WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2914, 2 June 1888, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

(From Our Own Correspondent) The Budget.

Of courso the one engrossing topic here is the Financial Statement and its accompanying new tariff. As one passes through tho streets snatches of conversation may be heard relating to •)his matter, and it is only fair to state that the general language used is both condemnatory and cursory, As to the proposed tariff, that tariff which was to make the Protectionist lion lie down in amity with the Freetrade lamb, the general comments thereon are frequent and painful and free, and I fear Sir Harry, in his endeavors to please everybody has as usual pleased nobody. In the House.

All last Tuesday afternoon rumours thick as hail filled the air relative to the intentions of the Government regarding the Financial Statement, Eventually it became known that the House would adjourn until 8 p.m. when the Premier would bring down the eagerly-expected statement. Long before iliat hour the ladies and strangers galleries were filled. A few minutes before 8, Mr Hamlin dropped in solus, and took up a dignified postion of isolation, and at once became the cynosure of every eye. As the long hand of the clock worked round towards the hour, messengers darted in and gout after the fussy manner of their race when they have nothing particular to do and are doing it very well. Tho bell rang at 5 minutes to 8 and members at once trooped in and took their places, The Premier on rising to read the Statement was heartily cheered, and applauded on several subsequent occasions. Not until he mentioned the extra 2d on tea were there any very marked expressions of dissent, after that signs of disapproval became more frequent. Considerable ironical laughter followed his declaration that although the Government did not now intend to place any extra tax upon sugar, they were fully alive to the fact that sugar would always be available for future taxation, should tho necessity arise, The proposed one per cent primage duty elicited tokens of disapproval also. The general opinion within the House, on the night of delivery of the Statement, and of course before members had had any opportunity of seriously thinking the matter out, was that the proposals were bold in inception. The Freetraders, pure and simple, gnashed their teeth, the half and half Protectionists thought the new tariff worthy of consideration, and the Protectionists condemned it as not going far enough, THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASE ACT, All other subjects naturally pale before the Statement, but last night, in a rather thin House, there was a somewhat animated debate on this unsavory topic, principally remarkable for the direct conflict of the "facts" adduced on either side, for the extraordinary divergences of the medical testimonies quoted, the amount of personal feeling imported. Dr Hodgkinson suffered a good deal of rather vulgar chaff and interruption, which appeared principally from the direction of that chartered jokist, Mr Vincent Pyke, who would do well occasionally to remember that he is getting quite a big boy now, and should, once in a way, temper the exuberance of his funniosity. The poor old doctor got rather wroth towards the close of his oration, and turning Pyke-wards, perorated; <'l have been much shocked at tho conduct of members in the House!" To which Pyke, the irrepressible, replied with a peculiarly loud and startling Hear! Hear!

TUKfiJIUH ON LAND SETTLEMENT,

Timaru Turubull, in the course of a really oxcullent specqh on the Undqwmont Reserves Administration Bill, declared that the whole tendency of our legislation lias been not to foster but to drive away settlement. Next year, he asserted, there will he a much larger deficit, because the measures the Premier brought down arc no real remedies for the existing state of all'airs. Sooner or later, Mr Ttirnbttll thinks, "it will inevitably come that large holders of land will Lave to bear their fair share of the bunions of this country." This debate was also noteworthy for an excellont speech by Major Steward, whom I should not have deemed capable of so much fire and fluency as he exhibited. "Wellington Amusements.

Whether owing to tlio season of the year or the depression, or some unexplained cause, Wellington lias been singularly free from any public entertainments for some time now, and any onterprising showman who oame along ' promiscuous liko* should reap a rich harvest, The skating crane is still raging, but with that exception all is dismal, even entertainments in connection with tlio various churches appearing to be temporarily suspended.

Melhoukni? Exiiiiuticn,

Notwithstanding the hard times, I inn acquainted with a fair number of citizens whe propose to be in Melbourne for the Exhibition. It may not be out of place to remind intending visitors that occasions like Exhibitions inevitably attract tlio surplus rascals of every class and either sex, and that Melbourne has at tlio best of times an unenviable, but justly-earned reputation for taking the stranger in, More people 1 disappear' in Melbourne in proportion to its population than in any city on tlio globe, and more poison Js sold in its hotels than decent liquor. A book might be written of the dodges of rascaldom, tlio mysterious disappearances and the mal-adventures of strangers during the Melbourne Exhibition of 1880. One noted hotel (they are all hotels) kept ail organized gang of decoys to get dupes within the portals of the house, on which might most appropriately have been written " Abandon hope all ye who enter here," for the victim was most inevitably first hocussed and then fleeced.

Bushed in Melbourne,

This recalls to remembrance one of many stories I heard of the last Exhibition year. A settler,- a decent fellow from tlie far bnok Mocks, who

had never seen a city in Lis life, presented himself with wife and children, and with the mosses and soil of the Dimboola forest still upon him, at a Melbourne hotel one evening, saw his belongings comfortably established, and, tea being some hour or so distant, strolled out to buy some city clothes, and submit his mane—the hairy accumulation of long years—to the hands of a barber. He took with him tho family purse, which was pretty full, leaving Ins wife literally without a penny. He did not return that night. Next day he was absent, and the poor woman, expecting every day an addition to her family cares, became frantic. Sympathising volunteers searched the city for a man whose face they would not have known had they seen it. The hotel proprietor became anxious. The woman had 110 relatives in the Colony. Five days passed, and no sign of the man, and then the poor woman unwillingly began to believe that the inhuman fellow had deserted her in her trouble, leaving her penniless. Yet, he had always been a pattern husband, a teetotaller, and was passionately fond of " the kids." After the lapse of nearly a week, someono did what should have been done at first, informed the police. The innocent absconder was discovered not two hundred yards from the hotel. He was simply lost; he had utterly forgotten, or never known the name of the hotel or the street, but trusting to . his bushman's instincts, thought lie could return all right when he wanted tn. But he had got bushed in the big city, and had neither the sense to inform the police, nor to insert an advertisement in the paper. He had had the sense, however, to pkdge Ms notes and gold at a pawnbrokers, and so had worsted the human sharks of Melbourne. The re-union of husband and wife was a sight to remember. That night a new-born son also assisted to welcome the bushman who was—" bushed in Melbourne.

Poisoning Rabbits,

Various and multiform are the devices for abating the rabbit plague. Here is one from Australia, new to me and possibly to the readers of the Daily, Messrs Wynne, Hudson and Co,, of Teryawynia have been for some months past laying poisoned twigs of bushes over their run, with the effect of almost exterminating the myriads of rabbits that previously held high revel there, It is said that young shoots of lignum are best relished by the rabbits, and these shoots are dipped iu a solution of arsenic and sugar.

Pea and Bean Beetles,

Tli 3 Imperial Privy Council lias recently issued a paper 011 the subject of these beetles. Ido not know how it was last season in the Wairarapa, but in Wellington many persons complained that peas and beans—more especially the latter—were frequently barren. A beetle was the cause. It appears that peas and beans when growing are infected with these beetles [Bruchi), and as a natural eonsequence the seeds become affected and we are told that" besides the possible failure of germination and the certian weakness of plants from Bruchus-infested beans and peas, the insects will be conveyed to the fields in seeds in largely increased numbers to injure the next crop. Beans and peas infested by those beetles should not be used for seed," Kiln-drying, if judiciously performed would destroy the insects without affecting the germination of the seeds. When black specs and holes are noticed on the seeds it may be kuown that they are beetle-infected,