The Star. MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 1896. WELLINGTON ITEMS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5461, 13 January 1896, Page 2

The Star. MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 1896. WELLINGTON ITEMS.

[from our own correspondent.]

WELLINGTON, Jan. 12, • In view of recent rumours and complications you will be glad to learn that New Zealand has, like other countries in which wisdom is cultivated, made preparations for defence, not • defiance. You remember hearing that some time ago a large number of Martini-Henry rifles was ordered for changing the armament of . the volunteer force of the .colony. These have now arrived, arid are in process of distribution. The number of cases of rifles on the wharves here during the last few days set an observant Mend of mine thinking on the subject. Inquiry followed thought, and out of inquiry came the discovery above announced. You will be further pleased to . learn that " from . information received" I am able to assure you that the stocks of ammunition, both for artillery and. small. arms, are greater than they have ever been in. the history of the colony. As for the stores for submarine work, torpedoes, mines, dynamite, guncotton and electric attachments, the supply is, I learn, more than sufficient for any possible emergency. . . : At the cable conference in Sydney Mr Reeves, the New Zealand representative, will, I learn, propose the appointment of Lord Jersey as one of the tAvo • colonial delegates to the coming Imperial Conference.- It will be the leading move in all probability, as it is certain to be accepted '; first as it gets rid of the difficulty, so far as the choice of. delegates is concerned, of the danger of local jealousies ; and second, Lord Jersey is vastly popular in Australia, partly because of the good name he left behind in Sydney, and partly on account of .the part he played at the Ottawa Conference. 1

A stupid canard floating about has been seized upon, as fact by the local Opposition organ. Its subject is' Mr Izett, a journalist well and favourably known in your city, and of him it is said that he is being employed at the public expense to 'write a history, of Seddonism, under pretence of writing the history of the colony. I need not say that the canard- is of the usual political order. Mr Izett is not to write anything about Seddonism, and his work is of collating, collecting,, and getting ready for publication the early records of the colony. It will, lie among the years before even the Nestor of the House arrived in New Zealand, to say nothing of Mr Seddon, or any other member of the Government. . '

The National Association here is like a hen with its first egg. A formal vote of applause to Christchurch as the first place which has got a National Association carididate has been passed. ; The wharf here was marked out, when the branch was set up, as a certain and heavy recruiting ground. But the wharf is too astute to be caught with " Codlin's your friend, not Short." As one of the lumpers said to me the other day : "We like the Liberals who support Liberal candidates and pass Liberal measures, not the men who call themselves Liberals, and run down Liberal candidates and kick against Liberal •fmeasures." At the last meeting of their branch it was discovered that lectures of a " rousing up " character are required, which, being translated into plain English, means that the National Association possesses a galvanic battery, wnieh it cannot use for lack of a corpse to galvanise. It is not that thenbody is dead : they never had a body, conseqxiently there is no corpse to ; be roused up back to faithful allegiance.