalising distillation in the colony, we should 'discourage the illicit trade, and at the same .time benefit agriculturists by giving them a better-market for their barley.' The next complaint refers to the fact that there is no duty on the importation of grain into .New Zealand; the consequence of which is, that while, the Melbourne merchant can send a cargo of flour into any port on our coast free of duty, :a New Zealand merchant must pay £1 per ton .on all the flour he sends to Melbourne. Supposing, says Mr Holmes, that flour is sent from New Zealand to: Melbourne and;thenc'e üback to New Zealand, the.: Victorian Government pockets £1 per ton on it, without giving us any equivalent in return. The conclusion he draws from these premises is, that we must \' either cease to levy duties on articles consumedi.by the!farmers, or impose a duty which-would place him on precisely the same fooling as the person importing.' These are -the arguments put forward by. Mr Holmes on behalf _of the proposed Revision, and these are the grievances which lie heavy on his mind, j Are we to infer that Mr Holmes would! have no objection to the Tariff; provided, we taxed grain, an<i encouraged distillation V. The latter part of his speech Ja.j jpc'ciipieid;' with remarks on^' the agricultural resources of the colony? -rfrom |beet • sugar - to : eggs , and bacon-Mn -,-, the ; course: .of which he appeals tofendbrse the bonusing, system ;of bur Provincial Council as applied to; jjoaanufactures. It is clear enough that Mr Holmes, although ' of course a free, trader^' is by:no means opposed to Pro'ectiori as applied to agriculture. :'■'-' If the only benefit we are to expect from a, revision is an import.duty on grain, the Tariff jmay as well be let alone. We are. not all farmers, but we are all consumers of breidstuffs ;.,and we are all of opinion that the-prices of provisions are quite high enough already. But the. labours of the Committee appointed by the Council to inquire into this matter will, be beneficial, whatever.the views of the Committee '■ individually may be. In the words of the motion, their, object will, be to examine fthe practical effect of the Tariff 'On the commerce and industrial j pursuits' of the people.' From;such an investigation,' if thoroughly carried, out, we may expec\ disclosures which will, tend to hasten the reform of our taxation. When (everybody is satisfied .that the commerce of the country is, struggling under difficulties, and that the industrial pursuits of the people are hardly better off than their commerce, the action of the Legislature will probably be quickened. If the present rate of: Customs duties is to be continued, we see no | reason why the industrial interests advo- ; cated by Mr Holmes should not benefit by them. If taxes must belaid on nearly everytliingwe import, let us by all means include in the list those articles which we can" produce ourselves. We shall then derive isome appreciable advantage from these duties; we shall improve the position o£ the people and offer increased attractions for immigration.., There is no i wisdom in. reducing the 'business of the country to the single item;of importing.' But on the other hand, if bur Cußtorcs, duties are merely emergency taxes to be* ;d.one "away with at the first opportunity^ we should be oia our guard: against the! introduction of the Protection difficulty.; It has Already proved disastrous in more, than one of the Australian settlements, and will assuredly; do so here, if it is allowed to spring up amongst us. In this vi^w of the matter, we very much regret the action taken by. Mr Holmes ; because the line of argument adopted by ;him,with reference to the farmers will be adopted, when the time comes, by every other branch of the industrial community, If the Legislature ia prepared to sanction a thorough : Protectionist policy, well and good: we shall then know we are steering, and the, endeavor of Provincial Councils to bonus manufactures into existence, as well as such'movements as those of Mr Holmes, willser,vethe purpose, of initiating the new!era. But we feel very certain that neithertheLegislature, northemostpowerful interests in the Colony, are prepared to sanction that policy at all; and we also feel certain that if it is ever carried out, it will be so only after many years of bitter dissension. It is beyond a doubt that manufactures cannot flourish in this colony,,or in any other colony, without protective duties. The offer of a bonus is a mere delusion. The manufacturer will no sooner have pocketed his £1500 from the Government, than he will find that something more is needed to establish a market. He will have to contend with the prejudice of the people, and of retail tradesmen in favor of cheap imported goods, to say nothing of a rate of wages three or four times greater than the rate inj Great Britain. We say again : ■let us either announce our intention to establish protective duties for the encouragement of manufactures, or resolutely set our faces against insidious attempts to introduce Protection under the colour of Free Trade.

