The observer.

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 59, 29 October 1881, Page 98

The observer.

Saturday, October '29th, 1881.

The Observed is now on the telephone exchange (annunicator No. 32), and items of interest may be communicated, privately and confidentially, direct to the editor's ear from any of the offices on the circuit.

The more we bear about that magnificent and tinapproachable personage, Sir Arthur Gordon, the more amazed ive become at the mingled insolence and snobbishness "whicli appear to saturate his whole system. When this worthy was Grand Bashaw of Fiji, a young fellow who happened to be travelling the Colonies, and had a letter of introduction to Government Hoiise, Levuka, received an invitation to dine there. Sir Arthur greeted him with extreme frigidity, and made no remarks till the party sat down to dinner. After a time young S. plucked up courage and ventured to observe, diffidently, " I believe, your Excellency, that I have the honour to be connected with your family, the G-ordons, through the marriage of Mr So-and-So with Lady X." The Governor slowly raised his head from his soup-plate, and, surveying S. with a cutting stare, remarked slowly, " Sir, there are Gordons and Gordons." What S. replied is not on record, but had avc been the aggrieved party we should certainly have said, " Your Excellency, there are gentlemen and gentlemen, and as you don't appear to belong to the proper kind, I shall take leave to withdraw." Unfortunately it is far easier to imagine a " retort courteous " than to invent one at the proper moment, and we have little doubt the slight passed unavenged.

The other day a young fellow now in Aucklrnd received a letter of introduction to Sir Arthur Gordon, and forwarded it with his card to Government House. In due course he received the following note from his Excellency : — " Sir, I have received ' Dash's letter introducing you. I have nothing to say to you, but if you have anything to say to me I can. spare you a few minutes to-morrow afternoon at two o'clock. — Yours, AnTHirii G-obdon," &c., &c. Need we say the recipient of this elegant epistle tore it up and chucked it into the waste paper basket.

The proclamation declaring war -was published just after the English, mail arrived at Wellington, Did the Government receive any directions on* the subject, from London, people are asking ? Is there another attempt to b,e made to depreciate New Zealand securities ? Do colonists who lireafc ease at Home want to make a coup on the Stock Exchange ? The thing that has been, may be. Major Atkinson did not come out very well in the controversy with Major Harris on this head last session. People will be wise to note how much money at short call the Bank of New. Zealand had in London at the end of last month And when they consider these things they can bear in mind that the Colony, its revenues, and its

people, are "fanned" by the Bank, and that the public arc not told what the " farmers " get for "farming." Two sessions ago Mr Hutchison moved for a return of all the monies paid to the Bank by way of interest, brokerage, and commission, during the previous ten years. The House ordered the return to be furnished, but the whisper goes that the Bank refused to allow the G-overnment to obey the instructions of the House of Representatives, and so we remain in the dark as much as ever. In 1879, when the funds in the Colonial chest were running low. the Bank was much exercised as to where money could be obtained. Disliking to display anxiety on the subject, they got the officers of the Treasury to pump the Colonial Treasurer on the subject of supply. That Colonial Treasurer was Major Atkinson. They might as well have tried to pump dry the sea. At last the Secretary of the Treasury came to the Treasurer and said in doleful tones, "The thing I foresaw has come to pass. We have no money to carry on. What shall we do ? The answer came as clear as a bell ; " Take this letter to the Bank of New South Wales, and when money is "wanted it will be found by that bank." Did Yogel know this, men will ask, when he said " the credit of the Colony hangs on a wire ?" Of course nothing could be expected or hoped for from a Treasurer having secrets from The Bank, and so he had to be got rid of at all hazards.

Writing about banks and banking reminds us of the anomalous condition of the laws in ]S"ew Zealand on this matter. Should the Bank of New Zealand break — which may Grod forbid — the shareholders in the Bank are only liable to be called upon to pay another sum of money equal to the paid-up capital of the Bank. That sum is £1,000,000. And yet the Bank is not a corporation trading under the Limited Liability Act. By the deed of settlement and Act of Incorporation the shareholders came to this understanding among themselves. It has been debated ■with some keeness whether this agreement would stand as between the jn-oprietors of the Bank and the public on this ground. A., 8., C, L\, E., !E\, and Gr. determine to start a bank with a paicl-

up capital of £250,000. They each take shares to the value of £5000, and obtain from the public by subscription the remaining £215,000. The promoters manage to be directors or controllers of the bank. They have had the wisdom to insert in their act of incorporation the sixteenth clause of the Act of Incorporation of the Bank of New Zealand, which reads as follows : — " The discounts or advances by the said corporation on securities bearing the name of any director or officer thereof, as maker, drawer, acceptor, or indorser, shall not at any time exceed in amount one tenth of the total advances and discounts of the said corporation." What protection can the depositors and the body of the shareholders obtain against the operations of this clause and its 1 powers, if they are disposed to enhance their \ individual interests at the expense of the depositor and the general shareholder ? It has been held, and with some degree of accuracy, that this agreement is an agreement inter alia, and not binding between the shareholders and the depositor. If this contention is not valid, it ought to be.

