The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3001, 7 February 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1881.

Ax extraordinary scene rauct that have been in the House of Commons on Friday last, as reported in our cablegram, when the obstructionist Irish members were forcibly ejected by resolution of the House. Up to the time when the Home Rule members first commenced to obstruct the business of the House, the House of Commons had been ever regarded as a model of legislative propriety. Thanks to tbe Irish members' this high r*hi meter has been forfeited, and scenes have occurred during the last two sessions wLncn remind one of those which were common enough in the Victorian Assembly when ;> Mr Berry's mob" bad to be suppressed by Mr Service's irou-hand resolution. A similar course has had to be adopted by the Liberal Government of England. It has long since become apparent that the ordinary powers of the law were ineffectual for the preservation of the peace and good government of Ireland, but not until the last moment would the Gladstone Ministry recognise the necessity for strengthening the hands of the authorities. It being the first duty of a Government to maintain law and order, and that duty having been found impossible of performance Mr Gladstone introduced, reluctantly enough, tbe Coercion Bill. It was in the rabid opposition and unreasoning obstruction of the Irish members to this Bill that induced the Government to arm the Speaker with those coercive powers which have been almost immediately exercised upon Mr Parnell and his followers. Every Englishman will regret tbe necessity for the exercise of a power such as that which has had to be used in the present case. Mr Parnell, and the other Irish members who support liim, are, whatever else they may be, representatives of important constituencies, and in their expulsion from the House during a debate on a measure that is intended to be applied to Ireland and to Ireland only, an act bordering upon injustice seems to have been committed. Ontheotherband.it has to be remembered that Mr Parntll represents something more than his constituency. He ia the representative of a principle which, if carried out to the end aimed a*- by him signifies tbe disruption of the British Empire. He has not hesitated to say so; and in the prosecution of his design it would appear that he is as equally indifferent to propriety of conduct in the House as he is to the results of Irish agitation. He has adopted a neck-or-nothing course, the dare-devil character of which is probably its chief charm in tbe estimation of bis following. The Coercion Bill he was bound to oppose in every possible way, knowing well enough that should it become law the peace of Ireland would be assured by the prevention of those stump orations of his and others that have acted as firebrands in ripe fields of corn. Although force cannot be regarded as a remedy for grievances of any kind, it we»o pointed out by Mr Bright in a recent speech at Birmingham " there are times when it may be necessary, and when its employment may be absolutely unavoidable." In the present condition of Ireland it is clear tbat that time has arrived when juries cannot be found to convict for fear of personal violence, and wbeD the wbele country is groaning under the tyranny of the Land League, which dories in the defiance of law and order. As the Land League has not hesitated to adopt force ia the prosecution of its objects, so it has become necessary for the Government to employ force against it. Mr Lovvther, in a late speech, referriug to the state of Ireland, said, •' We were face to face with most revolutionary proposals, which brought about a state of things unparalleled in any civilized community, and which were scarcely equalled even by tbe worstgoverned portions of Turkey and Greece. There was a proposal to create peasant proprietorships, which constituted a transfer of the existing rights from the capitalists to the non-capitalists. Property rights were not confined to tbe landed interest, but affected other descriptions of property, and the de facto Government which at first menaced Ireland warned tradesmen that they should not expect to recover their just debts nor the labourer to earn his bread." Mr C. B. Denison, M. P., speaking at the opening of a Conservative Club at Pudsey, Yorkshire, said there was no liberty in Ireland for any except seditious rogues, felons, andgmurderers. A Conservative Government, if it allowed such things, would havebeen ousted from office by the 300 Radical organs. Mr Fawcett, addressing his constituents at Hackney after referring at some length to the administration of his own department, said with regard to Ireland, that he thought it would be received with widespread satisfaction throughout the country that the Government were determined to maintain law and order in Ireland, and tbat they would spare no effort to bri .gthc rei»n of lawlessness and terrorism which prevailed there to a close. Mr W. H. Long, M.P., speaking at a licensed victuallers' dinner in Trowbridge, held the Government responsible for the present condition of Ireland. Widespread rebellion was apparent, and bloodshed was of daily occurrence. Men were murdered, and yet no steps were taken to track tbe murderers and bring them to justice. Ireland was given over to Mr Parnell, and blackguardly ruffianism held in check the laws and orders of England, the power of the Government, and of the Queen. The Dublin correspondent of the Times writes that " the law of the Land League is becoming the law of tbe land; and while the law of the State, which is administered by a costly apparatus, is to a large extent suspended, the new law is effectively administered in a cheap and convenient way. Land League courts are springing up in various places, and the people are instructed to have their disputes decided by such courts, and go no more to the sessions. Local magistrates in the West have lately been surprised to find that no cases were brought before them except by the police. The people have been for some time advised to take this _ourse, but they are now beginning to act upon it as a rule." Such, then, is tbe state of Ireland, and its condition fully justifies tbe adoption of coercive measures. The agitation is not in reality against landlords or against rents: it has a far deeper meaning. Mr Parnell explained what that meaning was when he said, " We will work by constitutional means so long as it suits us to do so. We refuse to plunge this country into the horrors of civil war when she has not a chance ; but I ask any man at thie board, I ask any true Irishman, be he priest or be he layman, whether he would not consider it the first duty of an Irishman to do vbat he could to enable his country to take her place among the nations of the world. If it could be shown to them that there was a fair prospect of success from the sacrifice, I ask my reverend and my lay friends whether they would not consider it their highest duty to give their lives for the country that gave them birth." •

