Untitled

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 271, 16 May 1874, Page 2

It is understood that. Mr. Bastings-will still represent the Goldfields at the Waste Lands' IJoard.

Section 132, block 1., Naseby, has been set apart, by special vote of the Provincial Council, for a fire brigade station. A sthong Opposition, lias keen formed, including Mr. Bastings, Mr. Fish, and most of the Goldfields membeis. The Town Council:of Queenstown are enforcing strict sanitary measures. Notice is given for the 'removal of all pigs within the town boundaries.

The cose of Macassey v. Bell, for £IOOO damages for the public ition of an alleged libel, was concluded on Saturday evening last. The jury gave a verdict- for the defendant, on all the issues.

Ojf Saturday and Tuesday evening lost alarms of fire were again raised. In both instances—at Grace's Criterion and Gason's Commercial hotels—(he causa of the alarm proved to be foul stove'-pipes. At theßesident Magistrate's Court,Naseby» on Saturday List, b?f'ore fl. W. Stratford, Esq., R.M., John Duncan wns brought up en remand, charged with attempting.to steal gold from a tail race, and discharged.'' The works op tho Waipori drainage channel ifre being pushed ahead.with vigor. A correspondent to the '.Tuapeka Times ' states—that at present upwards of 140 hands are engaged. Men continue to arrive daily, and eadily find employment. A spectali meeting of the Naseby Municipal '.. ouncil was held on Tuesday last. Present: hi.* Worship the Mayor, and Ors Inder, Craig, and Ujorring. This raeet'.ng was called for the purpose of opening and considering tvn-. ders for work required to be done in Leven and Earn streets..' Only, one ,tendor . waslodged. After going.through the items it wss considered excessive. Sonnuliscussionensued, when it was moved by Cr Craig, seconded by Cr Inder, and carried, that fresh tenders be called for tlio required work ; to be sent in not later than one p.m. on '.luesdny, 26rh inst. At the sitting- of the Supreme Court on ■ Friday morning last, Mr. Macassey, who was in-the witness box, was rather jocular. He referred to the utterance of Mr. Hallenstein on. the hustings as being similar to the sputterings of an egg in a frying-pan. He also referred to the speech, on the same occasion, of Mr. Shepherd, which he (Macassey) denied on the spot as not being himself in any sense a participator in.—His Honor: Is that the celebrated S.hepherd?—Counsel: Yes.—His Honor: TChe.member?—Great laughter enr sued. Mr.-T. L. Shepherd, who. occupied a conspicuous position in the box facing the jWft

would require to be seen to be done justice to mental!). . Merit no longer can be said to be without recognition.- '' ■ -' The baznar in aid of the Naseby Chnrch of England Budding "Funds was openeil in th>* Masonic Hall on Tuejdiv evening last, and continued on the following evening. The interior of the building was nicely der-orated with flfigs and drapery, and the stalls presented an aopearance of having been arranged with taste and judgment. The hall wiis crowded on both evenings till a Lite hour The results must have been very gratifying to the.committee of ladies who worked so energetically in the' affiir, and the amount of support given by one and all must likewise have been highly satisfactory The following Indies presided at the various stalls . —No. I—Mrs.1 —Mrs. Williams, assisted by Mrs. Stratford aud Miss Williams ; No. 2—Mrs. M'Cluskey,- assisted by Miss \. Williams; No. 3—Mrs Nicholas, assisted by Mrs. Aschoff and Miss M. liaird ; No 4 —Mrs. Inder, assisted' by Mrs. James Brown, Miss K'ltie Grace, and Miss Ash ; No. 5 Mrs. Grumitfc, assisted by Mrs. Clarke, and Miss. M. Grr.ice ; No. 6 Mrs. Green, assisted by Miss JB.iird, and Miss M'Fadyen. The butcher's stall was presided over by. Messrs. Vickery and Botting The total amount realised on both evenings exceeds well looked after iy our local member of the bar.

We observe the Dunedin morning papers are alopting a-very wise plan of action with regard to the Opposition likely to spring up in the Provincial Council to the Executive as at present formed—very wise, indeed. It is this: To assume that there is a happy brotherhood feeling really at the bottom of each member's opinion with regard to settlement of the lands, and therefore, when the leaders of both former party side 3 coalesce, all opposition must be factious, or merely a personal one between the ins and the outs. What is the fact, however? In a clear and unmistakeable way the Government propose to obtain power to sell pastoral laud in blocks. Can such policy be opposed in too determined a form ? In our opinion, no more legitimate ground for opposition could possibly be raised. We hope-members will not be deterred from taking a firm stand on this point by any denouncements hurled at them by that portion of the Press who have had got all they wanted when, at their dictation, Mr.. Heid expressed such a strong intention to give the weight of the Government to the deepening of Dunedin harbor. That done, and an unlimited opportunity offered to pastoral lessees to purchase their runs at their own price, what more have our. Directors in High.-street to wish for ?

