THE Otago Daily Times. MONDAY, JUNE 21, 1875.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4162, 21 June 1875, Page 2

THE Otago Daily Times. MONDAY, JUNE 21, 1875.

If the Council had sat very muqh longer, it would have voted away not; merely next year's revenue, but that of the year after. Anything- more entirely ehildish-than to sit on the wellcovered seats of the Council Hall, and with impudently false liberality vote sums which cannot be expended within the next three years by any possible combination of circumstances, we have never known. If, at the beginning of the session, Mr Reid proposed to chas-' tise the Province with whips, he has at the lasfc made use of scorpions. We may take £400,000 as the sum over and above the current year's revenue which the Council has voted away. Under such circumstances, it will be almost unnecessary that the Council should meet either in 1576 or 1877 ; indeed, practically, it has come to this : That they need never sit again ; possibly they never will sit again. If it had but voted away the departmental salaries for two years, we could well spare the members, and express a strong hope that for some years to come they would coufine their attention to their own business, which, it is to be hoped, they will understand, and let alone public "affairs,, which it is painfully evident they know nothing about. There are many signs that the minds of the country members were devoted to the regions of imagination rather than to those of hard fact When the members begin to write poetry about each other in the. public prints, it is time that they ceased to receive their twenty shillings a day. It may be questioned, indeed, whether a more imaginative mind is not required to vote impossible railways out of hypothetical moneys, than to make bad puns upon each other's names in sing-song. The ideas, however, have a certain affinity, inasmuch as they are both.unutterablj silly. It is to be much desired that their political-manoeuvres were no worse than their poetical; but, alas for us, the effects are much more lasting. We are aware, of course, that Mr Reid's policy had a very definite beai--ing ; he did not scruple to point it out. In plain language, it is simply this : the General Government will very likely lay its hands upon our land fund ; let us sell, pa.vn, reserve, and otherwise dispose of our heritage, so that the despoiler may get as little as possible out of us. Tnis, of course, is not policy at all, by whatever name it may be called. It reminds us rather of the action of those nervous people who may sometimes be seen at a fire flinging the bedroom crockery out of the window in order to save it from fire. Bankruptcy •Judges are not unfamiliar with the story of how ABC pledged every negotiable asset until his creditors could not get half a-crown in the pound. We repeat, there is not much statesmanship in dealing with the public funds after this fashion. Perhaps the proper verdict is, "Your certificate will be suspended for two years." It is not, moreover, a mere matter of impolitic and dishonest dealing; another an<3 more obvious, if not greater evil, is attached to such conduct. Every year now-a-days, a certain item of account has to be noted aud explained, viz., " balance unexpended," or amount due on unfinished contracts. Every session the sum voted, but not spent within the year, grows greater. It is worthy of note, though it seems to have escaped observation, that this item, if it grows fast, is a pretty sure sign of mismanagement at least—and very often of the grossest corruption. To vote away a sum enormously larger than can possibly be spent, on the calculation that some of it will have to be held over, is, on the part of a representative body, simply to abrogate its most important function of allotting sums for certain specific work. It is in effect to entrust to the Executive the right of selection as to which work should be pushed forward. It is clear to everybody that all the operations for which money is voted cannot possibly be carried on ; and it is a distinct temptation to the Government to be ruled in their selection by influences' which will not bear inspection. Jealous as the representatives of the people usually are about the power of the purse, and carehiliy as they examine into questions of undue preference and improper motives, it is painfully evident that local jealousies and intestine quarrels have fairly blinded their eyes to the evil we have noticed, and led them during the past session to give an unlimited and almost irresponsible authority to the members of the present Executive. We have no hesitation in saying that the composition of the Executive