AUCKLAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 5345, 9 April 1878, Page 3

AUCKLAND.

rFKOK OtTB OWN OOEBBSPONDBNT.] March 30. ■ At present business' here is said to' be dull. This is no uncommon complaint, with theAucklanders. We have no medium course here; either we are quite.elevated,.and look, at nil things through rose-coloured spectacles, or we are in the dumps and everything of course , going to smash.' I' have oftentimes wonidered what could be the cause of the iAuckland people living pidy in two eitreinies,, but all my conj ectures have been vain. Nothing which I have built up or heard propounded meets all the .circumstances of the case, but the plain fact remains, we have no middle course, and I have come to the conclusion that when business people talk about times being dull it is equivalent to saying that profits are good but not quite so good as I would like them. Taking the complaint of dull times into consideration With the fact that substantial business premises are being erected in all directions, in the city and suburbs, others being altered, private , residences going up in abundance and others being enlarged, &c., I think the qpnchieipn above stated is nof too far-fetched. Money is being had for the works indicated or they, would not be carried on} and the extension of business premises and the increase and enlargement of private residences show that there is a want on one hand and a conscious ability to bear increased expenditure on the other. These are not the usual attendants of decreased and unprofitable trade. Financially the business of the place seem* to be sound. .One firm has come to gnef within the last week or two, Messrs Lewis Brothers, genera merchants, with, considerable liftbilities, but the circumstance took no one by surprise. At the time the series of failures occurred toward the end of last winter, the firm was considered unstable but it has tottered along until now. Two meetings of creditors have been held, and at the hut the estate was' vested in trustees to await communication with the English creditors to decide upon, some course to be adopted- It is expected that about 7s in the £ will be realised, and. if this expectation is realised the estate will hot be so pad as many which have gone before it. The brothers are shrewd plodding business men. Political matters are stagnant. The vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr R. G. Wood' in the. representation of Parnell has been filled up unopposed by Mr F. JV Moss, formerly secretory and treasurer to the Board of Education. Since his return as an M.P. he has, of course, resigned his appointment as treasurer to the Board, and is understood to be. preparing' to enter the tanks ofthe Premier in the cause.of the Maoris. The party with whom he is likely to work are in want .of one. to take charge of the Maori paper, Te Wananga, published at' Napier. Since Mr Sheehan’s appointment to the office of Native and defence Minister, of course he has deemed it inoonsisteiit qnbis part to wield the pen editorial. One - is wanted for the office, and I understand Mr Moss is at present being .taught the Maori language by Mr J.White, late It.M., to qualify him for this office. Time will show what success Mr Moss will have as a Maori Writer and speaker in (lie House of BepresehtatiyCs. As a syeakor I am afraid he will be hazy, dreamy, and wandering in hi* thoughts. The present year appears to be an exceptional one in regard to several things, but m nothing is it more exceptional than fires. Scarcely had the sound of the bell died away which closed the post year and heralded in the new, before the oity fire bells rang ciut their warning notes of alarm. It was found that the residence of the lessee of the Dormain Gardens was on fire, and the year so exceptionally begun seems to maintain its character.

