TOPICS OF TALK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 272, 22 May 1874, Page 3

TOPICS OF TALK.

It ia a matter for some satisfaction that the Provincial Council agreed to the formal recommendation being passed—as to the advisability of the gold export duty being reduced—because, by our importunity, we may some day weary out the, General Assembly to agree to the ultimate abolition of an indefensible exaction. At the same time, the affirmation, without a division, of such a motion does not mean much. We prefer rather to wait the practical resolution to be brought forward when in Committee of Supply. Gold duty is, under the' Gold .Duties Act, allocated to the Provinces conditionally upon each Province paying for the administration of its own Gold fields. . The revenue is specially classed as land revenue, and consequently it" is in the power of each Province to do exactly what it likes with ' it. If the administration of the. Goldfields in Otago exceeded the revenue derived from gold duty, we could not urge the abatement of a single sixpence as a right, although it might even then be shown to be politic. As it is, we find the, Province reaping a handsome balance of something like £B.OOO. which was never intended by the' Colonial legislatme. The motion we refer to' to test this question asks the Council to agree to' a reimbursement, at the Customs, to the exporters, of sixpence an ounce. This plan was first mooted in the ' Mercury,' and in its crude shape we hardly saw how it could be worked out; but we are free to admit that, having studied the matter more closely,' can be no doubt there is no practical difficulty in the way, except the will of a majority of the House. That we cannot count upon, but may fairly hope for. The effect of a motion , so carried would be to make the banks offer, owing to the competition that has happily started among them, an additional sixpence-to each seller of gold, and in that way the producers would-reap the benefit. Probably, before we go to press, the motion may have been dealt with. "Whether lost or won, this seems the direction practical attack should take towards the reduction' of the duty, and we, are fairly indebted to the conductor of the ' Mercury ' for first publicly .pointing it out.

One of the most wearisome cries, we. should*.think, to politicians, must be that of having; changed opinions, either of certain definite principles or certain persons'! : We see, in debates of any interest that are reported, such a line' of argument starting up from all sides —whether from the Government -benches or from the'leaders of Opposition. What does it mean ? The person using such a line of argument abundantly proves that he, if seriously in earnest in trying to prove his own rigidity of consistent expression from his early days when firot emerging into. public life, can be no true man. A true man cannot be a consistent man. A true man, with the least liberality of opinion, is weighted down by the amount of truth always becoming increasingly conspicuous to "him on the other side. Then, if he does not modify his views to meet' the new views of liberal truth presented to him, he can.uot.be a true'man, although, no doubt, wonderfully .consistent'. Then this cry of, Oh, you said this two years .ago ; now you say quite different; therefore you are .dishonest and umvorthy of confidence, is to our mind a most false assumption of infallible opinions that no average man outside a madhouse can truly claim fco possess. If such a phenomenon can be found—a man ; who sprung, Apollo-like, endowed with all mental critical acumen when he reached his majority, or when, for the ijirst time, he addressed a constituency

—our nh'W is that he should be bottled ami sent to the charge of Captain Hutlon for the Otago Museum.

Mn. "Pefves, the youngest "member iu the House, and representing Dunedin, deserves credit for successfully carrying through the.Council a recommendation that a Mining Engineer be appointed for the Province. He very forcibly puiuted out to the House what coniidencp would be likely to be shown by capitalists in mining enterprises by V,\ti appointment of-a pnsci-i----cal and skilled man. He stated that a great number of the failures of such enterprises were due solely to the mismanagement and sometimes dishonesty of representations made by those who had the local, management. His idea was that the whole of the salary of such an officer—he suggested £BOO per annum—would be recouped by the fees the companies would be willing to pay for scieulific information. Mr. M'Kellar, the very practical member for the Kawarau, pointed out the greatloss which ensued at each quartz reef, and he astonished the Council by stating that, in nearly every" reef known in the Province, for every ounce of gold saved two ounces were lost. This the speaker had proved repeatedly,, both by sending for. assay average" samples of .the quartz leads," and afso the escaped tailings. Such a result—and we believe the same thing is actually the case where the gold is of a fine quality—is most deplorable. It is, we think, a fact that-the attention of scientific men has not been directed to the devisiug of machines and apparatus for the saving of gold. More advance has been made in California, but no - ready information is in our hands of what is the case. A School of Mines would be the natural consequence of the appointment of a Mining Engineer, and, with ,all due deference to the Council of the Otago University, we think that would' be of more practical utility to the' Province than the establishment, at the present-time, of a Professor of Anatomy and Medicine. A School.of Agriculture- is the other practical "necessity,which, should.also be established. The burning of straw and other waste, through ignorance, is positively a rebellion. against the gifts of Providence—for we, unfashionable- as it is, still believe in such an over-ruling power giying r gifts r tomeri..