COMMENTS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1806, 2 February 1884, Page 2

COMMENTS.

The Government has been defeated over the Rotorua leases affair. At the District Court on Thursday the judge gave judgment in the case Tole v. Cozens for the defendant, on the ground that a native tribe has no corporate status or existence at common law. Mr Button, counsel for the plaintiff, gave notice of appeal, but said his impression was that the appeal would not be proceeded with. The action •was brought for the recovery of arrears of rent due on a section of land in the Rotorua township, the lease of which was purchased by tho defendant at th« great sale about; two years ago,

What the Government will do now it is hard to say, but we presume the Maoris will have to be paid something by way of compensation for the loss of their rents. For the Government we have, ia this case, very little compassion. The notion of establishing a township on such a site as that at Sulphur Point, was utterly ridiculous, the more especially as there were other and better positions close at h.uid. Nothing could well be better for the purpose than the site on which the present township stands. And yet the Go\ernment intended to compel the picscut holders of house-property to shift their quarters to the unsavoury, unsightly, and unhealthy plot of ground, hulduu away in the sulphurous vapouis which hang around the shore of the lak<* at this point. The Government is not entirely at fault, however. Mr Rolleston cannot, perhaps, be blamed for deferring to the judgment of Mr F. D. Fentun, the District Engineer, the Assistant Surveyor-General and Dr. Campbell, and it is not right that all the odium should be thrown upon him. But though neither he nor they may h.ne been fully aware of the peculiar nature of the abmosphere at Sulphur Point, he could not have been blind to the fact that in other respects the site was totally unfitted for the purposes of a township. We should have thought one visit would hare convinced the Minister of Lands of this. The evil has now been wrought, and we suppose the country must pay the piper. Our only icgtet is that the gentlemen who reeoinmmded the Qo\ eminent to select Sulphur Point cannot be compelled to reside there for a year or two.

Pictorial journalism in this colony has not hitherto been a sucfess. Illustrated papers of a sort we have had, but we have yet to welcome a distinctively New Zealand paper. So far we have been treated chiefly to views on the Murray, or the Mnrrumbidgee, or &ome other Australian stream with an unpronounceable name, just as though we had no scenery wotth reproducing in our country. The other day a paper called "The Illustrated New Zealand News " arose out of the ashes of the defunct Illustrated Herald, and promised great things. In its first number it presented us with some eleveily diawn sketches of the Southern metropolis and its surioundings, and thereafter it gave dmvings of other places of interest in the colony. But apparently this was only a flas.li in the pan. The last number is a delusion and a snare. In an e\ ll hour the proprietor of the journal instructed hisaitist to sciatch otfsome \ieus of Te Aiohaand its neighbourhood, and the result of this gentleman's labouis appears in the shape of a page of sketches purpoiting to represent \iews on our new gold field. We have looked at the woodcuts from every point, sideways and upside down, we hoAe even held them before a mirroi, but all to no purpose ; we cannot detect the faintest resemblance between the pictiues and the places they are supposed to depict. Most of our readers know what the bush on the Aioha mountain is like, by this time. It may amuse them to hear that our artist has icpiesented this bush by inserting in his views, at the rate of about one to every two or three acres, stunted, witheied objects, something between a broken-hearted blue gum and a clothe»-prop. Then there is the repiesentation of a miner applying his "Saturday's soaping," the plain inference being that miners wash but once a-week. The doors of Mr Lawless' hotel, according to this rising Turner, are about eighteen feet wide, and the duties of the barmaid seem to consist in supplying beer to gentlemen with top boots, helmets and hunting crops. There is a geneial view of the mountain, but it is quite evident that in this the artist has been guilty of plagiarism, and has mixed up Mount Egmont with the sand hills on the Ocean Beach On the whole we think perhaps, that for the present the gentleman who guides the destinies of our illustiated contemporary should confine his attention to foreign scenery — something that we know nothing about.

