Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7661, 11 June 1886, Page 4

The attention of the Colonial Secretary, the Hon. Mr. Buckley, was called on Wednesday to the impoitance of the report from the Inspector of Lunatic Asylums, and especially to that portion of it relating to the overcrowded state of the Asylum at Auckland. The want of sufficient accommodation in this institution was 'described by the Inspector as "becoming positively disgraceful." From all that we can learn, the description is by no means exaggerated, and we are, therefore, glad to

know from the, Colonial Secretary that the Government are fully alive to the necessity of this grave defect being remedied as early as possible. The matter resolves itself, it is true, into a question of money ; and, in the present state of the public finances, money is difficult to be had, even for the most deserving objects. But the claims of suffering humanity, and especially of those unfortunate members of the community who are suffering from the most distressing of all maladies, ought to be a first charge upon whatever funds are available. It is to be hoped, therefore, that before the session closes, a sum will be placed on the Estimates sufficient to enable such an enlargement to be made of the Whau Asylum as will admit of a more systematic classification of the inmates, and the promotion of their comfort.

There is one statement, however, which fell from the Colonial Secretary when speaking on this subject in the Legislative Council, which astonishes us not a littlo. He said "he was aware that there were many persons immured in the asylums who were sane, and who ehould not be detained." This may possibly mean that there are persons in these institutions who are suffering,, not so much from insanity as from peculiar physical infirmity or some incurable disease, and whose cases ought to be dealt with elsewhere than in an asylum. And if so, we trust with him that this state of things may soon be amended. But his language seems to have a wider significance, and to imply that there are inmates in the asylums who are quite harmless, and capable of taking care of themselves. And if this interpretation of his words be correct, it certainly discloses a state of things which ought not to be allowed to continue a day. There is reason to fear that our asylums are, in not a few instances, made use of by families who wish to be relieved of the trouble or inconvenience caused by any member of them whose weakness demands from them a little self-sacrifice, or whose want of mental brilliancy is supposed to deduct from their repuation. | In all such cases the law should be put in motion to redress the wrong resulting from this species of selfishness and inhumanity ; and, if instances of this nature are within the knowledge of the Government, measures for dealing with them and exposing the shameful conduct which they are due to, should be taken without any delay.

We have despatched special correspondents to the Lake Country to ascertain full details of the recent volcanic outbreak there, and should anything of startling interest arise to warrant it, a second edition of the Herald will be published to-day at an early hour. To-morrow the paper will conßiit of sixteen pages instead of twelve. With this issue we publish a map of the district which was subjected to such violent volcanic disturbance yesterday morning. There is a localit -nap showing the relative position of the Ronjrua district as compared with the surrounding places lying between Napier, Tauranga, and New Plymouth. la addition to this general map is one on a large scale, ahowiug the features of the Lake district in a mora distinct manner than is possible upon the smaller scale map- The information to be obtained from these maps will no doubt be found advantageous to our readers in the perusal of the details of the occurrence which have come to hand. To-day the map is issued in black, but with to-morrow's Herald it will be published in colours. The ordinary meeting of the City Council was held last night, when a goad deal of routine business was transacted. A deputation of ministers submitted resolutions to the Council upon the CD. Act, and they were, after discussion, referred ro the Legal Committee to report upon. The cemetery by-laws were confirmed. " A report of the meeting will be found in another column. From a statement in our issue thin morning it might appear that there was some difficulty in communicating with the 'telegraph office at Onehunga ; but in justice to the operator there it is right to say that he responded with commendable promptitude to the call from the Auckland office.