The Committae appointed to arrange for the continuance of the work initiated by the Moray Place Mutual Improvement Society, will meet this evening at the Hall underneath the Congregational Church, Moray Place.

The following particulars as to Sugar Beet and its Cultivation in Europe, as translated from a German Lexicon, have been received from the Home Agent of the Province: Beet Boot, a species of the common mangel wurze!, is originally a native of Southern Europe, and was transplanted by the Spaniards into Holland. It is. divided into food beet and sugar beet. The different kinds of food beet are the Burgundy beefc (Brassiea'Syniesfcris), &c, &c. To the sugar beet belong the Sileaian -white beet (Bra?sica

Alba), of middle Bi'ze, with white stalks and white flesh; the Quedliuburg fred beet, rtho large, yellow beet, I the' largos whito beet (Brassica: lutea -;■; major). , of. medium; si^e,., longish andpear-shaped, witbVgr'eenishyellow stalk.;,and. yellow flesh; the yellow pearshaped j>eet, with black cellular flesh; the imperial sugar beet, •pear-shaped, slender,: flesh fine,, find pure white. The best-sugar beets are those which have a uniform shape, few fibres ; and 'lateral; roots, .firm flesh and small <' head: that do not grow" over the ground,- and that yield a slightly colored sweet I juice; those with large green heads contain much salts, but little sugar. Beet root, for the manufacture of sugar,-requires a deep, mouldy, loose, somewhat binding soil, neither too moist., nor too dry—a mild climate,, and a deep working of tlie'ground, whichjmust be free from weeds. ]t follows either j after grain or potatoes, or itself.' The best njanure is a mixture p£ guano and Chili saltpetre, guano and oilcake, guano and bonedust, j It must not, however, be too strongly' manured, otherwise the' quantity of sugar is 1< ssened. In autumn the ground must be* wrought with the subsoil plough,'and in 6Pring j ploughing is repeated, ' After? the fiejd:has been entirely harrowed and rolled, it must be drawn over crossways with the marker, and at a distance of 15 inches sown with sfceds (10 pounds for" an acre) Vso that the Beeds are laid upon the marked cross. On each place are laid three to five seeds, which ,are covered one inch" an^Va'half high with ejarth. The beginning of May is the time fpr sowing. Before that the seeds are steeped for three days in a we^k solution pf spirit of nitre. As soon as the plants show ; thomse'lves, the ground must,be,hoed, and this must be repeated whenever, weeds apr: pear, tjll the ground is hardened, , Should more than one plant appear out of one hole,the weakest must be cut away. -When the roots h>ve grown to the thickness of a finger they must be earthed up. Each plant must be plajced 14 to, 16 inches from the other < they thus take the. form most adapted for producing sugar. The plants -must not be leafed till 14 days before the harvest or gathering of them, which occurs when the lower jleaxes_ M bec.ome...sti:ongly-yellow and incline: towards the ground .'(middle of October).! .Their harvest, must take place in dry Wejather, ibefbre the setting in of frost. .Immediatelyafter;the^oosß*are taken up, the leaves" and crowpj or tpp,;a^e cutoff and, cleaned from the adhering' soil,^rootlets, tic. The beet-ia. best kept in heaps of pyramid , shape, jI of fr from .two -jbo; two and a.half feet high, yith' the heads to the outside. At first these are covered with straw, and on the approach of frost with earth, the produce of the acre is on an average,-. 170 .* centner (hundred weight) of beet.' ! For seed such beeta are selected as' have a spindleshaped; root, without prongs (or secondary ro6ts). ' ' ' ''•■'< ■: .'* ■'.-;.: ...•:

, In the .Besident.Magistrate's Court, yesterday, t Henry Kirke, for drunkenness, was fined 10s, and Henry Muschon, for disorderly conduct, was fined, 30s| or" four days',; imprisdhnjent in default. Mortmene Hiehbn and Phillip Hull were summoned by Inspector iNimon, for neglecting to haye their names painted on their drays. They had not been long in the town, and they pleaded ignorance of the law. They were cautioned, and the case dismissed., jn the case .'Abbot tJ. Solomon, reported yesterday, the amount of the verdict should have been Ll2, including the amount paid into' Court.

