SUMMARY FOR THE MONTH.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4908, 14 December 1876, Page 2

SUMMARY FOR THE MONTH.

0 - fV NOVEMBER-DEOEMBER, via San Francisco, \* As all rational people expected, the attempts by" Sir George Grey and Mr. Mac- - ‘ ' andkew to'raise'V r aotioal“6b'3lrucii6ns -to- , . - the- .working, of, the system have . './ .endaitin nothing. Sir George? Grey has the sponge,., and.instead-of. carrying' hia financial grievances ( to the foot of“tJfe’’ £ 'tWf&xs has_ retired ;to„.the. "7 Kapjau ■: to hatch gmisohjef ifqfK" the;nex.t " session of. Parliament. He .previously /, ' * addressed a meeting of his constituents at ;V the-Thamhs, .in which'.he said-little that was new, that - little, too, being for the ' * mosfematt 'wiltriie. has accepted the, 1 “ new -order' r o£, -things,so, "far, ahd his late Prdyi&iaP.pecretary is .administrator of the* ' Distribt' *of Auckland. Deapite.all'the.bellicose.talk at, the. Otago , '"" Convention,';ahcf. tlie' libe of money to sendiSir GsQRqE Grey and Mr. MACANDRBW.Home, the whole thing has ,■ v faded'.OßlTiofr-sighfci vThereiare no -funds, and atprdrainent' rnember of the Cpnven- ... -f tion/. a:Mtc-Db!I/autoijiv ?*who ‘ is also a ' 1 member:bf‘the House of ■■Representatives, in'addressing a ihdetihg’of hiscpristiiuents, has 1 in effect admitted-that' the, wish of : ; Aho ’country,' as by thej legis--1, latioh' of laisi iihd the previous session, must-be allowed,-to, have, its way. The ‘ : notices for .the County Council elections f -^are-all-out; there is np lack/of candidates, ’ people are taking the utmost interest, ~ ~‘ and ikis ;plain-that ;a very-excellent start* with a system of real local self-govern- . ment will be made. - Of course the legis : latioh-which; has 'founded County l j'. vt gy atom‘will bo'susceptible of, and must. ’ ‘ .need, improvement; but 1 work-oh which” it is based is .correct,! there rriil 'beind”difficulty in.future sessions of ■ -Parliament ;in; .introducing , the trifling ■I modifications which vundert ita!practical it- -working may;.be found!necessary; 1 jWith il ‘i;he exceptions of the jSnperintendents Of >'provinCes,'oi;',officers -- - actingfor ’them; - hiivp’giyeh ll ' the; most “' ■‘lchderful-'assistance, towards 1 inaugurating : 'local'goyemnaent;^in ‘ ’ “pariiculair, Mr. Roex-eston, though, a strenuous and consistent Oppo:t:f.linent* Of iabolitiohJ.hp -id .the last, { most patriotically Accepted the decision' of the vast majority—in his province, and-bas-.ivadt'edvih ,’ihearty'i'co-bperktibn with the General Government. Mr. RoLLESTqN.is • I tareceiye/a handsqme,public subscribed for by all partms inthepro-' wince the destinies of which he has pre- .; , ■.-i sidediover for? severaly&ifs/-

• The, (Settlement . and (progress of -:the colony, are proceeding-in ,,a .manner Jtbat- ' leaves be 1 desired, and 'in tlus.di-- • rection, two j very.,, excellententerprises ' have L been initiated. Mr. Broomhall and—Mr.-- Pritchard,--bo_th- representing i large* pPTSnglisH'. capital,; have agreed With-the Auiifcland ‘Waste ‘Lands Board .foi;, the .purchase of couple, 1 '•"ot" large' blocks, x 6f 'label, bn which extensive is to be made. TEA -Waste-Bands Board have ibeen