One feature in .the trial of Macassey v. Bell strikes us as peculiar an 1 unsatisfactory: Everyone appeals to the public and to public opinion.. Wow it is a witness—now. it is counsel either for the plaintiff or defendant. In a Court of Justice, such as the Supreme Court, this seems to us most unsatisfactory. The object of such, as of all Courts, is to elicit truth for the procuring of legal justice. 7f lawyers anl witnesses are to keep giving evidence and making statements to satisfy every whim of public opinion, cases will, in the future, be protracted to such a length, and cause such an expanse, that an endeavor to olitain- justice will be regulated by the length of the injured oae's such a result would stop. litigation, it might not be a bal one after all; bat that is hopeless. While the world lasts men will quarrol—either with fists, if without property,, or with law, if well to do. [n a young country, where money is quickly made, there is a disproportionate absence of charity and- concession, which is a direct incentive to protracted obstinate litigation. The appeals from the Court to the public we - speak of are, of co.rse, legitimate, or they would not be allowed. Nevertheless, the necessity that, we must presume, exists for such allowance is, in our opinion, to be regreted.

Of course the report of the Committee appointed by a public meeting held on the 4th of September la3t, to prepare information for general circulation, mora especially with the view of laying such information before the provincial Council now in session, could not be expected to be stamped with impartiality.' No sensible mortal; en lowed with an ordinary amount of sense, can fail to see that the end had hi view is a very desirable one. It Would be a great thing for Dunedin and a good thing for the country if all the large ships arriving at the Port were berthed alongside wharfs at Dune.lin. It is altogether a different matter—the enquiry whether such desirable end can be accomplished at an expense which would justify the means used. This, we submit, the Committee have altogether failed to prove. We readily admit .that any feat is to be accomplished by compstrnt engineering, skill; and, further, that the deepening of the. harbor is a very easy piece of work indeed—we would go further, and admit that the cost of such work is quite within calculation —but there we stop. There is not a tittle of evidencs to justify any approximation to an estimate of the annual cost of maintenance.' There are no data on which such an estimate can be based—at least, what data there are are very much agamst the assumption that the cost of maintenance would be a light one. From the formation of the sands at the Ocean Beach it is probable that, at no distant date, there was direct tidal action between the upper harbor and the ocean, cutting off the Peninsula. What tidal wave or other action caused the block up we cannot tell. The channel pro-' posed to be deepened is insisted on by the engineers who furnished reports to the Committee to be of a very soft nature. This fact would support a hypothesis that a silting-up natural agency has been very steadily and very rapidly going on. We believe we are correct in stating that very serious alarm has been, felt in Canterbury over the observed filling up of Lyttelton harbor—that- harbor, within observation, having filled up sum-' ciently to cause inconvenience to theshlpping. ■ The fact is well known that the pressure blithe east coast of ;New Zealand, 7 of the ocean, is so great as to make a considerable difference in the elevation of the sea on the east' and on the west coasts—a difference so greatas to cause very rapid currents to flow at the Three Ki :gs in the north, at Cook's Strait, and at the-Bluff in the' South.' This fact, togetherwith the immense depth, on a rocky bottom, of the west coast harbors, makes it a matter of reasonable conjecture that very great and recent changes are taking place on the east coast-harbors—a change indicating a very steady silting up.' The Forbury racecourse flat, the Taieri Plains, and.other similarly formed lands fnrther south all support, by their very recent formation, such a supposition. In our opinion no work of the kind recommended by the Committee should be : undertaken by the Provincial Government; on the security of Provincial revenues, if for' no other reason than that the Province is not provided vyithany data to judge of the permanency of "such works. The work is one that should be considered a Colonial question, and should, in honesty, have been introduced by the promoters into the House of Representatives. It is not right to iforce on such' a measure in a Council sitting in Dunedin, where Dunedin influence is brought to bear, and where the Press are obliged, whatever convictions they may have, to give such a measure their support. It will be a disastrous thing if our representatives consent to such a suicidal policy as would be indicated by large harbor works undertaken on the security of Provincial revenue. Security thus given, and power' conceded to the Government to sell pastoral lands in blocks, the public estate and future prosperity of the in- | terior of the Province will be signed and i sealed 5 away for.-evcr. As it was with regard I to the University reserves, runholders will fjLock,—especially- those whose j;un3 ore in,

danger of being settled upon—to get their leaseholds secured for harbor reserves, and then, under the sale of blocks system/secure them at their own price.