WAIKAIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1582, 18 March 1882, Page 13

WAIKAIA.

(PROM OUE OWN CORBBfIPONDBNT.)

March 18th.

I have to apologise for neglect of duty, but having been for some time removed from the range of gOBBIp I could furnish no news unless I "evolved it from my consciousness." Harvesting operations, so far as the oat crop are concerned, are well advanced. On the Upper Waikaia Flat the yield is magnificent, in some instanced reaching 90 bushels to the acre. On Stragglers and the Lower Waikaia Flat a fair average appears to be the rule. The wheat is very backward, and some of it will not be ready for a month. Turnips are patchy, the fly having proved in some cas«B very destructive. As soon as possible I will compile a rough estimate of the total yield of the district for your harvesting number. We have lost our resident clergyman— the Rev. Mr Morrison— who has been removed to Akaroa. He is much regretted, I understand, by the small section of the community who formed his flock. As a compeneative moral force, we have gained a Licensing Committee. The election created neither interest nor excitement, a yery small number of votes being polled. The Act itself has caused some stir. The Resident Magistrate "embargoed" 'several unfortunates. It is intolerable that any man, even the most depraved, should be branded and deprived of civil rights without any other trial than the decision of a single magistrate founded on the evidence of! a policeman — evidence acknowledged by all authorities to be of a suspicious and unsatisfactory character. Before such a sentence, a man ought to have the chance of facing a jury— a privilege we mcd to boast as the chief condition of English freedom. But the whole thing appears both cumbersome and useless. Undoubtedly, in some instances at any rate, the "embargoed" one will get more drink than before from the sympathy of those, who, not being publicans, can defy the whole gang of police and Good Templars. The recent legislation on drinking, gambling, and electioneering shows a curious tendency in democratic communities to curtail individual freedom. They progreßs backward, and appear inolinod ,to adopt the restrictive system of throe centuries ago. I expect to see a sumptuary law passed directly, with the unanimous applause of married men. Altogether a thinking man may reasonably doubt whether the rule of a cultured despot to whom sovereignty is habitual is not preferable to the tyranny of the ever-fluctuating idols of the " demos," to whom power is a novelty, and as such to be made the most of. \ There has been an amazing stirring up of the dry bones, and all kinds of public bodies have started into all kinds of fungoid growth. They all tond to public meetings at the shanties, but what further the future must show. A really creditable entertainment some time ago resulted in a handsome donation to the Southland Hospital. I have already remarked on tho rather disgraceful fact that Waikaia has contributed nothing to the funds of the Benevolent Asylum. Perhaps some of our energetic public men might turn a little of tbeir superfluous energy in the direction of removing this stigma. The movemont might take tho usual and characteristic form of Colonial charity— " amusement for your money and benevolence for nothing."