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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 1016, 13 May 1871, Page 3

We extract the following from the Evening Post :—The extreme carelessness displayed with reference to wool and flax intended for shipment at this port strikes many people with surprise. Large piles of bales may at almost any time be seen on the wharf, exposed to all weathers,, and only partially protected by a covering of sails. These may be sufficient to ward off a slight shower or two, or prevent dew and frost from having an injurious effect, but against such violent storms of wind and rain as we have experienced on several recent occasions, they afford very inadequate security. The rain sometimes lasts for days together, and, however carefully the sails may be placed, while they rest on the bales, it is impossible to prevent the wet getting through. Let any of those piles alongside vessels at the wharf be watched when this cohering is removed, and a portion of the bales will in all cases be found more or less damaged; and it is not merely an outside wetting that they receive : most of them are loosely packed, and tbe wet penetrates far through them. A little exposure to the sun and air afterwards, will dry the outside, but the centre remains wet. The worst bales ate, of course, rejected by the chief officers of the vessels, but still there is scarcely a wool and flax loaded ship which leaves this port, but has on board some bales unfit for shipment. There is thus always a risk of tire, as the combustiye properties of damp wool ha"e been too often tested to allow of a doubt on the subject; but even if the fire does not break out, the wool or flax is certain to rot on the passage, —iti the case of flax not only proving a loss to tbe owner or insuier, but damaging the character of a production from which much is.expected. We have it on good authority that numerous bales of flax which left the milltf where they were packed, clean, serviceable fibre, arrive in London black, rotten, and musty, unfit for any manufacturing purpose; and wool is

often in a similar ' position. It seem? singular to those who are acquainted with the cave exercised to keep wool dry by the growers, in shearing, packing, and shipping; who know how a wet fleece is put uride to dry, and a bale damaged in the boat or in the surf is brought back for the same purpose — ■ to see all care abandoned as <*oon as it reaches Wellington Wharf, lb certain!} saves expense to avoid storing, but it is a penny-wise and pound foolish plan, and the"unfortunate producer puffers in the end, whether the wool is rejected and forced to be dried and re-packed, or sent home wet, to arrive rotten. The officers of the ship, of course, are anxious to reject as little as possible, and will take it in any state compatible with safety, but it really is the duty of those who have charge of it to see that it is kept in a dry and secure place until it is pressed and put on board the vessel. Even if a portion of the whyrf were covered in at the joint expense of woolshippcrs, to form a place where bales could be dumped and kept dry until stowed away on board, the money so spent would be well bestowed.

In London, before a new customer is permitted to open an account with any bank of standing, he must be formally introduced. A self-confident colonial capitalist walked into the London and Westminster Bank, and presenting an Australian bank draft for £IO,OOO at the counter, requested that the amount should be put to his credit. " Have you had an account with this bank before, sir?" blandly inquired a middleaged clerk, to which the colonist replied in the negative. "It is our invariable rule, sir, to require an introduction before opening an account with a new customer," continued the official. " I should think that a deposit of that amount was sufficient introduction," confidently retorted the now indignantAustralian. But it was no use. To his astonishment the depositor of ,£IO,OOO didn't find himself rushed after, nor of such consequence as he had previously imagined, and he was obliged to go through the preliminary formality of an introduction from the London manager of the Victorian bank he used to deal with before the Westminster would let him pay in his £ 10,000. Th.es.s. Nevada is expected to leave Dunedin on Monday next, for northern ports,