WELLINGTON NOTES

Waikato Argus, Volume II, Issue 127, 29 April 1897, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES

[ik'.m oru own coi:uKsi'Oxr>Kvr|. Wei.usuxon, April 20. THE BYE-ELECTION. THE Suburbs district surrounds the city of Wellington on three sides, and as a large number of the electors are employed in the city itself, the contest is just as interesting, perhaps more so, as if it were for one of the city seats, for there are over a dozen places at Avhich the candidates haveto perform, and the characters of the people vary as much as their surroundings. Petone is the equivalent of the east end of London with Billingsgate thrown in : Newton is great and small freeholds; Brooklvn, Karori and other alpine villages are inhabited by independent tribes of hillmen, while balmy Ngahaurauga. is redolent of frou/.y bullock bides, mfltcd tallow and putrid fish. People are largely influenced by environment, and where we find neat cottages and trim gardens the Avagering is live to one on a Conservative living there: and if the enquiring canvasser lights on a slovenly abode, with the broken windows permanently repaired with a pair of discarded pants, he inevitably finds the tenant a Government supporter, who has been promised from the platform two acres, a cow, a pig, £'2o towards building a house, and a clear profit of £l.lO a year made out of the land in his spare time. This was actually what Mr Seddon stated on the platform in ati election address on behalf of his nominee, Mr Wilson, at Newton last week. The contest in one sense is unequal. The Scddonitc candidate is wofully ignorant for a journalist of political matters. He confines himself to adulation of Ministers and their virtues and performances, especially the Advances to Settlers Act, and trades every night on the fact that he has a letter written to him by John Ballance. If that deceased politician could only return from over the border for a day or two and see the things that are done in his name he Avould get a very bad turn. To compensate for his own ignorance Mr Wilson generally has a Minister or M.H.R. for a consort. The affable Hall-Jones Avas advertised for last night, but it transpired during the day that the place of meeting Avas in a hostile district Avhere there was a certainty of rude interjections and imnertineiit questions, so he found it convenient to escape the martyrdom by discovering that his presence was imperative among the wrecked roads and bridges in Hawke's Bay. So Mr Wilson took with him the senior member for Wellington, Mr John Hutchison, the labour member par excellence. Not only did this obliging gentleman speak for him, but he answered questions with a disregard for well-knoAvu facts that goes far to qualify him for a seat in the Ministry should a vacancy happen. Among other views held by these up-to-date Democrats is their approval of the recent appointment of beaten candidates to the Upuer House, Mr Wilson expressing tLsVidh that Government <v?-J.d put in tan ejorr- to rsprejont tbt " workers "and ficut * Council which had rejected so many Liberal measures. After he and bis trumpeter had bean bombarded for half-an-hour with teasers referring to some singular episodes in his own career and Mr Soddon's discrepancies, he flatly rcfused to answer any more questions " Avhich reflected on Mr Seddon." To-night and to-morroAV night ho is to bo under the protecting shield of the good Minister of Lands. It is anticipated that there will be a considerable heckling of that great administrator of lands at Newtown when ho ascends the platform. The Bushy Park transaction is in everybody's mouth just now, and the more Ave learn about it the more scandalous the transaction looks. Mr Seddon allowed that the Realisation Board had reduced the valuation by £2OOO because " the value avts not thine" previous to the " arrangement " being made with the Mackenzie boys, and he said the stock, etc., had been valued by competent men. These competent men woro one of the olii cials of the Realisation Hoard (which is to all intents Mr John Mackenzie) and one of thai, affectionate gentleman's sons who immediately afterAvards became one of the purchasers. The following statement haudedjn by Mr Foster as recently as September 17th last year, gives the cost, etc., as it then stood : and it is important to point out that as the colony took over the Estates Company and its liabilities Bushy Park and all the rest of them Avere really the property of the people :—Area, 2.32 S acres ; book cost —land, £20,010 ; stock, implements, etc., £4,297 : income for last year, £Bl7. The valuers found, no doubt very much to their own satisfaction, that the stock, etc., was only Avorth £2,300, or thereabouts—a loss to the colony of £2OOO. Then the land Avas written down another £2OOO or more, tha price being fixed at £I7,SS3, making a loss of £-1000. It was not offered to the public either by auction or tender, but the Mackenzie boys entered into possession on what the Board terms a " very strictly drawn lease for three years, Avith a compulsory purchasing clause at the end of the term." Seeing that these favoured youths are not capitalists, it is easy to see Avhat will happen. If land rises in value during the term they can either part with their " option " at a profit, or raise money and purchase, or, in case of a slump, Avhich is very probable if things continue to go on as at present, they are at liberty to say : " We haven't got the money, so avo can't comply with the compulsory covenant to purchase." It is not a very comforting sort of consolation to those who look on New Zealand as their home to live under the thraldom of alleged statesmen who keep place and power on catch party cries, such as " lie loves the people," and whose chief labours for months past huve been electioneering on behalf of carpet baggers, av'/ioso only qualification is a blind adherence to their patrons. The dominant influence, the mainspring of the administration of the past six years has been self-aggrandisement, and the means adopted have been so scandalous that things are now leaking out Avhich indicate that Avhen the whole truth is knoAvn it is little wonder that returns have been illegally kept back so long. Bush}- Park would have been a death-blow to any previous Ministry, but hi those days representatives Avoro elected by people Avit'n something to lose. Now, alas ] The majority are chiefly eager to gain at some other one's loss and to achieve' this object the so-crdlcd Liberal platform of the future is dangled.

