Mannamatu Herald. TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 1890.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 1 April 1890, Page 2

Mannamatu Herald. TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 1890.

; Blot or Fun? For some weeks past a most uriyeoeasajry fu a has been made about , (he.' toll gaje near Wellington, and much ta'l talking and writing ba< been indulged iu. The ourioas part of the . whole agitation h, that the people who pay the tolls have made

the least row, aud the citizens of Wellington and thoir papnrs have urged the deluded people to the disgraceful acts they have beett. guilty of. We are not iu fuvott* ot U\\- ' gates, and desire v\#£ \\\ U (ill to see such clumsy Sources of revenue swept away, and in the veiy commencement of the discuHsion about the toil-gate xve pointed out that the proper course to pursue wa« to ap p9al to Parliament, as they having made the fo\\\ where theory one's capable of ahiendih^ it. We can Sefe now that tile ta'fc afcthe vatftyus meetings abon* Voting tne legality oflevYsn# kails was <i blind to permit thy inciting of badly disposed persons to deeds of violence, and it ha» been successful. Residen's, of Wellington drove out to-thWW butaida meetings and flidrelsed them, the papers p"ub\iahed in the City cried down the action of the -Hntt County Council, and some members of the City Council moved resolutions objecting to the gate ! A late" ai rival in the Colony .wou'd imagine that this " bar" to trade wps a new invention of the «ounfcry settlers, erected to hurt the proßre.^ of /the Empire Ci|y,!_i>ii therefore rather amusing.. la :linow tiiat thi? inhabitants o» Wel'inplott jave anSered the er.3c.tjon of this gate for more than taentv one years! That -the^ gate stood where the inhabitants of Wtllington desired it io be, because the spot was conveniently situated to for 'q every spttler , living on tlie West Coast and tluL.WairaTOpa, . to. pas The , g» te is a relic of th at much 1 loved Provincialism which en » bled; the principle town in each Province | -to suck the bloQil out of the fcountiy, j for the advantflge of themselves, and this toilgate was a fitting monument of their selfishness. It ma-V bo flint 'J now they have b com« ashamed of thiirold policy of uo'ation, and we hope so, hut th ropposi'iou chiefly BTi^eafroin he fact th it tli* abolition of tolls will make no difference to tho ravenue of the City, a-' on the formationof the Counties, the sra-e passed over to the Hntt Coimeil. I' is cheap patrioti>irn to cry " <lown with the tolgate " as the rats, to recoup the losb ofthe tolls, his to be 'ound by the neighbouring l'.ndow iers and not by the town. The n^ed for the removal of the old gate arose from the fqroaation of tHe; new 'borough ofOnsW, as the Act specifies* that no toil cau be erected within one mile of a Borough. The people made a little mistake, ias they imagined, on the old gate being removed the Hutt Council- Would not erect other?. Their impatience, and the reckless writing of others, moved them to commit .*, discreditable, and illegal action in the destruction of the old gate, at a time when the County bad a, perfect right to levy tolls.' The only excuse offered by the press for this rowdyism, was, that the Govermnen* were to blame for not having gazetted the boundaries of the borough of Onslow sooner ! There w>\s no attempt made to show the perpetrators of this Act that their conduct was most indefensible, and amounted to riot and disorder, a- id thus for want of caution, these individuals have been le.l from one crime to 'nnother, redu'ting at la3t in the disgraceful scene that took placo on Thursday night. One newspaper reported the proceedings in a very jocular manner stating that " whispers passed through town as rppidly as by electricity that some fun might lie expected before long " The italics are our own. Then as regards the fir3t attack it states, apparently quite uncomsious of the cowardice of the proceedings "here the solitary policeman, aidel and abetted by a toil gate keeper, made a, strong remonstrance and put a bold fron]fc pn the .defence, but the army of two saw that open rebellion agfrinst an iavading;foree of 100 was a hopeless task " and yet further, the policeman at the second gate" drew his reyolyeft and said with firmness " ." The first man who attempts to damage the gate will be shot" This beligerent 'challenge drew forth unites Irom the crowd, and they pressed on ; but not a mtw. was hilled nor a .single shofe fired " Was there ever such a report before ? the whole wording ia to ho!d ap law and order to ridicule and rowdyism to praise. The paper says, a crowd of 100 3miled, because a policeman in the execution of (his duty threatened to shoot, if he had done so what wou'4 have been ihef result ? probably three or four of the crowd would have been killed, also the policeman, and yet tb««e risks made men smile. How many of th^se larrikins would hnve bad the courage to stand up man to man to this constable who was only to blame for doing his duty ? but in a crowd of 100 the majority could " smile " because the ohanoes were 100 to 1 against the polioeman. A nice cirowd, and a credit to its neighbourhood 'and its leader-i. For some reason this report was anything but a true statement of what occurred and from the report furnished by the two constables there was evidently no " fun " and nothing to caUße a ft amile " but the whole reads like the worst riot that the Colony bas ever witnessed. The erowd went dissuiaed, at night, with blackened faces, they pelted the gate houses with' stories, assaulted constable Mnrphy, nnd five or six men held him dowp, and the crowd indulged in the "fun" of yelling 'Tie him up" and "cut him down.''