An amatory purveyor of aerated waters lias been in trouble recently oning to his generous instincts having led him to make a woman a present. The fact is the woman is not only a woman, but a widow ; and as she possesses a comfortable public-house with a handsome income, it is not very astonishing that the sodawater manufacturer (who, it should be mentioned, supplies the ho vise with ginger-pop, &c.), should, have fallen a victim to her autumnal charms. At first the coy enchantress smiled upon his suit, and in a weak moment he presented her with a beautiful side-saddle. Wo sooner had madam got it, however, than she gave him the go-by,, and the poor man found he had spent his money in vain. Nor was this all. The wives and daughters of the publicans whom lie supplies with soda, &c, heard of the present, and at once told the ex-lover lie must either make them presents too or lose their trade. Thus poor — well, never mind his name — has had to give a dress to one, a parasol to another, a brooch to a third and a bracelet to a fourth. Moreover, requests for gifts are still pouring in upon him.

The following letter, received, bj the Southern Cross, shows ' that justice is a commodity not always obtainable in the South Seas: — To the Editor .- Sir,— Mr W. J. Hunt, Chief Secretary of Samoa, was brought a prisoner to Levivka, the other day in. a German schooner, under a sentence of three months imprisonment for disobeying the order of prohibition -which was issued against Mm on August 28th, 1880; prohibibiting him from being or residing in Samoa for two years. Mr Hunt returned to Samoa in August last, and some four days after his arrival there was arrested by the Deputy Commissioner, on a wan-ant issued by the High Commissioner. He was then brought before Mr Graves, the British Consul, on a charge of disobeying the order of prohibition. Mr

Hunt objected to the jurisdiction of the High Commissioner's Court on the grounds that he was a naturalized Samoan, having been naturalized on the 21sfc June, 1880, and that the British Consul was notified on the 23rd of June of such naturalization as an alien. This being so, it was urged the High Commissioner had no jurisdiction over him, and also that under the Naturalization Act of 1870 he could divest himself of his nationality and become a citizen of a foreign state. The Deputy Commissioner, however, overruled Mr Hunt's objections, and declined his application to be allowed to call witnesses to prove (1) his naturalization, (2) that the Consul had recognised such naturalization, and (3) that the municipal laws had been put in force prohibiting the hotelkeepers supplying him with intoxicating drinks as a Samoan. Finally the Deputy Commissioner, in defiance of the Naturalization Act, 1870, sentenced Mr Hunt to three months imjjrisonment, refusing to allow bail. I am, etc., — OuntAaED Justice.

Owen McGtae is " the coming man " at Otalmlui. His entrance into the hall the other night, during the delivery of Major Harris 1 speech, vras marked by enthusiastic and prolonged applause, which flattering recognition he accepted with the greatest imperturbability. When his turn for speaking arrived he smote the bucolics hip and thigh with ponderous substantives, leviathan adjectives, and abstruse classical allusions, rendered doubly effective by some novel variations in pronunciation. Several attempts were made to interrupt the stream of his eloquence, but. his antagonists speedily repented of their temerity, and he was allowed to babble on in sweet tranquility. One unfortunate rustic who ventured to interject a remark was "kindly" requested " to tautologize, as his political deliverance failed to reach my hearing faculty." A man named Fro3t, who was struggling to get out of the hall, was asked if he were in dread of being thawed by the speaker's fervour, and Major Harris himself had to submit to the ordeal of a caustic and telling criticism of his speech and actions. According to the terrible Owen, the man whom North Franklin wants is one who possesses Major Harris' characteristic truthfulness, some of Euckland's " cheek," and his (McGree's) audacity and tongue, and not one who comes back to tell his constituents that he has failed in everything ho tried to perform.

