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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 919, 19 February 1881, Page 4

Messrs. Bourke and Smith have £3OO to lend. An Assessment Court for the Turanganni Highway District will be held at Tologa Bay on Thursday, the 3rd of March. Mr. A. Douglas notifies that he is unable to meet his engagements with his creditors. The first meeting in the estate will be held in the Court House on Thursday next the 24th February. The Mutual Provident Association need not be so niggardly in their patronage to newspapers, especially those in Poverty Bav. During the nine years the agency has been established here, only one claim has fallen in that of Mr. H. Adair for £3OO.

The business done by Mr. Fraser agent for the Mutual Provident Assurance Association has been of a very satisfactory nature. During his stay of three weeks, or so', he has taken up 38 lives representing about £15,000, or an average of nearly £4OO each. This speaks well alike for the prudence and prosperity of the people.

The destruction of dogs by poison or any other means should certainly be prevented when it is proved by the paragraph quoted •below, that their strength and activity may be utilised. The New York Times says “ Mr. G. W. Whitney, Williston, Vermont, churns with a collie dog inside a drum wheel.”’ Mr. Whitney’s dog may be a wonder, but we fancy some of our local butter-makers would give a t-yffis to have one ’ike him.

It is a good thing that there are some Conservative members in the Borough Council. Liberalism, or even a liberal Conservatism, is very good in its way, when circumstances are ripe for itbut to carry the doctrine of that cla.|> of politics, known as being prodigal of other people’s money, into the doings of a small Municipality, is stretching the thing a little too far. Those Councillors alluded to above are to be thanked for their vote given against Cr. Ward’s proposal to donate the funds of the Hospital to the amount of £3O. He saia the application of the Hospital Secretary was one of those cases which justified them in stretching a point; but we are glad the Council did not think so ; and Cr. Piesse’s motion that the letter be read that day six months is an inferential reproof for what, viewed in connection with the fact that the Hospital has a bank credit of £6O, assumes the shape of unseemly importunity. It is not every institution that is so lucky as the Poverty Bay Hospital, in having a substantial sum to its credit; for, in fact, it is, all other things considered, in a better financial condition than the Borough itself. It is a pity when applications are made for pecuniary assistance to be given by one body to another, that the necessities are not set forth. The Secretary’s bald request for a money grant, would, under any circumstances, have been insufficient for the Council to act upon ; while Cr. Ward could produce no better reason than that it was two years since a like request had been made, which was in turn, much weakened by Cr. Brown’s admission that the funds of the Hospital were in credit. One of the best arguments in favor of the grant would have been that at the end of March next, the subsidies now paid to Hospitals and other Charitable Institutions, by the Government, will cease. Had Councillors had this fact pressed upon their attention, their bowels of compassion might have yearned with more solicitude; and it is possible they might have acceded to a request which, probably, would have been the last in which a like sum would be supplemented by the Government. Possibly that course is not too late now. If a Councillor tables the usual notice of motion, it will give the Council time to reconsider its decision, and opportunity for all other data coming from the Hospital authorities, as to what their liabilities are. We assuredly desire that so useful and well-conducted an institution as our local hospital should receive every encouragement and assistance; but w’emust be just before we are generous, and we doubt not if further proof be adduced, in the direction indicated, the elasticity of Councillors’ good nature may be “ stretched ” to the extent suggested by Cr. Ward.