THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2198, 16 April 1896, Page 27

THE WEEK.

" Nunquam aliud nilura, aliud aapientla-dlxit."—Juvinau " Good nature and good lense must ever join."—Pop*. So rare in New Zealand have been serious

Sonieoue '■ had Blundered,

accidents on the railway lines that we might easily come to the conclusion that our railway system is too simple and to admit of such

elementary accidents. The collision at Clinton comes in as a disagreeable reminder that such is not' the case. There was no loss of or serious iojary to lifo atl it fftrtaaalglj k»pp«b«d, but

it might easily have been an extremely calamitous affair —one which might have superseded in our minds the pathetic horrors of the Brunner explosion. We have met with one or two who were in the special at the time of the collision who are ratbor inclined to make light of the whole affair because no one happened to be killed or injured. That Is not, and should not be, the attitude of the public towards the affair. The interval between a quits harmless accident of the kind and one which should involve a disastrous loss of life is often an extremely narrow one, and eaeily obliterated. On this ocoasion the plaoa and circumstances were favourable, and that is all that can be said for it. The same carelessness which permitted a slight accident to cccur admitted also of a very serious one, which might have sent us all into mourning again. We use the word carelessness without knowing in tha least against whom it is directed, but carelessness on the part of someone there must have bees, otherwise under so simple a railway system with so few trains running tho collision should not have occurred. The only way of preventing the recurrence of such accidents is by making 1 an inquiry as rigorous and searching as if tbe collision had been as calamitous as it really was harmless, which is now being done, That is the wholesome rule at sea. No accident to a vessel is too minute to escape inquiry, snd it requires the most rigid adherence to the rule to instil in the minds of captains of vessels the necessity for the exercise of ceaseless caution. The very frequency of marine inquiries helps to remind shipmasters of their responsibilities. Railway inquiries of an analogous kind are fortunately rare, but when they are required care for the public safety demands that the very most should be made of the occasion. It ia really quite to underatand the i

The Miulster and The Knight,

block. Dariog last session the Minister for Lands, under oover of the privileges of the House, made the moat serious charges Pgainst Sir W. Buller, accnaicg him of fraud in his dealings with these lands, and declaring that if he got hia deserts he would find himself in gaol. Sir Walter Buller civilly enough requested Mr M'Kenzie to repeat bis charges outside the Houss so that the truth of them might be tested in the Suprema Court. Mr MKenzie declined the invitation, virtually pleading poverty as an excuse for not entering upon an action of the kind. Subsequently Sir Walter Buller was called to the bar oE the House, and explained bis connection with the block to the full satihfaction of a House that was decidedly hostile to him when he began bis speech. The Minister, with all tha facts and documents before him, hcpelessly broke down in in his oross-esamination of Sir Walter Buller, and no other member who asked questions succeeded in invalidating' Sir Walter's statement in the smallest degree. That gentleman also generously gave the Minister an opportunity of withdrawing his charges, which he not only churlishly refused to do, but substantially repeated them. The Royal Commission was really *Mr M'Kenzie'a own suggestion, and as a medium of inquiry he advocated it on grounds that were as uncomplimentary to the Supreme^ Court as to Sir Walter himself. A Royal OommiesioD, he _ declared, was a body which Sir Walter Buller " could not get round" and which he " could^ not purchase" — whatever that may mean. The Royal Commission has been set up, witnesses have been examined, but when Sir Walter Bailer requested that Mr M'Kenzie should be called,, the chairman refused to subpoena him. The ground of refusal may be technically right for all we know to the contrary. The charges made by Mr M'Kenzie against Sir Walter Buller in the House may possibly be out&ide the scope of the inquhy. The desire of the Government may have been to get at some other information, and judiciously to' leave Sir Walter Buller out of it altogether. If that be so, it amounts to a confession that the charges made by Mr M'Kenzie wera wholly unfounded, in which- case the Minister should long before now have made that gentleman the very humblest of apologies. But for the essential justice of the case it does not matter whether the commission choose to issue a suroena to Mr M Kenzie or whether they do not. The duty of Mr M'Kenzie himself is plain before him. It is to tender himself for examination and either substantiate his charges sgaiust Sir Walter Buller or else make a "full and humble apology for preferring them. If he does not do so—if he takes advantage of the position to slink out of examination before a tribunal of his own choosing, conducted (the examination, that is) by a man whom be has desperately wrou ged—then his position before the people of New Zealand will be a pitiable one indeed ; for he will be guilty o£ conduct so mean and cowardly, so utterly foreign to the British character, that he could not be regarded hereafter as other than a blot upon the Government of which he is a member and a reproach to the constituency he represents. We most sincerely hope that he will appear before the Royal Commission and either boldly substantiate his charges or make a manly acknowledgment of his error. We are really sorry to have to devote another