On more than one occasion wo have drawn public attention to a scandalous liaison between a married man and a widow residing in the suburbs. This affair, which has severely exercised the minds of the- neighbours of the naughty couple, owing to the distraction of the man's wife, culminated the other night in a pugilistic encounter. It appears that the gay Lothario traced some of the reports in ch'eulation to a certain Yankee), and gave out that lie would inflict condign punishment whenever and wherever lie could encounter him, and this fact having reached the ears of the American he rather courted a meeting than avoided it. They met one dny in a certain yard off Queen-street. The gay Lothario was armed with a formidable whip, and the other with only those weapons with which nature had endowed him. With imperturbable coolness the Yankee prepared for the engagement by divesting himself of superfluous articles of attire, and requesting his assailant to lay down the whip. Proceeding to blows, the married man's preposessing countenance soon bore evidence of his opponent's fistic skill, and he more than once measured his length on the ground. He then retired to repair damages, but being still dissatisfied with the results of the encounter, he gave out that he intended to try conclusions again at the first favourable opportunity. Some days afterwards the two met a second time, the married man being on horseback. Being politely invited to dismount, he declined, and the Yankee proceeded to drag him from the saddle, but the affair ended at this stage, and the two went their several ways. War is now temporarily suspended, but the quarrel is not unlikely to be submitted to a legal tribunal.

The idea of the Administrator of the Government, Sir James Prendergast "jumping" Sir Arthur Gordon's " claim," and insisting on sending the Governor about his business, is about one of the most curious of all the extraordinary stories that have emanated from the irrepressible special correspondent. If the story ever had any foundation in fact, and it was so circumstantially told that it received general credence, it is another instance of the lengths to which colonial cheek is sometimes capable of going. It may be that there were many good and sufficient reasons for fundamental disagreements between the Governor and his responsible advisers, particularly on the native policy, and His Excellency's anomalous position in connection with the High Commissionership, but nothing could justify so unconstitutional a step as that which Sir James Prendergast is said to have contemplated. To the most superficial student of constitutional law, and of the relations between the Crown and its Colonies, it must be apparent that no power could remove or supersede Governor Gordon but the same power that appointed him —

the Eoyal Warrant and Instructions, and that to entertain the idea of superseding him by any other process was simply revolutionary. That Sir James Prcndergast held this view of the matter, if he ever seriously contemplated jumping the Governor's claim, is proved by his having allowed Sir Arthur Gordon to quietly resume the reins, and to bow him out of his temporary office.

Another fallacy of an equally unconstitutional and absurd character was contained in the leading article in one of our contemporaries. The article put forward the novel proposition that the Governor of a colony having a constitutional form of Responsible Government is bound to accept the opinion of the Attorney-General on any legal question, so long as that opinion is not contrary to law. The qualification is rather vague, but the entire statement involves a dangerous and an almost unprecedented fallacy. Nothing is clearer than that the Crown or its Representative is only bound to take the advice of its responsible advisers in a collective form in Cabinet, and not of any individual member of it ; and even this rule is subject to the important qualification that the Crown may reject the advice of the Cabinet, leaving it the option of either acceijtkig the situation, or of resigning. Further, the Crown may also exercise the prerogative of dismissing its Ministers and appointing others in their stead, though this is a prerogative which has almost fallen into desuetude. It is hardly necessary to quote authorities for this view of the question, but any one who desires explicit information, will find it clearly stated in the chapter on the Cabinet in Bagehot's Constitution.

Mr James Maoandrew, although lie lias tlie reputation of being a smart, man of business, is very easily imposed upon. Thus, Mr Rich, whose connection "with. Patetcre is notorious, had no trouble in convincing the late Minister for Public Works that the line of railway from Morrinsville to Rotorua would be one of the most profitable lines of railway in New Zealand. Rich had obtained the support of Mr Macandrew to "this line of railway before the Railway Construction Bill had been placed before Parliament. Those who were behind the scenes in Wellington knew that the success of the bill was assured, because this lino to Rotorua was in the schedule. Since this bill became law there has been some angry feeling and discussion as to the route this line of railway shall follow. The line following the route laid down by Mr Stewart, 0.E., would be some 57 miles in length. At a meeting of the directors of the line, held in Auckland not long since, it was determined to see if a shorter route could not be found, and Mr O. McCreagh was selected to institute a search. Ho succeeded in finding one ten miles shorter by the way of Whaiti Kuranui, effecting a saving of some £40,000 in the cost of construction. The new route is by the way of Waitoa. The objectiou to the cheaper and shorter line is found in the fact tlmt it will not go through the pi'operties of Messrs Morrin and MeGrlashan. The objection we have is not to the line, b\it to the manner in which its route is manipulated by the promoters of the bill and the line. The line in any case would start from some point on the Grovernment line from Hamilton to Te Aroha. Morrinsville is situate near the Waikato and Thames-Pinko districts. To take the line from thence through Messrs Morrin and McQ-laslian's properties would entail considerable expense, as there arc some deep swamps to cross, and spurs of the Maunga Kawa range to cut through. In our opinion it would be better to start from Mr Larkworthy's property on the eastern side of the Waitoa, it being a centre point in the Upper Thames and Piako plain, and the cost of construction of a line thence to Mr Firth's station at Matamata would be very trifling, the ground being nearly a dead level the whole way, and would arrive at precisely the same point as would be reached by the route from Morrinsville. It must be borne in mind that the Waikato district has a lino of railway constructed through its centre which will eventually be connected with. Wellington, either' via Taupo or Taranaki. The Upper Thames county should be opened in the same way as the Waikato has been opened. We deal ■with this matter because the Auckland Press has been silent on the subject.

