THE Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addiclus jurare in verba magistri FRIDAY, 6th MARCH, 1874.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1556, 6 March 1874, Page 138

THE Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addiclus jurare in verba magistri FRIDAY, 6th MARCH, 1874.

Perhaps the most promising feature in the prospects of this Colony as regards immigration is to be found in the fact that ifc has attracted the attention of the Agricultural'Laborers' Association in England. The Chairman Delegate of the Oxford District of this Society, Mr Christopher Holloway, arrived in Dunedin by the Mongol on the 19th nit.; he was immediately " interviewed" by the energetic reporter of the Guardian, and the result of that interview, together with a brief description of Mr Holloway himself, were promptly placed upon record, under a series of sensation headings, in the most approved American style. From the account of this interview we gather several particulars of general interest and importance. With the nature and object of the Association represented by Mr Holloway, most of our readers are familiar. The overcrowded and miserably paid agricultural laborers of England, under ths leadership of one of their own number—Mr Joseph Arch, a man of remarkable energy and ability—have recently turned their attention to emigration, as a means' by which the condition, both of those who leave their native land and those who remain, may be improved. This course being fixed upon, the first question naturally is—what field of emigration offers the greatest advantages ? Queensland was the first Colony to co-operate with the leaders of this movement, and has succeeded' in establishing a steady and rapid flow of immigration from the agricultural classes. Canada followed, offering special advantages. Mr Arch visited that Colony in person, aad the Government gave nim a pledge to give a free grant of 100 acres of land, with five acres ready cleared, and a cottage erected, to any industrious laboring immigrant—the cost of clearing the five acres and building the cottage to be repaid to the Government by easy instalments. This tempting offer has drawn a stream of immigration to Canada. Favorable as are the terms offered by these two Colonies, Mr Holloway, on the grounds of superiority of climate and resources, confesses to a prejudice in favor of New Zealand. He considered that the reports he had heard of its advantages, if they could be verified to the laborers by the personal observations of one of themselves, would so influence them as to " cause a stream of immigration to flow to this Colony that would place it among the foremost nations of the earth." Communicating these views to the Agent-General, Mr Holloway was met. in a liberal spirit His expenses to and from New Zealand, and also the expenses of a four months' sojourn in the various Provinces were to be defrayed, Qn condition that he found two hundred

emigrants to accompany him. Mr Holloway acceded, lectured on the subject, and raised 335 emigrants, of whom 126 accompanied him in the Mongol, the remainder following in the Scimitar, which arrived in Port Chalmers yesterday. The Provincial authorities in Otago have recommended Mr Holloway to stay one month in that Province, so as to thoroughly examine its capabilities. He will then visit each of the other Provinces, and we hope that when he comes to Hawke's Bay he will receive every assistance from the Provincial authorities. If he finds this Colony what it has been represented, he says he will find no difficulty in supplying it with " able hands and willing hearts. 1 ' Mr Holloway has kept his eyes open as to the treatment of immigrants to this Colony. " The present system, or the way in which it is carried ont" he truly remarks," is faulty in the extreme. I have several suggestions to oiler to Government which,.if carried out, will materially increase the comfort and well-being of the immigrants during their lengthy voyage from England to this country." By the Mongol also there arrived an Irish Magistrate, Mr Vesoy-Stewart, of County Tyrone, who is on his way to arrange for a special settlement of immigrants from the North of Ireland to settle on favorable terms in Auckland Province. The visit of two such men gives reason to hope that an influx of immigrants of the right kind may soon set in to this Colonv.