is excellent, and its honour unexceptionable ; at the same time, the principle of handing over unlimited power to a few is entirely opposed to sound principles of representative government. We repeat it, froui a variety of causes this last Council has abdicated the position to which it was called by i's constituents, and divested itself of the powers entrusted to it; they have been careless of the responsibilities with which it was charged, and the crime, like every crime, will bear its fruit next year, in a whole host of charges, and counter charges, of jobbery, corruption, and the like When our provincial rulers show themselves thus reckless, it is high time that they should be sent ofF°to more congenial occupations. Centralism might be better—it could not be worse for us. We have said nothing about the expediency of formiug this or that line ; about this opinions^iust differ very widely, The questions that arose towards the end of the session between the various birds of prey, remind us of the story of the commercial traveller and the laudlord. The former remonstrated at the extortionate charges in his bill. The latter offered to take threepence off the amount charged for wax candles, wheu this proved unsatisfactory, he requested the bagman to find fault with the items. To which the man of commerce replied, it "is the extortionate s-nn total to which I object." So with the Council's action. Whether the Nightcap or Catlins line is required, the VVaihemo or Tapanui, is not the point now. The extortionate total is utterly unreasonable, and the Council that permitted the bill to run

up, deserves to, and probably will, pass out of existence quickly, and unregretted. V/^r?,,-- " '-v'r':: ■■-

It is one of the curses of a place like Dunedin, that it is almost impossible to discuss any subject whatever, however intrinsically free' from personal concern ■ \yithout being dragged into personalities'. Probably it is the size of the place that causes this evil, to a great extent. It-is neither so small as t© belong to the genus family,- or so big as to have the advantages .of a town. Among the citizens tliereare riot a few whose whole business seems to be to walk about the streets and pick up gossip. Such men have few pleasures other than those presented to them by small talk, and they would be miserable if they did not make out their daily dish of scandal. Being unrestrained by good feeling or decency, they are not likely to be kept in order by a fear of legal consequences; these are too difficult m their operation, and far too hazardous to create any real terror. To these vultures there is no garbage so toothsome as a story of how A. acted to 8., or Messrs D. treated poor P. If they cannot find any such story ready made, what odds is that? nothing can be easier than to invent the necessary incident or imagine the whole conversation and produce it as verity and truth. It need not be said that this sort of fellow is not a man with much upon his hands. Business, naturally, does not fall to his share, and so mischief is found for his idle hands to do. The trade of scandal-mongering is not profitable in a monetary point of view, but so many work at it that it is probable there are indirect profits in amusement and sociability, which go far to compensate for pecuniary losses. Some of the effects of this kind of thing are painfully manifest. It is simply impossible for one to do any kind of business requiring more than ordinary secresy. The vultures are on the look out for a secret like a cat watchi'-g for a mouse. On its discovery they give up all other occupation for the pleasure of flitting about and getting their friends aud neighbours to share the feast. If foiled for a time in their effort, the mere knowledge that there is something to be found out, is quite sufficient to make them create the whole thing upon a basis of probability down to the smallest detail, and repeat it until it seems grounded on a basis of fact. All this, which is true of every-day semi-private matters, 13 more especially true of semipublic affairs. Does some one write about drainage 1 a dozen people are ready to declare behind his back—always behind his back—that this is done with the view of hitting Dr A . Is the subject in hand the Bar ] plenty of people set to work to point out how it is proposed to have a cut afc Mr B. Has something transpired connected with the Churches! the vulture takes much pains to insinuate that the facts see the light with a view of worrying Mr C. We might instance a hundred other similar cases. If Dunedin would only grow a little faster, we should Moon have more peace. Infantine, or rather youthful, disorders are its curse.

