THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M Resurrexi. THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1877.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2584, 19 April 1877, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M Resurrexi. THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1877.

The County Council of the Thames have made a good beginning, but there is one thing which seems to threaten a serious undermining of the Council's usefulness. We allude to the obstructiveness of the Natives. In this district local bodies .have always had to face some phase of '■" the Native difficulty," and the County Council, possessing more extended powers and a wider range of operations than former local governing bodies, seem to have inherited all the Native difficulties of the district in a consolidated form. In carrying out their particular functions the County Council recognised the importance of roads as a means of communication between different portions of the County, but in several instances recently the usefulness of the work undertaken has been/impaired and it 3 progress retarded by the opposition of a few conservative old Maoris. It seems as if a spirit of contrariness had been evoked on purpose to impede the Council's action, and that the Natives were under some sinister influence that would fain put a stop to progress in order to render the County system a failure. The County Chairman and his colleagues have cornbatted this influence, and tried reason with men who are mostly guided by prejudice, but hitherto they have not been very successful. Some of the young nien amongst the Maoris have imbibed a little of the spirit off progress and development possessed by their white brethren. To use this to the fullest extent in pushing forward their plans will be the best thing the County Council can do.' Instead of repeated koreros with the old men of the district, let the County Council appeal to the young men, and they will do far better. As far as talking the old men like Kewi, Te Moananui and Pineha into

their way of thinking, the efforts of the County Chairman and others will be futile ; but lot them appeal to the interests of the young men. and show them the advantages.of coneeriing the poiuts required, and these youug men will more quickly bring their aged parents and .re;latives'to reason ; but it is doubtful if the repeated interviews of the County Chairs man and members of the County Council: with the old chiefs will be productive of any good results unless through the diplomacy of the young men ; while the constant talk may conduce to delaying what is wanted. The old men of the district are too conservative in their ideas to be guided by motives of a pecuniary charae'er; but the young men can b» got at by appealing to their pockets, in which respect they very much resemble those who are of a different colour ;•-■ and by following this course collision with the Natives will, in oar opinion, be avoided better than by trying to convince the ancient chiefs that they are wrong and the County Counciljright. The influence of the young men amongst the Native race may be exerted for good if they are only got at in the right way.

The diatribe in this morning's Advertiser about the fee of £25 placed upon stockbrokers deserves notice, hot for the sake of the arguments it contains, for argument there are none, but for the contemptuous tone in which it speaks of a respectable body of men who have done their duty to their clients and ; the-., public generally as well as any other body of men whom the Advertiser can mention. They are termed a " guilty fraternity," the only reason being that they did not of their own account-pay £25, which they were not asked to pay. The Advertiser might ask itself this question when attaching the epithet "guilty" to the sharebrokers, "Does every man do exactly" what he ought ? " If so, would wrong motives be attributed to men, aspersions cast on their characters and sneers indulged in at their expense, as they are by the Thames Advertiser P Councillor Renshaw may well hide his diminished head, for though he may be "a very kind-hearted, indulgent sort of fellow," still the fiat has gone forth from the Thames Advertiser that he is "wrong,'.' and of course even though he patronises a respectable tailor and can raise £15, no properly minded person will ever think him "right" again. It seems from the article alluded to that the Thames people have been for some time past living not only by mines but on mines. The Borough Council-have been negligent of their duties in not looking after '.'. a legitimate and equitable" source of augmenting their revenue; the stockbrokers have been doing wrong in not paying up. The police eeem to have been in the wrong as well,-for if a private individual or a bank manager, or a pestle and mortar man had done wrong, they would have been down on him. All men are in the wrong, and yet the Advertiser, which would have other people "conserve the public revenue," seems to have only just aroused itself to the fact, and with a laudable desire to make up for lost time finds out and makes public the backslidings of the stockbrokers and the shortcomings 6f Cr K«hshaw and his " pliani;" associates. Is it possible that the Advertiser, is wrong, and that; the word muddle is somewhat applicable to them? But to resume. The Advertiser mixes blame with

praise, and on the principle of Mr Ingoldsby's uncle, who was '" cruel only to be kind," after administering " the several cuts behind " speaks of the brokers as "decent fellows," not like "com? mon shopkeekers," who consequently do not indulge in sharp practices which according to the Thames Advertiser is a practice with common shopkeepers. This remark is not complimentary to shopkeepers, including the Advertiser office. Passing from persons to things,, we find this Act of 1871 is in one respect the •niost perfect Act of this or- any previous generation r for it is the- "only safeguard investors can have, &c." In this respect, at any rate, it is perfect; perfection is odious, perhaps the Act is.

