NAPIER.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 140, 26 February 1874, Page 2

NAPIER.

(from oub own correspondent.] Saturday, Feb. 14, 1874. The chief event of the week has been tha Rain Fair, that was held last Wednesday at Havelock, and at which a large number of persons attended. Though the best sheep in the province were not sent to the Fair, from the animals penned a good idea could be obtained of the improvements effected by the many importations of valuable stock t hat have been made during the past few years. About 950 rams, representing every breed in the province, were.yardcd, and the prices realized were deemed very satisfactory. For full particulars of the Fair I must refer you to the report published in the Dally Telegraph which contains some valuable remarks in connection with rams fairs as markets, besides having a correct price list appended. The Hon. W. Fox delivered a temperance lecture lust Thursday evening in the Council Chamber, to a crowded audience. The honorable gentleman spoke in his usual fluent, manner, and though he was quite unable to throw any new light on the subject, his S)xiech was well" worth listening to. He confessed that Good Templars and kindred societies, while having done much good service, hud failed hitherto in performing the grand object they had in view. We were left to suppose that the task they had set themselves was the regeneration of mankind, and the cure of that disease —inordinate love of stimulants which was sending humanity to peruition. He thought it was quite as possible to make men sober by Act of Parliament, as it was to make men drunk by Act. of Parliament. While tho law allowed the sale of intoxicating drinks men would get drunk, but if the members of teetotal societies proved true to themselves, they might, shut up u good many public house*, for the present Licensing Act allowed that no house should be licensed against the wishes of two-thirds of the inhabitants within the district in which the house was situated.

Since my last, the master builders have taken the demand for an increased rate of wages by the carpenters into consideration, and announced by advertisement that they would not grant the 12s. n day asked for. This evening the carpenters met mid resolved to strike work on Monday unless their demand was acceded to. It is hard to say which waypublic sympathy runs, but there cannot be ti doubt that the present, uniform rale of wages of 10s. u day, to all carpenters, good, bad, and indifferent, is unjust. Moreover, carpenters wages here are lower than in the other chief towns in the colony ; in few places are tho experienced journeymen put on u level with a youth just out of his apprenticeship, and, considering that living is considerably dearer here than elsewhere, the demand of the carpenters is certainly not unreasonable. The mail steamer Mikado called here on Friday, and stayed four hours. She is described as a magnificent vessel, and beautifully fitted up ; she is very ugly to look at, extremely long, with high Yankee cut bows, and low amidships, giving her an appearance much differing from English built steamers. The Gourlay Family are still performing here. The exhibition is shut up, but the Gourlay Family are giving a species of Music Hall entertainments, enlivened now and again by the admirable performance of “ Mrs. M‘Gregor’s Levee.” Tuesday, Feb. 17. The carpenters struck work on Monday morning, and for most part of the day the men were to be seen standing in groups ut street corners. The sound of the hammer is heard no more, and the many buildings in a half finished state, and deserted, present a forlorn aspect. In the evening, a deputation of carpenters met the master builders with the object of ascertaining whether the refusal to grant increased pay was based on reasonable grounds. The masters merely stated that they could not afford to give higher wages than those they were paying, and the men contended that the masters should have foreseen tha rise in the value of labour and material, and should have tendered for their contracts accordingly. The mere fact that contractors would lose on the works they had in hand was not deemed by the men a sufficient reason for them to continue to work for the same rate of pay that had been ruling for the past ten years. The meeting broke up, and no arrangement of the difficulty was matte. The men are still on strike, and have intimated that twenty of them will proceed to Wellington in the course of the week. ... Some of the Scandinavians in this province do not appear to be very desirable settlers. A good many of them are employed on the railways between Te Aute and Waipawa, and I am told that they are idle and drunken. A few days ago two of them, at night, broke into a store kept by the sub-contractor, also a Norwegian, by whom they are employed, and finding the storekeeper sleeping inside threatened to take his life. They severely mauled him about, and probably would have seriously maimed him, had not his wife and daughter, who were sleepingin an adjoining tent, came to his rescue Kere was a crowd of Scandinavians outside the store all the while, quietly looking on, not offering any assistance. One of the offenders has since been suntanned to eighteen months imprisonment; the other was not recognized in the February 28. The New Zealand Steam Navigation Com-

pany are not given to popularity, and by the departure of the Rangatira, last week for Gisborne, at midnight, leaving mails behind, and carrying on cargo, has not tended to bring the Company into public favor. It is a complaint of long standing on the part of Napier importers, that the Company do not study the commercial interests of this port. An immence quantity of goods reach here through southern ports, and many tradesmen dealing with Dunedin and Wellington houses rely on the punctual delivery of their merchandise by the Company’s boats. When, however, week after week it is found that goods are shut out from shipment, and those which are’p’aced on board are frequently carried on to Poverty Buy and brought back again, an am mint of inconvenience and loss are sustained that can only be properly appreciated by those engaged in trade, to say nothing of policies of insurance being vitiated by the goods being subjected to sea risks over and above those calculated upon. The carpenter’s strike terminated by the contractor for the erection of Messrs Watt Bros.’ large hotel agreeing to give the wages demanded, viz, 12s a day to the firstrate hands. This was the only course for the contractor to pursue, for the men had marie arrangements to leave the province, and the loss of some thirty-five excellent workmen could not have been replaced without an outlay of time and money which if expended in acceding to the demands of the carpenters would at once settle the difficulty. The other builders held out, but I believe they reopen their workshops to-day. The Gas Company can now be said to be fairly floated. The shares are nearly all taken up, only 100 remaining on hand, which if desired could easily be disposed of at Wellington where they are in great demand. The Gourlay family purpose paying your district a visit shortly.

A young Irishman told a sweet Cork girl (ilesh and blood), not made of stopper, that the following was phonography : “U E A B UT, L N.”