EUROPEAN NEWS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 7, Issue 347, 11 June 1863, Page 4

EUROPEAN NEWS

TO 2Gth MARCH. [from our own correspondent] Lor.tlon, March 26. The rejoicings here, and throughout thq country generally, consequent on the arrival of the Princess Alexandra and her marriage to the Prince of \\ ales, have been the great event ol the month, as you will easily see by an inspection of the London papers. Though the Princess arrived on Saturday the 7th March and the marriage took place on the Tuesday following, the excitement was not by any means confined to these two days. It commenced at least a week before the event, when it may be said to have culminated to a frantic pitch, and continued a week after it was over, fed by the glowing accounts published in the newspapers, by the movements of. the dis-

tinguislied foreign visitors, and I am sorry to add by the details of several sad accidents that happened owing to the tremendous crowds. With this exception everything -passed off well. The arrival of the Princess at Gravesend, and her triumphal progress through London to Paddington, and thence to Windsor, took place exactly according to the programme stated in my last. Of course you will not expect me to describe it. I content myself with saying “ditto” to the picturesque and thoroughly truthful descriptions in the Times and Daily News. The Princess looked charming, the Prince of Wales looked handsome, happy, and every'bit' a gentleman ; and the crowd was something awful in its vastness and in its enthusiasm. It was drunk with delight —inebriated by a potent mixture of loyalty, curiosity, and gallantry. After the orgies of Saturday, the London public rested from their toils on Sunday and Monday, and then at it again on Tuesday with greater gusto than ever. Both days were close holidays, and when I say that we have hardly even yet recovered our senses, I believe that I am not very far from the truth.

Leaving, however, the more public portion of the details, which you will find at full length in all the newspapers, I may mention some of the gossip floating about on the subject. As might have been expected, those who are fond of the unnatural and out of the way are amply gratified at present. The most absurd and ridiculous stories are current relative to the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, and othei's ; and as you seem to get a good share of the scandal which is ventilated here faithfully transmitted to Hew Zealand, I may as well inform you of it in advance for the sake of flatly contradicting the truth of most of the stories. It is said that, on the morning of the marriage day, there was a serious quarrel between the Queen and ; her son, because the latter wanted to have the escutcheon of the late Prince Consort taken down from its position on the walls of Windsor Castle out of compliment to the jovousness of the day. It is added, that the Prince thereupon got so indignant that he flatly declared he would not go through the marriage ceremony till liis wish was complied with, and that the Queen then gave up the point. This story is very current, and widely credited by the lovers of the marvellous, who are so numerous. It is vain to reason with such people, and to tell them that the Prince of Wales is not only a dutiful son, but is also a gentleman, and would therefore not act on the morning of his wedding day as no English gentleman would act. Let it suffice to say that the story is not only untrue, but has no nucleus of truth at the bottom of it. But the richest of all dishes of gossip is one which seems to have a strong charm for the imagination of servantgalism here. It is said that the Prince of Wales was married a year or two ago to a pi-etty Irish girl ! There are actually geese in London who believe this silly nonsense. Tne foundation of the story lies in the intrigue which the Prince carried on when at the cam]) at Cnrragh, and to which I alluded at the time. Miss Polly Clifton, the reputed name of the girl in question, has, however, been attached to many a lover of high and low degree, and the Prince could hardly escape the contagion. The gobemouches have also noised abroad a rumour that the Queen is to : marry again, and that her cousin the Duke of Cambridge is to be the favoured man—a very nice story, the principal objection to which is, that the Duke has been a married man for years, having “made an honest woman ” of Miss Eairbrotlier, quondam danscu-se, secretly as became a prince of the blood royal, but not the less lawfully tor all that. Miss Fairbrother that was is now unquestionably Mrs. Cambridge (not Duchess of Cambridge however), and has a large family of very fine young Guelphs -—who, I daresay, will take the name of Fitz George one of these days. As a setoff" to the insinuation against the Queen’s attachment to the memory of her late husband conveyed in this story, another of a totally opposite character is in circulation, and is also devoutly believed by thousands. ■ It is said that so engi-oss-ingly does the mourning widow brood over her bereavement that many little daily duties associated with the late Prince are still performed in the household, as if to perpetuate the amiable fiction that be is still present among them. For instance, it is quite true that for some time after his death the Queen would not allow his coats, liars, walkingsticks, and other articles in daily use, to be disturbed in. the places where he left them. I can understand this feeling ; but what think you of the addition which public credulity and the ingenuities of gobemoucherie have made to a very simple fact ? It is gravely and circumstantially stated, then, that the' Queen has the Prince’s hat water for shaving brought up every morning to his bedroom door, and there deposited with the customary knock, and that one unlucky wight of a servant, who neglected this somewhat superfluous duty, was at once and summarily dismissed ! The people who are capable of believing this story must believe that the Queen has nearly bid farewell to her senses, and this will be the next thing said.

