Poverty Bay Herald

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6480, 24 September 1892, Page 2

Po verty Bay Herald

PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING, GISBORNE, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1802. WOMAN SUFFRAGE. The Legislative Council has endorsed the principle of woman suffrage by thirteen votes to six. The division docs not represent the relative strength of the supporters and opponents of the reform, as several of the latter abstained from voting. Sir George Whitraore moved that the word "person" should not include wo men, and on this amendment the vote on the principle was taken. Although the Council has now declared itself in favor of the reform, there is a stronar impression that it will not reach the statute book this session, as Sir Patrick Buckley has era-

phatically declared that the Government will not accept the amendment to the a Electoral Bill which provides for the cub- i ting up of the city constituencies. Ho s has also announced that the Government E will not agree to the proposal that women should be allowed to vote by electors' s rights. It is stated that the Upper House J is determined to stand by its amendments. ■' We have already expressed the opinion ; that it is very doubtful indeed if the amalgamation of the city constituencies will work disadvantageously to the party at present in Opposition. The splitting up of the electorates would most likely increase the chances of candidates of the lemagogic stamp. The Hon. MrPharazyn expressed the opinion that the universal adoption of the single electorate system would result in the Government losing one member in eachjof the four large towns. Results would probably prove that he was nofe far out in his reckoning. The business quarter of any of the principal towns would be pretty aura to tetunv by a large majority an opponent to the party now in power. But on the other hand, under the three-member system it would be quite on the cards that the whole of the three seats would be captured by the friends of the Opposition. Dr Grace, who has lired for over a quarter of a century in Wellington, and who has been actively engaged in politics for nearly the whole of that period, has had ample opportunity of observing the changes in public opinion in a large town. He believes that the splitting up of the electorates would be a mistake. Except in a time of great political excitement, the mercantile community of a city leaven the whole lump. The Government, of course, will oontinue to make every effort to keep up fche excitement, but the people have already sobered down considerably. They will come to their full souses by and by. It is quite possible that after the next general elections, the Radicals will be clamoring for the division of the airy constituencies into single electorates, and tkat the Council will resist the change. The amendment enabling women to vote by «lectoral rights is a most desirable one and would most certainly follow the enfranchisement of the sex. A hundred thousand electors would certainly be able to obtain any privilege they desired. Under the Council's proposal a woman elector is to receive an elector's right in virtue of registration before the issue of a writ. The ballot p-iper of a woman voter is to be given to her after the day of nomination, instead of aftor the issue of a writ. The provision th.vt a woman's ballot paper shall only be sent to the returning officer by the postmaster receiving it is struck out, and replaced by a clause making it incumbent upon the postmaster to send to the returning officer immediately after the close of the pol the names of all the electors who shall have exercised their right to vote at the post office under his charge. The committee have stipulated that any woman who may not have received an electoral right shall not be prevented from recording her vote at a polling booth in the ordinary way. In considering the Bill the committee struck out the word " female " wherever it occurred, and substituted the word " woman." The Hon. Downie Stewart, who is a zealous advocate of woman suffrage, received a telegram from the Woman Franchise League, Dimedin, condemning the proposal for women to vote by electoral rights, and alleging that women would prefer to vote at the polling booths as the men do, but telegrams have also boen received from similar bodies in Canterbury warmly approving the plan. Mr Stewart has pointed out that the voting by electoral rights is not compulsory, but purely optional, and therefore those women who don't want if- or don't like it need not use it, while those who prefer it can do so.

