WELLINGTON NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 239, 25 January 1898, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

[from our own correspondent], Wbllinotox, January 19. REGULATING BUSHMEN. We have become so accustomed to having our daily avocations interfered with ly regulations made by Ministers and administered by inspectors that it need causo no surprise that firewood-getters, post and rail splitters, and others who gain a living by bush work arc now to become revenue payers. The Liberal Government must bo .sadly in want of money when they find it necessary to draw up such a set of regulations as are published in the Gazette of January 13th. Just at present people in the bush districts are in dire straits through bush fires. Such calamatics are inevitable in the nature of things in a dry summer. The fires may originally start on a re-cently-felled section, the owner of which is anxious to have a "good burn," and considers his opportunity has arrived. He knows that a bad burn is equivalent to ruin to him frequently. His fire may spread and do infinite damage. But it frequently happens that fires arc caused by accident, and they may readily have their origin on Crown lands through a careless swagger lighting his pipe or boiling his billy. The new regulations arc designed to give this sinner a caution should a copy of the Gazette reach him. Clause 6 provides : "Any person lighting any fire within a forest, whether Crown Lands or otherwise, and inten tionally or neligently allowing the same to spread, shall be guilty of an offeree and shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £50," but the payment of such penalty shall not prevent the recovery from the wrong-doer of any damage -which may be done by such fire. The only comment needed here is the advice given re cooking a hare, " First catch your wrong-doer." Another clause.(9) makes it penal for any person to suffer cattle "To wander in any forest, or to browse upon or otherwise destroy any timber or other trees or shrubs." This offence is assessed at £5. As the regulations arc to be administered by the Lands Department it would be interesting to know if the Hon. John McKcnzie conceived the idea of cows browsing upon timber trees. He should consult some distinguished naturalist, say Sir Walter Bullcr, on the ncicntific aspect of this regulation before he prosecutes the owner of any animal ho may suspect of having developed a taste for red pine maize. Another clause gives power to the ranger to sue and have fined £SO any person "who shall trespass in any forest," and, what is more drastic still, any offender who may trespass "in or near any forest from November till March." This means closing hundreds of miles of roads in the colony which run through Crown lands. No one can travel overland to the West Coast by cither the Otara or Buller Gorges during the summer months without being M near " Crown lands all the way. The fines from these offences may prove welcome aids to revenue, but the chances of realising them are not much in the way of certainties. But when it comes to encouraging the workers in the bush districts, special attention is paid to those who earn very little in proportion to the amount of labour expended. Clause 48 provides that these men shall pay " For a license to cut firewood only £5 per annum per man ; for a license to cut posts and rails, £7 10s per annum per man," and further revenue will be raked in by the imposition of royalties of Is per load for firewood, and from 4a to Ss per 100 for posts and rails, the higher price beiDg for puriri, totara, kauri or matai. Here we see at a glance the true inwardness of the claim the Scddon Government makes that it has encouraged land settlement. The recent fires will result in hundreds of miles of fences being erected. In the case of post and rail enclosures, it requires 8 posts and 32 raila per chain. The State will take 2s 8d from the man who sp'its them, and as he has to pay £7 10s besides, it is quite reasonable to put the extra cost of such a fence to the struggling settler at 3s 6d per chain, and if only posts are used and wire in place of rails, then Is will be added. This sort of sympathy will hardly be appreciated, and will sadly encroach on the possible surpluses the settlers may have intended to'provide for the Old Age Pensions scheme. The same Gazette also notifies the forfeiture of thirty-five holdings in the Southland district, held under various tenures, and a lot of town and suburban sections on the people's estate at Cheviot are advertised for sale for cash. One can hardly realise that the administrator of our lands is the same man who was so Erejudieed against freeholds when he rought in his Land Bill in 1891 that he prophesied that there would not be a freehold in New Zealand in less than fifty years. We live in an age of inconsistencies and paradoxes, and that simc enemy of the freehold only awaited the opportunity to prove himself to be as much a land-grabber as the earth-hungry Tories he, before bis chance came, denounced as enemies of the people. These things make thoughful men despair of the democracy. Just now the Premier is talking inflammatory diivel to his Wett Coast friends, which would be laughed at in any of the large centres, advocating the complete confiscation of the Midland Railway, abolition of the Upper House (our only safeguard against State "Socialism), and the latest news from the London Stock Exchange tells us that our securities have fallen 70s and 80s in one week for our 3J and 4 fer cent, respectively. Evidently the proceedings and attempted legislation of the recent session have created a panic to lead to such an unprecedented slump, And we hear also of the Hon. T. Thompson at Auckland informing the Charitable Aid Board that they muj-t provide for the indigent Maoris. This is not only throwiug an unjust burden on that body, but it is a direct violation of a solemn p'edge to the natives when they placed themselves under British rule. A sum of £7OOO annually was set apart for the relief of sick and indigent natives and made chargable against the Civil List, as arc the salaries of the Judges and the Governor Morally, it cannot be diverted to any other purpose, but Liberal Ministers have contrived tc annex a good deal of it in travelling expenses, valises and straps for themselves., Where it has gone of late is hard to Eay, for no returns have becu published. In place of giving this information, which the law says is coin pulsory, Premier Seddon made himself tiresome end ridiculous by bis flatulent orations regarding his 'ove for the native race. The present position of our public affairs is comparable to New York under Tammany rule. Mr Croker, the boss of that engine of corruption, entered the liats at the age of 21 years as an antlTammary reformer, and helped to bring down Boss Tweed, who afterwards died in prison. Since then Richard Crdtier bus drawn £70,000 in salaries and fees, and his word is law in New York ,vith its population of over three millions. He, like, our politicians advocates morality, purity and truth and speaks ft-cl-ingly of the corruption in Tweed's days. He said to an interviewer :—" Under Tweed, Tammany became very bad. Tweed and all the men in with him stole millions. It was not Tweed alone—it never can be anyone alone. To steal public money there must be many thieves all working together, each screening the other because he is in it himself. In 1870 Tweed was at the height of his glory. All New York obeyed him, every official was at his orders. All the police and everyone else were his servants.'" This candid outburst by one who is behind tha scenes makes us wish that we could interview a Cabinet Minister here with his heart ou his sleeve.