THE Mount Ida Chronicle SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1874.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 290, 19 September 1874, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1874.

There is such a thing as being too clever. We all know that, and sometimes suffer under it up-country. But such sufferings are not confined to barbaric latitudes, but-even extend to Empire Cities. . We know how Wellington has been turned upon owing to her Superintendent and Provincial Secretary's unceasing greed for the Province as against the Colony. Dunedin too, is suffering now from the effects—or, rather, the results effected by her too clever ones; For years back Dunedin merchants have seen two things with Scotch clearness—that the great object they should have in view., should be to'; make their trade a Colonial trade, as opposed to simply a Provincial one, and that it is very, unpleasant to pay lighterage—latterly, rail-, way charges—on goods to bring them 'to Dunedin, then to have to pay freight again on orders proceeding North or South. The natural upshot of this ia the recognised fact that any house" doing a large business in Dunedin must build large sorting sheds at the Port, and so save the double freight, and loss of time on the goods. . A thepry was, however, started many, years ago by, perhaps, the ablest enginepi we ever had, that big ships could be brought,to Dunedin by an ■ improvement of the Upper Harbor, at certain risks. Mr. Balfour, in his final report, in. 1865, says : —" I have again to recommend " that a proper and complete nautical "and engineering survey of Otago " Harbor, from the Heads to Dunedin, " be undertaken at an early period, as " it would be useful in many ways. " Besides throwing light on many imJLpottantuseiftn ifc; w u aid " have a very practical bearing on " many sanitary and.: other subjects, " such as the propriety of allowin'g'the : " sewage of Dunedin to-be'discharged " into the.Harbor, the amount of re- " clamation which should be assumed "as the limit of safe reduction of

" waterway, and the most advantage- " ous form for such reclamation ; the " practicability—(the italics •! are ours)' " -Ttand cost of deepening the Harbor " by dredging, and the quantity and ".nature of the material which would. " require to be removed, ,&c. Such a " survey wouldl also, by comparison " with the Admmilty charts give some " indication as to whether the Harbor " is improving or deteriorating, and the latter would possibly give a clue both " to the cause and its cure ; besides, it " would form a valuable standard for "future reference, thus enabling the " effect of new works to be speedily " and accurately ascertained. The " survey would' be a work of con- " siderable magnitude, and its cos f " would of course depend on its mi- " nuteneas ,• but I consider that all that " would be required could be ascer- " tained in. about six mouths, at a cost " of from £1,600 to £I,BOO, including '" boats and every other expense. TJn- " til the completion of such a survey "it somewhat dangerous to express " decided opinions on such questions " as the form / which reclamation .at " Dunedin should assume, though it is " less difficult to say what form should " be avoided ; and I must strongly re- " commend that solid embankments " should not be projected into Dunedin: " Harbor beyond the end of existing " works."

, Of course this report we quote from was given in years, before-the railway now running to the Port-was dreamt of, _ except, possibly, by our au-called visionary Superintendent. This idea, however; of big ships coming to Dunedin instead of Dunedin going to the big ships has prevented the merchants building their sorting warehouses at the Port, and now, if they wish to, they have waited so long that to get a site at the Port is a most difficulty and expensive matter. Preposterous, indeed, to think that they should lose so much for their clever waiting, consequently another effort has to be made to get up the big ships at .the expense of the Province. It is seen by the Committee Messrs. Robert Oil Lies, John Davie, Hugh M'Neill, Ilcnry Tewsley, James I*attray,_ add Keith Bamsay —that the Provincial Government will not consent to expend £200,000 in the present unopened state of the country ori the Harbor; it is then thought that if the Committee itself, by means of a subservient Harbor Board, could get the management and control, the matter would be done. ■ A quantity of engineers' opinions on suDpositious facts —for the survey Mr. Balfour alluded to as essential is still unattempted, although the ProvincialEnginecrcarefully

