POST OFFICE NOTICES. THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9905, 25 November 1893, Page 2

POST OFFICE NOTICES.

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES

Mails close at tho Chief Post Office, Dunedin subject to any necessary alterations), as under: — For Northern Ports, overland, daily, at 10.30 a.m.,- C.P.O. Late letters, mail van, north train, at 11 ».ml Monday, November 27. £ DIRECT MAIL SERVICE. V The direct steamer Coptic will leave Wellington for London, via Rio de Janeiro and Plymouth, on Thursday, 30th November. Mails close here aa under: — For the United Kingdom and foreign countries (via the United Kingdom), &c. (specially addressed " per Coptic ") on Monday, 27th, at 4.30 p.m. Due in London on the 10th January. Late letters, guard's van, Port train, at 5.15 p.m. Parcels for the United Kingdom, &c. will close at. this office at 4 p.m. For Northern Ports of New Zealand, per Manapouri, at 4.30 p.m. Late letters, guard's van, Port train, at 5.15 p.m. For Australian colonies (except Tasmania), per . Manapouri (to connect with the Wakatipu), at 415 pm. Money orders at 3.15 p.m. late letters, guard's van, Port train, at 5.15 p.m. Wednesday, November 29. SAN FRANCISCO MAIL SERVICE. For Northern Ports of New Zealand, Samoa, Sandwich Islands, United States of America, Canada, South America, West Indies, United Kingdom, and Continent of Europe, at 10 a.m. Money orders at 9.15 a.m. on Wednesday, 29th. Registered correspondence at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, 28th. Book packets and newspapers at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, 29th. Late letters, bearing an additional single r»";e of oostage (2jd) as a late fee, can be pasted in the mail van attached to North train, leaving Dunedin railway station at 11 a.m. on the 29th. The above mail will close at the branch post offices, North Dunedin and South Dunedin, for money orders and registered letters at 6 p.m. on the 2Sth; letters at 9.30 a.m. and newspapers at 5 a.m. on the 29th inst. At the Port Chalmers office at 8.15 a.m. on the 29th., money orders and registered letters at 5 p.m. on the 28th. The above mail will be due in London on the 3rd January. Thursday, November 30. For Southland, Australian Colonies, India, China, Japan, Mediterranean ports, Straits Settlements, Continent of Europe, United Kingdom, &c, per Waihora, at &£0 fl.m. Money orders, registered letters, books, and newspapers at 1.50 p.m. Late letters, guard's van, Port train, at 3.35 p.m Parcels post mails for the Australian colonies will close at 3.30 p.m. on the 2ilth. Mails for Tahiti and Rarotonga close at Auckland on the 25th at 5.30 p.m. (Signed) Edm. Cook, Chief Postmaster. Chief Post Office, November 24,1893. ABSTRACT OF SALES BY AUCTION. THIS DAT. Wright, Stephenson, and Co., at the Dunedin Horse Saleyards—Horses. Campbell and Co., at Rooms—Furniture, &c.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER i! 5, 1893. Though Dunedin has not been permitted to bask in the sunshine of the Premier's presence, nor to listen entranced to the thunders of his eloquence, that privilege has not been denied to other parts of the colony where the influence of a strong Opposition candidate had to be discounted, or that of a weak Ministerial one strengthened. There was a total absence of dignity attending the Premier's flying visit to Dunedin — a haste and secrecy about his movements which, while it said volumes for his discretion, must be held to be a reflection on his hitherto undoubted courage. And yet Mr Seddost would have been more than mortal had he ventured on a public platform to reconcile the heterogeneous elements that constitute the great " Liberal" party in Dunedin. He would almost certainly have been asked some very awkward questions by the Women's Franchise League, some members of which did, at the railway station, ineffectually question him about the origin of the famous clause 21 of the new Liquor Act. He might have been compelled to admit that lie had said at Lyttelton that " he would not allow a few extremists to dictate to the people what they should eat or drink," or at Danevirke that " our drinking habits would disappear as we made our people good and our country great, and it did not require the drastic remedy proposed by people who would dictate what we were to eat or drink." It would have been decidedly awkward to become sponsor for the three candidates who have been espoused by the Workers' Political Committee, the Prohibition League, and the Women's Franchise League, all of which have made the direct veto a cardinal feature of their programme. It would also have been asking too much of human nature to expect forbearance towards Mr Eaunshaw, who has expressed the opinion that Mr Seddok1 is incapable of leadership, much to the horror of the more cautious Mr Hutchison. And not only on the liquor question would Mr Seddon have been embarrassed. It is undeniable that the newly enfranchised women do not regard him as their greatest benefactor, though lie claimed at Danevirke before the simple-minded Scandinavians that " lie worked night after night to get it (the Bill) passed, and did not allow anything olso to go on until the

