WEEKLY EPITOME.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 19, 6 September 1873, Page 6

WEEKLY EPITOME.

The New Zealand University is exciting the wild wrath of the ' Daily Times. The 'Daily Times' states it hns been informed that the Council of the local institution lias " offered to accept affiliation from the Colonial body, on the express understanding that all the powers tit present held by it be retained, except that of conferring degrees. Such an arrangement is perhaps as satisfactory a one as could bo hopod for." In the event of affiliation taking place, " our local institution" will "in all probability be known henceforth by the title of the Otago University College. 1 " Everything in time finds its proper level. An exchange enumerates nine members " who dare not «o back to tueir constituencies to seek re-election, and with the threat of a dissolution hanging over their heads, Mr Vogel holds the whip hand. I her.- aro also others whom we could mention who dare not face their

constituents. In a House so constituted " if T OmQ »i, v v m.' Opposition is impossible. Without™ orwiLa oS ' healthy sentativc .institntL, .and responsible^* ZZ^t ar?Ece°VdThe" sooner the electors throughout the Colony wake „7^ *£ 7* f ' are foirly and properly represented, gt^t^gg*?,** on th^t!™^ "P" circulate these reports outride of New Zealand out tf^rtS""" 11 tainly should do so. By means of such a paper dltributed tnrLT out the sister colonies and the immigrations of Great jfiSt' would the prospects and great resources of our gold fields best be brought under notice, whilst those reading it would, knowing it to be tsssraaaa^ 1^ to relj uptm the --Ant: A coBBEsroNDBNT says that the Catholics of Shortland, province of Auckland, intend establishing a school ia which Catholic chiK can be taught without dangei to their faith. Will the Auckland SoY Sols ? make PBy iQ addition fop the Godless Gorernmen* i.- IT ' Wan^ nu j Glironicle' says that the "Civil Service Bill which has been introduced by the Government will no doubt be passed over by the general public as a matter of ao interest ; but as far as we can gather from the data before us, we are of opinion that the BUI amounts to neither more nor less than repudiation. -The attemnt by the Government to tamper with the rights of those members of the Ciyri»ervice who joined it before November, 1871, cannot be cons? dered in any other light than repudiation ; an act cowardly in the extreme, as the Government well know that their employes dare not write to a newspaper, or even to the head of their department, without running the risk of instant dismissal. Ii a Bill |were introduced to abolish pensions and retiring allowances altogether, to affect those only who join the service after the Act was passed, we should be mepared to give !t our support, but we object to lend ourselves to any act of repudiation, and we feel certain that the publio will endorse on* views* ' ■r THB ;Wanganui Herald' has a favorable word for Sir George Bowen. "We never beard, however, that he was mean in his expenditure, and it was a common impression that he lived quite up to his *i C n ™A ther j J 8 a conß Werable difference between £3000 and £10,000 a-year, and it is not impossible that Sir George Bowen may be regulating his expenditure in Victoria according to rules forced oh. him m this Colony. There is time and room for him to expand, and his JLxcellency has too generous and free a nature to hoard official money. »•««««••. ha^S aaXt °f BuAA x aaA HTH T celeb " fc y» «ftw a life prolonged beyond the usual span, has passed away, his demise being thus alluded toby the 'Welbngtott Post :'-'< Yesterday another old settler, S Knox, died in the Hospital at the age of 82 years. Dr Knox arrived ill^SSS olony8 ° me 33 22 y eara JJ a g°. «d after various changes at last settled down m the Ponrua district, where he practised his profession and acted as coroner, until failing health a few^ weeks ago LnpSS him to seek refuge in the Hospital in order to obtain proper medical attendance and nursing. In early life Dr Knox was demonstrator of anatomy to his brother, the celebrated Professor Knox, whose name became so familiar ia connection with the Burke and Hare cases During his residence in this Colony Dr Knox pursued his scientific studies with unwearied diligence. ♦i, n^u \ - Napier Xele g ra P h ;' commenting on the Education Bill, says «*.S f ♦ v- K°i U " Oh^, r ? lly> ° bjec: t0 be taxed for tno wpport of schools to which their children cannot be sent, and to allow them to grow up in ignorance no Government can permit. *i £* H ,°£ itika Mr ?