reports again, only last session, it was needed before any practical work was undertaken—were bound together, a digest and summary of facts drawn from these opinion and supposed savings were attached by way-of introduction, and hi! presto! here was a most infallible report, totally putting into" shade Mr. Balfour's and Mr. D. L. Simpson's unwarrantable prudence in stating the necessity of ascertaining facts before building up theoretical hypothesis on which to found expensive works: The Committee had. theirwwa r —the Harbor Ordinance was passed, the Board constituted; still no word of survey, but a flaming advertisement appeared—"Wanted, Engineer £I,OOO per annum, Secretary £SOO. Now our faithful ones will be rewarded, and the tortoise - like Government shall be taught how to bring up the big ships. It is found, however that the securities that are offered—the reproductive fees arising from the work and a large area of ground to be reclaimed—will not draw a loan without a Provincial guarantee on our landed estates. Now efforts are being made to persuade the Grovernment to override the Council's deliberate decision, and grant funds to the Board, or, what is better, grant a guarantee: the Council, acting on railway precedent, it is thought, will' not repudiate—at least, Messrs. Turnbull and Webster, in' Executive, have tried it before with success. Mr. Keid's Go-vernment,-very properly, are resisting such a request, and should be supported by the country. It might be wise to grant what would cheerfully have been voted last session, a- sum of £I,OOO to commence a thorough survey of the Harbor. The Committee rejected this proffer, hoping to secure the whole loaf and bake it themselves. We now see how they have refused the substance and grasped but a shadow. Still, if the Government were to make such a grant under restriction as to expenditure, as we suggest, they could not be blamed. The huge amount on traffic expectedto be saved by the perfected Harbor scheme is 3s. per ton. : How can we,. who pay £5 to £LO cartage on every ton of flour we eat "through want of rail communication, and at. least £2 to £5 per ton through- want simply of good' road: communication—how can we consent to Provincial securities being given . to . sanction v a,.loan of £300,000 —at Mr. Beid's; .valuation ofwaste land securities, a locking up as i reserve of 800,000 acres—to save 35., or, rather, to put 3s. per: ton : into the poc'-ets of Messrs. Davie, Briscoe', Rattray, and Co.

The English mail will "close on or about the 28th instant.

There was no Court business at the last \isit of the Warden to Hyde of any general interest. . . .. r "

A MEETINGS has been held of. shearers in Dunedin to consider the price of shearing for this season. ~ .

—rSti*. o. ju. <oi ili.ies,~so long connected, with the editorial staff of the 'Bruce Herald,' has, we learn from that paper,. left Tokom'airiro.

Messes. Ikdee'Paiid G-eor&e succeeded, last night, in effecting a sale of the one-fourth share in Band of Hope Water Race and dams for the sum of £345.

From the Ist January, 1852, to the 30th June, 1867, the Colony of Victoria has expended in the purchase of foreign timber the enormous sum of £8,392,551. ; The Company about to be "formed to construct a railway to the Forbury Racecourse, Ocean Beach, and the Peninsula is a private venture; ifc is not, as some might think, a Government scheme, infavor of Dunedin." It is calculated that the excursion traffic will recoup the shareholders. Mr. B. Haxx., whose enterprise and horticultural proclivities are so well known in Naseby, has succeeded in transporting some fine specimens of the New Zealand cabbage tree, which are to be seen in his garden, from some remote gully at the back of the Houndbtjrn Hill. Mr. Hall is willing; we understand, to supply trees of all sizes at very moderate rates to special ordersThe ' Bruce Herald' of • a late date advocates a special session of., the Provincial Council, to consider ways and means. Such a session would be a very needless waste of time and money, and: .would; only, serve the promoters of such schemes as the Tokoraairiro Coal Railway and the Dunedin Harbor Improvement, constructed out of theoriesschemes happily dipt just now for want of funds.

Sir Hudson Lowe, when in Ceylon, imported from Brazil .the lantana ■as an ornamental plant. It is now, says the present ■Governor, overspreading the island below a certain elevation, between 2,000 and 3,000 feet. It is stated, he says, that the moisture retained in the soil by the dense vegetation of this plant, combined with the humus formed by the decay of its leaves, is already renovating land abandoned and worn out. iii WB regret to learn that a severe accident o'ccured to. IVlrs.. Davis, a sister of .our respect ed townswoman, Mrs. Lawson, by which she in : curred the fracture of an arm, and two or three ribs., She is employed.at Mr.; Craig's, on the Kyeburn, and was returning from a visit to Naseby. on horseback, when she fell off a mile or, two from the Kyeburn. . The .horse returning alone to the station, suspicion was aroused, and she was soon found, and the doctor sent for—under whose care she was next day removed to N.iseby, in Mr. John Bremner's waggon, kindly placed at disposal. W< sball take occasion, before the agricultural block now being surveyed is.completed to point out the mode in which applications must be made,' and the various conditions compulsory on the lessee. In the meantime, applicants can get copies of the Gt-oldfields Rules and Regulations at Mr. L. W. Busch's Naseby, which contain all information with regard to agricultural lease applications. The Waste Lands Act, of 1872, is only of interest to those already.: lessees, who wish to exchange their leases, held under the G-oldfields Act and Regulations, for leases under the Waste Lands Act, the advantage of which we will point out iri due course. Applicants have, iu the first instance, to apply under the Gt-old-fislds Rules and Regulations.

