AUCKLAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 5276, 18 January 1879, Page 2 (Supplement)

AUCKLAND.

(FROM OUK OiVN CORRESPONDENT.)

January Bth. In matters political there is little to record The Hon. Mr Sheehan has received the usual number of deputations, whom he has bowed out of the Ministerial sanctum with the same inevitable grace as of yore. He is at present engaged in business connected with his department at Waikato, and in all probability he will have to go North to settle fresh difficulties which have arisen between the Natives and the Government in land purchases, owing to the action taken by landsharks and speculators. The opening up of the country to settlement and colonisation, by the medium of trunk roads is engaging the attention of Government. In the North fresh works are contemplated by the Government, and in the Seuth the new road struck out by Mr Moss, M.H.R., and his native guides, between Cambridge and the Lakes, is enf aging their consideration. Already the letenee Minister has made advances on blocks on this route, in order to facilitate the extinction of the Native title ; and the hope is expressed thnt a wil way will sooner or later bring tho (me district between Cambridge and the Lakes within eight hours' travel of Auckland. Mr G. M. Ree 7, the new emigration agent, arrived hero laat week via the East Coast and the Ti.mes. Ho visited the Katikati settlement, for the purpose of satisfying himself a3 to the conflicting statements that have been published concerning the condition of the Vesey Stewart settlers, and also that he might, in the Mother country, be in a condition to refer with authority to the progress of a settlement with the history and founding of which the British public are to some extent familiar. He has expressed himself as greatly pleased at the advancement already made, and believes that it poßßcS3fs within it all the natural resources necessary to a future and growing prosperity. He left here yesterday for Sydney, en route for England, bearing with him the beat wishes of the general public for the success of his mitsion It is to be

hcped f'.at he will not b~ snbjot-ted to the same ordeal as Mr Samuel Cnchnrnp, regarding whose emigration mission to the Mother Country a good story is told He was lecturing one night in nn Engltah ma- ufacturiny town on ihe adv.nt.ges and attiac ion. of N. w Z.aland as « field f.-r emigration, in that warm and g'ow ng stylo in which Auckland's "George &j bins" is wont occasionally to indulge, when one of the auditory in the back part of the hall expressed a deßire to "know, you know," ab-.ut a place cilled Coromandel His inquiries were readily answered ; but whon tho querist proceeded further to ask for information touching the township of Wynynrdton (one of tho late M-cbsd Wood's " l_d-.ui,; townships), with a mild request ih>t its latitude and longitude might be given, Samuel's temper g'-ve way, for his auctioneering reminiscences throw a flood of light over that reinirkablo land transaction. Mr Cochran** felt ratifii-.d, from the conti'.ual chuckling in the haU, that this young mi'n of the inquiring turn of mind waa an old denial—a conjecture that proved correct, for, after a.n amu-ing reoontro in tho hall, the young man took occasi >n latsr in tbe evening to call upon Mr Cochrane at his hotel, and introduced liitcself i s e.n old Commaudel gold digger. A he&rty lau^h ar.d mutual exolanations ensued between the parlies a.d a pleasant chat over old time* in the Province of Auckland. The Catholic community here seem ti have set themselves at last seii uuly to the task of sapping the foundations of the Stale system of eriucitiou. Inspired by ihe oratory of Father Hennibery, and stimulated by his salutary references to a loc-lity regarding tbe temperature of whioh the thermometer gives no index, in cases of default, they have raised £2000, or abon. one fourth of the amount necessary to run efficiently their city denominational schools, which will also be subject to an annuil charge of £1200 a year. Educational premises aro being buili-, teachers engaged, and the " holy war " against th? ''godless" system will be in. augurated shortly, under the patronage and in the presence of the Catholio Bishops of Dunadiu and Wellington. Looking upon the handsome, commodious, and wellapnointed sohool buildings, with their staff of traioed teaohers, now rising up in every centre of population under State supervision, one is puzzled to understand this persistent desire to return to the days when, in Auckland, ill-ventilated dens usurped the place of educational establishments, and hed^e schoolmasters, guiltless of holding third-class ceitiiicated, were entrusted with the mental and moral culture of youth. It is somewhat characteristic, in the prosent instance, that the Boys' High School is to be called the "Sacred Heart "-—a matter that occasions no surprise, as the natural outcome of Denominationalism generally is to place the wretched ism first, and duty to one's fellow citizens and the country next. The Catholis laymen have hitherto been somewhat lukewarm on tha question of sectarian education; they serve on State school committees, send their children to State sohools, and, tut|for the "heckling" of their spiritual glides, would be only too willing to let well alone. Mr Sheehan's lecture the other night to the Working Men's Club, of whioh he is the president, was redundant with good sense and humour. His exhortation to selfreliance was particularly appropriate, considering that finance has always been the weak point of tho Club. There are working men, and working men, and working men. said the versatile Native Minister ; but he did not lay too much stress on the fact that, as "the son of a carpenter," he might be regarded as one of the political saviours of the Colony. His sentiments on the Chinese question g*ve great satisfaction, not only to his audience, whioh fairly represented the industrial classes, but to the public generally • for here, as throughout the South, the same antipathy to the introduction of en alien race exists. Our duty is to our own countrymen, who, in too many cases, simply " live to labour, and labour to live,"—of whom it haa been sung by ono who knew the depth, of their wrongs and pive-rr.v—

