The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning. Tuesday, October 22, 1889. GENERAL NOTES.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 367, 22 October 1889, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning.

Tuesday, October 22, 1889. GENERAL NOTES.

Be just and fear not; Let nil the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God's, and truth’s.

There is an old saying “ That everything comes to the man that waits,” but the principal trouble with us in Gisborne is that we have to wait so long. However, a little judicious agitation helps things along, and we are glad to announce that the Chief Judge of the Native Land Court has appointed a sitting of the Court for Gisborne on December, 1889, for disposing of the applications for rehearing. From a copy of the Gazette notice before us, for which we are indebted to the courtesy of Mr Brooking, the Registrar of the Native Land Court, we notice that our article a short time ago in which we felt called upon to censure the Chief Judge for the delay and consequent accumulations for rehearing, was quite within the mark. There are forty applications, two of which are adjourned ones. One of the adjourned cases is upon a decision given in May, 1888, while of the rest of the applications all with the exception of three are on decisions given in the first four months of 1889.

A GOOD deal of fun has been made out of the ridiculous idea of schoolboys going out on strike against the imposition of home lessons. The judicious application of the birch is quite sufficient to overcome any little difficulty in that way. But though disobedience must not be submitted to in the education of our youth, the question raised is one that may well be considered. Is it not a fact that the home lessons imposed have grown to be a painful burden on our youthful population ? The school teachers are in no way to blame for this state of things, for they have the excuse that it is made necessary to urge the children on, by the severity of the standard regulations. The mind of a child is now looked upon, as one writer has put it, as a piece of plastic clay which can be moulded into any shape, with the stipulation that the process shall be as speedy as possible, instead of being considered a plant of tender growth, to be nourished and gradually strengthened. There is far too much cramming now-a-days, and the painful night tasks which many of the young students cannot avoid, is very often a source of anxiety to parents as well as laborious to the boys and girls. We may laugh at the ridiculous spectacle of a strike against this sort of thing, but, speaking generally, the question involved is one that should not be treated lightly.

They have got an entertaining “ democrat ” in the Wairarapa district, or rather “democratic” newspaper. In the course of a scathing article (mote remarkable for the humor that can be extracted from it than for the small grain of sense running through it) the journal alluded to slashes into the Hawke's Bay land owners in this style : —“ There is stagnation where there should be bustle, life, and activity. The green grass is the green scum on the stagnant pool where no fish can live. Struggling towns are killed, business is ruined, people with plenty of dash and go are made insolvent. Why? Because while hoofs are abundantly provided for, —rotting among the superabundance of vegetation—man has no footing pt) the soil. There are no stores, no factories, no industries,no laborers and their families earning a living and praising the Creator through his gifts and their works ; nothing but a big waste, a vast unpeopled ocean. Alexander Peden, the Covenanter, en-‘ flowed, according to popular repute, with the gift of prophecy, has foretold ‘of a terrible catastrophe in Scotland when the French will overrun the land, the horse? at the Cross of Glasgow will be up to their saddle girths in blood, the dead in the Clyde will form a bridge over which one can pass dry footed, and only those, will survive who have taken refuge in the caves and among the mountain fastnesses.’ After this terrible scene of devastation, he relates, one may travel all day without seeing a chimney smoking or hearing a cock crowing. This is precisely the state of things presented in ' Hawke’s Bay at the present time. There has been no devastating war, but the land has beer, slaughtered, the country is suffering from the devastating influence of land monopoly; men, women, and children may starve so long as sheep and cattle may fatten ; and from the longsuffering people of Napier and the little towns whose business is going to the dogs, because the land is swallowed up by cormorants, the cry of ‘ land reform ’ Is proceeding, That cry will not be subdued. The echo will be caught afar. It will travel over the colony, swelling louder and louder, until its demands have been appeased, and for its bitterness and intensity no man can more righteously hold himself responsible than the friend of the monopolist—the Hon. G. F. Richardson, Minister of Lands.” The phraseology is beautiful. What could surpass the sublimity of such expressions as—“ while hoofs are abundantly provided for,” “ a vast unpeopled ocean,” “ the land has been slaughtered,” “ the land is swallowed up by cormorants,” “ until its [the echoe’s] demands have been appeased” ? If that Wairarapa editor only tried his hands at spring poetry it might still further prove to us that we have some giant intellects supporting the principles of the democracy-

An idea of how Burns has obtained such an influence over the working men of London—and employers, too —may be gained by noting the forcible language contained in the following extract from one of his speeches :—“ He wished everyone could see the thousands of dock laborers at the dock gates in the morn 1 , ing, with their emaciated forms and leaden sunken eyes, some of them huddling together lest they might fall from the weakness that came of starvation. Anyone with a heart who saw them would say, as he now said and swore, by the recollection of their misery in the past, that he would never rest or stop one moment until their demands were conceded. (Loud cheers.) It was said that the agitation was not spontaneous, but had been fanned into flame by professional agitators. This he vehemently denied, and said it was only necessary to go down to the docks and witness the suffering there to know that this agitation was real and spontaneous. Some of the papers suggested that the leaders should be arrested, and if this was not so serious a proposal, it would be contemptibly ridiculous and comical. For those leaders, though, he could only say that if hell itself were at their feet, they would jump into it rather than desert the dockers.”