. Ax the R.M. Court to-day one inebriate was punished in the usual manner. Captain Fraserj E.M., was one the Bench.

The schooner Wave of Life, commanded by Capt. Sopworth, came down the river to-day from the Hauraki Sawmill with a load of kaihekatea for Eyttletdni and the anxiliary screw barquentine Emu arrived hereto-day from Auckland to load with timber from the Shorlland Saw mill for Adelaide.

Amongst the works which seem to claim attention at the hands of the Borough Council, or which should.do so, is the renovation of certain crossings. Any one in the habit of walking about at night, and being troubled with corns, cannot but have experienced most excruciating agony wbile stumbling over some of the principal crossings in the town, owing to the worn and uneven Btate of said crossings. The present is a good season for putting these places in efficient repair, and any work undertaken should be of a permanent character,'suited to the traffic, and yet so carried out as to be easier on the ." poor feet " of pedestrians.

We understand that Mr E. W. Puckey and several influential Native chiefs, together with the County Chairman and perhaps some of his colleagues, will proceed to Ohinemuri to-morrow to confer with the Native s there on the road question, and to bring about a reconciliation between the Aroha and Ohinemuri Natives with a view to removing the blockade of the river and putting things generally on a better footing than at present. It is stated that the Ohinemuri Natives have placed their case in the hands of Te Moananui, and that, he has relegated his powers as arbitrator to, the other chiefs of Hauraii, and it is believed that as soon as this question of Native etiquette has been settled, one of the chief Obstacles in the way of gaining the consent of some chiefs to the formation of County roads will have been removed.

We have it on good authority that the agreement under which the Native Chiefs of the Parawai and other districts agree to the formation of the road by Totara Point has been prepared and will be signed when approved by the County Council. The Natives stipulate for valuation at a reasonable rate for : land taken, -exemption from taxation so long as they 1 hold possession of the land, and full "respect for their tapu in regard to burying places. Probably at an early date an agreement to this effect will be signed, and then the work will be commenced.

Some of our readers—old identities of Dunedin—may remember a clever Scotch comedian, by name William Davidson Shiels, who played for a long time at the old Theatre^ iloyal and also at the Princess. Mr Shiels was reckoned to be the best " Baillie Nicol Jarvie " in the colonies, and he was a great favorite with Dunedin playgoers, ,A letter from Mr Shiels lately appeared in the Dunedin Saturday Advertiser, from which it would appear that he has left the stage for the pulpit, and expects shortly to be regu larly ordained to the work of the Ministry as a Baptist preacher. Mr Shiels has been in America for some years, following his profession as an actor. He writes from Mason City, Illinois.

A woman named Mrs Cross, wife of a shopkeeper residing at Parnell, committed suicide on Tuesday last by taking oxalic acid.

In a leader uppn charitable aid, the Lyttelton Times says of Canterbury:— "It is startling to find that hi this prosperous province much more has been spent out of public funds in proportion to its population than in any other province for charitable aid. During the year 18j75--6, in Canterbury, with a population^ of 75,0C0, the Provincial Government have spent about £9000 for this purpose ; in Otago, with a population of 103,000, the cost has been £6000; in Auckland, with a population of 76,000, about £4030; in. Wellington,. with a population of 37,000, about £700;. in Nelson, with a population of-24,000, £600; and so in the other smaller provinces. In the majority of provinces both hospital: and charitable aid are supported partly by public and partly by private aid, and are managed by committees, in which both the provincial authorities and private subscribers are represented."

The Brussels correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette writes:—-" No'sentence of death has been; carried into execution in Belgium since 1864. Commutation to penal servitude for life, of which part may subsequently be remitted, has been the course invariably followed. A recent great increase" in crimes of violence of the worst kind has given occasion for bringing the subject again, before the Chamber. The Minister qf Justice, however, made the declaration that he would rather resign office than permit a single sentence of death to be executed. Murderers in Belgium have therefore still a good time before them." . .

The novelty of a cemetery on fire was witnessed at Creswick, Victoria, on Sunday, April 1. The Advertiser says some Chinese visited the old cemetery, situated near the Black Lead, it might be for the purpose of paying their devotions to the ashes of one of their ancestors ; at any rate they left behind them some rice and several lighted candles, which in due course set the grass on fire, and quickly burnt some dozen or so of the' guards placed around the graves. But for the timely arrival of Mr .Reed, thetown clerk, and a few others, who carried waiter to extinguish it, the whole of the guards, and the fencing as well, would have been consumed. ; J * :

