New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1871. THE WEEK.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 30, 19 August 1871, Page 11

New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1871. THE WEEK.

The great event of the week has of course been the opening of Parliament by his Excellency the Governor. This took place on Tuesday last with the usual formalities. The vice-regal speech made on the occasion will be I found in another column. The speech itself is less meaningless than speeches of the kind usually are, referring as it does to many topics of more than ordinary interest, which will furnish many opportunities for future comments. Had not Sir David Monro retired at the expiration of the last Parliament an election for the Speakership, at the commencement of the first session of a new Parliament, would still have been necessary. When such an election is opposed it tests the relative strength of parties ; and when unopposed, as on this occasion, it is properly considered as a vote of confidence in Ministers. Yet the term election implies a choice; and when there is no opposition, members have only " Hobson's choice," which at best is a dull business for electors, however gratifying it may be to the candidate^ and his friends. Mr Dillon Bell, the new Speaker, was a member of the General Legislative CoTTncil of the colony before the Constitution Act was passed. When that act was brought into operation he was elected a member of the Wellington Provincial Council for the district of Hawbe's Bay, and was nominated about the same time a member of the Upper House, by Sir George Grey, during his first governorship of the colony. He attended the first session of the General Assembly at Auckland, and seconded the late Mr St. Hill's motion, that members of '*' the Legislative Council should in future be elected. He has subsequently had a seat in the House of Representatives for various constituencies, and for many years past he has been also a member of the Provincial Council of Otago. No member of the Legislature has consequently had more Parliamentary experience, or is better acquainted with the forms of the House. He has never been an extreme partizan, and his moderate views and amiable temper have secured for him the good opinion of the leading members of both parties, and eminently qualify him for the post of president of a deliberative assembly, to which he has now been elevated. The new Chairman of Committees has occupied fro. tern, a similar position on former occasions, and is not therefore altogether new to his work. The real business of the session will probably not commence before the arrival of the Colonial Treasurer, who is expected by next mail steamer from San Francisco. Until then the position of the Ministry will not be secure. " An English statesman," says a high authority, " ought to pay assiduous worship to Nemesis, to be most apprehensive of ruin when he is at the height of power and popularity, and to dread his enemy most when completely prostrated." The same remarks are probably applicable to colonial, as well as to English statesmen.- The description, however, does not bear on the existing state of public feeling regarding either the Ministry or the OppositiOJiy The one is not at the height of popularity, nor is the other completely prostrated ; but the lesson conveyed is not the less, bub all the more valuable on that account. Amongst the many important measures it is proposed to introduce during the present session, that relating to education takes a prominent place. The instruction of youth form s no unimportant element in the means to be adopted for the augmentation of the public wealth. It is absolutely essential, under a democratic form of Government, whatever may be its effects in promoting morality, or checking crime. In determining the scale which should be adopted in giving grants to schools, regard should be had to the difference in the circumstances of the localities where they are established. In other words, in apportioning the capitation allowance, a broad distinction should be made between town village, and *ural schools. For the establishment of schools in rural, and partly settled districts, more outside assistance is required than in more populous places ; and it would be good policy on the part of the Government to render such assistance, if only for the purpose of attracting settlers thitherward. We have not at present seen a copy, of the bill but a measure introduced by the Premier is not likely to ignore the principle of local self government, which constituted the one great defect in the bill passed by our Provincial Council. >

Two meetings have been held during the past week relative to the establishment of meat preserving works ; one at Greytown, on Wednesday last, and the other at the Lower Hutt, yesterday. In consequence of the unfavorable advices received from England in reference to preserved meats, and the large capital required for carrying out the process, the shareholders in the proposed companies are much less sanguine as to the profitable nature of such undertakings than they were a short time ago. They appear to have come to the conclusion that beef curing for export by the salting process, would be much less costly, and probably more profitable than it would be by the tinned process. Arrangements have bsen made to carry out this branch of the business at an early date. In the meantime we can only repeat the question which we asked in our issue of tho Bth April, whether their project would answer their object so well as the construction of a railway and the consequent colonization of the country ? We at that time pointed out that the number of cattle to people in New Zealand bore not the same proportion as they did in the wilds of Australia and South America, while the difference between cattle and people here would be still less as soon as the immigration and public works policy, now being inaugurated by the Government, had been carried into operation.

In the last session of the Provincial Council of Canterbury a bonus was voted for the Meat Preserving Company of that province; and after a long and animated debate, it was resolved that a bonus of £2OOO should be given to the first comnany, or private individual, who should successfully establish a manufacture of wool packs, sacking, and matting from New Zealand flax, such bonus to be paid on satisfactory proof being given of the production of 10,000 wool packs and 40,000 sacks. It is estimated that the cost of the necessary machinery for this industry will be about £SOOO, and it has been resolved to commence the undertaking as soon as practicable. We wish that, and all other undertakings of the kind, success. Ifc is only by the energetic prosecution of productive industries that any country can long prosper.