THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam aut faciam." [Established November 15, 1861.] DUNEDIN, TUESDAY, JAN. 14, 1868.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23707, 14 January 1939, Page 3

THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam aut faciam." [Established November 15, 1861.] DUNEDIN, TUESDAY, JAN. 14, 1868.

SEVENTY-ONE YEARS AGO

The importance of the Financial Reform Movement, in Nelson and Canterbury, is not to be estimated by its success or failure in reducing the expenditure of the Colony. In every social agitation much more is promised by its originators than can ever, by any possibility, be realised. But though years may pass before any well developed scheme may be formed, by which the public finances may be placed on a sounder footing, and more equitably and economically dispensed, there are collateral advantages connected with the movement that ought not to be overlooked. During the past few weeks some very able articles have appeared in the leading journals of the two Provinces, in which the first principles of taxation were examined. . . .

... In some minds there is a desire to discourage immigration, under the idea .that wages would suffer; and they point to the necessity for bringing more capitalists into the Colony, supposing thereby the demand for labor would be increased. The advantage to be derived from the influx of capital would be the employment of labor; but if men are so scarce that labor cannot be obtained, capital would be useless. Well regulated immigration, at any rate, to Otago, would not only develop the resources of the Province, but tend to lighten the burden of taxation.

The annual meeting for the Dunedin district, under the Education Ordinance, was held last evening. The report of the Committee should be read with interest; as should the remarks subsequently made as to a University or College for Otago. A Cape of Good Hope paper states that people are prospecting in all directions in the neighborhood of Colesberg in search of diamonds. A number of these precious stones have already been found, some of them of considerable value. The first diamond was picked up by a little girl at Hopctown. who took the diamond to her mother, and the latter, thinking it only a pretty stone, returned it to the child to play with. A farmer happened to see it glitter, offered to buy it of the girl, but she gave it to him. saying laughingly, “Who ever heard of selling a stone." He took it, and it proved to be a diamond worth LSOO. Garnets have just been found in considerable numbers at the Cape.

The “ Oarnaru Times ’’ of Friday fears that “ the Oarnaru Agricultural Export Company bids fair—like the Oarnaru Fire Brigade—to swell the list of enterprises initiated but never brought to completion. The reason is not hard to find. The harvest in Europe and America being unlikely this season to reach the usual annual average, the wheat market is therefore exceptionally firm, the last advices from Mark-Lane quoting wheat at 81s, and held at that price for an advance of 3s per quarter. While wheat was worth only 3s to 3s 6d per bushel in Oarnaru. there was every reason to expect that agriculturists generally would lend their assistance towards floating the proposed Company, in the hope of realising through its operations an extra 2s per bushel; but now that something like 6s to 7s per bushel is expected to be obtained after next harvest in Oarnaru, they would be less likely to be enthusiastic in the matter."