At first 'fires wore'not quite so numerous, but’ as the year lias advanced they have been •more frequent every week. A flro, or tbe timely discovery of ohe, is now almost a daily occurrence, and not unfrequently is the same unwelcome warning heard more than once in one day. One night recently three distinct warning? were given within less than as many A few of these have been surrounded with circumstances of a suspicious character, but the great majority appear to be quite accidental in origin, not a few narrow escapes having qooured to building which were not covoyed by: insurance. These dangers from fire are not confined to the city and suburbs, but extend, to the country districts, where there is the least reason to suppose they are other than accidental. Stacks of hay, outbuildings, fomily residences, &0., all appear to, bo equally welcome to the insatiable element. A few have occurred under circumstances which have led to the belief that they were caused by vagrants sleeping under buildings having an opening between the ground and the joists upon Which the floor rests, the great majority resulting, to all appearances, from accident, perhaps induced by carelessness. But from whatever cause they spring the fact remains that so far as the present year has gone it has proved exceptional in this respect, and so far as appearances go, the tide of fortune hao not yet changed, While on the subject of fires '! maynote an irregularity which pas become very prevalent here; so prevalent that the Insurance Companies Association have felt it necessary to insert an advertisement warning insurers of the danger they rim. The irregularity I allude to lj may arise from the competition amongst the various. Insurance .Companies themselves, though each professes' to act harmoniously with the others in the matter of taking risks and issuing policies. The irregularity I allude to is the practice of re-insurmg without acquainting the office in which the original. policy was issued. For such a, practice as this the Insurance Companies have the remedy jn their own hands. They may confiscate the policy; ahd teach the insurer a •sharp and severe lesson in the event of loss by fire. ■ But Insurance Companies, for obvious reasons, do not like to run to such extreme measures if other means can be adopted to bring about a reform, At inquests, which have been held recently, many instances have come to light where the insured in one office had afterwards gone to the other office and obtained a further policy upon the same premises, stock, &c.,, previously covered by insurance in another office. It is to be presumed that the office in which the second or third policy was obtained was made acquainted .with'the previous insurance,, but both they and the party insured seem to have neglected to inform the issuer of the first policy that a'.second had been issued or was to be issued, notwithstanding the understood agreement that Such information was to be conveyed. In several instances which have occurred here of late, the office that issued the first policy would have re-insured or cancelled the policy, had it been made acquainted with the fact that , a second or thud policy had been obtained. So imminent was the loss of the amount covered by the original policy that, in a recent case, the sufferer by the fire advertised the; liberality of ’the agent of the office who issued the first policy to him, in paying the amount, though he had by his second insurance forfeited the amount of the first one. The practice of obtaining additional policies upon the same property without making the fact known is one fraught with danger, and insurance offices, for their own safety, ought to act in good faith with; each other in such matters. If they did so the temptation on the part of the insured to dp wrong, would be removed. Of course these remarks are of a general character, intended for general application wherever the of insurance against loss by fire is carried on and has no special application whatever to any particular case. ' . A rather exciting event .occurred the other day at Onehunga. A clerk in one of the Auckland establishments fancied he required an airing. Instead of taking a ticket at the railway station and proceeding on a trip southwards, he went to one of the livery stables and hired a trap to go to Onehunga. How : he had prepared himself by internal stimulation against taking cold I cannot say, but judged by subsequent events it does not appear that this preliminary to a trip in the country by fast young men had been neglected. In due time he reached Auckland’s western harbour, .and was about to, drive across the Mangere bridge, but just as he was at the entrance of the bridge he changed his ; mind; and suddenly wheeled to the right and made, straight'for the' wharf. Down this structure he sped at a rattling pace. As the lower end of the wharf was approached he. does not appear to have made any attempt to Eull up his steed, but oyer the end went prse,i vehicle, and .driver, in one glorious confusion. The tide was out at the time, and they had to fall a distance of about eighteen feet before the water was reached. Speedy assistance was rendered by the onlookers, and •the horse was unharnessed and saved, and with some difficulty the foolish driver was also extracted from his perilous position, a wetter if hot a sadder and wiser niam , In noticing the event the papers Withheld the name of the daring Jehu, but ; this 'very circumstance has tended to make the event more talked about than it would otherwise have been- .The curiosity,of the public was piqued, and the name passed from mouth to,mouth With wonderful rapidity,.and' many