The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, The Morning News. THURSDAY. DECEMBER 4, 1873.

Auckland Star, Volume IV, Issue 1206, 4 December 1873, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, The Morning News.

THURSDAY. DECEMBER 4, 1873.

For the cause that lacks assistance, Forfthe wrong that needa roslstanco, For the future in tho distance, Aud the good that wo cau do

Another stage in the history of the ill-starred "Floatage of Timber Act" was reached yesterday in the Supreme Court, and it is satisfactory to find that at least one man is found, Sir Georgo A. Arney, who will be no party to tho carrying out of the miserable dodges that have disgraced legislation in the conception and maturing of this Floatage of Timber Bill. That gentleman has decided that artificial dams calculated to hurl death and destruction on the dwellers on the banks of the rivers below are not permitted by this Act. Every one knows that they Vere not contemplated by the legislators that suffered Vogel's miserable bantling to be smuggled through the House, This damming was the original and main object contemplated in getting an Act on the subject. Six or seven bills were framed and found unpassable, Vogel having at an early stage seen that dams would not be tolerated. Again and again he promised that dams would not be allowed, and again and again under the terrible pressure from without to which he was subjected did he endeavour by subterfuges to evade this repugnance. Even to the Upper House was this trickery and dodging carried, and the Honorable Captain Baillie was made the cat's-paw by which it was hoped to get the nuts out of the fire. While the most disreputable lobbying was going on Captain Baillie moved to add the words "or erect a dam across any part of a stream or creek." This was rejected by sixteen to seven, and yet with unparalleled impudence we are told still that dams are allowed in the Act, and were contemplated by the Legislature. As it was known that unscrupulousness would attend the history of the measure to the end, aa it had characterised its history from the beginning, Mr Swanson with that genuine faithfulness to the interests of the people which distinguishes him above all other members in the Assembly, endeavoured to make it necessary for a Superintendent to have the advice of his Executive before making the Act apply to any creek in his province, knowing the strong bias which Mr Gillies had shown throughout the debates in fa four of this roughriding measure • and Mr Vogel; gave the promise to introduce a Bill to this effect. He did introduce a Bill, and carried it through, but wilfully framed so as to not apply to Auckland province, and accordingly Mr Gillies paid no attention whatever to it ; and it ia one of the few stains on Mr Gillies' Superintendency that with indecent haste, on the very last day of his holding office, he availed himself of the opportunity for giving effect to a law of so onesided a character for which he had fought so hard in the Assembly. There have been so many discreditable things i» the

history of this Timber Floatage Act that it is a relief to see in Sir George Arney one person who will be no party to high-handed action. In deciding that the Act does not allow dams, of course Sir George merely interpreted the honest mean-

ing of the Act and the honest intentions of those who permitted it to pass ; and wo should hardly at this time of day be surprised at Sir George Arney. doing his duty. But really after the quirks and quibbles, the lobbying and the dodging, and the lying, and the scheming, and the high-hand defiance of all shame that has chai acterised its history hitherto, we feel

constrained to confess a surprise at seeing anything of the nature of honesty and straightforwardness in relation to it. The Act as now interpreted by the highest authority in the land does not allow a man to dam a creek (at least without the " n"), and in doing so it is of course absolutely valueless for the main objects intended by Mr Vogel and its promoters. Had Sir Georg o . Ariiey decided otherwise it would have been the duty of the Provincial Council to have requested his Honor the Superintendent to annul the last act in office performed by his predecessor. The alluvial banks of our rivers are too valuable, and too necessary to the promotion of our manufacturing and agricultural industry that we should give them over to sterility and desolation for the mere benefit of a few speculators who have no regard for the public interests, and think only of their own breeches' pockets ; and if the decision of yesterday has the effect of compelling tramways, as a substitute for the wasteful and destructive system of "driving" by dams, as recommended by the best experienced man in the colony on the subject, Mr Swanson, it will confer a benefit on the owners of timber forests themselves and promote the general welfare

of the province,

It is not often that we are treated to a tale of so horrible barbaiity as that which has

been borne to us by the Chile, and which is the subject of an ollicial onf|uii'y now proceeding. Of coarse it is not permissible to discover the details before the enquiry is completed ; but we have done so, and we hasten to furnish a few of the items to our readers. It appears that a woman on board, a passenger, had been indulging in some tittle-tattle respecting a lady passenger and Dr (Joughtrey, the medical ofiicev in charge of the vessel. The doctor being in authority thought he should assert it on the occasion, and had the

woman thrown into irons. So fettered and manacled she refused to stand, when he had her slung up on deck with her hands above her head, and in that position of torture ho kept her on deck in the broiling sun for twelve hours. It appears that the captain, who is a humane man, having found that the woman had been in this position for some hours bareheaded, brought her bonnet and placed it on tho woman's head, but believing that ho had no right to interfere with, tho doctor in the exercise of discipline did not fiuther interpose his authority. We refrain from anything boyond the merest statement of the case, feeling that in its naked simplicity this little incident is beat revealed to the people of Auckland. That the matter will be probed to tho very bottom every one in Auckland may feel perfectly assured, and no one needs to be distressed at the likelihood of every body not meeting with his just deserts. And wo merely state the case as something fresh in the conduct of our immigration; and we shall be anxious to find among the regulations in connection with the service—and they are such that we shall not be surprised, —if the triangle and cat are among the medical stores, and if they are considered by Dr. Featherstone as conducive to the physical and mental well-being of our female immigrants.