It appears that we have not yet heard the last of the trouble which has ariser. through the tire on board the Union steamer Waihora in this port last September. We understand that Messrs. Coupland and Co., and Messrs. D. H. McKenzie and Co,, grain merchants, of this city, were joint consignees by that ship of 959 packs oats, shipped by' Messrs. J. and Jf. Meek, the well-known millers, Oamarn. After the discharge of the oats in this port they were found to be damaged to the extent of nearly £50 by the water poured on them to stop the progress of the fire. The Union Steamship Co. refiused to allow the wetting of cargo to bo treated on the basis of general average, and in the course taken by the shipowners thoy were sustained by nearly every intelligent man in Auckland, inclusive of the abovenamed sufferers. But, on making application to the underwriters of the oats (the Thames and Mersey Co.),' the Auckland agents of that company, Messrs. Moss End Co., refused payment on the ground that the loss should be settled as a general average, so, between two stools, the sufferers find themselves minus, although their policy specially covers, in event of the ship being burnt, tha very loss sustained. The matter lias now, we believe, been placed in th« hands of Mr. Thomas H. Mabin, and a writ will be issued, so we hear, against the underwriters at once. The South British Insurance Co., who were largely interested in the same mishap, settled their losses, we are informed, on the basis of particular average. Mr, Graves Aickin, President of the Chamber of Commerce, yesterday evening forwarded the following telegram to the Hon. the Minister for Mines :—'• Re lapsed vote LaMonte furnace, it is desirable that this vote be revived as a reward for improvements in gold and silver saving appliances. Mines, Upper Thames, paralysed for lack of means to save precious metals in payable quantities." The question was diiicusaed by the Brokers' Association at yesterday's meeting, and the action of the Chamber in the matter cordially approved of.

The codlin moth appears to give our fruitgrowers much uneasiness. Our Waikato correspondent thus writes:—"Some surprise has been expressed at the inaction of the committeo appointed at the late meeting of the Waikato Horticultural Society to draft amendments to the Codlin Moth Act 18S4 for the consideration of the Legislature. Nothing appears to have been as yet done in the matter ; meantime the session i.B slipping away and an Act to deal with this orchard pest which is really practicable and efficient is sadly needed." The work at the telegraph office was exceedingly heavy yesterday, and great praise is due to Mr. Furby (officer in charge) and his staff of assistants for the expeditious and efficient manner in which they despatched the business of the department. The new telegraph line via Taupo and Cambridge proved of the utmost service, for all the messages had to bo transmitted thereby, as the old line through Rotorua was broken down. The pressure of Press and other messages was so great that only urgent telegrams for the South could be forwarded during the day. In accordance) with our request, Sir Julius Vogel directed the Cambridge, Hamilton, Kotorua,, Maketu, and Tauranga telegraph offices to remain open all night to enable us to (furnish our readers with the latest particular received from our special correspondent! at the scene of the calamity. The annual njeeting of the Panmure Licensing Committee was held at the Road Board office, Panmure, yesterday. All the members of the committee, Mr. Seaman (clerk), and Constable Walker (inspector) were present. The chairman (Mr. Cleary) presided. After confirmation of minutes of previous meeting the inspector presented his report, which was tolerably satisfactory in regard to the two hotels In thra district. Renewals ware granted to John Jamieson for the Panmure Hotel, with request for improvement as to the furnishing ; and to Archibald Ramsey Leslie for the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel, with a caution as to j Sunday and afterhour trading. The railway extension from Oxford to Lichfield is so rapidly approaching completion that it is expected the line will be opened on Monday, June 21, and on and after that date a new railway time-table will cocae into i operation,

e ■■ - «——•■ i-1 * Our cable newa contains the alarming intelligence that serious rioting has occurred between the Catholics and Protestants of Belfast. The police were obliged to interfere, and to repel the violence of the mob they had to make use of their firearms, and several of the rioters were killed. It will also be seen that the Queen has given her assent to the dissolution of Parliament, but the date of the new elections has not yet been fixed. Up to the time of going to press no Parliamentary telegrams had been received from Wellington. This is no doubt owing to the wire being blocked through the Rotorua disturbance and there being only one line available. The s.s. Wellington went on a sandbank On entering Taurangs. harbour this morning, but is expected to be got off by the first tide.