most particular in the conditions as to •>' settlement' : arid cnltivatiorl under which . they have granted, the , land, and as a re- , suit we may expect’sbbn. to chronicle the, formation of two, 'Special; settlements which will go largely towards; developing ~ the respuroesiof;the colony.; The following telegram frotnAuckland gives, particulars . of the matters under/ notice:—“ 111 reply to Mr. Beoomhall’s ■ s&con'd - a/reaolution :was . carried by the-Waste. Lands Board that 47,'000 acres of • the" Te ; Aroha, block shall.be sold,, the. price to be paid by tlie Ist February, 1877, , Mr, Bkoomhall to introduce 610 adult immigrants, and ; erect 150 houses, churches;, chapels, stores, &c. ; to provide land for; K educational endowments ;'bring one-fifth of "the land under cultivation beforq the

Ist "January, 1883;£11,425 to bo' de-. ’’ posited as a guarantee, 'to be absolutely . forfeited if the conditions are, unfulfilled;; ■ 'and a Crown grant is;tp, be issued when Ihe.money is pai]dj ’. The.price of the laud is not published. Be Pritchard's application for 62,000- acres, a resolution was ■-passed that the land be sold at fl. per ; acte,'-10s: Jer Atefe' to be -paid''Before the . Ist March next; 'arid 10s. by the introiduc- , tion of equivalent immigrants, qne . adult for every 75 acres ; 210 houses to .be erected, and otHer .conditions t.o be similar " toßßOoknALL’s* £ls, boo to be deppsited. ”,

We have before us .the, text nearly comn. plete of Sir, GEOBQE GnEY’s recent de-. I liverance to an audience,- attracted by the reputation of the orator to the'theatre at r. T'GrahamstowH. : He' ! appears to have used a few days, of retirement at-'Kawau in, ‘preparation for this, great effort, f and we are bniiud_to adjriit thatof. : 'tlie hind the / speech is a masterpiece;; but it is of; very bad kind, utterly, disingenuous and j untruthful, .set off with /claptrapsentiment; ■ • and inculcating/doctrines;‘thenbntypjrac- ■ - tical result-'of-which-ds"the 'development ’ ‘ 'of that''class hatred, the ' sdeds of which; imported from thehrm of Messrs. Bead-' laugh £nd J 'Company,'his' "old;associates in. England, he has been"'assiduously 'sowing in stony places, and with the| ort dained r result,,since his appearance as a public agitator-in New'-Zealand ! . ;t No Ilians of ordinary'intelligence,'with the least knowledge of the world, who ‘ ' knows the early histOxy of affairs in this - ‘ colony, and' who-has ever had- opportunity of observing "the public : cohdiict of. Sir George Gkey,' can believe.that he' is' now, doing anything_but playing plpart in passion to tatters to split, ■ the .ears of the groundlings. No one jean believe that he—an. au,toc?at;,of ~the autb-crata-rrthe most tyrannical and Self-willed -of rulers as he has proved himself- in !the :■ past,—has any‘other purpose now than by means of the mob to regain that individual ‘ascendency, ip/this)'colohy..which . ■' he 'formerly i derived ,'frbm//th’e'/oEl6yal,' : ‘ Commission,/'apd.,'which abused I for, the ; parpose, of,; maintaining,personal government, and of, depriving, '.as. he,did for- . /..so many years deprive, the. peopleof all v voice i or: control in ;;the; [government or r ,-in’ the/mahageihent :of ctheim owtvpublic 'affairs. r In oonductinjg the-political-party '-:in the HouSe;of Representatives, of which ■' he is the leader, he has exhibited the samp, ’ autocractic temper, ;and ' ; the 'same"'deter-,, initiation to have his own way,bail'd; toj bo guided only by his own will,.,which have marked; .his jwhple public "life, and it ia: , this egoism which admits of no equality ' and will listen to no ■ ated'frora' hiiD'the support of those: who had enrolled tuemselves as his followers, which made them ashamed of-their chief, - arid'which -left him at/tho'-closo of (the ’‘ ■last session with 'smart. ’Mr. Rees and young Mr. .Tom as thb/only adherents in, - the House, upon whose vote and support. : : he'could alhrays rely. ‘ .There is..nothing, " startling in this discourse, .but,. for jthe treason.that .v?e ,Jhavo ; giyen,,.,thqt jStr ;Geokge Gkey has ,taken, time, to,plot it 1 afresh, the arrangement of topics is belter ,'i and the; appeals ad captandum are more ' i artistic thah'in his speeohih the iAndklafid'/ Theatre. The so-called representative of - thb Thahifes'tlnbosomed himself to Jthe minority of electors, yhom ho, calls ; his . constituents, with the most touching re-

