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New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 465, 10 March 1882, Page 16

We have been requested to remind the gentlemen appointed to collect on behalf of the presentation to His Lordship the Most Rev. Dr. Moran that the time for closing the subscriptions is drawing to a close. It will be necessary, therefore, that all returns be sent in before Wednesday next, the 15th inst., to the treasurer or hon. secretary, as notified in our advertising columns. A telegbam in one of the Melbourne papers which deals with the question of providing the Pope with a residence away from Rome speaks as follows. "It has been suggested that Quebec would be suitable for the purpose, and the proposal is being entertained." Entertained, that is, of course, among the telegraph clerks, over a pint of beer it may be, and wi+h all the seriousness that distinguishes the more sedate, Any. Such a proposal can hardly have been heard of any where else, but at Home they think anything good enough to be sent to the Colonies, and news is no exception. Nor need it be, for we have seen this rubbish reported as a local in one or other of our daily contemporaries. The rumour of impending war still continues in Europe. It is believed that signs of its approach are discerned in connection with Russia, Turkey, Austria, and Germany. Whether moved by such a possibility or otherwise, the British authorities seem disposed to try if the number of troops in Ireland may be reduced with safety, and consequently the Guards are being recalled. As there has never been any probability of a rising in Treland, the reasons for the great

encampment there have never been very clear. The people were deterred by the presence of the troops from nothing that they meant to do. Foe the benefit of those editors and others who persist in bringing the Land League in guilty of every outrage that occurs in Ireland, we quote the following denunciation published the other day by the Irishman, an organ of the League :: — •' So long as murder stains the land, so long must we condemn it, with our whole heart and soul, — so long must we denounce with all earnestness and all vehemence, the perpetrators. We call upon our countrymen to cast them out from amongst them, and to pronounce against them the ban of social and political Excommunication. Another agrarian crime has stained the island, and therefore we repeat our denunciations, and we beseech the Irish people to rally to the side of Country against crime. The Orepuki correspondent of a contemporary speaking of the wild pigs in the Waiau block says, " I have been informed by some of the old residents here, that boars have been killed weighing from 4001 bto 6001 b, with tusks 10 to 16 inches long — ugly customers to meet in a jungle." The miners of Kumara consider themselves aggrieved by the manner in which business is conducted in the Warden's Court. A petition is being sent round for signatures with the object of obtaining the removal of Warden Stratford from the district. We have a very hot gospeller practising at the bar in Dtmedin, who announces his intention of repeating the sentence" Mr. Bradlaugh is a beast," much as Mr. F.s aunt was wont to repeat the unchallenged truth, " There's mile-stones on the Dover road," " at all times and places." — But, by the way, is not a donkey also some kind or other of an animal ? A boy named Burgess, who had been engaged as a guard on the Christchurch tramway, and had gone on Sunday to learn his duty, fell when passing from one car to another, and was killed instantly, the wheels going over his chest. — A man named Anderson, also, who was thrown from his trap last week at Christchurch, by a collision with a tram-car, died on Sunday. Mb. Bbadlatj&h continues to make descents on the House of Commons. He is no more to be got iid of than is a troublesome fly to be driven away, but invariably returns. He carried a Testament with him and took the oath of his own accord the other day, but for all that the Speaker ordered him to withdraw. He has been re-elected for Northampton. Mb. Pabnell has been subjected to the additional indignity of seven days' solitary confinement for an alleged attempt to bribe a warder to deliver a letter. It is difficult, nevertheless, to understand how such a necessity could arise, and it has probably been a revelation of a startling character to most people in Ireland to find that the suspects are not allowed free communication with their friends. There must be strong reasons for restricting this, and an explanation of the matter, and of what it was that Mr. Parnell wished to make known, will be anxiously looked for. The Irish members are indignant at the determination of the House of Commons to prevent Michael Davitt from taking his seat for Meath, and intend to contest the point. Pbofessob Ui/BICH reports highly of the auriferous character of the country around Port Pegasus in Stewart's Island. Mb. Fobsteb is travelling through the country, and has informed a meeting at Tullamore that the Government would allow neither landlords nor tenants to