The Star. TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1895. To-Day

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5258, 14 May 1895, Page 2

The Star. TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1895. To-Day

What with hospital scandals, Harbour Board tquabbleo, School Committee fights and well-developed larrikinißm, they have lively times up in the far north ; and the Fonsonby people " take the cake " for the most exciting School Committee election beld in the colony. The proceeding?, according to local reports, were unique, and apparently bristled with detailß that under the provisions of the Act; ought to be impossible. " The Act provides that tvery voter must give hia vote inside the building, wheieaa voting papers were taken from personi in the back yard, who pushed them in through the open windows, and then they were placed in the ballot-box, not by the chairman or scrutineers, but by unauthorised persons. One gentlemm present at the meeting stated that he had seen one peraonin Queen Street that morning with three voting papers in hia hand, and he also could have got some himself." This was a nice state of things, truly; bub it seems that the travesty was kept up to the very end ; for one of the scrutineers is credited with the after aesertion that he did not either count the votes or verify the numbers, and tba v , under the circumstances, he could not possibly have done so. Perhaps the " circumstances " will be better understood by a simple illustration : — " One enterprising press representative, failing to gain admittance through the crush into the school-room, got xr through a Bide window, and flattening 6ufc a householder ac he dumped down on a sohoci desk, partially 'buet up the chow.'" After this, we in Canterbury tt&7 pride ourselves upon maintaining a highly ere utible sb ndard of decorum.

Wombn in Wellington evidently have a dear idea of some of New Zealand'e necessities, and a shrewd conception of the probable trend of legislation, as will be seen from the following utterance mado in a little publication issued in their behalf :— The stomach is a most persistent agitator. Consequently the industrial policy of the Government in providing work for the unemployed will be forced to its utmost limits. The most serious of these limitations are— tho want of money and the influx of Btone-'broke immigrants, which the liberal extension of that policy, combined with the unfortunate competition the two steamship companies are waging, will unfailingly produce. Both the3o difficulties will have to be met and solved. The impossibility of satisfactorily treating the unemployed question while the unemployed and pauper population of other countries and colonies are allowed to pour in ad libitum, is so stronely manifest that the passing of the " Undesirable Imigrants Bill" in a revised and improved form is a foregone conclusion. The leak must be stopped ere the repairs can be effected. A deal of obloquy has been heaped upon this Bill, and upon the devoted head of its author. But its opponents in the House must remember that, as politicians, they too live on votes, and we opine that> were they wooiDg the electors to-morrow they would bo compelled to incorporate a similar measure in their programme.

This is a logical contention that t^ill commend itself to workers throughout the country. It is of interest to say that the article from which we have quoted goes'on to speak tentatively of what the financial requirements of the near future may' bo for the work of systematically settling the people on the land, and to suggest that in the end a State Bank system will hay« to be elaborated. . '

If the Conservatives can by any pdaaibility manage it, Cheviot will be digcredited. The "wbyand wherefore" ia not far to seek, and their motto seema to be, v Never mind how it is done, so longas it is done." One of the emissaries of the Press baa apparently been kept trotting to and from Cheviot at pretty frequent intervals, and a good many people have come to Hie conclusion that there has been a deliberate attempt to make the settlers discontented, and to "egg them ou"jto mako.nn outcry against the Government. In one way and an6thor some EorS/of agitation was eet on. fact to claim, a reduction or remiesiou of rents, on the' ground tbat those, who took up lan^.at

Cheviot had been hoaxed; and bo far aa we can learn strenuous efforts were made ', to work up a big attendance at a public I meeting. The Press specially, instructed its emissary to go up and attend tbia meeting and produce a full . report ; but iia own publication of the proceedings i» in reality etroagly condemnatory of the tactics that we believe have Deen pursued. The meeting waa held last Friday evening, and — s«ya the Presa— "of the twenty-five persona present all but two or three were holders of sections on the estate." Admittedly the attendance waa very small, and some cf the speakers made it quite clear that they were more than half-ashamed of the affair.

Son* time before the meeting took i place, a Cheviot settler told us about the j agitation that was being worked up by the agency of a few malcontents, who could be counted on the fingers of one band. Our informant Btated that he biruself waa very well satisfied with the results e>o far, despite the extraordinarily low prices for sheep and products generally; his wool had paid his rent, and ho had not on'y his capital of sheep, but — a3 net profit—the increase therefrom, to say nothing of a few cattle, horses, &c. He had reason to believe Hat the majority of the Bottlers had done fairly well, and on one point expressed himself decisively. The malcontents, he said, were men who had taken up land with practically no capital to help them, and who, therefore, had not the remotest chance of success, save by som'e extraordinary fluke. Our informant, moreover, intimated that " there were certain persons who seemed curiously anxious for trouble to corns" and in the light of this utterance, a few lines from the Press report of the proceedings are significant. Oae of the speakers remarked :—" lt wouii be eaid, 'Oh, you have had a meeting there; you are going in for a reduction of rent. I told you bo.' The Press was very glad to get hold if it." What a curious coincidence.

As one of the speakers who addressed j the meeting pointed out, those who elected I to go to Cheviot " entered into their contracts with their eyes open," and even the Chairman — the principal storekeeper of the district, by the way— admitted that "two largo meetings had been heldthere' recently, and the settlers had expressed great confid?nce in the Government." It is easy enough to understand that the Cheviot people have not found their initial experience too rosy, and that Vy reason of preliminary expenses they have been in a " tighter" place than agriculturists and pastoralhts of older standing elsewhere. Then again, as another speaker at the meeting said, " When they took up the land, fat lambs were worth ,£1 per hea<3 trucked at Waipara, and were now worth 1O.«." Now, whihfc we d-pre-cato injudicious proceedings on the part of any of those immediately concerned, and strongly protest a^aioit underhand tactics, we also- hold that the Cheviot settlers have every right to state their ca3e fully and fairly to tho Minister of Lands. We have, moreover, every confidence that any cases of hardship will be considered on their merits, and dealt with accordingly. It may, however, be doubted whether the Minister will feel himself justified in bolstering up any "groggy" holders of sections who may have shown that they will never be likely to stand unaided.