On the occasion of the Hon. John Bright's restoration to health and return to public life, a congratulatory address was presented to him from the Birmingham Auxiliary of the United Kingdom Alliance. In this address the views of that body were forcibly set forth—-that the late enormous increase of intemperance, and consequent increase of crime, pauperism, and national burdens, was owing to defective legislation in the past, which had fostered the liquor traffic; and that the evil being incomparably the greatest in the land, and assuming still greater proportions, it became the duty of every lover of his country to place the question of its reform above the exigencies of party. Looking upon their proposed remedy as the only one effectual to meet the evil, they appealed to Mr Bright to lend his aid in this important work. Mr Bright returned the following curt reply : Rochdale, Sept. 21, 1873. I have receive the address from the Executive Committee of the Birmingham Auxiliary of the United Kingdom Alliance, and have read it with the attention it merits. I am very sorry to be obliged in any way to differ from so many of my friends, for whom I.have very great respect, but I do not now see my way to act with them in the matter of the Permissive Bill. I hope the cause of temperance may not suffer, although we cannot work together on the same line. I shall be glad if you will convey my thanks to the gentlemen who have signed the address. John Bright. It will be observed that in this reply he does not commit himself to any statement of his own views; he makes no attempt to combat or deny any of the premises submitted to him by the Alliance—lie simply says '• he does not now see his way' ; to act with them. But Mr Bright did not long maintain the reserve which he showed to the Alliance. Strangely enough, the very information which the Auxiliary failed to elicit from him, he soon afterwards gave in reply to an inquiry from a private elector—a working-man who addressed him on the subject. The correspondence, which is interesting, we gave in full in another part of to-day's issue, and commend it to the careful attention of our readers. At the outset, Mr Bright, as a statesman, takes a singularly hopeless and helpless attitude. " The evils seem too vast for any known remedy, and I know not who has courage to attempt to deal with them." As he goes on, however, it transpires that he is more than half a convert to the views of the Allience. He fully acknowledges the magnitude of the evil, the injustice of forcing it on an nnwilling community, and the right of local option. But he does not approve of appealing direct to the people, believing that public opinion is liblc to fluctuation, and he does not wish another excitement in the shape of a popular vote added to the many electoral excitements already existing. He would therefore take the licensing power from the justices, and place it in the hands of a popularly elected body such as a committee of the town council —thus giving popular control to the country as it were at second-hand. Obviously defective as this suggestion is, wc mark with pleasure Mr Bright's acknowledgment of the right of the people to decide this subject for themselves, though it be at second-hand, through their electeed reprentatives. It is but one step, and a short one, too, from the decision of the question by the representatives of the people, to its decisionby the people themselves.

The subject of the new licensing Act is attracting general attention in this Province. AVe have been written to for copies of the Act and the Gazette containing the proclamation, but so far as we are aware, they are not to be obtained in Napier. We therefore publish to-day a summary of the Act, a copy of schedule F, the form in which any objection to a licence must be made, and the boundaries of the various districts. The great extent of the districts in this Province will very probably defeat the object of the Act so far as regards the bringing of {public

feeding to bear against the issue of licences We think it would have been better bad the direction of the Act been implicitly followed, and the Road Board district or Provincial electoral •district boundaries been'adopted as the basis of division. There is no doubt, however, that a respectably signed protest against the issue of a licence to any particular house or houses, on the ground that they are notoriously illconducted, especially if specific instances can be alleged, will weigh with the licensing boards, even though the twothirds majority of residents may not be obtained. K * The parties who agitated for the opening of the Dunedin Athenamm on Sundays have for a time, at any rate, triumphed. Dunedin has long been the hotbed of religious and anti-religious strife, ■ aad in this latest conflict two widely difiiereut classes—the so-called "freethinkers" or "secularists," and the "Spiritualists" both of which muster strongly in that city, have doubtless made common cause against those who would uphold the sanctity of of the Christian Sabbath. The Guardian says:—"lt is quite clear, as well stated by Mr J. T. Thomson, that the Athenamm has been made the battle-ground of parties whose quarrel extends far more widely, and is far more deeply seated, than anything affecting the opening or shutting of that Institution. It is plain that there has grown up for some years past a small but active and well-organized knot of persons, whose objects extend far beyond the Athenajuni;—that these people come to its yearly meeting with their plans well laid, their purposes defined, and their entire ticket quite settled beforehand. Hence the success which attends their designs. That this small knot of persons are using the machinery of the Athenicnm for the purposes of propagandist!! we have no doubt, and that when the time is ripe they will not stop there we have just as little doubt. Those who may differ very widely from the views of these people, and who may now consider them sufficiently formidable to be worth serious opposition, cannot be a moment too soon, for of a truth these gentlemen are prompt as well as not over-scrupulous." A late Australian telegram tells us that the Launceston riots have ceased, and that the obnoxious railway rate is being peaceably collected. The editor of the Hobart Town Mercury (who was threatened with a long rope and a short shrift by the lawless mob) calls for justice to be vindicated in the punishment of the ringleaders, and the Press generally very justly echoes the cry. No sympathy can be felt with those who sought in so violent a manner to resist a lawful impost. Special railway rates may yet have to be collected in some parts of this Colony; and should such unfortunately be the case, we hope they will be readily forthcoming, the fact being borne in mind that popular clamor has been consistently in favor of the railway expenditure. e A Newspaper war is famishing amusement to the Gisborneites. A week or two after its establishment the Herald placed a standing notice at the head of its leader, to the effect that it had now attained the largest circulation of any newspaper in the district and parts adjacent. The Standard in its next issue took the same means of informing the public that having attained by far the greatest reputation of any journal within the same limits for unflinching adherence to the truth, it deserved the support of the whole community. The local Road Board about the time decided that one paper would afford sufficient publicity to their announcements, and being economically inclined, called for tenders. The advocate of the truth prevailed, the " largest circulation'' having tendered too high. The latter cm public grounds protested against the announcements being confined to a paper of such limited circulation, and offered to insert the notices gratis. Touched by such generosity, the Chairman of the Board, between whom and the Standard there is an old feud, informed the Herald that it should " share the benefit of the tender," and be paid for all the advertisements at the accepted rates. The Standard, having taken the advertisements at a low rate per inch, does not cramp them, but gives them good display and plenty of elbow-room. The Herald compresses the same notices into narrow compass, and exclaims, " Mark the difference ! " Five papers a week arc a good many for a little place like Gisborne, and it is probable that if the journals did not quarrel, they would die of sheer ennui. <>. The stupidity of Borough Councils is marvellous. In Wanganui the local body has had pegs driven in public thoroughfares, which endanger the lives and limbs of her Majesty's subjects; and a gentleman complains in the Chronicle that in his own paddock at night he dare not ride except at a walk on account of these landmarks!

