OUR DUNEDIN LETTER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVI, Issue 994, 28 November 1883, Page 6

OUR DUNEDIN LETTER.

(From our own Correspondent.)

From, titae to lime the question of providing baths for this city has cropped up in the Council, but beyond relegating the matter to a Committee to report, no steps have been taken to provide such. It neems strange that Dunedin, with all that is necessary at hand for the proper construction of baths, should be so behind hand in providing them. The expense would not be very great, and why the Civic fathers do not take a greater merest in securing baths is a mystery. A gr,eat deal of money is yearly spent on things that are of little or no use to Dunedin. If the Council were to allow useless works to stand over for a little, and devote the money which they spend on such to the construction of baths, they would be carrying out a grand policy, which would meet the approval of the whole of the citizens. The people are looking for suitable baths where they may enjoy the healthy luxury of rolling in the briny water on fine summer mornings and evenings, and cleanse themselves of impurities. At the last meeting of the City Council, Mr Barnes said he expected that the Baths Committee would present a report, but was told that it would come up at a future meeting, whereupon Mr Barnes said ; " I suppose the Committee will begin to talk about the construction of baths when the winter and snow come again." This will no doubt be the case; f<rf, with the exception of one or two of the Councillors, very little interest is taken in the matter by the Council. Why this should be so is beyond comprehension. It is an important question, and, therefore deserving of consideration. Perhaps the new Mayor may take the matter up when he gets into office.

A considerable amount of interest is evidently being manifested in the Home Country in the question of the appointment of a hangman. Many would suppose that this is au office to which few would aspire ; yet no sooner was Marwood in his grave, than a number of applications for the appointment were lodged with the Home Secretary. There certainly can be no accounting for taste ; and to think that such an office should be so eagerly sought after shows that the boasted humanitarianism of the present age is all moonshine, and is, at the same time, a sad and deplorable commentary on the civilization of the day. It has generally been supposed that the appointment was made by the Home Secretary. This supposition however, is erroneous ; for Sir William Harcourt (who is opposed to capital punishment), in a public notification, said : " There is no suoh office as t&at of public executioner appointed by Government. The person charged with the execution of capital sentences is the sheriff. It is the right and duty of the sheriff to employ and pay a fitting person to carry out the sentences of the law, and the Secretary of State has no authority to select the executioner." Sir William was no doubt glad that the arrangements for hanging tall to the lot of sheriffs; and he must have smiled with satisfaction to think he had so neatly washed his hands of a Bubjecc to which he has such an aversion. Some of the candidates for the office of hangman put forward strange reasons why they should receive the post and be allowed *4f!* step into the empty shoes of Marwood. ?One of them asked that he should be appointed, as he was willing to hang his " mother, brother, sister, and friends, without fear or favor " ; another on account of his having " witnessed several executions " ; another, because he is an organist in a dissenting chapel, has some knowledge of phrenology, medicine and coffin-making, and, besides these qualifications, had made practical experiments on a Cochin-China fowl. A fourth writes : "I ham willen to take to Marwood's job as soon as possible, as he is ded " ; while a fifth is positively certain that he could fulfil the position of hangman " to the entire satisfaction of all concerned." It is questionable whether he would do his duties to the satisfaction of the person operated upon. By-and-bye, no doubt, the billet of hangman will degenerate into a position of respectability, when some of the young lordlings at Home will receive the appointment.

