GISBORNE HARBOUR LOAN.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8784, 21 May 1890, Page 3

GISBORNE HARBOUR LOAN.

DEFAULT IN PAYMENT OF

INTEREST.

LEGISLATURE THE CAUSE.

I PER PBESS ASSOCIATION-! Wellington, May 21.— The Gisborne Harbour Board have been considering a proposal by which the interest on their £200,000 harbour loan would continue to be paid. The money was borrowed in 1884, and the finking fund amounts to £33,000, and there is an unexpended balance of £60,000 in hand. The Board propose that the sinking fund on £93,000 should bo suspended for 7 years, and it pointed out to the bondholders that they would still be in a better position than provided for by the Act. Under the Act by which the loan was raised, the Government had advised that they were opposed to any alteration in the sinking fuud account, and request the Board to suggest Borne other means of getting over the difficulty. The Board passed a resolution to the effect that it regrets it sees no way by which Parliament can give relief unless by either passing the bill as sent, or voting the necessary funds, which it might well do under the circumstances. The alternative, so far as the Board sees, ia default in November, 1890. All the members were of opinion that the contingency of default had arisen through the interference of the Legislatiire^

According to advices from Warsaw some details have now come to light about the dreadful child murders committed there by the midwife Skublinski and tome other women who have already been arrested. SkuMinski resided in an attic, and the other inmates of the house, who sll belong to the working classes, knew that she secretly received young illegitimate children to 'nurse,' as she said. In realily she, with several other women, carried on a regular trade in murdering infants. During the night of the 17th she set fire to her lodgings, after having first murdered tho children committed to her charge. Then this inhuman woman went and stood in the yard of the house among the excited crow d, and quietly waitei to see what wou'd happen. She evidently hoped that the house would be quickly and completely destroyed, but the firemen subdued the flames, and seven little corpses were discovered, bearing distinct traces of their skulls having been battered in. Skublinhki is over 80 years of age. She is a handsome woman, but hdd a hard, cold expression in hfr eyes. In her youth sho was in service, grid afterwards bect^o ft midwife, but