HARBOR BONDHOLDERS.

Opunake Times, Volume IV, Issue 168, 11 February 1896, Page 2

HARBOR BONDHOLDERS.

In another column w t o publish a letter to Mr F. McGuire, M.H.R., from Mr Busby, one of the Council of Foreign Bondholders. It fully bears out our opinion, as written several times, of what the financial world at Home would think of the doub’e dealing of die Now Zealand Government in the matter of the New Plymouth Harbor loan. Every New Zealand resident who looks for political honor in Cabinet Ministers must feel truly ashamed at the humiliating position in which the Treasurer and Premier have placed the colony by their duplicity and double dealing to gain their end in floating the million and a half loan. In the recent telegraphic war between Mr Seddon and Mr McGuire, the former endeavored to score by insinuating that Mr McGuire wished to act in an underhand manner in buying up the bonds when they were depreciated in the market through interest payments getting in nrrear, but Mr Busby’s letter is a complete refutation of the Premier’s charge, and shows that the bondholders consider themselves indebted to Mr McGuire for his efforts on their behalf. It seems a very simple matter, as the whole question has been narrowed down to arbitration on the 200,000 acres given to (lie Maoris. The Government profess that the bondholders have no claim whatever to compensation for such returned land, and that they are acting on ample evidence in refusing any concession. Would not the same evidence bo sufficient to convince the arbitrators, when, as a matter of course, a verdict would pass for the Government, and the question would be settled once and for all. If the Government are acting honorably they can have nothing to fear from referring the matter to arbitration, but it looks remarkably like as if they know they were in the wrong, and dare not face an impartial tribunal.

Grazing is advertised to let. Mr W. D. Scott will sell furniture and sundries at his mart on Saturday. Messrs Nolan, Tonks and Co notify entries for their annual sheep fair which takes place on next Tuesday at their Opunake yards. Mr Newton King’s sale, which was to take place to-morrow, owing to the Hawera Races, has been postponed till Friday. Additional entries are notified. The construction of an immense dry dock has been commenced at the Japanese naval port of Kura. It is to be 461 ft long, 69ft wide, and 42ft deep, and will take vessels of 15,000 tons. We give a reminder of the Wesleyan Sunday School picnic, which takes place to-mor-row on Mr Ebbett.s farm, Eltham Road. Conveyances will leave town at 10 and 2 o’clock conveying passengers. The newly-appointed produce expert in London is Mr Henry Gray, who was for some years connected with the trade in Christchurch, and latterly has been with the firm of Coey and Co., in London. The Chief Justice granted an order suspending W. N. Ward, solicitor, of Otaki from practicing pending the result of an application of the Law Society to the Appeal Court to have him struck off the rolls.

All those who have bushfelled are availing themselves of the south east gale blowing and have fired. The result is a complete belt of fire round the south western side of the mount. Some of the burns on the Kina Road we hear are not very first-class owing to the ground being so w T et. A Colyton settler writes to the Feilding Star “As a chemist has declared that the milk of cows fed on brewers’ grains, is, to some extent, of an intoxicating character. I am now feeding up a milch cow to see bow the plan will work. Farmers in these hard times cant afford “ long sleevers,” so this “ happy economy ” should just suit us.”

Mails for Australia (due in Sydney on 20th February), Tasmania, India, China, Japan, and Strait Settlements," Continent of Europe and United Kingdom, via Brindisi (due in London on 31st March), for specially addressed correspondence close at Wellington, per “ Wakatipu ” at noon, on Saturday, 15th instant, and at Opunake on Thursday, 13th instant, at 8.30. p.ra.

The imports into the colony during the December quarter were £1,752,710, against £1,512,661 for the corresponding quarter of 1894. The total imports for the year were £6,399,722, against £6,788,020 in 1894. The exports for the December quarter were £1,943,048 in 1894. The total for the year was £8,556,505, against £9,231,047 for 1894.

Intimation has been received in Dunedin that Miss Emily H. Seideberg has passed the third and medical examination, and thus secures the honor of being the first young woman entitled to practice medicine in New Zealand. Miss Seideberg was born at Clyde, and educated at the Girls’ High School and Otago University. Her brother was chess champion of the colony before leaving to study in Germany.