hinder the working'of the Land Act. He also promised to release toe suspects on the cessation of outrages — a safe promise, as he no doubt meant it to be, for he very well knows the suspects have no influence in this matter. A Chbistchtjrch telegram of the 2nd inst. announces the institution of an inquiry at the Normal School into the mixing of children even of tender years, necessitated by certain revelations made there. It is reported that the no-rent movement has spread to Wales, and that proclamations to such an effect have been issued in portions of the principality. The movement there, if it be carried on with the usual energy of " Rebecca," will be formidable and not easy to subdue. A blacksmith named Whytock hanged himself at Puerua on Wednesday. Ottb contemporary Mtb Otago Daily Times has again opened his mouth to put his foot in it, as the saying goes, and as it is his wont to do. — But, sure, to suck one's great toe is a childlike and innocent occupation that no one could object to, most suitable, moreover, to some stages of the intellect. He has got hold, it seems, of Mr. Richard Pigott's article in MacmillarCs Magazine, and finds it alto- 1 gether to his taste, and he is amiable enough to judge of others by himself, and conclude that it would be to their taste also. "We would especially commend the consideration of this able paper to our contemporary the New Zealand Tablet," he says, " which stands greatly in need of some such sedative, and may haply be thus brought into a better state of mind." His judgment, however, in this

instance is at fault ; we do not find Mr. Pigott's article by any means a sedative, although we admit the manner in which our contemporary deals with it to be somewhat soporific. But what we want to know is, who, besides the proprietor of Macmillan's Magazine has paid Mr. Pigott for his article, for Mr. Pigott's pen is a purchaseable one, and, on his own showing, has been offered indifferently to the Land League or to the Government, with more regard to the money to be obtained for it, than the service to be rendered. The sum of £500 would have bought Mr. Pigott for the Land League, and he tried to obtain such a sum by a letter written by him to Mr. Patrick Egan on Feb. 27, 1881, and in which he threatened to publish a certain document sent to him by " the Castle people" unless the Land League would agree to his terms. "My own opinion is that the whole affair is a tissue of falsehood," he says, "but it is so artfully done, and so apparently truthful, that its publication would, I think, be likely to do much harm." He afterwards adds : " And I need hardly tell you how great an object money is to me just now, and I have reason to believe that these people will give me anything E ask. But I consider myself in honour bound to you, and, bad as I am, I can truly say that I have always been true to those who trusted me." So much for the honesty of Mr. Pigott, then, and his exalted patriotism, and so much for the value of his article in Macmillan's Magazine which, under the circumstances, may be'regarded as written to order, and worth hardly the money paid for it — since the nature of its authorship has been revealed, and its influence consequently exploded. It furnishes us only with another instance of how the British Government in Ireland has always been carried on by way t>f corruption and dishonesty of every kind, and so as fully to justify Ireland in the suspicion, to which our contemporary alludes, that legislative efforts on the part of British statesmen " mask some insidious attempt to oppress and degrade her." As to the independence of Ireland, there is no need for us to discuss a project that no one entertains, and which savours more of our contemporary's own nervousness than anything else ; but it would be more consistent to refrain from boasting as to the dislike of any other nation to enter upon a course of hostilities against England because of her maritime standing, while the present condition of the British fleet is so doubtful, and its relative feebleness a matter of notoriety all over the world. To have " Bule Britiannia" however, piped, meantime, on frail reeds suggestive of the tin whistle or the jew's-harp cannot be any very great departure from the ways of modesty, and will awaken no dangerous echoes — let it pass. But, concludes our contemporary, " There is another view of the possible results of Irish independence which will strike all students of history. It is best illustrated by the old story, redolent of the soil, the Kilkenny cats." It may be questioned, nevertheless, as to whether our contemporary is qualified to pronounce as to what will " strike all students of history." At least, it is easy to perceive that for his own part, if, indeed, he be such a student, he is commonly struck in a manner very different from that in which those who profit by their studies to any considerable extent are affected. And the present instance is no exception to the rule in question. The North Otago Times reports as follows :— " The harvest yields in this district will, we believe, fall somewhat short of the