A certain class of crimes has become, of late years, fearfully prevalent in the colonies. I allude to violence to females. But I think the mode adopted to put it down will be a successful one. For the brutes who commit these crimes there is nothing like a cat-o'-nine-tails well laid on. They are impervious to shame, and don't mind a few years' imprisonment, but they have a holy horror of flogging. There was a case of the sort punished here some months ago, and now a man named Ryan

In their action towards the promoters of the Tapanui and "Waipahi Railway, the General Government has shown once more the dog in the manger atti tude that they formerly assumed to wards the Peninsula line. It seems to please them, this refusal to act them selves, and this unwillingness to allow anyone else to act. Owing to the out rageous folly which led them to consent to the line to Lawrence, they find that all attempts to take the line through the interior are impossible. It can only be done at an enormous expense, and one perfectly unjustifiable. The character of the country beyond Lawrence is such that we may consider it improb able that there will be any extension of the line in this direction for half a cen tury, if it be done then. The opening of the interior of Otago, by railway communication in this direction; is hope less. There is, however, another course, and one which would have been taken before this at the very first bad there been no political influences to conciliate. About ten miles beyond Clinton, at the Waipahi, there is the opportunity of making a branch, so called at present, though it is really deserving the name of a main line, to Tapanui. The forma tion of this piece is earnestly advocated by one of the most determined and enterprising Com mittees that we have often come

The Provincial Government of Otago may naturally take some pride in the fact that they have shown that it is possible for a Province to manage railways satisfac torily, though on the other hand the experience in Canterbury is very differ ent. 