WELLINGTON NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8985, 24 February 1888, Page 5

WELLINGTON NEWS.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Thursday. AUCKLAND LAND BOARD.

Application has been made to the Minister of Lands for the representation of the district of Tauranga on the Auckland Board. The application is under consideration. THE TARANAKI PETROLEUM SPRINGS. I am informed that Mr. Gordon, Inspector of Mines, reports unfavourably of these springs (1) because of the expense and danger of working ; (2) because the oil itself is of an inferior quality ; (3) because of its impurity, being mixed with a species of lubricating oil, of little or no commercial value. MILITARY COURT OF INQUIRY. Major Messenger, and Captains Coleman and Falconer are appointed a Court of Inquiry into the complaints of an exgunner at Point Halswell, named McCarthy, that he was persecuted by Sergt.Major Smith, of the Permanent Artillery. THE S.S. ORETI. One of the crew of this vessel writes to the local papers as follows :—" I don't know how long a time they require to pay us, but this I —that it is now going well on for three months since some of us have received any wages, and how those dependent on us in Auckland manage to keep even a roof over their heads is more than I can tell you. I think it is very hard, considering that we have so much wages due, as that our families at home should be in want, and even at the present time, as far as I see, we seem just as far off getting our money as we were the first day we came to Wellington." THE LOAN ACT BLUNDER. The Press says this evening that the flaw in the Loan Act will have beneficial rather than injurious results; that Sir Harry Atkinson on various occasions announced that there would be no nocessity for raising the loan until the close of the present year ; that the whole subject will bo again discussed in Parliament with advantage. It next vouchsafes the following piece of information as to the Premier's motives in asking authority for the loan : —" lb is believed that his real object in seeking to obtain command of this million was to be able to support the banks to that extent during a trying time, which seemed to be looming ahead, in order to avert a commercial crisis. We have no intention of discussing hero the question of whether that would be legitimate financing or not ; it is sufficient to say that Sir Harry Atkinson is pretty well understood to have had a proneness towards it for years past, and that he does not stand alone among colonial statesmen in that respect. The Victorian Government have more than once raised a loan when they did not want the money, with the openly avowed object of easing the money market in the colony. The last Victorian loan of a million and a half was immediately placed on fixed deposits with the associated banks, the Government having more than a million in hand from previous loans. If tho surmise regarding Sir Harry Atkinson's arriere jxn.iee is correct, therefore, and if his method is a vicious one, he errs in good company." INTENTS. Notice of hearing applications :—Pierre Fink Martineau Burrow (Auckland), for an improved folding and adjusting ladder, sth June next ; Thomas Bell, Auckland, for a kerosene soap powder, also nth Juno next ; Edward Beauchamp Singleton Mercer, Parnell, for use of wooden mounts for photographs, 7th June next. population op THE colony. The following statement as to the population of tho colony on December 31, 1887, appears in the Gazetto : —European, 603,361 ; Maoris, 41,909 : total, 645,330. TENDERS FOR TELEGRAPH LONG ARMS.

The tender of Coulthard Bros., Papakura, has been accepted, at 4Jd.