Passing Notes.

Otago Witness, Issue 1155, 17 January 1874, Page 15

Passing Notes.

I shotrld rather think it was pitiful to see the passengers by the Surat eyeing their boxes as they recognised them safe and sound in Dunedin. Oh, it was pitiful, In a whole city full, Traps they had note. I suppose legal advice will be taken, and I am sure every citizen .would subscribe his mite to have the question fairly tried, whether the right to sell extends over the personal property and private effects of a passenger. Suppose some enterprising new ohum went to the wreck and claimed his private property, what would happen ? It seems just about the most unreasonable thing I over heard to sell a man's property fceccwseyouhave endangered hislife. Upon the same principle I imagine it would be just in the case of the smash-up of a train to sell the dibris, including the contents of the luggage van, for what it would fetch. It must be remembered, however, by dissatisfied passengers, as they view their beloved trunks here in town, that their value at the Dunedin Railway Station and their value in the hold, of the Surat muet be expressed by *

very different value. The fact of their being under water instead of on dry land, is an element in the calculation to be kept quite distinct from the question of the sale of their goods to a third party, and their claim to their property thus placed must be against others than the vendors.

About those reserves. Isn't the matter very simple, after all ? A reserve set apart for recreation is one thing ; a reserve for a definite purpose, such as a market or a hospital, another ; a reserve set apart for purposes of public utility, another still. It may have been a great mistake to assign this or that piece for this or that purpose, but it is absolutely dishonest to change the purpose afterwards. Land is bought and houses are built on the faith of the promise originally made ; absolute unanimity _ among the residents within a very considerable distance of the reserve proposed to be reappropriated, is an essential requisite to any change. To give a bit of the Northern Recreation Ground for a poet office site is simply to rob those who have paid extra for the land fronting it. It is very easy to put the matter nicely, and declare that the public interests required the deed to be done; but this was the plea upon which the Inquisition burned naughty heretics. So, too, a market reserve used for a school would be a standing proof of the proverb that tells us a Board has neither a body to be kicked nor a soul.tobe saved. The exception to these pretty plain moral truths in where a reserve has been set apart for general purposes. These and these alone are at the free disposal of the trustees within certain wide limits. An Act of the Assembly may possibly render an alteration of the trust legal in the case of these reserves; no Act of the Assembly could render such alteration anything but transparently immoral.

The examination as to the wreck of the Surat will certainly furnish the Good Templars, &a, with some valuable arguments. A considerable portion of the time of the Court has been taken up by attempting a definition of drunkenness— Burely a most impossible thing to do in words. Dr Tighe seems to have made rather a successful effort, though at that pame wasn't it rather hard lines of Mr Stout to make him "his" expert on intoxication '? Punch has given several admirable definitions, which deserve to be remembered. An inability to say "the scenery about here is truly rural," degenerating into the "scenery 'bout here is tooral looral," has always been held a convincing proof of drunkenness. So too, to wind up a watch with a corkscrew ; topost a letter at a lamp post, and so forth ; and other tests proposed by that witty periodical. I don't know that it ever suggested a better proof than listening at a pump to see if it worked right. Upon the whole, I fancy the public will get rather a confused idea of the wreck of the Surat and the scene that took place on board. There seems to have been a little gin and a good many revolvers. The latter suggest the notion that immigrants coming here are possessed with the idea that a six-shooter is a useful part of an outfit. Did they expect to have to contend with man-eating Maoris or white rowdies? A revolver is not necessary in order to live in peace in Otago, is it, now 1

I cannot understand the reasoning by which Dr Stuart arrived at his conclusion at the Bchool meeting on Monday. The fees are too high — Government assistance will soon have to take the form of direct taxation — therefore reduce the fees at once. Is not this rather contradictory ? Perhaps the fees are too high — ie., so high as to keep many children out of school who ought t© be there. i have very little doubt, indeed, that before very long there will have to be an education tax. So far bo good. But surely the conclusion is, not that all the fees should be reduced, but that a difference should be made. No child should be kept away from school because its parents cannot afford to pay the fees. That ia quite clear. Therefore, I should say, have free or almost j free education in such instances, and ! raise the fees in other cases so as to make up the deficit. I fear that if the fees are reduced all round, and then direct taxation introduced, the margin will be so great * one between the amount supplied by school fees and amount required to carry on the schools, and the taxation so heavy in consequence, that an entire revolution in our scheme would be necessary. Would it not be wise gradually to raise the fees so as to approximate towards a self-supporting system ? No one doubts that such a result should be aimed at. If schools could be made selfsupporting it would be a good thing ; so far all are agreed. Would not the wise thing be to be gradually creeping towards such a state of things, especially in ifcownu?

