THE Otago Daily Times. “Inveniam viam aut faciam.” [Established November 15, 1861.] DUNEDIN, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1865.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23058, 8 December 1936, Page 4

THE Otago Daily Times. “Inveniam viam aut faciam.” [Established November 15, 1861.] DUNEDIN, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1865.

SEVENTY-ONE YEARS AGO

Intense political excitement reigns in Canterbury. The election for the Superintendency is soon to take place, and in anticipation of it three candidates are in the field. One, however, is scarcely likely to go to the poll; the real fight is between two of the candidates, the respective representatives of the new and the old local Governments—Mr. Bealey, the present Superintendent, and Mr. Moorhouse, his predecessor. Mr. Moorhouse does battle on his own account'; Mr. Lance on account of Mr. Bealey and Mr. Bealey's party. The struggle would have little interest were it not that with it is artfully entwined the larger Colonial struggle—the struggle for Separation. Partly from motives of policy, partly because the question is so large and so imminent that it must influence every political struggle, local or colonial, the question of Separation has got mixed up with the contest, and Mr. Moorhouse is supposed to represent its advocates ; Mr. Lance its opponents. Separation, however, is not likely to largely influence the issue. The local claims of Mr. Moorhouse are so superior to—or, we should rather say, have been so much more largely tested than—those of his comparatively unknown - in-a-public - capacity antagonist, that, separation or no separation, Canterbury is likely to resume its old hero worship of Mr. Moorhouse. . . .

We are reluctant to say anything harsh of Mr. Weld, for we are satisfied he will suffer more than sufficient next session when disclosures come out, as come out they will, which will prove to him that he was scarcely more aware of the conditions of affairs than were the messengers in his office. In the meantime, one is only left to lament that an honourable man can be so weakly credulous as to allow himself to be seduced into utterances altogether foreign to the truth. What a pity that Mr. Weld did not personally practise the self-reliance ne preached.

We understand that Mr. Clifford, custodian of the Acclimatisation Society's grounds, has set at liberty, at Waihola Lake, a black swan as companion to another bird of the same description, which has for some time located itself there. By publicity being given to the circumstance, it is hoped that sportsmen will be deterred from shooting the birds, or from rendering themselves liable to the penalties recoverable under "The Protection of Certain Animals Act; 1865," from which, for general information, we quote the following clause:— " No deer of any kind, hare, swan, wild goose, or wild duck of imported species whatever, partridge, English plover, rook, starling, thrush, or blackbird, shall be hunted, shot, taken, or killed at any time whatever, before the first day of May, which be in the year 1870 "—Penalty, two to twenty pounds. At a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, held yesterday, resolutions were passed approving of the construction of a Dry Dock at Port Chalmers; urging the necessity for the steam dredge being immediately put into operation, for the purpose of deepening the Upper Harbour; and appointing a Committee to take up the subject of Customs Duties being levied, on certain articles which ought to be imported free. The sixteen Maoris reported in our Christchurch telegram of yesterday as having been sentenced to death at Opotiki were the prisoners captured at Matata, and found guilty of the murders on board the cutter Kate, at Whakatane. The half caste lad White was present at the trial, and identified the actual murderers among the sixteen, the others being participators in the crimes. They stood their trial before a Court-martial, at which Mr. Commissioner Smith and Mr. Clarke, Resident Magistrate at Tauranga, were present. In the meantime, the Governor has been written to respecting the result of the trial, and it was. expected that orders for the execution of the whole sixteen would be received in a few days. Eighteen others were about to be put on their trial for the Volkner tragedy, at the time the information was sent to Tauranga. It will be remembered that, amongst the traces of inhabitants found on the Auckland Islands during the visits of the steamers Victoria and Southland, there was a well-executed gravestone, bearing the inscription "1.Y., Died December 22nd, 1850. Aged three months." By a curious coincidence, the father of the infant whose death and place of rest oh the wild and silent shores of Port Ross is thus recorded, is at present in Nelson, and, as gathered from him, the "Colonist" publishes the particulars of the first expedition to the Auckland Islands, its failure, and the abandonment of the islands by the company who started the Southern Whale Fishery. Mr. Thomas Younger, who is managing the mason and brick work of the new building for the Bank of New Zealand, is the father of the little girl, "1.Y.," Isabella Younger, who was born, died, and buried in the strange and desolate place. Mr. Younger, a native of Sunderland, in 1847 engaged himself, for a term of five years, as mason. and builder to the Southern Whale Fishery Company. The first ship of the company, named the Charles Enderby, set sail from England in December, 1849, and arrived at the islands in four months, with a full whaling crew and eight married couples. There were then about 100 Maoris on the Islands. But the settlement failed, the Europeans left, and the Maoris are understood to have followed shortly afterwards for New Zealand.