ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1863, 14 June 1884, Page 4

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

TnE prescu t session of Parliament had hardly commenced before the fun became fa<tf and fuiious, two no-confidence m&fbus being tabled, the one by Mr Steward, an Opposition whip, acting ns the representative of Mr Montgomery, and the other by Sir George Grey. If the Government arc to be turned out, it is to be hoped that it will be on the laser's motion, for we Aucklanders will receive but scant justice from Mr Montgomery and his party, their sole object being to divert all the expenditure of the colony to Canterbury and Otago. Let them get into office, and wo may whistle for the Waikato-Taranaki railway, winch is the matter of the most consummate importance to us, the railway across the Middle Island being constructed instead. To-day I was talking to a gentleman well acquainted with the proposed route of our railway at the Cafe. lie said that not Only was the Western route the best, as being the shoitest, and tint which would open up the best tract of countiy, but it was also th.it advocated by all the settlers in the vicinity of New Plymouth and 1 on the Waimate Plains. With regard to the objection which had been urged— that it was a coastal line— he said that was sheer nonsense, as it would not run anything like bO near the coast as docs the line from Christchurch to Invercargill. Besides that, what is the use of a coast without harbouis, and there is really no liaibour worthy of the name between Kawhia and Wellington. The Taranaki people will not be disposed to admit 'the truth of this statement, but true it is, notwithstanding. New Plymouth harbour is but an open roadstead, and no amount of money can make it a proper harbour. W.iitara and Wanganui have both got shallow rivers, with bai& at the mouths, and even the light-draft steamers which enter them are sometimes bar-bound for weeks. Under these circumstances it would not matter if the 1 ail way did go along the coast, which it will not do, and the railWay is absolutely neccssaiy. It will not be constructed if Mr Montgomery and his party get into power, so we must pray, " From a Montgomery Macandrevv Ministry may the good Lord deliver us." % & So far as we enn judge, it seems almost certain that tlieie will be a dissolution of P.uliament. This seems a pity seeing that, iv the natuial coutse of events, the dissolution would have taken place very shortly. Surely three ycais is a sufficiently short term for the existence of a Pailiamcnt without the appioaehing death being hastened, to say nothing of the cost to the colony, in its present state of impecuniosity, of two sessions in one year. Of course, the expense will be very materially lessened if Mr Moss's motion to make the honorarium annual instead of sessional, is cai ried, but I do not think it will be, and my own opinion is that Mr Moss would not have given notice of the motion, had he thought it would be carried. I am very much afraid that we will see what we saw on a pieviou^ occasion— those members who arc re-elected diawmg four hundred guineas (£4--20) out of the Colonial Evchccjuei. What the taxpayers will get for their expendifcuic ot upwaids of £40,000 will be veiy little, as, in the event of a dissolution, tlioie v ill be no leal business done in cither of the two sessions. If membcis h,i\e to go before their constituents .md then return to Wellington they will want to got away again .is speedily as possible, so they will do as little work as may be, and we will have two shoit sessions in the year, with little practical lesult, to show for our £40,000 or i'oO.OOO. I would make a suggestion, wlrn.li I lecommend to the carelul considei.ition of the members — th.it thoy d< \otc the whole of the honorRiiuni teceived iutheje.u hSSI touaids lemedying the deficiency in the revenue, The question of the control of the M.inuktiu haibour came before the Auckland Jl.ubour Bo.ud at its meeting on Tuesday, Mi llunlm, on behalf of Sir M.iuiico O'lloike, mtioduccd in J'ailiajnunt a bill duited bv the Kvttci gentlelii.ui, having fo-i its object the vesting of the coutiol of the M ui.ikau luuboui in a lou.il l)o,u.l. lufoi iiiation having hccii received hcie to the ell'uub that the Government would oppose that bill, but would be disposed to give the contiol to the AucKluid liaibour Boaid, the chairman of that body Wouqht the matter fortvaid, when it w.is discussed, a-)d the fui thci eon->ideiation ot if defened for a avlcL .Judging by tlic pi cent aspect of nntteis political, theie will be any amount ot tnic to yivu the nntter the moot caicful eonsideiation bcfoie thete is the slightest ])OoSibility of Pailiamant doing anything in the way of legislation on the subject. At the same time, it is well that the pios and cons should be discussed, and that the Onehunga people should have an oppoitunity of considering the advantages that will auciuc to them b)' t'u adoption of the coui&e pio-po-^ed. It :s undo ibtcdly the beat thing that cm be done, looking at it fioin ,w Ouehunga point of view, to say nothing about flic fact that Auckland mci chants ship ten tons at the ?>la.iak.ut for ovciy one that i^> shipped by O'lo'iimga people. At the sime ■ncetiii'^ of the Haibom Boaid, iL wh decided that a local consulting engineei be appointed with lefeiencc to the Calliope Point. Whcthei it will bo can led into eficet oi not icmnins to seen, but the i.itention of a considerable section of the bo.ud i« to appoint Mr W. "Ware, n ho was one ot the contractor for the present dock, and to whose engineering skill it istli.it we aie indebted for die fact that the dock is not utteily useless. Of couisc, if a consulting engineer is to be appointed, itisf.u better to have a local man, if tlieie is one fit for the position, than to have one who lives in Sydney or Melbourne, but what we outbidcrs want to know is, what is the necessi&ty of appointing a consulting engineei it the dock engineer is capable, or, if he i^ not capable, why he was appointed to the position 'i Being an outsider, I am quite unfitted to express an opinion on the subject, but theie enc people who profes-> to know all about it, who say that Mr Krrington, the Dock Engineer, has not had the experience to fit him for the position and that, unless a competent local consulting engineer is appointed, a fiasco may be the icsult. This is certainly not as it should be, if it is tine, and the decis'on of the Board ojitainly does seem to give colour to the statement. •» On Monday evening Professor Aldis gave a very interesting lecture at the Young Men's Christian Association's Kooms on the "Mathematical and Moral Aspects of Gambling." After explaining the law of chances, he showed that, if a man continued fair gambling for a certain time, ho was bound to come out square at last if he kept at it long enough. However, as a matter of fact, we never do see fair gambling. Look at the totalisator, which is consideied the fairest possible system of gambling. Suppose that a totalisator is peifectly accurate, not like those about which Heslop and Butler quarelled and abused each other, and a man puts a pound on each of the ten noises that start in a race. What is the result? He gets £9 back, the remaining £1 being retained by the proprietois of the machine. The same thing applies to "sweeps," however fairly conducted. Then as to the moral aspect of gambling, I believe we know more than Professor Aldis can tell us. I really believe that gambling is a greater curse to the community than drink, and yet it is carried on extensively under the eyes of the police, and no effort is made to suppress it. ._ . i \ i{j , I do not <think it is generally known 1 that ,when he was editor of the V'Otago „/!D,aily Times," §ir (then Mr) -Juluis Vogel'i «'<qii,e. day increased the issuejbf $hat paper tp'"2O,'OOO copies. When Dunedin dret „ had a town board, a number of the merav Hew were ignorant men who liked to hear '-j -Mepwlvos talk, ajid., s.sy be^r, to. pe?