liance upon their sympathy and gullibility, and defines their mutual Ablations as ‘ ‘phifef’’ and followers, ‘ ‘ wb'pm I have to convince, by that'l am doing Ihakwhich is right.”- j ’v-ff jl ftis, hbwever, a: yery jrernarkable fact -that, in so njuch -of 'the speech!as H reported m the Southern Cross'of the 20 th November, there is ns word of the, promised •'reeistahce- tothe- Abolition f Act, of-, promises .which have made ,a '.prospective ‘'hero ■ of ■ : the great*-Pro ,Opns,pl.; he.. no, longer-., proposes ••tp«d»er, "in defencebf,Provincialism, or tp spend his .last shillinjj:'iu.-eslablishing the- fact .befprevthe legal. tribunals!that the passing of the Abolition Act was ultra vires of the General Assembly of New Zealand. Not a word of all this, no doubt because the'CA-Sseriibly refused* to find the money to enable him to pay. the .costs of that great ’ suit; but we" have' instead .beside the oratorical platitudes about the wrongs which large' “landholders inflict upon the human .race, and-the dutyof-every niau to make' the world better than he. found it—nothing, except a qi.qst, untruthful aCdoiint Pf what 'lie attempted to do, and' what he 2didj: irilhis capacity as representative pf the Thames, for, the advancement of the interests of his district. ~ j If Sir George Grey had not promised to get a railway made from the Thames to Waikato, He would' not have; been returned! AS'-a v -member fbt that dis-i trict; and. undoubtedly the steps ; taken by him ; to fulfil' ah "impossible.. enr gagement;/were as highly finished examples of .the way ,“how not to do it’ 1 as could be imagined, Xt is enough to say that they were quite in fceeping with the account of them, given in-the .speech now before 1 us.' He was obliged to confess that he had? deluded his. admirers, and he relieved the unpleasantness of the situa-y -'tion by abusing the Government, and the capitalists, who as usual are always in his! road. * ' |

