"OMNE SOLUM FORTI PATRIA." TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1873.

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 117, 4 February 1873, Page 2

"OMNE SOLUM FORTI PATRIA." TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1873.

Tin: Herald U evidently feeling a little ashamed of his friends as icgards tho Educational ngitajtion. In bis issue of Tim, sday last he says :— " We cannot congratulate on their good management the committee in whose name Mr D. Olphert convened the meeting held at the Mechanics' Hall." He goes on to say that had proper arrangements been made, ! the decibion of the meeting would have been reversed. This ia about the coolest thing in assertions we remember to have read for some time in a public journal. The meeting was well advertised in his own columns, and it is only fair to presume that his paper is read by those whose opinions he enunciates. Wantof knowledge that tho. meeting was about to take place has i.ot nor could not therefore be urged as a cause of absence of adequate ability to clearly explain to the meeting the weak points in the Act. When one supposition fails it is necessary to look about for something on which to base another. We naturally ask ourselves the question — Are there any men opposed to the Act of sufficient ability to grasp the question ? If so — Why were they not Uiere to esprcjso it ? We believe £hat some of those who are pulling the sL-ings are capable of obly advocating the cause they are using, and we think we can, with a very fair chance of being accurate, inform the public why they were not present. It is one thing to stir a number of ignorant people to action so long as you can do so anonymously through the columns of a newspaper, but it is quite another matter to oome forward at a public meeting and identify yourself with tho igno-i-ance you have used. Tho total absence of men capable of explaining the vipws of their paity (if they have one) is a tacit admission that the cause is bad. Otherwise men of standing- would not be ashamed to identify themselves with it. Our contemporary goes on to say, " Although we have not failed to protest against additional taxation, and shown on many occasions the defects of the Act we arg glad that the meeting arrived at this sensible conclusion. After allowing tho Act to be passed, any other would have imperilled the existence of the entire educational system of the province." The sentences we have quoted above are another evidence of tho " trimming" opacity of the journal from which we quote. It is only necessary to turn to tho file of the Ha aid to see how utterly the decision of the Auckland meeting has altered his opinion in this respect. We find that he did not hesitate in his editotial columns to abs3e «-ho Act (long after it had become law) in terms calculated to lead the people to mutiny againt the Ijlw of the country, and by means of his correspondence columns (hi which he could print with less ap.parent responsibility) he has not hesitated to give insertion to letters distinctly stating that the writeis would not | respect the law of the countr}'. We arc that the conductor of a newspaper is supposed to give all shades of opinion a fair chance of representation in its columns, but we cannot help thinking he errs in no slight degree when he inseits letters from correspondents avowing their intention not to abide by the law. We have, until now, been under the impression that one of the. principal duties of a journalist was to support law and order to the best of his ability. Our contemporary is older than ourselves, and seems ty> think differently. We wonder whether he would have inserted a letter from Tom Sykes, stating his intention tp commit a felony; — the felon only breaks the law in a little more dangerous form than he who refuses to pay the tares demanded of him. We are unable to follow our contemporary in his argument that because the tax will not meet all the requirements of education it should not have been levied. If thero is no supplementary revenue applicable as in other provinces, and additional expenditure is necessary, the imposition of the tax will not in any way alter our position , it will not prevent additional provision being made by our legislature. We notice that another meeting is called for to-day ; we trust that the Auckland people will not allow themselves to be stultified by a packpd meeting.

