THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2211, 16 July 1896, Page 29

THE WEEK.

" Xuuqutm altud natura, allud taplcntia dl-clt."— Juvcnai. " Qoal nikture and good sense must ever join."— Fort. The selection of members to sit on the Banking Committee made by tbe Banking Legislative Council under the Committees, ballot shows; when compared . with the" list of names recommended by the Government, how fairly a legislative body is disposed to'actwhenfresd from -pernicious- influence. The. Councillors recommended by the Government were Messrs Kerr, Feldwick, Rigg, Arkwright, Jennings, Kelly, Ormond, Stevens, L. Walker, and W. O. Walker. The last-named gentleman ia a member of tbe Government and ought not to be there, since there is no getting away from the fact that if the committee does its work honestly the Government is itself on its trial. Mes3ra Kerr, Feldwick, RiggT Jennings, and Kelly are wholly incom- ; petent to oonduot an inquiry of the kind, some from natural obtuseness and others from total lack of business knowledge. They are all men who might be very easily bamboozled by tbe expert witnesses who will ccme before the committee. No one' would ever dream of employing them to arbitrate in a business dispute of any complexity. Messrs Arkwright and L. Walker are intelligent men, but without business acumen of any sort, and Mr Arkwright is new to tbe Council. We should bave been left with Messrs Ormond and Stevens as the only eff. olive members of tbe commiteo. The committee actually selected by ballot are Messrs Stevens, Orowai, Pharazyn, Bowery Ark.

Wright, Bonar, K-sIIy, Shrimskf, Richardson; and W." O. Walker. Here we have ,at least six very competent men instead of two, so that there is much reason to be grateful to Mr Ormond for his amendment for employing tbe ballot in the selection.

The Council very properly struck cut the olau3B in the order of reference empowering the committee to inquire into the losses made by the Bank of New Zealand prior to its besoming a semi-State institution. ' The clause has been condemned on the ground that inquiry under ib could only injure the bank by destroying all confidence in the sacredness of tho trust reposed in ib by its olients. The objection if, of course, of the weightiest poseible. No one would care to deal with a bank who has any reason to believe that the state of his account may at some time or another be the subject of a parliamentary inquiry. But quite apait from that very important consideration, the colony has nothing at all to do with the losses made by the bank while it was a private institution. These were its own affair. It may be true that the lato Sir Frederick Whitaker lost the bank a good deal of money, but what has that to do with .the colony I Had .Sir Frederick Whitaker committed the colony to taking the bank on its shoulder* as Mr Ward has done, his monetary relations with the bank .might have been a /fife subject of inquiry. But Sir Frederick Whitaker lost his money (if it be a fact) as a private individual, and the bank loftt-ittbiougb him as a private institution. If Mr Ward had simply lost money as a commercial man, had .Vaid himself open to no legal charges as to the character of Mb balance, sheets, and had never taken over any bank, who would think of demanding an inquiry into the state of \ hisaccount? However, the Council has struck out this olause and the other House has not. Each, therefore, will have a different order of referenoe to work under, and therefore they ought clearly to sit a3 separate committees/ Mr Seddon is extremely anxious to avoid this. He would like the two to sit as a joint committee, so that he might then have a controlling eye over! tbo solitary in- ! quiring body. He might keep that body' engaged (it has only 21 days to sit) over the useless and irrelevant portion of the inquiry (tbe losses of the bank prior to 1891) until there should be but little time to enter upon or complete the real objects of the ' inquiry. As Mr Bell epigramaMcally pots it, "he wants to begin at tha beginning and never to reach the end." Let him do so with his own committee. The Council on tbe other hand baa an order of reference whioh will enable it to go straight to the heart of the inquiry. Would it not be better for tbe Council to sit separately, and thus let the colony know what it really wants to know — the true circumstances under which it found itself saddled with two insolvent banks 2

