Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6893, 14 June 1892, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING

QISBORNE, TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 1892.

MORE PROTECTION IN THE AIR The opinion gains ground that the Govenftnent next session will bring down a proposal to reduce the tea and sugar duties — perhaps, abolish them altogether, which would bo the wisest course, if the thing could be done without seriously disturbing finance. A depleted Treasury chest would probably lead to open or underhand borrowing. It is a mistake to suppose that straitened finance must tend to increased economy in public expenditure. That is a matter which mainly depends upon the character of the men in power. AH sorts of shifts and devices nv\y be adopted to raise the wind, and thus ultimately add to the burdens of the people. This romHrk does not apply only to colonial Governments, but to Govern, merits of new countries generally. To tile over temporary difficulties money will be obtained at any sacrifice. The State is even more reckless than an individual in this respect. The record of bankruptcy proceedings frequently show that an insolvent did not become reckless until he found himself in difficulties. If Ministers can see their way to abolish the ten and sugar duties without imposing fresh burdens on the community, and without, embarrassing colonial finance, they will earn the gratitude of the whole people irrespective of political leanings. We believe that consumers would yet good tea at about half the pre sent cost if the duty of sixpence were removed. The experience in regard to that article remarkably strengthens Captain Russell's assertion that tho Customs duties reduce the pureh?isin<* power of a shilling to eightpence. The average value of the tea imported into New Zealand during 1890 was, according to Government returns, under tenponce per pound. This estimate includes the higher an well as the lower grades. In what proportion the various qualities were imported is not stated in the returns. The Colonial Treasurer in proposing the reduction or abolition of the duty, will no doubt give information on that head. As the impost is per pound, and not ad valorem, an importer has no inducement to declare to the Customs that he is importing an inferior article. The tendency is more likely the other way. Well, tea of high, medium, and low qualities, is of the declared valuo of tenpence per pound at the port of arrival in New Zealand. This estimate includes value at port of shipment, cost of packages, with ten per cent, added to cover freight, insurance, eschango, &c, which in an article like tea should be amply sufficient to meet all such charges. What tho colonial consumer pays for the "cup that cheers, but not inebriates ?" is a question which all housewives can answer. Most probably, if the duty were abolished, good tea would be obtainable retail at from a shilling to eighteenpence per pound, and then admit of us fair profit to the merchant and grocer as they are entitled to on a necessary article of large consumption. The profit, as most people are aware, is comparatively moderate on sugar, but it may be regarded as absolutely certain that the consumer is made to pay a considerable accretion on the duty of a halfpenny a pound. However, the saving of the halfpenny alone would bo an appreciable benefit to the people, more especially to the heads of families. The best thing the Ministry could do for the country would be to utilize the largo surplus to wipe out the tea and sugar duties. This course would enforce wholesome economy in the management of public affairs, and it is feared that Ministers will endeavor to mako up for' the loss of revenue by extending the principle of protection. The Wellington correspon dynt of the Otago Daily Times says that it is rumored that Ministers are annoyed at the Opposition taunt that, with a large surplus they had not done anything to relieve taxation, especially on the necessaries of life and in aid of the working class ; therefore that, with a view flf repelling this taunt, they .will employ part of the present Urge surplus in reducing or removing the duties on tea or sugar, or both, but that they will probably increase the duties on the more expensive kinds of liquors and on other "luxuries." The rumor goes on to say that Ministers are also vexed thatindustrial "protection " has so far been given only by the opposite party, and that to demonstrate their claim to be champion of the industrial interests they purpose imposing some heavy additional protective duties. Among those mentioned are 10 per cent, extra on ; iron, leather, cement, and other imports ; also 5s a ton on Newcastle coal, in retaliation for the New South Wales duty on grain. Other extensive re-arrangements of the customs tariff are also spoken of as impending. It is not expected that there will be any increase proposed in the land tax, as Ministers resent the imputation that they are driving capital out of the colony, and they do not wish to give fresh grounds ; indeed, it is regarded as certain that there