Yet it is perfectly certain that such tales will continue to circulate and be believed as long as the Queen continues her present habits of almost entire seclusion. Even the event which threw the whole nation into transports of joy could not dispel the gloom that seems to have settled down on her. She was present at the marriage in St. George’s Chapel, but npt publicly, being nearly invisible in a sort of l'ecess closet, from which she could see without being much seen. The few

who did get a glympse of her marked the pallor and, fixed melancholy of Tier features, and during the ceremony she oftener wept than smiled—in one case, at the singing of a chorale composed by the late Prince, bursting into an uncontiollable fit of sobbing, and burying her face in her handkerchief. How there can be no question as to the general sympathy for her, but this sympathy does not hinder the public from perceiving that an incessant brooding over her loss will gradually produce a morbid state of mind whicli is not called for by religious principle, nor to be justified by ordinary prudence. For the sake of her own spiritual, mental, and bodily health the Queen should struggle to free herself from the influence of a sickly reverie, and for the sake of her family and her subjects again mingle, though with subdued tone, with the world. She has been told this pretty plainly, and the leadiug journals, including even Punch, have, though with great delicacy, hinted what her own good and the good of her subjects requires. As yet, however, there is no sign of her yielding to these representations, and to all appearance the London season will again pass over without the monarch ever appearing in public. She is to go to Balmoral in May, the veiy height of the season here, as if to show her aversion to all gaiety and display, and her wish to be left alone with her sorrow.

In the absence of the Queen her children do their best to. make up the usual quota of court ceremonials. The Princess of Prussia came over just before the Prince of Wales’s marriage, and held a drawingroom, while the Prince himself held a levee, which was most numerously attended. After the marriage, when the married couple returned from Osborne, whore they had gone to spend the honeymoon, they gave a reception at St James's Palace, whicli proved a very brilliant affair. All this, however, though very good for the court - milliners and confectioners, hardly satisfies the general public, who like to see their sovereign’s face occasionally. The accouchement of the Princess Alice is expected shortly, but is looked for with some little anxiety, owing to the accident she met with in the Isle of Wight afc a critical time. [We omit several passages from this part of our Correspondent’s lefctei-, the intelligence having been anticipated, owing to the piecemeal fashion in whicli the mail is reaching us this month] My America news would he very incompleted if I did not mention the Confederate loan just contracted here. It was brought out a few days ago here and in Paris simultaneously, and has proved a brilliant success, The amount was for three millions sterling, and no less than eighteen millions wore offered! The applications poured in at a rate almost unprecedented, and the loan thus came out at a premium of 5. The applicants, too, comprised city firms and capitalists of-the-highest standing here and in Manchester and Liverpool. A good deal of feeling was attempted to be excited against the loan as the ground of the proslavery characters of the Confederacy, but this had really nothing to do with the success of the loan. It was simply a proof that the monied circles in Great Britain believed in the full ability of the Confederacy to secure its independence. If it should fail in this the money would be lost, for the Federals of course would not l'ecognize such a debt. The terms of the loan were tempting enough. The price was 90 at seven per cent., and the bonds to be redeemed at par in twenty years, or —and this is the novel point,— to be exchanged at the option of the holder for cotton to be valued at sixpence per pound, delivered to the holder at a cotton port or within a short of a navigable river. How, if the cotton could he got out out just now the profits on these bonds would be enormous, but even if it cannot, still the holder has his seven per cent., supposing the Confederacy stands. It is a most speculative transaction and excites great interest. The astounding success of it must, howe\er, be gall and and wormwood to the Federals, who know very well that President Lincoln and his Cabinet could not raise a shilling in England by loan on any tei’ms. We anticipate the.most violent reclamatising from the Horthern States when the news reaches them.

