CORRESPONDENCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10278, 2 November 1896, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE

■' * . SCRIP OR SHARE CERTIFICATES. TO TBS KMITOR. Sir,— thanks of southern investors are duo to Mr. G. A. Buttle and the brokers who resolved to accept no transfers, without scrip after January 1. It is'difficult to see what objection cau exist to its issue, and it is certainly a fact that a good deal of southern money has gone to the West Coast, which might have found its way to. Auckland if representation by scrip had. been the rule there, as it is with us and was in my time in Australia. There is no security in the receipt for transfer given by the,' legal manager's clerk when registering, because shares , can be transferred without'; its production, aud in the case of '-fire or accidental destruction of registers, it might happen that the holder of the receipt had least right to the shares, Scrip should pass with the transfers, or have suitable spaces on the reverse side, to admit of the transfer of all or part by endorsement, The English companies are great delinquents in'this respect, and it is only to be /hoped that the Chamber of Mines, the Brokers' Association, or other interested body, will issue a circular pointing out their liability. Sections 23, 24, and 25 of the Act of 1895 clearly define the duty of each company to open a colonial register, 'whether or not authorised so to do by its Act or Charter of Incorporation, 1 or by its articles or regulations ; to m iik e adequate provision for the registration in the colony of transfers of its shares, and the execution and issue in the colony cr scrip certificates or. other documents of title in)respect of the shares so transferred.' Each company is required'to open a colonial register, 'and' to appoint an attorney to enter shareholders thereon, and to sign and issue scrip..;; Each company has a permissive j right '-' to prescribe 'i reasonable > fees ■ (not! exceeding Is) to be paid on each application for entry in the Colonial Register, or removal from one register to another (Colonial to English or Foreign), and a reasonable time i

(not exceeding • (our .months)' to elapse ; be* tween the application being made and the - entry or ■, removal being effected.' The .- penalty for breach or neglect .of these regula- . tions is fixed at a sum not exceeding £5 per -./• v day,-with a farther proviso,! if'suoh V failure or neglect continues for a space,of'' three months, the company shall be in- N capable thereafter of carrying on business in New Zealand. 1 This is a drastic penalty, no • doubt, but it is to the interest of investors to get their shares registered with as little V delay as. possible; and as removals from the colonial to the home register must be effected :, within four months from the time of applica- '•■ lion, the Chamber of Minus should see that' proper facility is riven, oven if some offend- • ing company has to pay a fine as an example to others. At the present time, it is very discreditable to such companies as the Waihi Consolidated, VVaitekauri United, and others '< that no colonial register is available. Thanking you in advance, I am, etc., Ge». H, Oatway. Dunfidin, 19th October, 1896.

THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION, TO THE_ EDITOR. I Sir,— have no hesitation in saying that the position taken up by the Prohibitionists is dangerous, and a menace to the welfare of out social system. My reason for this assertion is because of their inconsistency. Our Wesleyan friends sent the Rev. L. M. Issitl home to preach temperance to the English people, whilst here in Auckland our churches are half empty for want of good and earnest men to point the people to the Saviour of mankind, who died for the sins of the world. Everyday the gulf between the Churches and the masses is growing, wider, and men are saying in their hearts there can be no God, and why? The Bible will not make men infidels, for Re, whose teachings are worthy of acceptation, says 'render unto Caesar • the things which are Cajsar's, and unto God the things which are God's.' It is because of the narrow-minded, bigoted, principles of those who are leaders and i teachers in our Churches. Their resolution shows that a man may be devoid of everything that is necessary to build up our social systom only let him wrap up in a cloak oj morality, preach temperance, and they will give him the job. I believe in temperance, but what should we say of a farmer who destroyed a paddock of wheat because there were weeds in it, yet these men are so intoxicated with one idea that they will not scruple to pull down our whole fabric because they fancy the temperance plank is too narrow. Between the prohibitionists and the publicans our progress is in great danger. If the publicans act at this election as they did in Christchurcli last election, it will be to the interest and the welfare of the people for our Government to run the traffic. The publicans need nob fear the majority vote, because the good sense of tho people will not allow them to rob or ruin men that have in bona fide taith put thousauds of pounds into valuable property.—l am, etc., J". Campbell, Ponsonby. BUTTER V. GREASE. TO THE EDITOR. Sir.—Some few months ago you reprinted a letter of mine which had appeared in the London Times. Will y#u now permit me to use, your columns to address readers, both here and at Home, on the above subject. As I am neither a professional nor Government expert, let me first present my eradentials. 'The proof of the pudding is in the eating,' says the old saw; and the proof of good butter is in the eating and keeping thereof. I therefore beg to submit samples. If these are to your liking, read on and publish; if not, consign this and them to oblivion. Samples 1, 2, and 3 are pure butter, free from salt, as required in the butteries of the Oxford Colleges. No. 1 is twenty-one days old ; No. 2 is fourteen days old; No. 3is seven days old trom the time of churning, and each sample is from the churning of the week's accumulation of cream. Sample No. 4 is the same as No. 3, salted in the conventional manner. Now, sir, tastes proverbially vary, but the public taste in this matter is so vitiated or unformed chat tho true taste of butter is unknown except in the few places where the old traditions of the dairy have been maintained ■or revived. There is nothing poetic about the commercial article known as butter. No one, even in the wildest flight of imagination could conceivo that product inspiring poets to sing its praises. All that can with truth be said of it is. that it is 'animal fat extracted from milk, in which decomposition has been arrested by the addition of Bait or other preservative.' Can it be wondered at, therefore, if the selling price of this article is as low as it is? I can fancy some dairy farmers retorting that it does not pay to make good butter. That is a matter for their consideration; but of this I am sure, that it does not pay to make bad butter. The public will neveripay good prices till they get the genuine article, and the genuine article can be known by its retaining the flavour of the _ herbage, and requiring no other preservative than the natural fermentation of the cream known as ripening. Of course, I am speaking of good fresh butter, and not of the inferior qualities suitable for salting down for cooking purposes. There is a prevalent idea that fresh butter will not keep sweet for more than a few days, and so, instead of good fresh butter, we get salted grease, and when this turns rancid, I . know nothing more objectionable to the palate ) whereas the tasto of month-old sound batter is ' almondy,' or ' nutty,' as the old folk call it, and to my mind pleasanter than the ever-lasting' Salt without Savour,' hich has become positively unendurable. The truth is that dairying has shared in the almost universal fall of our social and industrial pursuits. Overreaching greed, slovenliness, and the general tendency to leave work to those who can be forced to do it, havo produced their legitimate results, and the simple art of butter-making, once the delight of rustic maidens and well-born ladies, is now considered impossible without elaborate appliances, scientific tests, and learned dissertations, abstruse enough to addle the braius of a trained theologian. Oh, ye Gods, what a tragic farce all this is: Verily, 'what fools theso mortals be.' tirst they outrage nature as a matter of course, and then devote endless pains to doctoring her wounds. They create hell, and then claim credit for making the devils work. Should you favour this letter with, insertion, I may write again on the practical and ecouomic questions involved.— am, etc., Wm. Rowbottom. Stanmore Bay, Wade, October 29. [The samples of butter forwarded are of superior quality, and show what oan be done j in theformers' dairy with the requisite skill, cleanliness, and care. The artificial proservation of butter by the addition of foreign substances to it will no doubt be dealt with some day under the name of adulteration.— Ed.] ■ ■ THE HOWE-STREET HOME SITE. TO THE EDITOR. ' Sir,—l most cordially endorse Mr. P. A. Philips' suggestions as made in your issue of - 29th instant to convey the property known as the Howe-street Home to the City Council as an addition to the Western Pari;. The buildings are in a most dilapidated condition, and are an eyesore to the neighbourhood* while the only use the large grounds are put to is to shelter gangs of hoodlums in cardplaying, pitch and toss, and other virtues peculiar to that class. Seeing that the property is not utilised for the purpose for which it was intended, and, in fact, is not required, ample provision being made in other parts of the city, no better use could be made of it than to convert it into a recreation ground, which I am sure will be heartily appreciated by the residents in the** vicinity.—l am, etc., S. CORRESPONDENCE CONDENSED. • A correspondent writing from Waihi is surprised at the statement made in a letter that there is trouble in getting practical miners. He says that the greatest trouble is for good miners to get remunerative employment. There has been, he says, a steady downfall ' in the prices obtained for contracts during the last six months. There are plenty of'men on the fields for all present requirements. With reference to the generation of electric force by tidal power, a correspondent' Efas,' writes:—' It seemu to me that using turbine wheels—built in in strong masonry, pretty near our harbour wall, at the requisite depth (or fall of water on to turbine, with pipes of , the desired size to admit'the required volume! of ' water from the sea to this turbine, with ordinary drainage pipes to convey the spent water to the sewer —might answer the purpose. Perhaps our engineers have thought of such a way; but it ,this power could be utilised in this way, how cheap,' and what an unlimited supply of power for generating electricity. ,' A Visitor' writes that a few evenings age he wanted to go into the Albert Park to . - enjoy the view from the flag3tafl: by moon-. light He was surprised to fiud the gate in Princes-street locked. He thinks it pnerilo : to look the gates on one side of the.Park, • •_• while at the other side anyone can walk in; 0;: or get over the fence. ' •,• yv'.''>.,...' ■ ■'•A Crown Tenant,' writing: from Ponga-." -.v kawa, Bay of Plenty, complains that there . are 21,000 aores of Crown land in his neighbourhood stopping progress, aud "."prosperity , in the district. These idle Crown ; lands' are ■ worth fully £50,000(. to < £60,000 compared /: with the prices Government are giving for' private estates. These lands ought ;to hav« . been settled years ago. ; ; /- % •> ., •: o.<« > -"