Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4546, 15 October 1875, Page 2

The first session of the seventh Synod of .the Church of England in the Province of Wellington closed yesterday. The President expressed himself highly satisfied with the results of the session.

The Legislative Council threw out the Piako Land Exchange Bill yesterday on the third reading. From the time of its introduction into the Council the little Bill had a hard time of it. It was got into committee by a small majority, and it was ultimately thrown out by a majority of one, the Speaker giving his casting vote against it. A meeting was held in the Mechanics' Institute, Lower Hutt, on the evening of the 13th inst., for the purpose of forming an association to be called the Hutt Mutual Improvement Society. Mr. S. Smith was voted to the chair, and read the advertisement calling the meeting. A working committee was elected from those present to make necessary arrangements. After some discussion as to prospects and probable mode of procedure, the meeting adjourned till half-past seven next Wednesday evening, when it is hoped that a considerable number will be present to assist in carrying out a project which, if fully utilised, may be of great service in the district. At the Kesident Magistrate's Court yesterday, before J. C. Crawford, Esq., 8.M., the cross action of Duigan v. Murtah, for assault, was withdrawn.—ln Whamby v. Lomas, provoking a breach of the peace, there was no appearance in answer to the summons.—There were twenty-three civil cases. The amount claimed was paid into court in five cases; in two, the summonses were ordered to reissue. Judgment for the amount claimed was given in three cases. In four, judgment was confessed. Three cases were adjourned, five were settled out of court, and one was withdrawn. None of these civil cases were of any special interest.

" Macbeth". drew a large and fashionable audience last evening at the Theatre Koyal, snowing that the company lost nothing by repeating a piece the first representation of which was attended with so much success. To-night "East Lyhne " will be placed upon the stage, and should draw,a crowded house.

; A special general meeting of the Wellington Mutual Improvement Association was held in the schoolroom, Woodward-street, last evening. The president occupied the chair. The election of officers for the ensuing six months took place. It was resolved that a social gathering be held in the schoolroom on Thursday evening, November 4. A New Zealand Gazette was published last night. It contains : —Proclamation of certain Hundreds in Otago ; extension of jurisdiction of the Maketu fi.M. Court ; notification of the Governor's assent to the Taranaki Public Reserves Exchange Ordinance ; acceptance of the resignation by Mr. Justice Johnston and Q-. L. Mellish, Esq., of their offices as visitors of the Sunnyside Lunatic Asylum at Christchurch, and of James Harvey, Esq., of his office as Vice-President of the Invercargill Savings Bank; appointments of G. H. Saxton, Esq., to be a member of Akaroa, Wainui, Okain's Bay, Pigeon Bay, and Little River Licensing Courts, of the Hon. W. D. H. Baillie to be "Visiting Justice of the Picton gaol, and of A. P. RadcliSe, Esq., to be clerk of the R.M. Court, Whangaroa ; notice that the Rev. B. Lichenstein, of the Hebrew faith, is an officiating minister under the Marriage Act; Land Transfer Act notices, &0., &c. The carelessness of miners, and the utter disregard they have for the provisions of the Mining Accidents Act, has often been the cause of most lamentable accidents in this district; but.(says the Bendigo Independent) we confess we have but very seldom heard of such deliberate carelessness, to put it very mildly, as that which occasioned an accident on Tuesday, at the mine of the Princess Alexandra Company, Eaglehawk. A quantity of powder, it appears, had been stored in a candle box in the smithy, under the same roof as the machinery, and of all places in the claim, certainly the most dangerous, as may very readily be imagined. On Tuesday, whilst the blacksmith was engaged at his usual duties, some sparks fell amongst the powder, which exploded and set fire to the smithy. The blacksmith very fortunately escaped with a few burns from the sparks, and the workmen in the claim speedily extinguished the flames. It is fortunate that there was only a small quantity of powder in the box, or the consequences might have been more disastrous, and the position of the persons who permitted the powder to be stored in such a dangerous place an unenviable one.

Usury is not unknown in Sydney. The JEWio says :—"' Eighty per cent.' interest, wrung by a money-lender out of the necessities of a widow, reveals about as low a condition of human selfishness as can well be imagined. And yet it is probably but one of many cases that would be disclosed if the mysteries of Sydney life were told, and indeed Of life in any other portion of her Majesty's dominions, for it would be absurd to suppose that we are any worse, as it is not likely we are much better, than human beings elsewhere. The spirit of avarice when it seizes upon a man will lead him to almost any length. Contented perhaps with 10 per cent, in the beginning of his career, as his gains increase out of the exigencies of the unfortunate, his heart will harden to all human sympathy, and he will not stop short of obtaining 1000 per cent, if he can only get it, no matter who may bo his victim. Against land sharks such as these, laws were passed in olden time. The rate of interest which could be legally claimed was once fixed by Act of Parliament, and varied from time to time, but the largest amount of interest ever allowed to be charged was much less than 80 percent. Fiveper cent, was the amount allowed by the law until 183 9 and any excess charged could not be claimed. Indeed, the person who claimed more was liable to punishment. However, usurious rates were charged, notwithstanding the laws, and the special risk of the liability to punishment was thought to operate to increase the rate of interest to those whose necessities compelled them to go behind the law. Therefore, the Act was abolished, and free trade in money was secured. Special laws are fixed for pawnbrokers, but one would think that a bill of sale over furniture amounting in value to over £io would be a security upon which the rate allowed to be charged by a pawnbroker would be considered excessive. Any ordinary individual would be glad to lend money on such security at 8 or 10 per cent., and it is a pity that the widow should have applied to such an extortioner. And, by the way, in speaking of his usury, we have simply calculated it at simple interest. Had we made allowance for the monthly payments of £2, and estimated the interest on the balance at the end of each month, and given credit for the payment of £iQ, instead of £3O borrowed, the rate of interest will be found to be between 170 and 180 per cent."

A curious volume on the "Dead Cities of tho Zuyder Zee " has been published lately. It is written by an adventurous Frenchman, who took with him an artist from the Netherlands, and fitting up a vessel, sailed to the " dead cities." "There are not," says the author, "ten persons in Holland who have ever made the voyage," and he asserts that no writer, artist, or tourist, was ever there before him. He gives a thrilling account of the remains of those great towns, the boast of the Low Countries during many centuries, but now invaded by the sea, by sand banks, and by great growth of weedß. Where once hundreds of vessels lay at anchor, there is now nothing but a multitude of dangerous sandbars and quicksands, over and through which the adventurous author and illustrator of the new volume picked their way with the greatest difficulty. Mr. Havard (that is the author's name) rivals Jules Veme in fancy and descriptive powers, and he gives the reader many fascinating chapters on the wild landscapes and waterscapes, the savage picturesqueness and grandeur of that great cemetery of a dead commerce—the Zuyder Zee.