It seems to us that there are some rather

foclUh things- being uttered Secularism— at the present time on both Old and New. sides of the Bible-in-Kcbools

question: In a sermon the other day Bishop .Nevill is reported to have spoken as follows:— "Tbe author of the PtaJm from which the text (' The fool bath said in his heart there is no God') is taken was greatly dejected and filled with grief at the sight of the degeneraoy of the people of bis time, who were what would now be called | secularists." Now, we should, be- very loth to enter into a polemical discussion with, Bishop Nevill "on what may be termed his I own ground. We do not profess to have any I knowlcdge'.of the 'special time about. which tbe Psalmist was writing. But we are still bound to say that tbe most casual glance at the utterance of tbe Paalmisb on whioh Bishop Nevill was preaching will show that it expressly refutes the construction, the bishop bas put upon it. Who was it who said in bis bearfc there is no God ? Was it theseoulari&t ? Not at all— it -was the fool. David was animadverting upon . foola, thoughtless . babbling creatures who are always ready to, express confident opinions upon matters of the deepest import, the gravest moment — matters about which they cannot possibly* know anything. It wae but an old-time illustration of the saying that fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Bishop Nevill can call tbete secularists if he chooses, but if he meant to draw any analogy betwesn the sscalarism of that day and that of the present be. was, simply,, but we feel sure > unconsciously, misleading his hearers. There were, fools ■' In David's time, andfthere are; foola,, now—plehty of thent There are doubtless fools among .the secularists, jast as there. are fools among the j Blble-Jn-adhools party,- bujb ,it would be everj whit aswropg and as unjust to dub j 'those fools atheists in the one contending faction as in the other. A" secularist of the present time — he bas no prototype in that of David — is a man who believes that schools which are equipped entirely at the cost of the State should not teach religion. Tbe reasons wbioh have led him to that opinion may be many. Some may be adtu&ted by disbelief ; in tbe fundamental doctrines of religion. But tbe great majority, we are pretty sure, simply recognise that where there is so much radical difference abont the creeds and dogmas in which religion is wrapped there is nothiog for it but to exclude it altogether from tobools and leave it to be taught by other persons than tbe schoolmaster, and at other tides and places than during school hours and at tbe schools. These persons have at least logic on their side, and they are adopting the line which is beset with fewest difficulties and hardships. To call them atheists is to libel them.

On the other hand, one or two sentences that fell from Mr James Jeffery at the recent meeting of the Educational Institute were both foolish and mischievous. Mr Jeffery may hold what religious opinions he chooses. If his opinions do not happen to be orthodox, that fact goes powerfully to support those who say that the schoolmaster is not the proper person to teach religion^ for the opinions held by one schoolmaster may be held by many others. We presume no one would seriously advocate restricting the choice of teachers to the orthodox alone. But while Mr Jeffery is free to hold what opinions he,chooseß, he must be careful not to infect the children he teaches with those opinions. To do so would be to deal a blow at tbe very seculaiism be dc&ires to uphold. We psesunae that Mr Jeffery ■was speaking fchor^htlesslj, but it seems to us that the

Education Board is bound to notice bis .words and ask his explanation of them.

We often hear of the waste qf money to whioh Governments are Statistics driven in having to oorapile Gone Mad. useless returns at the demand

of members of Parliament. There is no doubt a good deal in the complaint, for members very frequently ask for returns which with bat small expenditure of labour they could oomplle for themselves. Members, however, are nowadays nob the only sinners in this respect. A return is just to hand, headed " Agricultural and Pastoral Stati3tios," which is "presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of bis Excellency"— that is to say, it is placed on the table of the House by the Minister for Lands, who is responsible for its compilation. The document contains 32 foolscap pages of olosely-printed, bald, and most repulsive looking figures, with no report, no explanation, no abstract, no motive.lind no moaniDg. On the title page are half a dozen lines from Mr J. D. Ritchie, the secretary to' the department, merely to say that he has nothing to say about the figures. We make bold to say that the most energetic secretary to any agricultural and p asfcoral society— our own Mr Duthie, to wit— would think twice before he would tackle such a document, no matter what his thirst for information might be. It is true that the Agricultural and Pastoral Statistics Act. of last session requires an aocount to ha taken ineach year of the land occupied for agricultural and pastoral purposes and of the live Brock thereon, , but it leaves it to the Minister for Lands to decide in what form the information shall be given, Mr M'Kenzle baa doubtless- remitted the ' task to Mr Ritchie, who has evidently something in common with Sir Joseph Porter, X.C.8. : I am always ready at the Minister's call, Aud I never thought of thiukingfor myself at all. Mr Ritchie has therefore given us these 32 pages of unexaminable (we bad to coin a word for the occasion) statistics. It is ju*t possible that those who can mnsier up sufficient oourage to examine the return may find it completeneus itself. They will discover, for instance, that there were three acres of wheat either "sown or intended to be sown" at Mongonui, that there was one aore at Ohfoemnr!, that at the Bay of Islands two pure Berkshire boars were kept for stud purposes, and only one at the Thames, and so on throughout the whole colony. When we said there were no abstracts, we find we made a mistake. They are scarcely disoernible in the mass of detail figures, but they are there, and tall us that whereas Auckland provinoe bad 1678 pure shorthorn bulls either used or " intended to ha used " for stud purposes, Otago had only 765. The reader who wants to know the number of "geldings over two years old " or " sows over one year old " at any place in the colony oan find the' information by bunting industriously through this return. We do not know what the return oesfc, for only the ac'ual printing and not the cost of preparation is given. But it must have berin a very largo sum. No doubt it is desirable to gather statistics of the kind. - But' Mr Ritchie has quite mistaken his duty' in the preparation of the return! To the eyo it seems most elaborate, >but it is on.'y the confused raw material of a return that is set out. The labour of compiling a useful return, together with an intelligent report which wouH guide us to the salient features of it, Mr Ritchie has completely shirked. Perhaps the Minister himself is responsible for the form of this return, for Mr Ritchie is by no means lacking in aotivity and energy. But he must really make » better job of this return next year.