will be some relief as to the obnoxious tax on debentures. Five shillings per ton duty on imported coal would hit the working classes of the large towns severely, and would increase the cost of all articles of colonial manufacture in which steam was employed in production. Tho immediate effect would be to raise the price of New Zealand coal by at least the amount of the duty. As for the increase on cement, that would be with the object of fostering an industry which has up to the present proved a rank failure. No matter how low the cost, no sane person would dream of using inferier cement in harbor works, or even in buildings. Protective duties are already higher in New Zealand than in any of the other colonies. The experiment has not been successful in checking importations. Take, for instance, the boot trade, which is one of the most heavily protected. In 1880, there were 28,053 dozen pairs imported. The numboF rose to 50,078 pairs in 1890 The report of the Sweating Commission showed that the lot of the workurs was the worst in the protected industries

Messrs Williams and Kettle announce that their first monthly sale of wool, hides, and skins, will be held on June 24th. The Mayor has received word from Mr Kelly, M.H.R., that he will be in Gisborne for a few days at the end of the week. The banjuentine Coquette, which has a register of 218 tons, brought 320 tons of Newcastle coal for Messrs Kennedy*, Evans It is expected that she will come into the river with 150 tons on board. The Coquette will be the largest vessel which has been i alongside the wharf,

The football match between the Gisborne School and Waerenga-a-hika College, played at Wacrenga-hika on Saturday afternoon, resulted in a victory for the School by nine points to nil. The revival of " trains " to ladies' walking dresses has led to outbreaks of the fiercest tirades in the English papers against an unwholesome, uncleanly fashion. Says tho OiMiitru Times : — At the meeting of the Waiareka Road Board, Mr John Reid said it was his iutention very shortly to offer for sale about 12,000 acres of Elderslie. The land would be cut up into suitable blocks for farina, and would afford an opportunity of practically testing whftther the demand for land corresponded with the cry for ita being cut up. A chess tournament between members of the Gisborne and Patutahi Chess Clubs was held at Mr Blight's re>idence, Mntawhero, last evening. The players were : — Gisborne : Canon Webb and Messrs Barnard, Witty, Day, G. H. Lysnar, and Staite. Patutahi : Messrs R. H. Stewart, W. K. Chambers, J. W. Bright, Gilmore, and C. H. Oswald. The results of the various games gave a victory for Gisborne by 11 points to their opponents' six. A hearty vote of thanks was passed to Mr Bright for his hospital) cy. After a lengthened spell of inactivity, the blast furnace at the Onehunga ironworks was . lighted again on Saturday afternoon, for the purpose of trying a. quantity of about 200 tons of Nelson iron* ore, which is now lying at the works. The ore, says the Herald, is said to be the richest procurable in the colony, and the result of the trial will be looked forward to with a great amount of interest. The company received this week 800 tons of railway iron from Sydney for smelting. " Student " writes complaining of the class of recitation introduced at a recent Band of Hope meeting, one item striking him "rather akwardly on account of the expressions which interlarded tho effusion more thickly and prominently than could be regulated by the loosest way possible to apply the laws of good taste, or indeed of any taste, whatsoever, save the taste of those who are positively profane, not to say vulgar. Many of the modern comic poems are quite unfit to rant over in the presence of children.' The meeting between His Excel leuy the Governor and His Honor the Chief Justice on the platform of the Supreme Court on Tuesday, almost rivals in dramatic force Stanley's discovery of Dr Livingstone. His Kxcellency's " Whom have I the honor of speaking to?" is nearly as good as Stanley's " Dr Livingstone, I presume?" — Post. Sir John Hall says : - " I propose to introduce a Woman's Franchise Bill as early as possible in the session. lam very sanguine that it will pass the House of Representatives by a large majority, and I hope it will also be adopted by the Legislative Council. Many former opponents of the proposal have now become converts to the proposal." At Danevirke, the Rev. Mr Robertshawe (Anglican) asked his people to set their faces against travelling "shows," which drained the settlement of its surplus cash. The local storekeepers were complaining, and he felt sure in a great many cases those who attended these "shows" find themselves behind in their store bills. Such conduct was highly improper and dishonest. If an entertainment were held for local benefit the circumstances were different, then the money would be left in the place. In other cases the ready money was carried away, and at the end of the month people could not pay their store bills. At the annual meeting of the shareholders of the P. and O. Company Mr