■ The i ship Holenslee, r from the Clyde, brought 24 cabin and 113 steerage passengers. jThere- were 'included, equal to 61 statute, adults, who were assisted by; the Provincial Government, and eight whose i passages were aided by arrangements made | here with Messrs Cargills and M'Lean, the agents for the ship. Sixteen are single vronW1, I and the remainder are~made up of families i and single men. We learn from the Immigration Agent, that -the generailly -are very suitable for the present requirement 6t the Province. The men are accustomed to farm work. A good many of I .'the'families and single men .have already sheen"engaged; and: all the women-servants met with ready employment immediately on their ajrrival. Married 'cbtiploa, without family, | receive L 75 per annum^ without rations \ single men, L 52 per annum,: and rations • and single women from L3O, to L 35, i according to experience. — The next ship Ito arrive from the Clyde is the Schleswig Bride, sailed on June 24th, with 2G5 i passengers. '

A fine collection of Oil Paintings," Chromolithographs, aad Water Colors based on Photographs, mayrEov? be seen at ,the Photographic Establishment of Measra. Burton Brother^, of Princes street. The collection comprises eighty-eight pieces in all, and among them are some.of remarkable beauty. The eye is caught at onca by two Chromolithographs of paintings by Uosa Bonheur, exhibitiiig all the easy mastery of rural life, by -which that artist. has. been> long distinguished. In one of them,.,we have a Scotch heath, with a Highland laddie dragging along two refractory little ponies pf the Sihetland type ; in the other, a party of Continental husbandmen, engaged in cornthrashing—a process which they conduct by a team of four-horses abreast, driven over the corn in Circus fashion. The hand of the master ik visible in both these pieces., The figures, both of meo. and animals, are true to the life—full of animation and perfect in every detail. Another celebrated master is represented in a piece familiar to all of us —The Old Temeraire, by Turner. We regret that this should be the only piece contributed to this collection by the greatest of all landscape painters, and the peculiar glory of the British School. The sixteen pieces in oil represent the usual variety of subject— fish, fruit, and flowers not exceptcd. la animal life, we have au early work by Armfield, in which a couple of spanielaare giving chase to a pheasant; and another by Ir.vker devoted to Donkeys. The latter is a very pleasing work, and will no doubt attract the sympathies of the visitor; ' Gillie Calium 1 is the title of a small piece by Craig, representing domestic life in a High'and cabin. The Gillie.is dancing the sworddance, whilehis relatives are parsing tlie evening hours in evident content. IS To Scotchman cauiesiit such a scene. Landscape occupiesj a large jnuniber of the Chvomolithographs, and we m?et with pretty specimens of Italian aud German scenery, with a few of a less hackneyed character—such as a vievr on Lake Windsrniere. 'Off Dunkerque' and ' Mackerel Pishing' are good specimens of marine art; but two of the most attractive sketches in this part of the Gallery are 'Summer Time 1 and 'Winter Time.' These seasons of the year are represented by sheep—in one piece, en joying the sunsh ne ; ia the other, nestling together in the - snow. These are extremely good. Amoag the Water Colours, we have some tempting specimens of French Art: • Pagnerette' and c Carmila/ Wo companion pieces,