. was passed." He was not wol other men, he told them, for de] >me members who had supported ma Bill had never expected it to pass, it L they should have seen their faces tli€ m they found out the course the of lernment had adopted." There is tri y too much reason to believe that bei SuDDOwmusthave accidentally gazed to 0 one of the mirrors, for we find the as in. Mr BiCHABDSOtf saying at "VVynd- on n that he was almost reconciled to le£ s measure by observing Mr Seddok's ye ;e when the news came that tv s Bill had finally passed in the gislative Council. It is only fair Mr SbddOjST t<3 say that at Lyttelton, fore a better-informed audience, he , >k no credit for the part he played this matter. It was certainly the most Fc udent course which the Premier ca uld pursue to allow himself to be an ssuaded from speaking at Dunedin. Ri le Ministerial candidates for Dun- sto in have no great lines of policy, wi ieir programme is to placate by small a ncessions on side questions a number ye petty organisations, and the appear- U1 ice of the Premier would assuredly w tve created a split in the camp. r£ But at Gore Mr Sbddon had a j,, f£erent task. He had to meet one of r ,c most destructive of the critics of fc ie Government finance in Mr Riciiaud- w )jSt, and accordingly he brought up all n is battalions, speaking for nearly a iree hours and a-half. He wrongfully g reused that gentleman at the outset of p sing discourteous, and it would be well ° ' some Ministers would, copy Mr c iOHAEDSOs's manner of dealing with s a opponent. He claimed that in- c ebtedness had been reduced since the s resent Government took office from £61 1 9s 4d per head of the population to £59 t s4d in September last. The source * rom which the Premier derives his * nformation must be unreliable, for at ! )anevirke he said that the former ! gure was £60 ss, and last December ] b was £58 2s 6d. But whichever of | he statements be correct, this way of , mtting it is fallacious. He could not , leny at Lyttelton that the net debt of ■ he colony had been increased by 1 5544,772. Further, he claims that : .he population has increased by 35,000 luring the Government's term of office, : md statements which simply give ;he quotients obtained by dividing ;he total indebtedness of the colony jy the estimated population are of \o value as arguments. Though ;he Premier conventionally admits ;hat two wrongs do not make a right, ie rebuts the charges concerning the icquisition of land by the present aovernment by other charges against ;he late Government. He cited the purchase of the Polhill Gully rifle range, although he ought to have told his audience that the matter underwent inquiry, with the result of completely exonerating Captain Kttssell. He also exhumed the matter of the purchase of the Otekaike runs. But even on Mr Seddon's own admission Mr Richabdson publicly accepted the blame for the error in the telegrams. He was too manly to throw the responsibility on any Mr Blow. And here again is an example Mr Seddok might well have called to mind ere he spoke. We next find with amazement the Premier accusing the late Government of untrustworthiness because of the episode in which Judge Edwaeds, unfortunately for himself, was concerned. It would be better for the credit of the present GoArernment if that incident were buried in oblivion. They have wantonly injured an innocent man, and in the most tyrannical manner refused to do him even the scant justice of repaying him for the monetary loss they were instrumental in inflicting. The treatment accorded to Mr Edwabds remains a reflection on the colonial honour. And while dealing with the Premier's opposition to Mr Bichaedsost, it may be remarked that Ministerial advocacy of the claims of Mr M'Nab, while ignoring those, of Mr Cheistie, is very odd. Mr M'Nab belongs to that class whom the Government profess themselves eager to extirpate. He is a large landowner, and naturally holds views on the ownership of land that ought tb make him unwelcome to the Government. He is an uncompromising prohibitionist, and as such ought to be personally unwelcome to the Premier. Mr Cheistie, on the other hand, is a "Liberal" of the first water. Can it. be that "social pests" are not so very bad after all, and shall we shortly see the fair Knapdale estate, with all its preemptions, purchased by the State at a price quintuply enhanced by the labours of prosperous surrounding settlers whose advent the original owner of the estate opposed tooth and nail? The dread of Mr Bichaedson's return must be great indeed. It is gratifying to learn that Mr Seddon's schemes against the Railway Commissioners are to be frustrated by legal difficulties, but if rumours current some time ago be well-founded, Mr Seddon will leave himself a bridge by which to retreat in the not improbable case of defeat. Viewing as a whole the Premier's rapid flight through the colony, it cannot but be considered a mortifying exhibition of electioneering strategy quite unworthy of the high position he holds. He has nowhere outlined the future policy, of the Government; he has simply employed the means at his disposal for the purpose of conserving, and, if possible, increasing, the number of his followers, and has displayed in the process a party eagerness more characteristic of a parish vestry partisan than of the dignified position he holds in public affairs. The collapse of the Hakfee-Matjde prosecution may possibly give rise to an uncomfortable feeling that here, as in Victoria, prosecutions against leadinomen are apt to fail. There is in this instance, however, no ground whatever for such fears. The facts are few and simple. Charges of the gravest character were made against Messrs Haepee and Maude, and they were committed for trial. In the case of Mr Maude, at least, the committing magistrate said that it was a weak one, dependent on presumptive proof that he knew what his partners were doing. It would have been satisfactory to have had these grave charges investigated and disposed of in one way or another. This, however, is found not to be possible for this reason: the charge is that they committed an offence which appears for the first time in our criminal law in the Bankruptcy Act of 1892, which came into force on Ist January 1893, while the acts complained oi: all occurred at an earlier date. The offence was formerly punishable only by suspension of the debtor's discharge, or by summary imprisonment. This summary imprisonment did not make it a part of the regular criminal law Avhich embraces offences tried by -jury. Mr Justice Dewnisxon has held that there can be no retrospective creation of a criminal offence by statute unless the statute plainly so declares. It would be unsafe were the law otherwise, and it

uld be safer were the Legislature In prived, as in America, of ail power to tlie ) ike such retrospective laws. Though d' lJ> would have been a salutary thing for f .f ~ . , L , ~ J -, w" lette 3 community had the alleged offences mat Messrs Habeer and Maude been ed in the ordinary way, we feel Not tter satisfied to see this failure than on t feel that there should be any doubt t h e to the existence of a universal rule terc . the subject of retrospective criminal j Possibly the alleged mal- disj Tsations of this firm may yet be inves- pas mted in a suitable way. blol