The Evening Star. MONDAY, APRIL 5, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3779, 5 April 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star. MONDAY, APRIL 5, 1875.

It ia very difficult to understand the true objects Mr Charles Fellows and Mr J. G. S. Grakt had in view, when the one penned the article that was published in * Fraser’s Magazine,’ and the other wrote that tisane of falsehoods which found its way into the ‘ People’s Journal.* Even if by a stretch of charity beyond what most men are capable of, it could be imagined they actually believed what they said, they might be pitied for their lack of wit, but it would be matter worthy of consideration whether or not it was for the interest of society that they should be confined henceforth in a lunatic asylum. Under present circumstances it would be charity to put them in one for their own sakea. Both, should they see this suggestion, will be very wroth, and most probably will bluster about British freedom and the liberty of the Press. They should remember that the words freedom and liberty are profaned when used to assert a right to publish falsehoods or perversions of fact. Society claims the right to restrain a dangerous lunatic lest one or two individuals should suffer in person from his violence; but the lying pen employed by aberrated minds to blacken the characters of public men or damage the reputation of a country, although doing infinitely more widespread injury, is allowed uncontrolled license. We have an instance in point, at any rate so far as Mr Fellows is concerned. The Melbourne ‘Age,’ seldom sound on questions of trade and finance, has eagerly seized on his essay and based upon it a violent attack upon the credit and finance of Mew Zealand. Like Mr Fellows, the writer of the article in the * Age ’ finds it necessary to reason from postulates in order to prove his point. His object is to show that Mr Yoobl has not succeeded in negotiating the 4$ per cent, loan on favorable terms, and that instead of 93 he should have obtained 98 or par for it. This somewhat startling proposition is attempted to be proved by assuming the value of Australian 5 per cent stock to be 107$—an imaginary price th at neither Victorian nor any other Colony has the felicity of realising. In corroboration of the view of the writer, MrFELLOWs’s articleis quoted, the superior financial position of the Australian Colonies never harassed by war is dwelt upon, and the boast put forth of Victoria’s revenue having been all expended on public reproductive works. We suppose the writer forgot that notwithstanding all these advantages the Victorian 4?per cent, loan was a failure, and had to be withdrawn from the market, and, moreover, in his boast about railways* did not remember that the main trunk railways of Victoria have cost seven times as much per mile as the railways of this Colony. Ridiculous as these fools’ theories are, the misfortune is that the world has not the means of refuting them; and therefore, unless their falsehood ia demonstrated on authority superior to that of the libellers, the injury they are calculated to inflict may be done. Luckily Mr Vogel has hastened to expose the fallacies of Mr Fellows by contributing an article to the same magazine in which his fables were published. We have no doubt the proprietors of ‘ Frazer’s ’ must feel annoyed at having unwittingly been made tools of to serve the purposes either of profit or malevolence of one that now stands exposed as unreliable and misanthropical. So far as Mr Fellows is concerned, retribution has followed quickly. His unfounded pretensions to financial skill are laid bare, his superficial knowledge of New Zealand is demonstrated in fact his reputation for reliability is gone. Henceforth he must choose some other literary path, for none of his political crudities will find their way into journals having any care for their own reputation. He will have to confine himself to details of fact in time to come, and possibly such an exercise of mind might have a beneficial effect in leading him henceforth to delight in truth, and to indulge less in imagination ; or he may contrive to interweave his immature theories with the narration if some love story, and thus be enabled to indulge in fancies that may amuse throughthoir extravagance, though they fail to convince. Mr Fellows’s building has fallen upon his own head, and his reputation lies crushed beneath its fall It is difficult to say whether, in this particular instance, the benefit to the Colony through Mr Vogel’s masterly and temperate reply may not far exceed the injury Mr Fellows might have done had he not been so ably answered. It has afforded the Premier an opportunity of explaining many circumstances connected with the finance of New Zealand that were only partially known both at Home and in the Colony itself. It is a plain statement of facts put into a clear and comprehensible form. It blinks none of the difficulties that New Zealand has had to pass through, it conceals nothing regardxng its of finance or its liabilities j but! shows in a most convincing manner that there is no reason for apprehension in • ™ ure > ai *d that, with common prudence m the conduct of its affairs, New Zealand must rise rapidly in wealth and importance,

and _at no distant date take a high position among the foremost nations of the earth. Mr Grant’s punishment is yet to come. He has vilified men and women of all classes, in both their public and private reputations, forgetful that they have the remedy in their own hands.

We are authorised to state that Mr John Armstrong has no intention of contesting the seat for Waikouaiti in the General Assembly. By the fire at Orepuki on Thursday last the Victoria Insurance Company lose L7OO, the amount of their risk on the stock aad the South British Company LIOO on the building. Fifteen minutes after the fire was discovered the building was in ashes.

