THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1874.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 287, 4 September 1874, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1874.

Foil some time it has been apparent to a few of. the pastoral tenants, who igpresent, to a great extent, foreign capital —what a harvest is to be reaped by obtaining land at IGs. per acre, by special arrangement with the Provincial Government of Otago, in terms of the Waste Lands Acts : not only what harvests can be reaped," but what security effected for the permanent occupation of their runs, when the leases expire, by the exchange of nominal leaseholds for freeholds obtained at a' nominal price. Several successes in. the past few years have only acted as; a tonic bitter,, inciting for more.:solidacquisitions. Not only are legitimate means taken' advantage of ' under the Acts—only legitimate if we forget, as we never should, that these -Acts were so injuriofisly amended to the shape in which we now find them by the influence in the Legislative Council of the Campbells, Millers, "and flolmeses of the day—but all .sorts of behind-the-back manoeuvres are attempted .by a clique to gam personal ends—a clique whose organisation was perfected under the able surveillance of Sir P. D. Bell, whose chef d'ceuvre; indeed, was the Extension of Leases Covenant, the evils of which we suffer under the present time liecent events in Wellington have rendered abundantly clear how unscrupulously the little game is worked. Wot only in ."Wellington does this manoeuvring go on, but in Dunedin. It will be remembered that, about a week before the Provincial Council met last session, in a sudden tumultuous hurry £140,000 odd worth of railway contracts were let in under half an hour.: "We have before, pointed out the gross illegality of that action. The financial year had expired, and the Council was just about to meet, when Old Eogeyism was taken ad van-' tage of by the clique and persuaded that this great haste was an-"absolute necessity. What was the real haste in that case ? "We "do not'hesitate to say that it was simply an attempt to force the Provincial Couricil .to sell land in large parcels to the pastoral tenant, whose consent,was a necessity, in order to be able to meet engagements it was feared the Council would not agree to become responsible for. The Council would not hear of selling on such a scale. Mr. Reid, 'tis true, when he went over and joined .the. Turnbull Government, after ascertaining ihis fact, thought he saw a way out of it by means of a loan f0r.£500,000, which he fought successfully through the Council only to lose his battle through the determiued opposition of the Premier in Wellington. It was suggested, in the first instance, by one of the Southland either Mr. Wood or Mr/Kinross —that the' General Government should be -asked-to purchase the Bluff railway (the construction of which ruined Southland as a Province), as being part of the Main Trunk Railway, and therefore, already constructed by the Province,- p. work that the Colonial Government would have at once to undertake. When it was seen to be useless to attempt to introduce an Otago Loan Bill in Wellington this session, this suggestiou was taken up and agreed to by the Premier to this extent: that the Government would endeavor to pass a provision to carry the sale,into;,practical effect. Accordingly, in the Colonial Eailway Bill a clause was introduced by which payments by instalments were to be made to Otago, extending over the next few years, and authorising a valuation o"f similar lines in Canterbury for alike transfer. By this device Otago would have been in a position to receive, in the whole, about £300,000, the instalments coming in sufficiently quick to meet'the contracts for the branch railways already let, and unavoidably though reluctantly agreed to by the Provincial Council rather than commit an act of repudiation—not that the Council was against such branch railway construction, but would not willingly agree to undertake, at the same time, an extent of work to meet the payments for which would render necessary the-soc-rifieo of large blocks of land. The Council had, indeed, the previous session, as it will be remembered, in the anxiety to construct Lheso works quickly, given power to the Government to let certain lines on specific terms of land payment in the districts to bo benefitted—the principle of alternate sections being introduced iu a way which it was thought would be the least baneful in dealing with land revenue as a means for railway payments.

The passing of thia railway-sale clause in tlie Colonial liailway Bill

would have defeated our pastoral clique and checked their little game, so unwittingly played, as it would appear, by tVe Turnbull Government just before resigning office. Accordingly, in the Legislative Council it was deter-mined-to thr.o\y-o«t the Eailway BillMr. Euckley, sheepist ,'bf Canterbury, being wisely selected for the happy disdispatch—^apurposetolbr.eethe Otago Provincial Council to sell land in large areas possibly to ; 'Rom'a of!the very.men by whose action Otago was. to be and is deprived of 383Q0,00.Q justly due to her, which would have, enabled her to meet even the rash liabilities she was illegally placed under' by Messrs. Turnbull, Webster, and Co.

