NEW ZEALAND : GENERAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 1, 3 January 1901, Page 20

NEW ZEALAND : GENERAL.

The Cabinet has empowered the Minister of Railways to equalise the wages of artisans on Government lines to those paid by private employers. It is said that the Government intend to appoint lady visitors to all the gaols in the Colony. The Government have decided to grant a bonus upon condensed milk manufactured in New Zealand. Pbofkssob Clarke, professor of modern languages at the Canterbury College, died on Friday at the reeidenoe of his father-in-law, Dr. Grace, at Wellington. His age was 38. The Government have decided to allow the returned New Zealanders at present in Sydney to take part in the Commonwealth celebrations. THE issue of the Government Insurance Recorder for December contains a very good photograph and biographical sketch of Mr D. M. Luckie, assistant-commissioner of the Government Life Insuranoe Department. 1 Your father and mother were not on speaking terms ? 'queried counsel of a witness in the Wellington Magistrate's Court the other day. 'Oh, weren't they ! they were always at it !' was the unexpected answer. The Governor some time ago communicated with London with a view to getting the Duke and Duchess of York to visit all the four New Zealand centres. It is authoritatively stated that Chriatchurch and Dunedin will probably be included. Replying to a Wellington deputation, the Hon. T. T. Duncan promised to favorably represent to the Cabinet a proposal to convert Btate subsidised benevolent homes and kindred institutions into State market gardens, where the inmates could be most comfortably housed and given employment. A successful bazaar was held in the Town Hall, Opotiki, on Thursday, December 13, in aid of the funds for the contemplated improvement of the Catholio presbytery and schools. The success was in a measure due to the great respect in which the pastor, the Rev. Father Gallagher, is held. AT the last meeting af the Napier Education Board the question of granting certificates to children attending Catholic schools as a result of the examinations held by the Board's inspector cropped up. The Board's solicitors had advised that the issue of suoh certificates was illegal. Among those who left Wellington last week to attend the Commonwealth celebrations in Sydney were the Right Hon. R. J. Seddon, accompanied by Mrs. Seddon and two members of his family, the Hon. James Carroll, Major Steward, Messrs. J. Stevens, A. D, Willis, A. L. D. Fraser, and W. J. Napier, M.H.R.'b, and Judge b Edwards and Martin. We have to thauk the Victoria Insurance Company, the Royal Insurance Company, and Mr. Alexander Sligo, commercial stationer, Dunedin. for handsome wall calendars ; Messrs. Dwan Brothers, Wellington, for a pooket calendar and a Christmas card conveying seasonable greetings ; and Messrs. Neill and Co., Dunedin, for a card bearing the compliments of the season. A BOY named O'Connor had a narrow escape from a fatal accident at Oamaru on Christmas Eve. He was driving a milk cart over the level crossing Thames street, when it was caught by an inaoming train. The horse was carried on the cowcatcher and the cart dragged along some distance. At the bridge the horse was thrown into the creek on one tide of the line and killed, while the shattared cart was oast on the other side of the line. The boy saved himself by catching hold of the top of the cab of the engine and holding on till he was rescued by the stoker.

