WELLINGTON.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 240, 17 March 1875, Page 4

WELLINGTON.

{From a correspondent of the Press.)

Wellington appears just now to be enjoying its dullest season. It may be that the wild and furious dissipation which, as popular rumor asserts, is indulged _ in here during the time when Parliament is in session, produces such a strong reaction that for the remaining months of the year the inhabitants hybernate like the bees, or Polar bears. By the way, I notice that the word “ Parliament ” which I have just used is the common appellation in this city for what less ambitious people in the other provinces call the “ General Assembly.” I suppose that the public officials, who apparently form the majority of the population in Wellington, conceive that they add an extra inch or so ;to their stature by using the most high-sounding name for the body which finds them their daily bread. For the rest, there seems to be no lack of business, in a certain sense. The wharves are crowded with, shipping, although the chief part of the cargoes, at least from foreign ports, is material for the public works of the colony.i I had not, I think, been an hour in Wellington before I heard the conversation turned upon the absence, and possible disappearance, of the - Premier, Naturally, the subject is one of interest to everybody in every province ; but here, where, as one may say, all the world lives by, through, or for Mr Vogel, his movements are watched with more anxiety than elsewhere. Telegrams from England have at last come to reassure us by the intelligence that he has been heard of in London. I notice, in consequence, a perceptible shortening in the faces of many public officers here, There are now three Ministers here, one of whom fills a number of offices on his own account, and besides acts for the Colonial Secretary, who is absent in Auckland. The fact suggests the question whether, barring the Public Works Department, and the peripatetic office (at present held by Mr Vogel), one Minister might not easily perform all the rest of the work. Officialdom would probably suffer, but. the public service might gain by the change of system. Although there is very great dulness in Wellington when one has reached it, there is certainly a good deal of liveliness on the journey to it. When I say liveliness, I do not mean that there is any degree of pleasure in the sea trip ; but the mind is, whilst on board the steamer, so constantly employed in dealing with the numberless aggravations invented bygthe company who undertake to carry the passengers that it has no time to sink into rest. Those who suffer from sea sickness are perhaps too much prostrated by that complaint to care about the other evils of the voyage. But even for them it is pitiable, and at the same time astonishing to see with what complicated ingenuity the steamers are made in the last degree wretched and uncomfortable. A crush always beyond their proper complement, dirt and stuffiness in every corner, and an utter failure on the part of all on board to attempt to do more than treat human beings like cattle. These are some of the little inconveniences to which the colonial public are subjected by the steiamship companies. For my own part, I have travelled scores of times between the various ports of New Zealand, and I can safely say that on no single occasion have I ever found an approach to comfort on board any of the coasting steamers. A commercial traveller who “shouts” champagne to the skipper and tips the steward handsomely, may get a berth for himself, and aa much attention as he cares for. But an ordinary passenger is sent on board by the agent without any inquiry as to whether there is room for him, he is pitched down on deck like a bale of goods, almost worse treated than a horse, and allowed to shift for himself in the best way he can. It is wonderful what an amount of ill-treatment an Englishman will put up with, In any foreign country the Government would take care that the shipowners did something for the money they receive. But here they do precisely as they like, and they laugh at the complaints they must hear from all sides, because they know that there is no combination, and that single remonstrances are too weak to hurt them. I have seldom seen a more deceptive town than Wellington. The visitor, steaming up the harbor, sees before him what looks like a well-built town. As he nears the shore the buildings appear still more imposing, and he begins to imagine that they are what they represent themselves to be. But a more fallacious notion is scarcely possible. His first quarter of an hour’s walk along the main street, or on what is called the “ terrace,” shews him that all this fair seeming is nothing but fronts of houses. Everyone here seems to go to great expense and trouble in designing and erecting that particular wall of a house which faces the street. All the resources of carpentry are brought into requisition thereon. But the whole of the rest is almost universally nothing but a hideous and, at the same time, flimsy structure of corrugated iron, and that, too, very often of the shabbiest sort. For a town which pretends to be the capital of New Zealand. I must say that this style of thing is a positive disgrace. Christchurch and many far smaller towns are more respectable than the metropolis. Wellington beats us in its number of fine fronts; but we are at least not so entirely given to “ frauds” (as Mark Twain would call them) in other parts of our buildings. In one respect Wellington has decidedly the best of it. The streets here are paved with properly broken metal, and not with those intensely aggravating round pebbles, which make pedestrians in Christchurch curse the City Council. The f ootpaths are narrower than ours, but otherwise quite as good. The mode of watering the streets is much better, but then they Lave advantages here which we can never Lave. The reservoir in the hills enables them to water the chief streets in a very short time by merely putting a hose on the plug in the roadway. In former days Wellington enjoyed the unenviable notoriety of being not only the windiest but the dustiest of towns. The wind is probably not much less than formerly, but the dust is not nearly as bad. A curious cise, which is exciting a good <3leal of intei eai here, has been decided by the Waste Lands Board of this province a clay or two ago. It is curious, not entirely for its intrinsic merits, but as showing how peculiar, in some respects, are the ideas of Wellington officials upon morality in public matters. Briefly the case was this. On a certain day the Superintendent acquired knowledge of the fact that Dr Buller, acting for his brother, intended to apply for 4000 sores of land in a certain part of the province. The Superintendent immediately prepared a proclamation withdrawing the land from sale. The proclamation, as it appears, was published in a Gazette