From the tenor of the reports which have lately appeared ill print, and from what we have heard privately from both interested and disinterested persons, it would appear that the JE\»rt of Tiniaru is not over and above well provided with appliances for tendering vessels which trade there. We have again and again been appealed to upon the question, and such facts have been adduced as place out of the reach of doubt the complaint advanced. The port of Timaru is virtually an open roadstead ; but the town being the mart of an extensive agricultural and pastoral district, highly favoured by Nature, aud occupied by a pushing, progressive, and an increasing community as a natural sequence the trade of the place is growing apace, and its shipping business is yearly augmenting. We take a very lively interest in the welfare of Timaru, because, although it lies in another Province, it is intimately connected by commercial relations with Dunedin—so intimately, indeed, that anything which tends to militate against Timaru re-acts unfavourably upon Dunedin. Especially in matters bearing upon the shipping interest is this bond of union apparont. The carrying trade between the two places is already heavy, and grows with their growth. Large pecuniary interests are at stake on both sides, and it is therefore of the utmost moment that every reasonable and practicable facility for promoting the development of the trade should be applied to it. Timaru "draws heavily upon Dunedin for merchandise of all kinds, and Dunedin, in its turn, depends in no' slight degree upon Timaru for supplies of those staple products of export—wool and grain. These are simple truths recognisable at a glance, and pleasant to -contemplate. There is, however, a reverse side of the picture to be presented. The profitable intercourse above mentioned is in a measure marred by the uncertainty attending the despatch of vessels at Timaru. The port is, a roadstead untenable during certain phases of the weather, and this disadvantage—and a very serious one it is—is only to be neutralised by the quickest of despatch being accorded to vessels which trade to it. As there are neither piers nor wharves for vessels to lie at, the sole means to this end are boating services, consisting of large surf boai,% which convey freight to and from the roadstead and the shore. How indispensable it is that these services should be thoroughly ample and efficient at all points, is rendered apparent by the fact of there being at times as many as twen;y vessels waiting in the roadstead to be tendered. Nearly that number, including steamers, were lying off Timaru when the late disastrous gales commenced. ■Now, to attend to that comparatively large fleet, there were two boating services, comprising eight boats, of which seven belonged to the Tiniaru Landing and Shipping Company, and one to the Government service, so termed, an affair that is under the control of the Timaru and Gladstone Road Board. Upon this latter service little or no dependence is placed, and thus the brunt of the work falls upon the private company, which being very well conducted, succeeds in accomplishing a maximum of work with what is almost a minimum of appliances, for what are half-a-dozen or seven boats amongst so many vessels ? They are absolutely inadequate to meet current requirements., and hence the most vexatious and, we may add, dangerous delay is frequently entailed upon the vessels depending upon them. The delay is vexatious because it involves waste of money and time, and dangerous inasmuch that vessels waiting for ballast, after having discharged part of their car^o, have been caught by bad weather, and ;ather than incur the -almost certainty of wreck by trusting to their anchors have put to sea out of trim, aud thus were in an tinfit condition to work off a lee shore. Again, the loss of time is not confined to the vessels at Timarn, but is felt at this port by outward bound home ships waiting for coastwise cargo, and how long' they have had to wait has been demonstrated only too plainly this year in the cases of several of the late departures. The remedy for the complaint advanced is not far to seek or difficult of application ; what is needed is simply an extension of the boating services, especially that one under the control of the Timarn and Gladstone Road Board, which, if reports are true, is very much in the position of the dog in the manger, as it monopolises one of the two available landing places on the Timaru beach.