We do not wonder, in the face of such transparent selfishness, that Mr. Murray tabled a motion that no tenants of the Crown should, in future, be eligible to hold "seats in the TJ pp'er 'Hoiiße, or that Mr. Eeid strongly supported him ; but, as Mr. Eox pointed out, such a motion was really a blow at the Government by whom the nominations were. made. What we do wonder at is, that'those men, so justly indignant, do not see that but for Provincialism such, a stato of things could, no.t exist. If the Provincial Government had not itself ithrdwn away the land to capitalists here and there in former times, to meet the exigencies ef the .moment, it is' probable that they would not have - been treated asat present by the Pastoral Lords. Provincialism is the sole root of the evil. No Colonial statesman, if "responsible, could afford to throw' away'the land for revenue purposes." especially to buyers who do not iutend to put it to its best use as maintaining population. Provincialism opens the door to cliqueism and selfishness, which, it is very apparent, does not scruple even to legislate to gain its own ends. We do not pretend to say that every runholder in Otago is necessarily doing what he can ■ for himself, regardless wlis may suffer. On the contrary, we are thankful there are many honorable exceptions. The exceptions are not, however, very prevalent in the Legislative Assembly of New Zealand.

■ »,■■■■;}• [;;, r.o . ■.o •. The. last contract on the Head Race was to have been completed on the 22nd of April of this year, "t It was accepted on the 22nd of October, 3 873, close on a year ago, and was for about seventeen miles of race, commencing about ten miles from Naseby.' Of. this contract, a fortnight ago, we believe not more than three miles were constructed. Three miles in'eleven months! This is Public* Works with a- vengeance. A very pretty outcome of delegated powers to Provincial authorities. What renders";the stupidity of this extraordinary in'du>gence to the contractor more glaring, is that on each side of this gap, on the one side about twenty-four miles, and on the other about ten miles.are complete, v so that but for Abbott's wilderness "We''might have, a race completed to Naseby nearly forty-four , miles long, bring" ing in a plentiful.supply, of water for -mining purposes' at Naseby. The same contractor has another .long contract of. about twenty-one miles, also in a very 'backward state, although we would not be inclined to complain so much at the delay on that, as it is situated in a very inaccessible district, at the starting point from the Manuherikia,- consequently in high, xold coun-: try. If Dillon and Johnstone could get men and get their work done we do not see why any other contractor should not also have been able to do so. 'We find that Dillon, whose-first contract for ten mile v s n Mcas,-.obfcaiiT'e'd only "five months before "Abbott's teh" ders were accepted, and whose subsequent;' contracts —the completion -of Nos. 1 and 2, and the whole-of No. 10,—were • obtained subsequently to Abbott's, has constructed, with only a month or two's delay, nearly twentyfive miles of the race'. Of course we do not blame Mr. Abbott, in the least. He is. quite right to hold on and' delay in hopes of getting cheaper labor, if the Provincial Government is so indifferent to their trust as to allow of it.

Matters are not much better at the Sludge Channel. This work- was undertaken on the ISth March, 1873, to be completed by the 2nd of February, 1874 —in about eleven months —and is not much more than half clone ye f : The alterations which have been shown to be necessary'by -the Engineer and the people have had—a little' to do of late with this'delay. ■ Unpleasant and, perhaps, individious", as the tank is, we must'jjbiut.out that it is the Government'sdnt-y, if they are met by any contractors with gross .negligence, to remind them that it is only on sufferance they hold tkeir'.coritracts at all—that they have long ago exceeded the limits which a--tightening-of-the* labor market might have rendered excusable—and that, while e'vere thing that is fair will be conceded .to them, they cannot be permitted to stand in the way of a great public benefit.' The carrying out of these works by the Provincial Government should show up Provincialism "in-all its petty weaknesses. An indifference" to the way in which over £60.000 of-.General Government money has. been and is being spent is shown by the Province perfectly astonishing.. We venture to say that more trouble and care is taken about thy erecfcioD of a Provincial railway siding at Cavershnm, or in the suburbs of Dunedin, in full Executive than has been given by any member of the Provincial Government during the past year to the trial expenditure of over £60,000 on the Mount Ida Goidfields. Owing to the delay—a delay we affirm to have been from first to last, perfectly novdless - some £5,000 of interest will prove to have boon lost, and if £15,000 additional.loss, owing to an imperfect chaii*

