AUCKLAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7374, 3 October 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

AUCKLAND.

(fhom our own coaassvosDKXT.)

September 24. Our representatives have returned homo from • Wellington after their legislative labours, and everybody is pleased but nobody proud. Considerable disappointment is felt at the further postponement of the projected railway extensions iv tho Xorth, and tho only thing which lias reconciled the Ancklanders to tho step is the knowledge that with these works the East and West Coast railway has also gone by the board. Still, these extensions are only a question of time, as the coal deposits of • the Whangaroi district can never be satisfactorily and effectively worked till the Kamo line is carried down to deep water, and the coa! is subjected to but one handling. The extension of the Helensville railway line to Kaukapakapa, the deep water frontage of the Kaipara river, is also equally as important, as shortening the line of travel between the flourishing settlement of the great Kaipara estuary, with its 300 miles of inland navigation, and the provincial capital, also saving vessels^of large draught the delay and danger incident to the tortuous navigation of the Awaroa to Helensville. It is hoped that next session of Assembly will see these much needed public works duly authorised and in a fair way of being carried out. Colonei Whitmore has taught our Volunteer officers a sharp lesson over what is known as " the Waverley Hotel incident," and the necessity for officers to maintain strict discipline, and to conduct themselves as becomes officers and gentlemen. The threat held out in his circular letter to recommend

to the Governor the cancellation of commi?

sions in the event of a repetition of such conduct will no doubt act as a wholesome caution in the future. Tho rigorous action

thus taken by tho colonel commandant of Volunteers has met with general approval. The officer commanding the Auckland district has also found it necessary to severely reprimand a city corps for misconducting itself while returning by railway to Auckland from a suburban church parade. Tiicso episodes show that some of the Volunteer corps have yet to learn the first duty of a soldier. A series of Saturday afternoon out-of-door parades have recently been instituted, with a view of getting the men initiated into

the field movements required at the next Volunteer review. As all the corps are how pretty well complete in their equipment, tho ensuingl review and sham fight should prove the most largely attended, as well as the most interesting and.instructive, that has

yet taken place. So far the Government show no indication of any intention to comply with the petition of the unemloyed to put them upon public relief works or to find other work for them

than that provided at the Mount Eden quarries. The number who have accepted stonebreaking to date is under a dozen. Further proof has been afforded during the past week, if any were needed, that the cry was either a political dodge to embarrass tho Government or io prevent any money bcin^ voted for immigration purposes. Three of our largest contractors have been in tho Auckland labour market for men, and complain that good men cannot be obtained. One of them left his Thames - Hikutaia railway contract, and came on to Auckland to interview the unem-

ployed, having no doubt that he would be able to secure all the workmen he needed. He has returned to the Thames a sadder and

a wiser man, only three men responding to his offer of 8s per day on "the eight-hour system." On the Morriusville-Oxlord lino the contractor has offered his men overtime to push on with tho work, but tho offer was rejected. Those contractors, failing to get the requisite labour in the city—though it is there the unemployed aro ' declared to abound, —are now stripping the Waikato agricultural settlements of farm labourers, to the disgust of the farming interest.

Mr Kees' Land and Labour Co-operative Society, has at last, after a lengthy period of incubation, made a start towards practical working by taking public offices. The election of directors is to take place early next month. The "one man one vote" principle has been introduced into this business—namely,, "that one shareholder shall only bo entitled to exercise one vote, irrespective of the number of shares ho holds

in the company," and this provision is likely to be a fertile source of trouble at the outset. By a resolution adopted at a late public meeting it was determined to make a fresh land and labour crusade throughout

the Colony, but nothing was determined as to the gentleman to be entrusted with the mission; though what more he can say than has already been said by Mr Kees during his late southern tour in favour of the scheme it would be difficult to imagine.

The Waikato settlers, who are at their wits' end with dearly-bought land and heavy mortgages, to get a market for their beef and mutton, would bo glad to see a tithe of

the benelits promised by the Land and Cooperative Company, and unless some of them can get a market for their fat meat they will

have to cease their occupation altogether. One of them recently sent down a consignment of fat sheep to the Auckland market, receiving in return, after defraying railway charges, commission, &c., the munificent sum of, l^d per Ib for his mutton. Yet in the face of such prices, the Auckland consumer was not benefited a single fraction, the whole profits being scoped into the pockets of the middleman. The attempt to establish a meat-tinning company has also failed, a canvass of the district having shown

it was beyond the means of the settlers. Failing to carry out the proposal to send a large proportion of the surplus meat clean out of the Colony, which would have

hardened the market considerably, the Waikato settlers have arranged with the Auckland Meat-freezing Company to establish a carcase market in Auckland, slaughtering the cattle and sending down the carcasses. A good deal of bad blood had been growing

up of late between the settlors and the Freezing Company, owing to an impression entertained by the former that the latter were so working matters as to still further depress the rates for stock. The managing director and chairman of directors have, however, visited Waikato, met the settlers

face to face, and mutual explanations have led to a better understanding than formerly existed, and a renewal of the conviction that their interests were mutual. The entente cordiale now established is likely to prove of substantial advantage to both sides.