Both, matter and style of the Hon. George 1& 'Lean's speech on the bank question combine, to make it read uncommonly like a joke. That gentleman is reported to have said, " Had it [tbe Bank of New Zealand] not been able to bave purchased tbe Colonial Bank through being placed in that position by legislation— it was enabled to fight tbe Colonial Bank, and no doubt would bave gone on and taken a lot of the Colonial Bank's business, from the very fact of its being placed in the position it was by the colony— you virtually forced the Colonial Bank into tbe position' of having to sell, a thing this colony should never have done. You laid tbe Colonial Bank on its back for its bones to be .picked. That is what this colony did $p_ tbe Colonial Bank."' The audacity of this statement is really sup-; lime. There is scarce a soul. in- the colony so dull -as not -to be able to see that' the director* of Colonial Bank bad laid their institution' very completely on its back long before the two million guarantee was given to the Bank of New Zealand, and had invited a few— a very few — birds of prey to pick its bones — whioh they did with a completeness 'which left nothing to be desired. Everyone gee?) too, that the bank took very careful precautions to prevent the bone-picking from being seen by the shareholder*. When the work was thoroughly done the intention was to pass the bare bone, Mother Hubbard fashion, on to the colony. Everyone also knows how the soheme failed— -tbe failure | being certainly not tbe fault of Mr M'Lean. With all tbe facts so fresh before the publio mind the effrontery of Mr MLean in tbe , ; speech from wbioh we have just quoted was ' really sublime. There is no other word for it.

The Otago Central Railway League is a body which has worked under many difficulties and discouragements. It has been regarded with suspicion and dislike by the Government, and it received but eoant assistance from at leatt two of the Dunedin members, whose blind devotion to the Government would not permit them to make any special exertions on behalf of tbe work, la spite of all diuoouragements, however, the league has done good work. By the Appropriation Account, which is just to band, weTmd that a sum of £29,1 7G has been expended on the line during the year. . The sum voted for it was £25,000, so that the expenditure is in excess o£ the vote by £1176. There does not seem much tobe thankful for that a vote of £25,000 should have been actually expended on bo important a line of railway, but it is pretty certain the money would not have been spent but for tbe exertions of the league, who, in default of any other method of procedure promising success, have limply worried the Gtovexn-

ment into it. For the previous year the rote was £45,000 and the expenditure £80,221, leaving a $urn of £14,778 unexpended. By studying the figures for both years it will be seen. that though the league has succeeded in driving the Government to expend tbe vote. Mr Seddon also has succeeded in avoiding a heavy expenditure on the line. For previous years the game of Mr Seddon was to vote a large sum and leave a large proportion of it unexpended. The magnitude of tbe vote created a pleasant impression • for the moment, and tbe non-expenditure was left: to be discovered when the said pleasant impression had taken what may be oalled a permanent form. Tbe league has at least put an end to the deception. Mv Seddon fou&d it would be better to. vote the smaller sum and expend it, or slightly exo9ed it. Here we may remark that the expenditure on the line from first to last amounts to more than £680,000. It seems an enormous sum for so short aline, even admitting that the heaviest portion of the work has been got through. Wo Buspeot that the co-operative principle will make a dear line ol it before' it is finished. - i , , ,>., >.