Wh have received a very artistic Christmas card conveying the compliments of the season from the Hon. C. H. and Mm. Mills It i* with pleasure we reciprocate the good wishes of the Minister for Customs and Mrs. MUIb. The card, whioh has been printed afr the Government Printing Office, is very neat. On the front page ar« photographs of the senders and on others are views of Havelook and Picton. We have to congratulate the proprietor of our Catholio contemporary the Apr, Brisbane, on the excellence of the Christmas number, whioh runs into 60 pages of well-selected reading matter, with numerous illustrations. The contents are made up in the main of articles and tales of a nature to suit the festive season, and the reader* of the paper must admit that they have been treated in a very liberal f-piris. The Federation Commission, as finally appointed, consists of the Hon. C. C. Bowen, Captain Russell, the Hon. Colonel Pitt, Major Steward, Mr. Harold Beauohamp, Mr. Charles Luke, Mr.T. W. Leys, Mr. John Roberts, Mr. W. S. Reid, and Mr. J. A. Millar. It will be suggested by the Acting-Premier, the Hon. J. G. Wnrd, that the Commission shall hold a preliminary sitting in Wellington on the 10th of January. After taking evidenoe in New Zealand, the Com mission will probably leave for the Australian colonies in April or May. During his recent visit to Hawke's Bay the Minister of Lands spent a day in riding over the Hatuma estate, Waipukurau, recently acquired by the Government from Mr. Purvis Russell. The hon. gentleman informs the Pott that he was very much pleased with the land, and is certain that the purchase will turn out to be one of the best the Government has ever made. The work of cutting up the estate into blocks of from 300 to 900 acres has been more than half completed, and there is every reason to believe that the land will be thrown open for selection early in April. About 100 acres are to be reserved as a site for a township. The Executive of the Poet and Telegraph Officers' Association proposes that a presentation should be made to the Postmastergeneral as a token of the general feeling throughout the service of the importance of the introduction of universal penny postage and the esteem in which he is held. The souvenir will take the form of a gold medallion, on one side of whioh will be inscribed a representation of the new penny stamp, and on the other a suitable inscription in keeping with the spirit of the project. The subscriptions are limited to Id. The following (fays an exchange 1 ) is the indebtedness of the boroughs and Harbor Boards in New Zealand : — Boroughs : Auckland, £449.000; Christchnrch, £67,640; Napier, £105,000; Dunedin, £603,825 ; Oamaru, £175.000 ; Invercargill, £179,300 ; Timaru, £62,029 ; Wanganui, £55,000 ; Wellington. £726,805. Harbor Boards : Auckland. £339,100 ; Gisborne, £200,000 ; Lyttelton, £210,000 ; Napier, £500,000 ; New Plymouth, £200,000 ; Oamaru, £290.000 ; Otajjo, £687.490 ; Timaru. £200,000 ; Wellington, £200,000 ; Westport £581.550. The most important matter which the Cabinet has had nnde consideration during their recent sitting has been the question of despatching more troops to South Africa. The Secretary of State has sent an important communication to the New Zealand Government in reference to the position of affairs in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, and in consequence of his representations it has been decided to retain at the seat of war, until further notice, all the members of the various New Zealand contingents who have not been sent back to their homes. The Government have also decided to send drafts of troops to fill up the vacancies which have occurred in the several contingent*. Steps will therefore be taken at once to form another contingent. The next contingent of 200 for South Africa consists of half Maoriai and half Europeans, and these men fill the gaps in the other contingents, and sail in three weeks. ' I have met with so much sympathy from all clashes of the community,' writes Brother Mark Joseph, Director of the Marist Brothers' School, Wellington, to the New Zealand Time*, ' that I desire, in some form, however humbly, to give expression to the sentiments with which my mind is charged. The whole experience of the Colony shows that persons in charge of criminal children pass through agonies of solicitude occasionally. I trust our experience, in spite of the fact that we have been assailed with unusual acrimony, will teach the New Zealanders to be more considerate for teachers in State reformatories. Indeed, without the smallest desire to put ordinary schools on the same footing as reformatories, I would crave consideration for the teaching body in all its branches. You will have realised that, in this Colony liberty is subjected to its acutest ordeal. The general standard of education is co high, the people's ideal of freedom is so lofty, that discipline, the sire of freedom, is in danger of destruction. No people oan remain free that is intolerant of restraint. No school can be conducted on sound lines without discipline. If that is so, ordinarily, how much more indispensable is discipline in reformatory schools ? I do not complain that the religious order to which I belong has been made the scapegoat to the pent-up passion that has so long eddied round the vexed question of discipline in reformatory schools. It seems a rift in the lute of human nature that those who lead unselfish lives should always be the first attacked. I do not complain that much religious bitterness was in Nelson imported into the Stoke inquiry ; I do not complain that the dearest interests of my order have been struck at on political grounds, and notwithstanding that the Brothers have always stood on one side when general politics were afield. I only ask that as Brothers Wybertus and Kilian came to the Colony in honor they should leave it with that distinction which the martyrdom they have gone through in the interest of the Colony they love so well entitles them to.'