Our Mining Reporter.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1735, 25 July 1874, Page 2

Our Mining Reporter.

"In multitude of counsellors there is safety. ' —OH) PROTWi; Not very many thousands have been made and lost in scrip dealing this week. The " business done " at the corner has been represented by very small figures, and there has been a remarkable dulness under the- verandah. The excessively cold weather may have had something to do with the poor show ot buiiness, for taken altogether the week has not been barren of results in the mining world* It will be a great boon for some of the habitues of the corner when the new. exchange is finished^ for they will not be exposed to the severities of climate as at present. A racket court or a billiard room, or both, would be an incalculable boon to those who look upon it as a duty to put in t matter of eight or ten hours a day at the cbrner, bent on effecting transactions in scrip. But the cold seems to have dried up the fountains of humour which sprung from the corner, and frozen the channels of the circulating medium necessary to make business. ■ The wits have not been" equal to ihe production of a single cartoon, setting forth the weaknesses qf some public character, and as far as can be learned nobody has said a single good thing or perpetrated a joke. What a falling off ii there! Very few people care about politics except those who make a business of them, and some men who, having sown their wild oats in every direction and realised the truth that all is vanity, resort to politics as a moans of harmless excitement and the road to power. But everybody's attention is now and again arrested when mention is made of the national debt, the actual amount of which appears to be by no means ascertained with certainty. A million or two one way or the other doesn't matter. The Treasurer says it ii so much, and immediately an obscure newspaper print boldly says it is two millions more. If such contradictory statements were made about an individual's indebtedness there would be a Jne rumpus. Creditors would be down upon him with the weight of a hundred thousand bricks and the rapidity * of a New Zealand telegraphic message, and the debtor would have to explain matters. But with the colony it is different. If the official statement is wrong creditors are very indifferent—take matters easily, and ignore the warning notei of those patriotic individuals who would damage the public credit to prove their own case. If proof were forthcoming some good might result, but the practice of always crying but that no good can possibly come out of the Nazarenes who are for the time being the Government recoils on the heads of the grumblers : nobody believes them. If they would be more studious in proof, and leu fae* tious in assertion, they would possibly carry more weight. ■■ . Everybody knows that it is very wrong to interrupt tho decorous proceedings oftte bur courts by any symptom* of applause.' - Bat popular feeling sometimes assert! itself, and a muttered expression, of approval at the termination of a case, or the involuntary shuffling of feet when a verdict is pronounced that accords with the) sentiments of spectators, will sometimes occur. These symptons are interpreted as applause; they are duly chronicled as such, but invariably it is stated that "tha applause was instantly suppressed." The) suppression generally consists of a call for " silence " by some stalwart policeman, or by some other official with another' title, as the case and the court may be. This seems to be a farce. Whatever pbase the applause may assume it is generally spontaneous and instantaneous, and is all over before the court has recovered from its surprise at the interruption. t Tho practice which" forbids the expression oi" nnj feeling of approval of or dissent to the judgments of courts is no doubt a wise one, but newspapers - might find some other phrase for explainthe matter, especially a> insomeoftne inferior courts the means of "suppres* sion " are generally mo*o of the nature of

/ interruptions than : the applause. Somc'...times a laugh is raised, in whichjudge, counsel, policemen and public joiu, and it is then almost ludicrous to hear a constable administer a rebuke in'stentorian . tones, while his own face is suggestive of ill-concealed mirth. Th? absence of tho Defence Minister from his placo in Parliament is accounted for by some knowing individuals in a peculiar way. They say that so many pertinent or impertinent questions were to be asked by honorable members about the Native Department that the absence of the minister is found to be convenient. His colleagues will endeavor to satisfy members who are imprrtunate, but the head of the department only could be expected to afford all the information which it has been reported would be required. If Mr. McLean should turn up ii| a few days and take his place in the House, the knowing ones will be nonplussed ; on the Other hand*, if he should remain away all through the session, a coloring of truth will.be. Riven-to the rumour** that the Ministry find his absence to be convenient and expedient.