THE BAY OF PLENTY TIMES. SATURDAY, JULY 18~ 187418, 1874.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume II, Issue 195, 18 July 1874, Page 2

THE BAY OF PLENTY TIMES.

SATURDAY, JULY 18~ 187418, 1874.

" The spirit of the times shall teach me speed." Kl&a JOHN, ACS iy.

Tins is the appointed day for the annual election of members of the Town Board:—time, three o’clock in the afternoon —scene, the Court House. Wq hope to see every ratepayer present, and that the meeting will be conducted in the same orderly manner that we have hitherto noticed here. The electors will have a numerous choice. May the best men be returned ! Satis Yerboeum. t -

The prevalence of fires in Auckland, and the consequent destruction of valuable property, is a subject requiring the most serious consideration. It is a matter for congratulation that loss of life has hitherto been unfrequent; but if the work of incendiarism is allowed to continue, there is no knowing when the lives of men, women, and children may be sacrificed! The wretch who sets fire to a building iii the midst of a populous town, is at heart a murderer of the most reckless, cruel, and hardened nature ; for he knows not and cares not where the flames he raises terminate, nor how many lives may be sacrificed to them. There may possibly he an excuse for the man who strikes and kills in the heat of passion, or from the effects of some violent emotion, producing a state of temporary insanity, hut nothing on earth can palliate the cool, deliberate, cruel act of the incendiary. The crime has arrived at a stage where special legislation should be brought to bear upon it: it should be constituted a capital offence, and the inhuman monster convicted of it should be executed. No morbid sympathy should be allowed to mterfere with the course of so just a sentence; for all men residing in towns constructed principally of wooden buildings like Auckland*, should endeavour to realize the fact, that the midnight incendiary may be the cause of their perishing in flames, and further, what is still more appalling, their wives and little ones are nightly in greater danger of the same fearful death than themselves, because they have not presence of mind to act promptly in a sudden emergency of this kind. We sincerely hope that the matter of incendiarism will receive the attention of the Government during the present session of Parliament.

Mb Sheehan has tabled the following notice of question in the House of [Representatives : lt Wnat has been the cause of delay in proceeding with the construction of the Tauranga and Waikato Coach Hoad, and whether it is intended to go on with it this year? * Several hundred thousands pounds were voted for roads and works in the North Island, Mr Sheehan said, and the great bulk of it had been spent in opening up lines of traffic for Napier on account of Messrs Ormond and McLean’s influence in that province. No difficulty competent men say whatever really exists, and communication between Tauranga, Waikato, and Taupo may be opened without fear of complication with the natives.”