■ Mr. Waterhouke, in a good speech from the Opposition point of view, referring to our indebtedness, is reported to have said:—"lt would appear as though the public considered that every million of money borrowed is-a million gained. I am reminded of a paragraph I saw the other day in one of the papers, relating how a man in - Victoria remarked to a friend, ' I have made a £IOO today. V How is that?' said the friend. 'Why, I have borrowed it, of course,' replied the other. And so we seem to : think that every million borrowed is a million made. We dis-

tribute our bonds-with the recklessness and indifference with ,:which Micawber gave his promissory note to David Oopperfield, sayhigj ' Thank Goid, that is off our mind.' . . It would be well for us to remember that borrowing has its liabilities as well as pleasures."

Last week, as we announced in oiir Saturday's issue, Captain Baldwin's touse was destroyed by fire. The Captain was away in Dunedin at the time. The fire commenced on the attic story—it is thought in the governess' room, where a candle was found in a position which, if alight, it might hare easily caught the lining. That lady, however, is of opinion that it wasnotalight, neither was there any light in the room. The fire broke out about seven in the evening Two men were on the premises, and a girl.' rati for assistance to a neighboring gully, -where some miners were at work. The force thus obtainable succeeded in getting the flames under before damage went beyond the main wing of the station residence. The bedrooms were all destroyed, and much furniture, besides a quantity of clothing, which could not be removed. From the Dunedin papers we observe Captain Baldwin states his loss is fully covered by insurance. Tirs ' Hawke's -Bay Herald' of a late date states.—ln former issues of our paper we have spoken of the experiment now being made, with every prospect of success, to introduce trout into the streams of the province, but we have not'spoken, for we were in ignorance of the fact, of its being to Mr. Young/; of Otago, that the people of Hawke's Bay are chiefly indebted for what has been done in the matter. It is this gentleman who has done so much to stock the rivers of the South with valuable fish, thereby increasing the supply of food, and the country's wealth, in a that will be better appreciated a few years hence than at the present time. Some time ago, we understand, an offer was made : by the Otago Acclimatisation Society to give some trout ova to this province, but it havingbeen also suggested by Mr. F. Rich that Mr/ Young would bo willing to undertake the work, as a labor of love, and would be the: most likely man in the country to make . the experiment successful,- the matter was left by His Honor the Superintendent to Mr. Young, who has devoted an amount of time and trouble to the matter, for which he deserves the hearty thanks of the people of this province. ' '

Paying some little attention to the Forest papers, giving the experience of almost half the World with regard to conservation and creation of Forests, we are struck by the populations that exist in some countries, and not only ; exist but cultivate largely, and yet are; without any natural water'supply at all. It certainly appears that we in New Zealand - know nothing of the modus operandi in such countries. Lieutenant Palgrave occupied about ; two years crossing ; the deserts of Arabia, finding at intervals, alternated with endless stretches of sand desert, fertile valleys and populous wealthy towns,; with-seve-ral thousands of inhabitants living for the most part on produce raised altogether by .means of sheltering mud walls and irrigation. Yet, during the whole of that ■perilous and pathless journey never before trod .by Eng-lish-speaking man, Palgrave records the passsing -of one,, and? one only J.- running stream.; Irrigation was carried out by means of wells, much in/the same fashion as the Bible Patriarchs are recorded to have done when Rachel watered the flocks of her father, Laban the Syrian. In Ceylon, we read-that in the neglected district of Nuwarahtawiga, in which stands the city of-Ama'clhapna. there are-' 1,574 vHlagesj anS,'l,6oo tanks. , Not-one.-■tank ,'has'a pfoper sluice, and in some seasons the'villages are unable-' to obtain water' except for a very small.portion of their'land. It would- seem , that, much as we- complain, l we know very little about real deficiency of water even in this dry district.

