LOCAL AND GENERAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 822, 30 June 1879, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

We have had our attention drawn to what is deemed the heavy fees exacted for the purchase of a few feet of earth for the interment of deceased persons m our cemetery at Matawhero. We think if there is one thing more than another which demauds legislation, it is m the matter of the cost of burials. When a husband dies, the widow, m the great agony of her grief, is seldom able even if at such a time she were inclined to drive a bargain witli those who perform the last offices of the dead. So it is with fathers, and sons, and daughters, who' have themselves beeu spared to lament some one as dear almost to them as life itself. Funeral charges are invariably very high. Undertakers do not advertise, any scale, and, as a rule, only make out their bill when all is over, and their is little whiebfmay be disputed. The cost of a bit of burial soil — the last six feet man or woman will ever need— is , £3, £2 10s, and 30s, a seale — we consider, much m excess. of what it should be. It will pinch poor people whose hearts may be as tender, anas their grief as intense and enduring, as those to whom the charge may be a matter of the greatest indifference/ The telegraphing -of Mr. Ormond's speech was one of the best pieces of -work yet performed m the colony. Mr. Millar, of Napier, was sent to Waipawa, and he put tne whole message through at an average of 35 words a minute, The Waipawa wire was, for the occasion, connected with the special wire, so that the message was wired direct. We beg to remind gentlemen who have S'ven their names as members of due ebating Society that the preliminary meeting will be held this evening at 8 o'clock, j± Captain Porter's store. We trust th«re all interested will attend and bring aismany of their friends as they possibly can,

At the advertised sale of Stubbs' chemests' Btock, held to-day, the whole of it was offered in ono line and bought in. Messrs Fevris and Pitt were the auctioneers

There has not been ' any death in the Borough of Hokitika or the Westland Hospital during last month. But there were twenty-seven insolvencies thirty-two public honsesj and flood . . '

This is from the PateaMail:— Captain Wray telegraphed' to Wellington for the' small but useful article called a bugle, for the use of our Defence Force. Reply from War Department. Got plenty in stock, 'spoiling tor want *of use ; butVithbut'tlffc money is sent down, you don't get the; bugle. Meanness of the basest kind. This sia-all the. gratitude . we receive, for assisting a weak-minded Government. A parade of the C&lyle Defence Force takes place at 2.30 p.m. to-day, at the Court House, aud Government (according to Major Ntfake, who in inow: here) will not authorise the insertion of a small advertisement fco that effect, to givffoutsettlers and even townspeople: an opportunity of knowing something about it. One huudred .and forty volunteers, this .being the number of our foot force at the present time, should be .treated with more t consideration, We understand that the majority of the corps have not received inns, but the are expected by. the Patea to-day, and no doubt will be served out soon after arrival. During a lecture lately delivered in London, an eminent writer on finance said: — '' What bankers have moist to fear is not so much the salutary refining process of ,auoccasional reaction or depression as the blinding and almost intoxicating effects of prosperity, when merchants and bankers alike are tempted to depart from those rules of prudence which 'constitute their surest safeguards. If bankers will consent to act as importers by receiving consignments of prdduce, and assuming their risks and duties ; if they recklessly accommodate their customers without obtaining valid securities ; if they siuk their funds in mines, or make large advaucea on lands, let not the losses be ascribed to depression of trade. A panic or depresssion, which brings to light such devices and abuses, is a benefaction, not a misfortune ; it corrects errors, it purifies the credit atmosphere." During the hearing of the application of John JameS Mating,.^ batikrapfc,: foifbis,} discharge at &if district, Hokitika, pn Tuesday, his Hoiior Judge Weston, insisted upon the. necessity of more stringent dealing with the Licensing Act. . "This 'was," said his honor, " not an exceptional case ; it was similar to- others which were constantly coming before him on the Coast. Here was a man who started at Kumara in debt, but with a cottage he valued at £60. He moves the cottage on to a section, and incure a liability cf £400 in turning this miserable cottage into an hotel. He buys goods on credit, and sells for, cash. Ultimatly he finds himself loaded with debt, with almost worthless property and a bill of sale over it. His takings were £1> a day. upon which there was no profit. Finding himself without a sixpence, he fails, and the very people he had victimised supply him again on credit." After some further remarks, Judge Weston went on to say s — " The way business was carried on on the West Coast was marvellous and sinful. The shareholders of the banks suffered through this System of trading. It was quite time the justices set their faces against this indiscriminategranting of licenses. Bankers and merchants were the sufferers. He had done all he could, but it was without effect, on the folly of these traders."

The -Wellington Chronicle Bays: — A good story is told of a commission agent seeking business . from a client yesterday : -—"Oh, no," said the client; "You're a decent iellow, and all that sort of , thing, but l'v&inade up my mind to do business with "Mr. — — ." "But," replied rthe commission agent, "he only filed • his schedule, three weeks ago." The client » •'That'Sftjustit. You see, I know exactly how much he oweajpow j but I don't know your financial, .position," Moral — Assign and make a fresh start,