North Otago Times

North Otago Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3491, 7 January 1884, Page 2

North Otago Times

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 1834 There are some popular misapprehensions in regard to the new Bankruptcy Act which it may be well to correct. One of these is a belief that no insolvent can obtain his discharge until his estate, or he himaelf out of means not arising from his estate, has paid his creditors at least ten shillings in the pound. A recommendation that a provision to this effect should be inserted in the act was, we believe, made a considerable time back by the Canterbury chamber of commerce. It wa3 also, if we remember rightly, disousaed in parliament, and may have even been inserted in the original bill. In fact; it has been somewhat generally talked and written about as an extremely desirable provision to have in our bankruptcy law, but it has no place in the statute which camo into force on the Ist instant. The only thing like it we can find after repeated perusals of the act is in clause 158, which eeta forth that, under given circumstances, " the Court may order that the bankrupt shall not be entitled to his discharge until there shall have beon paid out of his estate, during the continuance of the bankruptcy and thereafter, dividends or a composition amounting in the whole to so many shillin&s in the pound as the Court, in its discretion, may fix ; or until security for the payment thereof has been found to the satisfaction of the creditora." The amount thus fired by the Court may be ten shilltngs in the pound or more, but th» act doea not aay that it must not be lass that ten ahillingß.

Another of the popular fallacies in regard to the colony's bankruptcy law appears to be that insolvency proceedings .nstituted under acts which lapsed at the end of the year must necessarily be carried out in their entirety under the provisions of those acts. This is true, but true only under very decided limitations. The fact that it is true at all, however, probably accounts for the large amount of schedule-filing which took place all

over the colony during the closing days of 1888. Under the new act a bankrupt will be brought under conditions much more stringent than any which exist in the old statues. The knowledge that this is the case, and the belief that the provisions of the new act cannot be made to affect insolvencies instituted under the old statutes has, as wo hava said, doubtless led to recent bankruptcy notices being unusually numerous all over the colony. The belief in question is, however, but slenderly founded upon fact. Those who ; obtain their certificates of discharge under | tho hitherto existing statutes cannot, of ! course, be affected by the provisions of the new law, but with those who do not obtain such certificates it may be qnite otherwise. The fourth schedule of the Bankruptcy Act, 1883, repeals all previously existing bankruptcy acts, and the laat clause of the new statute declares that "all estatea and persons brought under the operation of the repealed acts or any of them before the commencement of the new statute shall be subject to the provisions of these acts as though they had not been repealed " ; but to this declaration there is added another which says that " all these estates and persons may, if so ordered by tho Court, be dealt with under the provisions of the dreaded and dreadful statute which came into force on the Ist instant." So that in cases where there have been " ways that are dark and tricks thst are vain," and where these are brought to the knowledge of a discerning judge with a high sense of duty, the Btringent provisions of the new act will be fully available, and will no doubt be dulyavailed of. We have no knowledge of any recent insolvencies where this would be necessary, but as recent insolvencies have been notoriously numerous all over the colony, we have cited this provision of the new law as a matter of considerable interest to a considerable section of the public.

The next term of the Waitaki high school begins on Tuesday, 29 bh mat.

The Bank of France employs (60 female clerks at salaries ranging from 15s to 27a a week.

Queensland has already received 24,000 immigrant this year, and 5,000 more are afloat.

Wm. M'Kay, of Hampden, offers to find an 8£ stone man who will wrestle any man of a similar weight in New Zealand, allowing one fall out of seven.

The railway department will issuo Saturday return tickets to Blaeakin on the 10th and 11th inst., available for return up to the 12th. The Blusskin agricultural show takes place on the 11th inst.

The total liabilities of ten of the insolvents who filed declarations in the Oam»ru court lately amount to L 5,958 13s 4£d ; and the total atsets to L 3,379 15s. This looks like 10s in the £ to creditors, but it may be that rhis satisfactory phaso enda with tho look of the affair on paper.

So much reliance do runholdera place in tha effioacy of tuberculosis to stamp out the rabbit peat that on* of their number made a special trip from the Upper Waitaki to Dunedin to procure a small quantity of the inoculating matter. By this time the rabbits are, no doubt, suffering.

