Wanganui Herald.

Wanganui Herald, Volume X, Issue 2932, 9 October 1876, Page 2

Wanganui Herald.

{ PUBLISHED DAILY . J MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1876. The action of . the Legislative Council in reference .to the borrowing clauses of the Municipalities Bill trill, of course, be repeated in the cases of the Counties Bill: and the Harbor Bills one and all. In commen consistency the Council will have to deny to the, Counties and Harbor Boards the borrowing powers which it refuses to grant to the towns, and it becomes a question of no small interest what course the House of Kepresenta- , tives will pursue when the Municipalities Bill goes back to it. Should it sanction the amendments of the Council and sacrifice the .borrowing clauses, a blow will have been inflicted on the cause of local self-government, the effect of which will be to render it very doubtful whether Provincialism, with all its faults, would not -be better than the system ■of unmitigated centralization which will succeed it, if the borrowing powers be withheld from the local bodies. However, we cannot for a moment sulFer ourselves to believe that the House and the Government will so stultify themselves as to abandon at once a policy which is the outcome of so long and arduous a struggle, and thus to court

! defeat in the very moment of triumph. To unthinking persons it 'may seem a matter of secondary importance .whether these borrowing clauses be retained or not in the local government ' measure's, butto those who look, beneath the surface of the subject,' the question involved is nothingless than local government versus centralization. If the majority of those who have fought for Abolition could have foreseen tbat the outcome of their labours was to be a merely negative one, Provincialism, would still flourish and be likely to do so. We did not fight for the mere purpose of doing away with the Provincial Councils, or rather for that of putting a stop to the evil of conflicting' legislation. It was to be sure, a nuisance to have nine or ten legislatures issuing so many different systems of law all at once. But it woxild haye been a matter for serious consideration whether this evil would not be better retained, than abolished in order to centralize everything in the hands of the General Government and Legislature. The consummation to which the friends ot Abolition have always looked forward is that of replacing the Provincial machinery by something better, something that will involve the separation of the administiative functions from the legislative to the utmost possible extent, and the localization of the former. N ow, it has been truly said that every other power follows that of the purse. The prej ponderating influence of the House of Commons, for instance, depends mainly on' the privilege which it has long assumed of initiating all grants of money. And if this principle holds good in i legislative matters, much more does it I apply to the administrative functions, I which are chiefly of a financial character. Deprive the localities — tb.9 towns and counties — of the management of their own financial affairs, as the Council proposes to do, and }ou may as well abolish them altogether and leave the Colony to shamble along under a system of paternal-government centralization, which can hardly bo said to be mitigated by F.oad Boards. No one thinks of dignifying- the functions of these last-mentioned bodies with the name of local self-government, and yet those functions are virtually all that will be left to either towns or counties, in the way of self-govornment, if the borrowing powers bo withheld from them. There is a very shallow and ignorant prejudice against what is called | " trading on credit," and it is a received maxim amon^ a certain class that '• credit " is demoralising and cash-pay-ment the very bulwark of public j morality. Those who talk in this way would be surprised to hear that, if their principle were carried into practice, the consequonse would be universal bankruptcy. If such persons jvouldonly sit down and consider what a bank note is, they would see that their cash-pay-ment principle requires the suppression of bank notes altogether, and it is not very difficult to realize what that implies. Every bank in existence must immediately become bankrupt if it were compelled to pay in cash, because the ' supply of money is so unequal to tho demand for it that, if the transfer of it were insisted on in every transaction, the result be to paralyse trade and commerce throughout the world. 1 We might go on to show that if gold were to become plentiful enough for this purpose it would cease to be capable of discharging the function of a medium of exchange. But it would be like whistling ji#s to a milestone to go into financial arguments with those who have never taken the trouble to master the veiy A. B. C. of finance. However, what we have said will be sufficiently intelligible to shew that trading on credit — borrowing — forms part of the very basis of modem finance. Eveiy note the bank issues is so much borrowed of its creditors, and between this kind of borrowing power and that sought to be conferred on the towns and counties the difference is merely nominal. Unthinking persons delude themselves with the sound of the word tl debt," until in their imaginations it 1 assumes a personalicy like that of the Devil, and becomes a bug-bear and a kind of moral incubus paralzying their judgment of right and wrong. If they could only shake off this incubus for a moment, they could not fail to perceive that to withhold the borrowing powers from the localities, means to deprive them of that freedom, whicli is enjoyed by every firm of financiers in the civilized world, and that between a bank note for £100 and a debenture of a 'town or county council for the same , amount, there is no real difference. In ithe one case, as in the other, the law ;very properly imposes restrictions on the borrowing powers. The bank cannot issue notes ad libittim, nor is it proposed to allow the town or counry council to issue debentures ad libitum. It must consult the ratepayers, and the franchise is carefully devised with a yiew of conferring a preponderating ! power upon capital in the management ! of local affairs. In short, it is the shallowest of mischevious delusions — this superstition about borrowing — and if those who are the victims of it would only consider the meaning of their own words, we should vory soon hear the last of it. The Pacific colt Resolution, the winner of the Maiden Plate of 50 soys at the lasfc Wanganui meeting, beating Hardy and nine others, has been sold by his owner, Mr Pawdrell, ioc £300. The horse ia to He sent to Taranaki: s In the cemetery yesterday afternoon a ! number of youths were conducting themselves in an unseemly manner. If the member of the police force on duty on Sunday afternoons wore. to take a walk thither, we think he would prevent a recurrence of puch scenes. Mr Robert Gray has taken the Newmarket Stables, and is prepared to take iv horses at livery or bait. Horses v will be kept on band for hire, and broken in to saddle or harness. Mr Gray, by his well-known civility and courtesy, should command large I support.

