The Otago Witness, WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1896.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2236, 7 January 1897, Page 29

The Otago Witness, WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1896.)

THE WEEK.

" Nunquam allud imtura, aliud sapienlin dixit."— Jovinal. "Good nature and good sense must over join. 11 ' — Pope.

The Confidence Trick.

The Government organs are singularly quiet about the "locally subscribed " half million ever since the truth came out. The country has been long accustomed to deceit in the matter of finance, but this last was rather a tawdry pretence, and hardly worthy of Mr Sed don's undoubted - capacity for political puffery. No doubt the real state of affairs is even a little more hollow than has yet been stated. It will be remsmbered that during last session it was admitted by the Government — even urged as a reason for the Loan Bill by the Minister in charge in tha Legislative Council — that the loan money had already been forestalling to the extent of more than one-half of the million to bo raised. The forestalled could only be effected by the aid of the Bank of New Zealand, with possibly the seconding of another bank. The so-called "subscribing" of the quarter million by the Bank of New Zealand the other day waa thus virtually in the nature of a transaction for merely funding a floating debt. The money had been borrowed in a surreptitious way from the bank months ago ; and the advertisement asking the public to subscribe to a looal loan was issued with the object of repaying it. The public did not respond, whereupon the bank itself "subscribed" the money that had already been borrowed from itself — the transaction probably involving no moro startling charge than an alteration of the particular page of the ledger in which the advance had been entered. When these little facts come to be contrasted with the grand announcements of three or four weeks ago about tha " success of tha looal loan," we dare say some people will ba disillu- ' sionised. The significance of the thicg lieu in the kind of connection it show* as being ! already established between the Government and the bank. We suppose that the most enthusiastic admirers of the Hon, J. G. Ward will hardly go so far as to suggest that when he returns to tha Cabinet— as , i« now, we regret to say,seriously threatened — this kind of thicg will be sternly discountenanced. That hoc gentleman bas vepeatcdlj declared that he can see nothing worthy or consure or complaint in tha business transactions lately so notorious ; and such being the oase, we may obviously ezpeot the same Qnanoial methods to be followed in the future which ha considered propsr and laudable in the pasf. That is a pleasant prots,pect indeed, and one that seems to involve possibilities of a graver kind than the pretended bank " subscription " of last month.

End of the "State Farm."

I The country has been so persistently invited to glorify the authors and admire, the prosperity cf the Levin 3 sate Farm that it is I just possible there may be a few people left to whom th« throwing up of the sponge at last may have come with some ! sort of mild surprise. These are the people who, when they are told by the Government that a certain state of affairs exists, believe it. They do riot feel impressed by the state- > inents of people opposed to the Govern- • rnent, and they do not read the | official returns if any happen to exist ; ! in fact, they applaud the action of those of their representatives in Parliament who ■ back up the Ministry in taking care that upon such matters no returns do exist. Such returns, according to Ministers, " put weapons in the hands of the Opposition"; and this, when there is a bevy of " dumb' dogs" sitting respectfully round you in a •ring, each waiting humbly expectant for | the label "Government Candidate" to be j attached to his collar, is a sufficient reason I for refusing such weapons. It does happen, I however, that two or three of the most docile followers of the Government got to know i somerniDg about the Levin farm, even with- | out the full returns that ought to have been furoifched. They went there — for a holiday, | and they evidently came back aghast. The \ policy of bluster visibly weakened after that, and the Government organs ia the notes thej atruck on the subject gave only too painful evidence that the organ-blower was out off wind and out of temper. Now the whole ghastly makebelieve lies exposed; and none too soon either. The matter is not one of extreme importance in itself — a few more thousands follow hundreds of thousands more, squandered in the last five years, into limbo — but it typifies the methods | of a Government without political honeßty or scruple. What has now been found to be the truth about this grandly-named " State [ farm " has repeatedly been found to be the ' truth with regard to other undertakings and achievements of the same much-puffed department. And, worse still, we are on the brink' of a similar discovery about the finances — that a policy of concealment and misrepresentation has for years beeD adopted, only to end at last in the avowal, when avowal can no lorger be avoided, of such a condition of affairs at the Treasury as would reduce to insignificance in the public mind the failure and abandonment of a score of State farms.

A Confession.

[ We have not the slightest idea whether it is a faor, as alleged by the Hon. John M'Kenzie, that the persons who received concessions in rent nnder the Pastoral Tenants' Relief Act in the South Island were active in opposing the Government candidates at the elections. It may, however, for present purposes be assumed, on Mr M'Kenzie'a authority, that they were ; though the statement is a very wide oce, for there is probably not a single olasa of sottlers, whether freeholders or leaseholders, in Otago and Canterbury which did not, by the bands of some of its members, receive the benefit of that act. The expression "pastoral tenants" in the title of the act was merely one of the wellknown Go vern ment tricks of giving misleading J short' titles to statutes — of which the " Aids to Public Works Act" and « Land for Settle-

