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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 187, 10 August 1870, Page 2

Protective Duties Consistently Carried out. — It appears that Mr. Rollestou, the Superintendant of Canterbuay, is a thorough goiug protectionist, as will be seen by the following extract from the Lytlelton Times, which appears to be a little at a loss to know how to reconcile its advocacy of protective duties in soma instances, and its objections to them in others : — "We have been asked" says our contemporary, "why, when we approve of a duty being imposed upon foreign grain and flour, we object to Mr. Rolleston protecting the Canterbury cattle owners and raising the price of beef about thirty pev cent? The answer is obvious. The line must be drawn somewhere, and in this case we draw it arouud the colony. No doubt it might be shown very plausibly that if free trade is good for one thing and in one place, it is good for all things and in all places. Without stopping to enquire closely into this, we admit that there are difficulties in the way of defending protection as an abstract proposition, and that those difficulties never appear so prominent as when exemplified by such absurd cases as the one under discussion. The idea of declaring that sheep aud cattle must not pass from one province of this Island to another, when the laws of trade require them to do so, is indeed the height of absurdity. Nothing can prove more strougly the almost total absence of public opinion, than the fact that the public have for some time submitted in silence to pay a largely increased price for their food, for no other reason than the apparent benefit of a few interested persons." Writing from San Francisco, the Otago Times " own correspondent" gives some description of the Sandwich Islands — the natives and the colonists, aud incidentally imparts some unexpected information. He says — " The Mormon plantation, I understaud, is one of the most successful in the Islands. Brigham Young is what ray friends in this city would call a ' live man'; keen and shrewd, running many transactions with profit, as well as religion. But you have amongst you a greater man than Brigham Young. What do you say to the Emperor Napoleon ? That he has invested money in Otago I know on very good authority indeed, and could even point out the exact spot." There now who would have thought that the august ruler of La Belle France had gore so far a field with his modest savings ? Who shall shall say henceforth that New Zealand is an obscure colony ? Have we not Prince Alfred of England speculating in mining shares in the North, and prudent Buonaparte laying out his spare cash in the South ? It is rather provoking, on the part of that correspondent to tell so much and yet so little. Why could he not have stated the precise locality and description of property, whether mining, station, or agricultural ? There is an old and sound maxim, " Princes should not engage in. commerce," which these people appear to have forgotten. Perhaps not ; however, it may be that they read the signs of the times more closely than others, and have come to the conclusion that a " rainy day" is at hand. — Southland News. The Imperial Government and the Colonies. — After a long and animated debate, the Legislative Council agreed on July 29, to the following resolutions on the conduct of the Imperial G-overnraent: — " 1. That in the opinion of this Council, the best interests of New Zealand will be consulted by remaining au. integral part of the British empire. 2. That there are not sufficient grounds for believing that the people of England desire the disintegration of the empire. 4..

That this Council regrets the course adopted by the Home Government towards the colony ; but as the causes of dispute have been satsfaclorily discussed by the Colonial Government, and as an indication of a desire to preserve a friendly feeling towards the colony has been made by the Home Government, it is undesirable to make any further reference to past misunderstandings." The following paragraph from the Southland News is worthy of notice: — We were shown this week by a leading merchant, a sample of imported Manilla rope, upon which, of course, a duty had been paid. When closely examined, it could be clearly seen to contain at least seven-eighths of New Zealand flax fibre. This is not the first sample that has come under our observation. It goes far to explain why the rope-makers at home are so anxious to depreciate New Zealand flax, aud extol Manilla fibre. They evidently appreciate, and push to its fullest extent, the maxim "buy in the cheapest, and sell in the dearest." A Waif from the Sea. — The following is from the Melbourne Age : — In January, 1862, the barque Lady Flora Hastings, Captain German, belonging to Mr. J. Wilson, Billiter-street, London, from Moulrnein bound to Falmouth, with teak timber, foundered in a cyclone, 1300 miles to the eastward of the Mauritius. The crew of the ill-fated ship were on the foremast for five days and nights, aud were taken off by the French ship Leoni, and landed in the Mauritius. The desk (the only relic of the vessel ever seen) of the chief officer, Mr. Hall, now keeping the Army and Navy Hotel, Sandridge, was picked up by the American ship Samuel Russell, after floating about nine weeks, taken to New York, and then sent 1 to his friends in London, who forwarded it to him by the barque Hera, to Nelson, N.Z. It contains family portraits and letters in a very fair state of preservation, and can be seen by any one having the curiosity, at the residence of Mr. Hall, as given above. For remainder of News see Fourth page.