The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1882.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3512, 10 October 1882, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1882.

We are still without copies of the Acts of last session, nor have we yet received any Hansard later than No. 31. The amount of work thrown upon the Government Printing Office was this year exceptionally heavy, and the vote for the maintenance of the establishment being with difficulty wrung from Parliament it may ! be that the staff has been reduced to a proportion that is actually causing public inconvenience. Some of the Acts of last session, for instance, have already come into force, but no copies of those statutes are obtainable. The Land Act came into operation on September 15, but of the exact nature and scope of the amendments made to the Bill by either House we are left in ignorance. If it had not been for our Wellington contemporaries | we should have been very much in the dark indeed as to how the numerous bills presented to Parliament emerged from the fiery furnace of committee. By the assistance of those journals we have been enabled to obtain a general idea of how some of the principal measures now present themselves, but it is most unsatisfactory that no copies of the Acts have yet been received here. With respect to the chief features and provisions of the Land Act it as was finally passed the Legislature we are indebted to the New Zealand Times. The main feature of the Land Act 1877 Amendment Act 1882, which became law on the 15th ■ September, is the introduction of the I principle of perpetual leasing of the j Crown Lands. As the Bill was originally presented to Parliament there was no limit as to the proportion of the land that might be reserved for settlement under this system. But after much debate and consultation between the two Houses ot Parliament," the area which may be offered on lease in any one year ia

restricted to one-third of the agricultural land open for selection. The principle of perpetual leasing was still further modified by Parliament enacting in section 38 of the Act that the right of purchase may be exercised by the lessee, if availed of within eleven years of the commenccnent of his lease. This right of purchase, however, is not permitted within the goldfields districts — a precaution in the interests of the future development of auriferous ground which at once commends itself to those who have any knowledge of the wide distribution of gold within the proclaimed goldfields, aud the mistakes which have been made in selling lands which afterwards were iound either to be auriferous or necessary to the working of such country. Reverting to the Jessing clauses of the Act, the conditions under which leases are to be disposed of may be summarised as follows: —(1) The upset rent will be 5 per cent, on the assessed capital value of the land, which will vary from £1 to £3, or an annual rental of from la to 3s an acre. These rates, hovrever, may be higher in some instances, as the leases will be subject to public tender, the highest tenderer being entitled to possession. (2) The first term of the lease will be for thirty years ; the second and succeeding terms for twenty-one years. Three and a half years before the expiration of the first, and every subsequent term, the rent will be readjusted, by arbitration, to the then value of the land, after deducting the value of all improvements, whether of buildings, fences, or cultivation?, which latter value is the property of the lessee. On these two valuations of land and of improvements being made, the lessee will have the offer of the renewal of his lease at a rent of five per cent, on the then value of the land. This offer will remain open for his acceptance for three yeare. Should he not within that period accept the offer, the land and improvements will then be put up for public tender, the incoming tenant paying the assessed value of improvements to the outgoing tenant. These terms are undoubtedly liberal, and, indeed, so great is the inducement to take up land which they present, that there might be some dagger of the good intentions of the Legislature being frustrated by persons acquiring a greater extent of land than they personally required, with a view to sub-letting certain portions thereof at a profit. To obviate this tendency it has very wisely been enacted that the limit of area to be held by any one person shall not exceed 64C acree. Furthermore, as a guarantee ol good faith, each lessee during the first sis years of his lease must reside on his leasehold, and within four years have brought into cultivation not less than one-fiftb of his area; and by the Bixth year have effected substantial improvements of a value of at least one pound per acre ol his holdiDg. He is then free of anj further obligation beyond paying the annual rent, and may, if bo choose, acquire the freehold ot the property within the next five years. In addition to this last optional provision, which will in many cases be availed of, it is, we believe, the intention of the Government to intersperse freehold and leasehold sections, so that the means is provided whereby the innate craving for the possession in fee-simple of a piece ol mother earth which one may call his owe may still be immediately gratified by payment in cash of the price determined.