ments Acts," among others, are examples. The expression was meant to convey the idea tbat tbe act was a speoial concession to the large run holders, who are the class generally associated in the public mind with the words -"pastoral tenants of the Crown." The interpretation clause of tbe act itself, however, epeoially includes in its operation "every peri-en cccapying lands of the Crown for pastoral purposes by virtue of any form of lease " under the Land Acts ; while a little olause at the end (16) declares that " All the pr6visions of this act shall, mutatis mutandis, extend and apply to any person engaged in 2>astoral pursuits, although not. a pastoral tenant of the Crown." So that, as a matter of fact, every owner of shefp, cattle, or horses in the colony who could abow damage by (to quote the title of the act) " the unexampled s'everlty of the winter of this present year " was entitled to relief ; indeed, though the short title mentions only pastoral tenants, the full title giveß the purposes of the aot to be " Relief to pastoral tenants of the Crown and others." It is well known that all classes of settlers took advantage of the act. It was quite right that they should, and perfectly right that they were specially allowed to ; and the trick of the misleading short litle was- a harmless one enough — an ordinary venial political dodga. Mr M'Kd&zie was freely accorded the greatest credit for the aot, and to quarrel with side poiuts of the kind would ba ungenerous. But Mr M'Kenzie professed that the aot was necessary in the interests of the Treasury to avoid the abandonment of huge areas of pastoral country to the rabbits and the ruin of many settlers, large and small; and on that plea, and that alone, the Legislature — with almost unique unanimity, by the way — passed the measure. In its impartial administration the Land Boards and the Minister alike gained deserved praise. But now thg Minister makes what amounts to almost an open confession that the act wan, after all, a bid for votes ; and he expresses ohagrin and disgust that from that point of view it has failed. If this be true, the failure hardly seems to be diccreditable to those who have thua disappointed him ; bat is the f aot of the attempt oreditable or otherwise to the Minister who thus avows tbat he made it 1

The New Orthodoxy.

Tha conclusion one principally gathers from^the somewhat exolted controversy in England over Dr Temple's qualifications for the Prim .cy is that in these ■ days it it nob by any means necessary tbat j aa archbishop of Oanterbuty should b« orthodox. The idea would havo startled our forefathers, no doubt ; bat times move, and ; one-half of the Anglican Oliurch declares i that that organisation moves with tbetn, the | 'ether half atill continuing to declare that j "she" never ohauges, and never has, and i never will. Dr Temple was a contributor to ; the "Ebsatb and R-jviews" which were so' long on the Index Mmjpurgatoriiis of' the j Church, and are iinoa pretty generally admitted to have had as much business there as Galileo's writings had on the Papal one. They ace now on everybody else's (Eor strictly unsectarian reasons, however), and in a fair way to be politely forgotten. Apart from this iecident, the tote bishop has always been a "suspect" in extreme orthodox quartet's, and bis elevation some years ago to the London see was protested against in a much more serious way than was his consecration to the Primacy the other day.' One gathers, however, as we hay« said, that au archbishop in these days need not be orthodox. But one gathers farther that he must necessarily be unorthodox, if at all, in a striotly episcopalian way. He may hold almost logersollian views about the incongruities of Moses, may doubt the divine inspiration of Job, take part in controversies about the multiple authorship of the Psalms, and dally, if he ohoose, with evolution itself. But he must not in all this cross by a fraction of an inch the line wbloh the true Anglican draws between " the Church " and " the dissenters." That is another thing altogether, and no true churchman would tolerate it for an instant. He would rather see his Metropolitan sacrificing to Brahma, or offering to bless a Mohammedan mosque, than hobnobbing with a delegate frcm a Nonconformist Congress. From this point of view, which we may (to be in the fashion) j term the New Orthodoxy, Dr Temple is unexceptionable. He is said to be rude in his manners almost to boorishnees ; and the true blue Argioan. seems to entertain, deep down in his bosom, the pleasing conviction that on due occasion a taste of this quality will be bestowed by the new archbishop upon the rival sects.

Monroeism Up to Date.

According to M. Blowilz, the Paris correspondent of the Times, the European powers hare taken the first favourable opportunity of oonveyißg a friendty hint to the United States to the effect that the Monroe doctrine does not suit. This is by no means surprising in view of the unanimous tone of continental comments on the American bluster over Venezuela. Aa absurd exaggeration of a certain catchy phrase in a Presidential speech of many decades | ago incited the United States Government a year ago to a demonstration against England, the rashnesi and rudeness of which almo&t aggravated it into a studied insult. S traightway the American eagle screeched and flapped with unrestrained vigour, the populace being excited by sensational headlines in the press to a blind frenzy against the "brutal" English, while the cool and almost lazy incredulity of the British newspapers only inteneified the transatlantic bounce. Lord Salisbury has guided the affair into decent oblivion, and it is now as good as settled. But in the course of it the Monroe doctrine was reaffirmed in so monstrous a form that for once the continental press took England's side, and emphatically declined to be bound by any such formula. It did not. greatly concern the European powers (except in a pleasing way) that England uhould be threatened with war from a safe distance; but they saw quite plainly that any moral support given to President Cleveland's pretensions might at any time react against their own interests. Their opportunity to convey their repudiation of those pretensions to the United Sjates Government in a highly significant "way has now oome with the Cuban revolutionary war. Ooneresi