A meeting of representatives from the county council and the various road boards was held in the county council chambers on Saturday afternoon in regard to the appointment of an engineer. It was decided to invite applications for the office of engineer to the several bodies represented.

An extraordinary sheep-shearing feat is reported by the Temora Star as having been performed by a man named Michael Hurley, a native of Tasmania, during the present season at Warn station. During an ordinary day's work the man shore forty hoggets in lh 50min, and 40 ewes in lh 25min, finishing with a tally of 210 sheep in all. This feat haa baen exceeded at Pillan's station (saya the Chdha Leader) by Mr David Bower, jun, this aeaooa. la nine hours, the usual time shearers work, ho put 214 through .

At a Presbyterian tex-meoting at Blenheim the Rev Mr M'Nicol became quite facotious. IT« is reported to have said : Some men thought it contrary to thair religious opinions to be gay or to laugh, and were always pulling a long face. Who had taught them to laugh ? Certainly not the Kvil One, but tho Lord himself. There were occasions when laughing was out of place, but excusable. He remembered an instance in a church where a boy in the gallery lowered a string with * b«nt pin oa the end of it, and entangled it in an old gentleman's hair ; when the boy pulled at the string the hair came off in the shape of a wig, and -it was ludicrous to see the old gentleman's i*ain attempts to catch at ihe wig as it ascended in the air. He then traced the origin of social parties from the time of Eve, when she held a garden party, Adam beiog the only other ons present.

It may interest some of our readers to know what the Beattie trials, which originated in this district, cost the country. In the house last yoar Mr Shrimski moved for a return shewing their cn«t. The return has just come to hand, and it shows that the expenses for witnesses at the preliminary trial in tha R.M. Court amounted to LlOl Zi 9d. At tha first trial in the Supreme Court expenses for witnesses amounted to L 309 6s Bd, and the coata of the Crown Prosecutor to L 5 14s Bd. Then there was, as our readers may remember, a second trial at the Supreme Court, Dunedin, and on that occasion the expenses for witneiaes came to L 225 33 Gd, and tha casts of the crown Prosecutor to L 8 15s Bd. Thus the trials cost altogether L 650 4a 3d. Attached to the raturn from which we take this information there is a note which reado aa follows : The return is exclusive of the amount paid to the two juries. Jurors not being paid in reapect of cases, the proportion of the amount paid them, which should be added to the above oosfcs, is not ascertainable. It may however be stated approximately at LI 6.

It is (say 3 the Australaiian recently) a striking illustration of the tendency of contemporary society in England and America to occupy itself with the sayings and doings of email personages, occupying positions of transitory prominence, and fulfiilling functions of relatively small importance, that the first appearance of Mr Henry Lying on the stage of New York theatre should have engaged quite as much attention on both sides of the Atlantic as was excited a few years ago by the proceedings of the conference of the great powers of Europe at Berlin^

The child, by Nature's kindly law,

Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled by a straw, seemß to typify the present condition of the two greit English speaking communities in the other hemisphere. And the rattle which not merely amuses them at the present moment but beguiles their time and absorbs their interest, is a player who is very famous without being really great, and who ia a conspicuous personality rather than a considerable peraonago. Where he is strongwt ho was excelled by Frederick Lemaitre, and where he is weakest ho affords abundant scope for satirical commentary, or for advarse criticism. But the Americans, although they pay considerable deference to public opinion upon questions of literature, art and scianco in the mother country, have an independent method of looking at men and things ; and while they accorded Mr Irving such an enthusiastic reception as bo great a favorite in England waa warranted in expecting, they do not seem to have lost the balance of their judgement, or to have been " carried of their legs" by the popular actor, even in the part which is undeniably hi<i best, and which laid the fouadation of his extraordinary repute. Aud the verdicts pronounced upon him by the beat of the of the New York critics are by no means saturated with that syrup of cloying flattery which has been administered to Mr Irving i in such eopiona doses by the drnmatio critics of the Londoa press, with one or two aotable «XQ«ptiOQB.

The borough council invite owners of dogs to pay the registration fee. Unregistered dogs are liable to be destroyed.

