The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1900 the week.

Otago Witness, Issue 2436, 21 November 1900, Page 37

The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1900 the week.

11 Son u»m aiiud natura ad „ . 4?

As the Crown Tenants Rent Eebate Act of last session is in force, and The is of considerable importance Rent Rebate to a number of settlers occuAct. PP r their lands under the Crown, it may be well for us to explain the provisions of the Act. Although the expression "Crown tenant" is a tolerably wide one in itself it is used in the Rent Rebate ' Act in l a restricted sense. We propose" first of all to give the holders who are now and henceforth entitled to the benefit of the act ; and then the holders whe — inferential^, for the act does not specify them — are excluded. The persons who come under the act and become entitled on certain conditions, to be presently mentioned, to*a rebate of 10 per cent, oh their half-yearly ' instalments of rent are as follows : — A. Holders of Capitalised Deferred Payment Licenses. b. Holders of Perpetual Leases imder part 4 of " The Land Act, 1885 " — that is, holders of 30-year leases with right of renewal for 21 years. C. Holders of Lease in Perpetuity under the act of 1692. D. License to Occupy with Right of Purchase under act of 1892. E. Holders of Lease in Perpetuity under " Cheviot Estate Disposition. Act, 1893." These being the persons who benefit by the "act, all other tenants of the Crown ( are excluded ; ■ but a list of the various foldings may, ns we have said, ba convenient: „jl. Uncapitalised Deferred Payment License*. -.«.->- - f - „ - . , 2. -Pastoral Deferred Payment Licenses. '3. Ordinarj-' Pastoral -Licenses ' (Runs).' ' ' 4-. Small Grazing Run Leases. -5/> Occupation Licenses in Goldfields.; 6. Miscellaneous Leases and Licenses (timber and so forth). 7. Village Settlement Perpetual Leases. 8. Tillage Special Settlement Perpetual Leases. Why these two last — village settlement leases— were excluded is not easy to see. They were possibly overlooked ; but as they come under part 5 of the act of 1885, which is not mentioned in the Rebate Act, they are excluded. All tenants who come under the first list we have given become entitled to a rebate of 10 per cent, on their half-yearly instalments of rent on three conditions : — 1. That they are not in arrears with any instalment of 'rent become due since the passing of the act— 2oth October, 1900. -2. That they pay their half-yearly instalment within one month of the due date. 3. That the Commissioner of Crown Lands and the Receiver of Land Revenue approve of the rebate. This digfiPetionarv power is left with the two gentlemen named, apparently to enable them to discriminate betAveen those who deserve 1 a' concession * and those who obviously "do not require it/ There is no -from', the decision of the commissioner and the receiver. It will 'be understood, therefore, that all arrears have to be paid up before rebate can" be allowed," and that' there'is to" be no rebate of the arrears. There is also a provision by which the Minister -of Lands, upon the-, recommendation of the Land Board, may remit a year's rent (or a-ny lesser amount) to any Crown tenant (as described in our first list) who from natural disaster or other sufficient cause of a like kind is unable to pay his rent. . ' All theses provisions as to rebate apply to holders of leases in perpetuity under the Lands for Settlements Act — that is, to persons who hold lease 3 which form part of the estates purchased by the Crown for settlement. On a former occasion we gave our opinion of the principle of the act. The Crown is perfectly justified in encouraging by concessions of the kind prompt payment of rent. But the act might well be of wider application ; and it is anomalous, to say the least, " that severe penalties should' be visited upon one set of tenants who may be a little behind with their rents, and nothing but concessions given to another. But so far as it goes the act is right, and will result, we may hope, in benefit alike to the Crown and its tenant.

It will be remembered that a little time ago we had cablegrams giving East ami the substance of telegraphic West. communications which hnd passed between the Emperor of China and his Imperial brother of Germany. The Chinese Emperor was soliciting the good offices of William II in the present imbroglio, and at the same time explaining the awkward circumstance of the minder of the German Ambassador, Baron Kettler. The text of the telegrams is published in a recent number of The

