The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1845, 3 May 1884, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Equal md exict iiistu c to .ill men, 01 wliatsoi-vLr state or persuasion, religious or politiral Here sli ill the Press the People's ri(jh f imintain, UnawLtl b\ inllui nee and iml>ribed by gain.

SATURDAY, MAY J, 1884-

It is an open secret that the present Government owes its lon« lease of power not only to their own intrinsic merits, but also to the utter disorganisation of the Opposition. Tlip Machiavellian maxim, to fit the case of New Zealand, might be. altered thus : " Divide and be governed." There is nothing like unanimity in the country. Even in the ranks of the ruliug party there are differences ; but serious as many of these differences are, they sink into insignificance when compared with the dissentions that break up the Opposition into irreconcilable atoms. There is hardly a man of note, or a man of no note, opposed to the Government who does not aspire to lead ; there is scarcely one amongst those who have spoken who has not formulated a new and original scheme for the redemption of the country, and every one of them believes that the colony will go to the dogs if his particular scheme is rejected. Nor is the invention of new constitutions confined to members of Parliament ; the conclave of neglected geniuses (most of them unsuccessful candidates for the House) who assembled at the call of the Honourable Mr Reynolds at Dunedin, a week or two ago, had each a special panacea for the colony's disease, and about ha'f the newspapers have suddenly evolved the same number of designs for a constitution which shall effectually eclipse the miserable rickety old structure which ou fathers have taken some six or seven hundred years to build up. How are we to account for this remarkable mushroom growth of new ideas ? Are we on the threshhold of our Augustan Age ? Do not these political utterances rather resemble the unsteady chirruping of fledglings that have lost the parent bird, noisy, because their mouths are empty ? The Opposition is leaderless ; it has no common rallying point, no White Plume of Navarre, no common cause, no policy, no one in whom it can trust. As was the case with Arteinus Ward's famous regiment, every member of the Opposition, from Sir George Grey down to the member for Oamaru, is a Major-General. There is .really no exaggeration;,!?* all this, oyperfcn^of $q pagjl;

toadies us that nothing but two mountains are less likely to come together than Sir George Grey and Mr Montgomery, and it may be doubted whecher two mountains would not yield to the impulse of natural affection and embrace one another sooner than Mr \Vakefield would, metaphorically speaking, put his arms around the neck of either Sir George Grey or the member for Akaroa. Then Mr D.xrg.iville has got a party. It is true it is only a party of one at present, but in this respect he is at least the oqual of Mr Bathg.itc, or Mr Fish, or Mr John Holmes, each of whom has developed a policy in the highest degree satisfactory to himself. What the future will evolve out of this chaotic mass of political conceit and incapacity no one cm safely say. Mr Montgomery has completely failed to gather up the tangled skeins, and it is not very probable that Sir George Grey (who went South yesterday) will succeed in creating order out of the awful mess into which things have fallen. It is p -rhaps wrong to say that the Opposition is not unanimous upon any question ; it is of course agreed upon onepoint, that the present Government ouuht to be turned out neck and crop without delay. With the full knowledge that the Government will ask and get a dissolution if defeated, the various unsympathetic elements of the Opposition may for once combine to hurry on an appeal to the country, which people of all shades of opinion, no matter what their fads and fancies may be, are beginning to regard as the only practicable way out of a host of impending diiliculties.

