AUCKLAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10359, 14 May 1895, Page 6

AUCKLAND.

(From Odr Own Correspondent.) May 6. There is nothing much going on politically, and the Aucklanders are still - awaiting the advent of Captain Russell ahd Mr George Hutchison, M.H.R.'s, wifch a view of hearing their views on the shortcomings of the Seddon Administration. They could scarcely come at a better time, as the mercantile and shopkeeping community are so incensed at the losses occasioned by tho. operation of the Shops and Shop' Assistants Act and the installation of the Saturday half-holiday tbafc they would receive a hearty and enthusiastic reception on appearing on an Auckland platform.

The shopkeepers have become so elated at their victory in the * law courts, through the defective gazetting of the holiday, that now the defect has been made apparently . good, they • are still. determined to carry on the legal struggle, if need be, to lhe Court of Appeal. A fighting .fund has been formed, a Shopkeepers' Defence-Associa-tion, is being established, and other means adopted, to carry on the campaign, which cannot do otherwise than-lead to great personal feeling and class hatreds, so that the Saturday half-holiday, instead of becbmig a bond cf social union, is likely to become a cause of strife and, dissension. The question is likely to ba reopened in the City Council, owing to the action ef one of its members. Tha aciion taken by the Auckland trading community in resisting the operation of the Shop Hours Act is being imifcatad in the suburbs, notably by Onehunga. Next week should reveal the outcome, as.the inspector under the act (Mr Ferguson) has notified his intention of institutingprosecationsandenforcing the provisions of the act. - The unrest and excitement is proving detrimental to business, and no improvement is looked for till the Supreme Court has settled the outstanding issues, and given an authoritative pronouncement on the whole question.

Considerable interest was taken in the sittings of fche Tariff Commission, aud a mass of evidence was taken as regards some of our leading industries. The weakest part of the whole business was the varied aud conflicting recommendations. offered by witnesses. It was but too apparent thafc they were nearly all instigated by personal and selfish considerations, and that the tariff was viewed, not on broad national grounds, but from'the coign of vantage of the witness's own doorstep. He at all events made ifc clear that he wished to be protected, whoever else was ruined, by the suggested alterations. Mr Thomas Mackenzie, M.H.R,, rather enlivened the proceedings by a recontre with one of his fellow member., Mr Hutchison, of Dunedin, his " Highland blood getting up " at what he suspected to be that gentleman's tendency to gfovel to the labour unions. Whatever Mr Mackenzie's follies are, "getting on his legs," as he phrased it, to anybody or any organisation is not one of them. Mr Hutchison took the matter somewhat; philosophically, and a holy calm Rested once more on the commission. During the visit of the members of the commission thoy managed to s;ie a great deal of the Waikato and the Thames goldfields, in the latter district seeing much that was novel and interesting to them.

The Maori mind appears to be in a state of greafc unrest at present, especially in- regard to tbeir lands and Native lands legislation. A large meeting is being held iv Waikato, at which the young King Mahuta is present, where the questions brought up a* the Rotorua Native Parliament are being re-disoussed, and the result will be thafc the Natives will cling to the freehold of their lands with greater tenacity than ever. A? a foreshadowing of coming events the Natives have withdrawn fche whole of their claims which were before the Native Lands Court at Ofcorohanga for adjudication. Mr Hone Heko, M.H.R., is acquiring a greafc deal of influence over the northern Natives by his eloquence, his energy, and his earnestness. He is evidently animated by a desire to benefit his fellow countrymen, aud to see them living on the same plane of civilisation- as the Europeans; but he notes that fche land is slipping away from under fcheir feet aud that fchey are steadily declining alike in physical power 3nd political influence. He has taken a great interest in the East Coast armed expedition and tho events which led up to the Uriwera surveys dispute.

During the coming session of the General Assembly Native affairs are likely to be brought into prominence, and it will hot be Hone Heke's fault if they are not thoroughly ventilated. Owing to the turn affairs have taken on the East Coa.t a detachment of police under Inspector Emerson and a co-operative working party of 70 men have gone to Galatea with a view to roadmaking. They are to be further strengthened during this month by another butch of 70 men, the Government being apparently intent on settling two vexed questions at one and the, same time —namely, the Native difficulty in the Uriwera country and the "unemployed" trouble. Unless fche police keep a strict surveillance on the latter gentry, it is just possible that fresh disputes may arise between them and the Natives, and the last state be worse than the first.

The detachment of unemployed which arrived from the south appeared to be composed of quiet, steady men, and caused no trouble on the passage up. Mr Fergußon marched them acress from Onehunga to Pearose Junotion, .so tbat they could join the Rotorua train, which contained their northern comrades. The officer harangued the Auckland men, who had been balloted for at ithe Labour Bureau, and hoped they would not disgrace the traditions of his Higa street* office: They grimly replied that they would behave as well at any rate as the men from the south, and with that Delphic utterance he had perforce to be content, in lack of a more satisfactory assurance. Complaints are being made that the roadmaking in the north, on ths co-operative principle, is both inefficient and expensive. Whafc truth is in these statements remains to be seen, biifc fchey will doubtless, be sifted out at the meeting of Parliament. A much more serious statement is that the unemployed road parties are making no effort to go upon the land, so as to be independent of further Government aid. If that is so then the co-operative system has failed of it 3 chief end, as a brood of State pensioners, through the medium of public works, will not be long tolerated by the struggling, poorly requited settlers of the north, who, by thrift and industry, keep the wolf fromthe door.

