TOPICS OF TALK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 263, 21 March 1874, Page 3

TOPICS OF TALK.

JTiib Dunedin ' Star' asks—" If in tweuly years a population averaging 40,000 have destroyed 28,000 acres of forest, how many acres will an average . ponuljifcion of 150 000 use, destroy, and export in tho next twenty years Our contemporary goes on to say—- " We know it is a puzzler, because ■■■■■■■railways will be made into the hearts of the forests, and sawmills will cut up and utilize the timber in geometrical ■proportion; so that tho most skillful arithmetician wou'd be unable oven to approximate to the trdth. Our conclusion is, thembre, the sooner we bagin to plant the better for our succes sorK, to whom we are bound to hand down the estate unimpaired." How nice.and tantalising all this timbertalk is to our poor, desolate-looking Goldfields. How can we, who never \,B,ee a tree, get enthusiastic about the preservation of forests ? and yet it is /. true .the waste is .enormous. Lei the. forests be opened up, by all means, . and a. check put upon indiscriminate felling—but look a little beyond exporting. Before we export it would be politic, as it cannot help being just, to 1 supply our own people, settled in local tics where New Zealand timber is only a; dream ; where £7 to i £lo : .per, ton has to be paid for cartage even on firewood where timber is, abovti all , things, needed to develop gold-mining by protecting tunnels and shafts; and where the great expense, owing to the ■cartage, is a sufficient incubus to check all attempts to develope the deep leads so reasonable to expect on every field where sluicing is carried on on the false bottom, and proved, as at Blacks, to exist in rich and fairly constant deposits. ' The proper .complement to lines of- railwAy to the heart of the forests is—lines of railway from thence 1o the "e'ntres of the unti'mbered plains of the interior.

By the last mail nevvs was brought which seems to justify a hopo for more activity in the Emigration Department; under the'control of the Agent-Gene-ral, Duri'-g December ten ships were despatched with" emigrants, and eleven more laid on (a sail in, Jan. and February. Preparations are being made for the departure of about 2,500 souls per month. A bold move this, on the part of the Government; one, too, that is much to be commended, but will need careful watching. The greater partof theyo immigrants are coming under j false ideas to their new country—ideas j thfit must naturally be materially i sobered by hard fact, and can be yuided j bv wise care and forethought into at i ' any rate suitable safety , valves and i * conductors. Without such -guidance the elements of serious mischief are in- i separably bound up in a system of artificial iiitrodumcm of,, for the most part; uneducated men into a country h where monopoly holds already so great a sway, and with a fair promise of con- , tinuapce. The University troubles, eo far as • rivalry is concerned, are, iat an.end. At the instigation of the Canterbury College, a conference was lately J h'eld in llunedin between a deputation from ' Christchurch and the Otago Council. A scheme of joint affiliation with the !New Zealand University was deter- '- n.ined upon —all freedom of management beiug retained: It is hoped that by this concession on the part of Otago, her University will receive . tnore pecuniary assistance, which' the Nuperiritendenc computes as some £SOO a-year. His Honor wrote to the Conference giving his own opinions, aR also those of his' Executive, which were clearly against affiliation, though not obstructively so., The following is an extract from the letter : , i Superintendent's Office, Uunedin, March 9, 1874. Sib,—referring to the subject of our interview on Saturday, I have the honor to state that the question has been very fully considered by my responsible advisers and my < self, and that we are unanimously oi opinion that it would be unwise for the University to relinquish any of the powers and "/.'"privileges' which it now possesses, unless Dunedin is. to be the seat of the University of Wew Zealand, as was fully intended by the Colonial Legislature when it passed the Uni versity Act, 1870. At the same time, should the Otago' University Council and the Pro ,■ ;■=» feasors decide otherwise, the Government is k prepared to acquiesce. I may, say that we are unable to see arij t great advantage which would accrue to th< University from affiliation to the Uni versity of New Zealand upon the terms pro posed, excepting the acquisition of £SUO i year out of the annual Parliamentary gran' -—a consideration which seems to be acarcelj an equivalent for sacrificing its independence and so far sinking its iiidividuality. More over, we cannot lose sight of the circum stance that the Otago University •_is v thi older of the two in point of origin, and thi only one of the two which is fulfilling th< functions of a University—consideration which we feel assured must sooner or late Weigh with the Colonial Legislature in dis tributing .the funds of the Colony, toward which Otago is such an important contribu tor. T.he only other advantage from affilia ~ tioii would be, that graduates might obtaii degrees by virtue of Colouial instead of Pro vincial legislation. This is a matter upoi which we think too much stress is apt to b laid; for, After all; deg'reeg aj-e in themselve comparatively unimportant,'and the Univei Bity-which imparts to its students the high ' est. intellectual and moral culture vyill be th • one the.degrees of which will be most highl prizkl, under whatever authority they ma •V oe granted. The Government feels pei '' fiuaded that, if extrinsic value to its degree is any desideratum, the Otago University hs only to continue to aim high, to make prov frion for residence of both professors and eti dents within its walls, arid it'will in di tirr.o \x. recognised by the, Prpwn, irreepc' the of (ha Wow Zealand; Urfiyejsity. The opinion thus exiuWaed was ovei . rulv'd by the Council; Profei (•or*, ccnafquptitly thq-'affiliation —f lur, at- lenst; as Cnntorpury and Otnfi are < oiuemed--has f b'«it-la'determine uicn. a* 1 ; ■' \V in v. .d'fllj we hfar't fie last of Ca tain konzie and'-his interminab c]uj'd:s for cbrnpei:»fuirii. In lieu"

compensation—which the present law apparently entitles him to demand, for land given up for settlement —he was allowed to obtain the unopposed grant of a picked block of 1,800 acres at £1 an acre —a block that, judging from recent auction sales, would probably fetch from £2 10s. to £3 per acre. Now, he comes into the Waste Lands Board, and still the cry is, Compensation ! compensation ! for my want of obstructiveness! we suppose—for there, can be no other claim. No wonder Mr. Bastings' patience was exhausted, and he ' gave utterance to his feelings —" It seems that if the occupation of these blocks by settlers rested with the squatters, there would'not be much chance of many _ settlers remaining The Government, in that respect, are thwarted at almost every step." No doubt the squatters only take advantage—in self-protection, as they think —of the lasv. But.it must not he for-

irotten, in justice, that it was their influence in the ' Assembly, and'more particukrly in the Leg'slative Council, that made the law what it is.

We wish to place on record a discovery .made by Canon Kingsley, of an instance in which stays were of benefit to the .wearer: —'• fcijnesius. Bishop of Greece, about. a.d. 400,1 ells, with much hupior how, going back, I think, from Alexandria to Greece, he was wrecked on a desolate shore, where all had to live for some days on little else than shellfish. All, that is, save one slave girl* from the far East—most pro-/ bably a high caste Hindoo—who had, like many Hindoo women, a waist artificially deformed by stays. And when the ladies of the country heard of the girl with the wonderful wasp waist, they sent for her; ' laughed at her ; . and' sent her, as a 'show, from house to house,; but so led up and petted the poor thing meanwhile, that she was the only one of the ship's crew ■who did not grow as lean as a scarecrow. Aijd this," says Mr. Kingsley, *' is the only instance which I have ever read in which stays were of the slightest benefit to the wearer.