CONTEMPORARY NEWS.

Wairoa Bell, Volume V, Issue 178, 30 December 1892, Page 2

CONTEMPORARY NEWS.

Til iZ ■Ni’.Yv TAX \TI OX. l:i a rcyort ••submitted to Parliament in July : is.■A. 1 • 10 Cosum-dtC! of Tin s estimated that th:! hind o'. v.-Oiild yield :i sum of £280,1'.>5. The days • •; grace ior the payment, of the tax expired on Tuesday, and the results to hand.' more than bear out Mr Crombie’s estimate. Already a total sum of £284,093 has been paid, and in addition there are remittances in course of transmission by post, which will bring the total above the estimate of £280,915. which was made up thus : —Land tax .£219,608, graduated land tax £67,307. Trie estimated yield of the income tax was .692,000, but of course it is not payable until the latter end of January, GOVERNMENT PURCHASE OF PRIVATE LAND, At a Cabinet meeting held last week it was decided to purchase the immense Amuri estate in the South Island, property in the estate of lleady-money Robinson. There were differences between the owner and the department over the valuation. The value put on the estate by the department’s valuer being upheld by the Board of Reviewers, the owners then offered the property to the Government at the Government valuation, and the Government, after obtaining the opinion of two independent valuers, and after giving the matter lengthy and very grave consideration finally decided to accept the offer of the owner to sell at the Government valuation, and after preliminaries as to possession, etc. have been arranged, the estate will be taken over. This step is one of the most important ever taken by the Government, the estate being of large area, and being worth, roughly speaking, over a quarter of a million sterling. The purchase will be of especial importance to Canterbury, where land for settlement cannot well bo procured The Cheviot Hills estate, purchased by the Government, consists of 84,222 acres, belongs to the estate of the late Hon. W, Robinson, and is situated north of the Hurunui river. The assessed value was £304,826, and the owner’s value £260/220, showing a difference in favour of the owners of £44 606. The owners called upon the Commissioner of Taxes under the provisions of the Land Assessment Act to reduce the assessed value to that stated by the owners in their return of land, or to purchase the land at that price. The Commissioner declined to reduce the assessed value and advised the Government to acquire the property, which has been done. A vessel carrying- a million feet of timber is to be loaded with -Kauri at the Kaipara for lingland shortly. Mr How den, jeweller, of Queen-street has at present some 700 silkworms spinning, and 1,000 more reacts- to spin, while he has in process of rearing about 10,000 Mr Grant has given notice to move at next meeting : ‘ That as the Board of Education has accumulated £3,000 during- the year, after transferring- a. large amount to the building fund, there be expended £2,000 to pay to all its teachers and pupil teachers that had salaries at the rate of less than £2OO for the past year a salary bonus —the rate of such bonus to those that had not more than £IOO being- double the rate of bonus to those that had over £IOO and less than £2OO. The cheap fares from Australia to New Zealand will no doubt induce a large number of tourists to pay Auckland a visit during the summer months. Jus; now the leading hotelkeepers arc :;! tin ir wits' cud to provide .siiflioiiut t’.coouueo.l iMon fur she i re,veiling public. A good I mi-si., r of ircu'se. are people from different parts oi 'else m;;y, whs i::i Oil spending the Ohr.stm an I -Now 5 ear ludidsvs in mu' sunny clime, hid if, city arc visib'.is from Austr.-tli-i A sample of the new fodder plant, the Lathyrus Sylvan;'ris, Wagnerii, wssexiiibitedatMessrs Hurst and Go’s stores, Auckland by Mr C. T. Wren. It weighed when cut, 121 b, from one “quai-e yard of land, tquul to 250 tors to the acre. CONSTABLE HASLET f’S DOGGEDNESS OVERCOMES THE MAORI DOG-OWNERS. The - Northern Luminary’ states.- “It lias taken Constable Uaslett (late of Eden Terrace), who cannot speak a word of Maori, to break the back of the me,as vexed Maori question of the day in ihese parts, insomuch that out of eight, convictions two mouths Ego against; natives who refused to Take orit half crown dog collars, six of the offend.:";; have been dealt v, it ,' a,. jn the first t wo cases horses were seized and sold, and where one horse did not realise the sum required, the owner paid the balance Era Putnuka was sent, to gaol for 28 days, but on doing McG-ilp’s woodyard for a day, he paid up. Two other natives paid up 1 on the quiet.' Wm Kupa came in on Thursday with bis swag-, saying he intended to go to gaol, but when the police arrived he sensibly enough paid the demand of £1 17s Gd, However, Constable Haslott did liis best stroke when he lain in Wircmu Bomare, the ex Maori parson, and a most prominent member of the' native committee, who ordered all natives not to pay the dog- tax. Cons 1 able Uaslett ‘copped’ his man in. the tea-tree at "Waikaro on Tuesday. Bomare was not at all inclined to come on, as he stated he was, not hiding hut merely doing a walk. When the train was caught at Te Akeako l’omare declined to go into a second class carriage ; a first was his hobby, which, however, was not satisfied. Arriving- at Kawakawa the 1 Aesthetic card ’ committed a gross libel on the Govern agent, stating the lock up was not fit for a pig to live in ; ho desired hotel accommodation. Constable Uaslett, still firm, locked his man up, and next day, after a long korero with about 30 natives outside (lie lock up, it was decided to pay the damage, £2 35.” TWO SAILORS DROWNED, On Saturday afternoon two men belonging- to H. IVT- ship Kartoomba were drowned in Auek land harbour. Fifteeen men left the ship in the pi-nance to get some evergreens to decorate their messes. The pinnace was well ballasted and in good trim and the party set sail for St, Heliers Buy with an ebb tide and strong though squally

wind. All went well till suddenly the sea was seen breaking over the Bastian reef of the exist• cnee of winch, the bn-Urn-m vd be n unaware. i • . ■ -f I. at during ;lie movement a sudden squall struck nor and she capsized and sank immediately, leaving her occupants struggling the water about 150 yards from the reef. Nearly all the men'could swim and they made for the reef which twelve of them reached They state that if it had not been for the wind and tide assisting them they would all have perished. A stoker named Smith s ink and was drowned before he could reach the reef. A marine named Brisland was rescued by his mates but did not recover consciousness. The fifteenth man clung to one of the oars and was picked up by a. passing steamer. The A ucklandjßaces were very largely attended on Monday there being about 10,000 persons present. The racing was exceptionally good, Mr 17. D Nathan’s bay horse St. Hippo won the Cup with ease, Brigand 2nd and Merganser 3rd. Mr James Mackay, late Warden of the Thames Goldfields, now lies in the Auckland Hospital in a precarious state, suffering from self-inflicted wounds of a horrible nature, such as cannot ba described. He quarrelled with a woman ho had been living with in Freeman’s Bay and then inflicted upon himself the injuries which have placed his life in danger.