Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. Tuesday, March 21, 1882.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1051, 21 March 1882, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. Tuesday, March 21, 1882.

Mr. Bousfield, in a letter to us published in our issue of last Saturday, accuses us of seeking to deprive him, in common with other local Engineers, of his means of livelihood by advocating the appointment of a consulting Hydraulic Engineer of established reputation and experience, under whose control the carrying out of the projected waterworks should be placed. Passing over the elegance of diction manifest throughout the effusion referred to, of which we will say no more than that it is pre-eminently Bousfieldaan, the writer goes on to compare us to “ a certain storekeeper, “ who refused to buy locally cured “ bacon because it was locally cured, “ but greedily purchased the very same “ article when it was labelled ‘Canter- “ bury.’ ” Truly, the deductive acumen of this Bousfieldian oracle is worthy of a Daniel. He reminds us of the counsel, who, after a three hours’ harangue in defence of a client, discovered that he had very satisfactorily established his guilt. Had Mr. Bousfield been Attorney-General, and pleading a brief in our cause, he could hardly have chosen a more fitly illustrative argument in favor of what he terms “our vulgar prejudices,” than he uses iu selecting this playful little allegory. He demonstrates to us most clearly, how easily the storekeeper was taken in by the spurious article, under the disguise of a well-known label, and in so doing points out, as clearly to us as it is possible to do, the necessitous wisdom of protecting ourselves against fraud and imposture by dealing solely with those whose reputation is a guarantee of good faith. As with his bacon, so with our Engineer. We advocate now, (Mr Bousfield, on his own shewing, can hardly go eontrawise) as we have done throughout, the submission of plans, etc., of the projected waterworks to a consulting hydraulic engineer, under whose advising supervision the works shall be constructed, and whose established reputation for technical skill and experience in the construction of water conduct and drainage works, shall be such as to afford a substantial guarantee to ratepayers that their money shall be expended to the best possible advantage. In urging these views we believe we are advocating a measure which is absolutely necessary to the satisfaction of ratepayers, the exclusion of patronage, aud the honest, economics!, and immediate despatch

of the work. We do not urge the appointment of any individual Engineer, nor the locality in which he should be sought, but we insist upon the immediate necessity of such an appointment, and, as a sine qua non, the possession of undoubted ability and experience, backed by reputation, such as affords a material guarantee for the satisfactory performance of his gravely responsible duties.

The petition of Mr. W. F. Buckland re the Franklin North Election, heard before their Honors Chief Justice Prendergait. and Mr. Justice Gillies, has resulted in the unseating of Major Harris.

Messrs. Carlaw Smith and Co., call attention to their advertisement of sale of 1,500 forfeited shares in the Southern Cross Petroleum Company, which will take place at their Auction Mart, on Tuesday next, 28th March, at 12 o’clock (noon) sharp. Mr W. P. Finneran, Architect, received the following tenders on Saturday last for the erection of a seven-roomed house, on Saturday last J. Somervell, £660 ; C. D. Berry, £539 ; R. Houlden, £538 ; J. Forbes, £197 ; Harries and Lincoln, £447. The tender of Messis. Hurries and Lincoln was accepted. We would call special attention to Capt. Winter’s advertisement in another column inviting tenders for catering for J Battery Volunteer Artillery during the Easter encampment to be held at Roseland on 7th, Bth, 9th, and 10th of April. Lieut. Boylan will supply particulars un application.

The Native Minister has decided to remove the Native Land Court Department from Auckland to Wellington. It is alleged to have been a source of delay and inconvenience having the department so far from the Ministerial head, but the Chief Judge has always hitherto successfully opposed the change. The removal will be made as soon us it conveniently can be done.

The following is taken from the report, of the last meeting of the Auckland Waste Lands Board :—GISBORNE. —Mr Featon, officer of the Board in Gisborne, recommended an alteration in the prices of certain pastoral and deferred payment lands. A letter was received from the Minister of Lands, declining to accede to the recommendation.

The s.s. Oreti is announced as leaving this port for Tauranga and Auckland to-morrow, Wednesday, 22nd March, carrying passengers and cargo at reduced rates. The lust boat for passengers leaving the wharf at 9 a.m. the same day. Cargo will be received up to 5 p.m. this day (Tuesday). For freight rates and passage, application should be macle to Mr. R. G. Gibbons, wharf.

