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Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1608, 4 September 1874, Page 346

The Evening Post is severe on Major Gordon. Speaking of the non-production of the annnal report of the Inspector of Volunteers, it says, " Probably the Defence Minister is ashamed to make the report public, as it would exhibit the incompetent character of the inspector rather than the condition of the volunteer force." The Good Templars (says the Nelson Mail) have had a fruitful theme for discourses placed before them within the last few days. The greatest interest has been taken in the murder case recently tried before the Supreme Court, for at one time Newman Horsley and his wife were highly respected and regarded as hard working, industrious settlers. In an evil hour they opened .a public house, and from that time the commencement of their misery dates. They could not resist the temptation to drink, and gradually the once happy couple fell lower and lower in the scale of humanity and morality until they at last reached the lowest point attainable. The wife has met with a sudden and terrible death, and the husband is a prisoner, it may be said for life, found guilty of slaying her who was once his cherished companion. The wretched, dissipated, quarrelsome life they had led was no secret. It was known to everyone who was in the habit of passing their house, and still no attempt was made by the proper authorities to prevent a licence being granted to them. The jury who convicted the unhappy ' man could not refrain from commenting upon this,- for wa find them expressing their opinion in these words : —" The authorities knowing the life the prisoner and his wife were leading, should have refused him a licence to sell drink." The Daily News says:—Probably the heaviest bill transactions that the world ever saw are now straining the resources of the ancient and respectable Bank of Hamburg. They are heavy in every sense of the word, for not only are they of vast amount, but they are required to be paid in silver, at the rate of about a wagon load to a bill; and it is not so much the difficulty of procuring the silver but of coining it fast enough, that has taxed the energies of the commercial capital of Germany. Fortunately a crisis, which at one time seemed almost inevitable, has been averted by the zeal and cooperation of private bankers, as the State was not permitted to interfere, and the first of these monster bills has been paid. The circumstances are these:—A large part of the latest instalment of war indemnity paid by France to Germany consists of bills of exchange, and of these were drafts on Hamburg to the tune of 48 million marks banco—a coin of about eighteenpence value. On the 12th of September the first bill for about 25 millions became due, and consequently nearly two millions of money had to be provided in eighteen-penny pieces. Such a thing had never been heard of before ; but the bills had been duly accepted, and being at short dates, had to be provided for by the acceptors, Messrs L. Behrens and Sons, without loss of time by some unusual operation, as all the money in the bank was inadequate for the purpose. This sum varies from week to week according to the quantity of bullion in the cellars of the bank, anyone being at liberty to deposit there his bars of silver; for which his account is credited in marks banco at a fixed rate of about fifty-nine marks banco pGr medical pound of fine silver. In ordinary times, this balance has ranged from sixteen to twenty millions of marks value, and in order to facilitate the everincreasing financial operations, a concession has been granted to the bank to create banco money, no longer exclusively by Bilver bars, but by the deposit of gold in bars, called Belehnungen. In this manner the stock at the bank at the end of August had risen to thirty-two millions of marks value; but of this more than five millions were Belehnungen, and consequently not available, for the monster bill was drawn and made payable, not in gold, nor even in silver thalers, but in marks banco ; and nothing but marks banco would do. The Hamburgers proved equal to the emergency. By great exertion, working night and day, 20,000,000 marks were forthcoming ; the day before the hill became due they were delivered to the bank in 7,000 bags of 200 marks each ; and on the 12th the bills were paid in the usual manner l by a simple cheque on the bank to the credit of the holder! No wonder that with transactions of such colossal magnitude a great sensation was created in the Hamburg Exchange a few days ago by the exhibition of one of these monster bills by the Provincial Discount Company, to whom it had been sent to get it accepted* This extraordinary document was drawn on Messrs L. Behrens and Sons, and in one sum of 24,650,000 marks banco, the bill stamps amounting to more than 000 thalers (about £900) which goes into the Imperial Treasury, and which France has to pay.