The Provincial Council was prorogued on Saturday. A motion by Mr Reeves on the subject of toll-bars, and which was as follows, was carried .-—"That, in the opinion of this Council, it is desirable that, on the

expiration of the present toll-bar leases, all, toll-gates Jn^the Province be removed to a i reasonable from town or city boundaries. " A motion, censuring the Government for «< the unnecessary delay" that had taken" place in opening the Waipori drainage claunel, was proposed by Mr J. C. Brown. The honourable member had not completed the first sentence of what might have been a most eloquent speech, when his Honour the Superintendent was announced. Of course, on the Superintendent being announced, it was at once seen that there was an end to proceedings on Mr Brown's motion for ten or twelve months to come, and the laughter that arose on His Honour's well-timed entrance was of the heartiest description. With the exception of Mr Brown's motion, all business on the Order Paper had been disposed of when the Superintendent delivered his speech, proroguing the Council. The Post Office authorities have issued a notice in which they say that much diffi culty is experienced in the delivery to their right owners of letters imperfectly addressed, and the.Post Office has frequently incurred unjust censure, either for unintentionally delivering such letters to wrong persons, or for declining the responsibility of delivering them at aIL The address of every letter ought to be full and distinct; and it is obvious that the correct delivery cannot in all cases be secured unless the name of the street and occupation, when any, be added in the address of the letter to the name of the person to whom the letter is intended to be given. The practice of addressing letters to a towii only prevails to a large extent, and it has become necessary to call special attention to the matter, in order to prevent not only the delay which such letters are in all cases liable to suffer, but also the danger to which they are exposed of being delivered to wrong persons and lost altogether. Yesterday being the 3Sth anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Victoria's accession to the British throne, full choral services were held in St. Paul's Church. In the morning, the organist played the National Anthem! Archdeacon Edwards announced that the offertories next Sunday would be given to the new Anglican Church at Baklutha. A deputation of settlers from Green Island was introduced to His Honour the Superintendent by Mr Stout, M.P.0., on Sa u urday. The object of the deputation was to bring under His Honour's notice the question of the expenditure of money upon roads aud streets in townships established and owned by private persons. Several members of the local Board objected to this expenditure— because the land was not vested in the Go- ' vernment or the Hoad Boards. Mr Stout( thought the best remedy would be to get an Act of the General Assembly declaring that so soon as the plans of a private township were deposited in the Land Transfer Office or Registry of Deeds Office, the streets marked on such plans should be conveyed to the Koad Board of the district or to the Superintendent. In this case he thought the Road Board ought to expend the money requhed, as the streets m the private township had no doubt been dedicated to the public. His Honour stated that he would urge the General Government to iutroduce a Bill sucli as that suggested by Mr Stout, or failing in that endeavour he would probabiy introduce such a Bill himself. A stable in Union street, owned by Mr G. Wright, was observed to be on tire early on Saturday morning by a person living near to it, named Lawrence, who, with the aid of a few buckets of water, extinguished it. The Rev. W. J. Dean, of Invercargill, conducted the Primitive Methodist services in the Temperance Hall yesterday. In the j evening, about 60 persons were present. The Sailors' Home contained twenty | boarders on Saturday last, eight having entered, aud nine having left during the week. ° ! We are glad to notice that Mr R. H. Leary has commenced his career in the City Council by introducing a very sensible, and at the same time very necessary motion. The motion we refer to is to the following effect:—"That the streets of the city be raised in thecentre, or lowered at the sides, whichever might be more practicable and economical, so as to secure a fall of at least one foot in twenty from the crown of the road to the level of the channel •>." The desirability of this change being made in our streets will commend itself to the veriest tyro in road making. At present, as a rule, the lowest part of the road is in the centre, and the natural consequence is that all the water lies in this part, and the road is one continual puddle. We should be sorry to think Dunedin is an exception in the way of dirty streets, but one is almost forced ta this conclusion every time there is the slightest fall of rain. Aud while on the subject of streets, we might point out to the authorities