The Evening Echo. MONDAY, APRIL 1, 1878.

Sir George Grey, in his tour through the provinces, has delivered an address on political questions to nearly every community through which his route lay. No matter how unimportant as a mem ber-returning medium, if they were able to get together a decent-sized meeting, the “ man of the time” was gracious enough, to put himself about even, to address them. Since he went on what has been irreverently styled “the stump,” lie lgis been called upon to exercise his powers of oratory to a degree that one would expect to tell heavily upon even a far younger man' than Sir George—for speeches of an hour and two hours’ duration, night after night, followed by long journeys during the day, often broken to make more speeches, are work of a kind that proves the mettle of a man’s physique, even if we leave the mental portion of the test out of the question—and if this tour of Sir George prov.es anything, it proves up to the hilt the unfoundedness of the objection that was raised against him as “ a worn-out and useless old man,” when his name was first mentioned in connection with the Premiership. Sir George’s speeches give no un certain sound on many matters political urgently calling for reform, and one evil of our electoral system to which the Premier took exception was the plural ity of votes to property. Perhaps in the sending of a member to Parliament this evil is less felt than in a contest for the Council seats of p. municipality, though in both cases it is a wrong that ought to be remedied, and doubtless the present Government will attempt to make equality of voting a part of its platform, and seek to secure it to the people even if it fails in its endeavor to establish manhood suffrage. Not long ago, in one of the munici palities of this Island a gentleman secured a seat at the Council table by a strong'.majority. The defeated candi date and his committee felt certain that had it been a question of voters instead of votes, the majority would have been the other way. Of the truth of this as sertion the ballot happily prevents any one from being able to speak, but a member of the committee of the de feated candidate had his attention drawn by four supporters of the - successful one to the fact that in their own persons— four voters —they represented sixteen votes. Now, by what particular line of reasoning can it be shown that four men, who happen to own or occupy a few pieces of weatherboard and scantling or a yard or two of brickwork more than their neighbors, are more capable of casting an intelligent vote than those neighbors, and ought to be handi capped with four votes each to the one vote of the less “ propertied ” citizen ? Again, a working man rents a house from a landlord, and pays that rent weekly, the landlord meeting all rates on the property. Another rents a dwelling from the same landlord, pays an annual rent, and also the rates of the municipality. The weekly tenant has no vote at all for the Municipal Council, while the yearly payer finds a place on the burgess roll ; and yet from the pocket of each tenant the landlord draws the same amount in the year as rent. Now, just in proportion to the amount for whicl? a man is rated and which he pays into the town exchequer does he receive one , two , three, four, or five votes; and at five finds his maxi mum. Now, if it is fair to give one man two votes for .a certain amount of rates, three and four for sums proportionately

higher, why stop the gradation at. five votes when he owns property yielding rates that would entitle him, were the ratio followed out, to perhaps twenty votes ? And, if it is necessary to limit at all, why not do it at the beginning; before the balance of equality is de stroyed and a property class created, and give to every ratepayer one vote ; and one only. In making up the electoral roll for the House of Representatives the qualifica tion is household, freehold, or lodger— not ratepayer; and the elector is allowed but one vote. Why should a second roll be necessary at-all ? If the highest tribunal of the people can be formed from representatives elected by con stituencies of one-vote electors, why could not the same roll be called into use for the election of the minor authority ? Who does not remember the howl of opposition Mr. Disraeli (now Earl Beaconsfield) met when he attempted to introduce a system of dual voting into the Reform Bill he takes the credit of passing? and surely this Colony, which claims to have gone several steps in advance of its parent land in the liberality of its laws, will not allow a manifest injustice like the one we complain of to disfigure its electoral system longer than another session of its Parliament. And let us hope, when Ashburton public affairs have become too ponderous to be managed by the County Council along with its other County business, and a Town Council of its own is given to it> that the Councillors will be sent to the Chamber by the fair and honest voice of the people as a whole, and not by a one-sided clique of property owners. The weekly tenant is as much a rate payer as his landlord ; we do not know human nature if the latter docs not make the rent lap well over the rates payable on the dwelling-house; and every resident in a town that is the source of his daily bread has as much at stake in that town as the man who owns half its buildings—his all is there.

