Untitled

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3302, 22 July 1879, Page 2

We are inclined to attach some importance to the item in our Wellington; telegrams concerning the proposal to formi a Liberal Partj throughout the colony. That some movement, like the one re* ferred to, is on the tapis, is borne out by the fact that in the same paragraph it is announced that our democratic Premier will address an open air meeting in Wellington, and though the telegram does not say on what subject, the inference is that it will have some reference: to the formation of a Liberal organisation. Other circumstances also favour the belief that the rumor is veracious, eminently the prevailing uncertainty that reigns in the political world at present and the possibility of an early appeal to the country. Of courso under the latter contingency, the support; of a powerful Liberal organisation would be of inestimable value to the party of which Sir George: Grey is the acknowledged chief.'

Wi liare received the following memo, from the telegraph department:—" One wire South was put right, but is almost unworkable. No business through it yet." .

It was rumored at the Corner this afternoon that something good had been struck in the Alburnia mine.

In another column we give the outlines of the proposed Kepresentation' Bill. Frpmia casual glance the mode of work? ing it^ppears to besimple. _ ?

We believe there is a letter in the post session of a resident of the Thames from Sir/W. Fpx, written about the time of the passing of the Public, Works State, ment last year. In this letter Sir William promises to support the railway, and speaks of its value.

Theee was a clean sheet at the E.M. Court to-day.

His Worship the Mayor returned home I last night, after a fortnight'! absence to recruit his health. -

A Pbbss Agency telegram of yesterday's date says :—At a meeting held at the Star Hotel this evening, Mr Oliver in the chair, it was resolTed' to canvass the town joj; subscriptions towards sending a football team to Chris tchurch shortly, where they expect, to meet a team from Dunedin, which is to be there about the same time., .Mi,.'. •■; • :'■ • : - ;^1;/

11 We are emphatically of opinion," says the Wellington Chronicle, " that one of the best conceivable means of preventing the aggregation of great landed estates* would be to enact that upon the death of any owner of landed property the estate should be divided equally amongst all the children. In this way there would be a constant redistribution of the land, coun. iteracting the constant aggregation which goes on in every country. With such a law, in addition to a progressive land tax the aggregation of large landed estates would be next to impossible. If. ever there was a case in which the end justified the means, assuredly this is one.

The Tuapeka Times writes as follows of the late Colonial Treasurer:—" A more complete specimen of the stuck-up parvenu his never been, by the accident of political exigency, exalted to high place ; arid we are only astonished that a thorough English gentleman like the Premier could have tolerated him so Hong] and if, in order to .get quit of. so, 'Undesirable a colleague, he found it n'ebes*' sary ta resort almost to personal rudeness, everybody knows that •there are certain thick-skinned people who decline to tako any more delicately expressed hints, and have to be treated much after the fashion of misbehaved dogs. It is no secret, and for some months has been no secret, that Mr Ballance has not been .in accord with his, colleagues. He bears towards Sir George Grey that personal feeling of dislike which is only natural, considering their respective constitutions and bringing up—and it is notorious that during the recess he has instigated (to put the case very mildly) most violent attacks upon his chiefs in certain obscure prints known to be within his control: a proceeding dastardly and contemptible to a degree, but nevertheless unfortunately characteristic of the proprietor and whilom editor of the Wanganui Chronicle. The Lyttelton Times, in the issue of July Ist, gives the late Treasurer a fine dressing-. down. 'He is not what is called a heaven-born Treasurer ; he made a good businesslike financial statement last year (prepared, of course, by, the flreasury officers), and he has since his accession to office,., presided over a much needed reform, in the direction of simplifying the public accounts (such reform having been initiated, hy his prcdpcessor) ; but, he lacked readiness in the House, and even in his peculiar province of finance he carried weight by no means in proportion to the value of bis performance on paper.' The

remarks in italics are our own, and we believe it will be demonstrated, soon after Parliament meets, that a more shallow pretender was never entrusted with the portfolio of the Treasury. Of course, so long as be held his tongue, and did what, he was told, there was no great harm done, as he was kept right by the Premier and the permanent officials; but, there is no doubt he has been kicking over the traces, and become offensive in matter as well as in manner to his colleagues, who are, in every respect, well quit of him."

