HINTS FROM HANSARD.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 547, 26 August 1869, Page 2

HINTS FROM HANSARD.

SUPPLYING ARMS TO NATIVES. Mr Hall, in referring to the seizure of arms and ammunition found on four Natives on their way from Auckland to the King country, said:—During a short visit which he had recently made to the "Waikato, he had ascertained that this was not the first supply they had obtained. Settlers in the neighbourhood of Ngaruawahia had noticed that the horses of many Natives who were allowed to pass through the settlement when returning, were heavily laden, although the swags were sometimes small in size. This circumstance has also been noticed by the ferryman, and the matter had been brought by him under the notice of the officer in command. This led to the discovery already stated, and showed that, in spite of the provision that at present existed for checking tho supply of arms and ammunition to Natives, they were supplying themselves with stores within the Colony, and that to a very considerable extent. THE COLONIAL FORCES. Notwithstanding all that has been said against our men in the field, they are (said Mr Richmond) a very superior class of men to those fighting in any one British regiment. There are men amongst them who have more education, more intelligence, and have travelled about the world more ; and it is not the best of those men who are the " old soldiers," but the reverse. Of course, they have not the discipline of a regular army, nor will any process give them such discipline. Mr Branigan cannot do it. I have a great admiration for Mr Branigan, but what he has done is, not to demilitarize soldiers, but make soldiers of constables. I have no doubt whatever that, if he undertakes it, he will make soldiers of our constables—that he will demilitarize them into very excellent soldiers. Mr Branigan is a man of business, and when he takes a thing in hand to do it, he does it; if he does not see his way to a thing, he will say so, and he will drop it. But he will not demilitarize the Colonial force, except in the sense I have stated. He will never, though, get his six-feet-two-inch Otago policemen fit for duty in tho bush; he cannot do it at the price —he cannot do it under the circumstances. ANCIENT AND MODERN COLONISTS. One of the members of Christchurch referred to the colonies of Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome. Mr Cracroft Wilson, in reply, said:—There are some

members of this House who may, relying upon what fell from the honorable member, be led to believe that the ancients were much finer fellows than ourselves. The colonists of old took with them no impedimenta belli —nothing which would be a hindrance, either morally or physically, to their operations. They carried with them no real vital religion ; they had, it is true, superstitious notions, but those notions never stood in the way of their committing all and everj crime known to our calendar, and fchey had an amount of unscrupulousness which it would be vain to look for now in any civilized portion of the world. On the other hand, a modern colonist in this country is fettered and bound in many ways. He has a real religion, which tells him, " Do no wrong—owe no man aught," and whose percepts he cannot, openly, at least, violate. He carries with him a press, with all its plant ready to chronicle every event, which he knows will be set to work within a few days of its landing, and be prepared to publish every misdeed. He takes with him a judge, a court, and a code of laws, which he knows will not permit him to injure, with impunity, any one, not even an aboriginal. If, when the Romans perpetrated that odious crime, including treachery in addition to its other horrors, there had been an Arney on the Tiber, and a Johnston at the foot of the Apennines, and the Sabine husbands and fathers could have given a retainer to the honorable member for Christchurch, who can doubt that he would have obtained a verdict for his clients—a restitution of mothers and daughters, and a rope for the Roman miscreants ? Sir, the Rape of the Sabines, instead of adding, in the most extraordinary manner, to the population an<l prosperity of Rome, would have been the cause of its total ruin. No one knows better than the honorable member for Christchurch knows, how utterly futile it is to attempt to draw comparisons between things so entirely dissimilar as ancient and modern colonization. THE GHOOBKAS. Mr H. S. Harrison (Wanganui) would not give a silent vote on this question. With all due deference to the opinions of the honorable the mover of the resolution, he thought that men who lived on sawdust and natural elements were not equal in energy and efficiency, in great and arduous undertakings, to men fed on good beef and mutton, and he hoped that, if those warriors were introduced, they would, for the sake of the agricultural interests, lay aside some of their peculiarities, and so far adapt themselves to the European mode of living as to be accompanied, by a good respectable commissariat department.

UNPAID COMMISSIONS. Mr Trayers gave his experience of unpaid Commissions. Last year an unpaid Commissiou was appointed to enquire into the fisheries of the Colony. In duo time the Hon. Mr Mantell and himself had received instructions from his Excellency the Governor, and were recommended to consider the question of fisheries, and to determine, amongst other things, the quality of the fish. They naturally made application to the Government to supply them with the fish, so that they might he able, by using it in the ordinary course as a matter of aliment, to decide which was the best fish for human food. The Government would not even supply them with the fish ; they expected them to call upon the fishermen in the place —that those poor men should lose their time in giving information with regard to the fish, without providing anything towards the expense. An unpaid Commission would not take the least trouble in the matter. customs officeks' salaeies. Mr Dillon Bell said that a comparison of the average rates of salaries in the Customs of Victoria, New South "Wales, and New Zealand would show that the Customs officers were by no means overpaid. The average salary of a collector was as follows :—ln New South Wales, £4OB ; Victoria, £537 ; New Zealand, £307. Of a landing waiter in New South "Wales, £4so°; in Victoria, £300; in New Zealand, £222. Of a warehousekeeper in New South "Wales, £550; in Victoria, £550; in New Zealand, £4OO. There was not a single officer in this Colony whose salary was not less than in Victoria or New South Wales; while in New Zealand there were 176 officers, and in Victoria ISO officers ; and in New South Wales, 17 ports of entry; in Victoria, 14 ; and in New Zealand, 140.