uel having been constructed, had not also been incurred it was not the fault of the -Provincial Government, but has a-chance now to be saved, owing solely to the pressure - brought to bear by the people themselves direct on Wellington. ■-- If the Superintendent and Mr. Eeid wish to keep alive Otago Provincialism they might find it politic to attend -a little better to the carrying out of latge Colonial Public Works entrusted to their care for the benefit of those living in'their Province; who would be willing Provineialists if they were treated with ordinary consideration. It should be understood that we impute no negligence to the engineers employed on these works. The work that is done is done well. "With the shortcomings as to time by.the contractors they have little or nothing to do. Engineers are helpless when the heads of political departments exhibit such glaring indifference to the works they are responsible for.

The township of Maerewbenua is officially named Livingstone, its streets being laid off as Moffat, Stanley, Blantyre, &c. The English mails via Suez were delivered at the district post offices on Saturday last, and by San Francisco'on, Tuesday.

TrtE Waste Lands Board have decided that in future all business to -be considered at' the weekly .'meeting must be notified "to the Clerk the day previous," or it will be held over for consideration till the next meeting.

The ' Daily Times ' reports as rumor that Warden Beetham is about to resign his appointment. "Some vague guesses are hazarded as to the cause of the reported resignation, which are hardly authentic enough to be worth reprinting. We understand" that instructions have been received from Dunedin in accordance with which a block of '3,000' acres or two blocks of 1,500 each will be laid off on the Bwebnrn run early in the week for agricultural' settlement. As the survey is to be proceeded with at once, we hope that applications will be able to be made in time to enable a few, who are ready, to break np the ground before the Spring is gone.

On Wednesday we had a beautiful spring day; towards night the wind, began to rise; in the small hours making havoc among stove chimneys and loose doors, ■ dropping away in the morning before a steady and - continuous snow-storm, which is a most satisfactory gift at this season.of the year. The snow was several inches'thick early yesterday, ibut.on the flats began quickly to' melt," though no doubt the drifting wind acting on the soft snow would accumulate the drifts oh the ranges to form a sufficient water supply for mining purposes for aome time to come.

The 'Guardian' states that the Pemhill properly, together with a block of land in the rear, has been purchased by Mr. John Hydo Harris, from the trustees of the estate of the late Mr. John Jones. We believe that one of the objects of the recent visit to England of Mr. Mills, manager of the Harbor Company, was to facilitate arrangements for the purchase. ' ' '. .

About eleven miles on Abbott's upper con ■tract-(of twenty-one miles) are, we understand, completed. "Dillon, -on the ten-mile contract adjoining Naseby has about twentychains to do, including one and a half chiins of the tunnel, which, it is estimated, willtake about three weeks - more to finish. Of the gang of new chums, about .whose departure for Abbott's contracts some excitement was created, only ten are now at work. Five of these, it is said, will leave shortly.Coal appears to be very scarce. To-day as we'write we cannot get a bucketfull. to keep our office stove going. The maledictions freely.passing among our hands—who depend on the warmth of their fingers to do their work—about 12 p.m. last night, would have somewhat astonished .our colliers. The roads are splendid. The money expended by the Council, aided by a favorable season, have left little to be complained of. Still the fact remains that we can get no coal except by favor. As the snow that fell yesterday is likely to be followed by,a week or two's sharp frost,' it is to be hoped supplies will come in a little- more [plentifully., Attached to the printed report of the Otago Mining Conference'to hand froni the Government Printer, are copies of the circular letter addressed to the Superintendents -by the Government authorities, asking opin".icmspas to the necessity of immediate legislation. , The Superintendents' of Marlborough, Nelson, and'Westland alone replied. Why our own Superintendent did not give expression; to the River Pollution difficulty we cannot guess. Mr. Curtis, of"Nelson, wrote: "I beg to say, in reply, that although I think it highly desirable that the existing Gdldfields Acts should be consolidated and that some defects in them, the existence of which have been proved jn their practical working, should be amended, I do not think there is such pressing need for legislation on the subject as to make it necessary to deal with it during 'the approaching session of Parliament." Mr. Bonar, of Westlandstates that, haying consulted with his Executive, he did not consider there was any pressing need for legislation this year. It was these replies and the absence of others that influ'enced the Governm::ib hot to introduce or support a Goldfields 13ill this ssssion.