Times. It isn't often that Emperors communicate with one another direct on important matters of State ; but it is not so much the departure from convention that lends an interest to these communications as the curioris Avay in which they emphasise the gulf Avh:ch j separates the ideas of the East from those of "the West. The Chinese Emperor commences by deploring the death of the ambassador, who fell a A r ictim, he says, to a rebellion which suddenly broke out ~in China and Avhich his officials Avcie unable to control. We are- here reminded (knowing Avhat Aye now knoAv) of Mr Dooley's description of the difference betAveen European and Chinese lies — namely, that while the European lie amounts to a rrfere conthradiction of the truth, the Chinese lie appeals to the sinse of honesty of the entire worrld." But that by the Avay. The' Chinese Emperor then explains how he proposes to expiate the murder of the German Ambassador : — By an" Edict of to-day Aye command that sacrifices shall be made for the deceased Minister at an altar and Aye have directed the Grand Secretary Kun-kang to present a drink offering at the altar. The Superintendents of Commerce of the northern and southern harbours have^ likewise been commanded to make all requisite arrangements in connection Avith the conveyance of the coffin to Germany. "When the coffin arrives in Germany we have ordered that a socond drink offering shall be made at the altar and have commissioned the Vice-president of the Ministry of Finance, Lv Hai-huan. to give effect to this order, The object of this is to giA"e expression to our grief and to our remembrance of the departed. To the Western mind there is something pathetically comic in this idea of atoning for the greatest crime Avhich one nation can commit against another by drink offering-- = o the deceased. It .is the Chinese method of expressing official grief no doubt, but the bare fact that such a suggestion sho-.ild be offered to a civilised nation as a sri/i factory solution of a grave difficulty shows lioav impossible it is to alloAr a nation lilt*- China to shut herself up from nil c our.uunion Avith the rest of the world. Li Hui;.j Chang, Avho has every Chinese c^n^'y except gross ignorance, but who hi* iraA riled, Avould never haA T e permitted such overture's had he been consulted. The answer of the German Emperor was a- model of dignity and good sense, with a touch of humour that Avas perhaps inseparable from the subject matter. "As German Emperor," he said, " and as a Christian, I cannot regard this deed as expiated by drink offerings. In addition to my murdered Minister a great number of brethren of the Christian faith, bishops, missionaries, women, and children, have passed before the Throne of God, Avho for the sake of their • faith, Avhich is also mine, haA r e died violent deaths under torture, and Avho .stand forth as accusers of your Majesty. Do the drink offerirlgs your' Majesty has ordered suffice for all these innocent victims ? " The Emperor Avent on to explain that he too wanted peace, but it ,Avas a .peace that.Avould atone for guilt and give security to foreigners., jn China for the future. .'Hoav to accomplish this, however, is the different problem noAV awaiting 'solution.

It is curious to reflect that a. year' ago' the world Avas ringing with the An Dreyfus story, Avhich has Old Story, since, by later events,been so completely driven out of the public mind that an effort of memory is required to "call up the names of the chief actors in the terrible drama. Even the confession of Major Esterhazy, traitor and forger, just announced by cable, will only give a momentary revival to the story. The confession is to the effect that the famous bordereau on which Dreyfus was condemned was forged,, as were also the letters incriminating Dreyfus, alleged at the time to haA~e been Avritten by 'the German" Emperor. All this, and 'a vast deal more, was perfectly well knoAvn before, and most of it 'Was even "unofficially admitted by Esterhazy. But on the present occasion' the confession is made to the French Consulgeneral in London, and at a time when, a general Avhite-washing act having been passed, there was no object to be gained in either lying or concealing the truth. The confession incriminates Paty dv Clam, then major of the French army, Colonel Henry (who cut his throat in prison after his, guilt had been- sheeted home .to him by the French Minister), and -four prominent generals, one' of whom, de._Boisdeffre, actually occupied a position at the head cf the French army corresponding -to that of the British Field-Marshal Commanding-in-chief. Esterhazy is one of the choicest scoundrels . of the age, and Avhen •he has an object in lying no statement of his is worthy -of credence. But in addition to the alteration in t,he circumstances, it is a fact only toe Avell established that the generals named combined forces and used every effort of which they were capable to shield him Avhen they kneAV him to be everything in scoundrelism which the richest vocabulary ever described him to be. It seems a very difficult thing to believe that a number of men, avlio, by different roads, happened 1 -to reach the head of the French army, should be tolerably Avell 'tarred Avith the same brush as E&terhazy himself. And yet the- position is very intelligible. The3 r Avere not by nature criminal, but in a fatal moment they, largely in' concert, took the first downward step from sheer 'cowardice — a form of coAvardice that is only too common everyAvhere — inability to stand up against a raging public opinion. That all the French officers concerned (except Henry, Avho Avas Esterhazy's partnei in ~tiilt) condemned Dreyfus in the first instance quite honestly there can be nc doubt. They were convinced of his. guilt, as Avas 'indeed Colonel Picquart himself, Avhc afterwards acted so nobly in Dreyfus's defence. When, after the lapse of two years, an extraordinary set of circumstances dragged into the light of day, and conclusively proved the innocence of the unhappy man Avho Avas then being tortured on Devil's Island, the generals Avere aghast at the blundei that had been committed, and the hopeless incapacity that Avould attach to French Staff Office methods. That Avas the crucial moment for the generals, and the evidence