A. C. Henderson, Es(j., has been gazetted cleik^of the 11. M. Court at Kaglau. It commenced to rain last evening, and judging from appearances, there is every probability of the dowu-pour continuing for aoine houis. We trust that appearauces will not deceive us, as our rivers are nearly imnavigable, and forty-eight hours would have the desired effect of opening the traffic. A deserter from the Dido was captured by a detective from Auckland yesterday morning. lie was a passenger by Quick's coach. Unfortunately for him, some slight mishap occurred to the couch ; during tho consequent delay he was discovered. He has been sent back to Auckland. Wo have not yet received our European and American papers, although letters were forwarded by yesterday's coach. The steamer did not arrnc till late on Sunday night, sp that no complaint can be made w itli justice against tho postal authorities in Auckland for not forwarding newspapers. On the contrury, praise is due for sorting the letters in time for the morning coach The next out-going mail will leave Aut kland on the 20th. The arrival of the mail ctcites little interest, a^ nearly tho whole of tho important news was anticipated by wire. Those, howe\er, who take an interest in studying tho current history of the world, still look for the English papen, they being the only reliable mtdium of informal oin. Wo have to acknowledge the receipt from the Colonial Printer of tho second \olunic of " Appendix to Journals of the House of Beprescntatites." Tho supplying of these volumes to newspaper offices affords tho conductors of journals many opportunities of keeping tho public informed on public matters. Wo shall so soon as pressing matter will allow reprint tho gist of such reports ad our readers should be informed upon. By return just received, we find that the cost of the paihatncntary buildings at Wellington amounts to the respectable sum of £25, 17 i) 19s 2d, divided into three heads: — Amount paid ouginally for buildings, including 1 land, £9,178 ; amount expended on i cp.au s, Jb'1),574 2s lid j total amount expended on addition's to onginal buildings, £(j,427 lCs 3d. This hlll-e bill should be a waning to those who advocate an cuatic parliament. Two largo fires have occurred in America One at 13arnum's Circus, New York. Only two performing elephants and a giraffe were saved. Burnum's 10-h is estimated at from $200,000 to $300,000. The other took place in tho Fifth, Avenue Hotel. The proprietor nnd Ins servants appear to have criminally kept the nut a secret till too late; tho result was that at leant 11 female ecr runts have been burncil to death "" ' '" I'ulwei- iridiud ' There lire ninny great men who might pass away almost unnoticed bv the generality of their countrymen; yrt there nrc few Englishmen, who havo read at all, who can learn of his departure from this world without feeling that they lost an mtnnnto friond More intimate, probably than any they meet daily and call one. The brilliance of his language, the pure sentiment, the perfect plot, tho classical research, which more or le« urn .thiough Ins works, ha\e made him dear to all Wo mourn in company with tho educated wuild the loss of Uulwet.