Sir George took credit.to himself,' great credit, for having forced the |Gtovernrnent to make provision Tor education, for gaols, and for the. Lunatic Asylum-alt Auckland. This is- what he is reported to , have said : ''- ,b ’ * ' I The next point to which Tgave -particular attention was education : and ! think that so far all necessary provision hasbeen made for this district. JC must say thafthe-iddment II pointed out’ to the Government that what they proposed to do was entirely inadequate. 1 allowed them fh;st to pass their estimates. I thought tharwas the best plan. I saw that ample provision had bech'njajl? for all parts of !the colony exceptthls Northern! patt..„(j;h?refore,!alded..ln.passing.the'Esti- - mates "in that' to secure for the other parts of New Zealand that liberal provision which the Government ptbpoVedjo .makekandthen .drew, the atten lion of, the-Assembly-to-the fact that In; this portion CtNeW Zealand similar provision had not been: made. 'The moment it was pointed but there'was a -universal feelinkthat justlcbmust be done and thevdid exactly I what-X, asked them to do. Therefore, if it is an unfair arrangement,, X'.am.responsible fpr-that; But 'acting as ybur representative' I Took care'tiiat that was Jdone;'.’Then ialso I ‘ found 1 that’ in'* the case Of the gaols no propqr.provisiQn'was mftdeTor.the classification of prisoners : even, the:diqt of The prisoners, was, nb£ ; what it ought to- be.'," The - salaries of the officials alsowere' too low to get the fitting meh.- There was the-same-inequality of expenditure between the:North and the other provinces in (this ,matter,ja3 in the matter of education. This I also, brought before the Genetab Assembly, and they’madb as'ample provision for -the /purpose'Of gaols as-th'e funds of the colony would- allow, them'to dorj Again, 1 I found .that the Lunatic-Asylums,.werein a deplorable condition compared with those in the South.' I visited them, and ■satisfied'myself of the fact that theyhad need of that' frequent change of diet which-their mental state required for the purpose of (restoring their health, that their clothing was.defective, their exercise yards in so bad a state" that in winter and in bad weather they could get no exercise at' all. There was a shocking., contrast between the North and the rest of New Zealand Hollowed the same-plan in this as in education, : and I think you; may.vbe . satisfied that you, through, your, representative, "have conferred ai great benefit in all these respects upon your fellow-men. Notfthe facts are—that from the jtime of the VisitVof the Civil" Servants, up to almost the last hour of the session the Goyernmcnt.found it impossible to get information from the Superintendent of the "province of Auckland ■ as to the wants or the . financial condition of. T his I district. Estimates had -from" timeto jtime been furnished of the . most meagre character, and if-Sir George Grey,' havihgVithlield the "required. information, was ..quiet ly watching,-as he describes himself, for the result of his-own machinations-against the interest of his own - province, we can only'say that the confession which he has made is in the last degree discreditable to him as a public servant. ’ ■_ - . .The other, unsuccessful , exploit j for which he takes credit ,is his attempt to reduce or abolish the gold duty, and thus deprive the Thames' of' the only source of revenueto which the local governing body can look in, the future for : the means of carrying out- public works in the new county. This scheme is not his own, 'However,-but is ! of a piece with that pror.l posed by him' in the session of 18f5 for the' reduction of duties on certain articles of;, comtnon; consumption. In the debate on.that,occasion there' was delivered by the "lioriorable member for \Vairarapa a speech ...so,,:happy, ,so epigrammatiqally descriptive of the position of the great Pro-Consul himself, and of his fiscal proposals then - in' discussion, that; ini order to give it a wider circulation, we reppnt it from' L Hdnsardl J Mr.' Andrew said.: —

Sir, at the risk of appearing pedantic, I will venture on a quotation from Hallam. That historian, speak- : iug of one of the greatest of English'writers, says that “he mingled ampng the opntroversies of ills time like a knight of romance ampng caitiff brawlers, with arms' of a finer temper and worthy fbbe proved in a nobler field:”*: T confess, Sir;: that on first Hearing that the hon. ■ members for Auckland City Wc;;t .was about to appear upon the arena of this, house, my anticipations were that a similar character would be exhibited among ourselves. It may be through want of taste and judgment, or from a perverted mind on my part, but'l cannot conceal the fact that these anticipations have been mostgreviousiy disappointed. Sir, it seems to me that we have indeed among us a knight-errant in colonial politics, but a knight-errant with arms of inferior ■ and with little about him that is Quixotic -beyond the anomalies and vaigaries of hisaction. ...I will venture,cn..another llustration. There was: a time when,the early settlein ent of New Zealand " trembled ' iri the threatening presence of the natives. At that period the hon. memberfor Auckland City West,'.the then -Governor, deserved well of his country by a deed of wholesome daring. ; He, seized, Te 'Eauparaha;'and the natives were'eowed. There waS-a later occasion when a British General,.in. command of forces as numerous and as good as those immortalized. by_Xenophon, shrank from the, assault of a Maori stronghold. ;,Siri that hon,.member, at the, "head •'of An oh men' and resources as the colony could muster, undertook * add* accomplished the capture. There is a parallel to this in Roman history, Xiinfewas that a civilisation more.important 1 than that of: -New Zealand, the civilisation of the world, .trembled "in'the balance as the head and shoulders of the Gatil wdrd topping, the. parapet of the Capitol. ..The barba.’rian was dashed down by Manlius,; andlEpmejwas! saved, fOn other occasions,, in the, field, ,thq sanie 1 Manlius deserved .well of his country; but whatwas his after history? HC became a coUrtCr pf the populace, a pandetor. to (the mob, arf ambitious-candidate fpr vulgar applause; ho forsook the principles of his. youth and of bis order, ..principles that,were making, and did make Rome the first of natldnsfand waa at last declared a traitor. Once: Indeed the scene land' ‘Memory l of his‘exploits saved him; but,the end came,; and he was cast ,headlong from the Capitol.which lie had saved. Sir, we live in different times: there is little fear that the hon. member for Auckland City * West will "expose himself fd physical punishment.and disgrace: but there is a greater fall than Any; mechanical one—there is tlje fall from former, glory and from, a nobler self, It.tt'with pain I confess that it appears td ibe that the hon.“.menibdrt for Aii'oKland City West l is on thevergo of such A full—nay, that it has actually commenced. Sir, I shall vote against this BUl.| -It . seems to me simply an appeal to the .uninformed -and unthinking, a. bid for popularity, uncalled for, .which 1 is'nbt in fairness necessary, and which, in thef state of 1 the'flnancesiof.thd country, cannothe carrled l ,out. “ A courtier of the populace, a panderor to thh' lAoby : an*. ambitions • candidate 'for. •vdlsjaf applause I’’' l ls thib 7 the’ 'Auckland idpl 1,. , ... goami ...