A well-known offender named Frank Rmmerson, belonging to the order of the chevaliers d'industrie, was received into the on Saturday evening, from Oamaru, sentenced on the 30th ult. by Mr Parker, R.M., to six months’ imprisonment with hard labor for stealing (at the recent fire at Oamaru) <even pairs of boots, of the value of L 5, the property of Mr George Anderson, Oamaru. The opening services of the Primitive Methodists were conducted yesterday morning and evening in the Temperance Ball, by the Hev. J. Ward, of Timaru. In the evening the large hall was completely filled by a very attentive congregation, who appeared to appreciate the rev. gentleman's able discourse. We understand the hall has been engaged for twelve months.

A cow, the property of Mr Trerise, Blue ''pur, gave birth to three calves this week. One of the triplets died shortly after birth, but the remaining two are strong and healthy. This late addition to the bovine race is something extraordinary, the cow having given birth to four calves within twelve months.

We hear that Mr Alexander Stevenson, whose services have been se efficient in the Dunedin Post Office, has taken temporary superintendence of the Post Office, Invercargill. His absence from Dunedin will probably not extend over more than a few weeks.

The only business at the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Port Chalmers, this morning, before Mr Mansford, R.M., was three oases of drunkenness. Richard White and Nicholas Edwards were each fined 5s or twenty-four hours’ imprisonment; and Herbert Gamble, a seaman, belonging to the ship Rangitikei, who had been locked up since Saturday night, was discharged with a caution.

Thelower parts of the Princess’s were packed on Saturday, even when the programme of the previous night was repeated. As Mercy Merrick in the “New Magdalen,” Miss Howard played excellently, and was specially effective in the scene where, exasperated by the taunts of Grace Roseberry, she declares her to be an impostor and a madwoman. Tonight “Lady Audley’s Secret” will be played. “ Prompter ” informs us that Mr and Mrs Hoskins reappeared in Christchurch on Friday evening in the Jealous Wife,” and “The Serious Family,” and were cordially welcomed by a full house—a welcome which the local chronicle describes as “ alike kind and genuinely enthusiastic.” Called before the curtain, Mr Hoskins toek the opportunity of expressing the pleasure he felt in regaining the shores of New Zealand, and declared that he sincerely hoped he would never leave them again. The racing stock of this Province has received a valuable addition in the shape of Rory O’More, the well-known hurdle and flat racer. He is a bay gelding, seven years old, by Obscurity, out of Kate Kearney, by Romeo out of mare by Rory O’more (imp), and was the property of the late W. C. Winch, at the sale of whose stud in Melbourne, on the 22nd ult., Mr H. Veend purchased him for 325 guineas. At the same sale Calumny was offered. She was started at 200 guineas, and went up to 625 guineas, at which she was passed in, the reserve bein'* 650 guineas. Rory O’More arrived here by the Omeo, and was landed in fine condition The Reformatory will require still further enlargement, if Mr Britton’s establishment receives additions at the rate they have been made at lately. To-day the Bench at the City Police Court sent there, for seven years, an infant in arms, and from Riverton come four young children named Oimook, who had been brought from the Groper’s Bush district, having been deserted by their parents, who are supposed to be of the criminal class and connected with the late robbery at Chapman’s. The eldest girl, aged ten years, has been sentenced to four years’; Thomas, aged eight, to six years’; Albert, six, to seven years; and Alice, the youngest, aged two and a-half, to seven years’ incarceration in the above institution.

In acknowledging the receipt of copies of resolutions passed at a public meeting held a * * Gr purpose of urging on the Provincial Government the necessity of an immediate survey of t!;e line of railway to Orepuki, and of the lines Otatau to the Night-cap Coal-fields and Orepuki to the Waiau, the Provincial Secretary writes that “ owing to the difficulty of procuring the services of qualified surveyors, the progress of the railway surveys has been much retarded. The Government have now secured the services of a qualified officer to assist the District Engineer, and it is expected that surveys and estimates of the lines sanctioned by the Provincial Council at its last session will be prepared in time for submission to the Provincial Council at its next session.”

The Milton pettery works are so far a success that, to extend their operations, Mr White, the proprietor, has determined to throw the concern into a company with a capital of L 30,000, taking himself 800 paid U P“ 10® shares for the property and goodwill of the business. At the shop o! Mr Hislop, jeweller, Princes street, is now being exhibited a fine sample of the work turned out by the Milton Works. It consists of a medallion executed in clay, representa nature-like group of flowers, comprising the rose, china aster (doab'e), lily «f the valley, forget-me-not, fuohiia, cowslip, moss rose, crab blossoms, and the flower of a New Zealand climbing plant. The Canterbury ‘Press ’ has been unfortonate m its denunciations of the railway management of that Province. Instead of the L 4,000 loss it anticipated for the year Mr Maude is able to show an actual profit of L 12,159. The‘Times’ compares the railway revenue of 1874-5 with that of the previous year, and tells us that in the former there is a profit of L 20,000 as against one of L 25.000 made in the latter. If the old rates had been maintained, the present year would have shown a profit of L 32,000. This, leaving out of view the effect of any loss there may be inthe working of the branch lines, and ignoring the question of the carnage at half rates of General Government material. The percentage of expenditure for the year 1873-4 was 72.56. Had there been no reduction in the rates in the year just ended, the percentage would have been 75.91. The increase of wages for the latter year must not be forgotten. The Government, like all other employers of labor, have had to adopt a more liberal scale of pay. The difference between the two years, against the second of them, is somewhere between L 4,000 and L 5.000, whereas the difference of percentage, 3 per cent., as shown above, amounts only to L 3,600. When this, and the extension of business, necessarily unprofitable at first, is borne in unity? it will be seen that the result is in no way discreditable to the present management.