A daylight drill of the garrison takes place at 7 o'clock this evening on the old oricket ground. Every member is required to be present.

Nominations for the Autumn, Stewards', Trotting, Hurdle, and St. Patrick's Handicaps of the Oamaru Jookay Club close on tha 9th inst. with the secretary, Mr G. S. Lintot fc.

An inquest was held at Duntroen on Friday last, before Mr Robinson, R.M., district coroner, on the body of Sarah Cameron, aged 2$ years, vrho died from injuries received by firs. Nothing further was elicited than waa published in oui Thursday's issue, and a rordict of accidental death was returned.

Orders have lately been received at San Franoiico by the captains of several vessels to the effect that if the charters they have been negotiating are not closed they are to refuse to proceed with them except at much hgher rates. It is stated that these instruotions are based upen the expeotation of a European war, which would oause a sharp Uranca in freights.

The crops in the Hakateremta Valley never looked better than they do this season. In the Valley the season has been a favorable one so far, not so much rain having fallen their as oa the sea. coast. With warm bright weather the grain-growers of this locality should be able to make a very perceptible addition to the quantity of wheat coming down the Waitaki line.

On Friday next the Oamaru Amateur Pirates company will reproduca the opera af the " Pirates of Penzanca." The object for which the opera will bo given is to liquidate the debt incurred by the players in the purchase of their wardrobe, The cempany has a fair olaim on the public, aa the members have already given their service gratuitously in aid of the local charities and the Athenseum;

A N«w "iork agent for the unemployed has furnished some statistics to the Now York journals respecting the present condin on of labor in that city. At the beginning of September there were 5,000 book-keepers in New York seeking places, mostly between 25 and 30 yeara of age. There are already 23,000 book-keepers in the city, including a great number of men who could work at a hundred different things, but who persisted in keeping books or remaining idle, Scarcely any earn 25d0l a week, and not many 20dol, tha average being from 15dol to 1 8dol, and hundreds of good book-keepers could be furnished at from 15 to 12dol per week. Thers were a great many applicant?, chiefly Germans, and a great many placea in the bar-kseping line. The Germans have supplanted the Irish in this business, and during the late " dynamite season" it was hard to find a berth of any kind fur an Irishman.

The San Francisco correspondent of a contemporary writeß : A horrible affair latoly took place in a house at mid-day. A woman went into her bedroom to take money enough out to pay her rant, and went out so to do, Two men, from the street, had seen the transaction, aad, watching her go out, they entered the window, which was at the back of the house, intending t» take what she had left. The poor woman returned before they had accomplished their design, and when she entered her room, was seized by the men and gagged. They then tore of her lace collar, and tied it so tight round her neck that sha speedily became uneonsoious, while the wretches departed with their booty— Ll 4s, and a gold coin worth L 3. Aftera while the rroman|partially revived, and, crawling to the head of the stairs, rolled down them into the arms of her little son, almost dead, The boy tried to undo the knot when he found out what was the matter, but failed. Then he had to search for scissors, and was long ere he could get the point below the lace, now sunken into the swollen throat, but; finally cut it. She was drawing her last breath as tho boy cut loose the tie, but the rush of air into the lungs bt ought her too. It took the woman weeks to get out of danger.

A curious sosne occurred lately at the aristocrats Church of St George's, Hanover square. A couple were abeut Jto be united in the bonds of holy matrimony, but as the lady had been defendant in a divorce suit, the rector was opp^sid to the marriage, entertaining conscientious scruples en the subject. Tlio bridegroom had, therefore, secured the offices of another clergyman, the breadth of whose ideas on the marriage question are well kaown. He was present, and all promised to go smoothly, wheu obstacles suddenly presented themselves, owing to the fact that permission had neither been aaked nor obtained from the reotor of the church. When the gentleman who desired to officiate made hia appearance hs waa refused the loan of a surplice, but some one overosmo that difficulty by rushing out and buying one. But the trouble did not end hert, for two Btalwert curates resolutely barred the passage of the reverned gentleman, preventing his entering the church, where the bride sat anxiously awaiting her swain. JSventually the contest was abandoned, and the wedding party retired from the scene of action, the unwedded bride being taken away in a fainting condition.

