The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1882.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3480, 1 September 1882, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1882.

Straws serve to show which way the wind blows. From a Southern paper we learn that the Hon. Mr Peacock, in speaking before a meeting of squatters and farmers, said that theraisgovernment in Canterbury was traceable to abolition. The expression of this opinion was received with a burst of loud applause. If it had not been for Canterbury votes there would probably have been no abolition of the constitution under which this colony rose to a position to attain to a debt of nearly thirty millions. But the Cauterbury settlers have not been the first to repent them of the evil that was done in 1875-76. Slowly, it ia true, public opinion has been veering round to the conviction that has been steadily maintained by the handful of provincialists for the last seven years. There has been no remedy found for the mischief that was done, and abolitionists are more than beginning to think that no remedy can be discovered. It is easy enough to destroy institutions, but a very difficult thing to build them up. The Dunedin Echo, in an article on Provincialism, says : —The fact that from the North Cape to Stewart Island the constituencies have said that some amendment wae necessary in the form of local government, is proof that the abolition of provincial institutions has not succeeded. And now there has been another attempt to cive the colony some of the benefits of Provincialism. Mr Shrimski has moved that the land through which the railways pass shall be rated for their naintenance, and interest on the cost of their construction. What is this but Provincialism ? The glory of Centralism was one purse—into which every district might dip. The evils of tbat every one now sees. Political railways are being made—-that is, Hues arc being constructed

that can never pay interest on the cost of construction—routes are chosen not by engineering opinion, but are fixed on by political pressure. How are these political railways to be met? The House admits that it cannot get rid of political pressure. The only hope of getting rid of political railways is by insisting on the districts that obtain the railways paying for them. And what is to be a district ? We apprehend that Mr Macandrew's proposal ought to be adopted. A railway district should be a provincial district. If this be fixed, the members for the district will not vote for a useless railway if they know it means increasing the taxation of their constituents. Here, then, as a means of getting rid of the evils of Centralism—of log-rolling—of political railways, the House has to revive that Provincialism the Centralists so much condemned in 1875 aud 1876. And yet the politicians who voted for Abolition were deemed true statesmen, and those who opposed it were spoken of in anything but favorable terms. Then there is another matter in which the Proviocialists have succeeded. Everything in the colony was to be one. Unity was to reign. There was to be one)Parliamenr, onepurse, one University, one Museum, etc. The Parliament has found that geography fights for the Provincialists. It has had this year to create a University for Auckland, and to help Auckland to have a Museum, and it will yet have to help Wellington to establisb another University. This colony is so situated that there must be diversity in its iustitutions. It has no capital. Its long seaboard and the sameness of its land makes it impossible to have a London or a Melbourne. By nature it is doomed to various provincial centres, and it is high time we recognised that and built up our institutions on tbe decrees of nature. We do not know if Mr Driver's resolutions will be carried. We believe that tbe better plan would be to have three provinces in the South Island and three in the North till Napier and Wellington are joined by rail, then two might suffice. There is plenty of work for such a number of provincial legislators to accomplish. And with the General Assembly relieve! of all the press of petty details that now constitute its main work, we might hope for some attention to social legislation. We have only to look at the work of the present session to see how little has been accomplished."

A Parliamentary return, just issued, shows that during the five months ended March last 1048 tenants were evicted in Ireland, who have not since been re-admitted as tenants. Of these 365 took place in Ulster, 182 in Leinster, 287 in Connaught, and 214 in Munster. The greatest number of evictions took place in March last, the numbers increasing from 132 in November, 139 in December, 188 in January, 267 in February, 322 in March. The returns doea not include sub-tenants.

A frightful occurrence took place at Yelta, South Australia, the other day. A young man named George Dawson, aged 17, had a loaded rifle in his hand, and was talking to one of his sisters, who was dressed to go out. As he was anewering a question hie rifle exploded, and the charge entered hie sister's breast. Deith was instantaneous. An inquest was held, at which a verdict of accidental death was returned. Dawson suffers great mental anguish, and it is feared he may lose his reason.

The official returns drawn from verdicts of coroners' juries, and published in English newspapers last year, shocked not England only, but all civilised Europe, by the statement that, in the London district alone, one hundred and one deaths from sheer starvation had taken place in the year 1880. Supposing (what some persons allege without any knowledge) chat in other countries such deaths are neither investigated nor recorded, the fact of the universal outcry raised in the European press by this sad record shows, at all events, a general conviction that such deaths are at least vastly rarer in foreign countries than they are in England.

Wβ learn from a contemporary that wolves have so increased in France of late years that a law has been prepared increasing the gratuities to wolf hunters, as strong measures are necessary to overcome them. The creatures had almost died out before the Franco-Prussian War, but they then followed in the track of the invaders, and established themselves definitely in the country, so that in winter, peasants, in remote parts of the country, particularly in Brittany, are often in serious danger. Accordingly any one killing a wolf which has attacked a human being will receive £8 ; a wolf guiltless of homicide, £4 ; she wolves bringing in £6 a head, and the cubs £1 12s. A new wood-preserving process has been invented in France by M. Jacques. He first impregnates the timber thoroughly with a simple solution of soap, mixed with an acid—preferably phenio acid. This causes the fermentation, in a few days, •within the wood, of 8 fatty acid, which is insoluble in water, and impregnates the remotest fibres. The reaction of the acid on the soap does not take place until a portion of the water has evaporated. It is claimed that more perfect impregnation can be had in this way than with creosote, and there is no danger of the washing out of the preservative from the exposed surfaces, as when sulphate of copper is used. The Government Commission on technical railroad operation in France is said to favour this process. Those who regard with dismay the cutting down of trees and believe that the area of ■woodland in thia county is gradually disappearing, may take comfort from some of the figures stated in the return as to prices for British timber realised during the season 1881-82. From those figures it will be seen that throughout England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, there were planted on various estates during the periods under review no less than 3,156,826 trees! Of these, 2,175,826 were planted in Scotland, 646,200 in England, 294,800 in Ireland, and 40,000 in Wales. It is, of course, not easily to get absolutely complete returns, but those we give are well within the mark, and prove that there is at least some set-off against tree felling and the gradual increase of bricks and mortar in those islands.

The liquor law of Russia is very comprehensive and easily understood. Theie is no " local option " about it, but the Czar decrees that there shall be no more than one drink shop in any Russian village, and where two or three villages are near together, the one drinkshop will suffice for all, and this shall be managed by a " man born and resident in the village," who shall be appointed by the Common Council and paid by salary. He is to derive no pecuniary profit beyond his ealary, ia to sell also food and wares, and is liable to a fine, dismissal, and even imprisonment if he allows any man or woman to get drunk on his premises. In a given contingency, if the population should become notoriously drunken and disorderly, the communal authorities are to interdict the sale of liquor entirely in that district or village, for as long a time as they shall ccc fit." How to preserve onr lives.—Eat in moderation. Let yonr food be substantial, well-cooked, and your table free from higbly-spiced dishes and exciting condiments. Keep regular hours and habits, take generous exercise, seek the air where it is the purest, avoid unnecessary exposure, work without excess, and interlard all with draughts of Udolpho Wolfe's Schiedam: Aeomatic Schnapps.—[Advt.]