Your Sloney or Tour Billets!

paragraph to tbe Minister for Lauds, but his extraordinary action at the Advances to Settlers office is not one that can be passed over. The

impossible position of the Hon. John M'Kenzie in relation to the Royal Commission now sitting on the Horowhenua

scene that took place there shows the danger inherent in a system which allows the Government to have anything whatever to do with the lending of public money. In the first place Mr M'Kenzie had strictly no right there at all. The Treasurer is ex-officio chairman of the board, and in his absence any other member of the Government may tske his place. That means that Mr M'Kenzie might be properly there in lieu of the treasurer, to take his place at the head of the board and assist in tbe conduct of the business before it. Mr M Kenzie appears to have gone there for the purpose of giving the board a " bit of his mind," and to have left when that interesting process was over. It is impossible to conceive an act of greater ' i!np*t?£}?i<rfey oa the g&st o£ a Minister, for it

amounts to nothing less than the intimidation of a number of civil servants who have been entrusted with the administration of public moneys. The function of the board is to lend money on safe securities of a kind prescribed by the act. •In the very nature of things they were bound to be cautious over the work, and if a good many applications for money were refused that could only mean that tbe securities were not good enough for the advances required. On the other hand Mr M'Ketizie's tirade before the board, of whatever nature it was, could only mean that the beard was not lending out the money fast enough and that it would have to stir itself in future. Such a line of conduct pursued by a member of the Government towards persons completely under the control of the Government is intimidation pure and simple, and in the intimidation the public interest is entirely overlooked. It cannot possibly be the interest of the board to refuse to lend money on sufficient security, nor , yet to be "dilatory or neglectful in the lending of it. Its prime duty is to see that the money is wisely lent, and that ia a duty which does not admit of performance on the slapdash principle. If we can conceive of Mr Seddon looking in on the board of directors of the Bank of New Zealand, and rating the president, who is an official under him, for not lending money fast enough or , indiscriminately enough, we can understand tbe measure of the offence committed by Mr M'Kenzie. His action is indeed worse, for the lending board of the Advances to Settlers office is by no , means as independent a body as the board of directors of the bank. If Parliament could have anticipated such an action being taken by a Minister, subservient and all as members have been, we may hope that they would have taken steps to more effectually protect the board against Ministeiial influence.

Apart from the impropriety of the thing, there is something exceedingly suspicious in the time the Minister has chosen for coming into conflict with the lending, board. From the time of its initiation the board has been allowed to go quietly about its work, tbe Treasurer himself, or some other Minister, sitting at its head. Complaints from settlers who had been refused money were common enough, but neither Mr M'KeDzle nor any other minister interfered in the matter. Not till the general election was approaching did Mr M'Kenzie think it worth his while to make this " protest " against the method of the board's proceeding. Looking to some recent utterances of Mr Seddon as well as to this action of &r M'Kenzie, it appears as if the Government were going to make a hoard composed of their own officials, and of their own setting up, tbe scapegoat for the failure of the Advances to Settlers policy. The farmer was promised cheap money at the last election, and he will b8 promised it again at the next — and probably the one after that, if only by virtue of promises the Government can hold out as long.