As we have referred in pretty strong terms to the delays on the Public Works, it is only right to state that the present position of the works on the Sludge Channel, owing to the decision, or,'rather,'"'indecision of the authorities, is most embarrassing *to the contractors. They ha\e a'loriglehgth of the Channel cut_ at the originally specified depth, which, in ordinary course, they would have proceeded to pitch. But no, they cannot do it, for fear of the power being taken which is reserved under the specifications, and notice being received that" all work must be suspended for .a month. This renders it very •difficult to. keep the.gangs of men on the ground who are now well trained to their work. Work is plentiful and to be got easily all round, and it is not likely that hands are going to wait an indefinite time to please the contractors. Of course, from our point of view, it is better to retard the works than not alter the plans. At the same time the .Creightons have a legitimate caiise of complaint.' Meanwhile, the small section at the end originally left has been finished in eight days, and now little more can be done.

We regret to leara that efforts are being made at Hyde to get up funds for the purpose of agitating that the intended bridge at the Hamilton crossing should bo removed to Ihe ford between-Hyde and Kyeburn, and that a deputation is io be sent to Dunedin in the matter. A large bridge is passed in the Ap propriation Ordinance to coat £2OOO to bridoo the river b.-low Hyde, at a iri.Jy dangerous crossing. Thus work is to bo constructed out of lvvenue, fading tho loan. It does not in the Appropriation. Bill depend altccoShei- on the loan, allnough .Mr. Reid did not offer any great, encouragement that he would be able to sanction the work, should the loan fail. It would bo a perfectly \ w iable effort to urge tli'il this work should he gone jn with, and would very likely be sucec«f.d. JJut it is, not a laudable thin? to agitate Lo l:ii>s away from a neighbor the bi'klge repeatedly promised io cross a ford more dangerous than even Mard-

of life—especially when it 13 remembered that Hamilton hub given, by way of subsidy to this "very bridge, nearly £3O > us roadfm'oney. We hope we shall hear nothing further of such selfish agitation. V\ r e cannot believe that it is taking place sit"the instance of the Progress Committee, as we have been told. If so, they cannot Be aware that. Hamilton has contributed largely, to the amount of about £3OO, to the Hamilton bridge. If Hyde will give up £3OO voted for it another year, no doubt they - -will be able to get a- bridge- erected where they want it—near tlie Kyeburn. At the opening of the Dunedin District Court, His Honor Mr. Justice Bathgate presiding, Mr. Barton, in addressing the Bench as senior council, said :—There was a matter of inconvenience to the members of the bar that he wished to bring under his Honor's notice .* that was the absence of a place where counsel could put on their wigs and gowns. The members of the bar had, that day, out of respect for His Honor, and at considerable inconvenience, appeared in costume. As far as he himself was concerned, He had long held the opinion that it was a pity that the members of the bar did not advance with the rest of the human race, ' and leave off their ■wigs. There was a time when everybody wore wigs, such as those at present worn by lawyers ; only the tails were longer. Royal courts and such places had. advanced in thisrespect, but some people '.still seemed to be under the.impression thafrwisdom resided, in. a wig. Sydney Smith had twitted the. English nation with being the only people who considered horsehair necessary to the administration of justice. He would be glad to see wigs and gowns abolished in all 'Courts of Justice, and let lawyers stand,' not on the merits of grey hairs, but on the brains within.. In this repect, tho colonies should set an example to the mother country, and shew her that lawyers could be gentlemen, and conduct cases properly, without the aid of wigs - and gowns.—His Honor, iu reply,-said as to the remarks made concerning professional costume, it was well-known that lawyers were extremely conservative. The legal profession did not make change 3 in a hurry. " They would notice that many of the old Courts in London that had maintained their - ground for ceuturies had amalgamated. The tended towarJs a more speedy arid economical mode of redress of wrongs, and of obtaining : justice. The people in this colony would not be ' behindhanded in this respect. 'He knew that gentlemen were put to ineonverience;in ron-r sequence of there being no -robing-room.. If their'cases, however, were properly, dressed, he would not attach any importation to the costume of counsel. He again thanked'the bar for the kind - feeling its ' members ! had evinced towards, him.

