Our Contributors.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 512, 10 June 1881, Page 2

Our Contributors.

DLNEDIN

rinioM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.! Dunedin, June 4. Professor Parker, whose address at the opening of the session of the Otago University created no little sensation, has been again on the war-path. Really, Orthodoxy is getting it hard, aud how the clerical magnates in this somewhat strait-laced community c*yn stand tho onslaughts of this scientific innovator is wonderful He says himself he is neither a philosopher nor a theologian, but simply a biologist) and in that capacity alone endeavors to account for phenomena which have hitherto been the subjects of doctrinal faith. He has no hesitation in claiming for Darwin and Huxley tho jjlorioul examples of Copernicus and Galileoji and, making allowance for the enthusiasm of youthful conversion, with which the Presbyterian credits him, 1 fancy it wdll take our D.D.'s and LL.D.'s all their time to bring him back to the fold. As the Evolution theory is brought directly and personally under our notice by an able man, the very natura, idea strikes us that we have perhaps been paying just a wee bit too much for our ecclesiastical whistle, and that the twenty or thirty millions spent yearly in Britain alone might as well have been expended in railways as in pulpits. One must confess that as a profession itinerant evangelism is very nearly as pro" /liable as the legal dispensation. We had a lady here who came from worlds unknown to convert and console. I think the legilitnatc traders must have fell riled at their business 1 cinq interfered wiih by tbe eloquent pira or smuggler, but other

folk were7'i7ef/aa well when they found that £10 sterling per day could be realized by the spec, and all exs. paid. It beat Lottie Wiltnott hollow, and made many folk question the justice of Providence that hadn't placed them in that lino of business. Mr Oliver delivered his aedress to the electors last night. We had nothing very aew, very striking, or very touching from the late Minister of Public Works. Of course he had to go ovsr all the old ground of Retrenchment, Revenue, and Expenditure, Native affairs, and the etceteras of a pre-sessional speech, but I am inclined to think your readers are pretty well bored with them. There is confoundedly little bread to all this sack Mr Oliver's ideas of representation are certainly peculiar, and, although the principles he advocates have long been a subject of theoretical discussion, I do not remember any statesman in the Colonies who has had the courage to propound them aB a practical solutiou of a much-vexed question. Possibly he may be willing to follow the footsteps of the French Chambers which introduced and passed a measure which practically revolutionizes the representation of that country. The difficulty which the present system presents is that a minority in an electorate is not represented in tho House at all, no matter how respectable it may be in numbers or social standing, Every man, it is contended, has a right to' some representation no matter in what locality he may make his abode ; and ho has no greater righ tto it if he lives in a centre of population than ha has if his happy lot has been cast "far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife." Now, aa Mr Oliver says, supposing wo have in New Zealand in round numbers 90,000 electors and 90 members of Assembly, we shall have consequently one member for each thousand electors; and, no matter where those men are placed, no matter how much scattered over the country they may be, each thousand men of one mind (what does he think of the quot homines tot senteniice business?) should have a voice in the conduct of affairs. Every voten therefore should have all the candidates in the whole field of the colony to choose from, and he should be at liberty to place on his voting paper as many names as ho wishes, only taking care to put them in order of merit, or rather of the voter's pred election. Supposing a thousand votes entitle a candidate to a seat, then if I am a voter my vote goes to make up that number to the first name on my paper, or if the quantum is made up for the first name, my vote goes for the second, and if the second is the favored of a thousand) my vote goes to the third name, and so on to tbe end. I think there would be a few details necessary to the practical working of this scheme, but at any rate we can congratulate ourselves in the sweet bye and bye, on missing the gush" ing eloquence of pre-sessional speeches, such as have inundated tbe papers dining these last few weeks.

Mr Oliver also discloses some of tbe intentions of the Government with respect to the re-leasing of the Otago and Southland runs, and one is inclined to believe that the ex-Minister hopes by this means to take some of the wind out of tbe sails of the Land League. lam sorry to say that the former Minister of Public Works got a roasting and wigging on his Railway Retrenchment and Employment policy, but I have frequently noticed that members who get on swimmingly through their speech rather sweat when the questions come on the board.

The finding of the Tararua inquiry is in our hands. It is \ery doubtful if it will satisfy the public mind. It is weak fo inanity. Some one was to blame and blame has been brought home to no one, and the Union Company may, I suppose still hold the even or evil tenour of its way at its own sweet will. Government in the Colonies.generally is very chary of allowing rivalry in the carrying traffic of theinterior, and yet this company possesses a monopoly of coastal trade and is very nearly independent of supervision. I should be obliged to any one who would inform me how it is that travelling with the Union Company is so much dearer than with almost any other Company in the World. I have taavelled over most of Europe and have been over and over the three Kingdoms and can say, with all due respect to their High Mightinesses the directors, that my sovereigns never melted so rapidly as when I ventured beneath their flag. Their high tariff might have been excused ten or fifteen years ago when the population was small, money plentiful and communication difficult, but as times are now I think they sho*ild begin to see the error of their ways. Besides if the discipline of the Tararua is the discipline common to the fleet then my best advice to those about to travel is " dont," or if necessity has no law then let them procure tho prayers of the Church and insure in the " Accidental " before starting.