We bear that the agent of the Australian cricketers will arrive in Napier on Saturday evening next to make arrangements for a match with the Hawke's Bay team.

The e_act locality of this borough does not appear to be generally known to the gocd people of Oamaru, judging from the fact that the North Otago Times speaks of Napier as being a town in the "North Island."

We understand that, at the presentation of prizes of tho Kifle Association and Humane Society's medals, the dress circle of the Theatre will be reserved for ladies, and tickets of admission can be obtained from officers of companies and members of the Rifle Association.

The suggestion we threw out to the Jookey Club recently with respect to the telegraphic connection of the grand stand on the Hastings course with Napier has received the consideration of the committee, and steps have been taken to ascertain the oost of running a wire to the Sooiety's ground.

Mr W. Routledge, on behalf of the Corporation, offered by auction five reclaimed sections at the following up-set prices :— prices :—No. 375, £740 ; No. 378, £808 3s 6d; Nc. 379, £804 19$ lid; No 380, £864 5s sd; No 381, £825 9« 3d. There being no buyers the sections were bought in by the Corporation.

The last cad offices were paid to the remains of Mr Gavin Peacock yesterday afternoon, when they were ooneigned to the cdraetery. The funeral cortege was unusually long, both town and country residents swelling the mournful procession. The burial service was performed by the Rev. D. Sidey.

In a footnote to a letter in this morning's Herald, the editor ad vises his correspondent to " let the poor dog bay the moon to its heart's content unnoticed, aa we have long done ourselves." We should never have been so rude as to compare the effusions of the Herald's editor with the baying of a dog, but as that sapient party has himself selected the comparison we must congratulate him on the happy hit that he has made.

A simultaneous match will be fired tomorrow morning at 5.30 between ten men selected from the Gisborne Artillery corps and the likn number from the Napier Rifle cops. The Napier men selected are— Privates Beck. Cato, Langan, Hansen, and Gunn, Corpl. W. Duncan, Sergt. Chicken, Redward, and King, and Cape. Batham, with Privates Newton, Galbraith, Hovell, and Edwards, as emergency men. Mr Pram will attend to watch the interests of the Gisborne team, and Sergt. Nelson bas obligingly consented to take charge of the marking.

The resolution adopted by the Committee of the Agricultural and Pastoral Sooiety to have an office, in town will have the hearty approval of the members. In some other districts the office of the Agricultural Society is the rendezvous of the country settlers, and answers mrny of the pu> poses of an exohange, where all the information can be obtained of interest to those engaged r in pastoral and agricultural pursuits. The want of such an office has long been felt by Hawke's Bay settlers. Messrs J. H. Coleman and C. B. Winter have been appointed a sub-commit-tee to obtain suitable premises.

In the pursuance of a mission in the interests of so-oalled morality the police at the Wellington raoes, last week, cleared the course of every game of chance. The monkey sweeps, that were more than half the fun at the recent raoes at Clive, were not allowed to either amuse or attract the visitors. The cold-blooded totalisator was all that was permitted. The consequence was that the course being as dull as possible the people were driven to find mild excitement in private bweeps , and in bets with the book-makers. The ill-advised police regulations for the prevention of gambling assist no one but the professional gambler, who makes a harvest when there is no other attraction but himself on a race-oourse. That is why tbe bookmaker hates the totalisator, or anything else that takes the public mind from open betting.

