The Observer.

Observer, Volume 1, Issue 26, 12 March 1881, Page 264

The Observer.

Saturday, March 12th, ISSI.

Last week I called attention to the rumour that Sir Julius Vogcl was getting up a syndicate to buy our railways and public lands, and generally to take over the debt and Government of the Colony. I find that a rumour of a similar character is current in the South, with this difference, that it points to the Government as being in actual communication with lkogden and Co. instead of with Yogel. The Government journals deny that there is any foundation for the rumour, but it is a well known and indisputable fact that some such arrangement with Brogden Co. -was under consideration three or four years ago. It seems only too likely that it should be revived now when the Colony is so much more pressed for money than it was at that time.

In Captain Russell's speech at Napier when addressing his constituents a few days ago, I find that lie spoke on the education question as follows: "He looked for the greatest good as the result of the son of the rich man, and of the poor man playing and quarrelling and fighting together (laughter). . . Here we were in a democratic country, where no person, claimed hereditary honours, and our future must he largely shaped by our policy of Education now. . . It would he a crying shame to us, if instead of hereditary honours we handed down hereditary vice, misery, and crime." Well conceived and well said Captain Russell ! From a man owning large sheep runs, and a typical member of the squatting class, with a good round share of the property tax to pay, these sentiments are doubly valuable. They show the sound heart and sound mind which can look beyond its own circle and feel a just pride in being surrounded by an intelligent, prosperous, and self-respecting peoj>le. How different is this view to those of too many of Captain Russell's set, who regard the rest of creation as existing; mainly for their glory and whose ideal State is that in which wages are low, profits high, and the mass of the people well drilled in their catechism, content " with that sphere of life to which it has pleased God to call them."

The above somewhat exaggerated caricature, though too clever to be con.-igned to the oblivion of an editorial waste paper basket, is published out of no disrespect to the honoured and kindly original who, I need scarcely say, is one of the most popular and esteemed of Auckland's citizens. In his youth, people tell me, Mr. Mowbray was quite an Admirable Crichton, a crack shot, a good boxer, no mean athlete, and a veritable bean. Even now he is a great favourite witli ladies both young and old, and can command favours which many a younger man pines for in vain. With public and political affairs Mr. Mowbray seldom interferes. He is, however, respected amongst business men, and holds an enviable position in Society.

Mr. Sutton, M.H.R., lias, I see, recently addressed his constituents in Napier. Mr. Sutton was the active Whip for the present Government party when that party was in opposition. For many years he was in business as a storekeeper in Napier. In that capacity his transactions with the Hawkes' Bay natives were extensive and peculiar. He sold them flour, candles, sugar, and, it is also said, supplied them Avith a fair share of rum. In return for these commodities, Mr. Sutton received a certain portion of the coin of the realm, and a certain number of deeds purporting to be conveyances by his customers of land in all parts of the province. These consequences were obtained sometimes for himself ; sometimes they were for his friends. They have been the fruitful source of years of litigation, as the natives asserted that they were unfairly and wrongly obtained. Mr. Sheehan was employed for some years by the natives to contest Mr. Sutton's claims. Mr. Sutton hates Mr. Sheehan with a deadly hatred, notorious among all who sit in the Parliament of the Colony, or who know anything of Hawkes' Bay. Hence Mr. Sutton's reference to the "Auckland spree " as he is pleased to call the reception by the Auckland people of the honoured old chief, liewi. It was at Sheehan that the honourable member really aimed this dart. The audacity is characteristic, as Mr. Sutton and his friends are fresh from the obsequies which they induced the Government to pay for in connection with old Tareha's funeral. The said obsequies, I hear, cost nearly £2000.

Tareha was a chief at the time possessed of large landed property. It is now gone from him and from his people for ever, and is owned by various Hawkes' Bay Magnates, members of old land rings, and members of the Legislature of the Colony. The funeral was one of the most solemn farces ever perpetrated. First, the Hawkes' Bay people plunder this chief, and ruin him and his tribe. Then they get the Government to pay, without authority, nearly two thousand pounds of the public money to honour at his deatli him whom in life they so villainously despoiled.