It is amusing to note the different comments that have been made on the indefensible change of coat which Captain Russell made when he joined the Atkinson Ministry. The less scrupulous Freetraders are glad to have him in power, because they believe it will be a blow to thecause of Protection, but they carefully ignore the fact that such a political somersault is the reverse of creditable, and- does not say much for our politicians as a body. Here is the suggestive way in which one strong Freetrade journal puts the matter :— “The colony is ashamed of the disgrace which it incurred in seeinga Ministry, the majority of the members of which were deeply pledged to the sound healthy policy of Freetrade, eat, for the sake of office, all their pledges, and to the astonishment alike of their supporters and of the Opposition, adopt a Protective tariff more pronounced in its character, and more mischievous in its effects, than the most sanguine of Protectionists had ever hoped to obtain. It was a sorry spectacle, it degraded the Ministry and it degraded our public men. It was a scandal of the worst kind and excessively demoralising to the tone of public lifer No one was more outspoken and no one grasped better the great mischief of the misconduct of the. Ministry than Captain Russell, and he is bound to make his will felt, when the time comes, or to leave the Ministry which he was brought in to save,”

THE Premier blunders on without regard for the feelings of the people. He appears to be confident that he can carry on the high hand with impunity, because there has been no man found fit to oppose him. A Wellington journal remarks :—Why Charitable Aid is placed under Mr Hislop’s control or added to his titles, we do not know, unless it is intended to suggest a reason for his readmission to the Cabinet, and to implore from the public that charity which covers a multitude of sins. There is no Ministerial portfolio or department of Charitable Aid known to the law, and no mention is made of it in the list of Ministerial offices which members of the Executive are permitted to hold, as given in the third schedule of the Civil List Act, 1873. We do not think any other offices than those therein mentioned can be legally held by a Minister. In any case there is no necessity for a Minister of Charitable Aid. The Government has really little to do with the administration of charitable aid, and we hope the day is not far distant when very little charitable aid will require to be disbursed in this colony. The special mention of charitable aid in connection witha Ministerial office casts an unmerited slur upon the colony, and cannot fail to be used to its disadvantage abroad. If the appointment is intended as an indication of the intention of the Government to assume direct control of charitable aid and institutions it is to be most strongly objected to. As to Mr Hislop’s fitness for the position, if it is a necessary jone, we can only say that we should not like to be dependant upon his charity in any way. St. Paul must have had a somewhat different model in his mind when defining true charity.

The following article (from the Wanganui Herald), in reference to a telegram recently published, ought to have a peculiar interest in this district, and no comment upon it is needed :—“ The startling news we are able to publish to-day respecting a report by Sir John Coode advising the abandonment of the new Plymouth Harbor, will create a profound sensation throughout the length and breadth of the colony. We vouch for the information being absolutely reliable and authentic, The report is now in the hands of the Government, who are called upon to submit Sir John Goode’s opinion at once to a Committee of experts, which should be authorised to obtain data in time to submit the whole to Parliament next session. The question that has to be decided is whether the encroachment of the sand can be met and dealt with at a reasonable cost. Sir John Coode had 1110 doubt the best information then available before him when he was asked to report, but it is just possible there may be some reason to suppose that either the data were incomplete or his conclusions are not justified. The Harbor Board is not likely to rest satisfied with an opinion which, if acted upon, would be equivalent to the ruin of New Plymouth. It was known that the sand was accumulating at a rapid rate, and it was hoped the rubble wall in course of construction would so cut it off as to prevent the complete blocking up of the harbor. Indeed we would indulge the hope that this means of safety may still prove available. The Board is unfortunately short of funds, ar,d if dredging on a large scale was the only resource, it would be practically impossible in the present state of the exchequer. The Government have been anxious to get Parliament to come to the rescue, Jt is just possible that if the liability could be defined and limited, and a feasible scheme for keeping open the port ware submitted, the necessary assistance would _be given. The position is critical and requires more than ordinary skill in meeting the eontingency.”