A remarkable disputed will case has just been decided here (writes the Sydney correspondent of> the Brisbane Courier), after occupying the attention of the Primary' Judge' in Equity and a special jury of 12 for nearly a week. A few weeks ago there died, leaving money and property to the • amount of £120,000, an old man, Kobert Hancock, who carried on business in Sydney for several years as a wheelwright, and had lived here for upwards of half a century; 'At the time of his death he kept a small public-house at the Glebe, living very economically, if not miserly, notwithstanding, his,immense wealth. He had formed an intimacy with a Mrs Hannah Hincksman, by whom he had a son, and also with a young woman named Maiy Payne. He left a will "bequeathing hau his property to Mrs Hincksman, and the remainder to Mary Payne. Probate of this will was granted to the executors, but subsequently a document, purporting to be the last will and testament of Sobert Hancock, was found, and the legatees under this will sought to stay probate. The legatees' under the first will declared this document to be a forgery. Under the second will Hannah Hincksman receives only £8000; Mary Payne, £3000; and George Hincksman, £2000; the balance being distributed amongst nine or ten different. pe.qple~ amongst others,"Mr Bead, the governor of Darlinghurst Gaol—and to a Sydney charity. The jury before whom the cause was tried, declared this second will to be bad, and allowed probate of. the first will to go. ' . I

A. host -important decision respecting the value of bills of sale has been given in the Supreme Court, Sydney,' by the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Hargrave, and Mr Justice Faucett. Heretofore (says the Sydney Morning Herald) it has too often been the practice of persons in difficulties to go to a money lender, behind the backs of: their creditors, 'A and obtain loans at exorbitant rates of interest to enable them to carry on business^ The better to conceal the transaction, the bill of sale is not registered, as that was not required by law, within 30 days, and for this nonregistration the borrower sometimes pays a fee. But before the expiration of that period of time the document, is renewed, always with advantage to the moneylender and to the loss of the unfortunate borrower, or, rather, of his more unfortunate creditor. This goes on, it maybe from month to month, until, when the borrower is about to collapse, the lender registers, his bill- of sale, comes in. and takes possession of the property lover which it is given, and the other unfortunate creditors are left to whistle for their money. The effect of this state of things, is simply to allow a busiuess man, in insolvent^ circumstances, too hopeful of .retrieving his fortunes—for what business returns a* profit equal to the interest which is.charged fora loan under such circumstances ?—to denude himself of everything before going into the Court with a mountain of liabilities. The decision of the full Court the other day will check this practice. It was that a bill of sale renewed as above described to one Cohen by Carroll and Johnson, insolvents, over their stock-in-trade in Hunter street,

was really given for a past debt, and therefore had the effect of preferring Cohen,to the other creditors of the insolvents—a "preference, it may be remarked, that is-not allowed by law. Mr Cohen will therefore have to give up the proceeds of the goods which he sold, and come in and take his dividend with other creditors. ' :

The Victorian Parliament has, voted' £1500 for''preliminary expenditure inW-j tablishing an experimental farm at Dookie. The_object is to show farmers what wheat crops arei suitable4q,pertain climatea. and in what "rotation the crops should be grown.. It is held that such farms would raise the standard of cultivation in Victoria by establishing a system Or" systems of rotation whereby .lands might be cropped without fear of irriparing their fertility, and at the same time at a profit to' the, occupants ; while experiments could also be conducted on these farms on the growth and after-treatment of many products, the cultivation of which was little understood by . the majority of farmers, in Victoria.' The cost of con- : due ting the.purely experimental portion was estimated at £1200. per annum; of buildings, £3000; aud the expenditure; on the general farm at £600 to £700 per annum,■>untilp.it ; was brought under cultivation, when the returns from this portion* would probably cover the outlay on the experimental grounds.

The N.Z. Herald calls attention to the inconvenience caused by. the want of branch offices of the principal mining companies at the Thames and a district stamp office, and says many disagreeable incidents have "arisen therefrom. The following is related ;—A gentleman at the Thames bought several Moanatairi shares from another before the declaration of the last dividend of £2 lOs/andp.aid^forthem. Supposing .the shares had been duly registeredM his name,? hejpresentedhimself at the company's office and claimed his dividends*. To his surprise he ascertained that he was only~registered owner of three shares, and was < only ° entitled to receive the amount accruing on that number;' He declined to accept the money, and is. now about to claim the return Of his purchase money on the whole, seven,; viz., £20 per share. Of course/ hM, there been a^ means of registering the transfer at the Thames and having it. duly registered, this' compiicatic|n could not have arisen, although it may be that the purchaser is now .glad, to get out of what, looking at the present state of the market, was a bad ■bargain. ■-■■•■'- •■!v:'i'r!."" rf-l0;/ ''- . ■■ ',