The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1944, 29 March 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1875.

Bt the San Francisco mail which arrived on Saturday we received a pamphlet entitled "The Finances of New Zealand by the Premier of the Government »f New Zerland." This pamphlet consists of a letter by Mr Vogel reprinted from " Fraser's Magazine," in which it first appeared as an answer to a communication -by Mr. Charles Fellowes on the financial position of New Zealand. Some of our readers may not be aware that Mr. Fellowes was for a short time a resident in Dunedin, during which period he contributed-sundry articles to the Otago Daily Times under the norn de plume of "Master Humphrey." Of these effusions Mr. Vogel speaks truly

when he says they " at fivst excited surprise ; then their extravagance caused amusement; and at'length people became weary of them." These earlier efforts of " Master Humphrey" were principally attacks on the Government of the Colony ; and they did little harm. The Otago" Daily '] imes was at that time almost virulent in its attacks upon the Government, nod consequently had no scruples about admitting to its columns anything of a nature calculated to disparage the Ministry and their \ olicy. " Master Humphrey," however, did not succeed as a colonist: he shook off the dust of his feet on the place which had been his home for a time, and went to England. Not to' buryhis colonial experiences under abushel, but to damage the colony all he could by misrepresentation and garbled statements; disjointed extracts , from speeches of public men; anything and everything was seized upon as materials to assist him in carrying out the task which he had imposed upon himself, that of putting in the worst possible light the present condition and future prospects of JS Tew Zealand, with special refererce to its finances under the Immigration nnd Public Works Policy. It is only a few months since the Colonial Press was called upon to refute some of "Master Humphrey's" untrue statements'contained in a letter to the London Spectator. He appears, however, to have continued his course of misrepresentation, his latest having been published in " Fraser's Magazine," to which Mr Vogel has replied. Of course we have not Mr Fellowes' (he has dropped " Master Humphrey ") letter before us, but the Premier refers to one or two of his most conspicuous mis-statements, and proceeds to refute the same, they having (as the Premier states)''.gained an importance from the theatre he has chosen, and the medium employed to make them public. ;From what we can gather from a cursory perusal of the pamphlet, and the extracts from Mr. Fellowes'letter embodied, the latter sins most in telling only n part of the truth, keeping back wilfully any information- which would put an entirely different face on the matter, with which he professes to deal. For instance, he says—" A large proportion of the sums borrowed and being* borrowed is applied to maintain the regular establishment of Government, meet the interest of the already enormous debt, and provide for matters of ordinary expenditure properly chargeable against taxes only." This would lead people at home to imagine that the current salaries of officers and expenses of departments were Ijeing met with borowed money,' which Mr. Vogel proceeds to state most distinctly is untrue, and that only such sums are charged against borrowed money as come legitimately within the scope of expenditure under the Public Works Department. ."The-'statement,"' says the Premier, " that borrowed money is used to pay interest op the public debt, is a scandalous perversion of fact;" and he then goes on te refute the extravagant statements of'this ex-colonist, and explain the position of the Colony's finances, the legislation on the subject, and the distorted materials which Mr Fellowes has used for his purpose—that of decrying the Colony's position. We can safely leave Mr Fellowes to the tender mercy of the Premier. The latter, by his recent successful negotiation of the four million^ loan, has substantially maintained the credit of the Colony, and shown how little influence such reckless statements as those of Mr Fellowes have with the British capitalists. It is not pleasant, however, to know that the Colony has such base enemies in public wiiters—men with so little principle that, to gratify personal animus and avenge themselves ori the Colony for disappointed ambition, they will descend to the most contemptible means to damage the Colony's credit. Ifc is not always that one able and willing to refute such misrepresentation is on the spot, or has the necessary information at hand, and the most reckless statements finding their way into the columns of influential publications, if allowed to go unchallenged, are sure to be received in some quarters as truth. Mr Fellowes is one of those men who, with a little \ knowledge of colonial affairs, presumes to write with authority. He writes only what he would wish to be true, and by way of proof makes garbled extracts from, .colonial..journals whith apparently support his statements, without having the honesty to put the matters on which he writes fairly before'his

readers. On the question of immigration, which affords a fair instance of Mr Fellowes' style, he asserted that " one half the immigrants who receive assisted or free passages.to New Zealand leave the Colony," and, as an authority for the assertion, gives from some newspaper the information that during 1872 10,725 persons arrived in the Colony, and 5752 left it. Mr Vogel shows that during 1872 4808' immigrants were introduced info the Colony. The remainder therefore of the 10,725 must have been com-

posed of persons arriving from ports other than as immigrants—from Australia and other places; so that if only 5752 left the Colony, the increase would show 165 over and above the immigrants who arrived during that year —or an increase of 165 persons who were not immigrants. Taken by themselves Mr Pellowes' figures and alleged facts might be received as incontrovertible, but when examintd by the light of counter statements, backed up by official records and authentic information, they appear in all their naked deformity of distorted, wilful and corrupt perversion of facts, worthless and unreal, and stamping the writer as an unprincipled libeller, whose motives are as detestable as his? figures andifacts are unreliable.

