The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published Every Tuesday, Thursday, AND Saturday Morning. Saturday, Mat 17, 1890. NOTES FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 455, 17 May 1890, Page 2

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

Saturday, Mat 17, 1890. NOTES FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

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

A choice paragraph is going the round of the Tory papers, which are ever ready to grasp at any little point which appears to be in their favor, and are not particular about enquiring as to the source whence it came. The paragraph referred to reads: “ Mrs Lynn Linton, the wellknown novelist, who was an enthusiastic Home Ruler, went to Ireland to collect material for a novel in favor of Home Rule, but she has returned to England, convinced that the truth lies the other way.” For the sake of the Home Rule cause there will be reason to fee! satisfied that Mrs Linton no longer remains one of its advocates, for there is a certain kind of advocacy which does more in the interests of opponents than for those in whose interest it is ostensibly employed. This Mrs Linton is the same lady who some years ago complained that she never knew a platform woman to blush. “ One of the platform women ” made the stinging reply that “ platform women did blush, and that very deeply, on reading Mrs Linton’s novels."

Thefollowing apology appeared on April 32 in the Central Australian (Bourke) newspaper, a copy of which we have been favored with “We do not apologise for the present small-sized issue. We know that every consideration will be shown us, Our steam machinery is under water. Our stock of paper etc., is piled up all round ; we work this issue off on a small model machine by hand power. Our compo’s have never left their posts j water is covering portions of the floor in our composing rooms and is feet deep all round, rations are carried in, and the office is our home. The river now seems almost stationary and if no further rise occurs and if our walls hold up we will endeavor to publish regularly. We sympathise with our contemporary, whose office is feet deep under water notwithstanding all efforts to keep it high and dry. Better times are coming."

Thegreat retrenching Government whose praises are so constantly being sung by those who happen to be within the charmed circle, has given another illustralion bf the gettulnaness of its profesdotti,

Months ago the Public Works Department was to be abolished and other reforms were to be made. But this was in imagination only, and now when the reality is laid bare, we are told Messrs Blair and O’Connor are to be promoted, and each to receive about fifteen guineas a week at the expense of the overburdened taxpayers. The Post tells a nice little story, too, concerning their appointments. In referring to the latter gentleman it says ; —“ What has temporarily retarded Mr Blair’s promotion has been the difficulty of providing for Mr O’Connor, who is one of those fortunate beings who, for some reason not disclosed to the profane world and strictly confined to the select upper circles of politics, must be provided for at the public expense, no matter who goes to the wall. For a very long time past it has been a constant Cabinet question whenever any probability of a vacancy in a good billet existed, ‘ will the House stand our giving it to O’Connor ?’ Had it not been for the doubt suggested in the query, he would, doubtless, have been provided for long ago, probably as Assistant Auditor-General, as was at one time rumored to be likely.”

The Catholic Times has a trenchant article on the Asylum scandal at Auckland, of which the following is a quota, tion :—“ Of course a Lunatic Asylum is not a proper place for housing sane people. But the sane people were there, and by no fault of their own. It is quite possible, so flinty are Boards by their very nature that the bad system cannot be changed without putting pressure on somebody, that the pressure ought to have been applied by one Board to another Board : to a body that could bear it. The scandal of this case is that the pressure has been applied to the helpless people whose feebleness ought to have been held in sacred reverence. There is a right way and a wrong way of dping the right thing. Most decidedly the wrong way has been selected. It is the worst episode we have ever had to chronicle, because it is marked, quoted, and signed with the spirit which has made the workhouse administration of Great Britain stink in the nostrils of honest men with a stench that shall last to the end of the world.”

The revised scale of salaries adopted by the Education Board has naturally been far from popular among those who are affected by it. In Tuesday’s issue the the Napier News refers to the feeling of dissatisfaction which exists, and invites correspondence on the subject. The News says :—“ There is great dissatisfaction amongst the Poverty Bay teachers over the revised scale of salaries adopted by the Education Board. Many old and deserving teachers have had their salaries cut down in a most unjust manner, and it is probable that several of them will petition the Board to reconsider the scale. The same feeling obtains amongst many of our Hawke’s Bay teachers, and we understand that some of them have written togthe Board and pointed out the injustice of some of the reductions."

The Australasian makes the following remarks upon the wonderful scenery of New Zealand:—“lt is a noteworthy coincidence that at the very time the grandest features of European scenery—its mountains, lakes, caverns, and cataracts, are becoming trite and familiar —new wonders and previously undiscovered beauties are being revealed in the group of islands so unappropriated named New Zealand. Anything more unlike the flat and marshy archipelago, formed by the numerous mouths of the Scheldt, than the magnificently-diversified land of the Maoris it would be difficult to imagine, and a more expressive name for it is certainly an urgent want. To visitors from this continent, as well as to tourists from the old world the “ Great Britain of the South ” is offering attractions which combine, within comparatively narrow limits, the noblest features of Iceland, the Austrian Tyrol, the Italian lakes, and the Swiss glaciers, and to these have lately been added the loftiest waterfall in the known world, and caves which promise to rival those of Jenolan, Adelberg, and Majorca. Nature has been prodigal of what may be called her artistic treasures in New Zealand, and these are capable of proving a mine of wealth to its inhabitants altogether apart from the economic resources of the island. There are something like three millions of people on this continent, of whom a fairly large percentage possess both the means and the inclination to make themselves acquainted with the loveliness of the scenery just referred to. Excellent means of transit have been provided across the intervening sea, but neither the railway nor the coaching arrangements of the colony are as yet such as to facilitate rapid access to and from the chief points of interest, so that a tourist may map out a certain route, or have one mapped out for him, with the assurance that he will be able to encompass it within a reasonable period, and at something like moderate cost. It is satisfactory to find New Zealand journals giving their attention to this matter, and if the Government would take it in hand before next session they would find that their action would result in an augmentation, not only of the railway revenue, but of the amount of money put into circulation among the people.”