THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT YOUR FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, JULY 12, 1880.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3601, 12 July 1880, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT YOUR FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, JULY 12, 1880.

The financial position of the Borough Council has of late excited considerable attention, and the many rumours current regarding the action of the Bank of N.ew Zealand, the intentions of the Council, the prospect of the outstanding liabilities not being met, &c, have created uneasiness in the minds of those interested in the future of the municipality. That money was scarce with the Treasurer, most ratepayers have been for some time aware, but that matters were as bad as they have turned out to be was not known until the last few days, when creditors who had been patiently waiting for months for their accouuts, and workmen and " oiliers expecting their money were informed that owing to the pressure put upon the Council by the Bank, money sufficient to pay all accounts in full was not in hand, and each would have to be content with only a portion of the amounts due them. This it appears is now followed by a discharge of the workmen, and of course a total cessation of work upon roads, footpaths, drains, and all such necessary works. Wo required from the Borough officials a copy of a letter received from the manager of the Bank of JNew Zealand, giving the ultimatum of the Bank under which such an unusual action had bien taken by the Council, but were refused a copy of the document, but since which we have succeeded in getting what we believe to be the contents of the letter, which is as follows: —

6th July, 1880 To His Worship the Mayor and Councillors, TliaiJit'B, Gentlemen, — \ bog to acknowledge receipt of jour Town Clerk's letter of 2nd July,

('eking ior ur. overdrnft limit of £2500 on the Borough Fund .Account.. In iviily, I "in directed lo inform yon thai; the Bank "will nllow the limit of £2500 on the following conditions: —

1. That the Councillors pledge themselves to pay in reduction of such advunce all rates (except by water and library rates), subsidies, gold duty, licenses, or other local or Government revenues as they nre received. 2. If Borough subsidies are abolished and increased rating power substituted ty the Houro, that Councillors agreo to strike a speoial rate at once to cover the Bank advance 3. The Bank not to, be a*kerl to entertain any question of further advance (monthly or otherwise) until the close of the present session of Parliament.

4. That £500 be collected from rafes, and paid towwda reduction of the overdraft by 30th September, 1880, and that a further collection of £1000 from raleis be placed to enmo nccounfc by 31st December. On receipt of ft pledge, signed by all the Councillors, agreeing to above, the advance will bo at once available.

I am, Gentlemen, yours, &c., T. L. MuF'iAT, Munager. It will be seen that the Council have pledged every shilling of the probable income up to the end of the year, bat more than that they have undertaken to do impossibilities, while if the assembly grants the power of levying increased taxation, they hare undertaken to impose further burdens upon the burgesses. These conditons the bank have thought fit to impose, taking advantage of the position, and not only so but to humiliate the councillors into giving a written personal pledge to carry them out; so that no matter who suffers, the debt of the institution that has for years made a good sum out of the Borough, may be secured. The roads must be uncared for, the footpaths, laid down at the joint expense of the ratepayers and the Council, to go' to ruin during the comipg winter for the want of a little necessary the drainage neglected, and in fact the residents of the Thames, in addition to the many hardships at present their lot, to be subjected to the prospect of loss* inconvenience, and perhaps a visit from an epidemic. The Council have allowed unjust terms to be extracted from them, and in their desire, probably in wishing to make matters no worse by making it known more widely, have conducted all their negotiations with practically closed doors—either in committee of the whole or at special meetings, to which the Press have not been invited. The provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act provide for the fullest information being given to ratepayers of all matters touching their welfare, and we say the Council, no matter from what cause, have done wrong in not inviting their constituents to their full confidence; and in signing any such undertaking as that given to the Bank, have pledged the burgesses without their knowledge. What really has been the advance made by the Bank ?—really but £2000, for the £500 went to pay the overdraft then owingr so to secure £2000 the burgesses are to bo put to great inconvenience and expence, the Municipality lo a loss of perhaps twice the amount in the injury to its eight miles of roads, its footpaths', and its drains. As we give as much information as we at present possess on the subject, we leave it in the hands of the bugesses, trusting that some action may be taken to remedy the position the Borough has drifted into, and if possible to avert-the probable evil consequences.

