The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 688, 6 May 1879, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1879.

The Waimate difficulty is not yet settled. The Native Minister, Sir ' George Grey, and their confreres do , not intend to be intimidated or submit to be threatened by the' Natives of the "Waimate districts. The Hinemoa is not just now coasting the Island for merely fancy purposes. Preparations are being made on a com- ■■' plete basis to resist the claims of the Waimate tribes should they insist upon them. The Government do not want to shed blood ; but they mean ?• if fighting be necessary to establish their rights over the confiscated lands. We believe Captain Porter has been communicated with, and that he is quite, willing to take command of certain of the Native tribes who have expressed their willingness to fight the opposing Natives. As yet there is nothing actually authentic known ; but there is no smoke without fire. So the rumors now freely circulating have taken their rise from something more than mere conjecture. Colonel Whitmore is to take the chief command if there is to be an organised military resistance against the Waimate Natives. The present quotations for flour — good brands, and silk-dressed — are, as we have been informed, lower m New Zealand than at any time during the last quarter of a centmy. The ruling prices, writes a Southern contemporary, for wheat this year are from fifteen to eighteenpence per bushel lower than last year at this time. Whether the removal of the duty has had the effect of inducing additional caution m buying on the part of the millers, and so diminishing competition, or whether the low price is entirely due to the state of the Home market, which is the ultimate outlet for our surplus, we are not prepared to say ; but that three shillings to three shillings and three-pence per bushel is an inadequate price to the grower is very evident. We are aware that heavy losses were made last year m sending Home wheat at four shillings and sixpence per bnshel, but there is a wide margin between that price and the present ;■ and with freights at thirty shillings per ton, and New Zealand wheat selling m London at latest dates at 48s. per 4961b5., we think three shillings and sixpence the lowest that ought to be taken for good wheat at

port of shipment. At that price it seems to us that it would be safe to ship, as there is every probability, if wheat keeps its present level at Home, that three and ninepence to four shillings would be netted by shippers at a thirty-shillings freight. At all events, there is nothing m the present aspect of the market to justify the extremely l«w prices at which the market opened.

As a fair sample of the inequality of our laws, we take. the following two cases which ; were I brought before Mr. E. Hardcastle, R.M., when presiding on the Wanganui Bench, the 23th ultimo : —First case — Andrew Anderson, charged on the information of Thomas Perm with wandering m a public thoroughfare, to wit, the Avenue, for the purpose of soliciting alms, pleaded not guilty ; but the offence having been proved by Mr. Perm and Constable McClosky, he was sentenced to fourteen days' imprisonment with hard labour. Second case — Robert Butterfield, alias James Crowther, charged by J. O'Connor with using obscene language m a public place, to wit Taupo Quay and Market Square, m the hearing of persons passing thereon, pleaded guilty, but urged m extenuation that he had been much exasperated. He was fined 10s, with the alternative of 48 hours' imprisonment. So we find a man, probably m want of a meal — well, we will put the case even stronger, — possibly m want of a drink, and he solicits alms. He don't threaten ; does not offer any violence ; intimidates no one. He asks for help which the person applied to may grant or refuse. For this - offence Andrew Anderson is sentenced to a fortnight's imprisonment, with hard labor. The > of Robert Butterfield is quite different. He uses obscene and indecent language m the public streets. There is nothing to be gained by this. There can be no proper motive for using obscene language to shock the ears of women, aud offend agaiimt the propriety of decent observance ; but "this offender is merely fined m a penalty of 10s or m default 48 hours' imprisonment. The case fault committed by Andrew Anderson was thin :— He should not have solicited alms. If he wanted a meal, he should have gone into a store, ordered what he had a fancy for; and then have told the storekeeper to " put it down. " Andrew Anderson might be well aware that he would never have the means of paying for what he got ; but that would be of no consequence. Or, if drink was his object, he might have gone into an hotel and called for liquor, which, having swallowed, he could have told the landlord or barman to "stick it up." In either case, nothing would have been done to him. He would have been much better served than when he merely solicited eleemosynary aid. Let us believe that Andrew Anderson will know better another time. Why one man should receive fourteen days' imprisonment for begging a few penny pieces, and another man receive no punishment for swindling a man upon his promissory note for twenty, fifty oi, 'a hundred pounds, is one of those mysteries which pertain to laws passed under a British Constitution. • ■ . . .