on Tuesday, March 9th, at 12.15. p.m. On the same day, at 11.30 a.m.,that is, threequarters of an hour before the publication of the proclamation, Dr Buller’s application was received by the Chief Commissioner of Lands. Mr Bunny, Provincial Secretary, on the same day, in the afternoon, applied, on behalf of the Provincial Government for 50,000 acres, including the 4000 asked for by Dr Buller. The obvious intention of this was to prevent the sale to the latter gentleman, as it appears that in the Land Office of Wellington, two applications received on the same day are considered as simultaneous. Both, in this case, were postponed for the consideration of the Board, which on March 12th gave its decision in the matter. The above being the material facts, the question seems to have turned, in its legal aspect, on the point whether the Superintendent’s proclamation, written on the Monday, took effect then or was powerless until half-past twelve on the Tuesday when the Gazette appeared. The Waste Lands Board, after discussion, decided that both applications should be refused.

But there was another phase of the question which has a somewhat wider interest than those I have just given you. So far the dispute simply affects the province of Wellington and Dr Buller, or his client. But I hear on all sides a great many complaints that in such a case as this the Provincial Secretary, Mr Bunuey, who had himself, in that capacity, put in an application for the land, should have taken advantage of his position as ex officio member of the Waste Lands Board, to sit as a Commissioner and take part in the decision on his own case. It is true that the Provincial Government of Wellington do not seem to be ever very reluctant to take every possible advantage of their position, or to jockey those who might be opposed to them, if they could. But so flagrant a case as the present appears, so far as I can see, to stagger even those who are used to the ways of the Provincial Government. I notice in the report of the proceedings that the Chief Commissioner went so far as -to give Mr Bunny, on one occasion during his argument, the lie direct, which does not, however, seem to have affected that gentleman in the least. Yet the Chief Commissioner and his colleagues made no objection when the Provincial Secretary first assumed the position of a lawyer, and pleaded his cause, and then took his seat on the Bench and gave his voice in his own favor. You will probably be able to judge whether in Canterbury so glaring a violation of decency would have been permitted or condoned, Even here I find that it has created a certain impression, for I hear the matter will be brought forward when the Provincial Council next meets.

The Colonial Secretary, Dr Pollen, has returned from his tour in the north, and the staff of Ministers is therefore somewhat increased. The news of the success of the Premier with regard to the four million loan has had a soothing effect on people here, though I hear many questions as to the conditions on whicli the money has been raised, length of debentures, and so on, concerning which the Government are, as yet, persistently and perhaps wisely, reticent. Amusement, as I have just now said, is at a low ebb at present. The Girards have arrived, and receive, of course, the usual amount of laudation in the papers, but their entertainment is not, to my mind, strikingly funny, nor altogether delicate. The Rev Charles Clark has by this time introduced himself at Christchurch, and the people will have full opportunity of forming a judgment concerning him. Here, amongst certain sections of the population, he appears to have been very successful.