There was considerable excitement manifested at the North Shore yesterday in connection with the election of nine councillors for the newly-constructed borough of Devonport. Mr. B. Tanuer was Returning Officer, and Messrs. Seaman, jun., Keefe, Smith, and Brooking acted as scrutineers. So large was the number of votes that the counting of them occupied about two hours and three-quarters. The result of the poll was declared as follows :—Thomas John Puder, 270 ; Edward William Burgess, 234 ; James Mays, 213 : Ewen William Alison, '212; Edward Bartley, 209; Heurv Pitts, .194;' Richard Cameron. 193: William Philcox, 192 ; William Hoile Brown, 176 ; Robert Jones Roberts, 141 ; John Bond, 135 ; George Lankham, 130; James Dunning, 126; Samuel Tanfield, 116; Joseph Glenny, 105; Henry James Oliver, 87; Charles Hooker, 51 ; David Samuel Chambers, 39 ; John Jervis, 27. The first nine were according declared elected. In the course of Wednesday night a burglary of a serious character was perpetrated on the premises of Messrs. Porter and Co., Upper Symonds-street. It seems that the key of the shop was in charge of the shopman, Mr. Ernest Burton, and on proceeding to the place of business yesterday morning he found that the door had been forced open, and a large safe, containing £41 in cash, ledger, cashbook, and other business papers bad been taken away. It was also discovered that the till in which were coins to the amount of four shillings had been emptied. From the fact that the safe weighed nearly two hundredweight, it would appear that there were more than one person engaged in the burglary. The matter waa at once placed in the hands of the police. The Rev. J. S. Smalley, connexional evangelist, will commence a series of special nervices in the Grafton Road Wesleyan Church by preaching there at half-past seven this evening. A football match was played in the Domain, yesterday afternoon, between fifteen of the wholesale warehousemen and twenty of the retail drapers, resulting in favour of the former, who had the best of the game all through, . by twelve points to five. Tries were scored for the winners by Webster (3) and Binney, while the former also kicked a goal from the field. Mr. C. Gardner acted a umpire, and Mr. J. J. Macky as referee. The business at the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday was taken before Captain Jackson, R.M., of Papakura. who came down by train to occupy the Bench during Mr. Seth Smith's absence in Waikato, where he is investigating by commission into a claim against the Government for the delivery of telegraph poles on the line beyond Cambridge. Two members of the legal profession accompany the inquiry, Mr. T. Cotter appearing ou behalf of the contractor and Mr. Theo. Cooper representing the Government.

The Northern Steamship Co. will issue tickets by the s.s. Clansman to Tauranga this evening at a special reduced fare of 303 for the return journey. The half-yearly sale of useful and ornamental goods, the handiwork of the ladies in connection with the Beresford-streec Congregational Church, was held in the schoolroom adjoining the church yesterday afternoon and evening. In addition to the four stalls for displaying the various articles, there was one for the sale of refreshments. There was a gocd attendance, and the ladies in charge of the stalls plied a brisk business. In the evening a number of selections ot vocal and instrumental music were rendered by members of the church choir, under the direction of Mr. Hooton. The proceeds of these periodic sales have formerly been devoted to the aid of home and foreign mission work, but in future the organ and church extension funds will also share in the financial results.

The lecture on "Socialism," by the Rev. E. H. Gulliver, A., announced for delivery at St. Sepulchre's Schoolroom last night, was postponed owing to the small attendance. A curious misappropriation of public money has (says the Argus Sydney correspondent) just been exposed. Somebody speculated in writing a volume of political portraits. It is said that lion, members were approached by the touter for tihe book, and told that if they would take five copies for £5 each they could write their own accounts for themselves. Mr. Dibbs was foolish enough to buy 500 copies of this book for £600, to pay for it out of the Treasurer's advance account, and then to shunt the expense on to the funds for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition. The portraits are said to be sketched from a very party point of view, and Sir Henry Parkes declares that his is a perfect libel. The discussion led incidentally to some very proper criticisms on the abuse of the Treasurer's advance account. This was originally a fund of £100,000 intended for casts of necessity. But a lax custom has grown up of charging on it anything for which there were not funds on hand, and the amount has reached such dimensions as Beriou3ly to interfere with the Parliamentary control over the expenditure. The Perth Inquirer, of a recent date, states that a party of diggers who hired a dray at Derby, to convev provisions to Kimberley, had to pay £1500 for it. The dray was drawn by three horses. In the early days of the Ballarat diggings, Victoria, when there were no roads to that part of the colony, the carriage from Melbourne was at the rate of £120 per ton.