T. Sutherland, Chairman, said the receipts had declined i.'80,000 as compared with 1890-91. This was due chiefly to the lower freights, the loss on exchange, and the fact that 2,000,000 more tons of shipping had lately come into competition. This had had the effect of restricting the traffic to ships only of the newest type. A million tons of shipping were at present lying idle in British ports. The company hoped to make a saving in fuel by using Eastern coal, which would average 10s per ton cheaper. The Weather : — Weather forecasts for 24 hours from 9 a.m. to-day : Wind between north and west and south-west at all places northward of Napier and New Plymouth, and southward of Lyttelton and Hokitika. Barometer further rise at all places northward of Napier and New Plymouth, and fall elsewhere soon. Sea heavy on western coast and between Castlepoint and Kaikoura after 1() hours. Warnings for northerly gales and rain after from 12 to 20 hours have been sent to all places southward of Napier and New Plymouth. Synopsis of last 24 hours : A rising barometer at all places northward of Kaikoura and Hokitika, but it has fallen a little elsewhere. Thfl weather has been fine generally and also cold. — R. A. Edwin. The Pollard Juvenile Opera Company, after a short spell in Melbourne, have started out again, and, according to latest advices, were at Broken Hill. The children who were taken from New Zealand, have made rapid strides in the profession. They are now playing leading parts. According to the Silver Age of May 9, Miss Maud Beatly, was playing Prince Frittelini in "La M ascot te," and received an encore for her solo " Love is Blind," and for the song " 'Tis the Tap of the Drum." Miss Marion Mitchell, who joined the company in Wellington, also received great praise for her rendering of Pippo, in the same opera. At the Napier School Committee meeting Mr Neil Heath carried a very important motion in reference to the eye sight of the children. The matter may be put in this light:— (I) Many young people wear spectacles. (2) Our schools are in existence to enable children to fight life's battle with a cultivated brain, and ability to think correctly for themselves. We keep a record of their mental progress, but we overlook the health and value of one of the mind's best servants— the eye. Mr Heath therefore moved that the headmaster and his assistants should have by them a faithful record of each child's eyesight, whether it be long, or short, or color blind. The importance of this motion is obvious. If a boy whose sight is not good is placed at the back of the schoolroom, ne loses his time. If the teacher had a knowledge of the child's eyesight he would quietly place the boy where the light was good, and the child could work in comfort. We commend Mr Heath's motion to the consideration of all other School Committees. — Napier Telegraph.' Mr Snazelle's entertainment, entitled "Music, Song, and Story," pictorially illustrated, which has within the past few weeks delighted large audiences in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Napier, etc., will be given to a Gisborne audience for the first time on Monday night next at the Theatre Royal, and will be repeated .with variations for the two following evenings. This artist comes to us accredited as a humorist and entertainer of the first order. Of Mr Snazelle's first appearance in this colony the Southland Times remarks : — " Only one word fitly describes such an entertainment a.s that given in the Theatre Royal on Monday evening, and that word is c delightful.' Invercargill has been fortunate of late in the quality of the dramatic and other public entertainers who have visited the town, and it appears to be a case of good, better, best.- It is certainly in the power of few to be able to appeai to so many tastes as Mr Snazelle is able to d^> by means of the combination of song, story, and music, and pictorial illustrations to which he yesterday evening introduced his audience." "A Woman" writes: — Mr Wilson evidently is not of the same mind as he used to be on women teaching 'or preaching in the Church, for he has been seen and beard amongst the " Booth ladies," as he calls them, and it would have been well for him had he stayed amongst them, for there are many good, true, and noble women in the Salvation Army. jV" r Wilson says it will be right for women to \ ote and maice her voice heard when men are silent, stupid, ossinine, and unjust. Now does Mr Wilson think it is right that a drunkard who will vote for anyone that will offer him a glass of beer should have the power to vote before a woman who has more sense in her little finger than he has all over his body ? Is that justieo? When St. Paul was. preaching to those heathens neither the world nor the church was enlightened the same as it is to-day. Very likely if St. Paul could hare lived up to this day le would have preached differently as the vorld advanced. God never intended the w orld to remain ignorant as it was then. I think that Mr Wilson will find that the hurch and the world will be all the batter wheu woman has equal right* with man.