Dr. C! rant has been appointed pubiic vaccinator at Waipiro, East Coast. Tlie Rev. Mr (Jibson preaches in Wesley Church to-morrow evening, taking for his subject " Mary and Martha." Messrs Williams and Kettle, Limited, have received intimation that the English wool buyers will again attend the Napier sales, and during the ensuing season will be prepared to buy heavily. The Australia, which left Gisborne at nine this morning for Auckland via Coast ports, has an engine and boiler and two valuable stallions to land at Waipiro, consigned to Mr J. N. Williams. The engine is for working the Wolseley patent fur sheepsheariug. The machinery is to be landed by means of a raft of casks built for the purpose. Before Messrs Lucas and Maude, J.I I . 's, this morning, an information was heard for assault and sureties! of the peace between A. S. Caulton and Alex. Parsons. The evidence showed that Caulton was as much if not more to blame than accused for the assault, which was described as a "rough and tumble." The information was dismissed. Mr L. Ree.s appeared for complainant, and Mr Chrisp for the defendant. By the Waihora yesterday, Mr G. McLean, of Turihau station, imported two pure bred Hereford bulls from the stud herd of Mr Every McLean, of Bleak House, Auckland. They arc both young beasts, one being twenty months and the other eighteen months old, and are particularly (juict. It is found that when crossed with the ordinary cattle of the district the Hereford turns out a valuable class of stock. The County Council this morning received landers for forming two and a-lialf miles of dray road from Ngatapa homestead to Taugihanga block, as follows : — Griften and Sawyers £2.")9 10d, Bryant and Foot £2~5 ~}s Id, Dougherty and Co. 4.-.3.17 Ms, Colbert and Bowler £-2."),5, Knox £2f>9 17s, A. Devery ,£244 3s (id (accepted), Keilly and Devery ,t'2(i2 10s 7d, P. McLoughlin £279 2s. For forming three and a-half miles of dray road from Gisborne- Wairoa road to Te Aroha, the tenders were — A. Devery £434 11s, Colbert and Bowler £490, Kielly and E. Devery £449 10s (id, Knox £42.3 1.3s 6d (accepted), MoLousrhlin £4.62, Ma-lone £474, Bryant £450, Tlie entertainment held in the Theatre Royal last evening under the auspices of the Garrick Amateur Dramatic Club, in aid of wife and family of the late Mr J. W. Smith was well attended, the whole of the front seats being occupied. The first part of the entertainment consisted of a concert and tableaux, and everything passed off satisfactorily, more especially the tableaux, which were, greeted with applause. The farce " Turn Him Out " was most comical, and the several parts very cleverly sustained, brought a pleasant evening's entertainment to an end. The gross amount of tlie taking reached £2,"), and as the expenses have been as greatly minimised as possible, thero ought to be a good balance to hand over to Mrs Smith. Professor Lichtwark, horse-tamer, arrived this morning from Napier. He has spent the last four months in the Hawke's Bay district, and had some very tough animals brought to him for subjection which he claims to have perfectly subdued, that they are now in work and will not return to their former wild state however long they may be turned out. It is the Profossors intention to give exhibitions of his skill here as soon as he can make the necessary arrangements. From a large number of testimonials received by him from gentlemen in various parts of the colony we select the following : — " Maraekakaho station, September 19th, 1892. I have much pleasure in testifying to tlie efficiency of Professor T. Lichtwark in training and quietening horses. Besides forming a class here he gave a public performance during the day before a large audience, and succeeded in thoroughly training some very obstinate animals. All here expressed themselves as thoroughly satisfied with the performance, and I can strongly recommend Professor Lichtwark. — Yours truly, Donald M'Lean." The Napier^Borough Council has made a lucky deal, by purchasing through Mr Dobson J'2oo casks of cement at 8s at the ship's side in the roadstead. Lighterage, carting, and duty, will bring tlie price to about lls per cask. Tlie usual cost, based on the Harbar Board's large tenders, is about 14s 9£d per cask lauded.