We informed our readers in our last issue that the yield of « heat throughout the district had been exceptionally good and that in one luslancc was not to bu excelled in the colony. The 1). S Ciost writing on tho subject says: — " Waikato agnculturo is Hounslnug apace ; and it i* with great gratification that we note the fact — an important one to q largo district, and to tho future of this province, The average produce of the wheat ciops there con M process of threshing is reported to bo high, and one farmer— Mr Bridgman, qfTe Aw am tit v— rejoices in' the splendid yield of fifty- thrco b'ushcls to the acre. This is the first proof of the success which can be achieved in that new district. Tears ago the Waikato Maoris used to grow wheat and bring it to Auckland for consumption and for export. At one time not less tli.m 100,000 bushels were sent from Waikato by the natives before Iho last w ar. Since then tho natives have lost tho power and desire to labour, ruch as thry possessed under the caro of Sir George Grey, wha did much in fostering that emulation whic.li at ono'tiinc existed among Various tnbei in the direction of agriculture and shipowning. The fields once fertilised by successful native labour are now occupied b\ energetic colonists, to whom it is now left to resuscitate the peaceful progress of Waikato ; and this yield shows how much can bo accomplished. To all appearance the industry of tobacco manufacture is firmly established ii} this province On Friday last, Mr Uotch showed us a box of the manufactured artiole which was grown m the Papakura district, and he stated that tho orders he was receiving were more etlcmne than he could meet It had become a serious question with him how he was to obtain a supply of the cured leaf for manufacturing purposes. Farmers ought to grow an acre or so of " tho j weed," for a crop that will yield a cash return of £30 to £60 per acre is not to be despised. — Cross. The ordinary half-ye.irly meeting of tho Auckland Whaling Company was held at the Company's oilk-e, Insurance Buildings, on Friday last. Since the company was formed 21 tuns of sperm oilj 22 tuns of black oil, and half-a-ton of whalebone had been obtained as the result of the first cruise of tho barque Albion. The vessel is ijow op its second cruise among the Islands of the Pacific. This was thought to be ft nu&take by a portion of the meeting, in tho face of tho fact that the coast of New Zealand is known to bo swarming with whales. The following is the pecuniary condition of the company :— Receipt* ; Uplunee m band, 30th Juno, 1872, £3 10s 6d ; draft against oil per City of Auckland, less exchange, £225 09s 9d ; Bank overdraft, £1264 6s 4d ; Proceeds, sundries for Albion, £15 16s 6d ; Advance note paid in £2 10s Total, £3516 13s Id.— Expenditure : Bauk overdraft, £1171 Ils2d; on Ibehalf of Albion, first voyage, £813 Is 5d ; second ditto, £1426 19s 2d ; interest at Bank, £30 Os 4d ; general expenses, £38 13s 2d ; balance, £1 7» lOd Total, £3516 13s Id. We perceive from tho Auckland papers that a pamphlet has been issued by Air S. Ecmpthorne, J P., on the Education Question, entitled " The Auckland Education Act, 1872, weighed in the balances of truth and justice, of the common law, of history, and of sound policy, and found wanting." It h a protest against the present Act. Wo shall do ourselves the pleasure to review this production, heralded with go formidable a title. One of our Auckland contemporaries notices the fact that a majority of tho sharebrokers arc hating the word " licensed" erased from over their doors. Thu is certainly very significant of the state of mining matters, and tcrip, indeed, miut be at a low ebb when tho sharebrokcri are unable to maintain their cxclushencaß by the payment of their bclf-inipo>>ed luxury — a foe of £23 per annum The wantonness with which youth too often conduct themselves v\ hen from under their parents' eyes was attended onFri ulay afternoon at the North Shore with results that if net fatal will in all probability leave the victim a sufferer mentally and bodily for life. A son of Sir Smith, engineer on board the Devoiiport, wa3 returning from school in company with several schoolfellows, when theyproecededtotorinent*number of horsea which were gracing.* The boy Smith (eight years of age) in his pursuit of one animal »as kicked in the forehead, and knocked senseless, lie was picked up and eonvcyed to AucU.ind and on the advice of Dr. Dawson was at once taken to the Hospital, where he now lies in a semicomatose state. Partial paralysis of the right side has set in, and besides it is feared the ekull has been fractured. A delin has taken place in proclaiming the Hikutaia district a goklficld in consequence, it is alleged, of the necessary deeds not being prepared, and it is not expected that the field will be gazetted as open for mining purposes until tho 13th instant. This delay, however, hat not prevented a steady stream of speculators of all kinds making tracks theie, a few with an eye no doubt to securing a suitablo location for legitimate business, tho majority wo n'-c afraid with no serious intention of setting in to work, but merely to peg out ground, shepherd it, and dispose of interests in quarter or half shares, failing which the usual derni&r rrswrt of till tlio;f who have n good thing — vult specimens exhibited — but nre unable to work it for want of fundi, will bo attempted, namely to float a company. The strongest indications of tins are to be found in the fact that Bpeeimem cf quarts; of ynrioqs hues and qualities of .richness have a ea ly been provided from the Thames and Coromandel to do duty when occsslon offers, and at HiLutaia, at the present time, they arc quietly handed about and compared among theac " origii.al " peggers out. At the inquest held on the deceased Mary Amtoy a verdict to the effect that she had poisoned herself while in ' unbound mind was arrived at by the jury. We would c.uition persons who arc in the hib.t of using "rat poison" for tho destruction of vermin against carelessness. It is not generally kjiowu that its oH'eotsan? fatal when taken into the human, system, a^d that its chief component is strychnine. Mr Qcorge Simpson, C E., has received instructions from head-quarters, at ) to proceed to tho Waikato, having obtained the appointment of Assistant Engineer in that district The lppointment dates from the 2nd of February, consequently he will leave Tauranga almost immediately for his new field of operations. Mr Simpson is known as c, " risin" man" in his profession, a fact which the Government tijso appears to be aware of. In private life Mr Simpson has mode many friends, who, while rejoicing at his piomotion, will greatly regret his departure from amongst them O.n Sa.tu.rday lnst wo were shown a sample of coal, which had' been obtained from tho seam lately discovered at Raglan on Government land. The coal scam is said to be of great extent, and a quantity has been sent to Dr. Pollen, and which will reach him this forenoon It appears to be cj" the same quality as tho Waikato coa', and was brou£)i t down fr6in Raglan, in tho Flor/i Macdonald by Captain Kenny it was found by Mr Kcsscll, and was brought by him from tho head of tho Wmtetuna Gully, at a place near the dividing range between the Waikato and tho Raglan districts The coal brought down is from the surface, where the seam orops out. No sinking has yet been made tyjon the bed, but it is believed to be probabjy a oontinu.ition of th'c Waikato seams — Cross.