CORRESPONDENCE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1038, 18 February 1882, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

do not hold oursclres responsible for opinions expressed bp our correspondents.] THE PROPOSED COUNTY LOAN TO THE EDITOR. Str, —Tn the report of the last meeting of the County Council, published in the Standard, the schedule of works whereon the proposed loan of £7,009 is to be expended Mas omitted. If it is the intention of the Council to ask the ratepayers to sanction this loan, the schedule should bo published, so that the ratepayers may have time to look into the matter previous to the polling day Mr Hall, in his speech to his constituents before the last election, said, “It was the intention of the Government this session to introduce a Bill giving the ratepayers the option of deciding which form of local Government they preferred—County Councils or Road Boards ; to the latter much larger powers would be granted.” Would it not, therefore, be better to wail this session, and see what measure the Government pass, before committing ourselves to any loan ? “ Countv Councils,” the Premier said, “as at. present carried on were too expensive.” This I take to be our experience also. The May public money has been expended does not warrant the ratepayers in granting this loan; more particularly as it means a special rate for the payment of principal and interest, the latter item £l2O ; and how many commissions we shan’t know just yet. Let us, therefore wait for the Government measure; we shall lose nothing, and probably gain much.—Yours, <te., Quid. [ln our issue of the 12th January we published the schedule of Murks proposed to be constructed out of the £7,000 loan. That schedule has since been amended, and appears in our advertising columns of this issue.— Ed. P. B. Standard.]

We are informed that nil proofs of loss will bo sent to I lie head offices, who will, by return mail, probably instruct their agents to pay. In our Commercial column, on Thursday, Mr J. Craig’s name was omitted from the list of buyers of the Race privileges. He purchased the Refreshment Booth, for £22 10s. Messrs Carlaw Smith and Co. notify in this morning’s issue that they will sell at their Auction Mart, at half-past eleven, a number of books, consisting of fiction, religious, and other woiks. Lieutenant Herman will arrive in Gisborne to-morrow (Sunday), and is announced to give a ventriloqual entertain ment m the Masonic Hall, on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings next. Lieutenant Herman has been doing good ‘•business” up north, and, judging from his performances when last in Gisborne, should succeed in drawing good houses. Messrs Carlaw Smith & Co., advertise a sale of Blood, Racing, and other Stock, to fake place at Mr Win. Coopers Waerenga-a-hika sale yards, on Thursday, the 23rd inst., the day after the annual races. This is an excellent opportunity for investors, as it. will be seen that some of the best blood stock in the district is to be submitted to public auction on that occasion. For further particulars we refer our readers to the announcement. in another column. In the Native Landa Court at Napier a chief named Werewere addressed the Court to the foliowing effect:—“l want, all the lawyers turned out. of Court ; they have been so continually dinning into the cars of my people that they now have got all the fat and the flesh, and left ns only the bones.” lie also remarked tint, the “ llerctaunga people” ha I been mixed up with lawyers for so long that they were just as bad as their legal advisers, fhe Court “ not being with ” Were were that gentleman withdrew his case. An American girl is the first of her sex to cbo s-* architecture as a profession—Miss Maggie J licks, who has graduated i»> the study at Cornell University. Designing, get! ingout plans, and writing out specifications is all very well, and not unsuiled to a woman ; but. when overseeing the building, climbing up halffinished walls, running along upper flo »rs of which only the beams are in existence, and sii'-h gymnastic exercise necessary to a proper carrying out of architect tire as a profession las to be gone th re 11 eh, Mis* Maggie will find, it is feared, some difficulty in competing with I masculine rivals. One of the scandals of the day (says the i Melbourne correspondent, of a contemporary) ! which so far given much comfort to those who attend five o’clock tens, has been the] elopement of Mr Berry’s daughter. 11 i would appear that, the lady, who is of j matured charms, fc 1 in love with the painter and upholsterer who was doing up her father’s neat villa, and as there was little hope of the parent, consenting, they fled together. Mr Berry, nil hough he likes th * “’urny ’anded ” as applanders at a meeting j and votes at. the ballot-box, draws the line of , intimacy at. their becoming sons-in-law, so pursued the couple in a buggy. To make matters worse, the swain bat I the appellation of Doherty, which I need not sav is thoroughly Italian, and a nation whose vote threw Mr Berry out, in the cobl. Whether Mr Berry has caught the fugitives is not known, but ns there has been no announcement of the wedding, I am inclined to think he has been able to avert that evil for a time. At the Supreme Court. Fiji, Francis Rodondo was charged with having murdered a halfeast e girl named Maiia, at Lami, near Suva, on the 23rd ult. He pleaded n t guilty. The evidence of the witness for the Crown clear! v proved that a most, brutal murder had been I committed. Il appeared that t,’e prisoner) had frequently attempted to have criminal in- ] (.•reourse with the murdered woman, who was ] his son’s wife, and bad threatened to ki'l her I on account, of her resistance, a threat which he put into execution on the occasion referred 1 to, cutting and hackuig his victim in a most. | fiendish manner, and finally brea' ing his knife in her spine. After hearing Mr Garri kin defence, ami the Attorney-General for t e prosecution, His Honor summed up, and the jury, after a brief retirement, brought, in a unanimous verdict of guilty. The prisoner when asked by the Judge to say why sentence should not be passed unon him, said that ho would not. Irave committed the act if he had not been under the influence of drink. His Honor then, having assumed the black cap, I passed sentence of death in a most impressive manner, after which the prisoner, who showed but. little emotion during the trial, was conducted back to the jail, where he will remain until the date of his execution.

A woman at Launceston, Tasmania, was stuck up by a man with his face blackened. He attempted a criminal assault upon her. and after hearing of the outrage two farmers started after the supposed assailant, nt. whom two shots were fired. llis arm was broken, and they found they had captured the wrong man. The farmers have been arrested. All tastes can be easily suited in the matter of climate in New Zealand. The meteorological returns showed that on the Ist instant tiie thermometer at Westport registered at 9 o’clock in the shade, 85 ° ; nt Auckland, 75 ° : Napier, 73 ° ; and at. the Bluff, 56 ° . A difference of 29 degrees between t. e warmest and coldest centres of population offers a variety of temperature that is nut often noticeable even in this (. olony. If a paragraph in the AVellington Times is to be believed, the men who have lately been leaving t his Colony in such numbers for New South Wales have not found life there “all beer and skittles.” The Times says : —“ From reliable reports regarding the state of the labor market, which have reached us, it. appears that the mfrioii! those who have left Wellington l\>r Sydney in search of regu ar employment are thorough’ disappointed. A small proportion have obtained work, but hundreds are an lions to return Io Wi llingtoii, but have nut the means. One of tlr? men who left abmt two months ago and returned by the Wakatipu, informs us that, he 1 as quite a number of letters for dt-livery, al! of fiem asking for assistance back te AVellington. Australia is evident y not the paradise which many suppose it to be.” In its leading article on December 31st, the Fiji Times, referring to the prugre-s of that Colony during the past, year, bus the following : “ ( 'ommunieali.ni between Fiji and New Zealand is another of the evidences offered in proof of the advancement, male dur- ! ing the year which may alremly be looked i upon as past, and the more direct business c .nnection established through it with the large southern cities has already had its niflucnee on the exports from the Colony. The present improvement is, however, only an indication of that which is to follow. As soon as they are satisfied that, the necessities of the trade require, it, the directors of the Union Steamship Company hare promised to place larger vessels on the line, and with such a determination to provide all facilities fur the lullest. possible expansion of trade, direct communication with Dunedin will follow ere lung as a matter of couise.