Our Auckland Letter.

Otago Witness, Issue 1465, 13 December 1879, Page 7

Our Auckland Letter.

(fbom our own correspondent.) November 26th. The revulsion of public feeling in Auckland since the ejection of the Grey Administration is daily becoming more pronounced. Perhaps the most significant evidence thereof is that a circular has recently been issued, signed by the Chairman of the famous Central Committee, acquainting the Liberal party that the late, general election bills have not all been liquidated, and soliciting further subscriptions to meet the deficiency ! To this complexion have things come at last, after all the enthusiasm manifested at the late political struggle. As in private so in public matters, there is nothing like the "reckoning" for giving matters a realistic turn, and clearing the mental vision of the recipients. The Financial Statement of Major Atkinson has been favourably regarded here, notwithstanding the unpleasant fiaanoial picture it presents, and the serious inorease of taxation it foreshadows. It is tacitly admitted that it is something to know tho worst, and to have been awakened out of the Fool's Paradise into which the late Government had landed the Colony. People here are half inclined to accept the altered condition of things without a murmur, as being the fitting penalty for the political idolatry which had possessed the public for the last two years, and the benediction which closed every meeting in the Province — " Three cheers for Sir George Grey ! Hoo-ray ! " The natural result of our Colonial financial system of late years has been to promote • that improvidence and extravagance which is the bane of public and private life -in the Colony. Ten years more of loan expenditure — ten years more of inordinate < speculation and profuse social extravagance — and New Zealand would have been hopelessly insolvent from end to end. That the crisis has come ia a matter of thankfulness to every right-thinking man; the wisdom we have tardily acquired will have been cheaply bought by the losses already incurred if we are saved in the future from similar folly. The Colony has got pretty well to the end of' its tether, and there will shortly be an end of spending, for the very obvious and sensible reason that there will be an end of lending. The verdict of those who will oome after us, as they look upon the legacy of debt bequeathed to them, will be that a finer Colony was never brought to the brink of ruin, and that the men who laid the foundation of its institutions were unworthy of the race from which they sprang, and the magnificent country in which Providence had cast their lot. A very strong feeling is expressed here that the Government will not have met the financial difficulty in a just and statesmanlike manner unless, coincident with the proposed additional taxation, it also largely diminishes the departmental expenditure entailed by the bloated and overgrown Civil Service establishments of the country. Mr Swanson warned his 'Newton constituents before he left for Wellington that it was perfectly hopeless for any private member to do anything in the way of Civil Service reform, and that it could only be effected by a Government strong enough and honest enough to accept the task. He assured them that an immense reduction could easily be made without impairing the efficiency of the Service, were it not that an official caste had quietly but surely grown up in our midst, and strong by class interest, by selfishness, by compactness, was potent everywhere, but most of all in the Legislature — men the first article in whose political creed is that Government departments were expressly oreated by Providence in order to provide for themselves and their relations. What waa wanted was- a less numerous, but wollpaid, well-worked official staff. That the country in its present financial condition will long endure the existing official brood (many of whom now while away the distressing tedium of from 10 to 4 by discussing the previous night's billiard play, the last social scandal on the tapis, or caricaturing each other and their departmental and political chiefs on the office blotting-pads— an innocent and highly intellectual pastime much affected by junior clerks, if report be true) is more than one can well believe. The resources of the Colony would assure its prosperity if the Legislature would only give it fair play. But the country does not exist that can thrive, meet normal expenditure out of borrowed money, and, like New Zealand, have an official — General or municipal — for every hundred men, women, and children of its population. Some dissatisfaction has been manifested by certain sections of the community at the alterations in the tariff. Like Dickens' drummer-boy, hit high or hit low, Major Atkinson cannot please everybody. One benefit at least will accrue from the new tax. The beautiful island of Kawau will, it is .estimated, contribute £91 133 9d per annum instead of £3 13s 9d, so that " the hardening effect of exemption from taxation upon the human mind," which Mr Ormond deplores, will ba a thing of the past. The publicans, while objecting to any increase of taxation, have promptly applied the usual remedy in that case ' made and provided — namely, to place the extra charges upon the broad back of the consumer. Why the tobacconists should be particularly excited over the extra duty no one has been able to discover, as they are certain to adopt the policy of the licensed victuallers. Their proposal to stop the gaping leak in the ship of State by "a small license fee" will be regarded by Major Atkinson as the best joke of the season. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, as Mr Eobert Lowe was wont to say, has " a certain amount of misery to distribute, and all he has to do with it is to distribute it equally and impartially." It was generally believed here that the tea and sugar duties would be reimpoied, and some of our merchants who withdrew several months' consumption of these articles, and left spirits comparatively untouched in bond, have been heavily hit in consequence. The Mayoral eleotion proved a walk-over for Mr Peacock. It is somewhat strange that a twelvemonth's lease of municipal power seemß sufficient to satisfy' the most i ambitious of our citizens. The' offioo posi,

