The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1891. CURRENT TOPICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIII, Issue 2536, 7 December 1891, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1891. CURRENT TOPICS.

Sir George Baden Powell, Avhose name was mentioned in a cable message a few days aga in connection with the Governorship of New Zealand, in succession to Lord Onslow, is a man of distinguished ability and great political and official experience. He belongs to the school of statesmen who have devoted themselves to the consolidation of the Empire, and in the House of . Commons he is perhaps the best authority upon colonial questions. He studied them first in Victoria in 1877, hiving accepted the position of Private Secretary to Sir George Bowen for the purpobe of getting colonial experience. Five years later he was one of the Boyal Commission which inquired into the finances and administration of the West India Islands ; and three years j after that he went with Sir Charles Warren, as secretary, on his 'fomous expedition into Bechuanaland; in 1888 he was one of the commissioners who arranged the constitution of Malta, and since then he has done good service in Canada, particularly in connection with the Bearing Sea, fisheries dispute. By these various services he oarned his title of K.C.M.G. He is one ojf the most voluminous as well as one of the soundest writers on colonial subjects, the last of his writings being an effective reply in a leading magazine to tlin fawio*ii« "Seamy Side of Australia" and other mtjeisms. Only the other day he took a. jwwwwnent part in the debate <m If r Howard yiu^jnfc',3 uiotion for giving tr^xla advantages to $hp colonies. Sir <£. B«w3en Powell -has done more (than any man Hiving to perma4e the .worid $ felie C,yM«JvatMe

sympathy with the colonies and the readiness of that party to serve them. He has the additional recommendation to New Zealanders of being a keen sportsman, and socially as well as officially he would be au excellent Governor. He has been named in connection with almost every Colonial Governorship which has fallen vacant since the Conservative Government entered office, and it may be that the last rumor is no better founded than previous ones have been.

The cable message as to the position of those Freemasons in New Zealand who have remained loyal to the Grand Loci go of England requires a little explanation. As it has reached us it apparently refers to the lodges, but as the majority of the English Constitution Lodges remain loyal, and then; is no question of the right of any lodge to adhere to its parent Constitution, it is evident that what the message really refers to is the right— which has been the subject of discussion ever since the .unfortunate split caused by the formation of a New Zealand Grand J^odge—of the minority of a Lodge, as long as they are three or more in number, to hold the warrant of the Lodge and continue their adherence to the Constitution to which they hitherto belonged. Some months ago the Colonial Board of the Grand Lodge of England ruled that the majority of a Lodge had power to transfer the Lodge from one Constitution to another, but the point that in the case of New Zealand the Constitution > which the majority of some lodges transferred their allegiance to was an unrecognised body appeared to have been lost sight of. The decision of the Coloniar Board was never accepted as final, and the news just received imports, we take it, that-; the Grand Lodge of Englard-r the most eminent Masonic body In the world-— has reversed the decision of the Colonial Board. It is a matter of great importance, as in many of the seceding Lodges the proposal to change was carried by a very small majority, Those avlio remained loyal have now their right established to continued to work under their old charter.

As in a few weeks' time the fields will be " white unto harvest" we may expect soon to hear the usual bitter complaints about the bird nuisance, and the heavy toll exacted from the fanners by the winged bandits who will swarm among the ripened corn. It is almost too late in the season now to fight them with poisoned grain, though something might perhaps even yet be done in that direction, but we are glad to see most of the governing bodies are encouraging the collection of eggs and heads, and still more could, we believe, be accomplished by systematic netting along the hedgerows of an evening. There is need, however, of more organised, more general effort for the destruction of these feathered nuisances, and it is therefore well that Parliament last session legislated with that view. Power is now given to local bodies to levy spscial rates for the purpose to an amount not exceeding one-sixteenth of a penny in the pound, and County Councils and Road Boards are authorised to lay poisoned grain or seed upon any public road or reserve and, with the consent of the owners of adjoining lands, upon any private road within tiieir jurisdiction, subject to tiie proviso that poison may not be laid within a less distance than 220 yards of an inhabited house without the consent in writing of the owner or occupier. Borough Councils and Town Boards may also pnt ths Act in force under by-laws to be passed in that behalf, and any local authority (County Council, Road Board, Borough Council or Town Board) may be "ailed upon by the Minister of Lands to carry out its provisions upon the report of a chief Inspector, or any Inspector appointed under the Sheep Act to the effect that the enforcement of the Act is necessary within the district under the control of such local authority.

