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Southland Times, Issue 1266, 17 June 1870, Page 2

A case involvh-igTa .point of commercial irhport- ■ ance was decided in the Resident Magistrate's Court -during the past- week, which it is well the ! public generally should be. informed on. A mem-; ber of a trading firm discharged the account of a ; debtor Jt^y way of payment of an . equal amount .whichhe-.mdividually owed her for. board and; I lodging. No entry ofthe transaction, had, how- ! ever, been' made in the books. A proposal for: ; a dissolution of the partnership had been under I the consideration of fhe firrii, ~dne "of the coridiI - ... .. ; tions of .whiqhfWaß that, .in addition^ to. a given ; sum being paid to the member in question toi ; buy him out, the account referred to should be| j written off,. the debtor being the mother of- said •i partner. TJBefore this arrangement could be. : carried into effect, however, the estate had to be '. assigned, and the trustees now sued the defendant -. in the case for the recovery of the amount, £17 • 17s 3d, unaware thafc she had received a discharge! ; from her ion — one of the partners in the i assigning estate. In- evidence, the son- stated thafc although • he had not entered up ..the transaction in the; ■ book* of the firm himself, he had informed the firm of what he had done, and instructed the ■' membor whose duty it was to keep the books to ; make the necessary entries. -This, however) was denied, and it was argued that the said partner ; had gone beyond his- authority in receipfciiig the. ■ account. Mr Macdonald appeared for the plain-: , tiffs, and Mr Wade. for. the defendant, and thej ! case was r argued, at considerable length. Hi£j Worship took time, to consider, his judgment, which he gave on Friday morning, 10th : inst.,; i as follows : — The partner who discharged the , account of defendant he consideredin the same position as an agenfc collecting for a principal, and in thafc case the rule was that "if a creditor employ an agenfc to receive irioney from a debtor and the agent receives it, the debtor is discharged against the principal, but if the agent, instead , of r receiving it, write off/money due -from him to the debto.r, then ! the latter is ; not dis: charged." He - should therefore have to decide fo'rplaintiffs, with costs. Li the Resident Magistrate's Courfc on tha 10 th instl, S. TETaslemore sued.T. Smith for £1, the price of a cord of firewood. Plaintiff said fchafc he had forwarded to dsfendanfcls order, per railway, from Greenhills, four cords of ironwood; three afc one time,' and one- at another— three being the most he : was allowed to put on a truck at a time— with six days' interval, . and that, he had sent a message by the guard for defendant to be on the. outlook to take delivery of ifc on its arrival in town. Defendant denied having ;rer ceived the last sent cord-— -the . one in dispute— or the message-concerning ifc alleged to have' been sent. He ; further stated thafc the first lot not having been of the description bargained for, he had also sent a message down by the guard of the train to plaintiff to send no more (this mes•age Haslemore likewiie denied having ever received), and had consequently troubled himself no more in the matter. He had not :got the wood to this' day, and was not aware it had ever come up. His : Worship thought six days an unreasonable j time to elapse between- despatching ; the first and final portions of the order, and thatsuch being the case, plaintiff was bound to have given defendant notice of its being serit up. .He had, a&ording to 'his* own evidence, 1 sent a message to that effect, but defendant had as positively

denied having ever received it, the probability bein<r that neither message referral to had ever been° delivered. Ifc lay wifch plaintiff, at all events, to show that hi^ message had been executed, and he havin? failed in that, judgment would be for defendant, with costs. On Saturday before Jno. Blacklock, Esq., and W. H. Pearson, Esq., J.P.'s, Mrs Williams, of Riverton, sought to enforce a former judgment asa* nst one' Robson, for £5 16s for board and lodging. Plaintiff said Eobson had refused to*, pay anythina, and had told her boastfu ly thafc he never would pay;. On being pufc. into the- box, how. ever, defendant expressed willingness to discharge the debt, but pleaded hard times' and consequent •fc&bility. Judgment was given thafc he should psy into court £1 per month until the claim was satisfied.

