The Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1874

Evening Star, Issue 3585, 19 August 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1874

From the rumors that were current, we anticipated that the Superintendent would oppose the proposal of the Prepaier to abolish the Provincial system in the North Island. We do not think he has in this instance been guided by his usual foresight. Those who have opposed the proposition have done so on purely hypothetical grounds. No really practical reasons have been given. Mr Macandrew’s objections embody pretty much those of the other opponents of the measure. The whole of the Opposition arguments are, in fact, based either upon a supposition of certain ulterior measures, which they assume to be a consequence of the step, or of suspicion as to the bona Jidas of the Premier, When Mr Macandrew tells us that the abolition of the North Jslapd Provinces is a blow aimed at local self-government, he assumes that local self-government must of necessity be the best, yet it is because local self-government has failed in the Provinces proposed to be abolished, that the necessity has arisen. The argument of the Premier on that point is unanswerable. Local self-government has not been sufficiently self-interested to perform its functions in Auckland or Wellington; and has not had the means of doing so in Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay. In Auckland the people are uneducated, aad Jjoldwp of property

grudge the tax necessary for education. The Province is not prosperous, although it has been subsidised and nurtured at the expense of the Colony; its financial condition renders constant appeals for assistance necessary, and the cost of distributing its narrow revenue materially abstracts from its usefulness. Much the same thing may be said of Wellington; although, through the accident of the chief town being the capital of the Province, a larger sum has been expended there, under cover of outlay for general purposes. It is plain, therefore, that, so far as the North Island is concerned, local selfgovernment has proved an utter failure. It has not only not fulfilled the intentions of the framers of the Constitution, but it has proved a source of danger and expense to the rest of the Colony. Had there been no local self-government in the North Island hampering and fettering the General Government in its dealings with the Natives, there is good reason to believe there would have been less war, and that the Natives themselves would by this time have been further advanced in civilisation and wealth. Mr Macandrew, too, has made an attack on the General Government, and characterised it as extravagant in comparison with Provincial institutions. This is undoubtedly a grave charge, especially as he affirms that under the present system our public works will cost double the amount they ought to, and would do under local control. We are notin possession of sufficient data to affirm or deny the truth of this statement. Parliament meets year after year to consent to or refuse expenditure of that class, and if they have allowed such extravagance to be perpetrated the sooner we are more ably represented the better. It is a good point for a statesman to make ; for an appeal to pounds, shillings, and pence is always a useful style of ad oaptandum argument; but it will not always do when the memory can with facility revert to certain facts that tend to convince in the opposite direction. Two or three illustrations very much to the point force then* selves upon recollection. Take, for instance, our railways, now in course of construction ; and compare their cost with what local self-government has sanctioned, and was prepared to sanction. We do not expect that the present railway contracts will be completed at the estimated cost; for since many of them were entered into, material has risen so much in value as to add much to the expense; yet, even if they cost one-half more than the estimate, they will be made at one-half the outlay on the Port Chalmers line, and one-fourth of the cost of the Bluff and Invercargill Bailway. Nor should it be forgotten that at the very time the General Government undertook the construction of the Dunedin and Clutha line at a cost of five thousand a mile, Mr Donald Beid, Secretary of Land and Works, and a candidate for the Superintendency, was only saved from entering into a contract which would have cost one hundred thousand pounds more, through the prudent hesitation of Mr J. L. Gillies. Moreover, there is every reason to believe that had not the General Government entered upon public works construction, the Provincial Council would have been arguing about how to make the railway to this day, instead of having it partially working, and so developing the resources of the district that even now require more trucks to be sufficient for the traffic. As for the morbid fear of absorption of our land fund for Colonial purposes, such an argument as a reason for opposition is simply absurd. It is like the rest of the arguments-—an assumption implying that no such danger exists or can exist under Provincial institutions. The very fact that there is a strong feeling in the North towards the commission of such a robbery is one of the most powerful arguments in favor of the abolition of Provincialism there. At this moment the compact of 1856 can be confirmed : but experience tells us that Provincialism gives to landless Provinces temptations to political trickery, leading to a log-rolling support of Governments on disreputable conditions, tending to degrade statesmanship to a position of sale and barter of principle for the sake of office. Our Parliamentary history abounds with instances; and we shall .be inviting a repetition of such doings if we delay sanctioning a step that will fie made the m,eans of securing the land to ourselves. We can do it now : a few years, and it will be too late.

It is notified that the s 3. Hero is expected to leave Auckland at noon on Thursday, the 20th inst, Telegrams lor the Australian Colonies or Europe via Java Cable, will be received at the Telegraph Office for transmission to Auckland up till Hi a.m. on the 20bh mat. Telegrams for the same destinations will be received up till 10 a,m. on the same day for transmission per Omeo. from Hokitika. » At a meeting of the Council of the UniI varsity of Otago, held yesterday, Dr Millen Coughtrey was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Physiology. ‘Lake Wakatip Mail’ is informed that the Rev. J. Smith, of St. Peter’s Church, Queenstown, has forwarded his resignation to the .bishop, in consequence of having received an invitation to a Uving in England. The land behind Messrs Driver, Stewart, and Co. s stores, Rattray street, and on the training wall, were to day sold by Mr James Milner There were thirty-eight sections in all, each being about 21 3-loth poles; and the total sum realised was L1G,600-the largest amount ever realised in the Province by a one day s sale. In addition to the price except in the case of two lots, the purchaser has to bear the cost of filling in the sections, which would considerably enhance theilvalue. A report of the gate will be found m w coiuouh