"A "Working Housekeeper" sends us a practical letter on the subject of the Servants' Registry connected with the Young "Women's Home, and her views fully bear out the conclusions arrived at in the article in our last issue. Our correspondent deprecates the attempt to excite public prejudice against the Registry, and thinks that Miss Laura Smith does her best to obtain respectable servants for situations at a fair charge. We give the following extract from the lettei*, with some necessary emendations in the orthography and grammar, but leaving the sense unaltered : — " If governesses

and soainsfcreases are only to be considered, what is to become of the imicli-needed general servant ? Wages for domestic servants are not so high in Auckland as down South, and if the Registry Office in connexion with the Institute were closed, I don't know what would be the fee which the general servant would have to pay for securing a situation. The fee now charged is from 3s to 5s or 10s for a situation at GHsborne, but if servants can demand what wages and holidays they like, why should they pay so high a fee to secure a situation at G-isborne at 15s a week. There are a good many situations open, but chiefly for^cooks and laundresses, and if a servant washes from 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning, and leaves off say at 4 in the afternoon to cook a 6 o'clock dinner, and afterwards clear up, does she not earn 12s or 14s a week ? Could not tho steam laundry be established in Auckland as well as Wellington, so as to relieve us of tho heavy washing? Where is the domestic servant to go when out of a situation but to the Institute, and why do some persons wish to refuse her shelter because she has not the education of a governess ? Ladies cry out that there is a want of respectable servants, but if these are deprived of shelter in the Home, they will be obliged to go to any place that will receive them, and may thus be led into bad habits. There are, no doubt, some xinprincipled servants, but there are also unprincipled mistresses." We fully endorse our correspondent's remarks as to the necessity for the Home, and that the Registry forms a natural adjunct of it. The outcry against the institution is so palpably the outcome of selfishness and malice that it is not likely to deceive anyone.

That the volunteers have declined to hold a review- on the Prince of "Wales' Birthday is a matter which has excited little surprise, having regard to the circumstances. Except in the case of the Te Awaniutu review, most of the periodical gatherings have resulted most unsatisfactorily to all concerned, and have not been calculated to increase the efficiency of the corps, or to develop a taste of volunteering. The necessary measures for ensuring the comfort of the officers and men, and for bringing out and improving their militarycapabilities have been neglected or bungled, and the natural consequence has been to damp the esprit de corps, and bring the service into disfavour and contempt. The corps have been closely crowded in trains, rushed on to the ground, hurriedly put through a number of simple evolutions, limited almost entirely to battalion movements, without exercise in the most essential part of modern minor tactics — skirmishing — and then, after several hours of exposure without proper refreshment, have been rushed back to town. We do not desire to fix the blame of this on any one individual. The fault is in the entire system. If volunteering is to be anything more than a mere farce, the Government must provide some better incentive than now exists to men who are earnest in their desire to qualify themselves as citizen soldiers by regular attendance at the periodical drills and shooting practice, instead o£ placing the lazy and indifferent volunteer on an almost equal footing with the intelligent and industrious. It will be necessary also to stimulate efficiency, and reward merit by making efficiency in the officers the real avenue to promotion, instead of distributing paid commands on the basis of political interest and patronage, or making those positions mere sinecures for old colonists without regai'd to their qualifications. If the present radical faults in the system are not reformed, the sooner the volunteers are disbanded, and a useless and expensive force abolished the better for all concerned.