an act of former misbehaviour has also been recalled, and his poor wife and five young .children have become objects of pity when they have to depend upon support from Such a heartloes self-indulging spendthrift. . For mhny years if was believed that the extinct-gigantic bird which belonged to past history of New Zealand, the Moa, was confined to. the Southern Island. This opinion was: formed upon the circumstance that the remains of the bird were found in various places in the Southern Island, when no trace of it, save in Maori tradition, was to be found in" the North Island. A few years ago this; erroneous’ notion was dispelled by the discovery by Mr Justice Gillies, then Superintendent - of Auckland, Province, in tbe Poverty. Bay district, of slabs of sandstone on which wete ;imprinted the footmarks of the bird, Some’ time afterwards' Hi Oheeseman, .F.L-S-, found 'sohie "bones belonging to this gepiis of birds; but of a smaller species than those found in the South Island, m a cave at .EUersfio,. It-was uncertain,' however, whether the . bones had ; ■ not' been carried there by Maoris in the oldefa days, but subsequently the discovery made at Whangarei by Messrs Oheeseman and Thorne' of whole skeletons buried in the sand upon the sea shores, left no d<> u bt ol the bird having lived here at some former, periodi :: Singe'* that 'discovery' was made, Mr M‘Tier, a settlor in the Awhita district, on. the eastern side of the 1 Manakau harbour, found nearlya whole skeleton in a swamp which he was draining. A few days ago another discovery of Moa bones was made in the Whangarei district, many miles from the scene of MessrS Oheeseman and Thorne’s discovery. 'This' time the bones were found embedded in a swamp near Kaurihohore, SOme twelve miles from the township of -Whangarei.’ A portion of the skeleton has as yet been discovered by Mr James Taylor, on whose property tbe discovery was made, but; the circumstances related leave no doubt that, tbe Moa,-at-some former time, extended over the whole of Now Zealand, but whether it was a(> : ithat tnne divided-into twO large-islands or not thOevidence is no t yet forthcoming. It is also yet uncertain whether the Moa of the North Island was exactly the same as the Moa of the South Island. The general opinion is that the northern bird was' somewhat smaller than the southernone. The discovery made at Kaurihohore, however, goes, somewhat against this opinion, and would indicate that there were Moas in the North Island equal in stature and power to their fellows of the South. The two thigh bones of the bird just discovered ore 32 inches in length, and the girth in the middle portion is seven inches. Tbs'bones are somewhat decayed, which probably has reduced their size since they formed part of the living bird. Further researches in this swamp would probably bring to light other remains of this extinct wlngless bird, and ini due time gome lover of - science may be prompted to undertake backward unfoldingof the pages of time so as to- readiwhat is therein recorded. _ A now industry is in course of being estab- ! fished' here, which will probably be bonefloiolly felt! throughout Now Zealand. I allude to tho refining J of- sulphuf,: the preparation Of sulphrtrie acid; and the manufacture of chemical manures for the use of our farms, ’i'lie undertaking is in the hands ■ of two thoroughly competent men, Messrs J. _A. Pond and J. M* Tunny, both skilled analytical chemists. ■ The scene of operations is to be on tbe northern side of the Waitemata, at Stokes’ Point, about three miles _ from Queen street wharf, A number of buildings have already been erected, and tbe condensing chamber is now nearly completed. The crude material is tobo obtained from Whale Island, off the Bay

of Plenty coast, some 80 miles from Tanranga Tho island is freehold, and one portion of it has been found to be impregnated with sulphur to the extent of from 70 to 80 per cent and as this can be landed at the works at Stokes’ Point at small cost, tho proprietors anticipate that a very profitable career is before them. They have been repeatedly urged to put thoir undertaking into a company, but the overtures have been declined. Both are young men possessed of sufficient means, and the necessary technical knowledge to secure a commercial success, and they have profered to keep the undertaking than to sell out to a company at a handsome profit. That success will attend their efforts appears certain. Over £4OOO is sent out of tho Colony every year for sulphur in its various forms of flowers and roll, and to secure tho monopoly of this trade will he tho first effort of Messrs Pond and Tunny. A similar extent of trade awaits them in Australia ; and I understand that both these trades ore practically secured through the agency of one of the largest chemical dealers in the Colonies. When things are in working order with this branch of trade, the manufacture of sulphuric acid, chemical manures, sheepwashes, and the thousand and one articles of which sulphuric acid is the foundation, will he commenced. In connection with this a discovery has recently been made of considerable importance—l allude to a very large deposit of phosphatic limestone. The honour of the discovery is due to Dr Hector, and when sulphuric acid is prepared locally, at a cheap rate, this discovery will no doubt be turned to commercial advantage, and a manure will be prepared which will restore the fertility of tho exhausted corn fields in the South. In the course of a couple of months I expect a fair start will be made, and the Colonial market will soon be supplied with colonially manufactured flowers of sulphur, roll brimstone, etc.