OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume IV, Issue 343, 22 December 1875, Page 3

OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

(F )M our own correspondent.) AtjcklsiNDj 17th December. Sir George Grey is not going to forsake City West after all. At any rate ho will stand for that district, and of course will bo elected, but it does not follow that ho will represent it in Parliament. The rumor runs at present, and obtains general credence, that ho will bo put in nomination at the Thames too, and if elected there will resign City West and bespeak the suffrages of the electors of that district for a nominee of his own. I suppose the idea in this little arrangement is that Sir George does not feel so confident as ho would like to about the Goldfields seat, and does not want to be left in the lurch, so to prevent such an accident ho donble'banks himself. Bydbe-bye, Sir George is beginning to feel the effect of his recent hard work. One day last week ho fell down in a dead faint at his lodgings, a thing ho has never done before, Be also exhibits other symptoms of needing rest after his labors. The writs for the new Parliament arrived by the Ladybird last Sunday, and the Returning Officer has made the following fixtures for the different Auckland and suburban districts :

The polling-days are only “ if necessary” j and to all appearance it would seem as if this necessity would not exist in at least four of the districts mentioned above. For the two seats of City West there are only two candidates,—Sir George Grey and Mr Dignan j for City Bast (one seat), Mr Bees and Mr Clark ; for Newton, Mr Swanson ; for Parnell, Mr E. Wood ; for Waitemala, Mr J, S. Macfarlano, Mr Henderson, Mr Hurst, Dr Leo; for Onohunga, Mr O’Eorko ; for Eden, Mr A. K. Taylor; for Franklin (two seals), Mr J, May, Mr F. 11. Troup, Mr Hamlin, Mr Goodfellow, Mr Crawford, Mr Woodward, Wo have just got through an election for Mayor, and Mr Tonks, the “outsider,” has defeated the late mayor, Mr Prime, by 1062 votes against 402. I described these gentlemen in my last letter, so that I need not repeat the description. Of course the victory is very popular; the contest had resolved itself into a battle of the “ins” and the “outs,” and was watched with a good deal of interest. The City Councillors, as I told you, wore much disturbed at the prospect of having a stranger at the head of their board, and worked like “ niggers ” for Mr Prime, but the result must show them that although they can sit in their Council Chamber and vote away money, and make decrees against the wish of the people who have to pay the piper, they and their adherents do not stand a ghost of a chance against the popular voice when it comes to voting. The new system by which the ratepayers, instead of the Councillors, elect the Mayors, will effect quite a revolution in municipal affairs. The effect should be beneficial to the public, for it will help to destroy that obnoxious cliquism which is the bane of snch institutions, and from which our Corporation is not altogether free. } A poor man who is likewise a dirty man does not obtain much sympathy, for cleanliness is very cheap, but when a rich man persistently neglects the commonest observances of decency, preferring to stink everybody out because it saves him a half-penny in soap, then I say that man ought to be ducked in the town pond, Such a man is Mr Christopher Green way, a property'holder in Auckland, who is very fond of dubbing himself the richest man in the province. He owns any number of small houses in different parts of the city, and they may generally bo known to be Mr Greonway’s by the squallid condition in which the owner allows them to lie. This rich man, who as might be imagined is an ignorant old moneygrubber for wlfiom everybody among those with whom he should be on terms of equality entertains np other feelings than those of contempt, has been summoned regularly three or four times a year for some years past for allowing hia premises to remain in such an offensive condition as to be a nuisance to the neighbours. Strange to say, on some occasions