The English people have (writes the Q-eclong Times) queer ideas about Australia, and they can never appear to divest themselves of the convictien that we are a lot of wealthy barbarians, living in the moat extraordinary fashion, and subsisting on the very gold of the earth itself. And, indeed, for that matter, not only are these peculiar ideaa entertained amongßt the lower or ignorant classes, but amongst the wealthy and well-to-do. This is well exemplified once more in a letter Bent by a leading London house, the centra of a large firm doing business all over the world. Writing on the subject of frozen mutton, the commercial scribe says: "I have dined to-day off the meat, and find it good indeed, a3 it always is. The meat trade would pay here, as it fetches » good price, and profits might be made if we could only buy cheaply. Could you not see some of the farmers — 'Cockatoos' you call them — who kill the aheep for the sake of the wool and hides, and buy the carcases? They would sell cheap, and they are no use to them, and a mutual profit might be made." The same gentleman states that he has been informed that "brandy is consumed in large quantities by the diggers, who find by taking it in large quantities that they in timo become imperious to the bites of venomous creatures with which the country is filled," That sort of thing may be acoepted in England, but for us people out hero — well, we can only smile at the dense ignorance of things oolonial displayed in it.

The Stranger in London. — That this great city will ere long be hardly recognisable by its former denizens, all the world haa heard. The visitor passing up the Thame3 now finds his eye gratified by the many edifices recently erected. As he reaches the famous Victoria Embankment, there rises over him on the right hand the ; new Times office, and on the left hand the new tower-crowned works of Messrs James Eprs & Co., both phases of Italian architecture. It may be said that these two buildings are types of the far-reaching business energy of the nineteenth century, for it has resulted from such means that these two establishments have brought themselves to the fore, and that the annual issue of each has come to be estimated by millions. During the last year the number of copies of the Times is estimated at 16,276,000, while the number of packets of Epps's Cocoa sent off in the same period is computed at 14,749,695. The latter is a large total when it ia borno in mind that in 1830 the consumption of Cocoa throughout the wholkingdom was but 425,2821b5. there then cxc isting no preparation of it such as this, which by the simple addition of boiling water would yield a palatable drink. Truly time may be said to work many changes. Thick Heads, heavy stomachs, bilious conditions — "Wella 1 May Apple Pilla" — antibilious, cathartic. 5d and 1». Moses, Moss and Co, Sydney, General Agents.

PHOTOGKAPHT IN" ALL ITS BRANCHES. — Albt. Sargeaut, Artist Photographer, Tees street, continues to give satisfaction to his Patrons, and still takes all photographs by

the Gelatine-Bromide Instantaneous Process, introduced by him some time ago. Studio open every holiday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

f< Buchit.Paiba."— Quick, complete cure, all annoying kidney, bladder, and urinary diseasea. Druggists. Moses, Moss, and Co., Sydney, general agenta. Skinny Men.— "Wells' Health Renewer" restores health and vigor, cures dyspepsia, debility. Moses, Moss and Co., Sydney, general agents

" Rough ok Rais."— Clears out rats, mice, roaches, flies, ants, bed-bugs, beetles, insects, skunks, jack-rabbits, gophers. 7sd. Druggists. Moses, Moss and Co., Sydney, Genet al Agents.

It is Wokth a Tkia-l. — " I was troubled for many years with kidney complaint, gravel, &c, my blood became thin, I was dull and inactive, could hardly crawl about, and was an old worn-out man all over, and could get nothing to help me until I got Hop Bitters, and now my blood and kidneys are all right, and I am as active as a man of thirty although I am savonty-two, and have no doubt it will do as well for others of my aje. It is worth the trial,"— (Father). — Notice.

Not a Beverage.— " They are not a beverage, but a medicine, with curative proparties of the highest degree, containing no poisonous drugs. They do not tear down an already debilitated system, but build it up. One bottle contains more real hop strength than a barrel of ordinary beer. Physician* prescribe them. — Rochester Even' ing Express on Hop Bitters,