A new departure in the destruction of rabbits is about to be undertaken as an experiment by the Victorian Lands Department. In response to numerous applications the Minister for Landu has determined to call for tenders for the destruction of rabbits on ■ix blocks of Crown lands situated in the parishes of Trewalla, Mougie, Tooragal, and £enbruok,in the shire of Portland. Tenderers will be required to state the total sum for which they are prepared to undertake the destruction of the rabbits on each block, and to keep the block clear of rabbits from July 1, 18S6, to June 30, 1837. No restrictions as to the material to be uaed, or the means or appliances to be adopted, will be made. The work is to be conducted, carried on. and completed to the satisfaction of the officer appointed by the Minister of Lands, who will have power to examine all appliances and material used. If desired, arrangements will be made by the department for the payment monthly of 10 per cent, of the total amount of the contract. < A report has reached Waipawa from the Makaretu bush that smoke and steam have for five months past {ever Since the disastrous bush fires) been issuing from the side of the hill adjoining the Tukituki river bed, and "00 feet high. A settler made an inspection, and thinks that what he believes to be a seam of coal two feet thick is on fire. A crowded meeting was held recently in the Town Hall, Adelaide, to consider the advisability of repealing the Totalisator Act. It was resolved that it was desirable for the prosperity of the sport of horseracing, and in the interest of the public generally, that duly constituted racing clubs should be permitted to use the totalisator machine at their meetings. The last section of the Taranaki breakwater till the new loan is raised, was in course of construction on Tuesday last. When it is laid, the whole working staff is to be discharged. The Board however has come to no resolution as regards Mr. Rhind, the engineer. Last week the allotment of sections was made in the Fielding Small *arm Association, about 80 out of the 90 members being present. The block taken up com--3 11,000 acres of exceeding good land for the most part nearly flat, and very lightly timbered. Mr. Frederick Cock, Chairman of the Ohinemnri County Council, is moving to have a conference at Paeroa. under the auspices of the Council, of all Counc.ls in neighbour, ing counties, as well as of all = are interested in the subject of the extermination of the codlin moth*

Tho Otago Times of the 31&t ultimo says : — "About a week since the managing proprietor of the Lyttelton Times intimated to the compositors in his employ that he had found it necessary to reduce the. rate per thousand to Is, and that the reduced rate would be paid from the Ist of June. The compositors, seeing the reasonableness of the reduction in the present circumstances of trade, agreed to accept the proposal. It may bo mentioned that la per thousand is the rate paid in the majority of newspapers in the colony, and in Dunedin alone have the men combined to resist it."

A correspondent, " Jacques," writes as fob lows :—"ln your report of the doings of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Committee yesterday appeared a refusal to an application made by Mr. Jeune to be allowed to visit, as previously, at the Hospital. Now, I should like to know why such & reasonable request, and one that could not possibly do anyone any harm, was refused, whilst permission is granted periodically to the Roman Catholic priest to bring a whole troop of singers to give a concert on Sunday afternoons. In the first place, if the hours of visiting at the Hospital are limited to three days of the week, two hours eaoh, then those concerts being held during visiting hours is an encroachment on the visitors' privileges ; and, again, the shifting of beds, noise, and influx of an unusual number of people, beside the visitors (whose visits are considerably marred) to the ward in which the concert is held, is sure to be to the injury of some of the patients ; and yet those concerts are held by permission of the House Surgeon. The fact is, to refuse a natural and harmless request like Mr. Jeuno's and to allow these concerts is like straining at » gnat and swallowing a camel. Hoping to see better sense and justice ruling in future in the management of the Hospital."

