TOPICS OF TALK

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 230, 1 August 1873, Page 6

TOPICS OF TALK

So far from the General' Government having any idea of doing away with the miner's right and business license as an electoral qualification, they propose, in a Bill already introduced —called the Miners Franchise Extension Ordinance—to extend the qualification to elections for the Superintendency. "We hardly know how the consolidated miner's right will rank as a qualification. Probably the Trainers of the G-oldfields Bill contemplated the total abolition of the qualification. Mr Shepherd will certainly, endeavor to abolish it, with what result remains to be seen.

The Provincial Council Goldfields Committee have recommended that the new Bill,' after running the gauntlet of both Houses, shall, in its amended form, be held over till next session before finally being consented to, so that the Mining Associations may have ample time to see in what shape the Legislative bodies will be prepared to pass the Act. Of course, if this recommendation is adopted, the Bill may get altered again next session, as it would have to go through Committees the same as any other Bill; but still those alterations could hardly be of a very material character. The Bill has passed its second reading, and the Government may choose to let it pass, so as to be done with it.

The petition of the Kakanui Water 'Race Company has been considered by the Goldfields Committtee. The Committee, apparently recognising that the petition involved the whole question of water rights out of the Kakanui Kiver, would not undertake to deal summarily with it, but recommended that a Commission of three and the Provincial Solicitor should, enquire intothe whole question of rights from" this river—so that, if defective, the holders may at once know their position, and that, if valid, they may be declared to be so, in order that capital may be encouraged to develope the Goldfield at Maerewhenua. The petition was also referred to the Commission.

Some sixty-two motions were tabled on the " Supplementary Order Paper," for sums of money for certain works supposed to be omitted by the Government in framing their Estimates. In a few cases the Government may have overlooked a work that is really necessary to be done, and so a motion may be a bonajlde one, and stand for more than waste paper; but, as a rule, the motions mean only so many bids to constituencies. This year the Estimates are framed on a more liberal scale than usual, and it is not likely that any money will be" available to meet these* supplementary votes even if carried. So no constituency should think that £2OO for this, that, or the other, means anything like a handling of the cash because it is passed on the Supplementary Estimates.

The High "'School buildings are valued at £20,000, or at six per cent, a rental of £I2OO a'year." The total cost of the school for the year, including the above interest on value of building, is about £3,000, or nearly £3O a-head per boy. It becomes a * question whether this school is of value sufficient to justify it being made a charge against the Province. It is necessarily closed to country residents unless they have friends or relatives in town with whom their boys can board, or unless they are wealthy. It is broadly charged against the school that it is a class school, and only used by those who will not let their boys mix among the common herd in the district school—(Mr Pish, said, the dirty little boys). Well, if so, surely they should pay a fair rate for the education of these precious boys. Certainly the Province would reap a greater benefit by spending this £3,000 per year in supporting grammar schools in the interior of the country. So far as the High School has gone, it used to teach classics moderately well, and English and everything else not at all; now-a-days it teaches .classics badly, English badly, natural science badly.

and arithmetic pretty well. Put all* this is hardly'worth the money. , The Government has intimated, hr the Opening Speech, that, among other measures to be introduced into the ; . House of Assembly this session, is one to amend- the bankruptcy laws of the Province—not to amend merely, in the sense of a sheet containing a few clauses rendering all that has gone before more obscure and complicated than even it is at present, but to con-, solidate and lay down clearly in one general Act the law between debtor and creditor. Why this should be a matter of such complicity.is not easily apparent. It is difficult to arrive at simplicity in anything—difficult, but not impossible. An argument often adduced in favor of very liberal bankruptcy laws is, that it is better that ten rogues should be benefitted rather than that one honest man should be oppressed. Granted ; but is there any reason why the rogues should benefit ? Could there not be a discretional power in the hands of the Court to protect debtors from needless hardship? The Judges at present exercise this power in carrying out the criminal law—the boy, carried away into error by momentary excitement or without consideration, is dealt tenderly with, and the confirmed lag gets his due.' If " Mills " view were carried out no man would ever be relieved from a debt once contracted until he paid it —not to be detained in prison, where he would be helpless to help himself or his creditors—but that his liability as between man and man should only be removed in one way, and that way being a repayment of the debt. It is hard to judge the right, and perhaps still harder to be charitable with those who have taken advantage of the law to. ride in carriages at the expense of their original "creditors. The new Act, as it becomes developed, will be watched very jealously. One thing is certaiu, that no. law can be much worse than that at present existing. -

