Poverty Bay Standard. Published Every Evening. GISBORNE: TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1883.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1242, 9 January 1883, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard. Published Every Evening. GISBORNE: TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1883.

There exists a necessity for the abolition of j the Borough Bye-law having reference to th e i license fee to be paid by the vend ors of fia’n, fruit, or vegetables. The bye-law, as it stands, reads thus :— “If any penK'n trac'ies as, or carries on business with lb the Vorouj ;h, ae a pedlar or hawker without having first obtained a license, he shall forfeit and pay on conviction for every such offence aDy um not exceeding five pounds, and every pen son trading or carrying on such business as aforesaid shall be deemed and taken to be unlicA -n- j sed unless he prove.to the contrary by the pi oduction of the license or otherwise. The sum to be paid for a license to peddle and hawk shall be forty shillings, etc.” When this bye-law was approved of by tht > Borough Council it was distinctly understood that it was not intended to apply te* the hawkers of fish or perishable goods, and' and at a recent meeting of the Council nearly , all concurred in that view, but the i ability of one of the City Fathers was | powerful enough to put tojone side the rigli t I and fair opinions of his colleagues, and now z every man, woman, or child (even if th* ? I latter were only to sell water-cress) mu® t ’ take out a license. We had intended more I particularly to refer to the question of fish, j hawking, but a broader vista opens out. The , bye-laws were made in 1878, out it is not 1 until 1883 that the law is enforced. Now • during some four years, we would like to | know, how much the Borough has lost | through these fees not having been paid. ; And as the Councillors are elected to pre- l serve the interests of the ratepayers, and ' have failed to do so, the only thing for them j is to obtain, from the time of the Bye-law 11. ■ having become law up to the present tirye, a list as near as possible of all who have dur- '• ing that period hawked or peddled, and after I carefully calculating the sum lost to the | Borough put their hands in their own j pockets and make the amount good, j It might cost them about £lOO apiece, but that’s nothing when compared with the honor they enjoy. The directors of the Glasgow Bank, through neglecting to carry out the duties they had undertaken, had in some cases to undergo incarceration, and we see no reason why a body of men re f>resenting the ratepayers, and through i axity having lost to the Borough hundreds ; , of pounds, should not be similarly treated. ■ : This, however, is somewhat away from the : I subject we originally started upon, namely, ; I compelling every vendor of perishable goods l *to take out a license. For years past, espe- > : cially in summer time,- there has been an out- I , cry that fish was unobt’liinable. This caused i a few enterprising men to go into the fishing i j business, and also to occasion the appear- ! ance in the Streets of four Crt* fl ve fish hawkers, i ' These men do not have to pay (as some of ! 1 the shopkeepers put it) heavy rents, but . they have to put up with h*avy losses, as ; i well as having to do very heavy work. i Wheeling a barrow is gomeflhlng we know 1 I little of, but the little we do know convinces us that it is not altogether calculated to make life a very enjoyable one. The heavy losses ' the fish hawker has to sustain through the fishltig'boats not getting into the river until late tn the afternoon, when It is almost im- ; possible to dispose of the fish, may be in- ' stanced by a fact which occurred a few days I ' back. One of the hawkers hud agreed to i 1 purchase a fisherman’s haul, and it so hapi pened it was an unusually large one, and '• arrived late. The result was that the unfortunate barrow-man had to bury £2 10s. ' worth of fish. If Gisborne were like some of • the large towns of Now Zealand a bye-law i such as that now in force might be fair and equitable, but it is not so here. In all the principal cities there are shops where fish is obtainable, but it is too much to expect that ■ in a small town a similar accommodation to the public would be payable. Again, as regards locally-grown vegetables. Time after ! time complaint has been made that vegetables cannot be got in Gisborne, and we know that there is truth in the statement. For some cause or other they are not grown in j sufficient quantities for the requirements of the town by the professional gardeners, and j consequently some of the amateurs occa- | sionally vencl vegetables, and very thankfully • I are they in many cases purchased. The | Natives dispose of melons and a dozen and , one other things, all of which are either lo- j cally grown or perishable. Either let the ! absurcl bye-law be expunged or materially i altered, or let a calculation be made of the many “ forty shillings ” which should have | been paid since 1878, and let the Councillors recoup the ratepayers for their laches in neglecting to see that laws approved of by themselves have been carried out.