We are requested to acknowledge receipi of the following sums towards tho Jack relief fund:—Mr G. Baillie, £1 Is; Mi Barry, 2a 6d ; Mr McDonald, 2a 6d. The comet was well above the horizor to-day at 2 a.m. The atmosphere being clear, and there being no moon, this beautiful object was seen to great advantage. We have received from Mr George Cross the local agent, an illuminated revolving calendar, dating from July Ist, 1882, tc June 30th, 1833, issued by the Royal Insurance Company. In the District Court this morning, in Bankruptcy, before P. A. F. Birch, Esq., James Baird Vernon, on the application of Mr A. C. Dewes, obtained his discharge, This was the only business before the Court. Our Wairoa correspondent telegraphs to-day that the pilot reports that the bar at that place is bad, with a very shallow and crooked entrance. The steamers Boojum and Maori can get in, but there is no chance for the Manaia. In taking money now-a-days people should be cautious in accepting worn or defaced coin. At no railway station will a coin be taken that has a hole through it, or which has been worn smooth with age. The reason for this is that the banks refuae to receive old money except at its intrinsic value, which, in some cases, is very much less than its nominal value. The foolhardinesa of persons' " under the influence" was amusingly exeraplifiod in the Resident Magistrate's Court this' morn*, ing, when a half-drunken follow propelled himself into the aforesaid Temple of Justice during the hearing of a case, and commenced to address the Court in a loud voice. It is perhaps needless to add. that he was, immediately " collared " by the enemy in blue, and provided with temporary lodgings at the'lock-up, and to-morrow the coveted privilege that he was denied to-day will in all probability fee granted him. Prior to the hearing of the civil case Miller v. Jordan in the Resident Hagis--trate's Court this morning, Mr Cornford, solicitor for tho plaintiff, complained of the vexatious and unnecessary delay that_ had been caused in having the action initiated in consequence of the bailiff at Tauranga not having returned the summons for twelve days after the service had taken place. It was his intention to bring the matter under the notice of the Minister of Justice, as, if tho practice was allowed to continue, there was no saying what loss plaintiffs might suffer. His Worship, Captain Preece, promised to communicate with the R.M. at Tauranga on the subject also. For what object public money should bo wasted in beautifying and ornamenting the by-lanes of this borough when needed work cannot be done because there are no funds may well puzzle a long-suffering class of ratepayers. It was with difficulty the other day that tbe Council was induced to grudgingly grant £16 for the repair of Goldsmith roa£, while the money for the repair and alteration of the footpath opposite tbe Clarendon Club Hotel was refused unless Mr Peddie found half. Yet the Corporation laborers are to be seen delicately painting footpaths with tar that need no repairs; back and unused lanes are being furnished with curbed pathways, and money seems to be fooled away in all directions except in those from which the ratepayers would derive some return in the shape of public convenience. At the Magistrate's Court, Waipawa, yesterday, a lad between H and 15 years of age named William O'Leary, was brought up on remand charged by the police with the larceny of a horse, saddle, and bridle, the property of Mr E. Bird. It appeared from the evidence of the latter, coupled with that of the arresting constable, that O'Leary took the horse in question from a paddock on the night of September 30th, together with a saddle and bridle from an nuthouse, and rode off in the direction of Tainumu, near which place he was arrested the following morning with the horse in his possession. Piisoner pleaded that he simply borrowed the horse to ride to Tamumu in search of employment, and that he was" going to put the animal back again on the evening of the day he was arrested. Aβ the evidence relating to felonious intent was

not clearly established the Bench, after suitably admonishing O'Leary, dismissed the case. Mr J. T. Smith, of Christchurch, the (J.W.O. Templar of New Zealand, who is afc present on an official visit to this district, gave an address m Trinity Wesleyan schoolroom last evening. He spoke at length on the aims and objects of the order he represents, which he described as the grandest and most active and influential temperance organization in existence. He spoke hopefully of the advances made in recent years in the temperance crusade, and said that those engaged in the work would not rest till the traffic in intoxicants, with all its dire train of misery, poverty, crime, ruin, disaster, and death, was swept away. A brief address was also given by Mr J. Harding, of Mount Vernon. At the close of the meeting a special G.L. session was held, and the Q-.L. degree was conferred on a number of candidates. Mr Smith, whose stay in the district is necessarily brief, left this morning en his homeward journey overland. He holds a meeting at Ormondville thie evening, and intends visiting . Nelson before returning to Ohristchurch. The name of Mr Van Resselbnrg-fce, of the Eoyal Observatory of Brussels, may yet rank with that of Edison. He has discovered that the ordinary telegraph wire can be used for telephonic transmission, and experiments have justified the accuracy of that discovery. In like manner the inventor of " Sugar "Worm Cakes for Children " has proved himself a benefactor of the whole human race, as thousands upon thousands of parents everywhere cm testify. All orders should be addressed to Professor Moore, Medisal Hall, Waipawa.—[advt.] Whatever may have been the beverage of the Gods, and it is believed that they indulged in nectareau draughts, some of the best efforts of the poets are said to have been effused under the inspiration oi no less a potation than gin. It wae Byron's favorite indulgence, and sped the fancy of many others of celebrity. Thus it has both a poetic and practical use, and to the latter has it been moat efficaciously put by the great originator of Udolpho Wolfe's Schiedam Akokatio Schvapps.—[Advt.J