It is somewhat curious that merino piisa sheep should have brought such high prices at the Bydney fair while the longwool breeds should be so negleoted. For one merino ram the bidding ran up to 1600gs, a price which takes us back, to tbe golden days of this particular breed; while. "numbers' o£ other specimens, went at prices that must be considered' very high. The price of longwools was, on the other hand, but little better than wbat it has been for some years past at our own ordinary fairs. Yet in the locgwool all the profit is supposed to lie. The ordinary longwool sheep brings the high price in the market to the utter neglect o£ the merino, but when it oomes to a sale of prize stock the position is reversed— tbe progenitor of the valuable stock bricga scarce any price, while the sire of the valueless animal is competed for as if bis fleece were made of gold. There are some who see in this the first dawn of revival of the merino. It may be the oase, though there is little in the market reports to warrant tbe conolusion. It \b mote likely that the'fsnoy for the merino sheep has never died out in Australia. Tbe merino sheep is after all a noble animal compared with the other, and its wool, whatever the market value of it, Ib still beautiful wool. Prosperity, born of good seasons and at least a slight rise o£ markets, is returning to Australian paitoralistv, and perhaps enables them to gratify in their stock a fancy that has only been dormant during bad times. The harderheaded but poorer New Zealander cannot afford to gratify his fanoies in the same etvle.

We are not at all surprised to tee the signs of indignation in the resolutions passed^ by varioui prohibit iopi3t bodies about 'the Lawliss cose. 'Bub the indignation need not be confined to the temperance faction. jTbe case has a dlreot bearing on the udminiitration ot the cpatfcj, whioh administration has in the present oaae been brought: into aometbing like contempt by the improper aotlon of Mr Ssddon and the unhappy Weakness of the magistrate, Mr Stanford. The case may be stated in a couple of sentences. An expoliceman—a man who had been discharged from the force for some misoonduot— applied to Mr Stanford for a publican'B license. The local police objected, and Mr Stanford refused the applioation. Mr Sedddn then, through Colonel Hume, succeeded in inducing the : police to withdraw theic opposition, to Lftwliss, and the magistrate to reconsider his verdict, The merits or demerits of the case are nothing; the pernicious element is the interference of the Minister ? with the magistrate. Had the magistrate b«ea a strong man ho would have reiented it. The case adds force to the arguments of. those who have long advooated ' the strengthening of the position of the officers who administer justice In the lower courts.

The: passing of the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill ia tbe House of Lords marks an epoch — we were about to iay in the social life of the community, but content ourselves in-say-ing -the hlitory of parliamentary WAr/are.We really do not know how'long the conte»b has raged over this bill, but no man casually taking up a new«paper 50 years old need be surprised to find it in full swing. England waa4be last stronghold of those who were agiinst legalising marriages, with a deceased -wife's- Bißler. • Toe Golopies '.throughout the ; empire departed one after another from they old tiadition, and, with ' no, oonMquencca ro ; epeak of oneway or, another. : From tho- fira6> it was mainly a sort of.iemi-fcheologioal ques'- ' tion, arid 'theological question*, though they may . he resolved easily enough In ; the colonies, die bard in England. Now .that the bill is passed we do not suppose the,controversy will ever; be heard of again. We may be sure tbe English will soon percdw, as the colonials bave done, that because a man marries a wife it does not in the least follow that he should also want to marry her slater.

The Hon. E. J. Seddon delivered his first Financial Statement in the Hpuse ( on Tuesday nightAs has already been stated, when the year's accounts were publiuhed the , surplus on the lakt finnucUl je&c wa« £i 15,558. For tbe present year the revenue is estimated .at £4,584,000, and the expenditure at £4,452,1,65, the estimated surplus being set down at £31,835. To this has to be added, however, the surplus from last year. This will permit o£ £150,000 being again transferred to the publio works fund, and leave some £90,000 for the Supplementary Estimates. The Premier's pro* posftls include borrowing to the extent of £1,000,000. Of this £250,000 is to be devoted to railways and public works, £250,000 to tbe. construction of roads to open up lands, £250,000 for? the purchase of Native land, £200,000 for works on goldfields, and £50,000 for the Thermal Springs districts and opening up roads to enable tourists to visit with comfort some of the colony's famous grand scenery. Tbe officers of the telegraph department are to , be congratulated on the speed and apparent accuracy with which they got the Statement through. •

Mr John Blair, who at one time represented C&verßham and Green liland in the Provincial Council, has decided to contest the Clutha constituency.

In the estate of a Kaiapoi Native there ia being paid a final dividend of ss, making ia aH 20s ia the pound, with 8 per cent, added.

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