CORRESPONDNCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8425, 25 January 1899, Page 3

CORRESPONDNCE.

(To Tint Ediiou or tiik Hhn\Lr ) Sn;, — l'Vr some time back as you uro aware, I have been trying to get, through tin: medium of the Hnui.D, sumo information and particulars us to the leasing of the Yii-toii.i Domain. 1 wrote several letters on the subject under the signature of " Citizen !1 — a good enough name for anybody to wear. I have hud no reply to these letteis for the reason, I am told, that I hive not heietofoie published my real name and add 1 ess. I did not know that thi-^ "as lieceM.iry. Ido not think so now, but give mv name herou ilh .-o tlmt the full information and particulars in lefoieiiec to the lease — that many beside myself wish for — may not be withheld. If true, as 1 am well assured it is, that mobt iif the membcis of the Domain lioaul were in total ignorance uf, and had no opportunity of wiling for or ag.iiui the iTiommending the (ioveruor to grant » leas.-, then I am ceitain that in the opinion of mint, //mf alone is enough to I'ondemn the whole proceeding. The public were kept in the dark, ami Ihe people bad not a chance of expies^ing their approval <v disapproval of the teuns of the lease, and it is clear tli.it a blundering and illegal act has been done. It has been hinted that the ground m Chik'crs load is not a public paik at all. It that be so, then what was the grand procession about, and the speetbifyiii'' and the skyrockets. The big bonfire ami the Mayor" in his big helmet weic got up, we umieistood, to celebrate the opening of a park for the people of this town, ami we only want to know the lightb and wiongs : of the arrangement.— l am, i-e., James Hume ("Oitimi 1 ') Aberdeen Road.

| One explanation given of the number of the desertions from the warships Tiiurang.i and liovalist is that the two ships are near the end of their three years' Himmi'Mon, and that some of the men are loth to go Home, and be tr.insfcired to a station possibly which has not the attractions, ■climatically or otherwise, possessed by I Xew Zealand and Australia. The most conspicuous feature of Australian production for ISOS (writes the Argus) is the increase in the L'old output. The returns, so far a, they have become available, indicate that the total mining value of that output is about C.'i.-'.i0.000, an amount which nmtnw with Cll,00(i,0()(i for ISII7 and .£0,001,(1(10 for IS.Hi. liy supplementing the output of 1N97 and ISDN by some two millions drawn from bank accumulations, the colonies have been able dining the two years to ship gold to the value of over ,c2o,(|i)0.000 m settlement of the current account between them and the rest of the world. If they should possess thepowertoshipi'lo, (loll,ooo in lSili), without straining their cash resources, there will be hardly any reason for surprise.