"Ratepayer" writes as- foliows : — We may well exclaim, "poor Waitakerei—unfortunate Waitakerei !" When the Road Boards were swallowed up by the county, the settlers were promised all sorts of good things, in the shape of good roads and bridges to open tip the country, and to make it habitable. The Waitakerei Valley Road was then promised to be made where the settlers wished it to be made. Mr. Gibbons and other residents promised to give their land gratis in order to facilitate this good work. What is the result of all this ? The most barefaced jobbery ; and, where the road was to have gone to benefit the. settler and settlement, it is now altered for timber purposes, and is being made for the benefit of the millowner. Have councillors lost nil sense of decency? Their threatened law proceedings for defamation of character, one against the other, have caused the councillors to lose all respect for each other, and it is now a scramble who gets the most for his district. It is high time the Government stepped in to restrain the County Council, and to see that the money voted for settlement is not misdirected and used for timber purposes. From the chairman downwards, councillors in any way mixed up with mills ought to be disqualified from being councillors."

A meeting of the Mount Eden Chess Club was held at Mr. Webb's Reading-room. View Road, on the evoning of Tuesday last, Mr. Jonrdain occupying the chair. There was a fair attendance, and the following resolutions were adopted, namely : "That the subscription for the season be 7* 6d ; the club to meet every Tuesday evening; that Mr. Ashton, secretary to the Auckland Chess Club, be requested to act as president of the club."/ Mr. J. Matthews was appointed secretary and treasurer, and the following committee elected : — Uev. Mr. Beattie, Messrs. Webb, Jourdain, E. R. Watkins, andßotuerham. After the conclusion of the business, the rest of the evening was devoted to chess, the meeting breaking up at about eleven p.m. Another five-ton punt is being built as Alexandra to the order of Mr. J. J. O'Brien, contractor for the Purotorau tunnel works. Since the rains have swollen the streams the punts previously made have been started on their trip up stream to Te Kuiti with material. Mr. J. D. Hill is erecting a branch store at Otorohanga, which will soon become a settlement of importance. Forest conservation and renewal are carefully looked after in South Australia. There are 200,000 trees in the Mount Gambier reserve, all of which are in a thriving condition. Twenty-five thousand trees are to be planted at Mount Mclntyre this year. The Olago Daily Times would like to sea a coalition formed including Sir R. Stoat, Sir J. Vogel, and Major Atkinson, under Mr. Bryce, whose determination and independence it considers are most likely to bring about a stern, judicious, and as far as possible permanent retrenchment.

The Auckland Weekly News was established twenty-three years ago, and is the best known and most widely circulated weekly newspaper published in New Zealand. Its readers are to be found in all parts of the colony and Australia, and it also largely circulates in England and America. The aim of its conductors has been to mtke it a high class family journal and country magazine. Its contents, therefore, are of the most diversified character, and encyclopedic in their g-ope. They embrace a very wide range of subjects, suited to all tastes, classes, and conditions. The News Is copiously illustrated, and its selection of colonial and foreign Intelligence is extensive and Interesting, and carefully made. Its serial tales are written by the most popular novelists of the day such world-wide celebrities in literature as Wilkie Collins, William Black, Miss Braddon, and Walter Besant. The social topics of the hour are d?alt with by competent writers in a bright and lively style, and each week a sermon, by one of the foremost preachers of the age, is published in extent >. Special attention is devoted to agriculture and kindred subjects, and contributions from experienced and practical authorities on all matters connected with the Farm and Field ap peir weekly. The following headings indicate the miscellaneous character of its general reading :— 'For the Ladies," "Useful Household Hints," " Fashion Notes," " Children's Column," " Wit and Humour," " Poetry," "Chess and Draughts," " Literature, Music, and the Drama," " Science and Art," Ac. The Town Clerk has given an intimation to all water consumers that rates foiling due on the 3Hh of the present month will require to be paid prior to that date, Mid that those who allow their rates to remain unpaid will have their sup ply cat off. The annual meeting of the Te Awamutu Cheese and Bacon Factory Co. is to be held on the 19th instant at th» Public Hall, Te Awamntu.