The annual meeting of the parishioners of Chiist Church, Ohaupo, wil be held after service to-morrow. On the Cambridge racecourse on Thursday, after the winner of the Helling Hack Race had been sold, Mr Buckland offered Maori for sale. £")0 was the highest bid, but £80 was w.inted. Chanticleer was knocked down to Mr T. B. Lewis for eighteen guineas. * We are sorry to hear that scarlet fever has broken out in Hamilton West. Theie ib at present only one case, that o£a child about four years old. It will be well for the school teachers to be on the look out for any indications of the disease. We have heard of no large bags made on the l->t. A party of three in the Kiiikhiroa distiict got si\ and a-half brace of pheasants between them, and another party of tlaee, who .shot over 'the HauUpu district, got ten and a-half brace, including hares, pukekos and ducks. The Rukuhia Cheese Factory purpose ceasing operations for the season today, the supply of milk having fallen to 150 gallons. Some of the suppliers will probably take their milk to the Waikato Factory, but the majority will most likely de\ote their attention to butter-making. With one exception, namely, in the Ktrikiiiroa Road Boaid, wheie Mr Thomas declined re-election and has been leplaced by Mr McNicol, the whole of the members, in Waikato and Taotaoroa Road Boards have consented to retain their se its, and been permitted to do so without opposition. An interesting lawsuit is likely to come off .slioitly in the District Court here, in which one Gilbei t Harding, of Oxford, is plaintiff, and Mr Daniel Fallon, railway contractor, defendant. The foimcr pioceeds against the latter for taking forcible possession of some timber dm ing his absence. The meeting to be held to-night in the Cambridge Public Hall in connection w ith the North New Zealand Co-operative Association promises to be a success, and will be well attended, judging by the inteiest taken in the matter by the general public. Addresses will be given by several gentlemen connected with the association. Herr Carl Schmitt, the conductor of the Auckland Choral Society, at present on a visit to Hamilton, was present at a rehearsal of the Hamilton Orpheus Glee Club on Thursday night, and has requested uh to e\piess his satisfaction with the club's performances. It i-> his intention to compose a quaitette for the club on his return to Auckland. The vital statistics of the Hamilton Registration Distiict for the March quaiter are :— Births 40, deaths 3. The latter embrace one adult, and two infants, one of whom was drowned at Huntly, although two districts have been cut off fiom Hamilton, the number of births is as Luge as it was when the district letained its onginal limits. The concert to celebrate the opening of the Tamahere school, will be held at the school-house on Wednesday evening ne\t. We understand that a very excellent programme will be produced. The musical contributors are reminded that theie will be a ichearsal at the residence of Mr W. A. Graham, Hamilton, at 7.30 o'clock this evening. Regarding the disapproval manifested at Cambridge by .some persons of the sentence passed on the three men recently convicted on a charge of \agrancy, we have been informed by fairly reliable authority th.it two of the men at least, who had just come from Oxford, fully deserved the sentence passed upon them, and are altogether undeserving of sympathy. The following special messages to the Press Association, dated London, May 1, have been published : -The Russian loan of 15,000,000 has been subscribed twelvefold. Mr Stanley Hill has .submitted a motion to Parliament in favour of the federation of the Empiie. The Newton (Sydney) municipal 5V per cent, loan of £24,000 has been subscribed fourfold at an average of £100. The annual meeting of the ratepayers of the Tamahere Road District was held at Mr Camp's shop on Thursday. The secretary reported that the retiring members of the board, Messrs McNicol and Rhodes, being the only candidates, were duly reelected. The annual accounts were read and some other business of a formal nature transacted. His Worship the Mayor has given notice to move at the next ordinary meeting of the Hamilton Borough Council : — That the following paragraph in the Herald's Waikato district news of April 26, 1884, re the taxation of Mr Hay's bill of costs is a deliberate falsehood, and that a copy of resolution be forwarded to the Herald.— Paragraph. — "There was nevertheless a feeling of satisfaction expressed that an end would be brought to the systematic overriding by the borough executive of the expressed wishes of the council, that body having twice expressly resolved that proceedings should be discontinued in the taxing of Mr Hay's bill of costs. " In an address to the electors of Dunedin South the other day, Mr H, S. Fish, M.H.R., laid down the following as his programme for the future :— l. Just financial separation of the two islands and proper local government. 2. Abolition of the property tax. 3. Imposition of a progressive land and income tax. 4. Reiorm of the Civil Service. 5. Reform of the Upper House. G. Bona fide settlement of the people on the land of the country. After a number of questions had been answered, a vote of confidence in Mr Fish was carried unanimously. The meeting got somewhat disorderly towards the close. Mr John Holmes addressed the electors of Christchurch South on Wednesday night. He advocated the cessation of borrowing, reduction of the Armed Constabulary to 100 men, the abolition of the Native Minister and department, reducing expenditure of the administration of Justice, reduction of the honorarium to M.H.R.S. to a guinea a day, extra taxation of absentees, eucourageinent of local industries, a return to provincialism, abolition of the Upper House, and the establishment of a National Bank of issue. A vote of thanks and confidence was carried unanimously. f ' The condition of affairs in the Sou<fon bM dffiWt dgvyrfccl qny MpugfrtftftogV

the march of events in other parts of the world, but the Fenians, as if resentful of the public neglect, have made another demonstration. It has been discovered that a determined attempt has been made to blow up the Toronto Parliamentary buildings, and though the cable tells us that t lie re is no clue to the perpetrator, there is no doubt that it is the work of the American sympathisers with the Irish Nationalist canse in Ireland. The Roman Catholic Bazaar closed at Cambridge on Thursday last, after a very successful term, almost everything having been disposed of. The few articles remaining unsold will be disposed of at a gift auction shortly, when all whodesire to secure a bargain will have a good oppoi tunity of doing so. The proceeds of the bazaar nave more than covered the debt on the presbytery, considerably over £100 having been taken. The attendance on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings was very large, and as may be judged from the sum realised public patronage was not stinted. The committee desire to express their gratitude to the members of the band, including Messrs Stewart, Johnson, Webber. Sharp, and Lamb, who so kindly contributed their services. According to Mr E. Shaw (says the Wellington Times), they have a peculiar way of managing things in Auckland. In representing to the bench at the Resident Magistrate's Court on Saturday the danger of unduly detaining the Auckland registrar as a witness in the Monkt'in-Howell cases, Mr Shaw said: "Your Worship will see the advisability of my suggestion when I tell you that while Mr Lord is away from Auckland, no one in that city can get married, none can die, and no one can be born." Mr Wardell asked whether a deputy could not be appointed. '• No, sir," replied Mr Shaw, " for there is no Governor here to sign the warrant." Mr Wardell agreed that it was very inadvisable to detain the official under such circumstances as these. Mr S. Steele writes to say he left his place at Ohaupo for Rotorua on Thuisday morning with a pair of light grass-fed horses with a load of 15 cwt., consisting of plough, harrows, horse feed, seed, tent, bedding, &c. He was able to make the last constabulary camp on the evening of the second day, near the lake, thus showing that anyone wishing to reach the Lake-a there is no difficulty whatever, as Mr Steele had covered a distance of a little over 70 miles in two days, and part of that over a new formed bush road. If this can be done in the shoit days of autumn, Low much^ easier the journey may be accomplished in the summer when the road becomes consolidated. We hope to see ne*t summer a regular pilgrimage of tourists passing through the Waikato to the world's sanatorium.