THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1881. THE STATE OF THE HOUSE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2260, 30 June 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1881. THE STATE OF THE HOUSE.

All bodies of men, when not under strong excitement, or when not ruled by a strong hand, have an innate propensity to waste time. George Eliot is reported to have been constantly depressed by reflecting on the enormous waste of power that is going on on all sides of ns. Gould the late gifted authoress have forecasted such a scene as took place at yesterday afternoon’s sitting of the House, the thought that would have arisen in her mind in consequence would, in all probability, have reconciled her to her own somewhat premature decease. For a more useless and idiotic debate has never taken place or a more lame and impotent conclusion has never been arrived at, within the walls of any Legislative Assembly, It entered into the head of a Government whip, regardless of the annoyance and trouble he was giving to his party, to ventilate a question on which he should most certainly have come to some sort of an understanding \yith the said party. Had he taken such a course ho would have been furnished with ample reasons to prove that the plan ho was advocating was totally impracticable. For oven if the principle involved in Mr. Hursthouse’s resolution could, if once admitted, be confined to railways, and could not be applied, as Mr. Hall suggested it might well be, to all public works, still it is very evident that, under existing circumstances, there is not the remotest chance that the country would accept an arrangement which would give birth to endless heartburnings and complications of all descriptions. What Mr. Hursthouse suggests is that those districts through which Government railways have been constructed, or are being constructed, should be rated to pay the difference between the working expenses, includiug interest in cost of construction and receipts from euch railways. Mr. Hursthouse, as we take it, led off with a fallacy. He said that the proposal was part of the original public works’ policy as adopted in 1870. But that policy was entertained when tho Provinces were in existence, and the various portions of the main lines in tho several provinces wore to be treated provincially. Canterbury was to pay any balance to tho bad that might accrue in Canterbury, and so on. Certain portions of this province could cortainly not bo said to bo benefitted directly by tho main lines, as meant by Mr. Hursthouse. The whole railway system of Canterbury to the east of tho main range was proposed to bo in charge of this province. But does Mr. Hursthouse suggest that tho whole of euch an extended range of country is tho district through which tho main lino passes i Tho idea is ridiculous on the face of it, and we can only wonder that no member called attention to tho real state of the case. In point of fact, the principle which Mr. Hursthouse says was evolved

in 1870 is totally inapplicable to main lines. It may do very well for those lines that are not main lines, bat it can go no farther. Mainni»eajtro_hirtit foi the benefit of the country at large, and .should be treated as such. And Mr. Hursthouse, having started with a misconception, proceeded to flounder still deeper in the mud. Ho laid down the theory that it was possible to upset the arrangements that have been existing for eleven years. How, as Mr. Hall pointed out, was the House going to decide what lauds had been bencfitted by the railway expenditure ? The utter honlcversemcnt of the whole existing system would follow, as certainly as night follows day. If a district was to bp rated for a certain purpose it would most assuredly demand some voice in the expenditure of the funds raised therein. Mr. Hursthonse’s motion was one of a doctrinaire—of a gentleman totally unable to grasp facts as they exist with all their attendant advantages and disadvantages. Mr. Hursthouse was not in the House in 1870, or ho might then perhaps have raised his voice, we do not say with much chance of success, but with at least some show of reason. But there were other things at that time that might have claimed his more serious attention. • For instance, he might have proclaimed on the house-tops his astonishmet at the sight of a Minister of the Crown standing in the centre of the House and inviting applications for railways. Ho would then have had an opportunity of grappling with solid facts—or wa might say solid scandals—instead of with airy theories. But with reference again to the spirit in which the House received Mr. Hursthouse’s motion. Speaker after speaker rose to his legs, and either scouted the proposal altogether, or said that it was inopportune. And yet finally the motion was carried. And now that the resolution has been passed, what next ? We venture to predict that nothing more will bo heard on the subject, except, perhaps, for purely party purposes. The scheme is recognised by both sides of the House to be utterly foolish and impracticable. The Opposition papers all over the colony will, no doubt, make the most of the opportunity, and declare that the Ministry is on its last logs. But people in general are little likely to agree with them. The Ministry may be careless —perhaps somewhat culpably careless—but nothing beyond that. A man in a bad state of health is not usually careless as to what becomes of himself. He regulates his diet and mode of living with extra care. The Ministry are not kept in check by any show of an organised Opposition. The position has its dangers indeed. Individuals in health often come to a violent end out of pure recklessness. If the Ministry dies, the verdict will be “ Accidental Death,” and not “ Death from Natural Causes.” The Grey Ministry, for its part, after a short career of riotous debauchery, died in a fit, brought about by its own indiscretions.