that the crossings which have Recently been laid are actually the dirtiest parts of the streets. We were under the impression that the pitching was laid to render crossing the street in dirty weather a more cleanly matter than it has recently been, but, possibly, we were wrongly informed. However, to return to Mr Leary's motion, we do hope that it will be carried unanimously on Wednesday, and immediately be practically attended to. Mr Marsh, Secretary of the Melbourne Young Men's Christian Association, again presided at the weekly service in the Queen's Theatre last evening. The various parts ef the house, not excluding the private boxes, were filled. At a general meeting of the Scandinavian Society, held at the Queen's Hotel on Saturday night, several gentlemen were proposed as members, and an enjoyable evening was spent. The Wilson Gray Memorial Committee met in the Shamrock Hotel on Saturday morning, and agreed to furnish subscription lists to the Mayors of the various municipalities throughout the Province, limiting individual subscriptions to one guinea. Seventeen patients were admitted, aud the same number discharged, from the Dunedin Hospital during the week ended June 19. There were four deaths during the week—William Benkow, labourer, aged -M, native of England, died from stone in the bladder; John Reddy, aged 33, labourer, native of Dublin, from iunanimation of the lungs; George Dallas, labourer, aged 4C, native of Gl.isgow, from laryngitis; and Felix Mussena, fish broker, aged 65, native of Savoy, from consumption. The number of patients at present in the Hospital is 17S of whom 43 are females. A young German woimn, named Charlotta Catherina Amelia Schmidt, whose superabundance of holy wedlock has led her into trouble, will be charged at the Police Court, this morning, on warrant from Christchurch, with tying the connubial knot in duplicate. At the Port Chalmers Police Court, on Saturday, Henry Cooper was brought up on the double charge of drunkenness aud using' obscene and profane language. He was found guilty, and sentenced to a fine of os, or 24 hours' imprisonment on the first charge^ and 103, with the same alternative, on the second. The half-yearly meeting of shareholders in the Lucknow Gold Mining Company was heldin the offices of Messrs M'Lan'dress, Hepburn, and Co, Manse street, on Friday evening, The directors' report showed satisfactory progress, the tunnel workings being much enhanced through the acquisition by the Company of the whole. When last worked, this 2-eef was six feet in thickness, yielding half an ounce to the ton, aud the

['lode was dipping towards the Lucknow. i The mining manager's report also spoke • of the exceedingly good -prospects of the ■ Company. k W. Edwards, pedestrian, accomplished the '■ feat of walking 100 miles in 24 hours on "Saturday, at the Drill-shed, -with five . minutes to spare. Tie walker did the last ■ mile in good time, though not in nine i minutes as he anticipated, and, at the end, was thoroughly exhausted with the trying 1 ordeal he had passed through. After finishing the 50th mile he showed signs of faintness, but afterwards revived, and continued to walk, though his feefc were bleeding very much through the effects of new shoes he wore—a very unwise proceeding on his part, i It is universally conceded that the feat was I honourably accomplished. : A Switzer's correspondent, writing under date lath June to theTuapeka Times, says : 1 —I am informed that John Morrison, who was supposed to have perished in a snowstorm at the Upper Walkaia last year, was seen alive and well harvesting at Oamaru a few months back. I cannot vouch for the truth of this report, though it is generally believed here, particularly by those who ! knew him best, who say it was not the first freak of the same nature that worthy had ' displayed. < ' A lecture will be given this evening at the ; Temperance Hall in aid of the Widows and ; Orphans Fund of the Leith Lodge, L0..0.F. | The lecturer on this occasion will be P.G. | Bro. Thos. Bracken, and the subject of the lecture—" An evening with Samuel Lover." Numerous selections will be made from the works of this celebrated author—the ' comic element to a large extent prevailing. Mr Bracken has always succeeded in pleasiug | hia audience, and we are confident this oc- > casion will prove no exception to the rule, as the subject is one which is well suited to the lecturer, who will do full justice to it. » Bro. Stout, M.P.0., will preside. A case of sticking up occurred near ' Mosgici eariy on Saturday morning. A boy ' named M 'Donald was riding along a secluded | po-tion of the road, when a man, undisguised, emerged from some bush close by, and forcibly took possession of the boy's horse. The animal was afterwards recovered • at the Shambrock stables, and last evening Sergt. Anderson, a meritorious and vigilant - ! officer of the Police force, arrested a ' : labourer named John Riley, on the charge, ! in Stafford street. When apprehended' | Uiley was wearing a waist coat and trousers j 1 stolen from