tively went a-begging. Mr Cosgrave, who has not yet forgotten ' how he was made the victim of misplaced confidence last year, would have none of is ; even Mr James M'Cosh' Clark, who bad the ability, the Boclal'statuß, and wealth to adorn the position, had too keen a recollection of the fickleness of , the Auckland people to do otherwise than peremptorily reject every overture that was made to him, though endorsed by his political opponents at the late . City Easb election. Mr Peacock on personal grounds, and from his recent domestic bereavement, waa indisposed to enter _ again ■ upon the cares of public life, but it was known that he would rather serve another .'term than permit the Mayoralty to be ■ brought into contempt by the election of an •unworthy candidate. He was accordingly 'returned- without opposition. Few men in 'Auckland have more worthily fulfilled their. public duties than Thomas Peacock, and, thp oitizens have hououred themselves in! honouring him by a renewal of his term of j •office. .''■■' ■ ' • The Working Men's Political Association^ having disposed of the tariff, are just now' ■ keeping their, hand iv by dealing - with the, 1 " yellow agony.'' It matters little that the Chinese in the Province do not number four- • score, that they principally occupy them-; 'selves in' market-gardening, taking up. heaven-forsaken plots which no European; would look at, and that they are selling' better and cheaper > vegetables . than their European rivals. The Chinese must go ! The Association desires the proposed poll-; tax,' and to bo madcunreturnable. It is •rather remarkable that while th.6 late Premier penned an eloquent memorandum on, the impolicy of> allowing- Anglo-Saxon civili-, sation tobe jeopardised.' by the pressure of a debased and effete civilisation like that of the Chinese,' the portrait of that benefactor o£'» (l> the human. lace", was being exhibited: here, in oils, aB tho handiwork of a grateful! "heathen Ohinee." !

In Native matters there is little to recount. The Kingitea are keenly watching, the proceedings of Parliament, and waiting 1 for a taste of the quality of the new Native Minister, Mr Bryce. A start has been made at vindicating the law by the seizure of a notorious Maori culprit who has been in and out of the frontier settlements during the last two years, and who was in Alexandra the other day,, presuming on the immunity hitherto experienced, although a warrant has been oub for him for four years past. To his astonishment he was promptly parrested, and banded over to the constituted ■ authorities to be dealt with aooording to law. , Affairs on the goidfielda have had a more aspe'eb during the past fortnight,; and some excellent returns have been obtajned from Eome of the Thames and Coro'inandel .mines.' ; The new finds in the, Alburnia.and the discovery, of fresh aurife-; iriqijs t ree?B, has i .led', to "something^ 'like': a j .reyival of mining interests.' ' A considerable \ ,'ftmpunt , of speculation has taken place in i ininjng atooksj, the public,, unwarned^ by.pre'-i .'.vibus* experience and losses, being as ready! ,»s ever 'to woo '•'•he fickle goddess of Fortune, '. .and stake their money on the fluctuations of j . the, Bharejmarket. ''<•*> In the way of amusements there is some ; JiitU change. ' The .doors, of t)ie Theatre. Royal are to be. opened, after a lengthy reoess, Mr DeLias having engaged the Lin- ! gards for a short season ;. while that old Auckland favourite, Madame Carandini, and her company give a sorieß of concerts in ]the Lome street Hall. Those in search of something new, and of a more philosophic turn ' of! mind, have enjoyed the lecturas, of Mrs , ■Emma Hardinge-Britten. Spiritualism and Freethbught do not obtain a large following in Auckland* and in consequence her lee- ■ tures, notwithstanding her mental and oratorical gifts,-, have been but .indifferently ' attended. A silly attempt, was made to invoke the aid of the clergy ,to pruah her lecturing, but the good sense of the community forbad a course of action which, -while unjust in itself, would have enabled her to count her sympathisers by hundreds. To-day men have found out a nraoh better way of dealing with the conflict of human thought than that recommended by , Dr Johnson as the crucial teat— "Persecution on the one hand, and endurance on the other." Since the advent of Mr Thomas Walker, the trance-medium, the Auckland public have fought shy of Spiritualistic lectures, and were , out of apirits even with " Dr" Slade himself. Mr Tyerman received such poor patronage during his firßt visit to Auckland that he has not ventured to repeat it, confessing that Auckland ,was not yet quite ripe for the new gospel according to John Tyermau ! , ■