The Wanganui Herald complains that the shore end of the Cook Strait cable is laid right across the best anchorage in the roadstead. Its removal to a more convenient and safer position is advocated. Messrs Reid Brothers, of Motutapu, shipped same 20 carcases of frozen deer Home, but the result of the venture was not satisfactory, od per lb being the average realised, exclusive of charges. The late William Astor left £30,000 between six New York charities. He left £14,970,000 besides. In other words he left only a fifteen-hundredth part of his fortune to charities. Some members hold that fully £10,000,000 would require to be borrowed to make all the railways demanded. One northern member advocated borrowing £500,000 a year for five years. It is stated that an area of 18,000 acres of hill land, reserved in Hawke's Bay for climatic and forest purposes, is to be removed from the list of reserves and opened for selection. In Victoria teachers frequently exchange schools. These exchanges are effected by means of advertisements, which may be seen every month in the Australasian Schoolmaster. If anything be needed to show how necessary capital is to labor, the district of Zeehan, in Tasmania, furnishes the illustration. This remarkable mineral district, richer in its silver deposits than Broken Hill, was coverted by the Labor party for working men, and through their influence it was secured to them by being cut up into five hundred small mining allotments. The whole of this number was taken up, but only seven of the claims are being worked, and those through having taken capital into partnership. One day last week (says the Napier Telegraph) a cablegram was received in a terribly mutilated state, and the message mixed up an obituary notice with a cricket match, took a little deciphering. We notice that the Auckland Herald came to grief over the cable, which was extended by that journal as follows : — " General Ciaroini, a prominent Italian soldier, playing for South v. North, took six wickets for 39 runs." It happens that Woods was the cricketer, and General Cialdini, the Italian soldier, whose death was recorded. Tub Wkathek. — Weather forecast for 24 hours from 9 a.m. to-day : Wind between south and east and north-east at ail places. Barometer rise at all places. Sea moderate on both coasts. Telegrams to expect frost or very cold night have been sent to all places,' and also for low tides to all seaports. Synopsis of last 24 hours : Steadily-rising barometer everywhere, with frost on all high country south of Taiipo and generally cold weather. There has been a strong gale on tlie coast between Kaikoura and the southerly East Cape. — R. A. Edwix. At the sitting of the Native Lands Court »n Wednesday at Auckland in connection with the Orakei succession claims, Judge Ton Stunner made some severe comments on the Native land legislation of the colony, and on the never-ending Native Lands Acts and Native Lands Acts Amendment Acts. " It seems to me," he said, " that there is no finality in Native Lands Court decisions. No sooner has a decision been arrived at than an Act of Parliament nullifies all that the Court has performed, and everything has to be begun over again. In the present, involved state of the Native land law, with amendment upon amendment, it is next to impossible to understand it." The H.B. Herald states : — One speaker at the meeting of the Synod on Wednesday took a peculiar stand on the Rev. Mr Wills's motion re intemperance. The motion commenced — " Whereas intemperance has ever been a great impediment to all Christian work, and a prolific source of poverty, destitution, and suffering ; of crime, disease, and death ; it is the opinion of this Synod, &c." The speaker \irged that as but for the existence of poverty, suffering, disease, and crime there would be little or no need for Christian work, and as intemperance was said to be a cause of those evils, instead of being an impediment to Christian work intemperance was an incentive to such work. A rather fine-drawn contention. Max O'Rell, should lie write a book on his colonial travels, will have some funny experiences to recount. The following is a copy of a letter received by the brilliant French humorist when he was lecturing in Brisbane : — Max O'Rell, Esq. Sir, — Permit me to introduce to your notice tlie Brisbane Steam Laundry, and to take the opportunity of informing you that we, do what a good establishment should do— first-class work. Shift and collar dressing arc among our specialities. All class of work, however, receive proper treatment. While listening to your admirable lecture last evening I thought your shirt caused you some trouble through faulty dressing, not sitting as it certainly should, and certainly not done up in firstclass style. I therefore hake the liberty of suggesting a means whereby } T ou may be spared even the annoyance of