At the R.M. this morning-Daniel Neilsou, for drunkeuness, forfeited his bail of £1. . Civic dignitaries are proverbial for their love of the good things of this life. Mock turtle soup and take water have wonderful effects, effects only parallelled in the recorded experiences of Tarn O'Snanter' and his worthy crony. H reports be true, the « brotherly" love of two worthy Scots found expression at and after a recent feast in similar gushing terms. One had the misfortune to reach terra firma from the wrong side of his horse, and, to afford practical expression of his love, wa* joined by his neighbour. ' Failing to recover their lost steeds, rest was soughtbytho wayside, and Morpheus, with the .shades of evening, brought peace on tho scene. But, to borrow from another Scottish author, '« The stedds came at evening . No rider was there," and anxious friends despatched a cab • in search of the missing odes, by which betimes they were picked up ; and it is to be hoped that the friendship and political alliance so warmly begun, may not prove of an evanescent character. The usnal monthly competition for the Alexandra Cavalry belt took place on Saturday, Sergeant E. Sputdle winuinp; it with a sccre of 45 . On Saturday afternoon the nomination of condidates to fill up the vacancy in No 1 Ward in the Wangachu Highway District, caused by the retirement from the wardensbip ot Mr John Morgan , took place at Kaitoke. Mr Morgan proposed Mr Montrose Kichards, which was seconded by Mr Roscoe. Mr Jepson proposed Mr H. 1. Jones, which was seconded by Mr S. White. A poll having been demanded, the presiding officer, Mr C. H. Ashforth, fixed Saturday next as the day for the election to take place. There appears to be some dissatisfaction among the people of Fielding through the coroner of the district, who resides at Foxton, not answering the telegram of the police, calling upon him to preside over an inquest on the body of the late Thomas Humphreys, the lad who was found dead in a well. The I police telegraphed on Friday, the 29th Sept., and the body was kept till the following Monday ; but tlie coroner still being absent, and not sending an excuse, Mr M' Arthur, the magistrate, was obliged to act as coroner . Many of our readers will remember the notorious John McLaren or " Bones.' 5 He figured as a prosecutor before the Dunedin City Bench on the 30th of September: The Guardian says that while a young wornau named Farra was being dealt with for drunkenness, McLarpn advanced mysteriously to the clerk of the Court, and dropping some silver and coppers into the hands of that functionary, with a significant wink resumed his seat in the foremost row of benches. The charge against Miss Farra having been dismissed, McLaren immediately entered the j witness-box to prosecute her for an unlawful j assault. Handing the justices a copy of the Guardian, he called their attention to a paragraph in which he stated full particulars were given of the treatment to which lie was subjected. He related how the woman waylaid him, and, incited by the crowd, made a desperate attempt to seize an eight-day clock which he was hawking, and swung him round by the coat tails. Iv answer to the Bench, he complained that his feelings had been hurt, and his clock damaged so much that instead of getting 35 s for it he had to sell it for 20s. The Bench testified their sympathy by finding the case proven, and infljcfchig v fine of Is., with costs. The volunteer strength of the colony is 6080. The corps number 127. The cavalry j consists of 026 men; artillery, 587; engineers 149 ; rifles, 2916 ; naval, 350 ; cadets, 1452. The great mining industry of Bendigo will | quietly fade into insignificance year aiter year, states the Bendigo Advertiser, " uuless a redaction is provoked by interested means. { Goldficlds, cities, and towns will be undesirable places to locale in by and bre, if depopulation continues so rapidly to go on. The once great Ballarat has lost about 7000 inhabitants in a few years ; Castleiraine is | dwindling down to a roadside nonentity . I Ararat will soon only be represented by bricks and mortal* ; and Sandhurst is also following in their wake. Stawell appears to be the only mining centre that is attracting population at present. It is really painful to witness the continued fall taking place in the oldest mining sites of this colony. Our mines are now in the ' descendant ' iv two ways, * deolining towards declivity.' " The Australasian speaking of the resignation or Sir Julius Yoejel, says :— " Sir Julius Yogel apparently now goes home as AgentGeneral, and it cannot be denied that the colony in him will posses a very efficient repiesentative. It can hardly bo supposed, however, that the not very onerous duties of his office will afford sufficient occupation for his active and energetic mind, and he will »cry likely before long be looking out a course for himself in the sphere of finance, or in that of British polities, or in both. If such is the case, we should expect to see something more than a common every-day success. Such business talents combined with such powers of speaking,such practical experience, suoh broad adventurous conceptions, as have been shown by Sir Julius Yogel, are by no meaUß common in the English political world at the present time ; and if ha devotes himself to that field, he has in all probability a future before him in which sonic of the brilliant successes of the past may be repeated. As to the position of his ministry when he has left it, the prospect, we should say, is by no means unfavourable. The retirement of Sir Julius Yogel may save the Ministry many attacks that are instigated by personal hostility to him, and for the rest the Ministry haa in the.present leader of the Opposition a source of strength which could not be given to it by the support of tho most powerful ally." „ The Melbourne Argua says, "For a girl of 14 to be a mother is not an unheard-of occurrence, but it is certainly remarkable for a girl of that or any other -ago to be confined at the bottom of a tank, with 2 feet ofmud and water in it, at 5 o'clock in the morning. This was the case, However, with a girl named Conway, at the Stoney Creek, neat- Williamstowu, a day or two ago. She left her bed with but one article of clothing on, and by some means got into a deep tank on her father's premises. Here she was heard crying out by some neighbours, and a rope being obtained she was lifted out. A