Mr. Sutton professes a great admiration for Mr. Bryce. I am sorry for Bryce. But I can understand the admiration, as Mr. Sutton was for years endeavouring to get possession of a valuable block of land called Omaranui, which he claims to have purchased from the natives. The natives have always resisted his claims, and successive Governments have refused to recognise it. Honest John, however, saw his Avay, and acted differently, so that Sutton, having at last succeeded in ejecting the natives, is now Lord of Omaranui. The people of Hawkes' Bay are so overmastered by old land rings and the creatures whom those land rings have brought into power and political position that they are helpless. But it is time that these rings should be more widely known, and the politics of the Colony not be allowed by the rest of New Zealand to be secretly influenced as they have been. It was a significant fact that as soon as his party got into power they discarded Mr. Sutton as their whip. They had sown their wild oats as an exposition and became respectable. They secured Omaranui for him instead, but Mr. Sutton is not content, and wants to bring Mr. Stout upon them. I shall be surprised if Mr. Stout is as proud of Mr. Sutton as Mr. Sutton is of him ; but I have said enough, I hope, to show the origin of Mr. Sutton's diatribes against Auckland and Auckland people, which have become the leading characteristic of his political life. to

The " triangular duel" "between Warkworth and Dome Valley people and the Board of Education is not yet fought out. I explained how the matter stood a fortnight ago. The hoard had prematurely declared the original Warkworth district divided into two, and sent tracings of, what appeared to it, the most .suitable boundary for each. The Act requires that a meeting of the householders shall be held, and that the householders shall consider and report on the boundaries of the proposed district. As the meeting was called by the board subsequent to the division being proclaimed instead of before it, and as the residents of Warkworth arc in a majority, they appointed their own chairman, and refused to let any of the Dome Valley people vote. The latter persisted, and after the first meeting had broken up, they elected a new chairman, and a rival committee. The board annulled both elections, and appointed Wednesday, the 23rd February, for another, expressly with a view of letting the householders of the whole original district have a voice in settling the new boundaries. The meeting was held, and my correspondent tells me that it was a scene of amusing confusion. The Warkwqrthites were again victorious. They put in their own chairman, and he refused to take votes from anyone outside the suggested boundaries. There was much row, and the meeting nearly came to iisticulls. One prominent gentleman charged Warkworth with packing the meeting with strangers, and promised to bring lifty or sixty good hairy bu.shmen to the next one. When Warkworth had done its innings, Dome Valley had its turn, and again elected a rival committee. Thus there are still two kings in Brentford, and the Education Board is in as great a fix as ever. I shall watch the result with some interest, and only hope the interests of the children may not, in the meantime, .suffer.

I take it for granted we shall hear a good deal about Patetere during the next few months. The old watchdog, at Kawau, has his eye upon it, and his bay, loud and deep, has been already heard. For my own part I think it a good thing to get the land out of the Maori hands into those of pakeha.s whom we can tax, and whom I hope we shall tax to the best of our ability. But it would be more pleasant to have this transfer effected without demoralising the community by the spectacle of a few wealthy, unscrupulous, and unpatriotic men, opposing the Government in every way in its efforts to acquire this land for the public and iinally succeeding, by the connivance of Ministers, in securing possession of the iield of battle and the spoils of victory. That is the unpleasant side of the affair, against which every honest journalist ought to protest. However, the deed is so far done that the victorious spoilers will get 260,000 acres among them. That is clear, and cannot be helped now. The public indignation may be vented on the Government, but the holders of the land will look on and laugh, as those laugh who have Avon. My only hope is that they will be so taxed as to compel them to cut up and sell this land in self defence. No one asked them to buy it. No one asked them to oppose the Government who had "proclaimed" this particular block and was in negotiation for it. No one will dispute that the only end in now dealing with this land should be the public interests and not the interest of the individuals who have so circuitously obtained an enormous territory with which they ought never to have interfered.

The above sketch of Procofiy, the RussianFinn accused of the murder at Te Aroha, was taken from life by "Quiz," and is said to be a very fair likeness.