Durin» the last sitting of the Uew Zealand Parliament, the question of introducing the penny-post into this Colony was brought forward, but owing to obstacles raised by a member of the Governmen. the matter was allowed to drop. Notwithstanding this, however, it is to be hoped that the subject will not be forgot by members of Parliament, and that, during the next session, strenuous efforts will be made to have the penny-post introduced. That the adoption of the pennypost system would prove a great boon to the Colony is beyond all question ; and that it has not been resorted to before now is greatly to be regretted. The present system of charging twopence for a letter addressed to a place outside the district in which it is posted has given great dissatisfaction, and under the circumstances, little surprise can exist that such dissatisfaction should prevail. The public are looking for a radical change in the postal charges of this Colony, and nothing will satisfy them until that great boon of modern times, the penny-post, is established throughout New Zealand. It may be expected that opposition will be given to the proposal if brought forward next session. Efforts will be made to crush the object by non-progressive members, who will talk foolishly about a falling-off of the stamp revenue ; but who, at the same time, will close their eyes to tha injustice done to the colonists by the present extravagant postal charges. The pennypost for the whole Colony is what is required. It is a concession to which the colonißtß are entitled and which, it is to be trusted, they will secure. It is simply extortion to charge twopence for a letter sent, say from Dunedin toßavensbourne, Port Chalmers, Gre9n Island^ Taieri, Milton, Tuapeka, Clutha, and other places within a distance of 100 miles from that commercial city. This robbery from the people's pockets baa existed long enough, and the sooner a thorough change is brought about the better it will be for all concerned. It cannot be put forward that the Colony is not in a position to adopt the penny-post. The Colony was never in a better condition than at present for making Such a much -desired concession. If, however, legislators cannot see their way clear to make the concession genera] throughout the Colony, then the next best thing is to establish the post in the various provinces. Let the charge for the carriage of a letter within a province be one penny, and from one province to another twopence.

- If the spirit and the letter of the new Bankruptcy Act are honestly acted upon and carried out, bankruptcy will no longer be found profitable to swindlers, nor will it be looked upon as quite a respectable thing as in the past. That a large number of dishonest failures on the part

of businessmen and others took place under the old Act is beyond question. The Act was too loose in its principles, and instead of offering a check on the fraudulently inclined, it proved quite a paradise, as well as a means of escape to them. During late years, it seemed to be a rule, that the more a man got " whitewashed" in the Bankruptcy Court, the more respectable and thriving he became. After every periodical "washing," he was able to start business on a larger and grander scale, and yet while undergoing \fos necessary procesß of beinfj absolved from his debts, all he could offer his creditors was a few shillings in the £. This state of things, it is to be hoped, will shortly be classed with things of the past. The stringency of the new Act should prevent such robbery ; and from a careful perusal of the provisions of the measure, ifc may be said that the Act iB likely to bring about a much-needed reform. The assignee system should be the means of correcting a great deal of abuse.

Generally speaking, the Mayoral election rarely presents any matter of burning interest, the questions on which they depend being usually very tame. This year, however, is an exception to the rule so far as the Dnnedin Mayoralty is concerned. The activity and interest manifested in the election has been caused by the vexed question of selling the gasworks. Two of the candidates are in favor of disposing of the works to a syndicate, as they claim that by doing so it would be a great saving to the city, inasmuch as a private company could carry on the works at less cost, and provide gas to consumers at a reduced price. Theae views of the mat- ", ter, however, are not shared by the majority of the citizens, they being emphatically opposed to the gaswork being sold, as it is one of the best and most profitable concerns belonging to the Corporation. Mr Guthrie (the other candidate) is strongly against the selling of the works. At a recent meeting, he pointed out that the property was one of the best i the Council had under its control, and ad- j duced figures to show that the revenue derived from it was exceptionally good. He also pointed out that the syndicate who wished to take over the gasworks would not do so if they did not think that a good thing could be made out of the concern. The gentlemen composing the Company were hard-heacle<l men of business, and they might be sure that the citizens would suffer if large dividends did not come from the gasworks. It is to be trusted that the candidate opposed to the selling of the works will be elected.

The railway authorities have a curious and most unsatisfactory method of dealing with the running of excursion trains. For instance, if there is any event — holiday or demonstration — in Christchurch, railway-tickets are issued at reduced prices for that place, from Dunedin only, while from Christchurch the ordinary fares have to be paid, thus debarring the people of that city from sharing in the concession should they wish to spend their holidays in Dunedin. It is the same with Dnnedin ; for when anything takes place here, excursion-tickets are issued from Christchurch or Invercargill only, while those who wish to visit those places have to pay ordinary fares. The department, no doubt, in this single-handed method of dealing with excursionists to distant places, think they are conferring a great favor on the public. It may benefit a f e w , but it is beyond gainsaying, that, were the system of making all concessions apply both ways at the same time, instead of limiting them to one particular way, the public generally would have cause to be thankful, and would look upon the railway authorities as benefactors.

