DUNEDIN NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1888, 16 April 1892, Page 3

DUNEDIN NOTES.

{From our own Correspondent.)

If I can only credit the half of what I hear, the Scott case is only as yet in its sprouting infancy. I am assured it is the very best card that the stupidity or the wickedness of their enemies has put into tho hands of the Government ever since their advent to power. And it is claimed for them, and with justice, it must be admitted, that they have not failed to use it well and skilfully. The arrest of Scott was the outcome of a deliberately-organised scheme of operations, and the result is so far most creditable to the tactical skill of its author. The Hon. Jobn M'Kenzie knew at that time what the public know now. He knew the relations existing between Scott and the National Mortgage and Agency Co., and at the decisive moment forced Scott's hand by clapping him into jail. Had the company, even at that late stage, been wisely counselled, they would at once have come to the rescue and quietly bluffed the Hon. John. This, be it notect, is spoken altogether apart from the morality of the question. lam speaking solely with reference to the tactical features of the game as it was played out between the Minister and the big company. It needs no very great acuteness to see that their overpowering selfishness alone hindered the latter from coming to the rescue of the man who had clearly been their instrument in a transaction that was bad, both commercially and morally. This lefthanded land speculation of theirs was clearly a most unprofitable investment ; and to save themselves, as they in their short-sightedness thought, they determined on sacrificing Scott. But look at the result? They haven't certainly succeeded in saving themselves ; they have lost all along the line and the end of their losses is not yet even arrived at. And serve them right, all good people of whatever colour in politics will say. And not only have they seriously injured their own interests but they have given a colouring of truth to much of the wild talk about dummyism, as well as forged another weapon that, we may be sure, will be used with deadly effect in the war of extermination now being waged against people of their class. .Politically, too, the event is bound to strengthen the hands of the Government, and exploited, as it is sure to be, it will have a very large effect in determining the issues of the Bruce election. In future, if large land companies complain of being squeezed by legislation, they will be silenced by the action of this latest | offender ; and even among moderate as well as conservative men, the affair is likely to engender suspicion and distrust, and justify very much not only of what the Government have done but what they propose doing in the future in the direction of curtailing the privileges of large property owners. It's a decidedly bad business, and we have not yet probably seen the worst of it. The Minister of Lands, I understand, contemplates criminal proceedings ; should he do so, he will have the support of all honest and law-abiding men. The " Globe" has been very busy during the last few days endeavouring to get up a sensation over the difference between the directors of the Balclutha "Free Press" and their editor. From the remarks of the " Globe," simple people, not acquainted with the particulars, would infer that the editor of the " Press" had been subjected to treat-

ment of the most tyrannical kind at the hands of the directors ; whereas, it is the editor who has been endeavouring to establish a dictatorship over the directors. The facts are few and simple The editor of the " Press " took a certain stand on the Bruce election which was objected to by a number of the directors. A meeting having been called to discuss the matter, it was proposed by a director in political sympathy with the editor that the paper should remain neutral while the Bruce election lasted. This inanimate proposal very properly found no favour with, the meeting. It was then propose:! by the chairman that all editorials during the contest should be, in the first place, submitted to a sub-com-mittee of two, and being seconded was carried by the meeting. Great capital is endeavoured to be made out of this simple and business-like proceeding by the " Globe," unnecessarily noisy prominence being given to the fact that " an M.H.R. from the Opposition camp "took part in the proceedings. And why shouldn't he ? Has he not as much right to his opinions as the directors who are not M.H.R.'s, oras the editor who wanted to run the show independent altogether of his employers, of those whose servant he was ? No employer will allow himself to be dictated to by his servant as to the style or manner in which his business shonld be conducted. I never knew that there was anything attaching to the sacred person of an editor, or even of a Liberal editor, that exempted him from the rule. Is there any body of directors at the head of a commercial business, and a newspaper is a commercial speculation, that would permit an official to defy their authority, and insist on running the business in his way? An editor is very much in the position of a barrister : if he refuses on moral or political grounds to advocate the opinions of his clients, who are the directors, the people from whom he takes his fee, his course is clear. He can drop it and allow someone else to take it up. But what would be thought of the man who not only refused to advocate the case of his clients, but actually made common cause with the other side, and then had the unabashed impudence to demand his fee ? A lawyer who attempted this would soon find his occupation gone. And why not the same with regard to an editor ?

