WELLINGTON ECHOES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 393, 19 May 1910, Page 7

WELLINGTON ECHOES

IS MONEY TIGHT? (From Our Special Correspondent.) May 15, 1010. Who said money was tight? It was n learned Judge of the Supreme Court. He said so the other -day by reference, referring to the oft-stated fact that properties are given 'away at auction; nu sales, no values even, and scarcely one auctioneer of them all holding their own. This was apropos of some bankruptcy proceedings that otherwise matter nothing to anybody. Musing on this "obiter dictum" from a high place I spied a friend on the street. It .was Delcrederie, evidently about his business. He was going aootit it in his usual way, with no sign of any abatement in his usual keenness. Now Delcrederie is a fisher of men n: a way. It is not trie way of. the sir. , noes who have their piscatorial his.iucts, too. 'Nor is it quite the way of those who sit in offices 'waiting for the receipt of custom, protected by myrmidoms with pens behind their ears whose function it is to make callers realise that their business is not the only tilling in this world of tears and supercilious lackeys. Delcrederie does his business in the streets, throwing his line into the main current of humanity, and anon when the current does not yield him a rise betaking himself to the quiet pools in the side .streets. This day 'ne was fishing with his accustomed cheerfulness. He, I thought, might enlighten me about the judicial "obiter 'dictum." "Any sport, Del.?" "ikirish." "I hear that money is tight." "Who said that?" "The Judge up yonder." "Well, he's not a good judge, anyway." Delcredie is in the share line. His friends say that he avns once broke and immediately got fat by becoming a broker. It is. their way of saving that Del. is a man of 'resource. At this moment he was engaged getting off a prospectus, and was therefore communicative, especially about the miancial situation. In his opinion there is only on« thing wrong .with the financial situation, There was a land boom, a cruel suDurban land boom, and a great many people remember it badly by reason of the babies they 'have to carry. It is the usual reflex effect of land booms when they burst in much vaunted suburbs. But the .general situation is right enough for that. With live millions to ■the good between the imports and exports of the last quarter, and the top prices of wool, and the revival in meat, what else could it be? For legitimate business there is a fair trifle of cash, iand Delcrederie is satisfied. * * * * I WAIHI SHARES. Can he throw any light on the strange freaks of the market with the Waihi shares? The sharebrokers of Auckland city are puzzled about the drop in that I line stock, and so are the newspapers, and they all want some sort of (inquiry. •He laughs. He gives me to understand that there is no mystery whatever. The custom is for t'he reports from the mine, •he informs me, to be sent to the London shareholders first. These, therefore, got the report about the' poor outlook in the new workings. They saw a good chance i 'and they operated. But the price went up again almost at once. Of course it did. Don't you see that London also got first news that the prospects had mended again? That took oil' the pressure. It is no great matter, says he, but it shows that the local men ought) to be put on the same footing in re the reports from the mine as the Londoners. With that my friend dismisses the Waihi and all its works. # * * * IS THERE ANOTHER BONANZA? Not quite all 1 —there is the trip of Dr. I Bell to that Waihi region.' It is a thing on which the local men are very keen; they have been trying for a long time to get the doctor to cast that scientific eye and that industrious spirit of his into the depths of the Waihi country. They have the firm belief that there ought to be .'another bonanza somewhere in the neighborhood, and Delcrederie does not see any reason why they should be wrong. There is, of course, the "cussedness" of reefs in general, and New Zealand reefs in particular. But it valso true that there is much stone in sight, and it ought to be scientifically examined, especially as it does not appear to be afflicted with the general ens•sedness which takes the form of unac- | countably disappearing just when people have made up their minds that tilings ought to be opening out. These reefs have opened out, says my friend, as he sniffs the odor of hurtling prospectuses. He goes off with one on Dr. Bell and the other oK his fishing. Presently he hooks a fish, and L make 110 doubt .will land him •before he knows where he is. At lqa-st there is one man among us who keeps his pecker up. WHAT OF THE WINTER? There are some others who would give a great deal for his pluck. These are talking of the prospect of a hard winter for labor. Things are, according to tue , last report of the Department, fairly • good, but there is here an increase in the demands for unskilled employment,! which is described as "natural'' at the ■present time. We are reminded in this ■ connection that there will be .some big I bush-falling to be done 'presently in the [ Wairarapa, which ought to take the: [ edge off the demand aforesaid. Oil the' other hand, the building trade, which! | was once so great 'a standby, is in ra-' : ther a humdrum condition, and all the : interests that depend on the builders find a shrinkage in the volume of their' trade. If the Government would only | start the new ranway station! Thevi ■have the new Post Office in hand, and' they are considering the other with the air "of men who'have alreadv their hands full. ' j A'NEW RAILWAY STATION. j This came out during the talk .with at deputation 'from all the local bodies which have determined to press_ this matter of the railway station. It is astonishing to what heights of eloquence and criticism these gentlemen rose while they were about it. Mr. Wnford, who took the lead as Mayor of "the most progressive citv in the Dominion, sir, referred to the present buildings as "vshedifices," and the rest tittered and followed suit each after his manner. Mr Joseph, on his snte, was sympathetic, and in addition critical. He reminded the deputation of the manner in whichi the railiwiav management has been alius-] ed for the .bit; station at Dtinedm, and, wanted to know if the deputation would stand bv the management if it gave them a decent station else he, of course, .admitted that tht. demand .for the station is right In-, deed it would be but beating of the air' to engage in any demonstration of the necessity for an up-to-date budding. Sir Joseph astonished the deputation bv the information that plans are uni dei :3i - a "I 1