are worthy-of note; while a classical taste will beattracted by three attempts to restore domestic life in Pompeii. t This collection deserves the' notice of the pubic from its intrinsic merits,^ and .-hope its proprietors "will find that Art is not without its admirers in this city. 1" .„„,, ~,.„ *''' ;;■". New Zealand flax, it appears, has "been extensively, cultivated in Prance for some years past—not ?or commercial purposes, but for1 the of houses and flower gardens. The Saturday Review oi the • 20th June last, in "a notice, of a work entitled ' Gleanings from French Gardens,' makes the following allusion to the subject:—"But the plant of which our author would have,us borrow the out-door use from the French is the phormium tenax or New Zealand .flax. " Ttjey grow it by thousands for the decoration of rooms," and in the great nursery of the city., of..Paris, at Passy, there are -ten thousand plants of it, 'chiefly used^or the embellishment of the BCtel de Ville."..' It does well out of doors in the southern and western districts; and looks best plunged M; the grass, or for the centre of a bed. But all these need.a greenhouse, "more or less 'J ":Mr' Robinspn has made his notes of comparison among jthe herbaceous plants at the Jardin dcs Plantes,- and at our Botanical Gardens, to meet tho needs of those who have noi this luxury]— Our. readers will be surprised -to hear that the phormitim tenax has become' popular in France. The next thing we'! may expect jfco hear about it is, that the market for thejraw material;aa well aa': the. matvu.facturejl article is forestalled,'by French' agriculturists, while New.; Zealand gro^rera are pulling their intellec'fcs as Wwhat trtiey should 'do with their native plant; ; ; Thisjeyening there will be a meetingpf the Second; New Zealand Building and Investment Sfocic-ty. '" ' ; :: ''__ BayJb Bernard's f'The Evil Gehiuß,"-which was produced at the Princess Theatre last evening,-isa very good sample of i^.e modern three-act comedy.' It is a picturje of possible ordinary life and manners, with a dash of intrigup;. and it has a moral \vbich is not forced jipon ihe audience, ..'but is fairly forked • out. JMr Cooley,: before he wenfr to India, to.Tgetj together, a fortune ..and. visions of social importance, has been secretly married.■ Hia desire to be rich and to take a position in his jnative county makes him forget his duty as a man j and he is not, careful;as to what may'become of his wife and theirVson! When |Mr Cooley returns to England, he thinks jhimself pestered by;the presence iniis fine ho|use of an old friend, .Tom Bipstone. Tom id a very cool, free and easy sorjj.of ,pei> sonage, who remembers Cooley's marriagej andia not inclined to allow Cooley to forget it. ;', Tom recollects everything that can be an^noyingjto Copley, and nsea - his knowledge with a purpose; Tom has hia opposite ia Joe Wither^, an old postmanj who .rememo|rA everything he ought to forget, and forgete everything he ought to remember ; Joe also knows Mr. Cooley's early history. So, though Tom's opposite ia' temperament, Joe is equally a terror to M*! Cooley. Thatt' gentleman is anxious to tate caste with the county families, and he gives r a grand fete. Tom and Joe make him believe that on the day of the fete he will see hia .sou-^the wife is dead'; and Cooley conjures jap a picture, of a country lout who is 1» come into themidsji of the assembled g< ntry a^d ta call him father in some, broad dialect. Cooley seems, to be, justified in thinking Tom his evil genius ; but he alters hia opinion when .he finds that his son |is a gentleman, and finda,- alsoj- who has to be.Jbhinked tkerefor. The qon finds a wife in! his father's!'adoptedr'daughter-fs£ Mrs Mtotgomeryi whbis an renemy to Tom, does not ■. find . a husband ik Cooley ; but a second' marriage .is ; brought about .by Tom, jbetweea Lady Aurora Bingwood and MrVWabusley, the gentleman "bemg" a 'very weak reproduction of Sir Charles' Coldß.treain,Vin "Used : TJp.!' Mr Roberts, as Tom Bipstone, was really ;a, naturally behaved, -lively, -good-tempered fellow, as.he ought to be';-and similar praise must be given, to. Miss Dolly Green, for her lacting as Lady Aurora, "a widow of thirty, with L2OOO a year,"' no objection to a gallop across country after ithe houndß,; and no disincliDation ; to "run:to. earth" the first man she can meet and think worthy; of being "her second husbandl^ Joe Withers was capitally played by Mr Wilinot, the jolly body and the vacuous mind of the old man being equally well represented.^ Miss Jenny Nye was Clara Fielding, the adopted, daughter, and Miss.Cassy Mathews was Mrs Montgomery; MrJoyce, and [Mr Bell respectiyely represented Mr Cooley and Mr Walmaley. The comedy was carefully and well put upon the.staoe. —The farce, we belieTe,' was " A S.Si"—Both pieced are to be repeated.