Twelve out of tbe thirty cricketers selected by the Australian match committee mustered at Hastings on Saturday, and a scratch game was played, which could be of little practical value. If those selected take no more interest in the visit of the eleven than this practise displays, it is to be hoped that the convenience of the Australians will not lead them in this direction. There can be no display of cricket worth looking at, and the visit may result in disappointment to the Australians and aJI concerned. In the selection of the twenty-two the committee have not confined themselves to the thirty players originally chosen ; in this they have been wise, and a further departure from the first choice might heve added strength to the team. The following are the twentytwo selected :—Messrs Dixon, Bostock, Fulton, Craven, Ed wards, Gilberd, Watkins, Atherton, Luke, Liddle, Pram, Dewes, T. Mooie, Tanner, Clunie, Mountier, Rees, H. Martin, J. Martin, G. Crosse, Murray, and Brathwaite. 'Emergency: Salmon, Gibbons, Kendall, and Be_rg.

Touchstone in the Advertiser as usual last week gives us something to think about. Witness the following.—lts election as the political capital of the colony has been a fatal gift to it. In Wellington in old days an insolvency was unknown. Speculative men have been attracted to the seat of Government, and when the undue inflation burst up most of them have gone to the wall without anything to show in assets in the way of value. In 1879 the liabilities of insolvents in Auckland amounted to £91,000. In Wellirgton tho liabilities amounted to £572,000 or six times the amount in Auckland. Christchurch has also been in bad form, the liabilities there having been £564,000 in the Supremo Court cases, besides £250,000 in the Canterbury Districts Courts. Tho insane mania after barren land in Canterbury brought a number of men to grief. They had hoped to get rid of their shingly acres at a profit before the crash came. They have found to their loss and tho loss of their creditors, " He that buys land buys stones. " Dunedin has had her own troubles, but her people have como well thi'ough the ordeal. The insolvencies amount to £161,000, being almcst the same proportion as Auckland, taking the relative population into account. The result is that Auckland and Dunedin people have stood their shaking well, not a man of any standing having succumbed, while Wellington and Christchurch, especially the former, have been in a state of complete prostration.

The Wanganui Herald in an article on Te Whiti politics, after referring to the decided opinions formerly expressed by Mr Bryce as to how to solve* the West Coast Native difficulty, to his subsequent action, and also to the various steps taken by Government and Royal Commission, concludes :—" The truth is that Mr Bryce has been Minister in name but not in fact, so far as relates to the policy on this coast. The Royal Commission has taken charge of the policy. Mr Parris is the man who himself irresponsible, has guided the Royal Commissioners as if they were children, and has been as supreme as when directed Mr J. C. Richmond in 1868, and prepared the way for the war which was duly initiated in that year as the result of his policy. The truth must be told: Mr Bryce is not the man to sit calmly down and allow himself consciously to become the mere tool of others. The power of Native Minister was passing from him, and he probably thought it was time to throw off the trappings when the substance of authority was melting away. His friends may thiDk he did not perceive the position as soon as he might havp done. And now an UnderSesretary manages in Wellington, while a Royal Commissioner dances to the piping of the great Mr Parris at Opunake. (It is said the Commissioner has taken an office in New Plymouth for the special convenience of Mb mentor.) Te Whiti still sits at Parihaka with authority unimpaired, nenacing the S6ttlers, obstructing the authorities, ana sheltering Hiroki!"

A Northern paper says :—A well-knOWfl native chL: met Mr Sheehan a few days ago in Auckland, and asked our member if the reports tbat he has heard were true, namely, that the ex native minister was about joinin? Mr Hall and his colleagues.' Mr Sheehan was somewhat taken aback, and blandly asked his questioner why he put him Buch a poser. The chief, nothing daunted, promptly replied, "Well, you white people, I hear, have a good plan for oleaning a room when it is out of order; you get a broom and make a clean sweep of all the rubbish, and that is just what we natives would like to do with the present Government." His listener replied that the sentiments expressed coincided with his own, and on the first opportunity when the Parliament, met he would, with the united and loyal Opposition now working in concert, aid in carrying out the wishes just then given utterence to. Mr Sheehan's native ally was so pleased with the answer that, in addition to making a reduction of a few shillings in the pound on a block of land which he was selling to a pakeha friend, that he further intimated he would "shout" champagne in expectation of the present Ministry being kicked out.