The Tablet thus refers to the educational views of the recently elected member for Dunedin in the General Assembly t—•" Mr D; Stewartthinklthe London School Board, which has the Bible read in its schools, works admirably. Mr Stewart is easily pleased, or perhaps' he has not read the correspondence which lately passed between the London School Board and Lord G. Hamilton, the Vice-President of the Committee of Council.. Had he read this,; he would have learned that in one of the London Board-Schools the cost per head of its pupils, amounted to the enormous sum of £44; We Hardly think even Mr Stewart; would consider this satisfactory. In London there are more denominational schools aided by Government than there are Board Schools, and ,in that city no less than 25,000 Catholic children - are' attending Catbolio school s . f which are aided by Government, and that in the' other denominational schools there are! hundreds of thousands of children. If Mr D. Stewart will gain for us the' establishment of a similar system here, minus the enormous expense' of 'secular schools, we shall be contented." Ti.iTOT ,

' The interim report of the Commission upon Higher Education is now in the hands, of the Ministers, and will be X at once placed on the table of the Assembly. It recommends that there should be one University for the colony, that is, one degree-conferring body, with four colleges situated in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland: It recommends that £35,000 should be spent iv erecting colleges in 'Wefiihgtort amd Auckland, so as to put these cities' on a par with Ohrist;church i^nd Dhnedin.' At each place there .^ill Be four or fire professors, and the chairs will be English, classics, mathematics, physic, and natural sciences. Each professor is to have a salary of £600 or £700 per iinnnm, and there: was a difference of opinion as to whether the University should, in the discharge of its functions, be peripatetic. The- Ofago members of the Commission voted to have it fixed at Dunedin, whilst most of the others were for making it peripatetic. Mt O'fiorke and Mr Mr Gisborne, hojw: erer, voted with the Otago men, who, in consequence won the victory.'

A Gisbobne exchange is responsible for the jFollpwing:—ln the event of not being able to be charitable yourself, put it on a neighbour's shoulders. At the Wairoa lately this was well exemplified. A certain tradesman in the timber line had been playing pool on the Saturday evening; and when the collection was made in church on the following day, found he had no money, but the 16 marble,'in his pocket. With admirable presence of mind he dropped that marble on the plate, saying sotto poce to the elder, " That marble belongs to '-——r —- at the hotel, and his set will be spoiled without U, he Will give you a trifle for it." Next day the elder collected Is, and a"nip."

THfißay of Plenty Times says i—i fi'A. problem for social reformers to solve is how to make the barriers of society in the' colony just a little less formidable! What our young men, want is more social enjoy* ment. They stand alone in the community, and it is frequently years before they can gain admission to a home circle, and then only when they hare ceased -to interest the ladies, being no longer young. Through the' golden age of youth they must pass nncheered, with nothing to fall back on but places of public resort—good, bad, and indifferent, Many sink by the way side, and endeavour to :■ drown dull care by too frequent potations; \ some; grow surly and cynical, and nearly i all lire a life which is only half a life. A : golden key is as necessary: to unlock the 1 social door here as in the most exclusive aristocratic circles in the old country, but unfortunately top many of our young, men never find that key until they are no longer young, and when they do enter it iis only to find themselves in an uncongenial atmosphere. „,. r _ ,:, 4 , // A cuEious circumstance is narrated by the Freemantle Herald of April 26:— " The boy who was unfortunately killed :by lightening at the Subiaco Orphanage was found after, death to have a fig leaf |and geranium, which he was holding in his hand, photographed on his breast. Another boy who was in the number .of those who were stunned but not further injured, was found, when: examined, to have a fig-loaf photographed on his foot, which wag at the same time swollen by its contact with the electric fluid." ■■..■.

Some singular explanations of the slackness of trade are being given. At a recent conference one of the speakers—a ladycharged Lord Beaconsfield with* rushing into war to shoot bur customers P That, it seemed to her, was the ohly object tff the Premier's foreign 1 policy^ The jady it appears, is a wholesale shirtmaker'; it was therefore ratlier smart, of the chairman, remembering the industry'with which, the speaker was connected,,to remind her that the customers she alluded to as being shot notably Afghans and Zulus, do not wear shirts. " But," rejoined the lady, equal to the emergency, " we should have taught theiti to do so." . '

The bill to abolish plurality of voting, proposed to be introduced during the present session, provides that no person shall have more.,than one vote in the election of governing bodies, but the Act is only to apply where the local body is subsidised by the colony.

: At a meeting held at Fielding it was determined to establish a Working Men's Club, with a capital £2,000 in £l : shares ; 181 shares'were taken up by those assembled.

: Mbs C. Batkin, wife of tbo Commissioner of Audit, met with'an accident at Wellington on Friday night, falling down the stairs as she was leaving the .Ladies' Gallery at the House of Representatives. Mrs Batkin is very much shaken but no, bonea broken. ' :

Twd old Sandies down South .ware' found by a friend, after the fourteenth tumbler, gripping one another by the hand, while maudlin tears ran down their cheeks. "When ' they were asked; the cause of their grief, oue of them exclaimed •> Jih, mon, we're -just geetin- bwer* the sair burden of the national indebtedness."