The-.'New Zealand Herald' concludes an able article advocating the abolition of imprisonment for debt, as follows: —." Before dismissing the subject under consideration, we desire to point out a singular anomaly in the law which permits the incarceration of the body for an unpaid money claim. If a creditor obtains judgment against a debtor for a sum of £lO or under, the creditor can demand an order by. which the debtor is sent to gaol at the. expense of the Provincial Government, %'dt should the. debt exceed £lO by ever so little, he must pay 12s. 6d. per week for the debtor's maintenance, so long as he remains in durance. If there were not gross injustice in connection with this extraordinary regulation the contemplation of it could not but afford amusement." "Whether this is the law or not, there can be no doubt that making the class of debtors who have not sufficient ingenuity of brain to protect themselves by the various artifices so well understood by some rank with, criminals, is a gross ; injustice, and should be at once done away with. Probably such total abolition will not materially influence the abuse of unlimited credit. Very few tradesmen give credit with the idea that they will be protected by the threat they can hold out of bodily incarceration, but rather on the goods or property the debtor presumedly has on which to foreclose. Practically, there is hardly such a thing as imprisonment for debt now-a-days. Certainly, the sooner the law sanctions the actual practice the better. It may simplify the relations between debtor and creditor—rat any rate, it will place them on an understandable footing.

The resolutions passed by the Provincial Council, proposing to change the management of the Dunedin Hospital, could not be expected to. pass without considerable discussion. It was also very evident from that debate, that those knew best where the shoe pinched. The members of constituencies who support no hospital were great for conserving Provincial institutions. Southland members, on the contrary;—-who, out of 644jpatients admitted to the Hospital, only' sent four very liberal in the reforms they

proposed. A good deal was said 'about' the country benefitting, by the great number of country cases that were received, it being almost a prevalent idea that the Dunedin institute was one large Country Hospital. The last report furnished by the Provincial Surgeon lets in a little light upon this. We find, then, that fifteen patients only, out of 644 admitted in fifteen months, were from up-country District Hospitals, and only fifty-two altogether, including the fifteen, from the districts supporting hospitals and surgeons. . Fifty-two out of 644. Of course the Taierij "Waikouaiti, PalmerI ston, Waihemo, and ...formerly Oamaru districts send down a good many (111). Nevertheless, 361 cases were admitted from Dunedin and suburbs alone. There can be no doubt that the Hospital would be better managed under a local Committee. - Dunedin cries out, because she is asked to pay her share of the total cost of the Hospital, It is unheard of! It is monstrous! After all, what is she asked to do ? The whole cost of management for last year was £4,754. Supposing that, as chronic cases can be kept in Dunedin cheaper than in the interior, and that they are subject to an influx of patients from beyond the seas—eighty-one being admitted through the last fifteen months from Port Chalmers, and classed as seamen and passengers from vessels —supposing, we say, that the Council subsidise the money locally collected at the rate of £2 to £l, then Dunedin, Taieri, Waikouaiti, and Port Chalmers would only have to. collect about £1,500. Surely this could be done without being felt if the machinery of local Committees were once fairly started.

Aw effort was made lately to rectify the abuses of the ' Provincial Ga'zette,' : and make it, if it is to be a charge upon the! country, a really reliable authority, It, however, met with no support, so the Province stands committed to expend £I,OOO for another year, to circulate freely, at all sorts of irregular dates, a mixture of land sales, lioad Board notices, Municipal bye-laws, Orders in Council, and other people's private advertisements. An Auckland contemporary, writing on the subject, says:—"Judge Johnstone is so heretical as to disbelieve in the publicity which is given to announcements made through the -' Piovincial Government Gazettes.' On. Thursday last three of the grand jurors did not answer to their names, and they were fined. Intimation was .given to the trio of absentees other than through a G-azette notice, and consequently they were speedily assured of the fact. They appealed against the on the ground that no sufficient notification of the sitting of the Court had been given in the newspapers. The Registrar stated that notice had been given in the ' Provincial Gazette,' the Government refusing to allow the expense for advertisiDg in the papers. His Honor at once remitted the fines, stating that very few persons read the i' Gazettes,' and that a newspaper was the proper medium, for public announcements. How much money, we | should like to be. informed, do ProvinI cial Governments annually lose by not ! more widely informing people of the. land sales to take place. * The frequency of complaints oh the parts of land buyers will form some ' criterion that the amount of loss is much greater than any expense likely to be incurred by giving publicity through the daily I journals."