When Mr R. E. N. Twopenny, late editor of the " Daily Times," wanted to shed his political skin he had sufficient good sense and dignity to resign his I position quietly, well knowing, of course, that the directors would not allow him to promulgate his heresies at their expense. There was no blare of trumpets by the Radical organ at this piece of self-sacrifice on the part of the editor of the " Times," though, as everybody knows, it involved a much heavier personal sacrifice than that of the editor of the Balclutha " Free Press." But the reason of that was because there was nothing in it out of which political capital might be made. And again, Mr Twopenny's predecessor, Mr Ashcroft, was driven out of the editorial chair because of his -unwillingness to accept for his guidance in the conduct of the paper the opinions of Ms directors. All these things the editor of the " Globe " must know. And he must also be aware that his own immediate predecessor, Mr Freeman Kitchen, was dismissed because of his extreme opinions ; and if the present editor of the " Globe" were foolish enough to follow in Kitchen's footsteps he, too, would be very soon knocked off his rickety perch. In my opinion, the course proposed by the directors of the "Press" was of a most reasonable and considerate character. Though holding in their hands the power of exacting entire compliance with their demands, they sank their authority, met the editor half way, and agreed to a most liberal compromise. But the editor put on " frills," worked himself into a mighty rage, and talked a lot of rank nonsense about his position and his principles, as if he carried the intellect of the Auatralias in the back of his heed. It is a very small affair, however, and would never have been heard of outside the parish of Balclutha were it not that it furnished the material for a screech for this bedridden organ of the great Liberal party. No doubt the ex-Bal-clutha editor has had his vanity flattered by the prominence given to his folly, and looks upon himself as a victim to the sacred cause of Liberalism. It may be, however, that, as he grows older, this high mettled young man will find that the applause of the " Globe " is a very filmy and unsubstantial thing. The women's franchise meeting in the City Hall on Tuesday evening was in every respect a magnificent success. The building was crowded to the doors by a most enthusiastic audience, and never from beginning to end was there a single note of dissent from the arguments or opinions of the different speakers. Of the speakers themselves it should be said that they were everything that could be desired in point of station, ability and earnestness, and in their persons were thoroughly representative of all classes of the people. Whatever may be said to the contrary, there is not the least doubt but, as Sir Robert Stout said, the question is now a real live one, and its settlement in the near future may be accepted as a certainty. The possession of the franchise by women may not, as the same speaker rather hageiy put it, accomplish the " solidarity of humanity," but it will certainly accomplish much more that is humane and .benevolent in. character than the exercise of the same privilege by its present holders has yet done. There was a splendid array of women speakers, and though in one or two instances there was a tendency to emotional exaggeration and a want of practicability and substance, yet, on the whole, the speaking was really excellent, though, as everybody knows, this is a subject which, owing to its threadbare cendirion, it is now impossible for any ordinary speaker to impart any interest to. Mrs Hatton opened the proceedings in a carefullyprepared speech, -which had in it both plenty of argument and illustration of the pathetic kind, and was spoken with the requisite spirit and nerve. Miss Morrison spoke as the representative of female labour, and before closing her remarks made a hit or, perhaps, rather a scratch, at Mr H. S. Fish in a manner thoroughly characteristic of the sex. But Mrs Dr Gordon Macdonald was really elbquent, and no trained political speaker ever carried his audience so completely with him as she succeeded in doing. Mr B. T. Booth, the well-known temperance orator, gave the audience a taste of his quality, and beside him Sir Robert Stout, who also spoke, was dulness itself. As the question is to come Lap again in the next session of Parlia-

ment, such representative demonstrations as this are certain to have their effect, particularly as the advocates of fche measure in the other centres are acting in concerh. Ifc is intended also to send a monster petition from here, the largest ever yet presented to the New Zealand Parliament from any one city. The opponents of the measure are also very busy, aud they have already secured thousands of names of those supposed to be opposed to the reform. I understand that a petition was kept at each of the breweries in the city, which the men were not only expected to sign but also to take home for the signatures of their cousins andftheir uncles and their aunts and all their friends, living and dead. The publicans, too, I am told, are cooperating religiously, and have put all the dead-heads in the city on the roll. The bankruptcy season is just now in full swing here, and the Official Assignee has his hands quite full. A somewhat curious fact in connection with the occupation of the bankrupts is the large percentage of them that belong to the butchering business. No less than five knights of the cleaver have g;ne through the mill within almost as many months, the last on the list being a member of the guild named Hankius, who bobbed up on Wednesday, with liabilities amounting to over £300, and assets representing £60. The bankrupt's tale I was the usual lamentable one of struggle | and difficulty from the outset and eventual smash ; though the fact is there is nothing substantial to smash in such cases, as those small traders go into business with scarcely a sixpence of capital of their own. This beiug so, ;jt seems extraordinary, not that they go to the wall, for that is inevitable, but that they find so many accommodating aud benevolent people who help them to prolong the agony. This man after he had been eight months in business, made out a balaice-sheet, which showed him to have in that time cleared a profit of £40. But still he went on, blindly fighting against fate, until at last lie had to take asylum in the bankruptcy court. The Assignee, naturally enough, expressed his surprise at the large number of butchers whom he kept officially running up against, and said there must be something rotten in. the way business is carried on. The butchery business appeared to him. to be a large benevolent asylum to supply the public with cheap meat. The Assignee is perfectly correct in his remarks. The trade swarms all over the city with men who have nothing, or next to no:hiug, of their own to lose, and are compelled by sheer force of competition to sell at prices in which fchero is no profit. They have either to do that or shut up. This was proved by the statement of Hankins that the moment he raised his prices his customers left him at once. The remedy is entirely in the hands of those who continue to supply them with money and stock without, in most instances, a vestige of guarantee. In fact, they are the real propagators of this class of bankrupts ; and, with their repeated exp sriences to guide them, the fault is entirely their own if they find themselves, as in this instance, with no more substantial consolation than an offer of two shillings in the pound.