SYDNEY LETTER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2708, 19 November 1889, Page 3

SYDNEY LETTER.

U'ROlt OUU OWN' COIUIKSrONDBNT.)

Stdnky, November 6. What with the Cup and the recess, and the general uneventfulness in matters religious, political and social, there is little to write about. Of course the nneventfulness is more apparent thau real. Under the .seeming dead level of conventionality and routine, momentous decisions are being arrived at—decisions none the less momentous because silent—momentous also for weal or woe to many others besides those who are making them. But although thus real, and tho very groundwork and basis of the State that is to bo, they don't serve the purpose of the journalist. He only sees them in their outward results, and only then if they are of extraordinary or abnormal nature.

Politically, one section of the press is still harping on Federation. We all, I think, are prepared to admire Federation in the abstract, but I question very much whether any of the colonies are prepared to make any tangible sacrifices to secure it. " I pity hpr five shillings, friend, how much does thee pity her?" said the benevolent Quaker to the knot who had gathered round a distressed woman. How much are we prepared to give for Federation, or are we really convinced at the present juncture that it is absolutely necessary to make any sacrifices at all ? The maiden accepts it as an unquestioned article of faith that some day she is to niarrv. But she need not be in any hurry to select the favourite swain from among her admirer!) or to name the day after she has selected him. Still less does the question trouble her in her girlhood, before she is of a marriageable age.

It may well be doubted whether the Australian colonies are of marriageable age, still more whether they have reached a point of experience and maturity which will enable them intelligently to decide the terms and conditions on which they will surrender their individual liberty. Of course, if no question of surrender is involved, all is plain sailing. Victoria is very rearfy to federate if all the other colonies will submit to Victorian ideas. Now South Wales is very ready to federate if she will bu allowed to lay down the law to all the rest. Four of the colonies have already achieved some small measure of federation, but New South Wales stood proudly aloof. Now, wo are inviting the four to adopt our notion of federation and abandon their own. This "childlike and bluiid " proposition seems to me to reverse the old fable of Mahomet and tho mountain. Thn fable says that after Mahomet had vainly invited and exhorted the mountain to come to him, he like a wise man, went to the mountaiu. But in this case Mahomet has for a year been vainly incited to come to tho mountain, and now, feeling the need of a view ffin the euniiuit, and perhaps a draught of fresh air int the bargain, he suddenly, wakes up and beseeches the mountain to come to him !

It may, however, be seriously questioned whether anything would be heard of federation just now if it did not serve an altogether distinct political object. The Protectionists have the ear of a larpe and apparently increasing section ot the public and it is deemed advisable, seeing that the old time-honoured doctrine!) and assertions are proviDg powerless, to distract attention from the issue. But here again fablo comes to my help —the faUle which describes how the cat, with her one Rood trick, saved her life, whilst the fox, with his thousand bad ones, was run to earth at last, and ignomiiiiously duff out. The cat escaped by climbing a tree, where the dogs could not follow. The fox turned and twisted and doubled and shuttled, but all in vain. The lesson to me appears to be this : Criticism is powerless in the face of » real public need. The public need a flourishing agricultu.ro, employment for their mechanics, a choice of occupations for their children, a chance for infant industries to grow to maturity. The Protectionists have the wit to see this, and it serves thorn in good stead. In the public mind they stand associated with a vital and living cause, intimately connected with the public Rood. The progressive portion of the public say to tlio i'ree Traders: " All your statistics, all your assertions, all your invocations of great names do not help us one iota. If Protection be not the best was to obtain our object show us a better way. All your arguments really resolve themselvos into clever and specious pleading in favour of the existing state of things, and we have long ago made up our minds that we don't like the existing state of things." The party that accepts this frame of mind and declares itself ready to do its utmost to satisfy its aspirations is secure. The party which attempts to juegle with it, to choat and cozen it, to throw it (iff tho scftnt by any fictitious and suddenly-con-ceived cry, such as this of federation, is not secure, and is certainly doomed to exposure and defeat. Even if for a short time it apparently succeed*;, the real need of tho country is certain to ascertain itself sooner or later, and the woithlessness and unreality of the elaborate edifice of mystification will be apparent to all. Two or throe important criminal cases have been before the courts lately. It would be unwarrantable to assuino the guill. or innocencs of the parties accused before tho proper tribunal has announced its verdict. ]3ut even in their present stage the caws pro*cnt Home interesting features'. The first.is that of Mr E. H. Taylor, who has been brought back from Colombo, charged with obtaining money on false prei aliens from a bank. A few months aco, Mr Taylor, like tho nelf-made man in the old joko, was an unknown clerk. Now ho owes—l should be afraid to say how much

--but it is certainly well on the way for n quarter of a million. And his biggest creditors are tho banks, the same institutions whose managers assume such inagisrerial airs and put on such forbidding looks when an honest trader requires a little temporary accommodation to tide him over a tight place. No wonder that men who arts honest and who wish to borrow no morn than they can_ see thoir way Id pay, feel somo indignation when they reflect on a case like this. No wonder, also, that roßuish and thievish men take heart of grace, seeing, as they cannot but see, that even in the astute bank manager there is u vein o£ credulity, which, if propurlv worked, may yield astonishing results. It remains to be seun whethnr Mr Taylf.r has done anything for which the law can punish him. But the sulitnt facts remain, and teach their own lesson, no matter what may be the result of the legal proceedings. The .second ease is that of Mr T. W. Thomas, second toller in the Bank of New Zealand at Sydney. There were sharehrokers among the customers of the Bank, and the rage for what is euphemistically cilled "'mining speculation," which too often means sheer guniblinf? in mining scrip, penetrated within the bank portals. The teller was bitten by it. He "speculated," or "gambled." or whatever you please to call it, with the bank's money. The result is, according to one statement of his own confession, a loss of £'30,000, to be borne by the long-suffering shareholders of the institution. The bank authorities place their loss at 413,000, whioh is sufficiently serious. Although both Taylor and Thomas are now in oustody, and may be found guilty of the offences with which they are charged, I should be loath to say that their moral guilt is any greater than that of hundreds of other men who manage to keep themselves out of the meshes of the law. The fact Is that the whole tone of the commercial world is woefully lax. Staid men of business stako all they are worth— very often mere than they are worth —on contingencies which have not the remotest connection with legitimate biiHinegi:. If they win, .society worships them. If they lose it hands them over to the police, that is to say, if they have been more than ordinarily clumsy. Yet their moral dosert is the same in either case.