Von may twist, vm may turn unci explain as yon \\ ill. The Mackenzie grin holds on to ISu--liv I'urk still.

CRIMINAL EXTRAVAGANCE. Not a siiij^li l voice lias been lifted in defence of the Premier's love of show in taking the Tutunokiii from her work attending the lighthouses to convey himself, his suite, Mr George Fisher and fifteen of his fenuile tliuikies, selected from the Women's Social and l-olitisnl Leaguo to Auckland, when the Tnkapuna left hero for the same destination at the same time. Apart from the unwarrantable extravagance of such a proceeding the snobbery of it has offended his own parly, and the indecency M it is emphasized now by the awful disaster that has overwhelmed Hnwko's Bay and the urgent necessity for every spare shilling to he expended in the reconsfMiction of roads, bridges and railways in the storm swept district. Were the surplus a real one, the mere money quastion would not be so serious, but it is to he feared that the resources of thcTreasnry'are so strained, despite the assurances of the Premier U) the contrary, that there Ay ill be much distress in the country districts during the winter, although there is abundance of work to be done if funds were only available. It is claimed thai the railways produced £BB,OOO more revenue last year. Whether that result was genuine it is impossible to say in the absence of any defniled ticccouuts. But it is probable that maintenance and repairs have been, to a considerable extent, met out of loan money instead of revenue. The recent disastrous destruction of railway bridges and line and lo<;s of traffic is estimated to cost the colony a sum in excess of the amount named, and this with other works in hand will use up the £150,000 of unauthorised expenditure voted by Parliament. But voting money is one thing and providing it is another. One thing is certain—the £340,000 surplus Mr Seddon claimed is not a cash surplus, and there is a rumour abroad that since March ;) Ist it has been found necessary to issue Treasury bills to the extent of close on £200,000 in anticipation of revenue. It seems hardly possible no,v for the colony to pull through the year without another loan, and with the cabinet of incapable now in office matters have a particularly blue look about them. THE WARD AFFAIRS.

The call of £4 per share on the deluded co-partners of the ex-Trea-surer is not likely to add to the regard he is held in among his former clients and constituents. The observation of Judge Williams to an enquiring victim that tho liability on his shares avjis just like any ordinary debt to'a tradesman, looks very like a gratuitous hint to file his schedule and so shake off all connection Avith the ills tarred business at once and for ever. It is perhaps the first time on record that a document with a face value of £50,1j0, Avhich Avas not so long ago described as " Cash " should go begging for an owner. But so it is; neither the Bank of New Zealand nor tho liquidators of the other concern Avill acknoAvledge it as belonging to either of them.