made by ihe Legislative = Council,' Mr. Mervyn, speaking on the proposal to confine the granting of new licenses to the June Bitting, said::—".He had .known many cases where persons .had failed to make application ,for their licenses for want of knowledge ■ of 7 the'> law, and it would only be fail - that persons inri this position, whose houses were unobjectionable, should have an opportunity of renewing •their licenses at an early.date. Gases ot'great; hardship had arisen under the Act of last year, and it was hardly fair that licenses should have been granted in one part of the 1 coufitry and refused in another, as was stated by the honorable member for Wairarapa, for I instance." It was finally agreed that up to the end of this year new licenses could issue at any quarterly meeting, but, after then, new grants mivst be confined to the June Mr. jMervyn also gave an opinion on the barmaids' hours amendmentHe did not like to oppose the. amendment;- but'he: thought; it? would place the barmaids, in - some places, at a disadvantage. There were many barmaids engaged in hotels which were obliged to close ; up at ten o'clock. If those girls , were,not permitted to go into the bars before' eleven o'clock in the morning, they would not be of so much advantage to their employers." Also on the. clause to \ forbid-..;the i granting of new licenses to those who shall have ever been proved to have sold adulterated liquors, or liquors tampered with so as to be injurious to health. Mr.Merryii hoped the clause would be retained, as its object was clearly to prevent the inhabitants of up-country districts being poisoned, with adulterated and injurious liquors. On Mr. Vogel's motion, the clause was struck out, as being most objectionable to the minds of members. No doubt, as it stood,_ the clause must have been inoperative. .The ■ injurious adulteration, is certainly per - formed before importation : the local pub do-' pend upou 'it—r-depends on water. l ■ ■ '

On Monday morning last Naseby was startled at an early hour by a report, which spread with rapidity, that Messrs. Sargood's well known traveller Mr. Rollinshaw had killed himself in the Victoria Hotel stables. It appears that about eight o'clock Mr. George's boy, in one of the stables, heard a carious noise like a gurgling and a reaching, as he called it, in an adjoining stable; Going in he observed Rollinshaw on his knees and one arm, with a knife in the other hand. The hoy cried out, and his father, who was in the yard, at once came in and took the knife away, laying Rollinshaw on his back, his strength being now gone from the shock received. The boy, in the meanwhile, ran to the doctor's for help. Dr. Dick, who was fortunately in, was on the spot in about a minute, or a little over, and found the blood rushing from the wounds inflicted. The injured vessels were at once secured and the htemorrhage stopped. The wounds proved to be of a very serious nature, two severe wounds being on one side of the neck, in a line with the angle of the jaw, a third of a lighter nature but in the same direction on the other, and a deep stab between the false ribs on the left side, aimed apparently at the heart. From the locality selected for the wounds m the throat, immediately in the neighborhood of the jugular and carotid arteries, it was the merest chance that saved iife - a chance that a skilled professional hand would hardly have'risked in an extreme case. The cause of this violent attack upon his own life by a man who, to all appearance, had no care, and, if he had, could, not make a morbid grievance of it—on the other hand who had a wife and young family to live for is not known, and is almost past conjecture We understand that, as a traveller and business man, Mr Rollinshaw stood very high m the opinion of his employers, as he did, we know, in that of all those with wliouy he had to do business. He had no distraimng instructions on his trip to enforce, which it might be supposed he would loathe and sicken at, and which sometimes are unavo.dible. The only hypothesis appears to be

that the roving life, travelling in a dreary, monotonous round, through a barren country, stopping at many houses where drinking habits are prevalent, prepared the mind to be in a state in which a devilish suggestion could take root—perhaps be brooded over of late since the late suicide at Otepopo, and attempts at other places, with all of which Rollinshaw was likely familiar. He had arrived on Saturday in Naseby, and had gone quietly about his work as ever he did. It might seem more charitable to endeavor to hush up such, a distressing case, but such charity is most false. It has been proved over and over again that suicides group themselves, and can only be checked by most severe measures; and a bringing down of the full obliquy of the deed on the hands of those guilty. We have been alarmed of late at the number of attempts at suicide the Press of our small population are recording. It is high time attention was drawn to the sickly sentimentality, which is the surest, feeder of so revolting a spectacle as a suicide affords. Mr. Rollinshaw is still in a dangerous and highly critical state.