According to a tabular statement, published in the Shortland paper, the crushing for fifty-seven ; companies at the Thames for the month ended May Uth, resulted in a yield of 10,8090z I7dwt llirr of gold. Of these, fire appear to be trial or "specimen crushings for Coromandel claims, some of whioh turned out to be very rich, as, for instance, 361b o'f stone from the Royal Oak gave lloz 2dwt of gold. 91b from Sink fco Rise, gave 14oz lOdwfc ; and 1121b from the Harbor View, -returned. 40o_ ldwt. Amongst the specimen crushings on the Thames field may be noted one ton from the AU Nations, whioh yielded 3250z 12dwt ; 501b Armstrong's claim, 9oz lOdwt 18gr ; and the Candlelight No. 1 obtained from 2c wt 2llb of.stone, 1430z,0f gold.. On the whole, the result of the month's mining is satisfactory. As skilful labor and capital become more systematically applied to the Thames goldfield, we may expect to find the yield of gold increase. But considering the amount of capital actuaUy invested in legitimate mining afc fche Thames, there is no region to be dissatisfied. Unquestionably much has been wasted. From those foolish enterprises no returns have been received, nor were returns at any time possible. But legitimate mining has hot been so uni?emunerative. ' The total quantity of wool exported from Timaru this season is 11,549 bales. There are also about 140 bales awaiting shipment, making the total clip 11,689 bales, or 1457 bales in excess of last season. The total quantity of taUow, including a few casks still to be shipped, exported, yis 195 tons 13 cwfc. 23lbs. . ; The-Otago Daily Times of the' 11th inst. says:— With reference to the discussion with closed doors on the question of the appointment of an Immigration 'Agent for Great Britain, very little has leaked oufc. We are not aware whether fche reason why hon. members are reticent on fche Y "subject as that they have a wholesome terror of the Speaker,' arid the consequences of a breach of privUege before their eyes, or whether the proceedings were of such a character as to make them,-,in-, their calmer moments, somewhat ashamed of them. Nevertheless, a few interesting particulars have oozed out. We do not know whether ifc is true thafc one hon. member desired another to, favor them with a hornpipe instead of a speech, but we believe that in the .heafc of the discussion the language became personal and acrimonious to a degree. Besides Mr GUUes, who wa3 named by the Government, the names j - of nine-other- candidates were brought forward. They were a very " FalsfcafFs ragged regiment " of political hangers on. Lawyers without practice, and one of them occupying even a worse position than thafc. Jacks of aU trades, and Jacks I of /no trade, from the gentlemanwho makes his Uving no one knows how, and wbo does nofc mind " seUing a friend a horse," to the man who gets along everybody knows in what manner. Mr 1 GiUies ought to be glad that he has got oufc of an appointment for which the qualifications, judging from the other candidates proposed, were expected . to be of so low an order. We do nofc know 7 whether, had [any' of 'the nine been appointed, ' the . Council j expected, _.' that c ' any result, ' except the gratifying one to the recipient : of having got; a " billet," would have . followed ; but we certainly do nofc think that men j of the-stamp we have indicated are the proper tflff'dOu&SS Sft? AsHcfOnnmrrod'fis an amendment '- that- no Immigration Agenfc be appointed afc t present,-*- the amendment being^ carried by the 3 casting vote of the chairman. ) ...... We learn by the Herald that several persons . at Taranaki intend this season to plant an acre or . so of mulberry trees, for the purpose of commencing the breeding of the silkworm. : A contemporary says eleven proselytes to Mor- ; monism have, altogether, -been immersed at Karori, (WeUington) including a certain dame ■ who has hitherto displayed strong prochvities for 5 strong "drink." * " ""* ..-:-• j a We {Evening Star) learn that the carpenters _. at Christchurch are out on Btrike for 10s. a day, : their wages having been reduced to 7s. or Bs. per j k diem. fc . The Southern Cross complains that the Auck- ; [\ land farmers do not produce batter and other j _: dairy stuff in sufficient quantity. Sydney papers i state that New South Wales butter is exported f to Auckland, leaving a profit of 8d per lb. to the f farmer. Few Provinces possess better means ■ 'than Auckland, and it is not creditable thafc it t does not supply its own consumers with dairyf produce. >! The Dunstan Times ofthe 3rd inst. says: — , ': The whole of the gold workings ori the beaches I and banks of the Molyneux, as also the dredges,: ), have been ata standstiU for the past six weeks,! >. on account of the high state of the river. Wei : are happy to say. the faU in the water is perceptible, and if the present fine weather continues, aU »; hands may be expected to be in fall work inthe j course of another week. Through so many men l lying idle, a general depression