Wellington Independent MONDAY, 24th JUNE, 1872.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3532, 24 June 1872, Page 2

Wellington Independent MONDAY, 24th JUNE, 1872.

Wk expect our readers felt a natural disappointment at the extremely bald and jumbled telegrams which we were compelled to publish on Saturday as a summary of English news received via San Francisco. Although we should have been supplied with news from London to the 23rd May, the information is practically only up to the J 4th, being only four d:iys later than our telegrams via Suez received a lew days ago. Beyond the long though not uninteresting statement relating to the Alabama claims, the English news is conspicuous for its absence.- The commercial news is really only confirmatory of previous advices via Suez, and does not afford the slightest insight into the state of the money market and trade generally during a period of at least a ; fortnight. Our apology to the public is that in common with the other papers in the colony we have at present to depend upon a very badly organised agency for our mail telegrams. Our latest news via Suez brought down the history of the Alabama claims question to May 10th, at which date it appeared that the British Government would .withdraw from the Geneva Convention and abandon the treaty of Washington. Mr' Gladstone had not fully stated the position of the negotiations regarding the indirect claims, and out of deference to his wishes Earl Russell had withheld a motion of his own upon the subject uniil the Premier was at liberty to place the House in full possession of the condition of toe controversy. \v e now learn that on the 14ih May Mr Gladstone gave a complete history of the negotiations, from which it was to be gathered that a solution on honorable and satisfactory terms was probable. From an American telegram of the 2;2nd May, it would appear that the United States Senate was favorably inclined to an accommodation. We may hope that this bugbear to the friendliness of the two nations will soon be swept out of sight. The high price now ruling in London for New Zealand hemp is extremely encouraging, and should ntimulate the manufacturers in this colony to increased efforts to keep up a supply of well prepared fibre. , From the fact that a considerable number of the small mills in the colony, which have been in the habit of producing fibr« of great variety as to quality, having been compelled to suspend operations, the trade has naturally fallen mainly inio the hands of the larger manufacturers, who are better able to employ the best machinery and secure a uniform quality, with the result that the fibre has had a greater chance of securing, a stable and recognised position in the market. The present high price may be partly due to the slackness of supply and the tendency of holders to ask higher terms, but it would also appear that the fibre has so thoroughly entered into consumption as a regular article of trade that an advance of fifteen or twenty per cent. — as the present quotations show — will not deter buyers ; and there seem to be no grounds for supposing that prices will recede provided the improvement in quality latterly made be kept up. There is little doubt that the fibre is chiefly used in association with Manila hemp; and. that its value for this purpose has become so established that for • the future its price will be regulated by that of the East Indian article. The good

news to hand should have the effect of encouraging our producers to increase their supply, and, above all thiDgs, to keep up a high standard of quality. The fall in the lower descriptions of wool cannot be said to be unanticipated. The extreme rates ruling during the past few months could not be expected to last, being due to a heavy, and to some extent an abnormal, demand. Our advices explain that the purchases for French , account, which hfcd previously been very extensive, had fallen off, and that extreme caution was generally being exercised by the trade. But it does not appear probable that any further decline of a serious nature is to be expected, the probability being that by the period of the next series of sales a partial recovery for good wool will be established. The telegrams are silent as regards the price of money in London — an omission the more remarkable as the quotation of consols and of the Bank rate of interest must have been given in tlu San Francisco papers. Our previous advices quoted money at 5 per cent, with a slightly upward tendency, and we shall be surprised should it not be found that at the time of the alleged latest date from London — May 23rd — the money market had undergone a change in the direction of restriction. The news from America is not of an encouraging kind so far as subjects interesting to this colony are. concerned. The alleged refusal of the American Senate to ratify the recommendations of the Postal Committee 'with respect to the proposed subsidy to the San Franoisco and Australian .service will be a heavy blow and sore discouragement to Mr Webb, and will possibly have the effect of disturbing the contract :now existing with this colony. We are as yet without particulars of the causes that have led to this result, but we opine that the Webb subsidy has fallen through because of it being overweighted with other proposals of a similar character. If we remember aright it was to this cause that the rejection of a subsidy to this service was due last session of Congress, — the Committee, in addition to such lines as were reasonably entitled to assistance, tacking on a number of others whose sole object seemed to be to obtain large sums of public money. The second rejection of assistance to Webb's line is much to be regretted, corning as it does closely on the heels of the M inisterial change in Victoria, and the possibility of the Government of that colony taking a different view of the service from that held by their predecessors. Circumstances appear to be conspiring against this line, and not the least serious thing in relation to it is that the steamers have already been the vehicles for distributing infectious diseases of a dangerous character. The suspicion that the case recently discovered in Wellington and that of a passenger detained at Auckland on the departure of the Nebraska owed their origin to infection commnnicated on board the steamer receives strong confirmation from the news just received. We are told that small-pox has appeared at Honolulu, alleged to have been introduced by the San Francisco steamers, and although that other fearful disease, leprosy, may not have been similarly conveyed, the fact that such a terrible scourge is raging at Honolulu will operate seriously against the line. The foreign news is comparatively uninteresting. Public attention in France appears to be chiefly occupied with discussion of the scandals perpetrated = under the Empire,- the reVelations of which and the exposures of mal-ad ministration are said to have effectually killed what little hopes the Bonapartisls may have had of retrieving -their' position. Spain, as usual, is in the ferment of insurrection, and the übiquitous Don Carlos is quite as bad to catch as our own Te Kooti. Beyond the announcement that the German troops are soon to evacuate Franco, and that the relations between the conquerors and the conquered are becoming more friendly, there is little, else in the telegrams worth noticing.

The fire brigades of lliis city are n most useful nud philanthropic body, (o whom the Insurance Offices and public generally are very largely indebted. They undertake a most onerous duty, and if in Che performance of ii. they do not always come up to (lie public estimate of efficiency, are apt to be Borely wounded in spirit by the stricture of public opinion, and the apparent lhanklessness with which their unselfish efforts are received. Thai the brigades — for we mny as welJ include both — ever display thai discipline and orderly method in their movements when in practice before a fire, as to compel unanimous commendation, we don't think tho firemen themselves will insist upon. And an til some approach to good discipline is made, they must be prepared to hear unpalatable , truths at times. In the last Fire Brigade utterance that came under aotice — and which appeared in these columns a few days ago— it was to be observed that a brigade took credit for greatly improved efficiency, and oven wont so far as to compare themselves with long established Fire Brigades elsewhere. Unhappily the fire of Saturday night sent all that self-glorification to the winds. Il is unpleasant to have to look a gift. horse in the mouth, but if tho Brigades care anything for the public praise, they ought to do all they can to earn it. Iv the first place there was altogether too much outcry and too little discipline on Saturday evening. Then the Wellingtons are chargeable with having rotten lioso upon the ground, and that their efforts were crippled in consequence. We have been told, and no doubt it is perfectly true, that the Brigade not long sinco spent about £30 in the repair of this same lot of hose ; but that does not mend the matter. It only looks of a piece with much more of the management, that so much money should be thrown away upon something not worth it, aa is now too evident. There was also a sad want of harmony— to put ifc in the mildest formthat was not pleasant to see, and that is likely at any time to react injuriously upon the public. An honest spirit of rivalry is wholesome; but when it degenerates into hard words and a settled ill feeling, we must not be surprised if the

fighting phase follows.. We don't me,an to say that the asperities Teferred' to would lead to this, but'ifc would be as well if a wise control could so order things in future as to smooth; the way to a more friendly feeling than seems to exist at present between the two Brigades, We should be sorry to see the well-known motto perverted to —" TJnited to save; but always ready to row."