TOPICS OF TALK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 317, 26 March 1875, Page 3

TOPICS OF TALK.

" The Press telegram,cannonade about Ohineuiuii has nearly died"'otit.- . An occasional gun is flashed,"hardly to have any cfi'ocb in the faco of tho reality as now evident to all. The truth is iio gold at all has been found at Ohinetriuri, and nothing whatever to jus- ■ tify such a flourish of trumpets as special Goldfields Regulations and a Warden. An Auckland.correspondent to the ' Guardian' puts tho matter pithily

One day gold has been struck 'and specimens have been "brought'down" which will ruin in the proportion of a tub to the bucket,' but which, on being tested at Grahamstown, 'only servo to make) a laughing-stock of the sanguine disco - ercr. A notiier clay a dark find has been made, and a prospectors' claim 'applied for, 'but quartz is the only product of thogiound. And so it is that to-morrow, 'and to moriroW, arid to morrow has kept creepincin this petty pace from day to day, until disgust and disappointment end in drink and departure. The truth is that not a payable prospect has yet been discovered . on the field, and, so far, there has not been a bigger sell in New Zealand—although, fortunately, the rush has not assumed any proportions! the influx from other parts perhaps not numbering 300 in all The fact is, thero '■.. never were any grounds for the rush, and the Srominenco which has been given to it reecta little credit upon those who worked up '' the excitement, ■ Of. gourac the miners are " 'touch to blame themselves. Ohinemuri presents features in little differing from all newly-discovered ground—great expectations •hud nothing to'warrant them—consequences, wild anticipations, rash speculations, disappointment, disgust. Newspapers and newspaper correspondents arc denounced, the Government is cursed—and everybody is to blame except tho miner 3 themselves, who always thought the Held to be a "duffer," and that anybody must have been a fool who did not kuosv that the country was prospected years ago, and that if there had been any gold it would have loiig ago been found.

.Every paper wo take up thia week tells us that the Hon. W. Campbell has donated £2OO to Oamaru Hospital—even our own c rrespondcnt last week . had caught tho wretched word, and ■wired to us that tho Hon R. Campbell had donated, &<\ It has travelled north, it has travelled south, and we .suppose every charity subscription in future will he a donation. It will not Bound bad either to donate a sixpence ;Ao the church plate. At present most people try and salve their feelings when dropping in tho inevitable coin, by ,a stretch of imagination, that 'they will get their contribution , iback, as it is for the Church. Howv. ever, as it does not come back, we sug•gem to subscribers to try another plan, and think of themselves as donating. Fancy it beinu w red throughout New Zealand that Mr. Timothy Trotter donated 3d. to St. George's Church, Nascbv. Fame is indeed to be found in unlikely outlets. How much, we wonder, has it cost to spread about 31 r. Campbell's charity ? *

"WniTX>*o of donations, the Oamaru Council did a queer thing lately. They donated themselves—or, rather, their Chairman—£2so from the rates. It

•appears that Oamaru wants water ibaaly—it also wants gas. Water and gas Oamaru, shall have. Iler new

Mayor and Councillors determined the

matter: they would borrow they Hvould float a loan. But, strange to %ay the loan Would not float, let the

civic body lau ch ever so lustily. Mr. Campbell camo to the rescue, and his retiring partner, lato of Galloway Station, was induced by him to advance *he money some ' the Corporation, the investment being indeedanuneommoiilygoodone. Tbeloan was negotiated for 7 per cent, at 90. The Council had another offer before them—G per cent, at 85 —which, other things being equal, would have been boat for tho town. Other things were not, however, considered equal, and Mr. Lowe's offer was accepted: the Council immediately voting the Mayor ■£2 so, being a commission of H per cent, on tho negotiation. The '.North

Otftgo Tinles ' thinks if the Mayor had teen voted a salary nothing would have been hear !of the £250 bonus. Most

people will agree with our eonfcemporthat in future a spade had better bo called r* spado. Jt is an extraordinary doctrine that ari officer, merely because he holds an honorary office, should not do his best in the execution of that "office without bonus.

Famit.t disputes are proverbially the most bitter. The trut'i of this is shewn by the misunderstanding in that highly domestic circle in which hitherto have dwelt in harmony the Banks of Zealand. Tho Bank of New Zealand had tho audacity, through their Melbourne agency, to offer six }»er cent on do posits. This is said to iave engendered a most bitter and • acrimonious feeling in. Melbourne. .It is easily understood that the higher the rates of interest givert"by the barfks •on deposits tho dearer the speculating puhlie have to pay for accomo- ,' dation. An advance of one or two per cent on deposits means therefore a great loss if not a serious embarrassment to mercantile houses engaged |in a largo trade, for the most part represented by paper. The Bank of New Zealand are not to have it all their own way. Last week the Bank of Australasia were offering through their N«\v Zealand Agencies, as much as eight per cent, on deposits. Fortunately for the public the war is so biti Jter that while the rates given are increasing tho rates of accomodation are reported to be decreasing. Mr. Mac-, kenzio states in his last commercial report :

It ennnot bo denied that, the act ion of the bankg tor fome time past htis been of a peculiarly puzzling iind crratio chnrncter. Not a very long while Bin<io tliey lowered thie'rates to a fu,r from remunerative scale. After a short trial of this utarving principle, tliey entored into an unholy alliunce to materially inoreaso thfm. at whii-h they sfcani at, this preaent. Now again after uptrio littlo further etperitraae, thej t ifxiusor be not, pp she ofi-ep

Ip, n linr, contemplate a move in the opposite •-direction,-that is, towards loweF*Hite?, op~1ms : tlinn thry give lor d.posits. Tifu'y this is a mode of, procedure worthyjjf the celebrated. " Jjra Croj^-^liimwlf—it keel about, turn tib6ut, jump Jim Crowj T1 ie 'public can'oulv look on and bewail such piroiiullfioc: fttid.'vaCan tbe executive of t.liestV banks hot' ho made t0... comprehend the ' fieXdi. i? largo and -wide enough for tbertv nil—"bo;h local and foreign—and that petty and paltry jialousies and rivalries are unworthy and unbecoming rational and intelligent creatures?.