Untitled

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume 1, Issue 29, 22 February 1873, Page 2

Customs Receipts.—The amount received at the Custom House Poverty Bay for the month of January amounted, irrespective of License fees, to the sum of £405 Bs. 3d. Dr. Nesbitt, we learn, has received a commission from his Excellency the Governor to perform the duties of Trust Commissioner, for the Poverty Bay District under the “Native Land Frauds Prevention Act.” Our prospects of having a bank established here very soon are placed on the catalogue of immediate probabilities. A gentleman representing the Bank of New Zealand arrived in the Rangatira on her last trip, whose mission, we understand, is to make arrangements for opening a branch of that bank in Gisborne at once. , Dog Registration.—So long ago as December last, we noticed that a supply of Registration tickets had arrived from Auckland. Some weeks have elapsed since the proper authority arrived from Colonel Moule (although the Road Board has but recently been put in possession of it) for Sergeant Shirley to perform the duty of registration. Something should be done in this matter. We believe the Board have taken it in hand from a pressure without, and very much against the wish of some of the members, who would like to see it die any sort of a death, natural or unnatural; but we would suggest the desirableness of shaping it either at one end or the other; either cancel the whole matter or proceed. Amongst the many signs of improvement and advancement that are going on in this township and district, we should like to see some of the industries take root that are inseparable from the age, and necessary to the current conditions of life. We have long possessed the advantages of a Saw Mill, which, -under the speculative enterprise of local capital, has supplied our wants in all respects save where .calls are made for timber not grown in the district. The steady increase of trade, which the equally steady and observable increase of population creates, has necessitated more powerful machinery for the purpose of keeping supply up to demand. Mr. King has recently made this addition, of which we hope to be able to report shortly when in it is working order. Captain Read also is now very busy (and not a bit too early) Erecting a Flour Mill on the same property, we believe, whictf should answer the double purpose of not only preventing the exportation of what grain is grown here, but act as an incentive to increase the growth of the wheat; and before even that, be a means of lowering the price of bread. One shilling , for a 41b. loaf of bread is neither necessary nor reasonable with flour ranging from £l2 to £l4 a ton.- In Auckland the 21b. loaf is 3dfor eash, and 4d. served round the town to ln Wellington, Otago, and other the price is much about the same, yjjjying only according to the facilities or difficulties tradesmen have in getting their billspaid. It is not desirable to enter upon a question of private trade; the various levels and gradients which all trades must proceed on will regulate this one also; but it is essential that, the principles of all commercial life should be recognised, one of which is that an equal advantage should be meted to both buyer and seller—to the former that he may have a fair equivalent

for his money,—the latter, that he may have a paying profit upon the article he sells. There is yet one other branch of industry which, although so far a failure amongst us, should make a start ahead : We allude to the production of beer. Some time since, one of our settlers tried his ’prentice hand at the brewery which has been closed for some little time ; and we trust we may be pardoned for referring the effect to the cause of inexperience, if only that it may not be quoted as an instance of an unremunprative speculation, simply because the proprietor was forced to suspend operations for a time. A notice in our advertising columns calls the attention of the trade to the fact that this property is to be sold on the 26th instant; and it would be a pity that a good opportunity should be lost to establish a lucrative trade which, under any circumstances, cannot be be much longer deferred. At present we are dependent entirely upon Napier for our supply of beer—and although they send us an excellent article, we had much rather see the money turned over here. Besides what is drunk in private houses, we have seven public houses which, together, on an average, draw about 5 hogsheads per week; these represent an amount equal to £l3O of hard cash going out of the place per month for a commodity which we have every facility for making for ourselves. But this by no means represents the sum total of business that would be done by the production of beer equally acceptable to that imported. There are two public houses, at least, that do not keep draught beer simply on account of the difficulty in obtaining it over a tedious land transit. A license will shortly be granted for another hostelry inland, which, taken in conjunction with the inducement a home brewery would hold out to others on the seaboard—easily accessible from Gisborne by water—to keep it, would bring the weekly consumption tonear 10 hogsheads per week. This industry, too, be it remembered, will require others to be developed upon which it may exist, and prevent money froin leaving us in other directions. We have a tradesman already settled here as a cooper, whose handicraft is a matter of consideration in starting a brewery. Our barley growers would not have to send their grain a begging; even an extensive cultivation of the hop might be entered upon, and an impetus given to trjide generally which would advertize the solid foundations of our enterprise. The business of home producers is to give an equally good article at a cheaper rate, so that by competition they may beat the foreign one out of the field ; and this we think can be done.