ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1872, 5 July 1884, Page 3

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

paid by Mr Davis, who sent him away to make a fiesh start elsewhere. After he had gone it was discovered that he had forged Mr Davis'B uame to a cheque, lie was apprehended at New Plymouth, sent up here, committed for trial.pleadtd guilty and was sentenced to twelve months impiisonmcnt with haul labour. We ccitainly do not want France to send us any of her criminals while England keeps us so well supplied, to say nothing of the local talent, including Maoiis. St. Munoo.

The election campaign is now in full swing -the writs arc out, and so are the candidates. The number of uncontested seats seems to be daily diminishing. A lequisition to Mr Su .inson asking him to stand for City ' West is being numerously signed, and when it is piesented it seems to be tolerably cci tain that it will receive a favourable reply from Mr Swanson, and that his election ■will be as certain as anything can be which has to be finally decided .it the ballot-box. Of course Mr Pargavillc is very indignant at the prosptct of a speedy letuin to that oblivion whence the electors of City West should never have raised him. Mr Swanson and he had high woids in Qneen-stieet on Wednesday, and the high woids led to blows, but fortunately they fell on Mr Dargaville's head, so no great haun was done. In City North there is to be a contest between Mr Waddell, the present mayor, and Mr Thompson one of the city councillois. The lattei is one of the few intelligent men who remain Gtcyites, the majority having "lenounced Giey and all his woiki." (I have slightly altered the quotation, but, as Bishop Luck would say, tauiwut, i.e. let it pass.) For City East theie .seems to be no likelihood of opposition to Sir Geoige Grey, many people who hate him as much as a certain old gentleman is supposed, to hate holy water being of opinion that it ib advisable that he should be elected, piovided he has no follovveis Foi Eden, Mr E. He&kuth has decided not to stand, so the only candidates aie Mr Tole and Mr O'Neill, whom I mentioned last week. Unless a strongci man is bi ought out instead of the lattoi , theie will be no change in the rcpiesentation of Eden, 80 far, jio one has annonnttd himself in opposition to Mr Peacock for Newton, with the exception of the niopiessiMe W . G. Gairaul, who has about as much chance of being elected as he has oi obtaining the Crown of England.

I think that some pi o\ ision should Ik made for piesenting a man like ( Jan aid . uho isceitain to be defeated, putting the countiy to the expense of <vi election, <i« ho will do if no other poison is pioposed. In Victona it is nectssaiy that the nonii nation of a candidate for Paihament shall be accompanied by a deposit of £.10, which is forfeited if the candidate who i £ defeated tailb to poll one-fifth of the number of votes iccoided foi him who i s elected. We should have a similar law heie, for it is manifestly unjust to the re9t of the taxpayers of the colo'iy that one of their number should be allowed to put the countiy to the expense of an election when not even a M\th of the electois m the constituency wish him to be their lepiesentative. Of course, no one can be ceitain of winning his election in these dajs of manhood suffiage and vote by ballot, but, if the sum of XoO weie mjuned to be deposited, a man would be \ety caieful to asceitam that he had a very fair chance of being elected before he allowed himself to be nominated. At piesent a man like Ganaid lias c\eiy thing to gain and nothing to lose. All that he lequues to pay is a few shillings for advei tisements. He can do his camassing himself aftet his day's work is over, so that that costs him nothing. It lie is defeated lie loses nothing, "whcieas, it by some evtraordinary mischance he is elected, he gets £210 pei annum for three yeais. Ganaid would be able to live m Wellington duiinj* the w hole of the session for €20, so that lie would ha\p £190 a year to the good— £37o for the tlnee ycais, which would be a foitune to him. .Seeing that such a gieat inducement is ofl'eied to penniless adventuieis to seek seats in Parliament, some piovision ought cci tainly to be made to pi event the colon v being needlessly put to the expense ot an election. r * At the " Cafe"' the other day I vas talking to a gentleman who was a mem her ot Paihament in the olden days, when Auckland was the seat of (!o\eminent, and when it used to take the Otagan membeia as long a-. m\ weiks to come up heir in small schooncis That was before the days of hoi lowed millions, of manhood sufhage, and the payment of membeib. Though theie weic nob half as many memheis of the House of liepiesentatnes then as thcie are now, theio were actually moie good men in the Hon^e. Then the most able men in the colony weie in the House. Then men went in, not foi the sike of the lioiioiarium (they leceived nothing besidis then actual l\ penses), but for the honour of the posi tion and the good of the countiy Then the most able men m the colony weic m the House, and theie weie quite a number to whom the title of oiatoi might fail ly be applied. Now we may wnte the word " Ichabod"' in \eiy Luge letters, for the " gloiy has depaited." Very few men now sebk election foi the honour attached to the position, and for the good of the countiy. Too many now go in for the sake of the honoiaiium, and the hope of tasting the sweets of ofhec. As for oratoiy, it is now almost like x in Algebi a — an link now n quantity — Billingsgate having taken its place. " Will it evermore be thus,"' or will we again see the time " Whon none wai foi a p.uty ; When all were for thr> State ; When the gieat man helped the poni n.an, And the pool man loved the gieat. "' * On Satuid.iy last the P M. s.s. "Australia," anivedheie with the mails via San Fianci^co, dated London, May '22nd, our letteis thus l eaching us only thirtyfive days after they weie posted in London. No dnect steamer can possibly equal tins late of speed, and yet this can be lessened by the San Fianeisco route by the substitution of faster steameis than those now used on the Pacific and postal authoiities in London sending our mails acioss the Atlantic by faster vo.-sels than they have done hitheito. Theie is no reason why we should not have the '/risco mails delneied in Auckland within thiity dajs' of their despatch from London. If the piesent conti actors will not put on fastei steameis, English companies will be quite willing to do so. There aie plenty ot steamcia capable of making the run fiom .San Fianeisco to Auckland in nineteen days, the owners of which aie anxious to obtain profitable employment for them. As the piesent contract time is twenty-two days, three days can be saved on this side. Another two days can be saved on the Atlantic by taking advantage of the fastest boats running there, so that it is quite within the range of possibility to deliver our mails here Mi thin thiity days, and it behoves our Parliament to insist on this being done w hen a new contract is beieg made. I see that the United States Congresi has at last decided to contribute its share of the subsidy of this route, so there ought to be no doubt about the possibility of securing the continuance of what is assiuedly the quickest mail route we can get. + * The Criminal sitting of the Supicmo Court began on Tuesday. There mas an unusually large number of cases, twenty one pel sons being accused of twenty- fivo offence 1 ?. Of the twenty-one accused, no less than nine were Maoris. As hai been usual of late years, there Mere a considerable number of forgery cases, some fif our aboriginal friends being among the offenders in that respect One of the forgers was a young man named O'Conner, who came here less than a year ago, bringing letters of introduction to Mr K. K. Davis, accountant. That gentleman f;ave him temporary employment in his own office, but Boon found that O'Conner was "no better than he should be." He went "on the spree," and in order to get money to procure drink, he stole the coats of some young men who were lodging in the same house as he was, and took them to his "uncle." In order to give him a chance of " turning over a new leaf," the charges against him were altered so that they could be summarily dealt with, and he was sentenced to pay a fine. That was