BANKRUPTCY ROLL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7926, 18 July 1887, Page 4

BANKRUPTCY ROLL.

A sitting of the Superior Court of Bankruptcy will be held before hia Honor Mr Justice "VVilliama to-day. The following is. the list of business:—

Motions of order of discharge will bo made on behalf of the following bankrupts .—Charles Nicholson, Qeorge Carson, John Carson, Percy Edward Hubbard, James Frederick Peake, [ ueorge Hard wick, John Blackie, James Malcolm, i George Stafford Matheson, James Collins, James | JVlorkaiie, Charles Shand, James Curie, Thomas Low, and Julius Sandtmann. BE BICHAHD DALE. Motion for order closing bankruptcy. HE OKOEGE JOACHIM. Motion for order closing bankruptcy, HE JOHN GALLIE, Creditors' petition for adjudication. HE JOHN PiIENTICE. Public examination of debtor.

MR REYNOLDS' RETRENCHMENT, TO TBE EDITOIt. Sin,—From your telegraphic yeporfc of Major Atkinson's speech nt Hawc^a, appearing in your to-day's issue, I peroeyra that mit "precept" takes the place of ".practice." If he was fit for the j position he occupied prior to ISB4 as Premier and Colonial Treasurer, why did he not foresee the necessity for retrenchment and modify his finances accordingly ? You are aw?,r?, Sir, that prior and up to 1884 I was continuous in my appeals for retrenchment, and iv a letter of mine which appeared in your paper of September 17,1883,1 there compared the extravagance of the Atkinson Government to an insolvent debtor who would carry on his extravagance until brought to a stand by the Bankruptcy Court, and I then pointed out that the labouring classes would be the greatest sufferers which, I am sorry to find, has been too truly verified I remarked, ".Depression, engendered from either or all the causes I have referred t 0 falls heavier pn those who depend on their daily labour for their dailj bread than it does on *V P well-to-do." Again, you will find in your issue of April 5, 1884, in addressing a meeting of gentlemen m the Chamber of Commerce iv connection with a propesedcoustitutiona] association I remarked!: "I consider our position is sufficiently alarming, and that unless wo put on the brake at once our taxation will soon become too heavy to bear, and will drive many people away from our shores." These and many other notes of warning I was very careful to forward to the Government of the day, and I know that they were seen by Major Atkinson, Ye* when ho had the power to e^est retrenchment he did not consider \i worth his while to do so but now, forsooth, he has the audacity to deny tha3 she present Government has effected any jcprcilchmcnt. Now lam prepared to show that the Estimates of the present Government for the year ending 31st March 1888 show reductions of £127,106 as compared with the anpro-' priationa of 1883-4, In coming to this.coaoiusion I have excluded in each case a!J payments for interest and sinking fund^sjao permanent appropriates existing Ijj act prior to 1884. I then deduct the i;oa ; reourrent votes and special anprovpafoons for ISB3-4 and 1887-8, which amount i'cspeoUvely to £50,271 and £94,240. I then give credit to the Estimates of 18S7-8 'or 18 500 additional attendance of pupils at jho schools throughout the colony, tie payment for which ,s provided by act at £3 15s, and an extra ca^uafcion of 4s (being a r^ auction on previous appropriations of lsahaact} amounting to £73,075, and further, th ? , iieeessatuxtra appropriation for the working of 331 mile' of ra.hvay opened for traSfc aince ISs/X* .uul ;iaw ror 1886-7 and 1887-8. T n mv w^J which 1 wrote you a few days a-o a"v which I ™^f|'^Vm^uAloiS e I stated that the actual saving compared between the appropriates fc the years ISBC-7 f%£ n^ tl% ateS- Or, tlia yews 1887"8 amouut» i •' J!V S ? lso milde llP;» the same way, malting deductions for all non-recurrent runl special votes m each instance, and then oUow.ng ihe net savings as between the two year, of &5 083. But, this is not all. The l.ivil burvicc Art ol IS3G. prohibits new appointments to the civil service other than cadets, or iv special cases experts. Vacancies which occur are filled up either by amalgamation ofoflices or by promotion,, but iv the latter case the

salary attaching to the vacated ofiice is ennsidt ably diminished. Future reductions to a larfi, amount in the cost of tho service is thus pro- _• vitled for. In the perusal of your pape- I have*''"""' perceived that you, 100, are doubtful as to any savings having been effected by the present Government. Now, Sir, I challenge you to appoint any one or more accountants to go over my tables of savings with me, and I will be quite prepared to abide by their decision as to which of us is right. As you are aware, it is no interest to me that the present Government should remain in office. I have no ambition to gratify; neither have I any salary attached to my office, and the time occupied in public affairs I cannot well spare from my other avocations. Still, from the interest I take in the prosperity of this my adopted country, I am willing to spend and be spent in its service. I have now been nearly 34 years continuously engaged in politics, either as an elected member or member of the Legislative Council, and I can say that the present is the only Government which has applied and promises to apply the pruning knifejiu the way of retrenchment since the Stafford Government was in power. In your paper you have advocated the return of Major Atkinson to power. Now, I feel convinced that no greater calamity could befall us. Why, Sir, you cannot be aware of his antecedents When the provinces were abolished it was a solemn agreement by the act that the land fund was to belong to each provincial district; but by his Financial Arrangement Act he managed to make so many charges against it as far as Canterbury and Otago were concerned that it virtually disappeared, but he took care to secure for the harbour of New Plymouth for all time coining 25 per cent, of the gross receipts for all lands sold in Tarauaki, including the confiscated lands, which were acquired at an enormous cost to the colony. Then, again, an appropriation was passed in the schedule of the "£3,000,000 Loan Act 1882" of £710,000 for railways in Otago and Canterbury, to which had to be added from the previous loan liabilities then existing to the extent of £59,400 When the £3,000,000 loan was all expended, the Canterbury and Otago expenditure from this appropriat.on of £710,000 was dcßoieut by no less a f ™ nnn I ¥? 0> °f whloh £208-000 out of the £300,000 voted by the act for the .Otago Central was not expended but devoted to other purposes not provided for in the Loan Act And here let me remind the electors of Dunedin West that the Hon. Mr Dick, who was a member ot the Atkinson Ministry at the time, was a party to this most unjust and iniquitous proceedinc • and yet I fird Mr Dick saying at his meeting in the Albany street Hall, as reported in your issue of the 2Sth June, "that he would not undertake to say that he would oppose ? .? I,! m 6 because Major Atkinson was in it. Atter such an answer, I fear he would not object to join an Atkinson Ministry Now I have a great respect for Mr Dick as a good citizen and a conscientious man, but I certainly object to leaving the interests of Canterbury and Otago in the hands of any Ministry of which Major Atkinson formed a member, with Mr Dick as his colleague. I do trust that no Otago or Canterbury constituency will elect anyone as their representative who will support a Ministry with Major Atkinson in it. There are many other charges of injustice to Otaeo and Canterbury which I might bring against him, but my letter is already too long. I will conclude, quoting his last words to his meeting at Hawera, by an "appeal to the electors of the, colony to remember that this is one of the moat important crises in the history of the colony, and that the weal or woe of the colony for years tocome will depend on the manner in which they discharge their trust." And in my opinion theywill best discharge that trust by rejecting every candidate who will support a Ministry of which Major Atkinson is a member.—l am, &c., ~ , .„ William H. Reynolds. Montecillo,JulylC.