The Evening Star MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1873

Evening Star, Issue 3083, 6 January 1873, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1873

One might imagine, through our statistical tables giving no statement of crime, that the Colony was altogether free from it. No doubt a page of guilt looks very ugly. Nobody likes to see that he is living in a community in which there are many immoral persons, some of whom, for anything he knows to the contrary, may be his next door neighbors. People feel uncomfortable at the idea of it, but it is one of these unpleasant facts that cannot be got rid of, and we do not consider that a fair estimate can be formed of our social status without looking on what is displeasing as well as on Avhat is fair. We felt the need of this information when endeavouring to compare the criminal statistics of to-day with those of three years back. We wished to see if they presented any features indicative of advancing prosperity. We do not say that absence of crime is proof positive that people are better off than they were; although it is a fair presumption to arrive at through there being fewer of a certain class of offences As, in the absence of statistics, we are thrown back upon memory, we think we are justified ip saying that some three or four years ago there were usually more cases of swindling of various kinds, and of embezzlement, than have boon brought before the Supreme Court during some serious past. Those are offences which do not .so much depend upon the vigilance of the police for prevention. Burglaries and offences against the person are, to »

certain extent, under the repressive control of the police. They make it tueir business to know all characters likely to commit such crimes, and, in proportion to to their watchfulness and activity, the chances of successful practice in them is diminished. To the eliiciency of the police it is, to a great extent, owing that few ot the dangerous classes find it profitable to take up their abode iu Otago, and should they be induced to do so, they know ue that they arc so closely watched that their best policy is to follow honest callings. To them, bad times and good arc alike. They arc of those who have been (aught from their childhood to regard all honest people as their victims, whenever they have a chance of preying upon them ; or of those who, having lost all moral control, have given themselves up to sensuality and crime. No criterion, therefore, is to ho gathered from their presence or absence as to whether times arc good or had. Whim they arc hrougn before a jury, it is not because they hare felt the privations of hunger, and have been drawn to dishonesty through 1 10 temptations of poverty, The index to our social condition consists in the absence of those evidences of want that, are to jo found iu small robberies of money, and dishonest tricks to obtain it; and we arc glad to think that the very few cases ot that class that have lately led to prosecutions, justify the presumption that that under-current of poverty, so painfully manifest a few years ago, is overborne by a general demand for labor a remunerative rates. His Honor Judge Ouavman’ expressed his gratification a the lightness of the criminal calender. And it must he remembered that this is the more remarkable because it is m the face of an increasing population, many ot whom are strangers amongst us: and u e cannot expect that all will prove honest. But not only is the evidence of a well-to-do people seen in the few cases that come before the Supreme Court, but in all our other Courts also. There are aluavs people who will not pay their debts until they are compelled, it seems almost as painful to them to pay their money an ay as to have (heir teeth drawn. Ihe consequence is that numbers are daily summoned to appear at the Resident Magistrates’ Courts who find it the cheapest and best way to square their accounts without coming before the public. AA e do not know that fewer summonses are served than a year or tno ago, but we do know there are not so many cases to the Magistrate for adjudication. Some way or other matters are mode up; the debts arc paid or the creditors satisfied; and (l*c. cases are cither withdrawn, or called and dismissed for non-appearance of both plaintiff and defendant. The same conclusion may he fairly drawn from fact as from the light business iu the Supreme Court —people are better off than they were, and, therefore, able to pay their way. Of course there arc those who see in these signs of prosperity a day of adversity to come. Everybody knows there will lie fluctuations t it would not bo a world of men and women V/ere there not. and he would he blind bfdped to imagine that there will be progress without a cheek. Ihe lesson that should he learned is, that if ue mil have a moral and contented people, we must seek to place them beyond temptation to evil by developing, as far as possible, all our industrial resources, aud by removing every impediment to settlement.

The European cablegrams by the Tararua contain, items of more interest than for some time past. Those which more immediately affect the Colonies are meagre and not very important. So far as the news goes it amounts to saying that prices of wool and preserved meats remained firm; but all accustomed to English commerce know that save in very exceptional circumstances, little variation in price can be expected in the face of the Christmas holidays. All who know Captain Gray, of the Groat Britain, will regret Jiis sad and untimely death. He has been captain of the Great Britain some years, aud has always borne a high character as a most efficient and successful commander. What led him to become tired of life, what menial anxiety was preying upon him, or what fell disease induced him to seek to leave a world iu which lie had the reputation of having so well played his parts, we are not informed of. Few-—perhaps none—would be prepared to expect such a termination of what seemed to be a successful life.

