Our Home Letter.

Otago Witness, Issue 1502, 28 August 1880, Page 9

Our Home Letter.

ENGLAND.

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.) June 23rd. So far we are having a dismal summer. The weather is not bo bad as last year, cer tuinly, but that is about the beat that can be said for it. On midsummer day it was nearly in London; at noonday I could just ccc to write without gas, but only just. Grass and corn are growing, however, and the summer i 1879, and of corn in the JLmn, were followed by terrible losses of JEep in the winter. Cling to English clods m he may. he must emi Brate»8 rate » and veaT by , year thiß conviction becomes deeper and more general. But where shall he go? Twelvemonths ago New Zealand was all the rage. Everything waß ripe for a general exodus to our Colony. It is singularly unfortunate that just at this junoture the financial cloud should have passed over New Zealand. England was deeply stirred upon the NewZealand question laßt year, exactly at the time when the prosperity of the Colony was about ta receive a sharp, sudden check. Jn the Daily News, Christian World, and other papers, stirring articles appeared about New Zealand from tha pens 8£ Arthur Olayden, the Rev. J. Berry, and others, which were true enough when written, but which had ceased to be true by the changes in the oonditionof the New Zealand labour market, before the people who had read them had time to reach the Colony. Disappointment was, of coarse, inevitable, and the wails of the disappointed are finding their way into the provincial papers m this country. Some of these, with the editorial comments thereon, aie so extravagant as to be positively ludicrous. One Lincolnshire paper last week informed its readers that •'thousands were landing upon the Shores of New Zealand eueryweekj that multitudes were without food and shelter: that heavy taxation, dear food, and a glutted labour-market were driving thousands to misery and crime," and muoh more to the same effect. The Rev. J. Berry, who had lectured in that neighbourhood while New Zealand was Btill prosperous, was charged with having known years ago that this waa the oondition of things in the Colony. It seems to me that no man who oares a button for bis reputation or his peaoe of mind should ever advise another to emigrate, however satisfied he may be that it is for the other's good. He will not be thanked lor his paina should the experiment turn out well for the emigrant, and will be held responsible in oase of failure. It seems to be taoitly assumed that to speik well of a colony, if you are a ooloniflfc, is to become bail for the oountry s prosperity through all time. I say if you are a colonist, for there is a curious temper in the public mind hereabout Colonials. We are all looked upon aa liara. The complaint of an emigrant who has been in the country a fortnight without finding work iB printed and read, and Ms ridiculous denunciations of a oountry he has not had time to know are believed, while universal diaoredit attaches to the disolalmer of a colonist who knows. There was a curious instance of this in The Timeß last week. An anonymous paragraph appeared in its columns containing as many lies about the Colony as could well be expressed in 20 lines. "Food was exorbitantly dear ; distress and panic all but universal; the debt 35 millions; and it was probable that there would have to be an appeal in England to relieve the distress in the Colony." I happen to know that Judge Gilliee, who had just reached London, wrote to The Times giving its statements Indignant and emphatio denial ; attaching his name and the office he held. But his letter was put in the waßte-paperbasket. Another letter from an old colonist who could apeak with equal authority met with the Bame fate ; and a mild rejoinder from the pen of Sir Julius Vogel was only admitted, I believe, after very considerable pressure was brought to bear upon the paper. And that lying paragraph is finding its way into the papers all over the oountry, Messrs Grant and Foater are back in England, and have sent to the printer a report of New Zealand which, I am told, will be highly favourable to the Colony, and which will probably have a large circulation among the most desirable classes. They, by the way, are coming in for their share of abuse here. Several letters have already appeared in English newspapers earning farmers against them, and intimatVgthat they have fallen into the bands of i^ New Zealand Government, and have caught the lying spirit which |b supposed to inhabit all who have been in the Colony

more than a month. Vesey Stewart is busy organising a party to settle his Te Puki Blook at Tauranga; and a second pamphlet from the pen of the Rev. J. Berry is to be seen in the English book* stalls. This pamphlet is entitled "Farming in North New Zealand," and is devoted mainly to a description of Auckland and the Waikato. Its main purpose appears to be to promote the organised migration of farmers with capital, to oertain Waikato estates, which are already improved. One Mr Low is also in London attempting eomething similar for Nelson. A pamphlet from the pen of Mr F. W". Isitt is also in the press, bo that those in England who want the truth upon New Zealand matters ought to be able to get it, from all these independent witnesses.

