TOWN AND COUNTRY NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVI, Issue 912, 7 August 1861, Page 4

TOWN AND COUNTRY NEWS.

We hear that some of the men workino* at the railway have struck for higher wages within the last few days, and that the contractors have declined to accede to their demands. In noticing this subject, we have no desire whatever to advise, much less to dictate to the labouring classes what wages they are to accept or what to decline, but simply to call their attention to " our Correspondent's " letter from Melbourne in this days paper, from which they will see that with the almost unlimited supply of labour the contractors are able to fall back upon in that city, they are not likely to pay higher rates here than have been hitherto offered. Tbe following is an extract from a letter of Messrs. Holmes and Co. in Melbourne on the same subject, received on Saturday by the Omeo :—" We have made a good start with the new works—men at 75., best; ordinary at 6s. • masons at Is. per hour, and horses at 10s. per diem. We could send you any

amount of men down to Lyttelton at a reduced rate of wages, and a great many are willing to chance it and pay their passage down, but we gave them no encouragement to do so till we beard from you." After knowing these facts, men here must not wonder, if, by standing out for higher wages than they are likely to get, they lose tbe chance of steady remunerative employment altogether.

About eight o'clock on Monday morning Lyttelton was alarmed by a cry of fire. The premises on which the fire broke out are situated in the rear of the new shop and bouse erected in London street by Messrs. P. Fox and Co., and we believe were unoccupied at tbe time, having been used as a carpenter's shop formerly. In a few minutes after tbe alarm was given some twenty men were on the spot, who quickly subdued the fire and prevented tbe flames spreading to the adjoining buildings. The continued apathy shown by the inhabitants of Lyttelton to the danger banging over them from fire is certainly extraordinary. All are agreed that any day the main block of the town may be burnt down in a few hours, and yet nothing has yet been done in the way of preparation. An engine of small power, it is true, is in the town, but no one has seen it out of its cover for months, and if it were required for service, of course it would not be of the slightest use. Were active measures taken at once to prepare for such a calamity, the danger of total destruction would be materially lessened. We trust, therefore, that tbe movement lately initiated by some members of the volunteer force to consider the question of a "Fire Brigade" will shortly lead to the formation of a corps so much needed, and that the people of Lyttelton will come forward to support the movement liberally both with men and

money.

Mr. Haast has just returned from tbe Malvern Hills and tbe sources of the Kowai, being driven back by the heavy fall of snow in that locality. He reports to the Government tbe existence of very valuable and workable seams of anthracite coal, which he thoroughly exposed, and of which be brought specimens to Christchurch. (A dray load of this coal will be down in a fortnight.) He discovered in the same locality very valuable limestone beds. We hope to be able shortly to lay before our readers a detailed report of Mr. Haast's researches.

The Lord Ashley takes ot 1269 ounces of gold from Otago to Sydney, besides further sums in the bands of passengers. A few ounces are sent by the Superintendent of Otago to the Assay Office, to determine its proper value.

Joseph Johnston, the man who robbed the Steward of the Prince Albert of £7 10s. on the trip from Lyttelton to Dunedin, was found guilty, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment with hard labour.

The exports of wheat from Kaiapoi this season bave been 23,000 bushels not 13,0)00 as stated by us in a recent report. By the home papers it appears that Mr. J. M. Sinclair, of Canterbury, was fortunate enough to obtain a prize, value £30, at tbe drawing of the Art Union of London.

A. meeting will be held at tbe Town Hall, Christchurch, on Thursday evening next, to consider the propriety of memorialising the Superintendent and Government, to induce them to offer a reward for the discovery of a workable gold field in this province.

The following letter has been handed to us for publication, and has reference to the correspondence which appeared in our issue of 2nd March last:—

15, Torrington square, London, Mayl6, 1861. Dear Sir,—l have to acknowledge and thank you for your courteous letter of the 6th March, occasioned by mine of the 26th December last, published in the ' Lyttelton Times' of the 2nd March. Of course I could only state facts as they existed and were known to me at the time I wrote. I do not gather from your letter, or from any other quarter, that my statements were inaccurate upon any point of which I then had, or could have had knowledge. I was glad to learn for the first time' several weeks after my first letter was dispatched] that the money necessary to meet the half-yearly interest due 3lst December last on £20.400, balance of the Canterbury Ascociation Debenture Loan, had been paid by the Provincial Government to the Union Bank of Australia in the province so long ago as the 17th July, 1860, together with a further sum of £1000, to redeem ten debentures, Nos 200-209.

The only part of your letter to which I can fairly take exception, is your statement that the failure of the Bank to advise the remittance was "a circumstance which it was not in the power of the Government to control." Is this substantially correct, when it seems clear that the Government had it in their power to render this omission on the part of the Bank manager perfectly immaterial? For if the Provincial Secretary or Treasurer, during the months July and October 1860, had adhered to the course invariably adopted by their predecessors, and had sent me a few lines, advising me as English agent of this payment, no one could have been misled by the negligence or mistake of any of the officials of the Bank: I should have had the means of setting their mistake right at once. The unintentional injustice done by me to the Provincial txovernment, in supposing this interest was not, in tact renntted-for which I took the earliest opportunity ot expressing my regret to the Superinten-dent-was thus really due to the ignorance in which the Government had themselves left me I am sure that, for the future, I shall receive a notification of any payments made in redemption of the balance of this loan. I have a list of these debenture ho ders (which the Union Bank has not), and they all look to me for information of any intended payment in discharge of principal. You are ?£*v f aL 6 Fay' that the Ordinance (1855), Ses. IV. No. 6 See. 9 it is required that six calendar months notice of all such payments shall be given by advertisements in a London newspaper for six consecutive weeks And on the face of the debentures, this Six months' public notice " is mentioned. If the trouble and expense attendant on these formalities has been hitherto dispensed with or avoided, it is not the less clear that the debenture holders ought to have, from someone, reasonably early notice when their principal is to be repaid. I thank you, therefore, for the welcome information now received, that it is intended to pay off on the 30th June next the debentures Nos. 210. 24^ (£4000), and I will take care to give notice accordingly to the several holders. « io^ m also glad t0 learn from -your letter Mat the £2712 4s 8d taken by the Treasury from the Canterbury Association Estate " had been refunded in December last. And further, that £1200 has been paid to a separate account for the purpose of the sinking fund of the £30,000 loan. All these facts have occurred since my letter of December was written. I quite concur with you in thinking ,t only fair and just that they shouldTbe madeknown and duly weighed in confection wiS my statement ot the facts as known here when I

wrote my letter. lam sure thevwiiTT ""*— gratifying to those who were parties i tl J*, We hope we have not forfeited the ?' Ctter * well-wishers of Canterbury, because ti.of true and pride with which we have watched Vntere't has been mmgled with a jealous reirard ft • Cilrfct* name It was this feeling which proLtoi"B raise the voice of friendly warning in ml , ' ne to December, and the manner in wWi yVett<* or received by yourself and others is an,,. h <*n that I was right when I said " I have f ■ '. er P^f good sense of the people of Canterbury in U * Pray consider this letter official or not a most agreeable to yourself, and publish if m * you think fit. l ÜBtl "wnotas I am, dear sir, faithfully y OUr 3) Thomas William Maude, Esq"* SkLF£ Sel *b. Provincial Secretary, Canterbury.