I am sorry to say the distress in Lancashire has at last produced some disturbances. There have been serious riots at Staleybridge, Ashton, and other places. The mob plundered the clothing depots and the bakers and provision shops, but were dispersed by the dragoons, and the ring-leadei's arrested. The riot was produced not so much by absolute distress, as by the regulations adopted in adiuinisteuing relief. The operatives called these rules degrading, but it L to he feared they li .ve allowed themselves to be made the tools of designing men, whose object is plunder end confusion. Sir James . Outram, the “ Bayard of India,” the fearless and peerless cavalier of the British army, died at Pau, last week, in ,the 60th year of his age. He had the honour of a funeral yesterday in Westminister Abbey, followed to the tomb by-an immense toncourse of notables, statesmen, literaiy men and soldiers, and the coffin borne by soldiers of the 73 h Highlanders, who had accompanied him in the march to Lucknow.

Prince William of Deumark, brother of the Princess of Wales, a youth of 18, is to be proposed to the Greeks as their king. A sister ef the same family, the Princess Daginar, a beautiful girl of 16, who came over to the marriage of her sister, is also believed to be the destined wife of the Cesai-ewitch, oldest son of the Emperor of Russia. The family of Prince Christian of Denmai-k is thus having greatness tlnust upon them in all directions.

DISTRICT ROAD RATES. [We reprint the following letter, miderstood to have been written by Wm. Fox, Esq., as affording those who may have occasion to proceed against absentees for rates or fencing costs, clear and reliable information as to the course of proceeding. The expences described in the letter are merely those which" the creditor would have in the first instance to pay out of his own pocket; charging them afterwards, with interest, in the sale of the land. The further expence of marking off aud putting up the portions of lands sold would be paid by the Court out of the proceeds of the sale.' Alto getlier the absentees seem to-leave got a fine tiling of it, and may well cry “ save us from our friends.”]

[From the Wellington Indepenqent, May 12.]

Sir, — An act was passed during the last session of the Assembly,- entitled, “ The Sale for non-payment Of Rates act, 1862,” having for its object the protection of absentee proprietors of land in this colony, against “ spoliation ” by the seizure and sale of their lands for rates imposed on them by the Provincial Governments and which they might have neglected or refused to pay. I take up my pen to give you an instance of its operation in a district where I am myself a resident landowner ; and shall, I think, show you that while it inflicts very gi’eat injury aud inconvenience on the settler struggling to develop the resources of the colony, it not only does not protect the absentee, but subjects him to damage far greater than any he could have sustained under the law as it previously existed.

We have a Road Board formed under the provisions of an act of the Provincial Council, and have imposed a rate for the year of threepence an acre ; the first instalment of which (one penny) has just been collected. There are from fifteen to twenty absentees from the colony who own land in this district ; the aggregate of whose rates for the year will be about £45 —the penny instalment £ls ; aud who have made default in its payment. Some ten or twelve others who have agents in the Colony have through them paid their rate. Under the previous law, if the unpaid rates should have continued unpaid for six months, a schedule thereof might ha ve been posted and inserted in the Government Gazette ; and two months after that, the shei-iff might have sold a sufficient portion of the land to pay the rates and interest. The entire cost to the absentee would have been some trifling sheriff’s fees, and the Road Board would have received the rates during the currency of the year which they were imposed. Now let us see how it will be under the new law. The first thing is to post upon the rated land a copy of a summons against the proprietor. These absentees, not having used, fenced, or let their lands, the survey lines have entirely grown up, the pegs have rotted out, and in order to ascertain where to post the summonses a Suveyor must be brought 30 miles, whose charges for say three day’s work, two days going and coming, two chainmen, and horse hire, will not be less than £15 —say £1 for each section on which the summonses have to be posted. The next step will be the hearing of the cases before a Court of summary jurisdiction, as required by the third clause of the Act. On this there will be fees to at least the amount of ten shillings in each case. Having thus obtained a judgment for the rates, we have next to go to the Registry Office, which is to be found at a distance of 100 miles. Here a lawyer must be employed. In every separate case there will have to be registered a memorial, which between the lawyer’s and the registry fees, will scarcely : costless than £l. At the end of twelve month’s more, should the rate remain una petition will have to be presented to the Supreme Court, (also 100 miles off), which with instructions and draft, and fair copy, and attendances, and filling, and hearing in Court, will certainly not cost less, probably a good deal more, than £3 or £4 each petition. This will have to be supported by an affidavit of the Collectoi', setting out all flie proceedings of the Board, probably pretty lengthy, and which will not be filed and exhibited perhaps under £2 more ; and then after all this, the Court may direct a sale to take place after three month’s notice, and charge the absentee proprietor with all the costs and expenses. Now let us see what this comes to for each case, at what I believe in practice will prove a very moderate estimate.