The trite proverb, "Appearances are deceitful," received, an apt and rather an amnsing illustration the other day. From the rear of the Auckland Club there is a short cut to Fort-street and the Railway Station, the outlet being a narrow doorway adjoining the side entrance to the Custom Iloxise Hotel. One morning, a certain miller, notorious for his morbid mania against alcoholic " moisteners," happened to be passing by just as a brother Scot (a most proper and precise person) emerged from the said doorway. The miller fixed on hini a look of mingled astonishment and reproof, and said : " Weel, mon, I'ni fairly surprised ah' ashamed. I wudna' ha' thought it O 7 ye. Eh, but this is vera sad. D'ye ken what folk will say aboot ye comin' oot o' a publiohouse? It's no' the richt thing ma friend." The supposed culprit asked for an explanation of this extraordinary harangue from the shocked and outraged G-ood Templar. Then the mistake was apparent enough, as the suspected person remarked : "Why, Jock, mon, I've just this minute left the Club, and come through the passage here for a short cut. Ye've made a grand mistake." And so he had, which was manifest from his very ZawJ-like demeanour after discovering his blunder.

The action of the authorities in respect to the recruiting for the Armed Constabulary in Auckland appears to us to be wholly unjustifiable, if indeed it is intelligible upon any other hypothesis than hostility to the place. When the first call was made for recruits a considerable number of suitable men offered their services, some of them having thrown tip other stiuations and work, but after having been kept in suspense for some days they were rather unceremoniously informed that they were not wanted. At the sametime, however, a large number of recruits were taken on in Wellington and Christchurch. Again, last week, a second appeal was made, and a number of applicants presented themselves, but only four were accepted ; and in one or two of these instances the men were relatives of persons who possess political interest with the G-overnment. The action of the authorities in Auckland has been characterised by vacillation and partiality of a most extraordinary nature. It has 'been such as to create disgust and suspicion, and to discourage young men from taking up arms in defence of the Colony should any serious emergency result from the position of affairs on the West Coast. That action is the more inexplicable on ground of common sense from the fact that Auckland is the one place of all others in the Colony whore the best materials for an efficient fighting force can be gathered together. We have here many discharged soldiers and ex-volunteers and militia-men in the prime of

life, who saw active service in the Waikato war, and could therefore be organised and put into the field at short notice ; whereas in the South there are only raw and inexperienced recruits, who would require much drilling, and could not be converted into seasoned soldiers for some months. The best raw levies are likely to be unsteady under fire for the first time, and to prefer such men to trained soldiers is to court disaster. The only possible explanation of the action of the Government is that they are anxious to draft away the unemployed of the South, and to secure their popularity during the coming elections ; but the proceeding is an implied slur on the Auckland recruits who offered their services, and is likely to act prejudicially to the interests of the Colony.

"Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad." If this is true, some of the Hall Ministry have not long to live. For instance, there is Mr Bryce. He is a man of poor education, but he has the sense to know it, and to keep his moutlushut. In fact, he does " A wilful stillness entertain, with purpose to he dressed in an opinion of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit." With this drawback he has only mediocre natural abilities. His strong point is his high estimation of his own incorruptible honesty, and the fact that many men accept that estimate without question. By the fortuitous circumstance of chance influence in a chance majority in Parliament he has become the man of the hour. But it is when men of this calibre reach the summit of their ambition that their crisis comes, just as a rocket begins to fall like a stick when it has reached its greatest attitude. With a degree of Quixotic fanfaronade which would make a cat laugh, Mr Bryee has been for some days past whisking about the country inviting the natives to tread, on the tail of his coat, as if he apprehended that after all their trouble the Government would not succeed in forcing the natives into war, and that the massing of forces on the West Coast would produce the same bloodless and barren results as the army of a certain King of France which performed sundry evolutions on a hill. At one place two Maori youths use some insulting language towards this Great Mogul, who at once orders them into custody. Why he did not have them immediately hanged, drawn and quartered, is a mystery. But if Mr Bryce were not intoxicated and off his chump at his sudden elevation to power, he would know that he could not arrest the natives without some process of law, and that such high-handed proceedings are not only calculated to excite derision, but would justify an action for false imprisonment. The whole conduct of the Government shews that they are not the men to control the destinies of th,e colony in the crisis created by themselves. If they succeed it will be by a fluke, and " nothing succeeds like success." Success, however, depends on the pacific acquiescence of the natives. Failure means enormous loss of life and waste of public money, and ruinous damage, direct and indirect to the whole colony, with a Ministry in office whose nerveless hands would drop the reins in confusion and dismay at the first check or reverse.