ÜBtice? ÜBtice Oresson dwelt, ia his opening address to the Grand Jury, on the want of a penal establishment where prisoners, might be classified and iustructed. He said the Judaea should raise their voices against the inconsistency of spending money lavishly on education, while there was no money to preserve the youth of the Colony from contamination. The ' New Zealand Herald ' in regard to the charge against Sir O-eorge Bowen of accepting gratuities, under various heading from Minister*, which he ought not to have accepted, remarks :— The queation to be considered ia, did the maiatenance of the Vice-'re»al establishment coat £9000 when only £5000 had been voted ? It It did not Sir George Boweu ought to deny what is asserted. If it did, he ought to show that it was no more than he -was justly entitled to. Our im pression is that Sir tteorge Bowen was altogether incapable of asking tor more than what, in his position, he had a right to expect • but that Ministers, on tbeir own responsibility, increased the vote passed for tne cost of the Vice-regal establishment, with that disregard to consequences which in many things have marked their administration Ihe Agent-General, remarks the Wellington 'Independent,' is very sore that the Government, in calculating the number of immi. grants despatched to this Colony since the Agency was formed in London, do not credit him with the immigrants sent out by Messrs Brogden and Sons, and those nominated by their friends in the Colony. We fail to see any reason why the Government should have done otherwise than regard these immigrants as being iv an eitirelv different category to those actually procured through the means of the Colonial Agency. As for Messrs JJrogden's immigrants, it is a wellknown fact that tins firm went to a vast amount of trouble and expense in obtaining suitable hands, aud that so far from the Colonial Agency being aa assistance to them it was rather the reverse, because oi the easier terms of passage offered by the Agent-General The editor of the ' Grey River Argus' is wicked enough to suspect the title of the Oamaru Nouthetic Association has been misprinted — that it should have been " Mouthetic " An exchange is not inclined to make Dr Featherston the Government scapegoat tor the failure of the immigration scheme. At the same time, it says—" We do not now, nor did we ever, think that Dr * eatherston was—as Agent-General— the right man in the right place. That Dr Featheraton has proved his unfituesa for his poat his best friends will scarcely deny, but at the same time the Government is

solely to blaire for the breakdown of the immigration scheme. From the result attained by the slip-shod method in force to obtain a steady flow of immigratiOH, the conviction is forced upon us that a radical change has become necessary, and the sooner the abuse of Dr Featherston is abandoned, and his successor appointed, the better will it be for the colony and the policy it has adopted." Some time ago a telegram appeared in the New Zealand papers stating that Bishop Goold, of Melbourne, had condemned benefit societies. It was evidently taken from a statement in the « Age 1 — a statement inserted for electioneering purposes, and which was authoratalively contradicted in the Melbourne papers. Now we ask why has not the Association the honesty to telegraph the correction ? Why does it net circulate the contradiction as widely as it has circulated the mis-statement. The 'Thames Advertiser' published a contradiction by request ; no other paper has done so. This message and the one m which Bishop Goold was represented r- or rather misrepresented—as inciting his flock to the shedding of blood, would lead one to suppose that the compiler of the Australian news is not particular as to facts when Catholic matteis are concerned. Me Duncan, the newly-appointed Emigration Agent for the Province of Canterbury, when speaking at the public dinner given to him Jast week, is reported by the Press to have said :— " I may say that the letter inserted by me in the local newspapers has produced over 100 letters from all parts of the Province addressed to every corner of Britain -from John O'Groat's House to Penzance— and from Norwich to Galway. [Mr Duncan here read some extracts from letters received by him.] I have other letters which show in the clearest possible manner that the working classes here wish to see the working classes in England coming out here amongst them. I am glad to cay that the Provincial Government have agreed to give me power to grant free passages, and for this reason—in many cases the working man has just sufficient to find sufficient clothing for his passage out. We will watch with interest to see whether Mr Duncan who has received letters of