West Coast Times MONDAY, JULY 19, 1897.

West Coast Times, Issue 10534, 19 July 1897, Page 2

West Coast Times MONDAY, JULY 19, 1897.

SEDDONISM AND BEER. The Wellington morning paper has so often been cited as the exponent of Seddonism that more than [ordinary interest attaches to its immediate personal concerns. Our readers already know by the telegrams that it is owned, nominally, by a limited liability company aud that its shareholders have been enjoying some diversion amongst themselves in consequence of efforts made by a few of ihe largest shareholders to squeeze the small /?nes put. When the trouble had reached an acute stage a promise was made by Sir Mattin' Kennedy, i one of the large shareholders referred to, that the small people should receive about 15s per share, losing only 5s per share, and with this promise the clouds were dispersed .and peace was restored. At the last genei'aj .election in Wellington two supporters of [the pye- ( sent Government were returned by the combined forces of Seddonism and beer and the result of this successful fusion of two powerful forces was claimed to be a triumphant vindication of the tenets of sham-liberalism. It was noteworthy, however, that the sbam-lrberalg i/eve not anxious to make their connection with the brewing interests too apparent and their especial organ claimed to be the fearless exponent of party principles altogether apart from such adventitious aids as the monopolist brewing interest was 1 able to- bring. At the' extraordinary meeting of the shareholders of the New Zealand Times Company, before the agreement between the small shareHoldera and the large ones was made, some valuable information wag elicited as to how the shares were held and this information 'the Prohibitionist has tabulated in order' to show the connection between tho two 1 great interests we have referred to. First of all we may premise that before the compromise had been effected it was supposed thpre would be a sharp conflict, and in order $o give the monopolist party ! a' sufficient voting power ? n ne num ) je r as !weliasthe value of their holdings they Were distributed amongst their relations i Jarid friends. Thus we find the holding of Seddon fainly distributed amongst nine members — familiar names to their many friends in Westland — the Premier and some 6i the elder n/embers of the family being content with fifty shares each, whilst Master Tom and two of his sisters have each to be contented with ten

Sh'&rfes. The total number of Shares held is 3iO and they carry with them 9" votes. The name of the Minister forLanda doe 3 not appear in this list, but a small group, styled somewhat euphemistically by our cdtitempdfdry "The M'Kenzie Clan" have holdings totalling 230 SHares diStrltributed amongst seven individuals. Contrasting these lists with those under the names of the members and employ&s of the great brewing company of Staple 3 and O'o Limited, we find that the process of "share watering " has been carried on to a much greater extent. The total holding in this list appears to be 823 shares distributed amongst 48 shareholders, of whom only two hold 100 shares each, ten being the predominant number, whilst one lady is content with a modest four. The solicitors of this firm and their staff seem also to be, " in the swim." There are 8 names iv this list and they hold ten shares apiece. We thtfs have the families of the two principal ministers, seventeen in riuiriber, : with a total holding of 540 shares and I the friends and connections of the great brewing monopoly, 56 in number, holding 903 shares, the union of Seddonisni and beer producing 1443 shares represerited by 73 voting shareholders or their proxies. There is little wonder that the small shareholders who had put their hardly-earned pounds into the Company thinking tliey we're assisting a policy of liberalism jand progress were appallud to find they were merely the tools of the great forces we have named, and that the numerical superiority bri which they had confidently relied rids swept away by a process di watering', whicli put 73 individuals on a share register with an aggregate of 1443 shares. Our contemporary goes further and points out that in f rfture the Liberal policy of tie paper wili in future be controlled By beer ; that this pdlent liquor will, though unseen, really direct its future policy. Into a disquisition of this kind we do not care to enter. "We do kbh think it becoming' to prejudge any journal nor to seek to show that its future policy will be to* hoodwink the public as to its real aim's. It is sufficient for us to show how the potfr people who put their few. pounds Jin the company were defeated and outvoted and while providing means, as they thought, to inculcate liberal principles, were really assisting to' perpetuate a corrupt autocracy joined I to' a liquor monopoly.