expectations of the most sanguine grain-growers, as the threshing, which has been going on for pome time, proves. In the Kakanui district the result is not likely to show much above twenty bushels to the acre, although the crops when standing gave promise of more. The north-west winds may be held accountable for the loss of a good part of the expected yield. In the Ngapara district (where the average was expected to be higher than in any other part of the country) the yield, from the same cause, will not be more than about twenty-four bushels, Kurow and Hakatcramea are better, these districts having been favoured with more seasonable rain than those situated south of them. The crops in Waitaki County and Hakateramea are, however, expected to show a higher average than those in any of the Canterbury districts, with the|exception of Waimate and Waiho. An old man named Marsh was found kneeling by his bedside in Dunedin on Saturday last, and quite dead. It is not, however, supposed taat the deceased had been engaged in prayer, as he was a professed Freethinker, and had left a written request that his body might not have Christian burial. He had been in the habit of taking laudanum and opium, which had probably caused his death, and seemed also to have previously affected his brain, as he was subject to hallucinations. A little girl of seven has been drowned at Auckland by falling into a well while she was playing on the windlass. Much excitement has been caused fey a man named Roderick M'Lean who fired a pistol at the carriage which her Majesty the Queen was about to enter, at Windsor, on the 2nd inst. The Queen was fortunately uninjured, and it is said that she displayed imperturbable calmness in the trying circumstances, nor has sh(j suffered any ill effects from them. The deed can only be accounted for by the fact that M'Lean is insane, and had at one time been an inmate of a lunatic asylum, He had a six-chambered revolver in his posses-

sion, and was about to discharge a second barrel when he was prevented by the crowd, who were with difficulty restrained from lynching him on the spot. This is the sixth time daring her Majesty's reign that attempts of such a kind have been made in connection with her, in three of the instances, however, it can hardly be said that anything more was intended than the satisfaction of some morbid feeling, for in two of them it is certain that the pistol made use of was either unloaded or charged with powder only, and it is doubtful whether in the third there was a bullet or not. In another instance the pistol missed fire. On the present occasion there are two things which we aTe heartily glad of, first, that her Majesty escaped unscathed, and but little if at all agitated, and second that her assailant was not an Irishman, for, had he been, no degree of insanity on bis part would have prevented heavy odium from falling upon his country. As a Londoner, of presumably Scotch extraction, his crime will be regarded as individual, and if he be proved mad, most probably even he himself will be none the worse off for what he has done. A rush has set in to a flat above Woodstock on the south of the Hokitika Biver, where Heron and party have struck gold. One dish washed in the presence of Warden Giles, on the Bth instant, gave from three to four gains. Oub Christchurch correspondent sends us the following by way of a postscript t© the paragraph of his letter alluding to the Exhibition :— Mr. Joubert has been also able to secure a magnificent consignment of paintings, etc., which were intended for the Melbourne Exhibition, but reached that city too late. A separate building will be erected for their reception. On Mr. Joubert's arrival at Christchurch on Saturday afterneon, he and his partner at once drove to the Exhibition, with the progress of which he expressed himself satisfied, though he considered that enlargements would have to be made in order to contain all the exhibits. The art gallery is to be used as a concert hall, and consequently the design has had to be enlarged. Up to the date of Mr. Joubert's leaving Melbourne, the applications received for space in the exhibition were Great Britian, 60 ; United States, 10 ; Japan, 10 ; China, 3 ; France, 8 ; Germany, 4 ; Austria, 6 ; Italy, 6 ; Switzerland, 4 ; Australia, above 20 ; but other entries were expected. A contempobaky publishes the following :—": — " Catholic priests are circulating in Ireland copies of Bishop Nulty's letter to the priests of his diocese, stating that land is the property of all." Bishop Nulty himself, however, has written to the Dublin Press in reference to a telegraph which appeared in the Standard :—": — " Now, sir, to contradict what that telegram insinuates, rather that states directly, I beg to say that I never asserted, then, nor, indeed, in my whole life, that landlords were not fully and justly entitled to a fair rent for the use of their lands ; and to add, that I expressed no opinion at all on the publication of the late 'Manifesto.'" Catholic priests, then, it is evident, cannot be engaged in circulating^ letter that the Bishop never wrote.