Stratford and Ngaire.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XX, Issue 2430, 18 May 1893, Page 2

Stratford and Ngaire.

(FBOM OUE OWN COBBSiSPONDBOT.) The "unemployed" are making good progress with the East road through tbe Mangaere and Pohokura blocks. They have got several miles felled, and the roadway cleared of timber well up into tbe Pohokura, and are now taking tbe earthwork in hand. It is said tbat high sohedale prices are being paid them, and no doubt they will want all tbey make. It is to be hoped tbat some of them will settle down to a country life instead of drifting back into cities. It tbey do settle * down, it will be a good thing for all eon. cerned, bat if not, it will be very anfoifcunate. •*.<.

Tbe oonntry will not at all begrudge the outlay on tbe system on which the money has been expended if it results in a helping . hand to men who are "down on fibde L ao JC u na in B ' viD K them a fc ««tt «*«rti l bat if the outcome of it is to be, that work is to be given to a special and a favoared class ot men at a big advance on what ii would have cost if let in the open matket, „- and that the money so earned and the ex. '? penence bo gained are to be wasted in thi large centres when tbe job is over, peopl* will not regard the result with maeh iktul faction. The principle of providing inch work for men wbo are bard up and wbo want to make a start at country life iijs my mind unimpeachable. It is in-tb# 3?r matter of administration;, in tbe detaiti, that difference of opinion is apt to ariie. Tbe ebooking bad piece ofroadiitW** junction of Opanake and Mountain mad! has, I am happy to say, been at last oadfl good. I don't think it ia to be at aft regarded aa a matter of oaaee and effect, bat people.do say that tbe county engineef ' himself got pitched clean out of nil dog* * cart at tbis spot at the beginning of'thV week, and that next day men and team! were busy getting fascines and wording away like bee's to make it good. Whj they should grin and ohuekle so wh«d they recount tbe engineer's mishap it easily understood.

After all tbe aflsoted mystery about till way m which the harbor rate is to bi abolished, the proposed method bas beet* made pnblio: "A loan for the N«# Plymouth harbour was authorised by the New Plymouth Harbour Board Ordinanwi 1875, Amendment Act, 1877 (Local «ac| Personal Acts), subject to condition! therein contained. These conditions not having been observe^ the legality of th« borrowing is dispnted ; tbe rate, depending on tbe legality of the borrowing, falls with the loan." Delightfully simple, isn't it t, but not half so simple, I should, say, ai people will be if they subscribe a pot ol money to carry snob a case to the judicial committee of the Privy Council, and thai the Harbor Board would so carry it if th«# - were beaten at noy point nobody can doubt. They would be in honour bouna* to do so. Brushing aside all legal cobweb** the broad faot remains that tbe mpnsf. was borrowed and spent, and that th# bondholder is fairly entitled, little as $i may like it, to tbe agreed-on interest ot t& so much of it as the security: will provide Our real hope of relief lies in a conversion of the loan, with oolonial security. It ii not too much to ask, and ought to h conceded by Parliament. Give Sir Julini Yogel authority to act as go-between, am the old boy would have the whole thinj fixed up in a week or two. What a marvellous man Sir Julia* mast be, to be able to wrestle down hr| physical ailments and obtain a valuabft and responsible post such as he has Uflly secured 1 Every lover of New Zealand ought to he glad that snob good fortune bas befallen our old Minister and Agentf >> General, for, in my jadjjmsnfci out of all tbe remarkably, able men whabave gnided . I the destinies oi this country up to tb» ! present day, the historian of tbe future will give the premier place* to4be matt whose bold conception and financial genius inaugurated and for so long ably guided and controlled oar public wotifl and immigration policy. , , Mention of the harbor board jutt now brings to my memory a Httie anecdote of its late chairman, whose place N,eW Plymouth will find ie so yery to filj. As most people know, Mr Sing was manager of the Bank of New Zealand in New Plymouth for something like 20 | years, and so oarpful was he, th*t | whilst building op a splendid ihnu ness for tbe bank he never during ! that loDg time made but one bad debt, and that he paid out of his own pocket* This did not, of course, come -from M* I King himself ; be was iar too modest to make snob a boast ; but I believe it to os j true, and tbe anecdote ia exactly character* istic of tbe cafe and attention whioh he afterwards devoted to so many public affairs.