A telegram in another column informs us that the Hon. Mr Whi taker, the late Premier of the Colony, has received the honour of Knighthood. The next English mail closes at Hamilton at 10 a.m. on Monday next. The Piako County Council, at its meeting on Wednesday last, granted a license to William Harry for a slaughterhouse at Lichfield. We understand that representations will be made to the Government legaiding the contemplated removal of the Cambridge post and telegraph office. The contract for building a sixroomed house, stable, etc., for Mr Duncan K. Clerk, at Lichfield, Patetere, has been let to Mr George Woithington for £350. The names of Messrs James T. Camj) and Chas. Ewen were inadvertently omitted from the list of the members of the new .school committee at Tamahere, published in our last. The Cambridge people are to be congratulated upon the flourishing condition of their public library. It now contains 1357 books. Of this number 132 were added during the past year. No less than 3250 books were issued to subscribers during the year, and of the latter there are 240. Our cable messages this morning are rather important. The Imperial Parliament meets on the oth hist., and the Opposition have given notice of their intention to move an amendment on the Address-in-Reply, condemning the Egyptian policy of the Government. It has been arranged that Mr Bradlaugh is to again appear at the bar of the House to appeal for admission. — Thomas and Son, stockbrokers, have become defaulters foi £800,000. -Owing to the outrages and murders committed by the Socialists in Vienna, martial law has been proclaimed in that city. In the beginning of the week the directors of the Waikato Cheese and Bacon Factory Company forwarded a cheese to the Northern and Auckland Clubs, as a bam pie of what the factory can turn out. We undei stand that tho.ie who have tasted the cheese think very highly of it, and have expressed the opinion that, providing chuese of this quality can be produced in sufficient quantities, the Auckland nmiket will speedily be closed to the imported article. The member for the district, Mr J. B. Whyte, having made representations to the Govei nment that the amount ah eady spent on the Hot-baths buildings at Te Aroha would be practically useless unless further impiovements were made, a sum of £200 has been granted to the domain board, the body having charge of the Springs Reserve. "We understand that the boaid, on the vacancy caused by the departure of Mr Carr from the district being filled, intend to proceed with the necessary additions to the bath-house at once. Rewi has written an oracular letter to the N.Z. Herald, tvhich our contemporary interprets to this effect : That Rewi is still loyal and likely to remain so ; but when he is in the presence of Tawhiao his heait warms towards him. If Rewi's soft heartedness is likely to lead him to repeat his folly of the other day, he should endeavour to keep out of Tawhiao's company. Evil communications corrupt good manners. The following cable messages were received on Thursday morning, too late for transmission to Hamilton : — London, January 30. — It is stated that it has been discovered that the baker at the Royal Palace at Peterhoff endeavoured to poison the whole of the Imperial family of Russia with strychnine. — Information has been received from the Cape that Cetewayo has escaped to the Scowe Country, but that he was subsequently recaptured by the militia force. The following special telegrams to the Press Association, dated London, January 30th and 31st, have appeared in the N.Z. Herald:— The Duke of Manchester will shortly make another visit to the Australian colonies.— -The pilot, a midshipman, and one seaman of the Simla, have been lost. — The amendment to be proposed in the House of Commons to the Address from the Throne will touch principally q&