The agent, of the Australian Champion Pedestrians, viz., O’Brien, Freeman, and O’Connor, has arrived here (says the N. Z. Herald) witli a view of arranging for their appearance on Saturday, Ist April, at. the Domain grounds. They will, as at the other places they have visited, give a programme of sports, and leave the handicapping and judging in the hands of those gentlemen who usually officiate. These pedestrians have given great satisfaction down South. Freeman is the champion sprint runner, while O’Brien is a wonderful long-distance runner.

T. J. Ryan, a book agent, was charged at. the Police Court, Christchurch, on Wednesday last, with stabbing his wife. It appears they had a drunken quarrel, in which Mrs. Ryan got knocked about and stabbed in the arm. She did not appear to give evidence, and was sent for; she was intoxicated when she arrived, and could give no evidence. Ryan’s defence was that he tried to take the knife from his wife, and supposed t hat in doing so he inflicted the wound. Under the circumstances the Bench dismissed the ease, with a warning to Ryan.

A painful elopement is reported from a country district in Hawke’s Bay. A cowherd employed upon the station of a well-known runholder, in the absence of the father, ran away with the daughter, who is mentally afflicted, and can hardly be held to be responsible for her action. The pair obtained a license, and were married. They were about to drive off in a buggy, when the father and brother were brought- up. and took the young lady away. A well-merited chastisement was inflicted on the fellow who induced her to leave her father’s roof. In all probability an application will be made to the Court to have the marriage annulled on the ground that the young lady was not capable of understanding the nature of the step she took.

Larrikinism is not confined to the ignorant, among our population. A letter has appeared in the Dunedin Star from a female, who, whilst bathing at the Ocean Beach, was insulted by two men—one a son of a Dunedin nerchant, and “another specimen of the genus man” —who, as soon as the latter gut into the water, swooped down upon her on horseback. She expected that they would leave when they realised the situation. But, no. She went out amongst the breakers as far as she could consistently with safety, and they got ns close to her as they could, and remained for nearly an hour. The writer says she “invoked every shade of chivalry, from Bayard downwards, to inspire them with one spark of manliness, or at least, pity, as my teeth were chattering through standing so long in the water ; but there they might have stopped till the Day of Judgment but for some people coining in sight, and then they slunk off.” It will be a pity if these two transgressors of common decency cannot be identified and suitably punished. Yesterday a large concourse of Natives assembled at the Murewai to pay the last tribute of respect to the old chief, Jhaka Ngarengione, who departed this life on Friday evening or Saturday morning last. Never did a more genuine feeling of sorrow exist among the Native population of this district than when they heard that old Ihaka was no more. The deceased, who was the leading chief of the Ngaitahupo tribe, and a man of high rank among the Ngatikahungunu people, had been attending the sittings of the Native Land Court lately, having large interests in the lands now being adjudicated upon. In going home one evening about a week ago, in crossing tl»e Wuikanae after dark, the old man missed his way, and got so fastened iu the mud that it was impossible for him to extricate himself. Here he remained hour after hour. Having only partially recovered from a severe illness, he was too weak to make himself heard. At length daylight came, w’-en he was discovered by two Natives, stiff with the cold, his limbs almost perfectly rigid, and scarcely able to speak. He was speedily removed to the residence of Hirini Te Karri, where all possible kindness and attention was shown him. But he was too far gone, and Ihaka asked to bo taken to his own home at the Murewai, to die among his own people. Shortly after his arrival at the pah he died. In the times under the administration of the late Sir Donald M’Lean, and about, the time of the “ Massacre,” Ihaka exerted great influence over the people, and was always steadfast in his loyalty to the Queen’ laws. Among his own people his goodness of heart and genial disposition have caused him to be deeply lain entietL

De Lesseps is reported as being seriously ill at Cairo.

Her Majesty the Queen left M indsor Castfe on the 14tn of March, for Mentone, in the South of France.

Beaumieux, a cashier in the French Treasury, has committed suicide, owing to speculations on the Bourse.

Marquis Dejocas, a large loser by the broken Parisian Bank, L’Union Generale, has committed suicide.

Among those whose home and fortune have been wrecked by the recent financial crisis in France is Christine Nilsson, the pri-ma. donna. Great sympthy is expressed.

Miss Jennie Less and Mr. J. P. Burnett, Mr. Vivian, and young Sayers, sou of the English pugilist, are passengers by the steamship Australia to America. They are all professionals.

On the failure of the U’nion Generale becoming known, an immense crowd collected outside the offices in the Rue d’Antin, at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, clamouring loudly for a restitution of their deposits.