purtenancps to cost something I £215,000. There is, as there wa | Dunedin, much more to be done \ j merely build a station. There are , trucks, and the stores and the up-1 proaches, and a thousands things that j must be faced, and all these cost far more than the station. Of the vast sums with which the Government is twitted iwith having spent at the southern capital the station represents only a modest £4!),000. Why they didn't make it fifty while they were about it is the question of the cynics. But the fact remains that the appurtenances have to be faced as well as the station, and for •that reason there is pause. Moreover, there are some things to he settled, such as the through communications between trains and .ferry boats. The old site of | Cable's foundry is mentioned as the central spot for the new plans. It is pleasant to realise that a move will be made some <lav, .perhaps not far off. But the local bodies have tneir blood up, and they wiill not let the matter rest. It would not bo surprising to learn that the Government is rather pleased with the prospect of having such powerful allies in this matter. Indeed, the Dunedin criticisms appear to have shaken their nerves just a little bit. The encouragement of a local agitation ramifying far and wide throughout the district served by the railway is opportune. * * » # "WOLFING" THE RAILWAY ACCOUNTS. The newspapers are "wolfing" the railway accounts just published for the year. The moral of their discovery is that the northern section has turned ■out in every way superior in results to ■the southern. But there is not too much reason in their analysis. The New Zealand Times, for example, takes the trunk systems out of the general figures and shows triumphantly that the gross revenue of the north is far larger, and tint t!:e ii'.'rccntage of expenditure to revenue far smaller. But if the whole of the figures are taken the difference is not nearly so great. Still, it is pateir. that the northern system is going ahead fai* faster than the southern. The Otago Central has brought down the southern figures terribly—its profit is not more th.au six shillings -per cenj:. Moreover, it is said by some of the critics that the addition of the Midland when it comes. into the connection will exert a similar effect. From which it is evident that there is u widespread belief that time infill make the difference between North and South very much more accentuated. * * # * ' NORTH v. SOUTH. To all this the railway men have much to say—(l) That the South carried the North on its back for years enough to earn a little consideration from the North now and for some time to come; (2) that it is unfair to take the systems, partly into comparison; (3) that the lengths of line .free from sea competition in the North are far longer than those in the -South and therefore there must be a differenec for the worse; (4) that when the MkMan.l comes into the connection the mineral traffic will pay and the long length of uncompleted track thus made available will go far towards restoring the balance. Of these the strongest argument is the appeal to the North to endure, at all events, for a while. It is not yet -a. point of agitation that t'he rates should be differentiated. That may come. But surely the plea for endurance is fair, and for en durance for some rears. There were many years of the past in which the North was very far uehiml the South in railway results. * * * * THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS. ' The gazetting of the Public Accounts has opened the way for the defence to attempt the .proof that the retrenchments of the Government have been according to promise, or nearly so, amounting to £210.000, which compares lawrably with the promised quarter of a million. Ministerial editors are strong on the point, taking their stand, upon the list of departments with a corresponding column showing the savings and these amount to the £210,000 aforesaid. Reply is made on the other side that it is easy to keep back payments on the appropriations and make .a saving th-.it way that will pass muster for a few weeks. Which means that the figures will be ncked over with partially impartial vigor and rigor during the coming session. * # t * THE MAIL SERVICES. The Canadian and 'Frisco services are before us once more—apparently to demonstrate the fact that this Dominion has not yet passed under the yoKe of the Aucklander. Neither lias the Australian Commonwealth. For these pleasing facts let us be thankful truly. * # # * A CENTENARIAN. Old Mr. Burling is yet with us, and though he is a hundred and ten years old there is not much lingering about his stay. So the people say who have the honor of speech with this defier of the microbe of old age. He remembers his grandfather who was a middle-aged man when dive won the Battle of Phissey (1757), consolidating the Indian Empire. His father was a young man when 'he took him on his hnee, and told him how the great British admiral ha,<l thrashed the enemy at Trafalgar. Waterloo is one of his own greenest memories, and his eyes fire a little as he narrates his feelings wheil he heard that "Bony" was "taken." His memory of the event is as 'keen as is the memory •many of our sere and yellow have of the American Civil War. When the Crimean War broke out 'he had lived half his life, and the records of it are to him as fresh as the p\tper of yesterday. His talks are much of the .Sovereigns be has seen coming and going. .Six of them he has seen, including the present occupier of the throne who has just got possession. And his speech is us loyal as it is far-reaching. Like the rest of us, he appreciates the fact that the old Parliament House (what is left of it) has become historic by reason uf the proclamations its steps have seen, the last of them the proclamation of (.'eoroi' V. For that day all Hags Hew at top. They are again half-mast and will be -o till the great memorial service on Friday, in the now historic spot.