CORRESPONDENCE.

We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.

To the Editor of the Evening Echo,

Sir, —Would you kindly permit me to call the attention of the authorities to the unlit state of our streets at night. On Saturday night a man with a broken limb was being carried on a stretcher past the shop of Messrs. Orr and Co., East Street; those carrying the burden only escaped being run over by an un perceivcd cart by the merest chance. Really, sir. if danger to life and limb is to be avoided, some steps must be taken to light the streets.

I am, &c.,

Sarbenet.

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Railway authorities are doing their utmost to remedy the evil caused by the want of foresight and the parsi mony of the Government in re the scarcity of trucks. Yesterday trains were run with grain.and other goods, to make up the arrears of traffic caused by the circus specials and tiie usual hurry skurry of harvest.

The Ashburton Road Board met this morning at eleven o’clock present, Messrs. John Grigg (chairman), E. G. Wright, Taylor, and Hunt. The fol lowing were the principal items of business : —Amongst other correspond ence a letter was read from Mr. Scott of the South Ashburton Hotel, asking permission to erect a lamp at the north east comer of this hotel: the application

was granted. The teacher of the South Ashburton School desired to know if the Board were disposed to let the shingle reserve adjoining the school en closure, and upon what terms. The terms and. conditions resolved on were that the lessee pay 2s. 6d. per acre per annum, and the' Board to have access to the reserve at any time. Mr. Allan M’Lean waited on the Board in re for mation of the continuation of the Boun dary Road. The matter was referred to the surveyor to report. Tenders were ordered to be invited for the following works : Culvert 011 Davis’s Mill Road Forming Christie’s Road ~ Stanley Road Shingling Ashton School Road ~ Osborne’s Road ~ Loivcliff Road

Forming Cochrane’s Road The following Tenders were ac cepted : Dobson’s Road—M'Hutclieon Crow’s Road Henry Hunt Newpark Road- M'Hutcheon Streets in Township—-Trevurza Bridges near bowel iff—M ‘Hutch eon Formation t iromore Road—Olsen ~ Wilson’s Road—Bruce Ford’s Road—Qui. ley

The Funeral train of the late Fred erick Wm. Thiel, at Christchurch on Sunday, was the largest, it is said, that has ever followed a corpse to the grave in that city. In proof of the high es teem in which he was held by his bre thren of the Masonic Order, some 600 Freemasons joined the procession, and the immense crowds that lined its rout and brought up the rear were an evi dence that the general public shared in the respect accorded to him by the brethren. The funeral service of the Church of England was read by Bro. the Rev. W. E. Paige, M.A., the incum bent of Ashburton, the Rev. De Berdt Hovel, G. D.C., assisting, at the conclu sion of which the service of the order was rendered by the same clergymen in Masonic vestments. Both services were choral, a brother acting as organist and a choir of brethren leading the voices. A telegram received by the Welling ton police states that the man Kemp, who was a chief witness in the Wnod ville murder case, shot himself in the mouth on Wednesday. He left a bundle of papers lying beside him, and the police have taken possession of the documents, which may possibly throw some light on the late murder, as well as Kemp’s motive for committing suicide.

Mr. Edward Trickett has sent a chal lenge to America, offering to row any American sculler for the championship of the world who may wish to row him ; the match to take place at Sydney. Trickett offers as expenses if the match is made for ,£SOO, and ,£3OO as expenses if for f^iooo.

MAGISTRATES’ COURT.

To-Day— Before Dr. Trevor, J.P. Maurice O’Connell, for creating a disturbance at the Railway Station, was remanded for three davs.

W. H. Strange was remanded for eight days on two charges of using obscene language, and of being drunk and disorderly. Maggie Quadrie had been drunk and disorderly, but was dismissed with a caution.