went to show that at that momeat Boisdeffre and Gonse at least paused within the line of honour and rectitude. But unhappily Rochefort, Drumont, and all the anti-JeAV newspaper-OAvners and leaders had Avorked the mass of the people up to the frenzy point against the JeAvs. The generals quailed before the storm, and basely set to Avork to Avink at the foigeries AVhicn their military tools of inferior rank set to work to manufacture in order to .sheet home a dreadful charge against an innocent man. Tne first step in criminality having" been taken, they had to continue travelling on the path Avherevei\ it led tLem. Even now, so great is the clamour against the Jews in France, it is quite safe to predict that the gallant Picquart Avill not be restored to his rank, nor will Dreyfus be compensated for his sufferings. The efforts of the Government are concentrated on "a general "amnesty."

The verdict in the Roslyn tram case is satisfactory enough as far as it An Erring goes, but -extremely unsatisTram Car. " factory from inconclusiveness. It does not go far enough. me verdict is bAvo-fold. It finds that the Chinaman, Kin Hay, Avas killed in consequence of the car starting Avithout being attached to, the cable ; and it also finds that the driver Avas not to blame, because he' followed the usual eustoni in starting. On the whole Aye agree. There can be no doubt whatever as to the essential cause of the accident. The brakes may or may not haA^ been in the most perfect order (the Aveight of 'evidence goes to shoAV that they were) ; they v may or ■ may - not have been used in the most manner possible by the driver ; *sand may or may not have been used, or in sufficient quantity. These, hoAvever, are subsidiary points, though important enough in a subsidiary Avay. The safety of the public depends upon the maintenance of the attachment between the cai and the rope, and on the occasion of the accident there was no attachment. For this the driver is held by the verdict to be free from bla-me, and as Aye have said we do not see that the jury could Avell come to any other conclusion. ft Avould have been a cruel absurdity to hold the mere emploj-ee guilty j of manslaughter "because, in common Avith all the other drivers, he folloAved a course of procedure forced upon him by the necessities of the case. The company, no doubt, had what the coroner called a very admir-a-Ve rule, to the effect fchat.no car Avas to start until.it had beer attached to the rope. But it Avas by no means sufficient to have such a regulation in print sorheAvhere ; it Avas the duty of the management to see that it was carried out. At the Transfer Table the evidence goes to bear out the positive evidence of the drivei that it was physically impossible to pick up the rope before starting. Had it been otherwise, and had Al'lntyre, to save himself trouble, gone down the line a little on his OAvn initiative and in contraA'ention of the established rule and practice, his conduct would have Avorn a very different aspect. But he ,did Avhat the necessities of the case compelled him to do, and- Avhat had naturally become the common practice — he moved down the line- a 'little to a spot Avhere the tension permitted him to grip tlie rope. Either the management knew that drivers Avere compelled to do this or it did - not. If it did not, it must be held responsible for great and culpable laxity ; and if it did it must be held to have countenanced the infraction of its OAvn Avholesome rule The accident Avas an avoidable one ; someone is to blame for it ; and it seems to us that the safety of the public demands some further inquiry to find out Avho that individual is. ' Foi it is a little too much to expect the publjc to believe that the acci-~ dent happened in consequence of an error of judgment- on the part of the car! Yet piactically that is how/ the verdict leaves the matter.

