IN THE GALLERY AND ABOUT THE LOBBIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3639, 9 December 1879, Page 4

IN THE GALLERY AND ABOUT THE LOBBIES.

...... ; •;.; -&. -. ■•'■■. ■ {Frvm On (hen Corrttpondtnts oftiuLytttVm Tinwi.) Wbliikoto>-, Snnday. Two matters deeply affecting the prosp'elityof the Colony came to my knowledge last night, 'and must taka*precedence of oil lobby gossips or record of proceedings in Parliament. One :of theie is already publicly known through the medium of yeaterda} 'a livening Post, although a very large Dumber of people still. belieTe tho news too good to be true. The other is as yet known to very ft vr. As before Iliis -can possibly rcwh you, you will haTß'published a telegram from me relative to theie two matter*, your rraders trill at once understand that I refer to the floating of the five niiyion loan, and to the prospect of a Maori War. Touching the fir?t, la9t night's Post contained the following telegram :— "The Bnnk of England h»s issued tho whole of the. Hew Zealand £5,000,000 Loan at 5 per rent. The minimum price is underwood to have been fixed at£97 10a." As this ulegram purported^ to have been received from the special London c< respondent of the A</e,vihotc telegrams are retailed to the Punt, and a few other journal?, and as neither the Press Agency* nor tho" Press .Association (now amalgamated), had any' confirmatory intelligence, I at once placed myseJf in communication with the headquarters of all such important financial intelligence, and wasglad to learn, that the Government is in receipt of information fully confirmatory of the Po*t % s cablegram. There is nothiDg' to add to it except that I received a hint from a quarter iv which a hint is, like the proverbial nod, "as good as a wink ;" that the Colony is indebted to a clever piece of financing on the park of Bir Julius Yogel for this success. Commenting on the above, the Post $&jb: "It is with great pleasure that we publish in another column a special cable message from our London correspondent, conveying the important and gratifying news that theJknk of England ha 3 undertaken the issue of the whole Fire Million Loan. The fact that the Bank of England haa thus, »w it were, fathered odd loan, is a pract ical guarantee that the- entire fire milliona will ho floated, n* it is a rule never to pace definitely in the market a larger sum than there is 'a very good prospeott of getting taken up. If is considered certain that the Bank of England has 'been able to satisfy i^elf that this is tolerably safe, otherwise the previous intention to issue only £3,000,000 in the first instance, would r.ofc hare- been departed - from. There i?" every reason, therefore, to believe that the whole £5,000,000 will be placed on fair terms. The minimum price, £97 10s, is apparently somewhat low, out judging from the present price of money at home, now that the Bank of England has 'fathered' our whole loan, and it is itsued .under, favourable auspiOea, ib ia deemed probable that it Will be taken up at prices rangjipg considerably above the minimum. The news on the whole must be regarded aai eminently satisfactory." I think more Mian ordinary importance is to be attached to this, because, unless I am greatly mistaken, tha inspiration cupo direct from Government Building*, and limy be accepted as indic»tiro of MinistnV >iews on the question. The receipt of the new* >■ out the loan had at once two .effects. Mi><<-ieis unmediately met) ands X believe, tat w i .1 a \ery late hour, modifying the Public Works, proposals in accordance witli, their-, .altered pecuniary cir- .. cumstances. They arc sitting again to-day, <,and it is- fully expected that the statement will.be made to-morrow evening. . On the principle of •cutting one'B : coat according to one's cloth, I presume the coat will now lie .larger tban it would have been under the circumstances 0* a couple of days ago. The .other effect to which 1 allude, "was, that. every and raeniber to whom the under--'taking 1 of some- -job had been refused by tbo •Gorernment, -on- tha ground of the probnbi:lity that not more than £3,000,000 would be *Hotft*dy rashed off to interview Ministers, in the hope of being able to " work the oracle," while 'the Government was in the first flush •oi triumph in ' its unexpected good fortune. But, perhaps .fortunately, Ministers were already in close conclave, and their must have been. a considerable, amount; of heel-cooling .about the lobbies and pasrjtues of Government Buildings, if the scoro oi two of importunate money, and place-In; .tcra iv'iom I euw last i.ight. waited for the i -rniiniUiori of the 'Cabinet moating. Under toy circumstunces < I do not think they would have been successful, as I am givan to understand that economy is to be the. order of tho. day. The other matter which came to my knowedge at a Jato 1 liour last night, was equally mportanb with the above, bub tho very reTerse of equally welcome. ;It was, as' l shall •telegraph yon;, upon the opening of the office this evening, that:. Be wi has thrown off his mask of friendship for the paheks, and has definitely joined tho King party. What this means, those who are familiar with incidents preceding former Maori wars beit know. My in. this case was., a gentleman from the Mokau country, who is known to cultivate toward tho disaffected,, or Natives similar relations to Lh osa- which exist bo twoon -John, Dunn .and tho .Zulus. Hp, probably is B t^ee up in Maori matters than,, any. oilier. 2:,wropean in the Colony. ..Knowing that, aa *o.\ix correspondent, I have taken, an, interest 3'i the disputes between tb<:.twq,rao^s, he was Jand enough at a. lato huur lost, night .to <co»ypy , to . mo tho above information., In the course of to-day Iboye ti>,bo.ablo tasee the Sative Minuter, and- pyesibjy, To Wheoro, <Kit?i,,ot,wh9m, doubtless, will'^y. thi» Jtithe haye.had. Borne news from tho. ilc^th. 'In. «uofi case,l.wi]l, of course, telej»rapl» to jo\] ',';., ■andiOSumy telegram will.be publiohfd in. your ■columns:. before thia^ejs thoJightof, day,H would be well for! thojpublic to iWd tlic.one in.conoecticin I ,with the other— i.c, this letter in.conn@j;tion with; any telegram that I way «end., "'" ' ""',. t It -may be remembered that some jnontbs ago, in writingof a.yisit paid to Te Wbiti at ParihaJrt»,,l referred to the possibility .of (the existence of .wide-spread disaffection, of which Te Whiti,-ism was only one manifestation. Mj reason then for suggesting it hie, although, if il;iejnember rightly, it was .not! mentioned ut the time, was that I had infer- , mation-'totho effect that Te Whiti wasiin. constant coEamunicatiohrwitli the Waikato' Satires by jray.pf . the bact Country, and. also that the Bame persons in- Wellington who are' BuppQBed.to .Te WliUi, "posted," arej suspected of performing similar traitorous ': work for TawhVo. vWhut I loomed last night j tends to confirm this view, and I may add ' that the two orfcUroo old North Island colo-i nUts, who alone up to tho present moment i know of Eawi'B dUafFection, regard Ihe situation wita the greatest -anxiety. In connection wjtk this sutjj«cf,:i^ may be mentioned thatr these who have, hod tho. best opportunities bfbßserfing the demeanour of the Maoliea who crowd what is jenown as "the Natire aoom" in Fadiament Buildings, and whS best understand "the ISTative mind," go far 'as it is to be undewtood at all, tell me that for the last seven. or eight days they Bare been jpouri. In WaUiama 1 Maori dictionaTjr I- find; that this -tcoid is tianslated as meaning tf ßorrd'wful, 'Bad, From personal oluarva^ion.l all . ■ udd say that " sulky and injolenfc* t wbulc[be.ni!tf*rithe mark; • Ono.thing ifl very qerbi.], Xbat if hostilities ahould breoK jout, the Govwnrnent is preparing to vie.a very strong hipd. It may fairly be assutoed that any Meori war will be ■hort, sharpy and decisivo, and that upon the finaL-Babjugaii'on' of the JNative race the relationship thereafter towards tb& European's will be very different from Hxs/b of the pampered and pdtted equality whioibasfor too long a period exiited. - '.' Very, considerabla difference of opinion exists as to of the. Gor«nunent relative jto the: Property Tax BUJ, At^ne time it was thought Vw Ministers counted positively upon the. Co^ «il, throwing it «ut, and were merely.; mail < a parade, of the meajora with the tiew of showing that they geaJjy Jba4 >Qin<bfinanoinl policy of their own. The position, of .thff Government was thought to.i/bei upalagom to that of the sort of men of whom we bare; all -heard as " going about looking-for workaad praying that they may not get it.," Minister!, it was more than hinted at, were publicly imploring Parliament to doss their -little bill oj ;i l privattly. imploring- Heaven not to al .jw it to pass. From what has since come to .ar knowledge I am ißfllined to think that purhapa, after all, this was an erroneous, and therefore an unfair, Tiew. Mthe same time there is not a shadow of a doubt that the Government is strongly in hops that the necessity for putting tha measure in foKte will pass :»way. Ministers considerit desirable to hate the machinery at con mind* but g) O y hope it will not become i? S.gjtgKfePpt nthem to put it in force. In t ituw Icqi eßtjpn there can be littlq