There was something at once ingenuous and pitiable in the speech made by the Hon. Hall-Jones to the delegates of the Trades Council who waited on him in Invercargill. With the greatest gravity the newly-made Minister expressed his regret to the delegates that he had not been able to bring down with him copies of the " labour bills " intended for next session, but he would see that they got them "as soon as possible." We hope that the delegates of the Trades Council feel sufficiently, elate at the prospect of the treat before them. The said bills — four or five ia number the Minister sententicusly said they would be— are simply the rag-tags of measures that have already been contemptuously kicked out of the House, or have been allowed quietly to disappear without anyone in the least caring whether they ever bobbed up to the surface again. If either Mr Hall- Jones or the delegates in question had the smallest sense of humour they could not with grave face have accepted these wretched bills as part of a fine democratic scheme for the amelioration of the condition of labour. When Mr Seddon was asked not long ago what he had done for the working man, be replied that he had given them " bills." It is very true ; he has given them bills, and he is now going to give them more. And on tbe whole the more the merrier. When the Cabinet has thoroughly exhausted its repertoire of bills perhaps tbe trades councils and kindred bodies will begin to see— we suepect from the hasty departure of Mr Beeves that they begin to see already — how hopeless it is to expect the wretched meddling thirgs to have any influence whatever upon the life and hopes of a working man.

It is rather carious and melancholy to note that two of the most troublesome enterprises, or at least affairs, which the British Government has now on its hands are legacies arising out of thg deplorable weakness in foreign policy of Mr Gladstone in days gone by. The first is the Transvaal difficulty, which is very far from beirg settled, and indeed wears at the present moment a very threatening aspect, "in 1879 the Transvaal was peacefully annexed to the British Empire, the Boers themselves being only too glad at the time to get rid of the burden of debt and difficulty, and the danger of native outbreak which the government of the country then entailed. Three years later Mr Gladstone abandoned the country to the Boer*, who had meanwhile risen against us and been twice successful in arms. It is probable that nothing is recorded in colonial history which so seriously weakened British prestige, and the present position, one of no small danger, is the direct and very natural outcome. The -Boers never have been in the least grateful for what supporters of Mr Gladstone at the time called his "magnanimity"; on the contrary, they have ever since thought that the nation surrendered to fear what it could not retain by force of arms, and their attitude from that time to this has been one of extreme . hostility tempered with much suspicion. It war to avoid "blood-guilti-ness" — the word became famous at the time — that Mr Gladstone abandoned the oountry, but it would surprise no one now to find that the Transvaal »hould be the cause of a war of no small magnitude ; indeed, if there should chance to be war at all it is pretty certain it will not be confined to our own nation and the Boers. Mr Chamberlain is now evidently getting impatient at the refusal of President Kruger. to answer his

demands that the reasonable grievances of the Outlanders should be redressed ; and at the same time he is pledged to have them re* dressed. Germany is, on the other hand, pledged to maintain a sort of treaty of conoimeroe alleged to have existed with tbe Tranrf* vaal since 1885, tbe maintenance of which Implies the continued independence of thai: country. Whatever President Kruger'fl private views may be as to the reforms, it is evident that fear of his own people, who appear to be much more igriorant and more unyielding than himself, prevents his granting them. Meanwhile Dutch and German immigrant! are quietly finding their way into the country, evidently under a good understanding with the Government. And all this is happening in the very heart; of British South Africa. A peaceful solution may of course be found, but it is quite obvious the position contains all the elements that go to make an explosion. Here 16 ought perhaps to be mentioned that Me Chamberlain was a member of Mr Gladstone's Government while all the mischief was being wrought, but he had either little influence on his masterful but peaoe-at-any-price-loviDg chief or he has grown curiously imperialist with advancing years,

