The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1878.

Kumara Times, Issue 420, 30 January 1878, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1878.

His Honor Mr Justice Gillies receutly paused sentence in Auckland upon two fraudulent bankrupts—Arthur Utting and Henry Solomon Myers; and his remarks in doing so were so apposite that they are worthy of publication even in Kumara for the benefit" of those whom it may concern." He said, addressing Utting, " It is in a commercial community a matter of great importance that strict honor and good faith should be maintained between debtors and creditors. In your case you acted in a very high-handed way, and set your creditors at defiance. You ought to have remembered that the property was not yours, but theirs, which they gave to you on credit, and it was your duty, as far as yon were able to coufo'm to their wishes, to dispose of the property for their benefit, they being virtually the owners of it. As yours is the first case that has come before the Court under the act, it is not my intention to deal severely with you. But it is well that it should be known to you and others that the Court has power *,o punish such au offence with two years' imprisonment, with or without hard labor. Your sentence will be six months, without hard labor." The j other offender, My«rs, had occupied a | very good position in business. It was \ shown, a local journal states, that on 'becoming' bankrupt he had concealed .three sums from his creditors viz:—a promissory note for .£ll6, another for. £137, and a debt due to him for £4ll 12s 4d. He also made some other con-1 cealments with the view of defrauding his creditor.- He, likewise, was conwicted and sentenced to six months' imprisonment on each charge. The contemporary from which we" obtain this information incline* to the belief that if a judge administered the full penalty of two years' imprisonment with hard labor in some instances, it would strike terror into the souls of all would-be fraudulent bankrupts, and reminds jts) readers of the late John Stuart fill's deliver.inee on Ahe subject—" To have (been trusted with money or money's vwoctJh, and to have lost or spent it, id •prima facie evidence of something wrong:: and it is notfor.the creditor,to prov§, which he cannot do in one case out of ten, thai there has been criminality, but forche debtor to rebut the presumption, by laying open the whole state of his affairs, and showing either that there has been no misconduct, or that .the misconduct has been of an exexcu«ahle kind. If he fail in this, he ought never to be disminjssed without a punishment proportioned to the de-' gree of blame which seems justly imputable to him; w'hieh punishment, however, might be shortened brmiti T gated iu 'proportion as he appeared likely to exert himself m repairing the' injury done."

There was again 4-full hoV'' Theatre Royal last night,"to see Thompson's magnificent diorama of the American War. No small attraction is, doubtless, the number of valuable gifts distributed ; but the diorama alone is worth the ntoney, lucidly and eloquently explained as the views are by the lecturer, Mr Thompson. Messrs F. A, Learmonth and Co., instructed by Mr Joseph Beale, hold an important unreserved clearing-out sale of farming properties, butcher's shop, and country store,- stock of groceries, ironmongery, crockeryware, horses, cows; pigs, &c, at the-WahW*, to-morrow. The sale will commence at 11 o'clock. Mr R. G. Bowen, Inspector of Government Works, calls for tenders 5 for additions to the Police quarters, and building a three-stall stable. Plans and' specifications may be seen at the Police Camp, and tenders close at ten o'clock to-morrow morning. Alluding to. the extraordinary letter, of Mr John Knowles, Under-Secretary, for, Public Works, re the Teremakau bridge, 1 this morning's Grey River Argus says : " We have a suspicion that the Govern- ! ment desire to screen their indisposition ] to spend the money voted for these works.j behind the loan chances, and that other engagements have been more urgently ! pressed upon their attention. All the more reason for constant agitation on the subject." . At the meeting of<tlie Ladies Benevolent Society last evening £33 8s 6d was.handed over to the being the 'result of the shilling subscription. The visiting committde reported supplying a person with, a Hospital, ticket, and. fare to Hokitika ; also three cases for relief, one of which was the finding a suitable person to take charge of a young child. The visiting committee for the month a*e • Mesdames Birch, Spiers and\ Homemaijij;'l and they have instructions to attend tpfthe ' cases reported to them. ' The attendance at the' State' School is rapidly increasing. To-day the-number present was 230, and, with the small staff of teachers at present the Work is anything but light. ' J ° Another new saw-mill has been sfciirted in the town by Messrs Smith, Palmer and Stewart, as will be seen on reference to our advertisingjColumns,, The Daily Telegraph concludes a review of the last Volume of Theodore Martin's Life of the Prince Consort as follows: Npne can rise from a study of this volume, without the threefold conviction—first, that never was Q"een nibre gloriously worthy, of her people's love, .gratitude, and reverence than'the noble arid "greathearted Sovereign Lady who rules this Empire; next, that never did subject serve her and the State with -more- perfect- self-devotion than- the Prince,- her husband; arid lastly, that those who would now abandon to the .ambition of Russia the spoils successfully withheldfrom her during, the period dwelt upon, i.i these high arid precious muniments of the British Court, are meanly willing to surrender that 'whichVth,e, best blood 1 of Englishmen has ■:> boug^cfor them, and would cancel l;ke! a little worth the proudest pages, > in ajU.: our national annals,,,. ■ .-,.,,. :V. .... . Aniriiventipn.nvliichi, if- it will be a'triumph of united mechanical science, is being, tried by a series■ of. experiments At Constantinople.;' It is the work'of a Greek, and consists off a submarine, boat intended to act against' torpedoes when sunk'in the sea ! 6r river, and to .cut the .wires connecting them with, electric batteries on shore by means of a kind of screw chisel, i The [boat is lighted by electricity, ;and floats as well above as below Ihe surface' of the water. "A special apparatus provides for the 1 absorption of the carbonic acid gas, and a supply of to enable'the crew to : breathe. The sewere weather that has lately occurred will he the forerunner of indisposi.as sciatica,-, lumosg<?i .neuralgia, 'and muscular 'shifting pains,''' *&hdllah's Great' Indian Cures" have beea praiiounced by numbers of Colonists to be the wonder of the Nineteenth (Century,, through the ex-traordinai-y: cures .that have been effected ..in. their, own caßes by these Indian medisme^; amon S Bt tlies e may be mentioned M, B, Hart, Esq. ex-Mayor of Christchurch MelfftUi, Walker, Esq., J.P., of Lyttelton; John Grifferi, ilsq. J.P., of Dunedin; and MrAlfex: Mackintosh, of Mackintosh Bay, a wery old colonist, and now 76 years of age, .who had been suffering v from rheumatism for fourteen years, but is now quite cured. Testimonials may be seen and; Med Mies. procured at all Medicine Vendors.—[Advt.]