introduction to persons in Ireland, will do more for immigration from that country to New Zealand, than Dr FeatherBton and Mr Mason have done. Me D. R. Mat, writing to the « Daily Times,' nicely describes Dr JJeatherston s promises in ihe following words:—" We are continually hearing of large numbers who are about to be sent oat to the different ports, but precious few of them have ever sailed as yet." The Bame writer cays, " I have spoken to many working men on the subject, and they are all of opinion that the tendency of increased population is to raise instead of to lower the rate of wages. Work would be more plentiful, and consequently good hands would have a much better chance of obtaining constant employment. The immigration policy of the General Government has up to this time been a most decided failure. He also thinks " The Otugo Provincial Government would be acting wisely were they to appoint agents of their own, as the Canterbury Government has donp." Noticing in our contemporary the ' Guardian ' that the practice of agricultural tenants in Victoria is to exhaust the soil by means of rude and unskilful husbandry, for which a Tenants Ri<rht Bill is proposed as a remedy, it has occurred to us (• Tuapeka Times,') that not only tenants, but even proprietors in our own neighbourhood are pursuing the same short-sighted nnd suicidal policy. Me VoGEt lately said it was not for the interests of the Colony that the population should be without religious instruction. He thought that the tendency of the present age was to infidelisw. He did not sp«ak of this Colony, but of the disposition of the age in general— a disposition which prompted everyone to disbelieve in anything as a matter of faith purely, and to demand for each individual a power of judgment without the knowledge on which to form a judgment. Such a disposition was fatal to any religious belief. And Mr Vogel, having said bo much, then proceeded to move the second reading of the Education Bill ! A COEBESPONBENT gives the ' Wanganui Chronicle ' a description of the manner m which lads, " hardly old enough to be out at night without some one to take care of them," spend their evenings. He says :—" I went to an inn in the town, and to my surprise upon entering a room, I found a lot of the small boys of the place gambling at cards, and a tallow dip on the table, together with pewters of beer and glasses containing something much stronger." The ' Taranaki Herald ' announces that on the 4th of August it attained its majority, the first number having made its appearance on that day of the month, in the year 1852. It now stands fifth on the list of the oldest journal in New Zealand—the 'Nelson Examiner' the 'Southern Cross,' the ' Wellington Independent,' and the « Lyttelton Times ' being the only papers now in existence which were being published when the ' Taranaki Herald ' wag first orinted. The Tauranga paper lately omitted publishing the names of the drunKards "on this occasion only," as it was their "first appearance" on the judicial stage. This is a very good excuse for the dailies to adopt whenever «n influential re-ident, who has imbibed overnight to excess, falls into the hands of the Philistines and awakes to find himself suffering a recovery, and is still more horrified at being advertised as a " drunk." s Me John-son, who said in the House of Representatives that to deprive Roman Catholics of aid for their schools while compelling them to pay for schools they would not use, was robbery, is stated by the Wellington correspondent of the ' Auckland Star 'to be « one of the most rising men and effective speakers in the House." -Lieut. Hopkins, the champion shot, h as been making some splendid shooting at the Thames. At the 400, 500, and 600 ranges without sighting shots— twenty-one shots gave seventy one pomts. He "g"" commenced, but only fired five shots at each range, with a total of fifty points. The Maoris formerly confined as political prisoners in Dunedin Uaol, are now re-established on their land. The Government rationed them at 6£d per day, until they could pat in crops for their own support. The news has spread, and expcHatioa is on tip-toe, exclaims the ' Westport Times ' joyfully, that Westport is actually to be saved from