their speeches in print. As there was not much news to put in the papers in those clays, and m they invaiiably " treated " the loporters, their ambition was fredy giatified by long ie« ports of the meetings of the Town Boaid nml the speeches that members made find tiicd to make. Alter a while the columns of tlic newspapers became too valuable to be filled with twaddle, and so the reports were curtailed to a concise account of the business transacted. This did not suit the verbose members, who passed a resolution to the effect that, if the newspapers did contain a full leport of all that was said and done at the meetings of the Town Board, the icpoiters would be refused admission. At the next meeting the first persons to arrive were four repoiters on the staff of the " Otago Daily Times." The first members who aimed remarked that it was " tarnation cold " and went up to the fire place, tucked up hi." coat tails and stood with his b.ick to the fire. The reporters piomptly made a note of the words and action. ' The same thing was done with icgiid to every other member, as he ai rived. Every word that was spoken and every movement that was made irt the loom that night was noted by the icpoiters, the consequence being that the report of the meeting of the Town Board occupied a page and tluee quarters of the "Otago Daily Times" the next morning. By nine o'clock the ottice was rushed for copies of the paper, and the crowd became so great that a posse of police had to be sent to piotect the office. By ."» p.m., the circulation had increased to •20,000 and it stopped at that figure only because the pi inters were completely worn out by their labouis and could work no longer. St. Mumjo.