Sofctlers iv Southland predict a severe winter. It is said that rats are betaking themselves to the homesteads and barns — an iudication that ie usually followed by severe weather. The Colonial Secretary of New South Wales says that out of 9000 men registered at the labor bureau about 300'J have obtained work, and added to the 6000 registered unemployed there must be quite 2500 more. At a banquet given to him at the Hutt, • Dr. Newman observed that a parliamentary man could not please everyone. If he did, lie must be a political scoundrel. M. Rubinstein has recently adopted a very efficacious plan to prevent unreasonable encores. Before* he returns to acknowledge the applause he directs an attendant to mount the platform and securely lock up the pianoforte. The condition of affairs in Fiji has impressed Sir John Hall as an emphatic tribute to the colonising capacity of the British race, and he thinks the trade of the Islands may be very considerably developed. The second anniversary of the Christ church Working Men's Co-operative Storewas celebrated last week. It has 552 shareholder*, and the financial position is very satisfactory. One thousand four hundred people were present at the gathering. ' The Sydenham licensing committee has held another meeting, when they considered the application for the renewal of the license for the Waltham Arms Hotel, and adjourned till June loth to consider the evidence submitted respecting the three houses to which they granted licenses last year under Mr Justice Denniston's ruling. The storm water carried the burning petroleum from Oil City for 18 miles, and every bridge in its track was burned, besides which 15 villages were destroyed. Appalling scenes were witnessed, and great distress has been occasioned. Two hundred and ninety people were killed when the refineries were wrecked. What will Wellington say to this from an Auckland contemporary?— " Captious visitors to Auckland have indulged in deprecating remarks on the complexions of many of the young ladies of this locality, comparing them unfavorably with the Dunedin girls. This is a gross injustice to the fair northern city, for our young people, as a rule, have clear skins just touched with carmine." The Caversham (Dunedin) licensing committee gave effect to their decision of last year and refused a license for the Commercial Hotel, but granted a fortnight's adjournment. An application for a bottle license was also adjourned. The chairman referred to a house being lighted up after hours, and warned the licensee that the committee were determined to stristly administer the Act. Two well attended meetings of domestic servants, male and female, were held in Hyde Park, London, on April 24th, convened by the London Domestic Servants Union. The secretary said that from careful enquiries it was estimated that at present there were some 10,000 domestic servants walking the streets unemployed. The fact was vouched for that nearly four-fifths of the inmates of one of the London workhouses had nt one time been in domestic service. An exciting scene occurred at Newtown (Montgomeryshire) on April 26th during a performance at Sedgwick's Menagerie. Lorenzo, the keeper, was putting the lions through their tricks, when two of them escaped among the crowded audience. The people were terror-stricken and quite a panic prevailed, but none fortunately were injured. The audience of course, left as quickly as they were able. The lions could not be recaged for eight hours. The Wanganui Licensing Committee has expressed an opinion that the following licensed houses are not required, and the applications for renewal were not granted : — M'Lennan's, Custom House; Siddell's, Prince of Wales ; M'Alinden's, Wanganui ; and Hackett's, St. John's. In each case an adjournment was asked for and granted, and on Thursday, the 16th instant, the applications may be again made, and evidence brought to prove that the licenses are required by the public. The Sunderland engineers returned lo work on April 27, but many found their places taken by other men. Nearly 20,000 men have 'been idle for twelve weeks at a sacrifice in wages of about £180,000. The Newcastle correspondent of the Yorkshire