The moat popular Colony just now with the British farmer is Canada, the Canadians having sent an influential representative to London to push their interests. The report of the Scotch delegates who visited the Dominion lately seems to have produced a deep impression here. Land at a dollar an acre, with soil 10 feet deep, containing in its virgin Btate as much ammonia bb good manure, which will grow 60 bu - hek of wheat to the race for a lifetime without wearing out, and all within 10

days of London, certainly looks tempting : the risk of having your nose frozen off notwithstanding. The extensive emigration to Canada is having its natural effect in sending up the price of land. I heard only today of a gentleman who bought an estate there two years ago for £5000, who oould sell it to-day for five times that sum. South Africa, too, is bidding for the British farmer. I see that this Colony is offering "its best lands to selectors at 10s per acre, to be paid for in 10 years at Is per aore per annum," and in giving a free passage to seleotors. I cannot think of anything that i would so promote the emigration to New i Zealand of the English yeoman as placing some of its Crown lands for selection in this country, surveyed and accurately described, and on deferred-payments. Ist July. " Bradlftugh on the brain" appears to be an epidemic so prevalent and so widespread aa to have included amongst its victima representatives of every class of society. Prom the Archbishop of Canterbury to the humblest pew-opener in hia dioce&e — from the leader of the House of Commons to the ohairman of the Pig-and-Whiatle Disousßion Club— from the great banker of Lombard street to the tattered and torn sweeper of the crossing in front of the banker's premises —ill talk Bradlaugh— perhaps all think Bradiaugh— and those gifted with the necessary powers all write Bradlaugb. To aßk " Who is bradlaugh?" or to inquire "What has Bradlaugh done ?" would be to argue yourself a new arrival from the Antipodes, or an unfortunate offender against the laws of society who had jußt achieved his release from the House of Correction. But perhaps in far-away Otago there may be some who would feel puzzled to answer these questions. For their benefit let me premise that the now celebrated Englishman is, first of all, an atheist, and, in the second place, is the dulyelected representative in the House of Commons of the borough of Northampton. Amongst the many peculiar results of the topsey-turvey of the last general eleotion, in which everything seemed reversed from its former order, none was more ramatkable than the return to Parliament by an important constituency — that is to say, important in point of numbers — of a man who had pr<» vioualy been best known in connection with a prosecution for publishing a work of an immoral and indecent tendenoy. With the "Fruits of PhiloHophy "tßtillin" t Btill in men's minds, they began to inquire in what other connection Mr Bradlaugh had raised himself above the common herd. The result of the inquiry was to identify the new representative with the leadership of a band of Freethinkers who, beyond an implicit belief in Bradlaugh, were content to disbelieve everything. He was accustomed to " orate " his supporters (preferentially on Sunday evenings) on the subjects of their mutual disbelief — and to a somewhat wider audience he appealed in the columns of a journal called the National Reformer, of whioh. he is editor and proprietor, in which an opposition to all forms of religious belief waa mingled with the dissemination of political ideas of an ultra-demo-cratic (not to say republican) order.

With these antecedents it Is hardly to be wondered at that the House of Commons were looking with anything but a feeling of satisfaction at the prospect of the new member's appearance among them. Before taking his seat it became necessary for Mr Bradlaugh, according to the forms of the House, to take an oath of allegiance to tbe Soveriegn. As there waa nothing tangible by which the member (according to his own ideas) could swear, he applied to the Speaker to be allowed to make a solemn affirmation after the manner of a Quaker. Thiß was refused, and a special committee appointed to investigate the member's claim, which committee decided against him. Mr Bradlaugh then expressed his willingness to take the oath, which, he stated, would be binding on his conscience, though he regarded the words as a meaningless form. This was also refused, and a second committee sat, heard evidence, and reported, and again the decision was adverse. It waa then that, after a debate lasting for two nights, and in which all the leading politicians took part, the House of Commons decided that Mr Bradlaugh should be neither permitted to tike the oath nor to make on affirmation. Nothing daunted, the irrepressible Bradlaugh presented himself the next day before the House and boldly demanded to take the oath and his seat. He was informed of the resolution of the House the previous day, and after some discussion was allowed a hearing "at the bar of the House." There he Btated his case in tolerably moderate terms, except in that he appealed from the House of Commons to the "Court of Public Opinion" against their decision, and spoke of the " ten thousand men behind his baok;" After this he was requested to withdraw, and failing to do so, was confronted by the Sergeant-at-arms, and on making a formal resistance to that official was given into his custody, and by order of the House was incarcerated in the clock- tower of the Houses of Parliament.

The next day the House, considering its dignity and authority vindicated, ordered Bradlaugh's release, and he has since from many platforms harangued many thousand sympathisers, and has succeeded very admirably in what is probably the dearest wish of his heart, and has become the moat " talked-about " man in the three kingdoms — probably the very summit of his demagogic ambition.

Apart from considerations of a nature personal to Bradlaugh, there is a general feeling of the danger of interfering with the constitutional right of a constituency to return whomsoever it chooses as its representative to Parliament. If the resolution of the House of Commonß is not rescinded, Northampton is partially disfranchised, being represented by one member instead of two. With the view of settling the matter, and calming down public opinion, the Government will to-night propose, through Mr Gladstone, that in future any member applying to take his Beat may at hia option make an affirmation instead of taking an oath, taking the legal consequences upon himself ; and before this letter leaves these shores the question will no doubt have been upon that basis permanently settled. Martinus Scriblerus

Latnpton thinks ' ' the man who whitewashes ceilings is jn a sublime business." Thi* iB a kiln-joke,