the Carriers' Arms Hotel on the ! • 19 eh, which he is further charged with stealing. ' On Friday evening a number of " fallen ; women" of this city were entertained at tea in Farley's Hall by the members of the La- ' dies' Committee of the Dunedin Refuge. L Several clergymen were present, and devotional exercises were engaged in. We are glad to hear that the Committee are not ret laxing their endeavours to reclaim these unfortunatfs, and we hope to learn that the ! recent gathering has had some beneficial 1 effect. Our Arrowtown correspondent writes : ' Messrs Southberg and Oluon, of the New 1 Year's Gift Reef, Skippers, furnished a crushing last week oi 170 tons, which yielded 1270z lOdwts. The work of getting the s-one and passing it through the machine was all performed by three men in sixteen 1 weeks. After payment of all expeuses, the ; dividend was equal to £9 per week a man. '■ The Phoenix Tributors have come on some very good stone. After getting out about 100 tons of six or seven dwt. to the ton stuff, i a leader of about a foot thick came in from i the hanging wall, when gold showed in considerable quantities. Some of the specimens, if taken by themselves, might yield 40 or 50 • ounces to the ton, but, taking the reef as it . is, and it is quite probable that the present find is tbe same shoot of gold as she old Scandinavian Company lost, it should yield ■ an average of eight ounces to the ton. It i. has always been thought that when the gold was first lost in this claim that it ran off into ; the hanging wall, but succeeding managers ■ elected to search for it in the foot wall, and consequently never found it. The present lucky tiud is only an accident. It will be ; absurd to form any very sanguine opiuions of . the ultimate yield, as the Scandinavian is i only a block reef, its structure rapidly alter- ■ natiug between quartz and mullock ; still there is every probability that the present shoot of stone may yield many hundred ounces of gold. The tributors expect to be able to have their machinery ready for crushing in the course of a fortnight. The reef is between six and seven feet in thickness, runs east and west, and underlays to the north at an angle of something, like 70 degrees, with a tendency to a more vertical position—a very s;ood siga, so far as experience teaches. The tribute is 15 per cent, to the owners of the mine—the Messrs Bullen. The owners' agent is Mr F. W. Evans, late manager of the once fatno-is Shotover Terrace Co, which gentleman has decided that no newspaper men shall enter the Phoenix. Mr Evans, holding such enlightened ideas of the power of the Presa that in the agreement with the tributors a clause exists, with a penalty attiched, "that no reporter of any newspaper shall be permitted to enter the mine, nor any other person intending to, or likely to, supplyinformation to a newspaper." It is said that this injunction against the Press is in consequence of unfavourable comments made in regard to Mr Evans's management of the Shotover Terrace Company. However, notwithstanding all these pre cautions against publicity,'l fully expect to be able to put you in possession of all particulars connected with the working of this uiiue. The prohibition is most unfair and unjust towards the tributors, and depreciates the value of their property, as with such a restriction they could scarcely sell a share in the open market. The knighthood of our Premier must have been a surprise to the London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, judging from a pissage in one of his letters, in which he deals with the fixating of the four million loan. "Whatever," he says, "may be the views of other people, the colonists appear content to borrow as much as they can and ignore reckoning days, and somebody else is willing to discount their future for them. But it need occasion no surprise, as Mr Vogel's presence in England is closely associated with this transaction, that when the Earl of Carnarvon was pressed the other day to recommend that gentleman to Her Majesty for knighthood, His Lordship is reported to have said, 'Not for the world.'" The entertainment under the auspices of the Press Dramatic Club, to take place at Port Chalmers on the 3rl July, :n aid of the Accident Ward Fund, promises to be highly successful. A capital programme, inclnding the famous Pickwickian Court Scene, and a solo jiuaugulato, was prepared last Saturday, and a Sub Committee appointed to carry out the arrangements. The final exhibition of Bachelder's Panorama, illustrating scenes from Milton's "Paradise Lost," in Dunedin, took place on Saturday evening, at which there was a fair attendauoe. . The Princess Theatre was very well-at-tended on Saturday evening, the pit and stalls being crowded, and the dress circle liberally patronised. The programme was "The Streets of 2few York," which drama passed off fairly. This evening " East and West" will be presented. We understand that a drama written by a resident of Dunedin specially for Mr aud Mrs Bates will shortly be produced. I ]