Post writes : Trade has gone from the Tyne and Wear, a great part of which will never come back, and hundreds of homes have been broken up by the starvation following the loss of wages, and the whole question in dispute was a half-inch of piping, the plumbers saying that the engineers should work all pipes over three inches. The engineers claimed all over two and a half inches ; the award of the conference was in favor of the plumbers ; and for that half-inch of piping the engineers have paralysed the whole^trade of the district, and brought ruin on hundreds of homes.'' There is a fierce conflict going on at Timam just now between the prohibition and the moderate party, or rather between the Rev. Mr Gillies and the Licensing Committee. In a recent letter Mr Gillies challenges the whole Licensing Committee to meet him at a public meeting of ratepayers, when he will undertake to prove that all their actions to lessen intemperance during the year past have been stage thunder. Mr Kerr, the Chairman of the Licensing Committee, not only accepts the challenge, but says he will meet Mr Gillies single-handed, and will allow his opponent to call to his assistance all the principal prohibitionists. The Theatre Royal at Timaru is to be engaged if the contest takes place, and an uncommonly lively night of it will be the result. Some particulars as to the method of electing the President of the Unifed States may be interesting just now. The following is the form of procedure : — Each State chooses by popular vote " electors " equal in number to the senators and representatives sent by that State to Congress. The electors of each State meet at their respective State capitals on a day appointed, and there vote by ballot for a President. The ballots are then sent to Washington, where they are opened by the President of the Senate in the presence of Congress, and the candidate who has received a majority of the whole number of electoral votes cast is declared President for the ensuing term. If no candidate has secured a majority, then from the three highest on the list the House of Representatives elects a President. General Booth addressed a series of meetings at Plymouth on the 15th April. Alluding to his scheme for the rescue of the " submerged tenth," he remarked that people complained that he had not done all he had promised ; but be never promised to set all the schemes at work in 12 months. Altogether. £106,000 had been subscribed, and with the exception of £25,000 set aside for the over-sea colony the whole of it had been spent. They had also committed themselves to an expenditure of £20,000 more. He stipulated for an annual guarantee income of £30,000, but tliat had not been forthcoming. He did not see how the public could expect him to fulfil his part of the bargain if they did not fulfil theirs. The site of the ovor-sea colony had not yet been selected. During the laat seven years no less than 6000 ex-prisoners have gone through the Australian homes of the army No fewer than 47 officers are set apart for prison-gate work in Cape Colony. The Temuka Leader says that the new post-office for Waimate has a history. Plans were prepared and tenders called some months ago for building this post-office in wood, but it was pointed out to the Hon. Major Steward, member for the district, that it could be done as cheaply in brick. Major Steward, finding his communications by wire and by letter with the PostmasterGeneral unsatisfactory, jumped into the express tram and went to Invercargill, where Mr Ward was staying at that time. By an hour's conversation he succeeded in persuading that honorable gentleman to alter his views, but the heads of the Departmnnt had yet to be dealt with. By the next train Major Steward returned, and without making any delay in Ashhurton proceeded to Wellington, wnere he fixed up the whole affair, and now the result is that the post office is to be built of brick, We have often before called attention to the honorable gentleman's usefulness as a representative, but this illustrates the energy he throw's iuto his work, us well as any of his previous actions. Perhaps other districts may ask, " Have we such au euergetic member ?"