We have dealt on several occasions with the important subject? of About horse-breeding, viewed in^the Horses. light of the experience the nation has had, during the past year. A couple of years ago it seemed as if light horses were destined for ever to remain a drug in the market, with a cerI tain tendency to be ousted almost out of \ existence by the bicycle and the mptor car. Now horses are about as high ir> price as, perhaps, they have evei been in the history of the colony. ' t All' the colonies have been swept of their best hacks- foi the war, and the J difficulty of getting even the limited number required .was considerable. Nor is there ' any supply of the right kind coming forward. The same story holds true all over the Empire — plenty of horses, but a decided scarcity of the kind required for war purposes, at all events, in a trying ; climate and in a difficult country. At the ' same time one of the principal lessons of J the war emphasises the imperious need of I plenty of efficiently-mounted troops. The ! importance of the subject is everywhere re- • cognised, and suggestions c6me from many i quarters for 'keeping up the supply of suitable horses. The latest comes from a well-known Avar correspondent, who suggests that Imperial breeding stations should be established in Canada, Australia, arid New Zealand^ The colonies, it is sug- ■ gested, would supply the land ' and the Imperial Government the breeding stock , and the management. ' Such establishments ', are said to be successful on ,the Continent," i but whether .they would supply the needs . of the British army seems to us to be very doubtful. And of course it i& not the British army alone that is concerned. It is universally recognised now — or at all j events it should be — that the real defence . of these colonies would rest upon mounted ! troops and field artillery. All the Boers Avere mounted ; hence their efficiency and theii extraordinary mobility. In the i event of invasion all colonial troops would require to be mounted also. We presume the reason for selecting t the colonies for breeding establishments is because the climate is more suitable for breeding purposes. The colonial horse has proved himself in South Africa to be a bettei horse — that is, in point of endurance over a long period and under unfavourable ."conditions of living

— that his English brothei. We do.nofc doubt that the horses which came from the interior of the colonies were hardier generally than those bred on the coast line ; and it seems tolerably certain thai Arab horses, bred on the driest country of all, would have proved more Suitable in South Africa than the colonial hors.es. The Basuto ponies, which endure so much and look so commonplace, are known to have a largo infusion of Arab blood in them. It ir natural, therefore, to look to the colonies foi horses. It does* not follow that ther% must necessarily be Imperial establishments. But as settlers of every description breed collectively large numbers" of horses, a great object would be gained if these were of the right kind. It is very certain they are not so now. And the problem is, how is a general improvement in the breed to be secured? .Which subject, treated in ,the most superficial manner possible, 'requires a!

The settlers of this -or any other -colony can generally breed "' good What Should sheep and good cattle "and be Bone? good pigs — why, then, should they not as a rule breed good horses? It. is, clear .they, could do so if they chose, and the reason they do not choose is probably because the demand for horses has riot hitherto been such as to warrant persistent care or much expense in the breeding of • them. But there ■is such a demand now; and" yet there is no sign of, any, special response to it. People are quite alive to the advantage of breeding horses, but the particular, kind is of small moment — except only that it is generally held to be desirable that the animal should be "big." Nevertheless the big animals have by no mean's proved themselves to be 'the best, and before very long it Avill probably be recognised that the low-set horse of compact frame and sound inheritance- Avill ' have" a special value of his OAvn. But pending •rsome general consensus^ of. opinion, which seems hoav to be sloavlv forming, as to the style of horse required, nothing can be more certain than that (the present system, or Avant of system, is quite fatal to the> production of good horses in NeAV Zealand. 11 the method Avere designed to scatter weedy and inferior animals (of possibly good blood) over the colony, it could not be better adapted for the purpose. Let us suppose that someone is desirous of profiting by horse-breeding. Hoav, ordinarily, Avould he set about" it '! He 'would probably go to some Avell-knoAvn racing* stable, here or in Australia, buy at 'a low price a weedy, cast-off j-earling of good blood, and bring him up for a sire. The "-blood "'of the animal Avould probably be as good' as the constitution Avas bad. , The .mares awaiting this degenerate OA r er a Avhole-dis-trict would just be such as chanced to be there. There is rarely any kind of selection at all, subject to a, A^ague. idea that they ought to -be " roomy," "if possible. Nowi it is clear' that if sheep and cattle Avere bred in the same fashion anything approaching to excellence ' in the colonies Avould be unknown. All, this " does not anply to the same extent to draught' horses. The necessities of a young, undeveloped 'country 'always -demand a. good breed of draught stock', and Aye no doubt have them here. But Avith regard to the class of hor.ses on Avhich it may uoav -be said! 1 -, the safety of the colonies to a large extent depends, Aye have actually turned, the canonsof good breeding upside down. And as the question seems hoav about to become a national one. this- state of affairs cannot be allowed to exist any longer. The problem is to devise some satisfactory means -of improving the general breed of horses. Our 'own opinion is that. the task of solving the problem, or attempting to solve it, shoiild be throAvn on the Stock department. AttacSed to that ' department .there should hs a capable A*eterinary branch that should either dbe invested Avith poAver to substantially encourage persons using as t sires horses up to an approved standard,, or that should have the power of licensing and exercisins? pharp supervision over all sires used. The details are unimportant : the main point is to ..imbue the public with the importance of the subject. If the State finds it for the national benefit that dairies and slaughter-houses should' be inspected 'and the export of meat regu--.lated,'., it cannot be' wrong, that if should < interfere to , improve the- breed of ■ liorses . noAV that the importance of the subject in connection Avith the national safety is' recognised. - , / '