,£8 10s in each case to recover a rate averaging £1 or a total of £132 to recover £lo.

Observe also, that till the Supreme Court directs the sale, the absentee has no notice whatever of what is going on, and the three months notice then given if he have no agent, as 1 presume will generally be the case, will not enable him to pay the rates and prevent, the “ spoliation” of his property. So much for the protection of the absentee ! .. . .

Now let us contrast the position of the Road Board under the new law, with what it was previously. In this Province at present, the Provincial Government gives a grant in aid towards local rates , of £2 -for £1 on all money actually collected and paid into the Treasury. Under the old law our Board would have got our absentee rates in within the year, and have been entitled to claim £9O contribution iu respect of them from the Government. As it is, it will be at least IS months, jvrobably

more, before they can force a sale, and receive either the fates or contribution. That is, two entire seasons for road making must pass over, aud contracts for operations, which are of vital importance to the hard working colonists of the district, must be retarded. What makes it worse is that in this particular case the Provincial Government has warned us that the liberal grants in aid may cease in another year, iu which case, thanks to this enlightened legislation, we shall lose this £9O we might have received.

But our trouble does not end here. In order to ease the hard working settler, we collect our rates by instalments. The operation above detailed will have to be repeated once at least, possibly twice, before the end of the year, and the unfortunate absentees be saddled ultimately with a cost of £396, to enable us to get an aggregate rate of £45 ; while we on our part will not get in the last instalment of this rate which ought strictly to be paid now, till something like 24 or 26 months from the date of our assessment. And calculate the amount of trouble and labor imposed by these various proceedings on our hard-working country people who can very ill afford to- spare the time. For my own part I protest most strongly against these exceptional provisions in favor of absentees. Property has its duties, as well as rights ; and: if persons residing elsewhere will not appoint agents.to perform the duties, and fulfil the obligations, attaching to their property here, it is their own fault and;they have no just ground of complaint® if the property itself is taken, to enable the duty to be performed, or the obligations to be fulfilled. If I have a few aci’es of land in an English township, the British-, Parliament makes no • exceptional pro visions on my behalf, should I choose to live in New Zealand, and neglect to pay the local burdeus imposed upon it; if I have money in the funds the Home Government takes very good care to deduct my income tax, without 18 months notice and requiring the Chancellor of the Exchequer to file memorials and obtain judgments against me. And why should New Zealand absentees be differently dealt with ? Is it just that they should hold land which they neither use nor let, but suffer- to lie unoccupied till by the industry, of the surrounding population it may have acquired a great value, and in the meantime be aided by the law in obstructing the progress of the Colony by evading for a year add a half the payment of those taxes which the resident occupier is compelled to pay on a months notice ? I trust that in another Session of the Legislature this monstrous Act may be repealed, and all distinctions in favour of these drones of the hive, be finally and completely abolished. Your obedient Servant, A Member of a Board of Wardens. ;

NELSON PROVINCE. The following narrative of the adventures of the diggers who got on the wrong road to the Lyell gives a good idea of the rough nature of the Nelson gold country - After leaving town the) 7 * went 47 miles by a dray road, and 9 miles by a pack horse track, to a place called Fawcett’s point. There they struck into the hush by a track cut by an exploring survey party under Mr. Rochfort, and in three days travelled 18 miles to the saddle dividing the heads of the Wangapeka and Karamea rivers. Next day they made 7 miles, reaching what was supposed to be the head of the Lyell, where they were detained five and a half days by heavy rain* and snow. Leaving this they travelled in one r day five and a half miles to the stream which Mr.'Rdchfort, whom they overtook, stated to be the Lyell; and were then detained another day by rain. Stax-ting again down the stream they succeeded in travelling a mile during a long aud toilsome day’s march ; and next day accomplished 3 miles nxore, the river .-being-very' deep, and winding among mountains thousands of feet high. Next morning it rained hard, but as their food was failing the poor fellows pushed ; one man in scrambling along the face of

