TOPICS OF TALK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 315, 12 March 1875, Page 3

TOPICS OF TALK.

No duty ia so easy, and no duty is consequently 80 much neglected, as Registration. Registration for electoral purposes .is very much undervalued by mining constituencies. This arises probably from the easy method of voting the miners' right afforded. It is- not at all likely that, at the several elections which must ensue upon the close of the next session in Wellington anyone will be able to vote by miner's right. In the closing session of the present Parliament it is almost Certain that no new legislation will be attempted except the revision of the electoral laws. This question of mineis' right qualification has already come up, and stands postponed for judgment in June or July next. What may be substituted for it ? Whether mnnhood suffrage* will be initiated is only guess work, but , in no case is it likely that registration will be dispensed with. The 31st of the present month is the last day on which registration can be effected to entitle those placed on the roll to vote in the spring or summer elections. It is not of any very great importance what particular candidate is voted for"— as a rule, we may presume, the best man always gets the majority of tho votes—but it is of importance to shew the strength of each sub-district. Government offiW cers have little else to guide them but the electoral rolls as to the number of the male population of any district. How, such being the case is it possible for attention to bo given to a request that a mnil shall be made up for •terpentine or for Welshman's Gully once or twice a week if, on reference to the roll it appears that only some five or six males constitute the population. In the district we know better, but registration is an easy way of informing Government officials of the l*eal importance of each little district. If the residents will not tako the trouble of registering their voting strength, no great sympathy can be shewn to them if, in consequence, left out in the cold.

Wheivb are the police ? It is hot often that such a question , has to be asked in Naseby, "but from what has cotne under our notice we feel obliged to refer Bomewhat strongly to their absence upon a late occasion. If there is one thing more than nnother the law will not tolerate it is gambling, in any shape or form, from the hastily improvised rouge-et-noir table on the racecourse often consisting of an empty barrel and a gin case—to the sacred precincts of the Chinaman's sanctum. Lately it is true a Celestial was dropped upon pretty smartly for an affair of the sort. What was his surprise and oura to see a similar scene enacted without .interferflfice in Open daylight. The room in which the game was proceeding was a den of the vilest description. At. a table at one end, pomewbat raised, and partially screened to shelter the conjuring implements and other appurtenances and technicalities understood by the profession, »at the chief performer, who prepared the npparat us—which gave, ns far, as we could learn, odds of about 2to L against the players. Those present were old habitues of the den, affecting to be callous and indifferent, and a few newly fledged gamblers—who, by their gestures of impatience and excitement as the box was shaken up before each throw—made it apparent that this was their first introduction to a gambling saloon. The game was of the simplest The head manager prepared six tickets, one of which was the prize ; each player drew twice, and to entitle to a draw had staked the deposit previously. The apparatus being charged, an assistant —wit arms carefully bared to divert all idea of suspicion gracefully Rwung round tbe box ; then the players drew—the usual results of joy and despondency being depicted on each face. Turning away, sympathising with the losers who had lost their time and their money, and, angrily asking why this was tolera ted in the year of grace 1875, we were greeted withburstsoflaughter. Lo! and behold! the den was the Naseby Court House, and the process was legalised gambling by Ac| of Parliament. All this we explained to John Chinaman, but John could not see it.

About a month ago we expressed surprise that our contemporaries allowed themselves to bo little more than advertising mediums for the North—strangely paying for the privilege of being each in turn Northern trumpeter. At the time re stated that no tangible find bad, ub yet, been discovered in Ohinemuri. The telegrams daily arriving in Dunedin now abundantly confirm Jour opinion; From our last files we seethe following:

Tbe news from Ohinoniuri is mist unsatisfactory, and a reactionary feeling has set in. The prospect* at. present, are anything but promising, and it. number of minnr* have turned to gum-digging, and can cam £l a day to long as the present rate# continue, which will only be ns long ns the enpply remains at the present stnndnrd. Thorn nre numerous unreliable reports, however, in the wind.

Who quite swallows that £ I a-day for gum-digging? and how interesting the fact that "numerous unreliable reports (are) however in the wind." Take Piiother vague nonentity, dated March 6th; —

A number of men hnve come down from Ohinemuri todny. Nothing frenli lias transpired there. The protection of claims expires on Monday, at 10 o'clock, when tlicy must be either manned or abandoned. There is literwlly nothing to report. Anything like a rush is deprecated, unlesß miners come prepared to prospect. Ibo country is very rough.

Apd, again, something less indefinite: What won supposed to be a fine specimen vas off aa outcrop reef found on

Friday last. When it was sent down Jo thc> Thames and proved it vas found to be mundic, and great disappointment ensued.

The truth is we don't intei d to believe in Oliinemuri. Oi course gold may be found there its in every other part of New Zealand which is fortunate enough to be prospected; but, as for fabulous yields, and the like, we prefer to hold over judgment, Maories are not fools. Maories know the value of gold, and could mine for it as well as Europeans, if they thought it existed. They hav« never been behindhand in the way of imitation during the war—having nous enough to manufacture powder and gun caps. If gold were—as this Press telegrams would almost lead the credulous to believe—to be had for the picking up, long before the Maories would agree to allow the country to be opened up, gold would have been brought in to Auckland, obtained by Maori labor, for Maori benefit. Otago has quite enough to do to hold its own as a mining country, in the midst of proved auriferous treasures, without becoming a gratuitous advertisement for the North.