has made two or three determined attempts to force the President and'the Secretary of State into a line of action intended eventually to result in the capture of Caba from Spain. Tbe right; of the United Spates to interfere in Cuba is, like their right to interfere in Venezuela, nothing more than an arbitrary pretension of tire States themselves ; and though the President so far has declined to take the hostile steps insisted on by the Senate, Spain has felt bound to take notice of tbe hectoring resolutions of which the world has been informed, and' has succeaßfully appealed to the powers to convey to America a protest and a warning. It is by no means a bad thing that the* American people should be taught what the extreme interpretation of the Monroe doctrine will yet involve. Any country in the world can set up a Monroe doctrine — for instanoe. New Zealand might do so about the New Hebrides, or Norway about the oolar islands— but the virtue of such a pronouncement consists in the power to enforce it. Th« chagrin of the United States authorities at the result of the Cuban revolutions will be increased when they reflect that, but for the strainirg of the Monroe doctrine in, the early part of this year to defeat English righto, tbey would have undoubtodly received tha moral support of England in any reasonable reaffirmation of that principle before »the world.- England is the owner of largar territories in America than the United States • themselves are; and it is eminently suitable to British policy — since we certainly want no more territory over there — that a wealthy neighbour should be kind enough to assume voluntarily, at his own cost, the task of keeping everybody else oat of any fcotiig in that hemisphere for all time to oome. But having been threatened ourselves with the operation of the same prinoip.'e in a grossly overstrained form, we shall of coarse give no farther aid in its perpetuation, and the Americans mast make it good*if they can.

Since we adverted last week to the new Irisb agitation wbioh has taken the plabe of the Home Bale movement, it appear* to have oontinued to develop with extraordinary vigour. Meetings have been held— some presided over by members of the House oi Lords— the tone of which unmistakably showed that the demand fpr a radical reform in the system of 'lrish taxation has a ' political vitality that mwit be reckoned with. It has now been decided that the Irish party are to move an amendment on the Address-in- Reply dealing with the matter. Tbid teems to indicate that the leaders of the Libsral parly are making an effort to capture and appropriate the political betfentf, if any, of the a«w movement, since they ot course would approve and vote for almost any hostile amendment that might be nioved on the address. This is quite fair party politics, bat it is rather a pity that party must come in at all. We hope to see Mint the British. Government will frankly uneet the. agitation, and deal with it in a fair and statesmanlike way. Tbe only hope of that, however, lies in the acceptance by Irish representatives of the dismissal of autonomy as a recognised aim, and the substitution of what may be described be " Fair trade" for theEmorald Isle, on strictly Imperial lines. On some such plan there seems to be a chance at last for a ÜBicn of so cordial a kind that it may as years go ou, develop into a true union of hearts. We do not know of any other Irish aspiration, -past or present, which could /be similarly described.

Oddly enough, another congresß of a section of the British Empire is simultaneously moving in a like direction. The Indian National Conference (wbioh is a body something like the Maori Parliaments we occasionally hear of here, but conceived on rather more serious lines^has just declared that the threatened famine is the result of many years' excessive taxation and over-apsesiment by ( the British authorities. The truth* of this 'declaration it is exceedingly hard to gauge; Indeed, the truth . about any matter of Indian administration is always peculiarly obscure, for while the, administration is in the hands virtually of a local oligarchy composed of the AngloIndian specialist and his kind, the nominal control of the Home Parliament glows more and more nominal every year. Nobody reads Indian blue books, and only a bare quorum annually listens to the Indian Budget or languidly contributes to the formal debate on Indian affaire. As to the British newspapers, one reads far more in them nowadays of G-reenland'a icy mountains than one does - of India's coral strands. ' The result is' that very few people understand the complicated and highly technical subject of native Indian taxation ; and not being among those few we can only hope that the complaint of the National Conference is not founded on fact. But there is the terrible blunder of the cbargiDg of the cost of the Indian forces at Suakim upon Indian revenues to give colour to it. We have always agreed with the Liberal denunciation of that act of Lord Salisbury's as one that could not be defended anyhow, but that should never have been committed even if it could.

It seemß probable that the police have got together <the true history of what is known as the Piimmerton tragedy. The ocourrenca is one of a common enough kind — whether a murder and suicide, or a donble suicide, for it may have been either — and its unusual feature ie merely the time that elapsed before the forest gave up its dead. That is lo'mewhat remarkable in a district like Plimmerton, where picnic parties are wont to stray deep into the secluded nooks that surround the settlement, in one of which the poor relics of 'the tragedy were found. Brooke*, or Braybr'ooke, . was moreover a fairly well-know^ man, .having passed through the kind of experiences which eiake men notable in their own oirclea, and the chances of his sudden, disappearance passing unnotioed were not large. If, as is surmised, the young woman who had lived with him before the reappearance of bis wife was the one who till the other day lay dead by his side In the Plimmerton woods, the unpleasant r«fleotlon forces itself upon the mind that had he . chosen to murder he* (or she him) and leave the country, the otime would have remained unsuspeoted'until long after the criminal was safe from Dunraitw