The other com plication for which the nation has to thank Mr Gladstone is the Soudan. The Soudan is an immense territory which A quarter of a century ago bad a population of something like forty millions. Successive Egyptian Khedives, bolder if not better men than their descendant now on the throne, overran the lawless country and introduced something like peace and order in it. Egypt itself became the "sick man," and on Ingland, after the withdrawal of the Frenob, devolved the duty of nursing him into health again. One of the greatest of Englishmen — if a chivalrous nature and an unswerving devotion to duty be elements in greatness— was placed there as Governor-general, and was practically abandoned to the fanatical foxy of the Mahdi, who from the smallest of beginnings was allowed within four years to completely overrun a oountry two millions of square miles in extent. Tbe contrast between what the Soudan was even under Egyptian rule and what it is now is well set; forth by Slatin Pasha in hie recently-pub-lished book. Before the time ' of tho Mahdi European and Egyptian merchants were settled in all the chiet towns of the Soudan. "In Khartoum itself the foreign powers had their representatives. Travellers of all nations could pass through tbe land unharmed, and found protection and help through their Rid. Telegraphs and a regular postal service facilitated intercourse with tbe most distant countries. Mohammedan mosques, Christian churphes, and mission schools looked after the religious and moral edaoation of the young." That is one side of the picture. The other is set forth in terms equally terse. The Khalifa "rules tbe unfortunate population with a rod of icon, and with such oppression and tyranny as to make them loDg for any form of Government which would give them rest and pease. . . At leaßt 75 per cent, of the population has sucoumbed to war, famine, and disease ; while of the remainder the majority are little, better than slaves ; and that terrible scourge the slave trade, with all its attendant horrors, is rampant is the land." It Beems incredible that a population of 40 millions should dwindle down to about 10, but unhappily the faot does not rest upon the testimony of Slatin alone. The reconquest of this country is now the task whioh England has before it. It is not undertaken out of sentiment, but in the interests of civilisation, of British commerce, and as a necessary ftep in the protection of the far-off dependencies of the empire. But it has now to be undertaken under ciroumstances of great difficulty, and of dangers by no means referable to the Soudanese themselves. The cables now inform us that Russia is doing her utmost to stir up France, Germany, and Turkey to obstruct the British progress, and although the campaign has commenced in European peace it is bard to say how it may end.

Census-taking is only a very mildly interesting process nowadays. When a oountry is known to have been advancing with leapa and bounds there is always some natural curiosity to know how the population stands, and how it is distributed. For many years in New Zealand there has been neither leaping nor bounding, but rather a slow and steady advance, a method of progression probably ac good as or better than the other. A youog country is somewhat' like a young man ; if he grows too rapidly in one period of his youth Nature commonly slows him down later, and beneficiently enables him to develop solidity and strength. Just five years ago, on April 5, 1891, the census showed that we had a population of 626,658 exclusive of Maoris, who were supposed then, as they are supposed now — for it is largely guesswork — to number abont 41.Q00. The precise total was 668,651. The census was again taken on Sunday bight last, the 12th inst. We shall of course have to wait some little time for the result, but there are means of computation which enable us with a tolerable approach to accuracy to put it at some 730,000, including Maoris. That would be an increase of over 60,000 for the five years, an increase mostly of the natural order. If these figures be borne out, the result is not bad. The largest, increase during any census period was between the years 1874 and 1878, when 115,000 people were - added to the population. Th<r public workajjolicy was then in full «wiDg. and in addition to its attractive power a considerable sum was then and for long afterwards devoted to assist immigration. All the fuss that was made a yeat or two ago about "population leaving our shores" was, as we pointed out at the time, the merest political gabble. An ebb and fiove in the population there always will be at particular times, and we may b« very well satisfied if over a period of years there is a steady national increase.

A youth named M'lntosh was bitten by & katipo spider near the K&iapoi beach on Thursday. The part bitten was one of his knuckles. As the hand swelled very much Dr Parsons was culled into attendance.

The Crown Lands Department notifies in ouf advertising columns that 65 sections onthe Ard« gowaii estate, varying from 9 acres to 305 acresg will be open tor application on the lease in pet&st tuity system on Tuesday, 12th May.