PETER ROMULUS AGAIN. Eveet community has within its bcuncn’ies a detachment of the battalion of Busybodies, who are the free shots of society, and whose chief occupation in life is to annoy the enemy —that enemy being all mankind. In their ranks are the tattling backbiter, who slaughters the reputation of his naignbor; the /torator, who from a lamp pedestal bellows for high wages with a lito of case, and the psuedo philantrophiet who parades in the columns of a popularity hunting newspaper, a spurious doctrine for which he steals and abuses the name of charily. All these are earnestly engaged in the work which their master still finds their hands to do. They are every where : we have them in our midst and hear of them, in one role or another, every day wo live. Powerful as they aro to mischief, it is a merciful dispensation of Providence, however, that they aro not always successful in their machinations. Of the discoveries which from lime to time they announce, many turn out to bo mares’ nests, and some of our particular quid nuncs have lately been routing up a lair of that description. There has been much talking and scribbling done with the professed intention of moving the generosity of tho public in favor of a man named Peter Romulus, who has just been sent to gaol for twelve months for vagrancy. 'Their avowed object is to obtain his release and admission to a charitable institution, while from their tactics it may be inferred that their equally pressing desire is to hold up to public censure the magistrate by whom ho was sentenced, whose fault has been the refusal to furnish the man with more comfortable and honorable lodgings. Tho man, as will presently be shown, is no stranger here : full particulars of his career have been frequently published, and we mention this fact to point tho remark that, throughout his difficulties, his present champions never sought him out to relieve with open-handed liberality his necessities. That method is not in their creed ; they do not believe in tho charity which would compel them to put their hands in their own pockets. What they do believe in, is behaving with the utmost liberality- at the expense of somebody else. The story of Peter Romulus is not an inviting one j the tolling of it cun do him no good, and will not edify any one else. But after the misrepresentations that have been put forward it is necessary in the interests of justice, and in the vindication of the character for fairness and humanity of the gentlemen who sit on tho Christchurch Bench, to dispel, by a relation! of facts, tho halo with whicti it hue, to some extent, been surrounded. They aro briefly these. Ho has been convicted at tho Resident Magistrate’s Court, Christchurch, nineteen or twenty times. Seven of these convictions wore for drunkenness, two or three for lunuey from drink, and the balance for vagrancy. He has been an inmate of tbe Lunatic Asylum twice, when suffering from the effects of dissipation and the hardships attending it. Ho has been admitted to the Ashburton Old Men’s Home once, and to the Barracks, in Armagh street, twice. Ho left those places of his own accord, end his behaviour, while there, need not bo particularised further than that it was bad. He is not an “ old decrepit” man. Ho is of middle age, strong, and if not active, at least capable of hard work, for which ho has an aversion that he has at times not hesitated to candidly to avow when ways of getting work have been pointed out to him. It has been said that hie limbs are partially paralysed, but, speaking advisedly, we shall, until medical testimony has boon brought to prove the contrary, take the liberty of saying that it is with tho paralysis of sloth, it not of a deliberate abandonment of tho manly and decent attributes which invest humanity. At any rate, if unable to work, ho was quite able at one of his arrosto to offer considerable resistonce to the police, for which indeed he was duly punished. The above is a plain, unvarnished tale, and i>e verification can b--- round in the records of tho police department. If, after studying this view of tho case, Mr Oliver and his friends “laudably persist " in demanding the amelioration of tho punishment, in tho order* ing of which twenty Benches of Magistrates are to some extent implicated, ail we can s'y is, we wish him and them luck in their undertaking.