Mr \\ iltshire requests us to state that he could have easily completed his bask of walking 1,000 miles in 1,000 hours within the specified time, but that owing to private reasons he was compelled to abandon his task. He is now open to carry out the original programme if he is guaranteed LIOO when he finishes; in the event of his breaking down of course he claims nothing. Mr Wiltshire is staying at the Victoria Hotel, George street, where he will give all reasons for not carrying out his advertised feat. Messrs J. Logan and J. Brown, J.P.’s yesterday visited the Dunedin Goal, lor the purpose of investigating (a charge of fradulent imposition against William Stanley, alias Burnett, alias Smith. The prisoner was received into the Dunedin Gaol on Sunday, under sentence of twelve months’ imprisonment, with hard labor, for two offences committed at Oamaru, The charge against “h® iu the present instance was that of obtaining T.fi la., and a watch and chain, on July 24, from William Hedlev, a newspaper runner in Dunedin, by representing that he was shortly to receive L 73 as wages from Mr Wilson, of Dungannon station. The accused, who came to the Colony in the ship Wild Geer, is a native of Berlin, and he pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, with hard labor, cumulative on his other sentences. “Augur,” writing in the ‘Australasian’ of the Bth inst., says ;—The New Zealanders Lurlme and Fapapa, both engaged in the Melbourne Cup, arrived in the Otago on Tuesday night. They did not experience a very pleasant passage, and I believe both horses were thrown during the voyage, but fortu ately neither experienced any serious injury. It is said that Lurline will go to Sydney to run for the Metropolitan, and the support awarded to her favors this idea ; but nobody seems to know anything of her future movements ; and as the visitors were enjoying a spell at Kirk’s Bazaar when I paid my visit, they could not be seen, so I shall have to defer any remarks as to their appearance. Lurline’s arrival has caused a run to be made on her for the Metropolitan, for which she has been backed to win about f/l,('00 at 100 to 7. Lor the double event, Metropolitan and Melbourne Cup. 5,000 to 25 has been taken about Lurline and Papapa, and various other animals have been backed with the New Zealand mare.

“The Stranger” was played for the first time this season at the Princess Theatre last evening, and attracted a'large attendance. So far as the representation of the principal characters was concerned, the effective acting of Mrs Hill and Mr Steele left nothing to be desired. Mrs Hill’s Mrs Haller wa< natural and unaffected; and as this lady never lays herself out to force, as it were, applause from her audience, when she succeeds in securing it, it redounds all the more to her credit At the termination of the second act she received an enthusiastic call before the curtain. Mr Steele, as the Stranger, played with great judgment, and in the scenes with Mrs Haller he proved himself to be the sterling actor we have always considered him. Of the subsidiary characters, Misj Willis’s Countess Winter sen, Miss May's Charlotte, and Miss Martineau’s Annette are deserving of praise. Mr Musgrave’s Solomon was very amusing ; while Mr Hooper’s Francis was a carefm piece of acting. Mr Keogh, as Baron Steinfort, and Mr Laurence, as Count Wintersen, were well fitted, Mr Love is improving ; his idea of the character |of Peter being a tolerably good one. Taken as a whole, the performance of last evening will bear favorable comparison with any that have proceeded it. M. B ,da’s performances followed, and were evidently well appreciated, the performance concluding with a dance by Miss Aiartmeau, which was encored. The Mistes Willis, May, an.4 Martineau take a joint benefit on Friday evening, when several novelties will be produced. An inquest was held yesterday afternoon, before Air Hocken, Coroner, on the body of Mr Anthony Hayzen, who committed suicide at three o’clock that morning. Evidence was given by Mr George Taylor Hayz-m, son of the deceased, Dr Fergusson, Sergeant Colder, and Messrs Sperrey, Weston, and Mudie. From the statements of these gentlemen it appeared that deceased, who lived in the same house as Mr Sperrey, had for some few days been suffering from a cold and low fever, and was slightly low spirited for him, he being generally full of fun and life. On Mor.day evening he had been playing cards at the house, during which time he appeared to be rather restless and forgetful, making ifmjsqal mistakes in his play, but he retired to bed without there being anything particularly noticeable in his manner. At twenty minutes to three, his sou, who slept in the same room as deceased, was awoke by the lather’s breathing very hard, and, on striking a light, he perceived blood on the wall and the bed. thinking his father had burst a blood vessel, he called Mr Sperrey, and Dr Fergusson was sent for. The last named, on arrival, found that life was extinct, and that there was a gash four inches long in the throat of deceased. In the pool of blood on the bed a pocket knife was foupd, geemiugly as it had dropped from deceased’s hand. It appeared that deceased had been dt inking father heavily lately, but, it was stated, not sufficiently to injure his health. This was the substance of the evidence, but the Coroner stated to the jury that he knew for a fact that deceased had about nine years ago attempted to commit suicide, and the foreman remarked that a previous attempt had been made by deceased, when at Inglewood, fourteen or fifteen years ago. The jury returned as a verdict that deceased committed suicide while in a state of temporary insanity.

A general meeting of the Dunedin Painters’ Society will be held in the IHibernian Hotel, to-morrow evening, at 8 o’clock.

Mr Kennedy and family, whose entertainments were so highly appreciated on their last visit, give the first ef their series of farewell entertainments at the new Temperance Hall, Moray place, to-morrow evening. They announce that they only purpose remaining nine njghts in Dunedin, so that there will not be much opportunity of delaying making acquaintance with them. We know of no better illustration and exponent of Scotch musicthan MrKennedy. Ho has studied its genius and peculiarities, and, by his pertinent invests ft with an interest, beautiful as many of the melodies are in theip is intensified by the explanations and reminiseuces ho recalls.