a bad-fitting shirt — namely, patronise the Brisbane Steam Laundry. — 1 am, sir, yours obediently, Geo. Fish, South Brisbane, "August 16, 1802. In connection witli the explosion on board the steamer Mont Blanc on the Lake of Geneva, recently telegraphed, a subscriber whose nephew is a physician practising in Geneva gives the following particulars of the melancholy fate of an English family whom he had been attending : — " Mrs Abbott left Geneva with her two daughters on the ill-fated steamer to attend tlie wedding of her son, after which the whole party intended to return and pass the season in tlie mountains. Whilst they were at luncheon in the saloon tlie explosion occurred. Mrs Abbott was killed at once. The two daughters lingered a few hours, and were brought back to the hospital at Geneva, the flesh hanging in ribbons about their bodies. The captain and engineer, the former of whom was killed, had wired to the head olh'oe that it was unsafe to start owing to the dangerous state of the boilers. The answer came, ' Start and risk it, and mind your own business.' After the accident -six steamers plying on the lake wore withdrawn for repairs." The Bill which authorises the Government to borrow £50,000 a } r ear for the purchase of Native lands, and to expend it without the usual appropriation annually by Parliament, lias now passed its final stages in the House, but I hear (says the correspondent of the H.B. Herald) that it is very likely to have a very stormy passage in the Legislative Council. The Press to-night has a strong article condemning the measure. It says : — " This bill is one of the worst of the many bad measures brought in by the Ballance Ministry. Even under the old law the expenditure in the purchase of Native lands was a scandal, and the Government £>o often squandered the funds placed at their disposal We have heard of one instance in which a man of the "right color" bought a block of land from the Natives at 43 6d an acre and sold it immediately afterwards to the Government at 7s 6d per acre, making a profit of £900 on the transaction. If this sort of thing could go on when Ministers were controlled, what may we not expect when they will have an absolutely free hand ?" At the meeting of tlie Land Board in August the question of Sir Geo. Whit more and a grazing run was discussed. The improvements on this run had been valued by the ranger at £ISO, and by Sir George Whitmore at £1500 at least; that is what the Board interpreted a letter from him on the subject to mean. It was then stated that a schedule of improvements which Sir George Whitmore claimed to have been made had been sent to the ranger, and that official replied to the effect that he could not alter his valuation of £180. One of the members was then understood to say that he preferred the ranger's version. On Wednesday, at the meeting of the Board, another letter from Sir George Whitmore was read. It was rather contradictory, inasmuch as while it stated that the writer had never claimed £l,~>oo worth of improvements, but had only stated that the Property Tax Commissioners had valued them at that sum, he also stated that lie had spent more than £1500 in connoction with the run. He was sorry that a member of the Board had impeached his (Sir George Whitmore's) veracity, as that pained him. and he hoped the member would apologise. The writer also considered that the ranger was either ignorant or prejudiced, No action was taken on the letter. — Herald.

A social in connection with the Young Men's Quadrille Assembly will be held i n the Theatre Royal on Wednesday, the oth pros . Tickets are on sale &t Mr W. M i'Uer'q

The N.Z. Times of Wednesday say 3: —The Government steamer Hinemoa returned at f).4;5a,.m. yesterday from Westport, whither the steamer had been with a party of member of Parliament and friends. The. vessel should have arrived on the previous evening, but after passing the Three Brothers Captain Faircliild deemed it advisable to retreat to one of the bays for shelter from the tempestuous sea. Anchor was weighed again at a few minutes to five yesterday morning, when the sea hail moderated. The members made the best use of their time during the short stay at Westport, making close inspection of the harbor works, the coal-mining works, the granite quarries and other district works. Numerous deputations on local affairs waited upon the members, and much useful information was given on matters concerning the district. While the trip was a pleasant one the representatives agreed that it had been very instructive, and the enterprise of the people in developing the coal mining industry was commented on in a most complimentary manner. The steamer took in the usual supply of coal at Westport, and swung oft* from the wharf again at 10.30 on Monday night On arrival in Wellington harbor hearty cheers were given for the popular captain.