Untitled

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1514, 21 December 1872, Page 2

Tim Upper House at Sydney rejected 1 he bill to abolish newspaper postage.

" Echoes from the Bush " is the heading under which the following appears in the columns of a South Australian journal. The writer says:—"l have a great mind to give up writing Echoes and take to .statesmanship. It, certainly seems the easier trade of the two I have been immensely struck with the harmony that reigns in the Legislative Council as to the propriety of unlimited borrowing, and 1 only regret that Mr Morgan should have been so obstinate as to wake any objections to the obvious wisdom of this policy. I accept it abso lutt'ly ; and against the time when I go into politics I have carefully stored up these maxims. Whenever you want money for any public purpose whatever—borrow ! When taxes run short —borrow 1 When there is a deficiency in the revenue—borrow ! When culverts are worn out on an old line of road, and you want to replace them—borrow ! When .£1,200 will improve the gradients on a road that scarcely anybody uses borrow 1 When unmade roads can be patched in places to serve for a year or two until the work can be properly clone—bor row 1 In short, borrow for everything, and let who will pay the piper. In one respect 1 must venture 10 differ from one or two hon gentleman who approved of this policy on the ground that (hey had known many young men to prosperity by borrowing money as the colony proposed to do. My experience in different from tlrk J hhve certainly known young men stl-c* eeed who borrow mOiley to ili\est judiciously, but when they f?pt4id it so as to ieave them nothing to show in return, they rather have a way of coming lo grief. Perhaps, however, it is a peculiarity of the science of statesmanship as practised in South Australia that we are able to spend borrowed money on temporary matters, ami yet be none the yoortt ai'tevw&itW

THE ALABAMA CLAIMS. The English Tory journals? arc Witter over the result of the Genera arl.itration. The Advertiser says: —"What a farce has been played at Geneva, where England is adjudged to pay tribute to a bully who repudiates his own obligations. America is not contented with the settlement of the claims against England." The Herald breathes defiance to, and hatred of America, and says :-—" Of course, had the arbitrators decided upon a larger sum of indemnity, England would pay it. If they had awarded nothing, America could but show her teeth. What humiliation next awaits us?" Tbe Standard comments upon the award in a similar strain, and says—"We went to Gene va for justice and reconciliation, but instead met with the invectives from the American counsel and a partially adverse award, dictated rather by a desire for compromise than by equity. The whole proceedings in connection with the arbitration are entirely unsatisfactory to England." The Eight Hon. W. E. Forster, in an address to his constituents, at Bradford, said that the object of the Geneva Tribunal was not merely to preserve peace, but to preserve friendship between England and America. Such friendship did not exist before the settlement of the Alabama claims, and the state of feeling was such that it might at any moment have caused war. Forbearance on both sides had been necessary to bring the dispute to a settlement through the slow process of negotiation. By that forbearance alono England got rid of the indirect claims. In conclusion he said that the decision at Geneva not only gives America £3,000,000, but gives peace to both countries, with new international rules of the highest value, besides establishing a precedent that cannot fail to be beneficial to all nations.

Chancellor Lowe, in a speech at Glasgow on the Geneva Award, expressed the opinion that it was unnecessary and uuusual for arbitrators to give reason for their award. The arbitrators had no power to lay down any principle of international law. The tribunal was not constituted for that purpose. He did not believe that England was bound by the principles which guided the arbitrators. He thought the necessity too ratification by the Senate of the United States of every treaty with a foreign power was a most dangerous and perplexing difficulty. But he hoped England would enter upon a new eia in her relations with America, an era in which all jealousies and animosities would disappear, and that the two nations would contine themselves to rivalry in the work or extending civilisation and peace.