We were not quite just' to Mr..-Jfervyn a week or two ago in our column ."Essence of Parliament as to his suggestion re railways in the Clyde district. We followed, however, the newspaper reports. ' Hansard ' -.having reached us, we give verbatim what Mr. Mervyn did say. ' It will" be seen he did notVoniit the mention of a line from Palmerston, though one would hardly think from his remarks he represented' Mount referred to the necessity for carrying out a line of railway from Palmerston. to Clyde, and' a line from Tuapeka to Clyde: In the last session of the Provincial Council, that body unanimously agreed that those lines should be made. So far a3 the works constructed in the-Province had gone, they were mostly lines running along the seaboard, and opened up very little country, and nearly all the branch lines which had been recommended in the recent session of the Provincial Council were of the same, character. They opened up no new country, and were s'inply made for the convenience of those already "settled in the itflying districts. He thought the Colony hod arrived at that stage when they should not "be satisfied with simply ministering to the wants of the inhabitants of the inlying districts, but should really endeavor to carry out the object which the honorable member at the head of the Government had in view when. introducing the scheme in 1870, namely, toopen up the interior of the country. That could by continuing the present system.'but by running radways into the heart of the country. He drew the attention of the Government to the matter,'in the hope that theyjwould take power iu the present Bill to carry on the surveys, and lay .out these liueß of railway. ' .

Me. Vogeli stated iu the House the other day that he did not feel any the worse for being burnt in effigy. This was .what was alluded to,: The Auckland correspondent of the. ' Waikato Times' writes to that journal as follows:—"Mr. Vogel's'late great act.-«eems to have infuriated the Auckland population. Queens-street on Sunday night' last was'the scene of considerable confusion..; Anir-mense throng collected for" the purpose of "ce'ebrating the carrying of ,the'aDolit.ion of the.Nor--tliern Provinces resolutions by, burning r the Premier and some of his adherents in effigy. The ardor of the demonstrators however received a check at the hands of the police author;tieß whiih rendered the affair a [very tame one, and it effectually deterred, the most indignant, who respected themselves,' from taking an important part in the ceremony ; they, iu fact crept into their shells, and the only individuals left to conduct the cart and its occupan's to Barrack Hill, there to burn the I'cpresentatives of the r delinquent politicians, were a host of overgrown "boys, and some of maturer years who.had nothing-to lose by identifying themselves with the transaction. I hear that the figures were like especially that of the Premier'. Very little could be seen of the vehicle, however, except when passing near a." occasional lamp. -There was but one man with sufficient courage to carry a torch a. considerable distance from the object of inte-' rest, in contravention of the edict of Mr.'lSro-' ham that he would suppress any attempt at demons ratiou. Mr. Vogel mounted on a donr key, drew his adherents to their doom so tar-;' dily that nothing was wanting but the funeral dirge. -The proceedings'were-6f such a character to provoke mirth- rnther than, to impress the bystanders with a feeling of so-, lemnity that should be experienced on the oc-' casiou of an expression of public indignation. The p-omoter3 must have been anything but gratified with the result " Me Stout, M.P.C for Caversham, would be a politician of vihoni any country might be proud if, in political matters, he could forget that he waß a lawyer. In a speech ho made last week at Caversham wo, observe he referred to the disallowance of the gold duty in the following ingenious and emphatic manner : "A motion had been curried during the last session of the Provincial Council providing for the repayment of a portion of the export duty on gold. The Government, though' in the n.inorily, gave way to the wishes of the House on the question. He him.-elf prepared the Bill which was passed, and the Government did nothing further in the matter. Statements had been made in some country papcrs that the Government hnd taken fteps to get the Bill disallowed. This was wholly untrue. The Bdl was disallowed ...by the Colonial Government-, and, strange 'o say, the Colonial Secretary pointed out a way by which the difficulty could be got over. The real objection to it was that it allowed the province to alter the Customs duty, ft a'so gavo the Otago miners an advantage over those in the other provinces. The svay sug gested by the Colonial Seen-lary for avoiding the diffifulty was to a certain from the miners: the amount of gold obtained-by them f'ren. their claims, and then pay them back -the duty. This was an impossibility : it couM not be carried out." Against t'w wo quote the Colonial Secretary himself. Ho writes : " I have the honor to inform yom - Honor' that the Governor has dissallowed the Otago Gold Duly Repayment Ordinance, 187-1. His ■Excellency was advised to Luke that course,