It is an unfortunate thing just now to be an old New Zealand colonist. If you are, you must "be kept within the narrowest bounds when seeking settlement on the waste lands of a colony, which you have perhaps largely helped to make. For you the Land Act wiil be strictly construed, and you must be kept rigidly within its four corners. On the other hand, if one has the good fortune to be a settler of 1881 instead of ISSO, there will be an open hand and every licence for him. He can get his passage paid from England to look at the Colony, and his passage paid back again when he has looked at it. He can get all his other expenses paid with the passage and expenses of one of Ids sons as a private secretary. All these good things were done for Messrs. Grant and Foster at the expense of over £500 to the generous taxpayers of the Colony. But this is not all. The new settler can select the best _ land, and have it on the easiest terms — provided he be a "capitalist," or can persuade the Government that lie is so. He can have roads made to the land which he is good enough to purchase, at a low price, while old settlers of 25 or 30 years standing are told there is only an empty Treasury. Finally, if the land wants draining he can have that done also at the expense of the taxpayers of the Colony. This

seems to me to be buying settlers at too dear a price, and yet I observe that Grant and Foster are not. satisfied, but are crying for more. There is a great deal of nonsense talked about bringing capital into the Colony, while there are thousands lying in the bank unemployed. Capital is strong enough, and wants no help. It can very well take care of itself, and it is too bad to find such great advantages given to those who have it, or say they have it, Avhile old settlers, who have made the Colony, are debarred from the same privileges. I hope we have seen the last of special settlements got up in the interest of promoters and speculators. In future let us only deal with the special settlers direct, and be careful not to exclude people living in the Colony from sharing any privileges given to those who get all the benefit of the toiland outlay of the earlier settl ers Avho have opened up so fine a home for their selection.

In placing before the public the lineaments of the new '• boss " of the Waikato Mail, I may perhaps be permitted to congratulate that gentleman on the change he has wrought in that paper. It is no longer an unreadable hash of stale reprint, but contains any amount of interesting local matter, besides masterly leaders on political topics.

Godly people, -who take a quiet "constitutional" down the Queen-street wharf after church on Sunday evenings, are beginning to enquire with much concern how it is that the office windows of the pious and devout F.G.E. are invariably lit up as they pass by, thus betokening the presence of some one at work inside. The exemplary rate collector should remember that his name is painted in black letters upon the afore-mentioned windows, and that strollers in the street below cannot help the natural conclusion which the fact warrants them in drawing. ]}y purchasing a couple of curtains he may easily shield himself from a charge of Sabbath desecration, and continue therefore with impunity to champion the cause of those who lament the need of religious instruction in public schools.

I hear that the lady teachers of a certain religious establishment in town had a social gathering of their pupils one evening this week, and that the youthful maidens were greatly exercised in spirit by the prohibition of the male sex from attendance. The greatest difficulty was experienced in getting any one to contribute to the programme, one sweet young creature naively declaring that she preferred to perform when there were some of the lords of creation present to listen and appreciate. Another plaintively referred to the necessity of having escorts to take them home, but she was informed that provision would have to be made for the obnoxious male animal to await in the street the breaking-up of the gathering, as on no consideration could his presence inside be tolerated. The young ladies assert that the entertainment was tame and spiritless, while the contiguous vendors of sweets sadly acknowledge that they did not sell a single pennorth of "conversations."

The strange revelations anent the Wellington Lunatic Asylum have naturally led to a good deal of gossip about the Whan. Amongst other things I hear that there is a patient detained there who is certainly not insane in the ordinary acceptation of the term. The story goes that the man in question, though quite sensible and able to take care of himself is a bit of a "softy." He had occasion to sue an acquaintance of his up country for some money, and this worthy, not wishing to pay the debt, got his creditor locked up. An Auckland gentleman is interesting himself in the case, and hopes soon to get the poor beggar out. It speaks well for our vaunted civilization, doesn't it that people can be kidnajiped thus in open day?

Another yarn, to be taken cum grano salis, is to the effect that at the Whau as at Wellington several of the warders are very cruel to the patients, and that the physician in charge has no idea what brutes his myrmidons can occasionally be. On thus head lam promised definite information shortly, so Avill say no no more at present.