They wa- not the chain, nor the festering ring, But'they se.ll themselves-a tl fe.r whit thej-'ll orlng; A. d many a strong man bow, his he el, Arid toil, for ies~ than hia '' dsilv breed "

These wo may fairly ask to como and help us to build up a groat and prosperous State —strong by comma'..ity of race, i..f sentiment, and national traditions; nnd who, as respect- npti ude for tlie rough-and ready work of co'oaisat'on—for all the elements of charaoter_ whioh go to make up the suecesrful colonist—may be safely pitted again-t double their number of any other nationality. The Christmas and New Year's holidaj s have been celebrated tbi* season with a heartiness which gives little token of the "bad times" which croakers are continually harping about. On eveiy baud were to be seen at the various places of amusement and of public resort juyous crowds apparently in possession of all tha comforts end even luxuries of life. Scarcely a face cnuld be seen on which the shadow of poverty had been cast, .save those which hid been darkened by crime, intemperance, or improvidence. As usual we ha re not been able to get over the festive soas.m -without the ao. cnmpanying socid I retted cp, tho result of strong driuk, The Noithern Wairoa (Kaipara) has made its r;>_.ular contribution to the death-roll of the province, without; which the celebration of the holidays would u-t Le complete. A few years ago tlie average death-rate, through drink, on tbi, swift and dangerous river was a roan per month all the year round; but the howl of public indignation raised by the loss of a funeral party on tho river through the Bame cause stimulated the publicans to place such restrictions on the liquor traliic as reduced the mortality to three men per annum. An attempt was made by the settlers to airest the evil at the fountainbead by prevention rather than cure, but "vested interests" were too potent for tho protests of mill managers and tho wail of widowed women snd fatherless children to be regarded by the licensing authorities. The "issue of b'ood" which for years has disgraced Northern Wairoa may not be staunched, for human life is cheap—more especially the lives of bushmen and gumdiggers. Here is a specimen of how the licensing laws are enforced in some outdistricts :—ln a bush public, not a hundred miles from Auckland, where bushmen and gum-diggers most do congregate, it is customary for the barkeeper, whea the men get to the "fresh" stage, to run up bratticework, specially made for the purpose, as fuar.'s to the windows and bar furniture ut wheu " the heroes of a hundred drunks" are helplessly prone on the floor, under the combined iuflumiee of tanglefeet and rotgut, a couple of stretchermen speedily whip the deac'-druuk off to an outbuildii % at the rear, ig tjie tstypa 4 jt| wewYJfcJs* °ssm*

pants as "the dead-house," there to sleep off the effects of the debauch. On a particular Sunday, 18 "travelling" bushmen and gum-diggers were lying heads and-tails in the dead-house, having been "run in" early in the day, while in an adjoining room of the establishment a parson was holding forth earnestly and eloquently on the "Fall of Man," and the total—in fact, teetotal— depravity of human nature, from "All we, like sheep, havo gone astray" ! There is an adage touching "Pull devil, pull baker," but this may ba regarded as its latest illustration.

Death has again been busy among the pioneers of the province, one of them—the Hon. T. H. Bartley—passing away to his rest during the closing hours of Christmas Day. As Speaker of the Auckland Provincial Council, and subsequently of the Legislative Council, he bore his part in the political struggles whioh marked the earlier era of Representative Government. Perhaps he will b6 best remembered by the dignified and firm stand taken by him during the memorable deadlock in the Auckland Provincial Council in 1857. On that occasion Mr Baitley maintained the rights of the Council against the Superintendent, regardless of consequences. In vain were the doors of the hall nailed up by the guardian policemen, and the legislative hatches, so to speak, battened down—the Speaker was inflexible. In order that he might get as little rest as possible (and he was over threescore then), relays of " Constitutionalists " played the devil's tattoo with sledge-hammers on the walls of the building adjacent to tho chair at intervals during the night; but the old man came up to time in the morning as fresh as a daisy, A week had thus well nigh tun, and the Day of Rest approached which should release the imprisoned Legislature and its vererable head. It became known that tho Speaker was "good" till Saturday at midnight, and the Superintendent, despairing of compulsion, prorogued the Council. Turning over the leaves of memory, I recall thequiint scene which met my gpze on peering into the Council-room, thrcugh an embrasure, on that memorable J? iday night. Lying, shrouded in his cloak, sleepmg the sleep of the just, his head pillowed on a Blue-book, was Carleton, while hard by, also far away in dreamland, lay the " binary member," Hugh Ccola hau, the cause of all t:o trouble, flanked by other members in various attitudes and stages of somnolency. Some members were playing draughts to wile away the time, others reading the papers, or doiDg piquet duty fcr the respective parties, Constitutional or Progress, t* which tbey belonged ; whilo two or three veteran political stagers were receiving "refreshmeut" through the embrasure aforesaid rom the hanris of a syoipathic pul.lic. In hia chair, on tho platform, sat the Speaker, snatching forty winks as opportunity served, ever wearing tho same pasiri.mlcss and immo bile aepec!;, and over presenting the same dooided front to any and every aticunpt,_ by Parliamentary jugglery, to defeat his rulirg. Strans^oly in keeping with the stern nec.-sai-ties of tho hour, an antique spociinen of e;rocke!y«vi.r. graced the ang'o of the d.ds, ih->ugh not usu-illy r.'garded as essential to lhe equipment of a Colo .ial Legislature !