Wanganui Chronicle. AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." SATURDAY, JUNE 16th, 1877.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XX, Issue 3399, 16 June 1877, Page 2

Wanganui Chronicle. AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." SATURDAY, JUNE 16th, 1877.

Lately we referred to the disposition evinced by the Victorian Parliament to do away with the honorarium to members, and we gave it as our opinion that a similar reform would shortly be demauded in New Zealaud. We now find other sections of the colonial Press advocating similar views. The Hawke's Bay Herald, in speaking to the same question, says: — "It is not at all improbable that the honorarium question will form the subject of much debate in the ensuing session. Some change from the amount at which it was fixed last session is evidently demanded, seeing that the ground upon which the iucrease was made, that of the prolonged duration of the session, is not likely to recur this year. That change, we may suppose, will be in the direction of reducing the amount to something that will be nearer to an equivalent for expenses actually incurred than to a system of ' payment of members.' Our contemporary then goes ou to refer to the concessions made last session in the shape of five passes on the railway, and a subsidy to Bellamy's, as indications of the inclination of members to support a system of fixed salaries, and does not think it improbable but that some similarmeasure.may be attempted to be introduced in the forthcoming session. But with the Herald we question whether it would be possible for some time to come to procure the adoption of such a system in New Zealaud. Even in Victoria, where the system has been tried for so many years, it is not popular. Ultra-democratic as the electors are there, payments of members finds little or no favour. "No constituency, no single public meeting, so far as we have observed," says the Australasian, " has expressed even the slightest desire to continue the system of payment of members. On tbe contrary, no avowal from candidates is so popular as a- declaration of hostility to this great corner-stone of democracy.' We shall refer to other phases of the question in a subsequent article. — . — « When perusing a newspaper, the reader naturally seeks the latest intelligence in the telegraphic columns. When looking over our exchanges yesterday, our eye caught the familiar heading " Wanganui," in some Press Agency telegrams, and with much inward merriment we read tho following :-— " A translation of the Wanganui Herald's leader on the proposed Native Lands Bill has been circulated among the natives, and meets with general aupioval. Thg Herald points out that 30 per cent, ad valorem duty will tend to reduce tho price received by the natives for their land, but will not prohibit land sharking." This will certainly be news to the European inhabitants of Wanganui, and was surely worthy of a paragraph in the local paper. What are the facts 1 The Herald reproduced the Auckland telegram anent the new Bill, but made therein a glaring error by substituting 30 per cent, for 20, added a few general remarks, and here was the production worthy of being translated for tbe spe cial edification of the native race, and the publication of which to the world requires to be flashed to the limits of the colony, and perhaps cabled to the Home Secretary for Colonial Afi'aiis. The oracle .did not think the Bill would give *- t general satisfaction." Who but an ass Avould 1 "The measure was a reversal of the policy of 18 7o," says the

inspired wri tei*. The telegram had said ditto. But there are some of the platitudes we should like to see translated into Maori : for instance, the very suggestive phase used — -*-* That's the rub." It is a pity if the article was so eratic, thoughtful, and exhaustive as to be deemed worthy of translation, that it was not kept free from blunders. The natives will be in a terrible state of fog when they learn from their own newspapers that the Government will charge 20 per cent., and from this rechauffage of a telegram translated for their special benefit, tbat it is to be 30. They will begin to think tbe Herald has been wilfully perverting facts, or in other words is a tito. .But wbo is tbe authority for ths statement that this guarbled version meets svith the "* general approval " of tbe far-seeing aboriginal? Surely the sanguine scribe has been anticipating. But still, it was a very thoughtful act to translate this immortal effusion and have it circulated, with such modesty, too, that nothing is heard of it locally, though the tell-tale wire proclaims the patriotic deed to the world, doubtless greatly against the wish of the modest originator, who in the performance of an act of charity would not let bis right hand know what his left did. Some irrepressible member of the busy-body element, unbidden, has been and gone and done the mischief, and the light is no longer hidden. This translation ought to be printed in gold — after having undergone a careful revision — have the cabalistic characters attached, " edited by 8.," and a copy sent to every rangatira in New Zealand and the Fijis. Thus do great men achieve renown.