COMMENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1679, 26 January 1884, Page 10

COMMENTS.

The harbour which has so long been our despair — or waß it the Harbour Board? — is now^ from time to time furnishing occasions, for rejoicing. Following in the wake of the Te Anau and Manapouri, the Mataura has now come up to the Rattray street Wharf, drawing 17ft of water. Though not the first ocean vessel to come up to Dunedin, she is the first of any magnitude. It is to be hoped that before long it will become customary for the New Zealand Shipping Company and the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company's ships to discharge in the Upper Harbour.

Criticism on our contemporaries we generally avoid, but when we find the New Zealand Herald saying that the verdict upon Captain Brotherton was unduly severe, and that he deserves public sympathy for having gone to sleep on the bridge from neuralgia and overwork, we rub our eyes in amazement. To us it is by no means clear that these were the only causes of his going to sleep. The witnesses who gave evidence that he had not drunk too much were all more or less interested. It is evident that the look- out and the officer and crew on deck were for the most part incapable of attending to their duty. Were they all overworked, or is neuralgia infectious? To say that the state of disorganisation which prevailed was no fault of the captain's, aeems to us, with all respect to our contemporary, to aim at the root of all discipline, and to be absolutely fatal to safety of life at sea. We repeat that the Government will be very much to blame if they do not take steps to indict Captain Brotherton for breach of discipline.

Far from being severe upon Captain Brotherton, the verdict of the "Court of Inquiry seems to us to call attention to the need for a change in the constitution of these Courts. Time after time we have these absurdly lenient sentences, which practically offer an encouragement to carelessness. The Lyttelton Times thinks, with some show of reason, that this is partly due to the sympathy of the nautical assessors with a fellow seaman. Whatever may be the cause, the fact remains that the existing Courts do not offer sufficient protection to life at sea, and tho sooner the Act is altered so aB to admit of these cases being tried by a higher and more competent tribunal the better.

The concession made by Mr Childera to the Australian vignerons should satisfy nearly all shippers of pure wines. It ia true that on the

Adelaide Plains, and at Albury, the amount of natural spirit occasionally passes 30 degrees, but 99 per cent, of wines over that limit are fortified with spirit. Mr Charles Bonney, of South Australia, once exhibited a pure wine which had 36 degrees of natural spirit. It was of the class known as Verdeilho, having a strong resemblance to # sherry. Tho wines grown on the Hunter River and on the Yarra nave only from about 17 to 24 degrees of natural spirit. On the Adelaide hills, too, the Auldana wines average 22, but on the Adelaide Plains and at Albury the average ranges from 24 to about 30.

The Propaganda were wise in preferring the Bishop of Ossory to the Archbishop of Cashel for the Roman Primacy of Australia. The translation of a " Land League prelate," as Archbishop Croke is commonly called, would have been mischievous to the beet interests of the Roman Church in Australia, as well as to the Australian community at large. The length to which he carried his interference ■with politics in Ireland, and the fears of his breaking out ' again, probably made the Vatican anxious to remove him out of temptation ; but the very same reasons made it undesirable that he should come out to Australia. It is enough that the Roman Catholics are already aeparai ed from^the bulk of the community over the education question, without fuel being added to the fire by the promotion of race differences. Bishop Moran, although originally opposed to the Land League, subsequently approvedlof their doctrines; but his career has been sufficiently moderate to give hope that he will have the good sense to drop the League when he gets beyond the limits of its action.

The Anglican Church has always been supposed to be superior in matters of taste to the denominations which have seceded from itsuch as the Wesleyans, Independents, Baptis v< --, &c. But if the recent attacks on the Bishop by Otago Anglicans were to be published in the Guardian, we fancy the respectable readers of that sound Church organ would hold up their hands in amazement. It is more easy to understand why Mr Braithwaite should think it necessary to publish his reasons for leaving the Lyceum. The Lyceans have always been prone to parade their opinions, with the view of giving a Christian public as much offence as posßible. If we may judge from Mr Stout's letter to "my dear Sraithwaite," and his expectations as to the belief? tbat gentleman will arrive at by " more study," fche perfection of good taste and what amongst Christians is termed "charity" has not y°t be» arrived at even in the Lyceum. " I kuow you were bound to conceal your love," we can imagine Mr Braithwaite replying ; " but why did you kick me downstairs ? "

Mrßbaithwaitb's letter must hava been a bombshell in the Freethought camp ; but it is easy to attach too much importance to a single resignation of a prominent member. Many men have gone through the same stages of thought as he, and yet, unfortunately, the opposition to Christianity has not abated of recent years. We may rejoice at the prospect of the return of an erring member to Christianity, but we shall delude ourselves if we suppose that Mr Braithwaite'a resignation is likely to break up tha Lycsum, so long as it h •■• a Viisrh priest of the energy and ability of Mr Stout.