Of foreign nows llie ohief seems to be tlie course of events in France. Stop by step the form of government appears progressing towards royalty. The forfeited property of tlie Orleans Princes is to be restored, and it seems more than probable another page in the romantic history of the Bourbons will be added by the election of one of them to the vacant throne: whether for good or evil will depend much upon the use that has been made of exile and comparative poverty. The world knows little of their capacity for ruling, and if a member of the family is called to reign it will be, #s in the case of the Emperor Napoleon ire Trird, because of the name, not because of the known fitness of the man, Kussia is in trouble in Central Asia. Of course there will be plenty written about the systematic approach of the troops of that agressivc Empire to the boundaries of British India. In the war that seems already begun in Khiva, men with old Tory ideas will see the intention of the Czar to wrest India from the English, and will he ready to rush into hostilities to weaken the power of Kussia and chastise her insolence. It is fortunate that truer views of relationship between Nations are beginning to be entertained, r £he _ work that Russia is doing in Asia., is that of introducing civilisation and' order where barbarism, plunder, and rapine have prevailed for ages. These Khivans are living in one political division of Turkestan, in ancient days_ the highway between India and the civilised nations of the West. It lies immediately north of Afghanistan, between _ China and Siberia, the south-west portion of which separates it from the Caspian Sea. Tile country became known mainly through the expedition of Alexander the C keat, some 330 years before the Christian era. What the precise objects of Alexander’s buccaneering march were, can hardly he divined from the ancient records of his expedition. ; for they seem to have boon written more with u view to trumpeting Ids military exploits, and narratijig his sensuality, than of telling what fruit Macedonia was to reap from victory. In his day the country appears to have been equally populous as at present. Until Hie discovery of a by sea from Europe to India ami China, it formed the high road of communication between the two regions. But when the less expensive route was opened up by sea, it lostall its former prosperity, although there ire productions of the countries wound tlat

are of great valtic. For instance, Bui kb. Bokhara, and Kokand produce silk and cotton; the Pamir and Hindu-Kush furs; and in various places metals are procured and smelted, and the best market for disposing of these is .Europe. There is also a pretty considerable slave trade carried on; and now, those regions, once so prosperous, are inhabited by predatory and migratory hordes, who number their population by so many tents or families. The caravans from Bokhara to Russia go by way of Khiva to the Lower Ural; but an alteration of route was proposed some twenty years ago, and an attempt was made to pass to the eastward of Lake Aral to Orenburg, the most westerly government of Asiatic Russia, and for a long period it was the oul} r place through which caravans passed on their way to Europe. The Khan or Chief of Khiva, on this change being attempted, showed such a. determination to resist, that the plan was abandoned. What has been done since we do not know. Most probably the true cause of the quarrel is some effort on the part of his Khanship to prevent the introduction of modern modes of transit. It is very probable that many will not agree with us when avc say we believe it will he most beneficial to the KiiiA'ans if they are brought under Russian rule. We do not see why England should claim to annex first one Eastern kingdom and then another, and object to Russia doing likewise. Such has been the course of English occupation of India. The origin of aggression. in both cases, is protection to or extension of trade. The East India Company were not more remarkable for scruples of conscience than Russia; indeed we doubt much whether Russian rule is not more equitable than theirs was. They made unjust demands upon rulers of neighboring states, and when they were refused, they wore dispossessed of their dominions by force of arms. They seized the land, and claimed neaily half its produce for rent. Their rale was as tyrannical as any military despotism could he. Fortunately for India, it is at an end; but the last country in the world to condemn Russia’s Asiatic conquests should be Great Britain. There is evidently a steady and increasing trade to be done, if Russia can reduce the turbulent andlaAvlcssuomades to order, In maintaining them in subjection, her hands will be too much tied to venture upon the impossible and unprofitable task of expelling the British from India. An able and impartial vrriter on this subject said some years ago of Turkestan, ‘’ The statements of the amount and value of the goods exchanged in Turkestan in the course of a year arc vague and conjectural; the centres of commercial activity and the lines of traffic can alone he indicated. But it is evidently a busy and increasing trade; will increase with the prosperity and stability of the institutions of Russia, China, British India, and (what is less to be hoped for) Persia; and will be the cause, not the consequence, of introducing petu-n and the ascendancy of law into Turkestan.”