Wyers have been found to defend him, and sometimes he has got off with only a nominal penalty, the i*mount of which, however, would hate Wen sufficient, if properly expended, to have pst the premises-into decent order. 4bout a fortnight apo he was brought up on no less than seven charges, all of the usual filthy character, and because ho- complains of being “ pitched upon,” Mr Barstow gave him a weesto cleanse his property. Of course ho profitted by socli leniency, you will say. Not a Bit of it 5 ho simply gave an order for two loads of muck to be carted away, when all the • lime it would have required about twenty to have effected any permanent reform. The Bench fined him £5 and costs in each case, or £4O 5s altogether, and if you had 'seen tbo twitching of the old miser’s face as each penalty was announced, it would have done you good. When the full amount was read out to him by the Clerk, the dirty old rascal showed tho ignorance and uncoulhness in* separable from such a low state of barbarity by hissing out that be should make his tenants pay it by weekly additions to their rent. Thepeople in Court called shame, and were not' rebuked. The Harbour Board, at their meeting on Tuesday last, brought up tho report of tlio Works Committee, embodying the four resolutions (alluded to in my last) respecting the dock, and after a rather warm discussion adopted it on the voices by a majority of one# The effect of this is to empower the chairman to'rcqueet Mr Errington,C.E, to draw up plans and specifications for a dock, 1300 ft, long and 12ft. deep on the cill, to bo built to tbo west • ward of the wharf. Mr Buchanan also carried 1 ' another motion to the effect that Mr Erriugton also prepare a report of tho adaptability oil Point Calliope at the North Shore for a largo dock, and estimates of tho expense. It is to be hoped that tho Board will build the dockin the right place at last. What with bringing over Mr Moriarty and other little esnonaivofoibles, they have already expended over £2OOO, and done nothing. Mr J. C. Firth, tho miller, of Queen street, and a man of immense property in tho pro* vinco, has sent a letter to each of tho papers attacking Mr Maoandtw for his principles stated in his pamphlet and speech. Mr Firth sums them all up aa included under tho head ' of£“ selfishness.” Tho Hoods in tho Waikato during the latter part of last week wore heavier than have been known for years; Tbo river was at one timo 14 feet above its ordinary level, and tho destruction of property has been something enormous. It is said that the natives in tho. upper districts have lost all their stores. Two settlers are known to have been drowned in tho neighbourhood of tbo Papakura Valley.. Tho waters have now subsided, and gangs of men are busy ro*making the railway where it was washed away. A settler named Levitt, at Cox’s Creek, on tbo Waitemata Is missing. Ho was last seen on Sunday, the 12th instant, in a dingy in the harbour near the entrance of tho creek, and parties are out searching for his body every ■ day. The man leaves a wife and family.

The now mail service progresses in miai fortune. The latest development is the arrival of the Colima, from San Francisco nine days late, after having broken down twice during her passage. As I write she is just on the point of starting for Sydney, still in a crippled condition, althouh Fraser and Tiunc’s men have been at work on her broken crank for four days. It ip said that she will have to bo laid up for full six weeks in Sydney for com* plote repairs, for what she is having done now are only temporary, so that she cannot tako up her date for leaving with the outward mail, and the contractors will have to charter one of the good old boats of the recent mail 'service. The folly of the coastal service was exemplified lately by the fact that the Cyphrenea nearly went ashore at Napier on her way down* South this trip. There has been a great blow up in the Tairua Gold Mining Company, which was to have proved the second Caledonian of the Hauraki Goldfield, but has suddenly collapsed. The shareholders and several of the directors are very bitter against Mr Becche, the late mine manager, and Mr Jackson, a director, who, as the shareholders say, although theywere on the spot all through the late workings, and saw the gold run out, said nothing about it for weeks, and|beforo it was known contrived to get rid of their own shares ak very high prices. A call of five, shillings-per share is now announced. A preliminary meeting was held at Grahamstown last week, and on Tuesday last a largo meeting was held in Auckland to discuss what was best to ho done. Tho meeting came to the conclusion to carry out the work already begun, and make a deter* mined effort to make tho mine pay; Several; reports which had been prepared by competent gentlemen who had gone down to view tho mine were read, and were favorable to this course being pursued. Meanwhile it is pnssb bio wc shall hear further particulars of tha company in tho law counts.-

District, Nomination, Polling. Oily West December 22 December 28 City East December 23 December 30 Newton December 24 January 4 Parnell December 31 January 7 Waiternata January 10 January 10 Onehunga December 29 January 5 Eden December 80 January 6 Franklin January 10 January 18