doubt that the couatrv is entirely with them. , Andr^barnogjhfl-Maori icare alluded to in the first portion ,of this let jor^thereseein* every prospect of a vast improvement in the material wtlfuro-of tho Colony. ■ The excellent newo received from Canterbury and from other— l might say all — parts of the Colony relative to the harvest prospect*, the improved tone of the London wool markeb, and minor indications of a revival of trade, have all imparted a buoyancy to the public mind that of late 'has been conspicuous by its absence. Men; conversant with the more important class of - commercial, transactions in Wellington inform me Unit tho change for the better, if not in actual transactions, in hopeful anticipation, is very marked. Time will not permit "me To refer in this lettt r to the smaller, poliiical movements of the post week, with reipect to all of which, however, I have advieea you by telegram. It would, at the same time, bean omiasion.riot to mention Mr Uuriance'B really fine eritiefsm of the financial proposals of the Government. The speech 'lasted fully two hours, during which time Mr Ballance,' trith barely any reference to notes, minutely analysed Major Atkinson's figures, and— from an Opposition point of view, of course— demonstrated where they were' fallac'ons! 'M i : if mero effort of memory as to facts and figures, the speech will rank as one of the most notable ever delivered within the four walls of the House of Representatives ; arid/ all* party considerations aside", was in every respo-.'t worthy of the occasion. It would bo ungeneroui on the' ' part of even those who may be most opposed to the late Treasurer to admit less than this. There is just one moro point to which I have time to allude. It hn» been freely ru* moured that a very good understanding e\ists between Colonel Whitmore, Mr Baliarieo and Mr Sheehan relative to the formation of a party, of which the gentlemen numed should be leaders. I have the authority of two of these for stating that there is not the slightest .foundation for the report. Mr Uallance assured me in the moat positive language that he will to the last follow Mr Macandrew as the recognised leader of the Opposition. . Tho following is the report of tho Select Committee appointed to, enquire into ' the granting of free passes on railways :—" (I.) That in the opinion of this Committee, free passes should be issued only to members of Parliament and officers of the Railway Department. (2.) That officers of other departments thould pay usual fares, recovering the amounts paid by voucher when travelling on public business." I understand that even if the report ba adopted, this will not affect the issuing of passes to the Press under the existing regulations, whereby they can bo used for repor ing purposes only. I have heard of one or two instances wherein the abuse of this very proper stipulation in connection with the "issue of Press railway passes has been follewed by immediate forfeiture of tho privilege— and very rightly too.