The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1887.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7957, 30 August 1887, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1887.

I Messbp. Hazell and Hodgkin, who some six or eight months ago made a flying visit through the colonies, have published a pamphlet under the auspices of the " Emigrant's Information Office," containing a record of their visit. We have not seen the brochure, but learn from a review of it in a London publication that it is a very creditable production, although not containing anything very original- "In that short space of time," says the Trading World, " Messrs. Hazell and Hodgkin have managed to get together a mass of practical information and a record of facts concerning the labour question in the colonies that will be very U6eful to every person who is considering the advisability of emigrating, as well as forming a practical text book for the many who, not needing to emigrate themselves, are still desirous of promoting emigration. In reading this book two things strike us very forcibly, the first ia the striot oare that Messrs. Haaoll and Hodgkin have taken to limit their enquiries to the practical question of emigration, and tht> employment and settlement of emigrants, they have not pevnitted themselves to be led into any questions of finance or politics in relation to colonial matters, and also, that they have economised their time and collected a mass of dependable facts th&t can be utilised and discussed at leisure. To an old colonist, and especially if that Colonist when resident in England has kept in touch of colonial matters, there is really nothing new in the book, but to the mass of English readers there will be a great deal that is new, and very much that is interesting." The pamphlet iB published at sixpence, and no doubt copies will soon reach the colony, when we shall be better able to judge of the correctness of the statement in Messrs. Hazell and Hodgkiu'a production. The " Mrß. Grundy " of Wellington haß not yet recovered from, the shock received owing to the publication of Mr. John White's " Ancient History of the Maoris," in which, it has been stated, some very broad expression's have been allowed to appear. On " Mrs. Grundy " holding up her hands in amazement the Government instantly stopped the sale o£ the' book, and the original edition ib now placed in the index expurgatorius, and when the book again appears it will be like the mutilated editions of Smollett's, Fielding's, and Sterne's works which are now to be found on the shelves of booksellers. Mr. White's book, we learn, is not however of the dreadful character that the public has been led to suppose. The Wellington Press, which, from the editor's literary attainments, should be a good authority, says, " There is nothing in the book which a clean mind need take offence at ; " and we are inclined to think that more f ugs has been made over the matter than there iB any ojoasion for. The Press makes some very sensible remarks on the action of the Government with respect to this book. It says :—": — " There is not the slightest fear of bread-and-butter misses being soiled as to their imagination by reading ' The Ancient History of the Maori.' They will never get through the first page of it. Yet we learn, though we can- scarcely believe it, that in consequence of objections having been taken to one or two passages in the ' Nga-i-tahu legend of the Creation,' which are said to be obscene, the Government have stopped the publication of the work, and it is no longer to be got. Anything more absurd we never beard of and we hope the Government will reconsider their decision and proceed with the issue of the book without delay. It has taken, as we have said, the labour of the greatest living Maori scholar for six years, and has cost thousands of pounds ; and it would be perfectly monstrous to waste all that for fear somebody's inockmodesty should be uhocked by picking out a dirty word or two. The mistake that has been made is in allowing what ought to be regarded as a scientific book, to be got up in a catchpenny binding of scarlet cloth, with a Maori's head on it, aB if for sale to booksellers and circulating libraries. We understand that the .second and third volumes are ready, but are not bound, and we should strongly recommend the Government to have them bound in plain paper wrappers, and to issue the whole work as a scientific publication. That will save a large and totally unnecessary outlay, and will also do away with the objection that the bock, as first published, might convey undesirable information virginibus puerisque."

Victoria is already beginning to feel the effect of "Protection," for the Government are fearing that if South Australia, New South Wales, and New Zsaland adopt their own selfish system that it will be a bad thing for that colony. The Commissioner of Trade and Customs told the Legislative Assembly recently that " whenever the other colonies put on proteotive'duties tne effect would be that unless they had BOtne sort of intercolonial reciprocity each colony would be shut up within its own borders." This is exactly what will ocour in New Zealand if we commence to put on protective duties. " Viotoria, being a proteoted colony," said the Commissioner, " has had the advantage in the past ; but they would have to watch themselveß in the future." One of the natural results of protection is over-pro-duction, and this is making itself felt in Victoria aa 1 it is in America. The Coaitnissioner of Customs said — and the statement was not rebutted — that " the real reason of depression in the woollen trade was the terrible competition in the business. They bad a sufficient humbor of woollen milld in Victoria to supply the whole hemisphere." New Zealand is progressing very fairly in the same direction with a 15 per cent, duty. The fact is that artificial stimulation is as unwholeeoina to trade as to plants. Too redundant a growth is but the precursor of early decay.

— — The demand for land on the deferred payment system in this district still continues. During the last fortnight four sections have been taken up in the Huiroa block and one in the Kaupokoaui, thus diminishing the limited area of the unsettled land in these blocks. The new block, the Ngatimaru, on the banks of the Waitaia river, opposite the Huiroa block, will not bo in the market for somo time yet, as the Government do not want the lima opened for selootion until the Waitara river is bridged, which means some months hence as money for Biioh a work would undoubtedly be voted only while the Houbo ia.ia session. An absconding debtor named Patrick Hurley, of- Patea, was arrested in Welling- ' ton on Monday on a warrant issued by the R.M. Patea, from which place Hurley took hiß departure on Saturday last with the intention of going to Australia, He ia a pablioaa at Pfttea,