The last session of the New Zealand Parliament should be distinguished by the name of "Stringent Parliament ; " for never before were so many measures of an extremely stringent nature passed in ons session by our legislators. The Bankruptcy Act is of such a character that no fraudulent bankrupt should escape his due punishment, while the Adulteration Prevention Act should put a stop to the disgraceful practices resorted to by unscrupulous businessmen in the matter of preparing food for consumption. That the practice of adulterating food of all kinds has been carried on to a large extent, has, on more than one occasion, been shown by the analysis which Professor Black has made on various articles of consumption. The public have been long enough bamboozled and imposed on by a certain class of traders, and it is satisfactory to find that, in the new Adulteration Act, provisions are made to bring dishonest businessmen to a proper sense of their duty towards their customers, who look for wholesome, instead of deleterious compounds. The Act, it may be stated, is of a very sweeping nature, and well calculated to do away with the dishonest practices so much resorted to m the past by unscrupulous traders. A great deal of interest appears to be centred in the approaching races to be held on St. Andrew's day at the Forbury racecourse. The acceptances for the various events were received on Wednesday evening last. There were numerous entries for each event, but it is not expected that all the .horses will come up to the scratch. Trotting appears to be coming into favour with the Dunedin public, bo much that the Jockey Club have resolved to encourage this department of racing by getting up a Consolation trotting race. The prizes for this race will be— lst, £25 ; 2nd, £10 ; 3rd, £5, making a total of £40. This action on the part of the Dunedin Jockey Club will no doubt meet with general approval, and tend in a large measure to bring forward really good upstanding roadsters. For the St. Andrew's Handicap, a well-known BpOTt has given m« the following tip : Ist, Adamant ; 2nd, Turquoise ; 3rd, Lady Emma. Trot : Wanaka, Chromo and Moa. The betting market is fairly brisk, but more business will probably be done this week. For sometime past, the City Council has had under its consideration a number of claims for compensation in connection with the carrying out of the Silverafcream water supply. Some of the claims, from all accounts, are pretty heavy ones, and if (he Council have to pay what is demanded, it will cost the city a tidy penny. The Council, however, have at last resolved, under advice from the city solicitors, not to recognise the claims made, and the Mayor and Town Clerk are to serve statutory notices upon the claimants to that effect. In the carrying out of the SilveMtream water supply, a great deal of damage waß done to private property ; but as doubts have been raised as to the liability of the City Corporation for such damage, and the Council have refused to entertain the demands made by those parties who suffered, the (natter witt hay© to be settled by a court of law. Actions for the recovery of damages will no doubt be instituted by the persons interested, and the sooner the question is settled the better, for it has been before the public too long.

All things considered, the Dunedin show proved highly successful. The weather was a}} that could be desired on both days, and the quality of the animals of all classes shown was extremely good. The attendance was also exceptionally good. It was a pity, however, that a large number of the stock entered were not shown. On the second day the horses were judged, when the New Zealand Hardware Company's five-guinea cup was secured by Mr P. Grant (of Gowrie farm, Taieri), for the largest number of prizes in draught stock. Mr Grant has always been noted for the excellency of his draught animals ; and during the past few years has secured a number of valuable cups at various shows. Blood stock was very poorly represented at the show, Mr Taggart's well-known stallion Le Loup j being the only horse exhibited in His i class. There was a good show in the other classes of horses.

The closing of the' sessions of the St. Andrew's Church Ladies' Literary Institute, Bible Class, and Young Men's Association was celebrated on Monday last by a concert in the hall below the Church. The attendance was very good, though it would no doubt have been much larger had the weather been propitious. The Rev. Mr Waddell occupied the chair, and the concert programme was disposed of to the satisfaction of all present. During the evening the usual prizes offered by the Associations were distributed to the successful members.