has been exj; perienced by every section of the. community. » The Thames Advertiser states that Mr Inspector 5 Thomson received a telegram from Invercargill on > ! Saturday evening at 4 o'clock. The telegram was • dated the 26th insfc., and was delivered on the 28th; • The message was telegraphed fco Nelson, where it i, caught the Pheebe just as she was about to leave •■ for the North, and was brought on to its destinal tion by one of the Thames steamers. ! The Nelson Mail states thafc in reply to an enquiry as to how his property afc Westport was . affected by the encroachment of the sea, a gentleman in Nelson ha3 received the foUowing highly *' satisfactory information: — "No. 33 is an ' amphibious section ; No. 902, l 903,, arid 905 — Breakers on the surface ; 919 and 920— Navigable ■ by ocean steamers." I ; During the month of May, 6550 tons 6 cwt lqr 2lbs of stone were, crushed on the Thames I goldfield, the total yield of gold being 11,0580zs I 15dwts 13'graihs, or at the rate of aboufc 6fozs to the ton. The Advertiser adds : — A retorting of t a large 'quantity of amalgam is* now 'going on for the Shotover, and: the produce', -and also that for ' the Waitemata, nofc yefc completed, will probably* amount to aboufc 1000 ounces of gold. These are , pot included in our Ust, nor fche results of other crushings' recorded in our to-day's paper.- We think there is every indication of a considerable and steady increase in the produce of gold, and we have no fear but our next month's return wiU ' show a continuance of improvement. , The Otago : Provincial Council was prorogued 1 on-the 13th insfc. Writing on the subject, the DaUy Times ofthe next day says :— " Yesterday's prorogation has in aU probability brought the ■ power of the present Provincial Council for mist chief to an end.- It is usual when a session of . a legislative body is closed, for the journalist to give a retrospective glance afc its proceedings, and 1 .to sum up its results. The former of 'these tasks " F we shall not attempt, since nothing could be more dreary than the retrospect of what has passed iri the Council HaU during the last six or severi •weeks. ■- Neither enlivened- by eloquence ndr rendered interesting ,by intelligent handling ofthe i. subjects brought under discussion, the prb--1 ceedings of our local parliament must havje, already wearied those who,have waded through the ; reports in our'columns; fbr those who have read . them,, we will not recaU the tedium they have'experienced 1 ;' to those who have left thein unread, we will not do the injustice of forcing on their attention " matters which they Have judiciously avoided.",' .. v .. „/-..... ■

On Tuesday, 14th insfc., Craig and Co. sued J. P. Taylor, Esq., late Superintendent, for three pounds odd, cost of publishing the celebrated " correspondence relative to the dismissal of the Executive." It appeared from the evidence that Mr Taylor had called personaUy at the News Office, and arranged the terms, and the proprietors had consequently charged it to his private account, they nofc being Government 'printers at the time. They had also, by Mx Taylor's directions, applied fco^the present Government for payment, Which had been refused, the present Executive repudiating all liability..^ Mr ..Taylor defended hid own case. He showed that he gave fche order solely in his capacity as Superintendent ; that the expense had been incurred by fche advice and consent of fche then Executive j that it was not customary for messengers giving Government orders to state positively that they were jon behalf of the Government, and stated that '■ the other local newspaper proprietors had been paid by Government for the same service. His Worship held that defendant was Uable to plaintiffs in any case, inasmuch as it was optional with them whom they credited. Judgment, was ■ therefore given for the amount, with costs. [ Defendant gave notice of appeal. [Since writing the above, we learn the Government have i acknowledged their responsibility for the debt, wid undertaken to pay ifc-T) The s.s. Lord Ashley, which had taken the place of the Airedale, has, we are informed, met with an accident somewhere near Lyttelton, and the agent requests us to intimate thatit is doubtful if she wiU come to the Bluff this trip. The probability is that she wiU not come further than Port Chalmers. The Wairarapa local paper of June 4fch has the foUowing .—We are indebted to Mr C. R. BidwiU for the foUowing statement of the result of the boihng down of 145 sheep from Pihautea. They produced : — TaUow — net weight, 1 ton 15cwt Oqr 201bs, which afc £35 per ton, £61 lis 3d ; legs, J39at lOd, £5 15s lOd ; legs, 63 at Is, £3 3s $ fore-quarter, 2s •6i ; 145 skins at ls 6d, £10 17s 6d ; making a total of £81 10s Id. The expenses .were :— Boiling down 145 sheep, at ls, £7 ss ; boxes, 21 at 3s 6d, £3 13s 6d ; leaving a balance of £70 lis 7d; which is an average of 9s Bfd per sheep. ■ We are again compeUed to hold over our report of the OddfeUows' soiree and ball.