Scoville, Guiteau’s counsel, has received a proposition from a Philadelphian, Ridgeway by name, to purchase the assassin’s body immediately after execution, place it in a refrigerator, and exhibit it in various parts of Europe and America. Diptheria and scarlet fever of a very malignant type is ravaging the fashionable parts of London. Belgravia and South Kensington have suffered very severely. The mansions of the rich appear to be more subject to attack than the dwellings of the poor, The trial of T. F. Latnson, surgeon, who was arrested on the charge of poisoning his brother-in-law, Percy .Malcolm John, at Wimbledon, in December last, concluded on the 14th March. The accused was found gui.ty of murder, and sentenced to death.

As consequences of the recent money panic in Europe, the Union Generale Bank, of Paris, went into liquidation ; a banker at. Frankfort, committed suicide ; the banking-house of Cologne failed ; Warburg, of Hamburg, failed for £lOO,OOO. On the 29th, the leading French financiers decided to guarantee the loan of 85,000 francs required by authorised brokers. The worst of the panic on the London Stock Exchange was over on the 29th.

By the failure of the Paris Bank, L’Union Generate, the Duke de Broglie, who transferred a great part of his fortune to his son, one of the directors, after the failure of the adventure, May 16th, loses a large sum. The Count de Chambord loses to the extent of several millions. The Orleans Princes lose 500,000 francs. General Mirilled owned 300 shares, and the Viscount de Puenouze, husband of the lady once on the operatic stage as Marie Heilbron, is reported to have sunk 2,500,000 francs. Capoul, the tenor, and Lazalle, the baritone, Lave, like numbers of other artists, lost a great part of their savings, and the editors of the leading Legitimist and clerical papers are involved to an extent ridiculously disproportionate to their fortunes and possible earnings. None of the official brokers have come to grief. “JEgles,” in the Australasian, writes: —“ A joke is none the worse for its point- being against one’s friends, or even against one’s self. Mrs MaeTaggart, who has been a country subscriber to a Melbourne weekly for many years, sent to the local news agent this intimation : ‘ Don’t send the any more. The paper is no good for my business. I can’t make up small parcels in it. Send me the Australasian in future.” This almost comes up to a countty dame we have heard of in Otago, who, of the two papers published in her district, preferred to subscribe to the one which made the best curl papers. It is related of the late Mr Hope, the wealthy banker of Amsterdam, that he had bought a picture as a Rembrandt for ten thousand do bars. Finding that it did not quite fit the frame, he senr. for a carpenter to ease it a little. While watching the operation he remarked how wonderfully the picture was preserved, considering that it was nearly two hundred years old. “ That is impossible,” said the carpenter. “ This wood is mahogany, and mahogany had not been introduced at that time.” Mr Hope burned the picture.— JZ. Ji. Herald.

A facetious writer says : The Czar of Russia has invented a very useful way of testing his popularity, lie recently advertised fur any ungiven quantity of young men, who reresembled him in stature and personal appearance, to walk up and down the main street of St. Petersburg between L p.m. and 3 p.m. daily. The salary was fifty roubles a day, and they were to get themselves up as like the Czar as possible. Out of the fifty men who volunteered to personate the Czar only one escaped, and his name w r as Ivan Storogoff Miuhaelpeanutsovitch. He had the sense to put on a red wig, and go round with a bomb in each hand, and thus passed for a lover of freedom. The other forty-nine were all assassinated within three-quarters of an hour, their lust moments being embittered by the reflection that they could not get their salary in advance.

An attempt is being made at. Peterhead to settle by actual experiment the reputed efficacy of oil to allay a heavy, breaking sea. The promoters of the experiment are Mr Shield, of Perth ; Mr Armit, of Droughty Ferry, well km wr, in connection with the raising of the wrecked Tay Bridge; and Mr Yeaman, exM.P. for Dundee. They have erected a wooden building at the north-west end of the Roan Heads, in which there is placed a force-pump, which sends the oil through piping upwards of 200 yards to deep water, and thence across the harbor entrance fur an equal distance, covering the whole channel taken by ships coming into the harbor. The pipes are sunk by means of heavy metal blocks attached to them, and they are also fitted with “ roses,” through which the oil flows. A trial of the apparatus was made the other day, and it appeared to work satisfactorily. As, however, the wind was off the land, the sea was not rough enough to afford a sufficient te«t of the value of oil as a bar-smoother, so that operations were adjourned till the next severe easterly gale. If the plan succeeds, it might be worth the notice of the authorities in some New Zealand ports with bars at their mouths, as the cost seems to be moderate, aud the oil need not be “ turned on ” till required for a vessel coming.—Edinburgh Correspondent of O. I). Times.