ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1262, 31 July 1880, Page 2

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

It is a vevj good plan to be on the Directorates of several public companies, as, besides the honorarium from each company, it is so easy to make the influence of one company useful in another. A good instance of the way in which this can be done was told me recently. Iv a city in one of the colonies, let us say Tasmania, there lives a gentleman whom we will call Smith, who is a director in a considerable number of public companies, including a gas company. Jones, the agent for one of the coal mines in the colony, wrote a letter to the directors of the gas company infof ming them that the coal for which he was agent produced better and cheaper gas than the imported coal that was being used, and asking them to have a trial of it made at the gasworks. The directors acceded to the request, and instructed the manager to try the coal and report the result to them at the next meeting. Smith, who was not piesput at the meeting, was very angry when he heard what had been done, as his son supplied the gas company with coal, which was imported in Smith's own vessels. However, he set tt> work and discovered that one of the directors of the local coal company was " under the thumb " of a large monetary institution of which he was a director. He at once had the "screw" put on him, and the consequence was that Smith himself was appointed agent for the company instead of Jones, and when the directors of the gas company met, and the manager certified that the local coal produced better and cheaper gas than the imported coal, Smith I'u^c and said that as they had been very 'well served in the past 'he thought the , directors would be doing very wrong to desert those who had seived them so well. '" To show that I am quite disinterested," he continued, " I can show you my appointment as sole agent of the cual company." And so the consumers were supplied, with inferior gas, the shareholders received smaller dividend?, and Jones lost a lucrative agency. One of the most amusing things I have real lately is that pait of the report of the Inspector - General of Schools, iv which lie gives the answers of some of the candidates for examination as school teachos. A number of unsucccssf nl candidates were in the habit of "hauuhng the lobbies," buttonholing member-., and tolling 1 them how badly they had been treated. The members used to worry Mr Habens with the complaints, so he determined to put a stop to the annoyance by giviug a few examples made by those who were unsuccessful. In answer to, "Name and charactcii&e the great English statesmen of the seventeenth and eighteenth, centuries," one answer was "Pitt, one of the best primers (I) England has ever .••ecn, Gladstone, Disraeli, Fox, Sheridan," Another was, " *ir George Grey, W. Fox, Pilchard, Cirl Crombie, Murray Fisher." What a blos-sing 1 it would have been for New Zealand if »Su- G. Grey had lived in either the seventeenth or the eighteenth cuntuiy! A third replied, " From his eailiest years Pitt was inflicted Avith the gout." A fourth, (> Pitt led a chequered life. He was troubled with rheumatics." Pitt seems to have iiot between a good many of them and their wits. "What imjradence these people have to presume to teach your children and mine, gentle readers of the Waikato Times. Our members are to be commended for their determination to carry out a policy of wholesale retrenchment, but, knowing the absolute necessity for this policy, why did they not cut down their own honorarium at least one-half ? They cut down the salary of Major Paul forty per cent., their own only ten. Some of the members objected to paying any salary to Major Paul, who is the Sergeant-at-Arms, I suppose because he is a gentleman, while they are— well, they are called — "honorable members," so we must suppose that they are. One thing is very certain that .some of the members would I do well to take lessons in manners, and then we would not need to fear a repetition of scenes liable to bring our " honorable members" into contempt. Talking about the honorarium, it is a fact that speaks for itself, there were no disorderly scenes in the House before payment of members was commenced, and that the South Australian Parliament, whose members are not paid, is the most orderly of the Colonial Parliaments.

The Railway Commissioners' mport is, judg-ino- from the precis of it telegraphed from Wellington, a very exhaustive and carefully-prepared document. Although the Waikato-Thames Railway is not recommended for immediate construction, the report is very favorable to Auckland. Every Waikato resident will, I am sure, join with me iv approving" of the recommexdation that the Cambridge line be proceeded with at onoe. Some time ago a team of crickoters went to a settlement on the coas,t to play a match with a local team. ThejHarrived early in the morning, wet and cold after travelling in an open boat, and went into an hotel to get something to drive the cold out. There was no one in the hotel, the captain of the team offered to "tend-car," opened a bottle of brandy, and passed it round. Wliile they were drinking it the landlord arrived. The captain said to him, "I owe you for a bottle of brandy. How much do you charge for it ?" " Sixteen shillings" was the calm reply. ' ' Sixteen shillings for a bottle of brandy ! I never heard of such a charge. You must be joking," said the Captain. "No! 1 am not joking" replied Boniface. A bottle of brandy contains thirty-two nobbleis, for which I charge six pence each, and that amounts to sfi.

teen shillings, which is my price for a bottle of baandy, and, if you do not pay me at once, I will give you in charge for stealing." The captain paid the money rather than have any unpleasantness, and the team walked out of that house, "never to go again" to spend any of their money with its grasping proprietor. A friend of mine writing from Waipawa, gives me^|k full account of the row with the native* there, from which it appears that they have right, though not law on their side. No doubt the Queen's writ has been ignored, and any attempt, to enforce it will be followed by bloodshed, and the Government have very wisely telegraphed to the Constabulary not to assist the Sheriff to enforce the writ. Now for the facts of the case. In ISSI the natives sold the large block of land stretching from the Waipawa to the Tukituki River to a Mr Ridcliford. The survey was made by the late Mr Pelichet, and the natives state positively that they erected thesr fences according to Pelichet's plan, and that the fence has remained there ever since. Mr John Harding tought this large run from Mr Riddiford, and some years afterwards discovered that the pah occupied by the natives was on the land conveyed to him. This arose from a mistake made by the Chief Surveyor, who, upon surveying the block made the boundary line straight from the Waipawa to the Tukitnki, instead of leaving it as Pelichet had done it. The straight line gave the natives an additional five acres on the banks of the Tukituki, but took from them five acres on the Waipawa, the identical five acies "on which the pah is. Six years ago Harding applied to the Supreme Court for a writ of ejectment, which was granted, but not acted upon until a few weeks ago, when Harding threatened to institute proceedings against the Sheriff. The Government had previously tried to arrange the matter by offering the natives £200 for the land (apparently admitting that they were right). The offer was refused, so a similar off6r Avas made to Harding, who said he would not relinquish his claim for £2000. (N.B. — The five acres coat him 255) The sheriff, therefore, went up with an interpreter and two bailiffs, and the Queen's writ Was read. Henry Matua, a very influential and intelligent chief, told the Bherif^ that the whole thing was wrong, the land had never been parted with, and would never be given up. When Mr Harding brought his action in the Supreme Court the natives oftered no defesce ; but Henry Matua says that he can show by Pelichet's survey that the land on which the pah is situated was not sold. As the sheriff had not an armed fore ■ to support him, and as Henry Matua told him that he Would not be answerable for the result if force were used, the writ could not be enforced. This plaiu statement of the case will show that the Government were quite justified in instructing the Constabulary not to assist the sheriff, as the consequence of so doing would have been, in all probability, another Maori war, , St. Mtjnoo.