What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume III, Issue 1660, 25 April 1874, Page 2

What Everybody Says.

" In multitude of counsellors there is safety. —On> Proveeb.

A constant reader and sincere admirer ofthemohil philosophy which had ever characterised the sayings of everybody in this column up till last Saturday is indignant. He thinks it was a grave mistake to allow Puck to have a say, and a graver still to permit any reference to York. But the constant reader and sincere admirer is prejudiced—decidedly conservative in his ideas. He thinks there is more in an ounce of blood than a pound of flesh—a conclusion the before-mentioned constant reader and sincere admirer intended as the reverse 1 of complimentary to Puck and York and all other anonymous scribblers who do not reach Ids standard of excellence. But, as said before, he is prejudiced; and possibly that condition disposes him, to view,things here written more favorably than others, like a horse supplied with green spectacles is said to do with sawdust—take it for good solid food, when it is not even honest chaff. „

Some people think the, Councillors have displayed unusuariiberality in fixing,the salaries of their officers. Of course it is an easy matter to vote away money, and the dignity of the Borough has to be sustained. It may be expensive, but it will pay in the long run, and very few ■will cavil at the salaries agreed upon when the extent of the wprk to be done comes to be known. The working of municipal Government will depend a great deal upon the way the permanent officers do their work—nearly as much, indeed, as upon the judgment of councillors in their selection ot those officers. If the choice be ( judiciously made and the offices honestly filled, the salaries, will not. be found io be at all too liberal. The Mayor's screw appears to have been postponed for future consideration by tacit consent. But when some data has-been arrived at as: to ways and means, the councillors will haveto face what may possibly prove to be a bone of contention.

Governor Fergusson has gone through the ordeal of an interview with the, * W&ikato natives. Some people, are congratulating him on the, dignified^ position he has assumed towards those troublesome gentry, but to an • unprejudiced observer the governor's utterance does not present any marked contrast to the utterances of his predecessors. . A passage of scripture thrown in may have been apropos, and possibly was accepted by the natives as an indication that Sir James is a pious man, but the Maories are cute enough to know that speeches delivered by governors meanrfery little. /They aj"e clever in exact proportion as they are meaning-less-^-in .fact; ; the, more : they approach to the flowery style of oratory affected by the natives themselves the more accept* able they prove. We shall see whether Governor Fergusson will be really more firm than previous governors when the occasion arises. Jlesays that the positipn he has assumed is the result of advice from his responsible advisers; from which it may be inferred that if.Wg s^; resr pqnsible advisers-'-"at «sdme future timesuggest a different position he will take their advice, and adopt any other policy that, may be.- ; d^eme^f ; for the • whole" administration * of "native affairs seems to be regulated by expediency rathe?, than by considerations of, right arid justice. 5 ■-' :; ii^'/

Mine, managers on the Thames seem to be in that invidious position of having to serve/ not two' but many mMters, and the consequence is that the situation is a difficult one. If one director does not hear that specimens are being " grassed " just as soon as his co-director he thinks himself aggrieved; ii& is |hot in a position to operate in scrip to advantage, so where's the good of being *a director at all." This state of things is all traceable to one cause —the disposition to invest in mining property for ; the opportunities it affords of a|little gambling, rather than with the legitimate purpose of making the mines pay. For a mine manager to strike gold.nowra-days is to/make-an enemy or enemies, and the only way fox directors to agree, will be for them to ( liye on their;mines! jh?P» whengold is struck, they can all staH; fair in ; the;; game of speculation—whether of buying or selling —the shareholders (not directors.) being people whose interests, are not to. be consulted in the least. It's one of the abuses of a system which has many abuses, ,the remedy for which rests with the .shareholders.', ' ; ■ ■■„. ■;.,,.. ]■■ .; ::■ ;.•;■;■•■.! f_ %_ The operation of the neyr licensing Apt has not been altogether without effect in '£-. prohibitory .directipn. All byer the colony during the.past week the publicans and sinners have been perturbed in spirit over the, danger to, which :their craft, was exposed. Some of the publicans have been made Tictims—that is they have been politely informed thai; after a certain time they will be.no longer; ( permjtted . dispense promiscuous liquors to thirsty customers , There, is ; a certain . anomaly about these prohibitions. It does! not appear to have been laid down, for instance, whether a person'..to'J■'wfi^'^'.Ucra'sej'.iiira.l. refused for one house [fy pompetent to sell d^ink 'in another house for which a,, license has been granted. And though" tie licensed houses in a district ,majy^ypp|ed to a minimum one year^Jpm^|^|JEiing to prevent the old houselKwilgTeiopened the next,if itcan be urged tlfi|t,;ih';ey are a necessity, and the applicant^|i^ntipl/ with certain stipulations. Goflsequently it appears that the Good T^iij^lj^s will have to be ever on their guard/i ! The work they do one year may be undone the next. If they cast out the spirits now, in a year's time a whole legion may take their places. While the new Act^confers "very little of the permissive principle to those who would exercise it, instances are not wanting to prove that it may be so applied as to inflict injustice. Under'such restrictions as the Act impose^ the wonder i* that

persons of good character can be found to embark in the business of publican at all. .

. So Mr. Sub-Inspector Bullen is to be proceeded against ibr libel. J.t is said that a good libel action has been the making of many a newspaper, but it is questionable if the saying will apply to policemen: policemen haven't the same excuse for breaking the law as newspaper men. The former are paid to preserve the peace and not to break it; and if one does occasionally overstep the bounds of duty and have to pay for it, everybody says" sarved him right." This won't be considered commenting on a case, I hope, becauseits not according to Cocker-sto do so,/ To bevvery general: there is rery often a lot of talk about libels and they end in sm6ke; but if the epidemic which has recently appeared on the other side should extend to New Zealand people wouldn't be surprised. That old shell "Cameo," who writes excessively funny things for the Auckland Weekly News, has been having a dig at the Thames, people. Discoursing on the escaped communists, Rochefort, Grouset and company, "Cameo" suggests inviting these, patriotic individuals oyeVhere and making a " show" of them, and winds up with the following complimentary allusion to the Thames:—" I am convinced it would take immensely at thd Thames, at all events, for it is tolerably .certain that the hundreds whose sympathy .is lavished on specimen-Btealers would feel a natural attraction towards vilkmy of any kind." Now", Cameo," you a*e wrong in your opinion of the Thames people. They don't show any particular sympathy, for "villainy of any kind," by which, you seem to mean every kind; and they would be further, removed from a great deal of villainy if the Thames had been a hundred and'fifty miles from Auckland instead of fifty. If Henri Eochefort's love of journalism bad been as strong as his love of country, he might havefouhlia fine'field to ligntliis'lAaterni in Auckland; it would have soon eclipsed the feeble rays of the *' thousand beacons.". -','.". :;'" ','- ' ;'/ ': . ■ ."' ':