John Kelly had also been guilty of Maggie’s offence, but had to pay a pound, or go to durance for 48 hours. - John O’Grady, equally foolish in taking more than he was able decently to carry, got off with a caution. Mr. James Main Wallace, the in jured gentleman of Friday week, who had been apprehended as a drunk, degenerated into a disorderly, had gone down all the gradations of rowdyness in the hands of the police till he be came the most “ contrairy ” man an old constable had ever seen, was brought up on two charges of drunk and dis orderly and using obscene language. Last time he was fortunate in securing the kindly consideration of the Magis trate and forbearance of the Sergeant, but to-day he was let in for 30s. John Jack, drunk and disorderly and resisting the police, paid ;£i as a lesson on good behaviour.

QUEENSLAND AND CHINESE IMMIGRATION.

On December n a paper on the above subject was read before the Royal Colonial Institute at the Pall Mall, Regent-street, by Mr. Arthur Macalister, C.M.G. The Duke of Manchester, K.P., was in the chair.

The paper commenced by a brief outline of the rise and progress of Queensland from its erection into a colony in 1859, before which year it fofmed an outlying portion of New South Wales. Mr. Macilister traced on a large map of the new colony its boun dary lines, which enclose an area of 420,492,800 acres. Its population at this epoch was but 24,000, but even then it owned 3,000,000 sheep and 400,000 head of cattle. In 1868 there were 968,279 head of cattle and 8,921,704 sheep, but in 1576, cattle being deemed to pay better, there were 1,985,807 head and only 7,241,810 sheep. The population in March last was 188,000, and must now be 200,0001. In 1875 the total exports connected with pastoral industry were ,£1,551,202, and the total exports of gold and other metals, ,£1,047,575. The state of education, development of railways and telegraphs, and the finance of Queens land were also reviewed, and its wonder ful growth shown. Coming now to the late Chinese invasion, the reader of the paper said the notion which had got abroad that Queensland wished to ex clude the Chinese altogether was a mistake. The question was, their in troduction in larsje numbers 10 the Queensland goldfields. In other words, they had to consider whether, from what we know of the habits of the Chinamen settling on the goldfields, these people are a desirable addition to the population of any Australian colony. He proposed to show that on both moral and social grounds they were not. He did not object to the presence of a few, but to their swarming, and to their swarming at the goldfields. They had for years been found on all the Queens land goldfields, but he proposed to speak of the Palmer River diggings only, the position of which on the coast about 800 miles north of Brisbane, the capital, he pointed out on the map. These diggings had hitherto been al luvial, and had yielded two millions sterling since their discovery. He spoke of the fascination ot gold-digging, and reminded the audience that the Euro pean gold digger had been a mo.-t important factor in Australian civilisa tion. But the Chinese immigrant was its bane, and while the whole European population of the Cook and Palmer districts did not number more than 5000 all told, they had been swamped within the last eighteen months with a deluge of 30,000 Chinese. He then alluded to the recent agita tion in the colony against this invasion, which was treated unfavorably by the Press of Britain and to the meas ures taken bv the Queensland Legisla ture to regulate and control this Mon golian influx. Tne Chinese had previously been disliked, but tolerated and made the best of. They were so few and isolated that their vicious pro r clivities had been kept under. They were never really in competition with the English laborer, for their work, needing muscle and mind, was quite beyond reach. You never saw a China man splitting rails, and they made no show in skilled handicrafts. The influx of late was the work of Chinese specu lators, who were tempted by the prox imity of Cooktown to their own country, and drove a thriving trade in shipping off its natives. Whether the immigrants were the sweepings of the Canton streets or released convicts Mr. Macalister was not aware ; but a more wretched set of human beings he had never seen. They did not come in the same spontaneous and voluntary character as the English emigrant, and the audience was re minded of the undoubted right of all countries, as it had been the practice of the United States—the country of all others most interested—to seek pro tection against passengers being landed whose condition was such as was likely to make them become a burden to the public. How much more necessary, then, was it that some precaution should be taken against a whole army of immi grants arriving under circumstances in which they were almost certain to sub

inn. EVENING ECHO, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 1878,