Tub purchasers of the New Zealand rights of the Picturesque Atlas Company can hardiy be sanguine as to receiving any satisfactory return for their expenditure of capital in the purchase of the interest in this colony in that really beautiful, but very ambitious and expensive work, for the agents who hunted over the colony for subscribers did their work so badly that in all directions the contract has been repudiated, while, also, the manner of the delivery has, in a large number of instances, proved fatal to the enforcement of those contracts. It appears to have been proved that in a great many cases the " book-fiends" who exploited this particular work deceived or altogether misled the subscribers, and it is well, therefore, for everybody concerned, either in the buying or selling of books, that an Act has been passed which should render such misunderstandings impossible or, if not impossible, at. least unnecessary in the future. This is the " Book^purchasers' Protection Act, 1891," for which we are indebtsd to MiGeorge Fisher, one of the members for Wellington city, This provides as follows :—2. After the passing of this Act, every agreement for the purcha. c Of any book or books or part or parts of a book, or of engravings, lithographs, or pictures, or of any other like matter, whether illustrated or not, «md hereinafter termed " printed matter/ be absolutely void in every case wljerp si^oh printed matter fe not to be delivered to the purchaser at the date of such agreement in a completed form, and so as to embrace the whole of the volumes or numbers of the printed matter, unless the purchaser of such book or books or part or part« o£ a book, engravings, lithographs, pictures, qv other printed matter shall have first signed an agreenpnt on a form in which, in red capital letters, not less than great primer, the following words and figures shall first have been printed—namely, "The total of the purchaser under this agreeiwonlb is .{inserting the amount, in similar printed letters and also in printed figures of like size)," and unless such form shall have been printed or written in black, wholly or partly, across and subsequent to the printing of such red letters and figures. 3. The vendor of such book or books or jjMty'jb fly narts of a book, engravings, lithographs, pi.ciure;;, or other printed master, or his agent, shajU at fche tiwp

of the signing of the agreement aforesaid also hand over to the purchaser a duplicate of the agreement, having printed on it in addition the words " Duplicate to be kept by purchaser," and. the name and address in full of the vendor ; and the vendor shall not be entitled to recover under such agreement unless he produces an acknowledgment by the purchaser that he has received such duplicate of the agreement as aforesaid." The last clause further enacts that hereafter in any action arising on any contract for the purchase of printed matter as above described the Court may determine as to its value, the onus of proof of which is to lie on the vendor. As in the foregoing notes we have been dealing with certain nuisances, or evils, and their remedy, we may as well draw attention to a third, the remedy for which lies in the hands of our readers. A trap is again being set for the unsuspecting by the circulalation all over the colony of the circulars of a consultationist, a sweeppromoter who is also a ■•' sweep " in the worst sense to which that word can be applied, under the high-sonnding title of "theSydneyJockeyTurf Club." Once more as we have done over and over again in past years, we warn our readers that there is no such Club — that the whole thing is a rank swindle; and that they may as well pitch their pound notes into the fire as to enclose | them to the address named in these j circulars. By the bye, as a particular box is named in the Sydney Q.J?.Q. t how is it, we woncleiythat the swindle can be worked at all, Why are not all this precious consultationist's letters impounded? Really, our friends in New South Wales who have recently legislated against advertising consultations ought to have turned their attention to this particular trap for the public and their money long ago.