Two men named Charles and Ernest Brown have been arrested near Pahiatua, charged with having a still in their possession. The still at Tutaekara is complete, including whisky in all stages, barley, malt, &e. Further arrests are pending. Constable Cooper, who affected the arrests, along with others has been searching for some time for the still, which is situated on the bank of a creek about a mile from the main road. The steamer Waitapu, a well-known trader between Wellington and Patea, was completely gutted by fire on the Patent Slip, Wellington, early on Saturday morning. She was taken on the slip on Saturday for repairs, rendered necessary through her rudder having carried away when crossing the Patea Bar. The outbreak of fire occurred in the forward part of the vessel, and almost immediately was followed by an explosion, the cause of which is not clear. All efforts to cope with the flames were unavailable.

The s.s. Kanieri arrived from Wanganui on Saturday. Imports : Stitt, 31pkgs ; Pettigrew 45pkgs; Claris, Bpkgs ; Palmer and Co 4pkgs! Rothery, Ipkg ; O’Donnell, lopkgs ; Middleton, Bpkgs ; Wagstaff Bros, 3nkgs ; Trotter, GOpkgs ; Feaver, Spkgs ; Cummins, Bpkgs ; Mrs Ballard, Ipkg; Newcomb and Massey, Ipkg; Christie and Co, 45pkgs; Chirig, 2pkgs; S. A. Breach, 20pkgs ; D. McGregor, Gpkgs; Simeon (Rahotu), Ipkg ; Ring wood (Manaia), Spkgs ; Harvey (Rahotu), 25pkgs ; Wilkie (Otakeho), 2pkgs ; Newman Bros; 7Gpkgs; C. F, McGregor Ipkg; Calgher, 2pkgs ; Mcßeynolds, Ipkg ; Stewart, Ipkg ; Opunake Times, Ipkg. Exports : Rutherford and Son, 193 bales hemp; G. W. Rogers, 129pkgs ; H. H. Seccombo, 7pkgs.

An important contention was made by Mr Wilford in a case that came before Mr Martin S.M., in.the Magistrate’s Court, when the Hutt County Council sued R. Cunningham, licensee of the White Horse Hotel, Ngabauranga, for rates due. The Council sued under the Rating Act of 1894, and Mr Wilford urged that that Act did not apply, ns the rate was due and payable in September, 1891, whereas the act did not come into force until October, 1891, and that therefore the section 54, which gave the Council the right to sue the man in possession, could not apply. Further, he urged that under section 87 of the same Act the Council had to sue under the old Act, which contained no provision for suing the men in possession, and therefore judgment must go for defendant, and also that there was no right to sue under the Act of 1882. His Worship reserved his decision. N.Z. Times.

What the actual heat cnduied in the full glare of the pitiless rays of the sun was during the recent heat wave in (Sydney may be best estimated from the fact given by the Government Astronomer that a thermometer at the Observatory placed on the grass and exposed to the full rays of the sun, registered the awful temperature of 237 deg. At a distance of 100 miles from the shore vessels travelling from Now Zealand are described as running into the heat as into “ a bank of flame,” and half-way over from New Zealand vessels were caught in the heat wave. A simple but striking illustration of the condition to which the sick must have been reduced is given in the statement that the clinical thermometers used by medical men to note the progress or declension of disease in the patients failed to act, the temperature of the atmosphere raising the mercury to such a degree as to make the instruments useless for measuring the temperature of the human body. As a temperature of KKkleg or thereabouts in a patient is almost surely fatal, we can imagine the pitiful condition of a sufferer bathed in an atmosphere at a temperature of from 108 deg to 120 deg,

Recent advices report sales of cheese in London at 455. Mr W. D. Scott notifies good entries for his Awatuna stock sale which takes place on Monday next. The United States loan of one hundred million dollars, has been subscribed five fold at par to 119. The bulk goes to large tenderers at 110. The Royal Commission in connection with the Horowhenua Block will consist of Mr J. C. Martin, S.M., Wellington ; Mr E. S. Bush, S.M., Whangarei; and Mr J. C. McKerrow, Wairarapa. At the recent Civil Service and teachers’ examinations throughout the colony, about 1300 candidates presented themselves. The results are now coming in from the examiners, and it is expected that they will be made up about the 22nd instant. The State Advances to Settlers Act came into operation on the Ist instant in Adelaide. The Government appointed the following Trustees : —Messrs Addison, Spence, Johnson, Inglis and Staunton. The first three are interested in commercial pursuits, and the others are country farmers.