pjo doyutotion tp the Superintendent,

about' the movement of the High School, certainly had altogether the best of, the argument. They enlisted upon their; side many whose sympathies are not with the institution itself, but who cry shame upon the notion of starving it out of the world. Mr E. B. Cargill is persistent in upholding the fact that the School is intended to be — not a select academy, but a good school in the higher branches for the mass of the people at priceß all can pay. More power to his elbow. It has been the attempt to reconcile two contrary things that has raised up so many enemies to the institution as it now stands. All those who thought the training infinitely below tha mark of an English public school, and all those who thought the price (for boarders) excessive, have hitherto been upon one side. Now they are united in their opposition to its painless extinction. There are so many distinct issues raised direptly higher education is discussed, that it is not easy to foretell exactly how the majority will go. At present, at any rate, I fancy a considerable majority are against dropping the High School link out of the educational chain. Those parents, especially in Dunedin, who are getting for their sons a tolerable education at an extremely low price, will hold on to the present machine tenaciously. They may grumble at not getting a better article ; but half a loaf is proverbially better than no bread at all. Until it becomes a familiar truth that to expend the Government funds upon the luxuries of education is really unjust, the present system is pretty secure. At any rate it would be better to discuss the matter upon a sound issue than to get rid of it by a side wind.

So our French friends have departed ; I wonder what idea they have carried away with them of Dunedin and its people. Gushing, or whatever the French is for gushing, would be about the mark. I should be sorry to underrate their good nature, and have not a word to say against them ; but still there is, or ought to be, a limit to the demonstrative affection shown them. How tired they must be of being thanked. But consolation was in store. They possess photographs of the Mayor and the Maori kaik, a picture of the water-works, and the Councillors. Was there no draughtsman who could have given them a dramatic group of the Corporation, floundering waist-deep in the reservoir, while the " fish " smiled benignly at their distress ? One lesson they have taught us, viz. , that French is at a discount in our good town. I hear funny stories about the efforts of our cits to talk with their visitors, and of the mishaps of those who had prided themselves upon their knowledge of French. Probably there will be some good stories told this week in the gun-room of the Vire.

It is always the thing to abuse the teleprams. I will contribute my brick with a good will. Mr De Bourbel reports, or Mr Saunders says : — Sellers of X.Y.Z.'s, £3 4s ; buyers, £3 2s Gd ; Thames G. M. Co. : Buyers, £3 ; sellers, £2 18s, This is becoming monstrous. In the first place we could guess the fact of a buyer and seller differing a wee ; they generally do. In the next place, no one has the slightest confidence in the quotation, and in many cases the attempt to bear the market is manifest to the smallest child. Just try and buy or sell at the prices named, and see what happens.

Melbourne papers make merry over the idea of a man dying from indigestion after his Christmas dinner, while incarcerated in a gaol. I wonder how the notion would have appeared to our great-grandfathers ? Probably, some benevolent individual, smitten with sympathy for the griefs of his imprison ed fellow creatures, gave them a dinner. We have not got quite to the Melbourne pitch of generosity as yet. 'Tis true something has been done for the Surat sufferers, and a good deal of quiet kindness is, I think, experienced by those who have lost relatives and money ; plum pudding and mince pica for Mr Caldwell's pets have not yet entered into our programme of Christmas festivities. I do not despair of seeing the Dunedin public rising to this pitch of virtue even yet. Why not give the poor souls a picnic to the Ocean Beach or the Pine Hill Bush? Temper justice with mercy, you know. A good many people have about the same idea of true philanthropy as those despots who free a prisoner to please the mob. Of the three objects which ought to be the aim of all imprisonments, one is too often forgotten. Reformation, deterrence, and restitution should be the fruit of prison discipline — but we hear far too little of the last. If Jeremy Diddler were put in gaol until he had earned by his labour enough to restore to the owner the amount stolen, his Christmas pudding might well come out of his earnings. When shall we grow wiser, and try to make our prisons ooipptetfi ia their three faction? I