lai .fIU - "r, ■ ■! ril I Aspecial correspondent of this Journal / Haa lately walked,, oveF the j worksof |the ■W^llihgton- MlVay/lrpin the Upper Hutt to the Wairarapa." ‘"TlffL results of) this of the wofks, have been shown in a series of letters whichrhave appeared in our columns, jliu the Hast; ofothese'O.Ur correspondent drew] .deductions! from-.- theudbser rations he had made^jWd,'tof. course/- allow a latitude 5 * to* (correspondents under such circii instances, and therefore, whilst

scarcely saying that ,!we agree entirely with all the conclusions he has arrived at, we are willing to,admit thc.justico.and apparent probability, of much that he haa advanced. At the .same time, , there.fs one conclusion which' must be' admitted*.by all who have read lua'letters, and- that.is- the great natural difficulties which have presented themselves to. the .cpnstruptipu of, "and’ which' acooun the delaysfitliat have takep'<plaoe;/and that must caWplacb before ddmpleted to. li'eathorston,- ■ It-has -beenrvory‘much' the practice to find fault with the rate of progress'.which.has-been made-upon -these • Works,'*!and it'6 blame everyone podnected with them, from the responsible* Minister at the head- of a department downjto the .smallestf spb-contractor.;) i>-;Bat we now feel’ confident that if anyone were j» perspnallyJnspeot the- works hb.<would |acquitv the contractors of all blame for the delay which g hasV .occurred in their aooomti: plishment. As it. .is, so far as the present contractors‘ are concerned,* some six months should see their portion: of the. work,finished,-. anddhe-letters jofr our correspondent 'show that these gentlemen.;; have had a; task ..literally of a herculean nature to get through. For the; delay .that-: must l-ensue*.'subsequently-'!t'o, the completion of the present contracts, and previously to the’ 'connection of the Wairarapa with-Wellington by rail, there, is,, however, if-np.t : blame .isome-onus to'rest'* upon the shoulders of those who-have so .arranged, that! onithe.-'cbYnpletibn* pf the. contracts of Messrs. McKirdy, Oakes, ' :and!Messrs;-'GoLi.XEj’ ScOTT,arid' Wilkinsoe, some;,eighteen months must elapse, before tdasujmmit, tupnejican be lined, and the permanent Vay laid to the Wairarapa valley... Oqr correspondent has how it may yet be possible to reduce this' /delay.;;and it is*M :'b*e ‘ hopdd 'that | some effort in this direction will be made, be'cadse SeveTy /month,’lindeed ’ everyj day, that hastens railway communication with “the : rich''dißtrict , ilylng'bey6nd the Rimu-' taka is of vital importance to the cqloiiy; ■