THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE FIRE BRIGADE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 161, 29 June 1876, Page 2

THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE FIRE BRIGADE

To the Editor ov the 'Evening Mail.^ b-iR — As a rule I believe the members of the City Council are actuated by good and honest motives, but I must confess that their action re the Fire Brigade vote is beyond my comprehension. I think that they have shown a want of respect towards that body, and have done that which is calculated to give rise to a feeling of jealousy between the two Brigades. For some years past we have had the promise of a yearly subsidy from tho Board of Workß and City Council, and now instead of giving it as promised, they apportion the smalt amount they have voted, forgetting that it has long, as I may say, beeu due to us, while the Port Brigade have only lately applied for the first time. The apportionment, too, is unfair, which I do not think would have been the case had the two Brigades been consulted. I would suggest, now, th «t the Council go a step further, and define the limits of each Brigade district, bo that they may be prepared to assist every district that chooses to have its own little Brigade*. As it is, it simply means starvation for v«, and we may as well burst up at, once and hand over our plant to our successors. As to the merits of the two Brigades, that is a subject on which I do not desire now to enter. My wish has simply been to place on record ray opinion of tbe exceedingly unfair manner in which I consider we have been treated. Lan, &c, W. COOKSE-Y

A rumor from Auckland states that there is a probability of another Maori member being added to the Colonial Executive iv the person of Geo. Clarke, the representative of the -Northern district. . r According to the. results of recent v sales at the Milton Pottery Company, Otago, the manufacture of ordinary earthenware in this colony is likely to become profitable. When the Otago members were leading Port Chalmers for. Wellington, Mr Macandrew, it is said, just as the steamer was leaving the wharf, defiantly shouted out, " Tell Mr Hackworth (Collector of Customs at Dunedin) we will take possession when we return." It will, interest Good Templars to learn that the Archbishop of York, who haslongbeen an advocate of temperance principles, has gone a step further, and become a total abstainer. A late telegram to a Melbourne paper says : — A crushiug was cleaned np to-day from the Oriental Company's claim, at the 1060 ft level. It yielded -_loz sdwt of gold from seven and a half tons of stone, the average beiug 6oz Bdwt 16gr to the ton. The new Debtors' and Creditors' Bill contains 207 clauses, occupying thirty pages. It repeals the Act of last session, except as to commencing proceedings, and it re-enacts a large portion. It is based on the same Scotch system of the creditors looking after matters themselves. It not only vests property in the Registrar until a trustee is elected, but. authorises him to take possession. It also allows of private winding up by arrangement, but the 'arrangement must be arrived at in a meeting of creditors. The enormous power given by the present Act all to one large creditor is curtailed, provision being made that the majority in number and value present, personally or by proxy, at any meeting, shall rule. Several defects, found in the. working of . the; present Act, are remedied. — Argus. Speaking of the appointment of Mr T. L. Shepherd, or otherwise " The Smiler," to a Government billet in Dunedin, the Lytteiton Times says : — During his long career, he braved ridicule and conquered opprobium. He emptied the House, which he adorned, oftener, perhaps, than, any other man who belonged to it, and the^ amount of sneering and snoring for which he is responsible is beyond computation. This brilliant course was cut- short by the. base ingratitude of one of * his patrotas. In spite of all he had done, tried to do, and suffered for his constituents, Mr T. L. Shepherd did not succeed in obtaining their suffrages at tbe last election, ,It may be said that his other patron,. the Government, have shown a sense of the fitnesss of things. We are not inclined to- think that Mr Shepherd's appointment is to be viewed as a reward for political service. The probability is that the Government wish to attract, a larger measure! of public support to their Assurance Department than it has yet received. For this purpose they have selected a man whose air of confidence in himself and the department will reassure the public, and whose beaming and benevolent physiognomy cannot fail to attract nvestors. , New Zealand is not the only country in which rabbits are regarded as unwelcome guests. We learn from an English journal that 32,000 rabbits have been killed by the rabbit catchers on one Bmall estate near Sedgfleld, Durham, during the last twelvemonths. So serious were the depredations of the rabbits that one of the tenants reaped only eight bushels of wheat from an entire field.