because there did not appear to be- sufficient provision in the Bill to prevent the repayment of gold duty bei.ig made for gold, theproduce of other Provinces, shipped from Olago. Although the second section of the Bill refers to the gold as being the produce of the Province of Otago, the third section requires your "Honor to be satisfied with, the proof only of the gold having been shipped irom the Province. Thus inducements would be offered to transmit to Otago for shipment t*>e gold produced in other Provinces, thereby causing loss to their revenue." Mr. Stout says the real objection to it was that it allowed the Province to alter the Customs duty '(not, he implied, as the Colonial Secretary said, the imperfections of the Ordinance). The Government memorandum only alludes to the great objection in the barest manner, as an objection that might be made against it, as being, in appearance at least, an ■unconstitutional interference with the" authorised taxation. "Mr. Stout advocated at Caversham a new political platform, consisting of a reform . of the Upper House, in which we go with him heartily; a land and income tax, we agree with the first, but demur to the last; the leasing instead of" selling lands, to support which Mill and the unearned increment are liberally brought forward, and to which we demur entirely, as being against all common sense. The Provincial Solicitor, as might be expected, made a brilliant address,, and obtained a cordial-vote of thanks. "

. The Licensing Act, 1873, Amendment will , not simplify the how, where, and - when of getting a license in the orLhodox mariner. The Amendment Act is, however," a masterly measure, and makes many necessary ■ provisions omitted" altogether in-the Act, and also making several very desirable alterations. "Wholesale -licenses will beprocuivible from the Provincial Treasurer direct: ■'or,' where such licenses form a part of Municipal'revenue, shvll be issued by the Mayor, without' the interferpnee of the Licensing Court. More'than one bar is to be allowed in. an hotel,,;but for each additional bar the holder shall pay a fee at the rate of due-third of the fee payable for a publican's license: The'number!of* bars in a house must-be stated! 0n,.-the.application form;; and endorsed on the license; by- the Court. To open an extra bar subsequently, without such endorsement, is'treated as.a penal offence. The first Tuesdays, at n'o'o'n, in the months of December,- March,- Ju!:e, ; and* September are the days fixed for the Quarterly ;Courts. 1 At; least., one, month • before such - quarterly' meetings, the Clerk, of. the Court has to advertise at'least thrice the. date of such Court. Applications must' be put in in writing, in duplicate, twenty-one' days :before such Court.'day, accompanied'by a'certifii:ate-sifmed ' by ten .householders. The certificate of householders is riot, however,-n'eceWiry in applying , for' a renewal only. t Applicants for bottle iicenses must aoply similarly as for publicans' licenses, only the householders'- certificate is not necessary. The provisions as to bottle licenses are", ho'wever,", only to apply to ,such Provinces as have provided, or shall - hereafter provide for the grant and issue of such licenses. "N~o licensed person, havin<* given due notice, shall be required to attend any Licensing Court for the procuring a renewal.of his license,, unless .noticeof opposition to the renewal of such licence shall have been given to the Clerk of the Court, and by him forwarded to the applicant.' Facilities are pretty freely afforded for the effecting of transfers A Kesid"nt Magistrate or two members of the Court may grant extensions of licenses to licensed publicans to sell liquors at, races, games, balls, or'the like—to be kept open for such perio i 'as he or they may think fit, the fee.to be from-ss. to £2.- A very useful code of instructions as to the conduct ot business,. to, secure uniformity, arid so that applicant's need not be kept unnecessarily waiting is contained in a series' of clauses. The Court ia given,power to close-any licensed -houso improperly conducted at any quarterly - mretirig. The Minister for Public Works" has - power to issue 'licenses for -railway refresh-ment-rooms. We believe" that new-applica-tions for. licenses .can-only be entertained at the June meeting, but are-not quite sure whether the "Upper House gave way on that point or not. Mr. Yogel was 'unwilling 'to imperil the Bill by forcing the measure exactly as the Lower House passed it. Subsequently the telegraph-told us that the Lords .had "given up .thair'amendments, but we do not think that those given up included the June meeting as the only one for new licenses. The first Tuesday in December will, we presume, be the first quarterly meeting under the Act.