Mr Baliance (says the Catholic Times) on being asked at Invercargill whether he thought it right to give a tramp the same electoral powers as a man who worked hard, made a home for himself and family, and made pro vision for a rainy day, could find no other reply than the following bumptious and ignorant irrevereuce : " I would like to say that there was a man eighteen hundred years ago who had no place to lay His head." It was left for a New Zealand politican to make such a woful exhibition either of blasphemous ignorance or of con temptible shuffling and evasion of a plain and sensible question.
Every time a break occurs in the Cook Strait cables (says the Globe), a repairing stearasr has to ba brought from Singapore. This Colony is entirely dependent on the Eastern Extension Company for the means of repairing the cables which unite the two islands. The company, of course, charges heavily for its services. Every visit from the repairing steamer in volves an outlay of from £6,000 up wards, according to the time occupied in effecting the required repairs. The Wellington Post suggests that the Stella and Hinemoa be sold, and that the proceeds be devoted to the purchase of a steamer fitted as a repairing vessel, and which could also be used for carrying stores to the several light houses.