medical man saw her the same day, and ■ concluded that the girl had given birth to a child/ The tank was carefully searched, and the child found at the bottom. Tfc'had never breathed, but was fully developed. It ia believed-, the girl was \ delivered in the water." • . The Sau Francisco News Letter tells the following wicked story -.—Last Sunday it was noticed that exactly twelve of our prominent ministers failed to officiate at their post, and this without due notice in advance ; several of the churches were closed, and at the rest the services were- conducted by assistants and deputies. The reason for this has just come to light. A wicked and worldly youug lady was sufficiently inspired by the enemy of man and religion to write a note to each of these dozen pastors, late on the Saturday previous. These missives were all on tinted and perfumed paper, and all written in the big slantins hand peculiar to 999 ladies in this country. They each contained the ominous line— All is discovered, fly. Nine of the dozen went out of town in the same ferry-boat, and the rest are. supposed to be at Los Angelos or Pesoadero. The Ofcftgo Guardian says :— About 30 shearers assembled at the Scandinavian Hotel on Saturday evening (September 30) for the purpose of fixing the rate for shearing to be charged during the approaching; season. Attention was called to the decision already arrived at by the Shearers' Associations of Oamaru and Palmerstou, and after a brief discussion it was unanimously resolved that the same rate as Isst year, 20s per hundred/ should be adhered to. It was casually stated during the proceedings that the Oamaru Shearers Society, since its establishment between two and three years ago, had made remarkable progress. At the present time it possessed upwards of 200 members, and they had about £150 to their credit available in cases of accident or distress. The benefit of suoh an organisation, both in maintaining the price of labour and affording timely relief to such as require it, is rery obvious ; and the prosperity of the young Society must be a source o! no small satisfaction to shearers j generally.