'f he question of social purity is still occupying a prominent place in the public mind, owing to the recent formation of a society bearing that name, and the wholesale prosecutions instituted by the police authorities against houses of ill-fame. Even the clergy, as the guardians of public morals, have not deemed the subject one unbefitting discussion iv the pulpit. So far there is a, general expression of opinion on the part of the local Press that the new organisation will fail, as not going to the root of the matter, and as not dealing with the real causes which lead to the social condition of affairs deplored alike by the clergy and social reformers. Among those who have dissented from the action of the society is Mrs Mary Steadman Aldis, wife of Professor Aldis, who wields a trenchant pen. Her suggestion is that both sexes should bo impartially brought under the operations of the Contagious Diseases Act where necessary, and that the names of the male offenders, however great their wealth or exalted their station, should be published by the Press equally as freely as the names of their professional female companions in guilt. Whether the law of libel would permit such a course is an open question; but Mrs Aldis is at least deserving of commendation for dealing^ frankly and courageously with social questions affecting the welfare of her aex. She hopes to secure

a remedy for present wrongs by obtaining for women ncccss to the ballot-box, as tho following passage from one of her letters shows: "Some of us who have been sheltered all our lives, who have never been tempted by waut, who in our own persons aro never suffered to fwl any legal inferi-

orily, chafe under an almost intolerable sense of impotence to lu-lp our loss fortunate sisters, not to strive for vengeance for the wrongs which they suffer, but to secure justice, the same measure for men as lor women. And we desire political power, because past experience has made us hopeless of obtaining tins justice from men alone." The phrase "tempted by want," as used by Mrs Alms, has no meaning in this city, and shows that her knowledge of the condition of the workin" classes is at fault. A Legislative Councillor the Hon. AY. Swansou, who has seen a <^ood deal of Auckland life, once in a public address dealt with the assertion, that the drink traffic is responsible for sending of the young women in Auckland to the streets, and said his own local knowledge entirely contradicted that statement. The leading primary causes are love of idleness, personal vanity,"and love of dress. Mrs Aldis' scheme of reform does not touch these promoting causes, which are steadily diminishing the. marriage rate and early marriage not only among the industrial, but the middle classes. . , .... It is rather unfortunate that with all this hubbub about social purity and the necessity of rescuing fallen women that the Female Prison Gate Brigade Institution is in danger of coming to grief, through bickerings between members of the committee of management. The question to be decided i* as to whether a representative committee from the leading churches shall govern tho Home, or that it bo handed over like the Male Prison Gate Brigade Home to the care of the Salvation Army, to be worked by them. So far, all experience has shown that the Churchesareallmnchtoorespectabletounde!take t lioduty, and that the Salvation Army can alone deal effectively with " the gutter work. As Marshal Booth put it," Kid-glove religion is unequal to the task, and the Holy \\ ar could not bo carried on with rosewater. It, however, seems likely that some people would rather see the above reformatory agency fall to pieces than that they should lose the exercise of present power or have their self-love rudely disturbed. A much wiser course would be to admit, as a Congregational minister did the other night at a public meeting, that visiting the homes of the fallen and seeking out there the strayed and lost was not in his line, and therefore he was very glad when anyone was raised up or came along who had both the ability and desire to fulfil the duty, and he wished them God speed. Our Girls' High School seems to be getting into a bad way. Even with the Government subsidy of £1000 a year it seems to have gone to the bad during the past twelvemonth some £SOO. The question of dealing with the financial difficulty was remitted to the headmaster, who, with his oflicial instincts strong upon him, could only see his way by dismissing a petty subordinate ami two or three minor alterations, to effect a saving of about a fourth of that amount. One of the members of the board has suggested a scheme of retrenchment, which lops £150 a year off the headmaster's salary, deals iii like degree with his subordinates, and if that docs not suit them, lie proposes to meet the difficulty by relegating the duties of tho teaching stalf to women. Indeed, some contend that the principal of the school should be a lady, as is the case in many similar institutions elsewhere, and this view is warmly advocated by Professor Aldis. Whether these heroic measures of retrenchment will be carried out remains to be seen, but other questionable steps have been already taken, such as charging part of the expenses, to the scholarship fund, reducing number of scholarships, ami abolishing free tuition to the bright girls from the primary schools who have obtained proficiency certificates. It is even suggested to abolish the mild entrance examination, so as to make the school practically a primary school for "the upper ten." Our fruit growers have got another codlin moth scare over the consignment of apples which came by the Zcalnndia. It has been discovered that the moth travelled from the boxes of fruit to broom, corn, canned and other goods, so it is hard to say where the mischief will end, owing to the dispersion of cases. As the act stands tho customs authorities can only deal with imported infected fruit, and therefore they have had to depend oa the carefulness of importers of miscellaneous godds to prevent the spread of the pest through the reckless disposal of packing cases. As it is, the fruit importers with a fragrant recollection of the wholesale destruction of infected fruit which previously occurred, took the precaution to pass their shipment on to Sydney, where tne legislative provisions enforced here are not, so far as is known here, yet adopted. The silver furore is still rampant at the Thames goldfields, and stone from far and near is being shipped to Auckland and assayed for silver. It is frankly admitted that the speculation in this way is being overdone, and that assays of small parcels of stuff are one thing, and a general average from quartz in bulk, ordinarily treated, quite another. Every little claim fancies it has got a Comstock lode. Meanwhile the La Monte furnaces are being pushed rapidly on to completion, and these are destined, while fulfilling tho hopes of some companies, to knock rather rudely on the head the daydreams of the promoters of a host of mushroom mining ventures. The Auckland Stud Company are almost as jubilant over the successes of Nordenfeldt as they were over those of Martini-Henry. There is no doubt that the effect will bo to bring into greater prominence the stock of Musket, :uid to secure much higher prices for the company's yearlings when brought, to the hammer in January next. The company have invested heavily to get tho best and most fashionable strains of blood into their stud, and the whole community is rejoiced that their judgment in selection has been vindicated, and their enterprise in a

fair way of being rewarded. Some are now sanguine enough to hope that Nordenfeldt will bear the "blue and white " to the front in the Melbourne Cup.