The following information was received from Bealey at 5.30 lasc evening concerning the Christchurch coach :—: — "Heavy fall .of snow again last night. The mail could not leave either way. It has been snowing all day and is still snowing." From this it would seem there is no possibility of getting the mails tnrough to-day. Owing to the large number of telegrams received last evening and consequent pressure on our space, we are compelled to hold over some letters to the editor and other matters. Yesterday established a record for itself for unpleasant weather. In' the ranges it has been snowing heavily and a snort glimpse obtained yesterday morning showed the snow was as low down as the big slip on Mount 1 uhua. Apropos of our new justices, a correspondent informs the Auckland Horald that a person called at a store in town yesterday and asked for some work. He was told they had none, whereupon he remarked that he was a J.P., and his services might bo useful about the premises. A cablegram was received in Dunedm, advising fijte death in London of Jlr Stanley Branson, who' went 'home some j nionths ago for the purpose of continuing i his musical studies at the London College of Music. The deceased gentleman, i who was in his » twenty-third year, was a sbn of the late Mr Gr. D. Branson, bar-rister-at-law, of Ashburton. , At a meeting held in Christchurch by j synjpatbij9eis -with thp Greeks and Armenians, it was'djicided to forward to the churches and political associations of ftTew Zealand the following protest against the cession of Thessaly to the Turks;-—" We the undersigned New Zealanders, desire to add our earnest protest to those made in England against the cession of an inch 0$ Christian" territory to tne Sultan. We, sqake this appeal because the question is j fllot one concerning European politics alone, nor oae of *any cree.d Or dogma, fclut one of deep interest to all who desire the advance of hnmanifcy, all who love liberty, and all who sympathise with the oppressed. The very name of England is less dear to us ithan the spirit of Christianity and of freedom. Thessaly must be saved from' the fate of Armenia. The transfer of it or of any portion of it 'from' a condition of hope and promise to the savage anarchy arid outrages of the Turkiah Empire would reject infamy on the name we bear. It would, further, be an unanswerable proof of the failure of arbitration on behalf of the subjects of the Porte." A capital umbrella story, vouched for as true by a Home paper. But no names jar c mentioned. T?wo men quarrelled ever tjje ownership of an umbrella that hah been left in' a; restaurant, and brought the case into court. , Eash cla.lma.nt adduced evidence proving his exclusive Fight to the "brolly." Being unable to match the wisdom of Solomon by dividing the gamp between the litigants, the Bench reserved its decision and kept the umbrella. When the judge was ready to go home that day he found that it was rainjng go he borrowed the umbrella that had caused $1 the trouble, hoisted it, and went on his way rejoicing. Presently he stopped at a restaurant/ deposited t|ie umbrella in the rack, dined, and when ready to leave discovered that the umbrella had been annexed by some other diner. So' he bought another umbrella, and when the case came on again neither of the claimants could identify it as his owu. Whereupon the case was dismissed, each party payipg his own costs.