The. Supreme Court was occupied on Motv day in ' hearing a casfe in which Miss Jane Thompson, a ' school teae'ler, claimed £1000 damages from William Murcott, surA'eyor, for breach_of promise of marriage. Counsel for the plaintiff occupied four hours in opening his case, reading A'oluminously from letters lhat cover some 150 pages "of close type-written foolscap, the bulk of which passed betAveen the parties in the first six months of the present year. Evidence was given by the plaintiff and her father, Avho is a- well-known resident of Dunedin, and the case for the plaintiff was then closed. During the course of his lecture at' the Garrison Hall last ' Monday/ Major' Kennedy said that as his credentials as a military officer had been called •in question, he Avished to intimate to ," his" , audience that he Avas gazetted an officer in her Majesty's army on the 19th September, 1870. He intended to place his commission, together Avith a record of his services for his country, in the hands of the editor of the Otago Daily Times, so that, if .necessary, it might be published. According to the Greymouth Star, a serious difficulty has arisen at Brunner between the management of the mines and the union. One shift in the rise Avorkings received notice that on and after Saturday, the 17th inst., they would not be required. The manager, so says rumour, dispensed Avith several truckers, putting other men in their places. Those aggrieved complained to the union, Avho took the matter up and demanded their reinstate-

ment. _ The manager thereon forced the posi- . tibn, and gave 23 men their notice, which 'leave only one shift. It is" to be hoped (adds 'the Star) that a satisfactory settlement tvill be arrived at, and that work will be proceeded with without delay. 'The volume of business ihas increased to such an extent at the "Wingatui Junction that "the Railway department have found it necessary to .appoint a -permanent stationmaster there. The traffic at the cattle yards at Burnside has also considerably 'increased of late, t and when -the new siding is finished, » which will prob'aly be within a month's time, a stationmaster will .also be permanently located there. The 'latest large city to adopt the septic tank system as a means of disposing .of its sewage is 1 -Manchester, in "-England. ■ The eystenv will deal with 24,000,000 gal per 'day, butitin wet- weather thjsja-r'ge'.. quantity will be_ Btill further *increase,d. What is .known as the-, (bacteriological 'method of treating the effluent will also be introduced, involving -the "construction of no less than 31 acres .of *bac-> teria beds. The~ amount 'borrowed- for the. carrying out of the necessary works is £457;000.Jg A correspondent of the Grey Star, referring to, a .visit paid to the oil springs at Kutuku, 22 miles from 'Greymoulh, says : — The oil wwass s . oozing 'out so -much that you could see -it flowing- down'Jihe stream, showing all 'the beau- '■ r j.ifiil tints of a rainbow. About 10ft, from ihere -a few holes had 'been made about lift /deej), and in ' all > of these -the .pure oil was. found, artel no .difficulty was experienced .in - Ecooping it up .to fill. sample "jars."' It is of - a iHarlc brown greeny colqur, and smells strongly of kerosene. We were then taken up a bush track,, and after an hour's walking arrived at a, spot -where, in a tributary -of ,the creek, the -flow is so ' great that the 'colour of -the -water is entirely changed to that of a darkled: The, stones are all coated with a dark 'green colour. , Evidence is shown that an pressure must be working to ' force this continual sweating through 'the rock. ; The company has" consolidated six 100-acre ' blocks to organise a public , company to start boring on an 'extensive scale. Abundance of, timber is to be had on the spot, and nature has -provided every facility for working .the oils. ' ' '