The Globe. WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 914, 30 May 1877, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1877.

Tlie result of the conference yesterday between the members of the Drainage Board and the Committee appointed at the recent meeting at Mr. C. Clark’s rooms, is in every way satisfactory. The opposition have practically got all they asked for; the Board have retired with dignity from the false position they had taken up, and the professional credit of Mr. Carruthers will be in no way injured by the course adopted. We congratulate Mr. Ollivier and the Committee on such a satisfactory termination of their self-imposed labors. They deserve the thanks of the community for the ability and tact displayed by them. They have secured the rejection of Mr. Carruthers’s scheme, for the plan now before the public is to be referred back for amendment, or is to be submitted to a local Board of Engineers. The estuary is to be kept pure, and the amended scheme is not to include the removal of night-soil by means of underground sewers. Before any steps are taken to carry it into execution, an estimate of the cost is to be prepared and submitted. Finally, Mr. Clarice, of Melbourne, or some other eminent engineer, is to be invited to visit Canterbury and report upon the amended scheme, before it is adopted. We think the Board have acted wisely in agreeing to the last-named course. We have always felt that it would have been a very unwise thing to have done to have committed the district to a large and unknown expenditure upon drainage, on the authority of only one engineer, however eminent he might be. Again and again during the last few months we have urged the adoption of this course. Several of the speakers at the late public meetings, notably Dr. Frankish, have also insisted upon it, and we are pleased to find that the Board now look upon the proposal as the proper solution of the question. When this is done the ratepayers will no doubt feel that the best advice within their reach has been taken, and they will therefore be prepared to abide by the decision.

According- to yesterday’s telegrams the Government are not altogether unmindful of the defenceless state of the colony. It appears that for some time they have been in communication with Sir W. Jervoise and Col. Scratchley, with a view to obtain their professional opinion on the defence of the New Zealand harbours, and it is probable that those gentlemen will visit this colony, after reporting upon the Victorian fortifications. This is, of course, as it should be. But what are the Government doing in the meantime ? We must wait, we suppose, the arrival of those experts before we decide upon the exact nature of our harbour defences ? But guns and torpedoes are necessary, in any case, and should be in readiness. The Government, for anything we know to the contrary, may have already taken steps in the direction we suggest. If they have, it would be well to make the public acquainted with the fact, as it would tend to relieve the apprehension which naturally exists on account of our defenceless condition.

It is time the general public took a more active interest in the proceedings of the Acclimatisation Society. In yesterday’s issue we called attention

to the appointment of a committee to suggest amendments in the Protection of Animals Act, in the direction of making its provisions more stringent; and we protested against the creation of a set of laws aiming at the protection of the previlegod few at the expense of the many. The efforts or the society of late have been chiefly directed to the importation and preservation of game of various kinds. Pheasants and hares are already becoming perfect pests in some parts of the colony, and the sooner their protection is removed the better. The damage they are doing in the neighborhood of Christchurch is very serious indeed, for thousands of young trees are annually destroyed by them. At yesterday’s meeting of the Acclimatisation Society we notice that the sum of £l5O is to be spent upon the importation of black game from home. Should the efforts of the society prove successful in this case, and black game become plentiful here, our farmers will have cause to regret the result. Black game have a great partiality for the tender shoots of young trees, and pay frequent and destructive visits to corn fields. But what do the members of the Acclimatisation Society care, so long as they provide amusement for our would-be sportsmen.