The hospital inquiry still drags its slow length, and the controversy arising from it has now entered upon the acute stage owing to an episode arising which ohows-the disorganisation of the whole staff, the lack of discipline in the institution and of good feeling. One of the nurses who had attended one of Dr Pabat's medical nursing lectures could think of nothing j better as her recollection of the; professional instruction he had imparted and the use it | should be put to than to pen some j "clothed nonsense" aboufc "reflex action" ] in the exercise book to be reviewed j by the doctor -in due course, which led those behind the scenes to regard the I "nkifc."as a direct insnlt to the doctor, and a satire upon the proceedings of the board. Another senior nurse who was appealed to by the writer of the "skit" saw no harm in it, and ifc was pasted in the book. The House Committee recommended the dismissal of both nurses, one of whom had been already twice cautioned, for acts subversive of discipline. Strange to say the hon. visiting staff and the matron,whileunspairinglycriticising the conduct of the writer of the " skit," became the apologists of the senior nurse whose greater experience should have saved her from personal indiscretions. She had " good-naturedly considered her follow nurse's action harmless," said the staff ; while the matron, in tendering her own resignation to the board, said " it appeared to her the senior nurse of the two had been recommended for dismissal because she is sufficiently ingenuous to consider as a harmless piece of levity what the majority of the committee have judged to be a grave offence against conduct and discipline." If the conduct of the nurses were "a piece of harmless levity," and no insult was intended to Dr Pabst,' as ' they both solemnly avowed, then their truthfulness triumphs at the expense of their judgment and common sense. The outcome was that the board, under the influence of outside "barr racking" in the one case and official pressure ■in the other,, reinstated both nurses, and stultified their own resolution. Dr Makgill, seeing the utter hopelessness of maintaining discipline with a disorganised staff, handed in his resignation as surgeon of the hospital, and to cap all the nurse, to save whom the board had "eaten its peck of dirt," rewarded their consideration by handing in her resignation 24 hours afterwards. The doctor made two or three unimportant blunders during his administration through lack of good judgment and tact, but apart from that his professional Reputation remains unsullied. The most grotesque thing of all is that the nurse—the head and front of the offending— who had been censured by the. bbard, and regarding whom the hon. visiting staff: express their opinion that "■ her offence was one against discipline, and a deliberately planned insult to her superior officer," remains master of the. situation! "Chaos" best describes the position of affairs. The Hospital and Charitable Aid Board has shown its own incapacity to enforce discipline among its employees in the hospital, and instead of the board governing the hospital, the hospital governs the board; A body which is-continually stultifying its own action, passing resolutions one meeting and rescinding them the nexb, can scarcely hope to administer any trust with success. It is quite clear some change must be made, either by a different mode of election, an enlarged constituency, or other system of getting fresh blood, so as to put hospital msnagement on an efficient aud satisfactory footing, alike in the interests of the hospital staff and of the patients.

- Another inquiry—that into the Avondale Asylum fire—is proving equally unsatisfactory. Solong a period has elap3ed thafc the investigation is deprived of half its imporfcancn and utility. After taking a variety of esperfc evidence no definite conclusion has been arrived at as to the cause of the failure of the water supply on the night of the fire. Even Captain Hanneh cannot suggest; a theory, so that tho Premier's reflections upon the municipal and fire brigade authorities came to nothing. The evidence goes to show that the fire originated in the coiling of a lavatory at a height of 12ft, which gives credence to the rumour first started that the fire owed its origin to incendiarism through the action of one of the inmates, as on a former occasion.

Through the recent police prosecutions in connection with the social evil a movement is on foot to establish a women's reformatory or rescue home on an undenominational basi_. The Anglicans have already started the "Church Mission to the Lanes," which aims to accomplish the same object. As showing how trusts are managed, a vote of £200 was made by the Provincial Council.in 1874 for a woman's reformatory, and £1000 is hung up by a decision of Judge Gillies in the Supreme Court, making today £1500 properly available for such purposes; but which through legal difficulties seems likely to bo unutilised till the Greek Kalends for the object for which the money was voted and contributed.

Considerable interest was taken in the school committee elections this year, in some cases through disputes between the committees and the board as to their respective powers, in others as to replacing female head teachers by male ones. At ■ one of these where fche supporters of Mrs Rooney and the anti-Rooneyites cama into conflict, the scene which ensued beggared description. A number of householders are said to-have voted "early and often " —some, indeed, in the backyard, passing in their voting papers through , the open windows. It was cynically observed by one old identity that "it was enough to make Maurice Kelly turn in his shroud, and he could poll bullocks! "

British capital is at last fairly passing in to the Thames goldfields, acd the Waihi mine, with its steady remunerative yields, has gained a name to conjure wifch in opening fche pockets of the timid but bloated British investor. The work of floating mines and syndicating them goes merrily on, aud it is to be hoped tbafc the British capitalist; will be rewarded for his enterprise. At the Thames as elsewhere there htxs been the usual proportion of blanks to prizes, and the uncertainty of gold mining has been only equalled by the glorious uncertainty of law.