OUR SIDNEY LETTER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 376, 12 November 1889, Page 3

OUR SIDNEY LETTER.

(VROM OUB OWN cobbbsfondent.)

Sydney, October 23. Political strife has ended for the present by the prorogation of Parliament. The recess will probably bo utilised to the utmost by both Protection lets and Free Traders. But it will be, for the most part, each on its own platform. It is only when they come together that they fight. And the reason they fight then is not on account of any inherent contradiction in the nature of the subjects treated of, but because of their own stubborn and inherent resolution not to sea any truths upon which they can agree as a common basis, Protectionists talk wildly about put" ting a chain across Sydney Heads. Not that they have any intention of doing any such thing, any more than the Free Traders have of abolishing the Custom House. But the most extreme and offensive method of stating a case always seems the most appropriate to a red hot partisan. What he wants to de monstrate to himself i« 'hat his creed is such a good one that he can safely indulge intemperance and extravagance in its advocacy. But no creed is good enough for that. The best things in the world are the most powerful, and require the greatest care and discretion in their application. As for the socalled Free Traders, scarcely one of the tpokesmen of the party but imagines it to be necessary to be more zealous, more sweeping, and more undieoriminating in his advocacy cf Free Trade than one of the clearest-headed political economists who ever studied the subject from a Free Trade point of view, I refer to John Stuart Mill, who, it is known, considered that a certain amount of Protection might be found useful in young countries. The only logic which can convince such abatppions as these is the logic cf facts, Sooner or later this will assert i’self. The

greatest obstacle to its progress is that in temperate and fanatical seal which refuses to see any trqth outside the tour corners of its Own brief, Mr Crick’s penitence for the display of wronghsadedness, which perhaps did more than anything else to disgrace the closing acenes of the session, has been seeking verbal before his constituents at BathI am afraid that it was neither very nor very real. Bls confession princi. pally took the shape of a recapitulation of his great and most distinguished services. , TT» «varu4 *s»h. a > aver Ari thaa r»« th?- ty V Ailf fl th fl ft

he had done more for them than any man who ever represented them for the last ten y«ar», and that, in regard to the principal measure of the eession, his services were jecond to the services of no man in Parliament. 4> for the John Davies episode he and only ha (if we except the tail which meekly followed him) was right, and every one site waa wrong, from the Speaker downyrarda. 1 have no doubt Mr Crick believe* all that he *ay« on thia heed. He was the hero, the House was the culprit. Referring to certain offensive words of his On which the House bad taken action he said : “For seven hours I kept them busy with points of order before they knew how to take the words down,” and then, in all the humility of the conqueror, he acknowledges After seven hours I walked in ‘cock of-thering.’” If this |s Mr Crick penitent, one can easily form some idea how mild and uoaggretsive a creature [is Mr Crick rampant. But one thing is certain. Parliament must look for protection to Itself and to its own prompt assertion of the decencies of debate It is dot Hksly to get any assistance from the Constituencies. The very self assertion which makes a man offensive to his fellow senators endears him to a large section of his constituents, who like to see their member conspicuous and who care very little how he obtains his notoriety. The Assembly itself will have to 1 * bell the oat. ” In other words it will have to *rrq the Speaker or the Chairman of Committees with power to keep order as well as to call for it, and furthermore it will have to back them up loyally in exercising the powers which it haa conferred. Mr Egeson's prediction respecting a three years’ drought which was to commence in a few months’ time has naturally aroused a good deal of attention. Ro matter whether it comes to pass or not, if people only believe it, it wifi paralyse the progress of the colony. Forarought in New South Wales means ruin, “'and po one who can help it will stay to be ruined. A capitalist bad nearly completed the pnrohase of a large sheep station in New South Wales. On the day that the prophecy appeared he was to attend at a Sydney bank to sign the necessary documents. But the chance of a three years' drought proved too much for him. After reading Mr Egeson he cried ** off ” and it is said that he has now made arrangements to betake himself, with .. his capital, to South America.

The alarm excited has of coarse aroused the attention of the Government, who can hardly be expected to view with indifference any prediction coming from one of their own departments so vitally affecting the prosperity of the colony. They asked Mr Russell, the Government astronomer, in whose department Egeson is fourth assistant, to inform them who was responsible for the disquieting statements and what were the grounds, scientific or otherwise, on which they were based. The Government astronomer replied that the alarming predictions were made without his sanction or approval, by Mr Egeson, and furthermore, that the reports in bis opinion are quite unreliable, and misipading, and are likely to do serious injury to the colony. Mr Bussell is quite certain - that the prediction is destitute of any scientific foundation, and declares that in the present state of meteorological science it is impossible to predict weather changes foj month* ahead, much less tor years. Mr Bussell ha* been studying the science for 20 yean, Mr Egeson for only four. But then of gourde the younger a man is the quicker he. |ean» apt} the mqre he knows. It is only as We advance in life that we learn the shallownew and crudity of our earlier impressions and the real nature of the seal from which

we were led to contend for their infallibility. I It used to take seven years to learn oarpantry, I Mr Egeson is evidently under the impression I Kat ha has learned meteorology, the most I ?B®ou!t and uncertain of all the physical •oljßnces, in much less time, " And like Mr trick in Parliament, he obviously believes “Jiao that he is the only man who does know it. However, Mr Egeson, although I think he was betrayed by the egotism of youth, into publishing the mere observation of a Coincidence •«« most grave and important Scientific prediction, deserves credit for the assiduity with which he has studied this intricate subject, A horribly painful case of baby farming ha* just come to light, an infant in the last stage'of emaciation and starvation having been discovered on the premises of a Mrs Batts at Wooliahra. The poor child Haa since died, ' and at the inquest Mrs Batts admitted in evidence that 12 children had died whilst under her care since November last. As she hi* been committed to take her trial for wilful murder I do not feel at liberty ta comment on the cue. But there can be little doubt that it throws light on a hot..hie i and revolting phase of social life. Tnaj MllouanaM of the parent* Who could hand! oyer their offspring for such a fate is appalliog.l But cruelty always walk! hand in hand with lost, and It feel, no compunction pve» at th, possible prospept of the slow murder of its PWO innocent children, . The Protectionist eause suffered a rebuff on' Saturday when Mr Ourlsy, the Secretary of the Newcastle Miners’ Association, defeated th* previous candidate, Mr Grahame. The Utter was a Pratsclionist and had been comjSeiled to resign through financial reverses, Mr Outley's majority, notwithstanding his local popularity, was a very narrow one, and the figures show that a large number of the Protectionists who voted at the last election! refrained from recording their suffrages for] Mr Grghame, whilst the Free Traders polled! pearly their full strength. Under the special circumstances of the case, it does not appear' that the result of the election affords a reliable guage of the relative strength of the two parties in the Newcastle electorate.