■fhere is" an interesting chat with Sir Wilfred Laiirier, the Canadian Premier, in the June English Illustrated. The secret of the Premier's political success is said to be, first, his enthusiasm, and secondly, his espousal of the idea of coherent nationality for Canadians. " Canadians before all, and for all Canada in all the acceptation of the word— Canada and Quebec, Canada and Toronto, Canada on the borders of the Gulf, and as far as the famous mountains that the Pacific Ocean laps with its billows," is a phrase often on his lips. To secure this nationality he is ready to throw over any sentimental kinship with France, and to this end to renounce any religious affiliation with Borne. , Sir Wilfred is a cultured man, indif the library at Three Rivers; the small town in the province of Quebec, where he resides, does not contain mmy thousands of books, those books are well chdseii, and bear the mark of frequent perusal. He is a staunch admirer and omnivorous reader of present day British writers. Mr 'Hardy is said to be his favorite novelist. "English literature," he says, " is the greatest tie of all between England and America. Any tie must be sentiment, and literature ia sentiment. It seems to me that every English author writes first for these Transatlantic people, and secondly for fcho people of England — and his best work appears first in America. Sir JohniLubbbck says a friend of. his recently saw seventeen nightingales stuck up on a gamekeeper's cottage, and when asked why in the world he killed thes3 charming little creatures, the man said that they made such a noise.at night tlia!; they kept his pheasants awake. Another splendid fall of raid; says tlie Argus of a recent date, has been experienced throughout the t colony. The drought appears to have broken all over Australia. .In most parts of the country from 2iii. to 4iri. have fallen within the last - fortnight. This was not, of course, sufficient to thoroughly soak the subsoil, but it is ample for the present requirements of producers. The crops and the grass have now been given a start, and with favourable weather to follow an abundant harvest may yet be expe'cfc.ed. Thditgh tho season is far advanced, farmers in hiany districts arelagain busy putting in grain crops, but oats are mostly being sown in place of wheat. 2?he ground is now in a capital condition for sowing, and notwithstanding the dry seasbnithat has been encountered the area u.nder wheat and other grain will probably after all exceed that of last year. Farming ori the share system Has tiee'n largely extended during this season — some estates which have not produced any wheat far a long time will have thousands of acres to cut at the. coming harvest. The rain has also Deeri of much benefit to tb.3 grass, which is no w springing nicely in all parts. While little improvement is to be 1 expected in the condition of live stock for some time to come, there is now some hope that they will not get any poorer, and that the worst has already been realised. There is still a good part of the winter to come, and should cold weather ensue heavy losses of both sheep and cattle are inevitable, but altogether the agricultural and pastoral outlook has been wonderfully improved by the rainfall. Present prospects are of a decidedly cheering character. Emperor William of Germany is a great stickler for respect to Ins august pprson, and every now and then people are dragged into the courts for Use ma jestie and similarly sacrilegious offences. But this' claim to kingship does not appear to rest upon the golden rule of doing to others, as he wishes to be done by. He is; therefore, apparently more giveji to quoting the Scriptures for theatrical effect than to study them with profit to his soul and improvement to his manners. IE any of his good Germans apply epithets to. him they are packed off to gaol, but he does not appear to realise, that he stiould, according to his own standard, refrain from applying epithets to the Germans. Latterly he lias .taken to calling the members of the Reichstag " ihen without patriotism." and "unpatriotic people," which are, aa used by him, terms of unwarrantable insult. To the credit of fch'e Reichstag, it possesses at least oue member- — or rather to its discredit it appears to possess only one —with the spirit of Luther. He is Herr Bebel, the Socialist leader, who asserts ihat the Reichstag must insist on more respectful treatment from the Emperor. This is in the key of a Hampden or a Cromwell, arid it is] needed, for the Emperor is a German Charles the First. If .he is - not wise in time he may eyen under modern condition share the fate of t%t fatuous monarch. A strange story comes from the Mangaweka district. A rumor having been circulated that a man named Ferris was married, he inserted an advertisement in the settler that he • would give £10 to anyone who could prove the truth of the statement. The next phase, according to the local papec^ w.<K the publication, of ah advertisement signed bj a woman who declares she is the wife of Ferris, and claims the £10, adding :— " lam pleased to hear of his being in such a good financial position, as the money will come in very handy for his six children and rayself." Vhe arrest of Ferris at Hunteryille for wife desertion followed,

A mysterious seriesi bi mflrflers are re-; ported from New York that vividly rocall the crimes of " Jack the Ripper " in Whitechapel. The New York police have been completely baffled, and the fact that three of these events have occurred within the last month has only served to intensify the alarm. The victims—in overy instance women of the town who wore jewellery —were followed to their rooms, were choked to death with short pieces of rope in which a peculiar slip-knot was tied, and then robbed. Although they were nou atrocious in their circumstances, these murders suggested the same general scope as those committed by "Jack the Hipper, " and the mention of " The Stranger " has already caused wide-spread terror in the haunts occupied by the class of women referred to. A cbttgli is only worth eigHteen-penae, for the simple reason that if you invest that sum in a bottle of Woods' Great Peppermint Cure for coughs and colds, you can get rid of it straight away — it never fails — every grocer and chemist in the town keeps it. Wholesale agentsAll merchants and drug firms! —Advt: The Southern Standard, April 3, 1891, says: — "Mr W. Gawne's Worcester Sauce.— r This is a Dunedin manufacture, arid after having tried it, we sire' free* l6 confess that we could not tell it from the imported Lea and Perrin's. This being the case, it is clearly, the duty of colonjsts to support an important local indus" try. The day for imported sauces is clearly drawing to a close." . Messrs WebieV & Son, Pianoforte aud Organ Tunera, and Repairers are now in Hokitika and will take the earliest opportunity of calling on their customers.— Address; Red Lion Hotel.— Advt. ■ For Blankets, Jackets, Hats, Clothing, Glbvgs dtid Mdiihei you can Hot tfo better than go to H. Schroder and Son, as great reductions are now made by that firm in prices to effect a clearance. — Advt. To make rooiri for next Season's Goods H. Schroder aud Son are greatly rediicin*!} the Price on all Winter Goods. Now is y.bur time tb purchase as H. Schroder ISc !^on arfc t determined to L carry over on Winter (joodp. — Advt.