New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 1871. THE WEEK.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 22, 24 June 1871, Page 11

New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 1871. THE WEEK.

We are indebted to the courtesy of the Provincial Secretary for printed copies of the bills and papers laid before the Council, and we are glad to find amongst them a bill to provide for the management of the Educational Reserves. In the time of the Borlase-Hickson administration a lame attempt was made to secure a revenue from those reserves; but, as the leases were only to cover a period of seven years, it was not likely that any large rental would be offered. Tenders were invited ; but in most cases those sent in were declined on the ground that the rent offered was not adequate ; and the consequence is no rents at all have been received and no improvements effected. Let the leases be for twenty-one years, and a good rental can be at once realized. The same remarks will apply to the additional educational reserves which are to be made under the proposed act. The longer the leases are made to extend, the greater the rental that will be secured. We do not anticipate that any objection will be offered to this measure either by the Provincial Council or the General Assembly. The frightful accident which occurred near the Rimutaka, though miraculously unaccompanied by fatal consequences, suggests the propriety of the Provincial Council inserting some clause in the Tollgate Bill to guard against the cause of any similar accidents in future. To guard against the injury done to roads and bridges by carrying excessive weights the New South Wales Government imposed cumulative tolls on weights carried, and went t> the expense of putting weighbridges on all the main roads. A better and less expensive arrangement is in operation in South Australia,

where the carrying above a certain weight is prohibited under severe penalties except on broad tyres. Much less damage would be done to the roads, and much less costly bridges would be required if light carts, waggons and horses were employed as in the United States. Anyone who comes from New York to Liverpool cannot fail to be struck with the difference between the two modes adopted in carrying the self-same cotton bales to or from the shipping in the two places. The New York cart trots with a single bale at a time from the store to the ship and loses no time in loading or unloading, In Liverpool the same system of carrying heavy loads is in vogue as in New Zealand. Which system is the most economical may be a question, but there can be no question which does the most damage to roads. In any case the subject is one as well worth discussing as many of those which engage the attention of our Provincial and Colonial legislators. We fear that the principles of local selfgovernment are as little understood by our Provincial Council as they appear to be by our Provincial Executive, and we trust that clause 6 in the District Highways Bill will be recommitted before the Council assents to its third reading. Prior to the introduction of the bill it was officially stated that the power of sub-division into wards would be placed in the hands of the district boards; and that until those boards could operate the present road districts would be considered wards. This power is not given to the Government, which can divide the district into any number of wards, two or two dozen as it may seem fit, in direct opposition to its declared intentions, and to the principle of local self-government. The power of dividing a burgh into wards, and of determining their boundaries is vested by the Scotch law in the householders, and this is in harmony with the common law of England. There is by far too much discretionary power given to the Government, and by far too little to road boards to render a seat on them worth striving for ; which, seeing the work is to be gratuitous, is a matter of some importance.

As the most of the daily and weekly journals of the colony have been making remarks on the state of affairs in Paris we do not see any harm in following their example. It appears to us that the success of the Versailles troops must result in the restoration of Napoleon. First, because M'Mahon and most of the other generals are Imperalists; and second, because Napoleon can secure more popular support out of Paris than any other candidate for the throne. In 1802, when his uncle was first consul, an able work was published in two volumes under the singular title of “ An Essay on the art of making useful,” the lessons in which both uncle and nephew no doubt read with attention. The art consists, according to the author, in a very few simple observances. We are to wait until the mischievous and turbulent have pretty nearly exterminated each other, and the people are satiated with innovation and quieted by terror, when we are to wrest the power from the hands of expiring factions j to address ourselves to old prejudices ; to restore what has been improperly taken away ; to get rid of ancient grievances; and to introduce new improvements. Napoleon I profited by this advice, and who will say that Napoleon 111 has not now an admirable opportunity of doing so ? But at the same time we do not desire to underestimate the power of the Red Republicans in the principal cities of France.