A member of the press has called to state that the details of the " pugilistic encounter" between a newspaper roan \ and a natire inteiprefer, referred to by ore of our correspondents in a letter dated Thurfday last, afo incorrect. Instead oi ihe reporter getting " one on his smeller which brought ibe claret freely," he fa; s he darkened the right optic of the int2rpret.fr. io such an extent that a rise in beef i 3 anticipated from the quantity used to reduce the discoloration.

The Tlnmcs Naval Brigade competed for the cup on Saturday. Seaman Clark was tlie winner f0r..1 ho. fifth .time, and the trophy therefore becomes his property under the conditions agreed upon for its competition. ,

Our contemporary has made another sa--domc RMempt at " wut" this morning. It is pitiable, because ifc is not true, any more than the following, which "the man in the street" wrote at noon to day, and left wifch us as " a gootl joke t"~-'To-day about noon tli c foo» pa- h in front of the. Thames Advert i?er office was throng d by, a crowd, of \ persons, embiaoiog in; ii«r^, professional men ' and tradesmen. The centre of attraction was a specimen from Ohinemuri,,.which the urbane proprietors were exhibiting to the 'as?emble l crowd. Various opinions were expressed as to the quality of the stone, and atylength tho words w»xed strong and loud, . until afc one time it appeared as if *n appeal to Bfistii%uff« was inevitable*.'/ The!•'d'.ppor* tur.c arrival of a paliceman on the scene, and the discreet and precipitate retrratof the c< junior pa tner " with th# valuable specimen when a fight seemed imminent, conduced to Bl'ny the excitement which had been aroused, arid ■ nothing! more desperate was done than the making, of a bet. The sfecimen is still on view." . ( .! ''-'V-'

The curiou* and amusing '.-exhibition ofwonderful objects which ha -for the* lastweek occupied the Academy of Music was open to public inspection for the last time on Saturday ; evening,; wheh the'attendance Wkg quite as good as was expected. The Fairy Queen and the PiebaM Boy were provocative of as much wonder and amusement as usual, and the misanthropical monkey cameiin for a Bhare of notice, while the Lightning Calculator was much admired and wondered at. Ifc wou" cl appear that Mr. MouUon's notion of British coinage was very vague previous to leaving San Francisco, and he had therefore to learn how to enumerate with English money on the passage out. It is; wo believe, the intention of the exhibitor to take his curiosities to Sydney by tb© first boifr.

The " hard ro.'k " spoken of in this morning's Ad\ertiser, as coming from the Banyan, and containing, besides other minerals, a "..little gold," formed a theme for speculation to-day, and an object for prolonged and curious inspection. The result of the observations mado by impartial oneß was to the effect that t'do rock's "hardness" in point of comprehension was undoubted, but that the " little gold " was not to be found. To the naked eye, it appeared that the stono co~tained gold, but on applying a gloss, it was discovered" to be pyrites. According to the opinion expreesed by Mr Severn, however, ifc is not possible to jud^e by on optical test, co that the stone m^y eventually turn out to ba a very rich specimen.

An experiment is being tried with ths Nelson tr«iuing-ship in Hobaon's Bay, to test th.3 question as to whether measles has been propogated in tho colony by contagion, or whethfr it hns arisen from a certain condiiiai of the atmosphere. The Nelson baa been put in quaran'ine, and for rearly three months communication between.: ,4hqse •on board and those; oil; shore-has bVeh^sfcdppeoV There are over 400 b°ya on the ship, but up to the present time not a single ca^e of measles has occurred among ihem.

"The-signs of tho/times," observes the Geelong Advertiser of Thursday, " indicate that a pTopcrty-'ax- will be one of those things which the inhabitants of Victoria will scon have to submit to. A circular from the Bssißtanfc-commissioner of roads avid bridges read at the Shire Councils of Corio and J3ellarine yesterday, asked for a re'urn showing the names of liolHera in." fee ,simpleUof 1,000 acres of land, and upwards within the sbire. This looks very much as if the Government were obtaining information with the view of bringing in a bill taxing the properties of ull owners of land of not less than that quantity. This will probably be more favourably entertained by the country than the proposal of the M'Culloch Administration, but-ifc is expected that all holders* of not less t;an a Bed ion will, as tas been suggested before, bo made to cor.tributs) their quota to this new method of increasing, the revenue of the country.", ..:-; ■[ \'i ; ■-"; ;. . * y)V) ■[';■■