If anyone can put matters to rights in the Smilau it is Chinese Gordon. In retrieving the fortunes of war when they are desperate, and commanding semi-civilised troopß, the hero of the " ever- victorious army " has no equal in modern history. Not ten years ago he performed prodigies of valour and generalship for the late Khedive in the same district, and he is well acquainted with the locality and its inhabitants. His reputation amongst them will alone do much, to achieve success. It is satisfactory to find that the British Government is at last going to employ the most brilliant commander in her Majesty's service. Gordon Pasha is literally tho " hero of a thousand fights," and he has never lost a single skirmish.

One of the reasons why this nineteenth-century Bayard has not previously been employed by the War Office is that he will not take any command unless he has carte blanche givm him. Eccentric genius like his is not easily bound in red tape and sealing-wax. The forlorn hopes of command require the dictatorship of the Romans. Mr Rusden, in his " History of New Zealand," regrets that Gordon wa« not sent to command in the second Maori War. The intense religious enthusiasm and reckless daring of his character could not have failed to impress the Maori warriors, and had he been in General Cameron's place it is probable that many lives and much money would have been spared.

It is to be hoped that Mr Wakefield will get in for Selwyn. A Parliament of incapables sadly needs the reinforcement of a man of ability and eloquence. Mr Wakefield in opposition, Major Atkinson will not dare to indulge in the bullying of last session, and we shall perhaps hear some plain truths told in the House about the policy of borrowing and buying. The trickery to which the Government resorted to keep Mr Wakefield out at Inangahua deserves to be punished, and principle is so thoroughly at a discount in the politics of the present day that it is absurd to point the finger at Mr Wakefield's tergiversation in the last Parliament as if it were an unpardonable sin. He has paid pretty dearly for it, and has probably learnt a lesson. A Government which came into office pledged to financial reform and no borrowing can scarcely afford to reproach him on that account.

If it -were possible to blot out the record and destroy the memory of the Hancock murder we would gladly do so. A more ghastly revelation of sin and crime, of man's demoralisation and woman's degradation, than that, which was disclosed in the course of the J f dwial inquiryhas rarely stained thn columns of the Press. The uasexed women- -" battered drabs, as the prisoner's counsel termed them - who appeared in the witness-box, were such a feel ashamed of our boasted civilisation. That such a den of iniquity a 8 was described should be Buffered to exist in the very heart of the city, within a stone'B-throw of thl City CouncH Chambers, and almost under the shadow of two churches, representing the ecclesiastical ad-vance-Kuard of Scotland and England 1 is mnßidiscreditable. The woman Hancock furnfehes another name to the list of the S of drink. Once occupying a respectable position m Dunedro, the insatiate thirst for intoxicant ulroye her down in the Bocial scale till she became the debased associate, and ultimately the brutal sport, of a brutal partner, by whom she was done, to death, whilst yet comparatively young. As for the man Pearce, it matter* little what becomes of him. But the probability is that he will not be hanged ; for whether the provocation received were of the toDeue (which contrary to his Honor Judge Williams, to htfld

to be grpater than any that a woman's blows could give), or originated in the miserable woman's misconduct, there is nothing to show malice prepense on the part of the prisoner. That his sentence will be long and severe may be regarded as certain ; but it is not a case in which the extreme penalty of the law be inflicted.

We would advise the Mosgiel Woollen Manufacturing Company to procure a copy of the report on Australian woollens furnished to the Elboeuf Chamber of Commerce by M. Henri Courmeaux, who was specially sent to the Melbourne Exhibition for the purpose. His praise of the Mosgiel woollens is absolutely unqualified. He declares that " every article manufactured by that Company is superior to any other Australian woollen goods I saw at the Exhibition," and he thinks that " the Mosgiel Factory will take first rank ia the Australian markets over all European importations." Praise from such an impartial and competent source is praise indeed, and we heartily congratulate thu Company.

In connection with Chinese Gordon's appointment to the supreme command in the Soudan, it is interesting to remember that directly the news of the disaster to Hicks Pasha's army arrived, he tendered the advice to abandon Kordofan, Darfur, and the farther equatorial provinces, but to retain Khartoum and the country north of Sennaar. Abyssinia and the west bank of tha White Nile would then be the boundaries of Egypt. Sir Samuel Baker has recotnm nded an alliance with Abyssinia, which is covetous of the port of Massowah, as the easiest way of checking El Mahdi.