Almost a unique ease has been decided very recently in Naples by the Court of Appeal there. A young married lady died recently, and her husband naturally desired to bury her in his own vault. The father, however, claimed the right to inter the body of his daughter in big own family vault, on the ground that she had born her husband no children. The case came before the Tribunals, and, it having been decided in favor of the husband, the father of the deceased lady appealed, and gained his cause. The advocate for the appellant, Signor Correra, in conducting this remarkable case, supported it by arguments from ancient and modern and natural law, as also from the Bible, and had his labor rewarded by victory. The case has so interested the lawyers that an allegazione, published by Signor Correra, embodying his views, has already reached the second edition.

The woman’s question has at Gundaroo, S A., reached a phase far beyond any it has yet touched at any other part of Australia The ladies of Gundaroo have in the most matter-of-fact way given a public dinner to one of their number about .to leave the place for more retrograde regions. A lady occupied the chair, another the vice-chair, and the ordinary loyal toasts having been given and well received, the “lady president” proposed the health of “ The Guest of the Evening, Mrs Styles.” Later on, the health of “The Originator of the Movement, Mrs Holdsworth,” was given, and was “very feelingly replied to.” Amidst the general good feeling which prevailed, the inferior sex was not wholly overlooked, and “ The Gentlemen ” formed the subject of a subsequent toast. This was acknowledged on behalf of the subordinate part of the human race by a Mr A. Affleck, who appears to have been very sensible of the greatness and vast importance of the movement at which he was permitted to assist.. At the conclusion of the speeches it seems that some concession was made to masculine weakness and frivolity, as we read that the tables were then cleared away, and dancing bejan. It is evident from the report of the proceedings that the great reform, which in other places is only the subject of speeches, lectures, letters to newspapers, or unexpressed yearning, is at Gundaroo an accomplisned fact, that the tables have been turned upon ty r ant man,' and that his political and social subjection is being rapidly effected.

In the January number of ‘Prsser’appears a paper entitled “ The Settlement of Vineland in New Jersey,” which reads like a romance. It is written by C. K. Landis, the founder of the settlement, who, in 1861 selected a track of about thirty thousand acres or about forty-eight square miles in the wildest part of New Jersey, on a railroad which had just been completed but did very little business ; there established an agricultural manufacturing, commercial, and educational settlement, and by the universal adoption of a local option law which has succeeded in freeing the district from drinking places of any kind, has lived to see the population increase in 1873, to 10,600 contented people. A valuable jpart of the paper is that in winch the question is of sewage, and upon it Mr Landis writes s—“l introduced earth closets—simply a sliding box under the seats and a keg of dry earth, or generally a compost of muck and plaster which was thrown into the box and used with a little shovel, the whole of it to he emptied once a week. This kept it thoroughly deodorised, and the manure was almost immediately suitable for use upon the land, and at the end of the year amounted to considerable value. In the aggregate, in the whole settlement its money value was very large. I had a law passed making it finable in the sum of two-hun-dred dollars to dig any cesspool that would possibly reach the water level of the wells. The sewerage was managed in this way: the farmers disposed of it by running it in receptacles for liquid manure. In the town it was disposed of by running it through a box holding muck, sawdust, and sand ; the water would run out clear, the filtering matter would retain the fertilising properties, and after a certain time would be emptied and replaced. Vineland is probably the only place in the world where all excrement and sewage whatever is economised j and the large crops raised are in great part owing to it. The saving to the people amounts to many thousands per annum, and no difficulty has been found in carrying out the plan. The central village has a population of 4,000 people, and as you walk through the beautiful little town no noxious smells will ever assail yon. The remarkable health of Vineland is no doubt greatly owing to this cause. Other towns in the neighborhood that live under the old system are greatly troubled with fevers and epidemics. If the same system were adopted in London, you would have something more valuable than all the guano beds of the Pacific, to keep up the value of your lands. The saving of life would be very great, and the plan is perfectly feasible.”

In future the Pioneer Lodge, L0.0.P., will hold weekly meetings, commencing to-morrow.

Mr A. Barrett will deliver a lecture on Elocution” in the Temperance Hall on Friday evening.

The quarterly summoned meeting of the A.O.F. Court Pride of Dunedin, will he held in the South Australasian Hotel on Tuesday, the 6th inst., at 8 o’clock. The usual monthly meeting of the Standard Property and Investment Society will be held at the temr orary offices of the Society on Wednesday evening. A Band of Hope meeting was held in the schoolroom, Oaversham, on the 2nd instant, when Mr Morriss, of Momington, addressed the meeting, and explained the objects of the Society. Fifty children gave in their names as members.