a range was nearly killed by a stone dislodged from above by another of the party; it cut a deep gash through his hat into his head, and stunned him, and but for one of his companions catching him, he would have fallen right down the face of the mountain into the river. About noon the party reached some cliffs so high that they could not see the top, and too steep to climb ; and they were compelled to cross the river, which was here about 100 feet broad and very deep and rapid. Two trees which they felled to serve as bridges were swept away ; but the third which they were almost too tired to cut down, caught by its branches on a rock and so enabled them to cross to-where the water was only about four feet deep; Having crossed they pushed on for about three quarters of a mile, to where their river met another twice as as large, coming from the opposite direction, the united waters forming for some distance a dark deep troubled pool at least a hundred yards wide. Stiff and exhausted they had to camp for the night, with everything soaking wet and no lire, the bushes and ground being wet, 'and they too tired to seek drier fuel. The rain having ceased, the river fell 5 or 6 feet during the night, leaving it about 120 feet wide and G feet deep. They felled seven trees which were all swept away, but the eighth served to bridge the deepest part, and bv the help df long poles they managed to cross the. remainder of the stream where the water, was about about 5 feet deep. One man was swept away, and his comrades had hard work to save him. Thirty yards lower they had to re-cross the stream, and aboiit

300 yards further on they had to repeat the operation. It was here much wider and about 5 feet deep all across but so rapid that they had to join hands for mutual assistance in crossing. They next climbed over a high range, and then with great difficulty, crept for a mile along a precipitious face, hundreds of feet high and so steep that they had to hold on by moss and" small roots the whole way; as they went on the rocks got steeper, till at about a mile, and a half, from where they had started in the morning, they were stopped by impassable precipices. .Next day was spent in vain attempts to discover a practicable route by which to proceed ; but-as after climbing 3 miles to the top of the range, they could discover no opening, they gave up the attempt to penetrate further. They had then been for three days reduced to an allowance of one pannikin of flour, boiled in eight quarts of water, as a day’s food for the whole sixteen men ; and had only about 2 lbs. of flour left, -and two dogs which they kept as a last resource. Next morning they set out on their return ; abandoning' their tents, blankets* tools, utensils and spare clothes, and cooking the last flour,, by a fire made ofc their tool handles ; the country in which they then were being utterly destitue of Yegetation, and having no sign of animal life but a few robins. Being light, loaded and the river having-' fallen, they were able to pass, by wading, many precipitous-* places, where on their downward journey they had to make long detours (in one place 3 miles to advance yards) overthe mountains to accomplish very short distances. Travelling for their lives, those in front would not .wait for the laggards, and all pushed on at top speed: thus towards evening they had accomplished as great a distance as had taken them three or four days when descending and some of the foremost, shouting to those' behind, were surprised at being answered from across the stream by. Mr. Koclifort and his party, who had cut the track some three miles further. Thelater directed them how to cross the river * but the foremost man nearly lost his life in descending to the water,'and the whole party were so knocked up, that Mr. Roclifoit and his men had to help them over the deep and rapid parts of the stream. Mr. R. took them to his camp, he and his men carrying the swags of those who were most exhausted ; but several - had to rest more than twenty times in the com-se of the mile, which: they had to travel to reach tlie .camp. Mr. R. and his men had no food but oatmeal for several days, blit they gave their guests a hearty meal of that, and dried their clothes and remaining blankets and on the arrival of two packers with flour shortly afterwards, they turned to and mqde a quantity of scones. Whenthe diggers started after breakfast next morning, Mr. R. authorised them to purchase [supplies' at a Government storeestablished at the head ofthe Karamea, for convenience of his own and other exploring [parties, and' which they reached the [[same evening, arriving next day; at Fawcett’s point. It appeared afterwards that the river they had reached was not the Lyell, but either the Newton or Rolling river ; and Mr. Rochfort subsequently turned back other persons whowere attempting the same route. The diggei’s prospected in various; [daces as they went along and found gold everywhere,, but notin paying quantity. They say, however, that they are certain; it is there, and that they, will get it somehow. Probably next summer, when the streams are low we shall hear more ofthe locality.

Share of expenses of survey . . 1 0 ,, costs of summary proceedings 0 10 Memorial and fees on filing, etc. . 1 0 Petition and other proceedings in Supreme Court . . . . 4 0 Affidavit to support. . . . 2 0