SYDNEY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6131, 18 March 1898, Page 4

SYDNEY.

[CORRESPONDENT "CANTERBURY TIMES.'H SYDNEY, MARbH 2. " THE FEDERAL CONTENTION. The Federal Convention hag put a date to the termination of its discussions. The delegates are thoroughly weary, and the question of evolving a satisfactory solution has given place to that of obtaining some respite from the disheartening work of attempting to solve the insoluble. Some of the delegations— those of New South Wales and West Australia in particular — are badly, wanted in their own colonies, and the rest are heartily tired of the windy strife of beating the air. Some of them .spoivk of holding another session, but the majority are so horribly sick of the whole business that I do not imagine the proposal will find general favour. If the labours of the Convention result in a humiliating fiasco, no one will feel any suri prise. Such an unfortunate result was • only to be expected — first, from' the mis- ' take of entrusting the framing of the 'Commonwealth Bill to a Convention in which the representatives of the more populous colonies are in a hopeless minority; and secondly, to their having attempted to resuscitate the Bill of 1891, which is almost universally condemned. LAND SALES. The Government have come in for a good deal of hostile criticism for having offered for sale a large area of Crown lands. The present policy of the colony is in favour of leasing rather than selling, and there can be little doubt that a course which preserves to the public the increment of value which will accrue to the land in the future is more prudent and enlightened than one which alienates it altogether. The Minister has explained that, although the area collectively is large, it consists mainly of scraps and remnants in various places which are of little value for settlement and are yielding hardly any revenue. Under the circumstance^ be thinks he is justified in offering them. But he has so far bowed to public opinion that he has ordered any portions which are able to support a family to be withdrawn. It is a pity they were ever offered, a3 the withdrawal gives an impression of weakness and vacillation which is not favourable to the prestige of the Government. It must be remembered, however, that all land which is now being sold, or which may ,be sold in the future, is purchased in the full knowledge that the "position value" and its unearned increment are liable to taxation, and that the tax, if future requirements demand it r is liable to be increased. THE CARRUTHERS LIBEL. CASE. John Xorton and Mr Lonsdale have been informed that the Crown does not intend to proceed any further with their prosecution for criminally libelling the Minister of Lands. The specific charges made against the latter remain therefore unanswered, which is not a pleasant position, either for Mr Carruthers or for his colleagues.' If John Norton had not got into another scrape, his hands would now be free. He needs all the liberty he can got, for he has now been elected an alderman of the City Council, beating Mr T. H. Barlow, an unquestionably strong candidate. Many causes concurred to bring about Mr Norton's election. In the fit st place, the number of prosecutions to which he has lately been subjected have given him a sweeping advertisement. -He has probably been more before the public eye than any other man in the colony. Ho conducted his own defence with greii.c skill, in most cases entirely discomfiting ■the legal talent opposed to him. This is unmistakeable evidence of great ability — though it remains to be. seen whether it is of a kind calculated to conduce to aldermanic success. The people like to be represented by able men, even though they may be somewhat eccentric. Then, again, these repeated prosecutions gave rise to a belief that Norton was being persecuted by the powers that be. This aroused sympathy — another powerful .aid to popularity. I heard a man in the crowd when John's election for the Philip Ward was announced, cry out : — " Yes, the adjective nouns thought they would put him in gaol,, but they've put him in the Council instead." Let us hope he will be duly grateful. There are any number of abuses to be grappled with. Circumstantial storieo of bribes accepted by aldermen from contractors, and of shameless nepotism in the appointment of officials and labourers, are current. Norton has been elected on the strength of his promise that he will find out the truth about these and other alleged misdoings, but I am afraid that he, like some other people in similar cases, has promised a good deal more than it will bo in his power to perform. MISSIONARY ENTHUSIAS3I. Sir Frederick Darley, the Chief Justice, being asked to preside at the annual meeting of the Australasian Wesley an Methodist Society, took advantage of the occasion to give his hearers a piece of his mind. He deprecated the sending of young girls and young men to China, whilst we have a great field of heathendom in our midst. The hitter, however, is, to a great extent, the result of wilful and confirmed indifference and opposition, which no missionary effort could overcome. Fancy, for instance, the "high old time" which a missionary would have in the office of a daily paper, which may be taken as a typical instance of the nominally Christian heathendom of the nineteenth century. I don't know that I need have used the word " daily," the weeklies can hold up their end pretty well. Moreover, Judge Darley 's exhortations entirely fail to influence those to whom they are principally addressed — namely, the missionaries themselves. They go to China, or elsewhere, not because they believe that, in the opinion of Judge Darley or of the general public, it promises to be the most eligible field of operations, but because they believe that they have a personal mandate from their Master to go there. To all such reasoning as that of Sir Frederick they reply : "He knows better than you where I am wanted." Such a belief may be, and I think often is, a mere self-delusion. But it is obvious that so long as it is held no arguments grounded on ordinary considerations will possess any weight. Finally Sir Frederick confounds things that differ. The heathenism to which he refers, and which presents itself to him on circuit in many revolting forms, is mainly blank ignorance of the duties of good citizenship. So far as this is the case it is the State, not the Church, which is in fault. To blame the latter is simply a subtle method of delaying necessary reform. As it was in the beginning, so it is now. The Church is blamed by Society for the results which flow from its own misdoings. The Church can only exhort its members and hearers to do their duty from good motives instead of bad ones. But it can by no means do their duty for them, nor supply their lack of service. THE WAR IN CUBA. The tidings from Cuba of the successes of the insurgents, and of the bio wing up of the American warship Maine, have aroused ea<*er attention. The heroic stand which has been made by the Cuban insurgents, whom 200,000 Spanish troops have failed to subdue, has excited much sympathy on their behalf. Prominent Americans in Sydney don't hesitate to avow their belief that the Maine incident will compel President M/Kinley to. intervene, and thus put an end to the shameful and protracted cruelties of the struggle. These are rightly regarded as a disgrace to civilisation, and especially to a <rreat Power like the United States, which permits them to be carried on almost on her very borders. It is as though the Armenian massacres were being carried on in Ireland and Great Britain refused to interfere. _______«_—.

There are under the ocean, spreading .to almost every civilised part of the world, no fewer than 1167 submarine telegraph cables havin- a total length of 142,790 nSlcal miles, and representing a capital fS^afe^r-nfaSctSy ll^ jSes^e banks of the Th-e, The guns of ft first-class battleship cost ab0ut ,665,000.