TIMARU.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1173, 20 January 1880, Page 2

TIMARU.

(from our own correspondent.) January 17. In common with most parts of the Colony, we have, again been visited with a drenching downpour, accompanied by hailstones of enormous size. To a portion of the agricultural interest the visitation has been most unwelcome, some of the heavy lands having been converted into unapproachable bog-holes, and the already over grown crops laid level with the soil. But the result of my inquiries gives an assurance that although the rain was not at all desired, it has produced no very deleterious effect in the lighter lands, the area of which is vastly greater than that of the heavier ; so that on the whole the storm cannot be said to have wrought much destruction, for while a few must abandon all hope of superabundance, others have nothing of which to complain, and still enjoy the prospect of a glorious harvest. Touching the death of one of the lodgers at the Old Bank Hotel, there is much room for investigation. Not as to the manner in which the unfortunate man died, nor regarding the circumstances immediately surrounding the death itself; but the public seem desirous of knowing why, after death, and being in a comparatively advanced state of decomposition, the body was allowed to remain in the hotel—situated as it is in the very centre of the town—for a whole day and night. Even the post mortem examination was held within the walls, while the landlord was expected to keep an open house for the public convenience. I learn also that the Coroner and his jury, totally unable to endure the offensive exhalation from the. putrefying remain 3, adjourned to a neighboring house, where they concluded the inquest. On this subject the South Canterbury Times-has published a very able leader, which, "being full and pointed, without any Shadow 1 of bitterness, cannot fail to arouse csivic fathers to a sense of their duty, and to lead to the institution of' a decent, system, of conducting all sdeh examinations., '.. i ....•' , Business.continues to .the .tone of the market.-in every brancli of trade showing a. decidedly buoyant tendency. It will, however, be some time before ithe unfortunate ; portion of the community.can hope to obtain clean receipts from their numerous creditors; so long have thfey been 1 confined; to the 'list of unemployed. Butj-haVing'so far. Weathered one of the most trying seasons ever known in the history of this, our adopted land, surely it behoves us: to -be thankful for what we have, and, having been taught a most, salutary lesson in "the past,-to carefully turn away fro in all rash speculation and extravagant living in the future. _ Being fully alive.to the fact that our partial ruin has been - occasioned by our having gone infinitely .beyond our depth in the fluctuating tide .of trade and. commerce,, the storekeepers have almost unanimously resolved to modify the system of credit, and, having'been severely bitten during winter and spring, are determined never again to allow an honest, but rash and too speculatative, publio to gratuitously enjoy the benefit of their labors. Only let the new system be properly organised and carried out to a reasonable extent, and it will prove not only a safeguard in trade,, but a public preceptor that industry and providence. are,always the best.