Mails close for Wairoa, per Fairy, this day at & p.m., and for Poverty Bay, Tauranga, and Auckland, per Murray, this day, at 2 p.m. During the next two or three weeks there will be no scarcity of excitement in Napier and its neighborhood. The marksmen who are to compete at the great annual trial of skill have already begun to arrive, and preparations at the range, which is situated in a large paddock of Mr Tiffen's, at Greenmeadows, are, we believe, now complete. A committee has been formed to make arrangements to give the Colonial representatives a fitting reception, and a handsome sum in subscriptions for this purpose has already been collected. His Excellency the Governor is also expected to pay us a visit some time this month, and will no doubt be received with due honor by the loyal inhabitants of Napier,

We would draw attention to the anniversary tea-meeting of the United Methodist Free Church Sunday-school, 'to take place on Tuesday evening next. Church of England services will be held (UY,) on Sunday, Bth March, at Pukutapu at 11 a.m., and at Meanee Church at 3 p.m., with administration of the Lord's Supper at both places. The Inspector of Police has received information by telegram that Colonel Herrick's house, Forest Gate Station, Kuataniwha, was burnt down on Wednesday night. In the Resident Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, Patrick M'Laughlan and Christopher Richie answered to their bail on a charge of drunkenness and also on a charge of being unlawfully on the premises of Mr T. R. Cooper on the evening of the 2nd inst. As both men made their appearance in'a state of drunkenness, they were remanded for twenty-four hours to the lockup. Bernard Shevelyn, an old soldier, was brought up on a charge of lunacy, and remanded to this day for medical examination. He has been under confinement previously on a similar charge. W. H. Torr, of Petane, was charged with a breach of the Wholesale Spirit Dealers' Act of 1870, having sold two gallons of spirits without a licence. A Maori, to whom the liquor had been sold, was in Court to prove the charge, but the offence was not denied. Mr Cornford, who appeared for the defence, argued that his client, having paid the £1 for a permit to the General Government, thought he had fully complied with the law; and that he had repeatedly and openly sold his goods wholesale.—The Inspector of Police, who conducted the case, was very sceptical as to the ignorance alleged.—The Magistrate . said that ignorance of the law was not supposed to be admitted as a ground of defence ; however, as it was possible that the defendant had not wilfully violated the law,iie would impose the light penalty of £2, with £3 costs; cautioning the defendant at the same time against any repetition of the offence. On Wednesday, James Dougherty was committed as a lunatic, two medical men having duly certified to his being non compos mentis. Richie and M'Laughlan, remanded from the previous clay, were each fined £l. John Boyle, for drunkenness with aggravating circumstances, was fined £l. Yesterday, James Tobin, a young man, recently employed as seaman on board the Clematis, was fined 5s for being drunk and disorderly.