The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 1882.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4249, 14 August 1882, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 1882.

The No-Confidence debate was but a hoHow affair.' With the exception df the Colonial Treasurer rind the figure-head of the Opposition pone of the great guns engaged in the action. The debate was not even useful as a means of eliciting information, for very few new facts were brought to light. Mr De Lautour's speech has been referred to by the Parliamentary correspondents of several journals as a brilliant one. It was telegraphed to the Auckland journals more fully than to this district, and we must confess to a feeling of disappointment having resulted from its perusal. It may have been brilliant in style and excellent in tone, but it sadly lacked solidity. Mr Montgomery is admitted to be only a second rate sort of man—a mediocrity— and therefore one does not expect great things from him. But on all hands the member for Mount Ida is held forth as the coming man of the Opposition. And is he not already the head of the Young New Zealand Party? It not unfrequently happens that young men *who> have already attracted notice- by their trenchant criticism, and are treading on the heels of the ehiefswf the party preparatory to stepping into, their shoes when they disappear from the stage of statesmanship, eolipse in effect the more matter, of fact veterans. This is the position we would have expected Mr DeLautour to occupy, but the conviction is foroed upon us that either he failed to gain the goal, or his case was so bad as to baffle even his ability. Mr DeLautour said-—" If the Government remained in they would con* vert the four million loan into six or seven million. The Treasurer would borrow from one fund and give a bill for it; that bill was negotiated in London, and by skilful manipulation he pocketed double the original amount of the bill. The consolidated fund spent the money first, and the public works fund spent,the money afterwards. He quoted from tables in the Financial Statement to show that, I under the authority of the five million loan, the Treasurer had spent ■evejn^ and a half' millions. There was nearly two millions of Treasury bills *to* F«&ietß, and which there wai no prosit of ever being redeemed., To protect these they would be asked, no doubt, to pus » Treasury Currency Bill Extension Act, and they had no guarantee

that, be would not negotiate this Bill I again for an additional two millions." That this was disingenuous criticism Sir John Hall who followed Mr DeLautour, and completely answered most of his arguments, showed very clearly. He said Mr DeLautour had confused some of the new members, and perhaps, some of the old ones too, with the mass of figures he quoted. The real fact about the Treasury bills was that the Treasurer had sold them to the Public Works Department, and, when that department wanted the money, they sold them to somebody else. Mr DeLautour's financing strongly reminds us of an anecdote that is related of a promising youth who having been to college, came home to spend the vacation with bis parents, plain old-fashioned country folks. The son, desirous of airing his educational acquirements, said he could by logic prove the two ducks which constituted the leading feature of the meal, to be thrf 3. His father thereupon took one of them himself, handed the other to his good wife; and said to his sod, "Now my boy you can have the third to yourself." So Mr DeLautour undertook to prove that Major Atkinson ,had by some process of legerdemain converted a five million loan into one of seven and a half millions. His proofs, however, were no less satisfying to those thirsting for information than the third duck would be to the logical boy from college. Sir John Hall demonstrated thai Mr DeLautour was either ignorant of what he was speaking about, or that he was trying to throw dust in the eyes of members, and to blindfold the country by converting book* keeping figures into actual amounts borrowed. We have hitherto regarded Mr DeLautour as the honest man of the House, and are grieved to find him resorting to rhetorical trickery. Our Auckland contemporaries raised a great howl about Northern members betraying their districts by supporting the No-Confidence motior» on the ground that by so doing they were opposing the million loan for the railway through the King Country. But events showed that members knew what they were about. The distinct issue was— That the House has not confidence in the financial proposals of the Government. This issue the Auckland members who were returned on the Opposition platform supported. But when the No-Confidence motion was defeated, then came the question of the specific million loan for the North Island, and the Opposition Aucklanders voted for it almost to a man. There were two exceptions, viz., Mr Sheehan and Mr Swanson. Why Mr Sheehan opposed it is not apparent, as he expressed himself in favor of borrowing. We can only explain the matter by supposing that he would not support the Government proposals because the schedule did not provide for the Thames railway. The Colonial Treasurer's speech provides fcad for serious reflection, but the space available will not admit of dwelling on the subject in the present article.

The Shottland Sawrmill started work this morning. AH hands were engaged- last week bringing down logs, and the mill dam is nowfull. It is expected that there is sufficient timber on hand to keep the milt employed till the Christmas freshes. The logs are as a rule larger than previous freshes have brought down.

Thk Captain of the Naval Cadets has requested us to intimate that he would be obliged if the crew of the launch would muster at the boat-shed at half-p^t six o'clock to-night, to run the boat up the Bkids.

Me S. Ensob's house was shifted the 14 feet required to tike it into the Middle Ward. Mr W. Twentyman was the contractor. The undertaking wai a difficult one, and great care was necessary. When ell was ready four men and a boy moved the structure to its future Bite.

At Cbristchurch on Saturday, a man named John Wright, employed at Mr "Seed's Rope Work*!, was killed. The shaft of the machine.y caught in the flax around his waist, and he wa3 carried round and dashed to piece?. The deceased was unmarried, and is supposed to hove a brother in Invercargill. At the inquosfc on the body, the jury returned a verdict of accidental de.it!), with a rider that the Inspector of Machinery should compel all owners of machine; j to properly cover exposed shafting working close to the ground.

A man named Wm. Bromley wai arrested at Te Aroha on Saturday by Constable Graham, on a charge of forging a P.N, to the value of £55, in the name of Matthew Edgar, at Auckland, last month.

Mb J. B. Gibbons, who has for many years been connect.d with the Thames Advertiser,, has accepted a position as reporter, on the staff of the Wellington Evening Post, and will leave for bis new sphere of duty early next week. It will not be news to the Thames residents to state that he is the son of one of the pioneers of the goldfield, Mr Jo'-n Gibbons, of Shortland, who erected one of the first batteries which started on the Thames, the site being on the Karaka Creek. Mr Gibbons, or as he is po.ularly known, Jack Gibbons (anfl it may be taken as a safe rale that when people are generally known by their Christian name they are well liked in the community) isa good reporter, being not only an expert shorthand writer, but) an excellent paragraphist, and one possessing much facility of composition. The Thames has famished additions to the literary depertment of leading jjutnala ttosa time to time, and from experience we are confident r hat Mr Gibbons will prove a valuable member of our contemporaiy's reportorial staff, and reflect credit upon the Thames. •

A PBIV4TK letter from Sydney states that it is probable that Mveral of the best rowing men in Sydney will Visit New Zealand after Mr Punch's regatta, in October, to try co*> elusions with Hearn, the champion sculler of New Zealand.

A Wbitik&ton telegram says :—A splendid eamplt) of stone has been brought into town from the Goldea Crown, at Terawhiti. Ctold was f-eely visible.