the affairs in Egypt. — Admiral Courbet, the Commander-m-Chief of the French operations in Tonquin, reports that the town of Bac Ninh is too strong to attack. On Thursday last the body of the child of Mr John Sharp, which was drowned about three weeks ago in the Pokaiwhenua creek at Horahora, was dis-coven-d floating on the surface of the Waikato river beside the boom at Cambridge. Captain Owen happened tn discover the body when ridinpj ncioss the bridge in the direction of the town, and reported the matter to the police, when Constable Bronnan immediately took stops for its recovery. An inquest was h'jld at the Duke of C.imbiidge Hotel yestculiy forenoon, before Mr W. N. Scaraueke, coroner, when the following \ordict was leturned : — That the deceased accidentally, casually, and by misfortune, was su'Yocited and drowned, and no blame is attached to anyone. We (Spectator) are ofte 1 asked where, in the great Empire of China, power really resides, and wo believe the best short statement is this. Subject to certain immovable customs, the Emperror, in his capacity of Father of the people, can in theory give any order, and can in practice punish with decapitation or exile any official or per-ion who disobeys it. He is in all serious affairs, however, obliged to consult, though not to obey, a rather 1 irje group of princes of his dynasty, and great Mandarins, who divide the departments and the great viceroyahties among themselves. The dynasty, moreover, being foreign, is compelled to respect the army to some extent, while the army is for fin.inci.il leasons so limited in number that it is dicffiult to garrison the empire, and impossible to hold it down foi an hour. It is the tradition of the Court, therefore never seriously to offend eithui the army or the people in such a way as to provoke thneutes, more especially in Pekin. At piesent the Emperor is. a boy, only just twelve years of age, and all real authority belongs to a widow of ti 5 last full-grown Emperor — Hien Fung, who is called the Empress-Mother, but is not the mother of of Emperor— to Princ > Kung, Li Hung Chang, the favourite of the native Chinese, and two or three less known high officials They can send out any orders they please, and aie obeyed, but they cannot affoid to ribk the insuiioction which would follow any great aft'r nit to the mide of the people, biich as the cession of Tonquin would be. China, in fact, is a more solid Tuikey, with Sultan, Pashas, army, and mob sharing ! power in unequal degrees. As in Turkey, too, all four are bound in the chain of a law which cannot be modified. I The Otago Daily Times thus refers to the murder of the woman Hancock in Dunedin :—": — " If it were possible to blot out the i ecord and destroy the mem oiy of this minder we would gladly do so. A moi e ghastly levelation of bin and crime, of man's demoralisation and woman's degradation, than that which was disclosed in the course of the judical enquiry has raiely .stained the columns of the Pi ess. Theunsexed women — 'battered drabs,' as the piisoner's counsel termed them — who appealed in the witness-box, weie such a libel on womanhood ab might well make one feel ashamed of our boasted civilisation. That such a den of iniquity a-> was described should be suffered to exist in the very heart of the city, within a stone's throw of the City Council Chambers, and almost undei the shadow of two chinches, representing the ecclesiastical advauce-guaid of Scotland and England, is most di^cieditable. The woman Hancock furnisher another name to the list of the victims of drink. Once occupying a lespectable position in Dunedin, with a husband to shield her from haim, and children to love and protect, the insatiate thirst for intoxicants diove her down in the social scale till she became the debased associate, and ultimately the brutal bport of a biutal p.utner, by whom she was done to death whilst yet comparath ely young. As foi the m.in Pearce, it matters little what becomes of him. But the probability is that he will not be hanged ; for whether the provocation received were of the tongue (which, contrary to his Honor Judge Williams, we hold to be greater than any that a woman's blows could give), or originated m the miserable worn m's misconduct, there is nothing to show malice piepense on the part of the prisoner. That his sentance will be long and severe may be regarded as certain : but it is not a case in which the extreme penalty of the law should be inflicted." A singular story is published in Rome of brigands attacking friars. A cariiago belonging to Signor Santovelli, a large wine-grower, well known at Rome, was proceeding a few days ago from Frascati to Grotta Ferrata, and in it there weie two Capuchin friais, going from their convent, above Frascati, to Signor Santovelli's chapel at Grotta Feirnta, for the celebration of some religious office. At the Mola, a frequented spot, where the roads iioin Rocca di Papa and Maiino cioss ! those leading to Grotta Ferrata, and Frascati, the carriage was stopped by four individuals, masked and armed with guns. B'iing about half-past eight in the morning, people weie passing along the roads, but no one had the courage to interfere while the fourbiigands robbed the coachman of his watch and some foity or fifty francs he had m his pocket, and beat the Capuchins with the stocks of their guns in disappointment at finding nothing upon them to cairy off. The brigands then decamped through the fields, leaving the coachman and friars more dead than alive from teiror. It is conjectured that these brigands were lying in wait for Signor Santo velli himself or for the paymaster of the papei mills at Grotta Ferrata, who generally passes that way once a week, carrying four or five thousand francs to pay the operatives. In fact, he was on the road at the same time, but his duver, seeing from the hill above the Mola what was going on there, tin ned his hor-.es and drove back at full gallop to Frascati. It is also thought the bi igands did not belong to the district. But last suminei, so great was the insecurity of the wooded Alban hillb, that persons spending the summer at Rocca di Papa could scarcely walk e\ en to the Camp of Hannibal without risk of annoyance from the " mauvais sujets "of the place. From Ravenna, also news of a similar kind has also been leceived. A Signor Giardini, returning from the neighbouring village of Godo with his wife and daughter, at 11 o'clock at night, was stopped by five individuals ; but promptly drawing his revolver ani! firing several shots, he succeeded in driving them off.