NAPIER NOTES.

Hastings Standard, Issue 79, 28 July 1896, Page 2

NAPIER NOTES.

[From Our Own Cobbespondemt.] Napier, July 28. In its wisdom the Chamber of Commerce has decided that it cannot recommend tlie establishment of a penny inland post, and for the reason that as there has been a deficit in the railway returns it cannot ask the Government to weaken any possible source of revenue. I have examined the railway returns and I fail to discover the deficit; but if there be one, what has that to do with the penny post ? As a matter of fact, if our members of the Chamber- did but know it, there is an Act on the statutebook which can be brought into force at any time—l think by an Order-in-Council —which would give us a penny post, and with all deference to the members of the Chamber of Commerce, I think it a piece of nonsense that people who "have to send a letter to Hastings from Napier should have to pay the same amount on it as on a letter addressed to, say, Melbourne or Sydney, and only a halfpenny less than a letter for the United Kingdom. Some men are very timorous in considering these questions. Why, if a penny post were established, I venture to assert that we should have no such thing as a deficit to provide for in the postal revenue. "Whether the number of letters would be so great that they would become nuisance has " nothing to do with th e case." That phrase reminds me that Vernon, the " Lord High Executioner," is with us once again, together with Mr and Mrs Laurie and other favorites. They have just had a very successful season in Wellington, and will delight the people here with " The Gaiety Girl " and " In Town." At the risk of having your readers anathematise me for my constant references to the breakwater, I really must take advantage of your charity to let me say one or two more words about what is either the gross mismanagement of the breakwater harbor or a plan to deter the steamers from calling in during stormy weather. It is weU known that during the prevalence of storms, passengers have been taken out and in in the Ahuriri when the doing looked very risky, and passengers had often to be lifted into the big steamers by means of a winch and a basket or watch the movements of the gangway so as to rush up or down as the case might be. Now, why should steamers not lie off the breakwater and embark or tranship passengers instead of going out in the bay ? Someone will say, " Because there is no holding ground at the breakwater and the steamers are likely to drag the anchor." To that it is sufficient to reply : " Put down proper moorings, and at once." lam really sick of hearing of the imcompeteney of those whose study ought to be to make the harbor a suceess and not to play into the hands ol its enemies so as to destroy the usefulness of it and set people against the work. The weather is delightful this morning, but the heavy swell in the bay continues, and bodes no good for the Comic Opera Company, which is to land here to-day. Some of the " leading people " came by yesterday's express, but the bulk of the company and the scenery and effects are in the Te Anau. If they are not landed in the shelter of the breakwater there ought to be a row about it. Mr W. Gebbie, well-known on the road in connection with Mr Earner's coach and bus services, is to give up , the ribbons for a time and take charge : of the town business, stables, &c., of his employer. I don't know of a more popular fellow anywhere than Gebbie —always courteous, careful, and capable, a smart whip and a good business man. He was last night entertained at Taradale, and presented with a whip by the residents of the little village. A pleasant night was spent, and many kind and deserved of Mt Gebbie. With Ji, aA -

his other friends I wish him prosperity in his new sphere, and of one thing lam well convinced—he will do his x duty to his employer and be ever mindful of his patrons. All lovers of dumb animals Will applaud the decision, come to by the Justices at Waipawa, as reported in this morning's Herald. ; Personally I am sorry that it was out of their power to add a couple of floggings of 25 lashes to the sentence, one to be given on his going in and the other on the eve of his coining out. But ..that the infliction of a three montfeapsentence without the option of a fine .for most brutally ill-treating a horse—beating it, in fact, till it was a mass of bloody wounds—was well deserved. What a pity it is that these dumb beasts do not know their own strength, so that they might turn upou their tormentors and kick the life out of them. At the Magistrate's Court to-day, Miram Eoache, one of the unfortunate class, was sent to prison for three months. The steamer with the Opera Company on board arrived early and anchored under the shelter of the breakwater. The passengers, however, were taken to the Iron Pot much to their annoyance. To show the absurdity of this some of the passengers landed in an open boat at the steps of the Glasgow wharf.