destruction, and will become by the expenditure of public money onharbor and railway works the centre of a flourishing community, a standing and profitable testimony of the good that may accrue from the development of the Public Works Scheme. Anticipating this, a demand has -set in for sections, and inhabitants of other townships where dulness reigns suprenw, are on the gui vive to obtain eligible stands for business. The same journal says — In a few days, the state of the river favoring the venture, the first despatch of timber logs down stream will be made for exportation. The only wonder is that the experiment has not been tried before. An abundance of suitable trees can be obtained on the banks of the river, and the demand in Melbourne for West Coast timber is only limited by the supply. Mb Btowell, architect, Queenstown, has just let a contract for the erection of a Roman Catholic Church at Arrowlown, the founda-tion-stone of which is to be laid by Bishop Moran sometime next month. The last Northern Escort that arrived in town brought the following quantities of gold :— Queenstotvn, 9050zs 9dwta j Arrowtown, 6120zs ; Cardrona, 400ozs ldwt ; Cromwell, 15060zs 2dwts ; Alexandra, 5340z9 lOdwta; Teviot, 50lozs I7dwts; Blacks, lOOOozs ; St Bathans, 5500zs ; Mount Ida, 7560za 18dwts ; Macraes, 83ozs 15dwts ; Palmerston, 26ozs 9dwts. Total, 68770zs ldwt. We (Dunedin * Evening Star') learn from % private source that Mr Vogel, in the course of his speech on the Provincial Loan 9 Bill, gavea'mpst emphatic denial to the report that was made on the authority of the • Evening Post,' that Messrs Reynolds and O' Rorke intended, at the end of the session, to retire from the Ministry and accept permanent appointments. Ik a previoui issue we noticed that one Dapp at SwitzeM was fined £30 for sly grog selling. A rehearing was afterwards granted, and tho Warden, Mr Wood, dismissed the case, observing that the evidence for the defence was overwhelming, but expressed a very strong doubt as to the credibility of the witnesses. One who has been meditating for an hour at Arthur's point says, that " Sitting on the precipice overlooking the Shotover River, the mind is irresistibly drawn to the rugged grandeur of the landscape which is here prehaps more extensive for the elevation than in any other part of the district. A more extensive sweep of mountains, nor a more majestic peak than the Crown Range, can be seen in few countries. But what has most effect on the mind, is the vast extent I of terrace formation. Cn Saturday afternoon, an accident which very nearly had a fatal termination, occurred to two lada who were watching a ponderous beam being hoisted at- the new premises in course of erection by the Messrs Dunning, in Princes street. A part of the gear gave way, and one end of the beam came down on the pathway where the boys were standing, felling them to the ground. Had it not been that something happened to break the faU of the beam, they would have been killed instantly. As it waß one was only much frightened, and the other was not severely iujured. Who won't be a Justice of the Peace in New Zealand soon ? One issue of the-New Zealand • Gazette ' announces the appointment of no less than twenty-eight new J.P.'s. Capt. Bautwtn, one of the Directors of the National Marine and Fire Insurance Company of New Zealand, has proceeded North inconnection with the Company's business. Capt. Baldwin has resigned the office which for some years he so efficiently filled as Deputy Commissioner of the General Government Insurance and Annuities Scheme. COBBE6PONDENTB, letters unanimously point to a reconstruction of the Ministry. A correspondent of the Auckland ' Herald ' describes matters thus :: — •• Members begin to really pity Yogel, who has- to conduct everything himself. He answers questions on law bills, Customs matters, public works, gold milling, rivers, and in fact everything but native affairs. He evidently cannot trust his colleagues to do anything, unless they are either making a mess or a muddle of it." The provision made for the colleagues who will probably retire is told by a correspondent of the ' Lyttelton Times ' in. the following words : — I "Dr Bennett, the Registrar-General, is entitled to retire on his [ pension, and is anxious to do so. Mr O'JSorke would', it . is thought, make a most excellent successor. Since Mr Batkin became Secretary to the Treasury, there has been no secretary in the Stamp department, the Ministerial Commissioner having no intermediate buffer between himself and the chief clerk. It is said this arrangement does not work well, and that the office of Secretary of Stamps needs revival. Who, then, is so fit to occupy it as the present Minister of Justice, Mrßathgate, if he will but consent to sacrifice his Ministerial dignity and accept the permanency ? It is of course prematnre yet to speculate ou the probable successors in the Cabinet, if Messrs Bathgate and O' Rorke retire. Mr Vogel, however, will require to get good men if it be true, as another rumor has it, that he intends to go home himself to float, the new Public Works Loan.