The Auckland Town Council has been endeavoring for some time past to fall upon a plan of utilising the city sewage, and making it a source of revenue instead of lorß to the corporation. In Sydney the same problem is exercising the wisdom of the city fathers, and publio opinion has been strongly manifested in favor of what is known as the Liernur system. Captain Liernur, in a recent letter in the Sydney papers, says that " with a consumption of lib of coal, he can evaporate 121bs of water, mixed with any quantity of sewag-emitter, and obtain a dry, inodorous, fertilising proudrette composed of 75 percent, organio substance, in which there are 8 per cent, of nitrogen, per cent, of potash, and per cent, of phosphor, valued at £10 per ton by the wholesale agricutural chemist. At tha most, he estimates the annual cost per person at Is 6d, and the annual value of the manure to be produced upon his system at 10s per person." The Sydney Telegraph says, " the scheme has nature on its side to the extent that her law is that animal refuse should be returned to the soil aa vegetable food. For organised, human society to live in perpetual violation of that law, while all the other fauna on the globe obey it, is almost a censure on human reason."

The Thames Evening paper remarks with great propriety :— " Private letters from the East Coast go to show that the action of the present Minister in allowing private parties to obtain sections of land in and about the Rotorua Hot Lakes will do them a deal of harm. The whole of the terraces should have been purchased by the Crown as a publio estate for the future benefit of suffering humanity. The cutting up of a township after the Bale takes place will be the commencement of interminable disputes. Judge Fenton has got a good deal of newspaper praise for his action over these lands, but if bis recommendations are carried out they may prove more of a curse than a blessing for this portion of the East Coast." We knew this to be the oase when the Times and the Post went into ecstasies over th© matter some time since, but oonsoled oarselves with the reflection that the House would interfere. Judge Fenton's forte ia fiddling and the sooner the Government allow him to devote his undivided attention to this branch of publio life, the better it will be for the interest of the colony and all concerned therein. So notorious is this fact that when the qualifications of a candidate for any office are discussed with which Judge Fenton has anything to do or say hia first enquiry is " Can the man fiddle P" It does not matter if he fuddles muoh if ho fiddles well.

TheJFiji Times says :—" The ex-Premier of his defunct Somoa Majesty is fast becoming a man of mark. On Sunday last H.M.S. Cormorant unexpectedly appeared in port and general curiosity was aroused to know the nature of her errand. During the next day it transpired, that when His Excellency Sir Arthur Gordon, High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, became aware that W. J. Hunt had left Auckland m the s s. Clyde with the avowed intention of proceeding to Samoa, in defiance of his order of prohibition, he telegraphed to the Commodore on the Australian Station requesting him to despatch a vessel for the purpsse of removing him thence and deporting him to Sydney. 1 his the Commodore declined to do, and the High Commissioner then telegraphed Home with tne result that the Cormorant was directed to proceed upon the important and hazardous service. Upon arrival in Levuka it was found that Hunt was resident in this town and Her Majesty's cruiser started on her return voyage from her wild gooso chase yesterday morning. This is truly a dignified record for all parties concerned. While the active interposition of English men-of-war is required for the protection of British lives in the Western Pacific, their anchors remain down in Sydney harbour; but when a British subject presumes even to threaten to disregard the injunction of the. High Commissioner, relative to his residenoe in one island or another, all the springs of High Commission and A dmiralty machinery are at once in motion. Sir Arthur Gordon is certainly to be congratulated upon the dignified position in which he has plaoed himself. He has hurled a thunderbolt and has not even crushed a butterfly, and by his injudicious action he has made himself and Captain Biuce the laughing Btock of the southern hemisphere."

Meeting of the Permanent Building Society from 7 to 8 o'clock. Monthly meeting of "Victoria Lodge tomorrow.

Messrs Monteith and Co. sell to-morrow at 11 a.m., stock-in-trade of Messrs Cornish and Co.

Notice has been given that the Hawke's Bay County Council have taken over certain roads as county roads. Messrs Kennedy and Grillman'will sell on the 9th., apples, sugar, ale, lard, &c. The election of members of the Education Board is postponed from the Ist proximo to the 15th.