They treated constable Webb even worse, shouting " Ghtir} the ,!)-—■ do^i>' "gjjijft tiie b-^heM ;> whilst m^M% $M Waving axes dWrftaMaa. Can anything have gone further without murder? Of course , now. all the papers object to " the shameful rioting," and " it iB quite evident that the destructiou <jf tlie tollgates aud houses was ndnieie protest against a Siip^dsed illegality, but Vras an act of wauton mischief " ThBN;Z Tim^ whtek \k* " fun " diid « k m\\§§ '■ report is of WllfSS tlie most deniliiciato yin its leader, which 1 is amusing'y contrudictory. Among some of its remarks it states. " It is deeply to be regretted that a gang of r'duglia ikdtitd have beett permitted to larnish this Wpuiation. We canuot bring ourselves to, believe that the respectable residents of Ngahauranga and John■onyille were ainohg the actual rioters of. Thursday night, or that they consciously countenanced such conduct." "Why does the Times saddle the re- . spoctablo people ofthe two townships with .being the only parties to th'e riot, when the constable's evidenoe showed that the " blackboys " fled in trap* " some HutLwards, some up the Ngahauranga gOi^e* Wtile several came' towards town '' lington). Tho Riot is a lesson for all to learn that disorder mus- beput 4own at the very first exhibi ion, yet we have a paper like the Wellington Times [expressing , surprise at its growtfk,. whilst ; 4u>ing the" past few weeks it has been detailing the com* mit{,ftl,p£.th6 -destruction of the toll' ga*es twioft previously, and also ro* ported many meetj^gs at which very watmand intemperate language has heen used, without its having made even «n attempt at a warning. We have litt'e hesitation in believing that, those who aced at the first destruction of the tollgate. have been assistiug at all others, and so will all reasonable people, and fiat theiconduct has been getting worse, because they have begun to learn -their power, and gaimd confidenc •• by tho absurd'way r.-spectahle people have spokeu pf their acts. We trust that the $£\iit County Council w : ll a~:»iu re-erect the gates, and caU upon the Government to give them sufficient protection, as nothing .would be so sjgnaU^ dangerflus to the preservation of brdti', than the signal of such conduof being successful. We very much |fear th*t the devil raised by foo'isli ia king and writing will be be hard to a^i I, 1 and we shall f expect to hear.pf much more serius casua'i ties before the mob learns to give H to order. Let tlio blame however be put on the right shou'ders, as ,it is not the people, tht performers ir. these acts that have done so much wrong, 'but -those who have quietly 'approved of their acts, but withheld their persons. Tho crowd 'fwi'l however soori lenrn that they wil'. have to suffer, and also be re|>udiatt>d in thehoiir'ofneel, by their leade.s.