The sooner the great Grammar School rumpus is over the hetter, I should say, for the school and for all concerned. Does any one know what it is ahout ? If the hoard does not believe the school to be giving satisfaction, the best way would probably be to "poll" the parents and the "old boys," on the subject. If there were direct charges against the head master the case would be different. But I cannot see that there are any such charges. We have the recollections of boys who would have been whipped for telling tales out of school in many places I happen to know, and whose memory goes too far back to be pheasant. A school is like a club or a home. Little unpleasantnesses are sure to occur, but they should not go beyond its Avails. Mr. Anderson's jokes, if truly reported, would have been better left alone. JBut they have been made serious only by the improper currency since given to them. One precocious youngster is of opinion the boys

were kept too long at the early parts of Kmoan History, and he should have thought it the least important. Then we have the opinions of Mr. Lusk and of a variety of gentlemen whose opinions may be valuable, but nothing has been said to show that they are so. Altogether the thing seems to me a mistake, and to be just the kind of enquiry in which personal antipathies—decently concealed— might have the fullest play. The way in which the nominated seats at the board were filled is not satisfactory. Who recommended Messrs. Brookfield, Tole and Nelson, and were the opinions or prejudices of these gentlemen known beforehand ? The public have a right to know, for it looks like packing the jury before trying the cause as it at present stands. Ido not profess to know more than other people about Mr. Macrae's merits or demerits as a teacher. But I see that he is held in great esteem by the boys whom he has educated, and of whom many are now among our prominent citizens. And I like fair play, and a good open stand up fight when fight there must be, while this strikes me as being in every respect of an exactly opposite kind.

Astonishing instances of the bravery of the weaker sex are frequently found in novels and sensational newspapers, but they do not come under notice in the course of every day life very frequently. The following case, which was brought under my attention the other day, certainly deserves publication. Mr. Blank, who lesides not a great distance from Queenstreet, is frequently absent from home for days together on business, and his young wife is left the sole occupant of the house. On frequent occasions, wandering vagrants have given her trouble by their attempts to sleep about the premises, and Blank, being impressed with the idea of providing for her safety, purchased a revolver. The lady learned how to use, it and, with a little practice, became quite a good shot The other evening, during the absence from Auckland of Blank, his wife was astonished, on. entering her kitchen, to find a disreputable looking fellow seated there, apparently making himself at home. She ordered him oiit, but he refused to go, and moreover, announced his intention of stopping there all night. "I'll sooa see about that," said Mrs. 8., and she went into an adjoining room and took the loaded revolver out of a drawer. On her return she found the intruder eating heartily, and again ordered him out, biit he laughed at her. She then presented the revolver at him, and threatened to fire if he did not go at once. He dared her to do it, and the next instant the hammer fell, and a ball whizzed past his cheek and shattered the window pane. The rapidity with which the vagrant departed was astonishing, and I venture to say he will not request.a lady to fire a revolver at him again.

The heads of the Wesleyan connection do not love the Observer, and when they saw the paragraph in last issue, stating that the Tongan prince's coffin had not been paid for they chuckled piously, thinking no doubt that they had at last got the proprietor of that ribald journal "by the wool." Unfortunately for them the assertion though partially incorrect, contained no libel. The inference was not that Mr. Baker had deliberately omitted to discharge a just liability, but that he couldn't know of the debt or it would have been paid. There was nothing offensive in this, and the idea of a Supreme Court action Avith, plenty of nice pickings for Methodist lawyers had {to be regretfully abandoned.

On Saturday afternoon I learnt to my 'astonishment that the royal coffin certainly had been paid for and that my informant was without doubt wrong in his facts. Naturally I called that worthy pretty smartly over the coals, and was by him referred to a carpenter in JN ewton named Woodham. I learnt from this man that at the time of the funeral Mr. Baker sent for him to nail up the coffin of the Tongan prince in a wooden shell, and that it is this work, and this work only, which has not up to the time of writing been paid for. Mr. Woodham feels sore about the matter, because he has made repeated applications for the money, and been kept waiting on one occasion for two hours and on another for three-quarters of an hour. The amount is absurdly trifling and he thinks with justice that clergymen especially should show a little more consideration for small creditors. A man cannot afford, to be perpetually dodging about after a few shillings, and yet it is very hard that he should have to lose such a sum if he does not do so.

How the non-payment of carpenter's work in. connection with the Tongan funeral swelled into the non-payment of the undertaker's account I can t conceive. It only shows how careful one has to he, and how even the best vouched for information may prove incorrect