Wb understand that at a meeting of the Borough Council held on Saturday afternoon it was decided to discharge nearly all the workmen —the Foreman of Works included. This morning only two men wore retained, and the carter, Mr Campbell. The officials, wo learn, were informed that their screws were reduced, and it is probable that some of them will be discharged. Tlio reason given for this course is the financial position of the Coucil, and the action of the Bank in refusing to grant any further advoncea. As the Press were not informed of the meeting we arc unable to give a full report of what was done or said at the same.

This morning as our representative entered the B.M. Courr. ho was thus accosted by an unfor'un?»le individual who allowed his zealous worship of Bacchus to outrun his discretion : " Arn.h eorr, don't pit my name in the paperr." "Ah Tim" B»id our reporter, " Bure you're allways up here, but never mind we'll see how you get on."> Tim was guarded by no less than h U-a-dozea gentleman in blue.

The other day some amusement was caused to the members of the great uuwashed in the B.M. Court by the abortive attempts of a constable to pronounce Maori names. Taipnri was made to sound " Taporoff," and " Hoterine " as " Hot iron," while " Maunganaoua" closely resembled "Men you gin it tv her." ■

Sevebal Shortland natives left Thames this morning by the Rotomahana for the purpose of attending i.ho Eaipara Land Court. The native exchequer is in a bad way we fear, as the dusky aboriginals had to seek the aid of a friendly " unclo " before being able to proceed on their journey.

Sic. Geohg-e G-HEE has forwarded a telegram to those gentlemen who have signed ihe petition for reseating him for Ohristchurch, thanking them for their efforts on his behalf.

The Steele Dramatic Company, who caused such a fti7ourable impression in their, impersonation of "Aladdin," "Our Boys," and " Our Girls," at the Academy of Music, will open there to-morrow evening, when will bo presented the new drama spoken to well of by tho Auckland press entitled, " Tried and True." The company should receive public support, and we hope that their talent will not be unrecognised by the Thames playgoers.

The following is the State of Sick at the Thames Goldfield Hospital from 271h Juno to July 10th 1880:—Statistical Nosology —Zvmoiie JL^Beascs —.jmained 1, admitted 2, remaining 3; Constitutional —remained 1, discharged 1; Local—remained 5, admitted 3, discharged 1, died 1, remaining 6} Developnienti I—nil j Violent?— Remained 6, discharged 2, remaining 4 ; Total—remained 13, admitted 5, discharged 4, died 1, remaining 13. Out Patients, 42—Please to acknowledge the receipt of a parcel of Periodicals from the Sunday school children of 'he Baptist Church for the use of the patients. —T. Aiijcbn, Dispenser.

A Sidney paper gives the following hint to Sir H. B. -'.Robinson :—" Ristori—than whom a more accomplished tragedienne never visited our shores—was treated with if anything, greater sangfroid during the whole of ber

most successful dramatic Beuuon. Bhe never but, onco had tho complicmnt; paid her of the aUend.ir.cn in perron of Hie then vioe r<>g.'il party. And on that one night, before tho piece was half through, th?shadows of royalty grew bored and the vieo-regnl chairs were empty when the curtain drew up. Y»t ho had daughters whom wo may presume were fairly educated, and whose minds should have been as capable s.e most young people's of receiving, and, let; us h pa understanding such histrionic lessons as the great Bistori nightly ta;>ght mv But a racing papa with horsey daughters) could evidently not understand language po refined us not to admit the slang or tho usual stage "gftg." Later on, when an Opera Bouffo cjnipany occupied the " bonrds,' 1 thea might be almost nightly seen not only the representatives of royalty in full force, but all the ' upper ten ' with their eons and daughters, drinking in with eyes and ears pieces so poui'trayed that the element of morality never came to the aurface, but under the pleaaunt guise of inuoic and dancing, much that wae reprehensible was ewacted.—Free Press.

Demonstbations in favour of tho royal William will ba made all over British dominions today. The great Irish cities Belfast, Dublin, ar.d Cork will turn out iv all splendour to do honour to the remembrance of William of Orauge, and while the blast of the trumpet, roll of drum, and lou°i huzzas of the multitude ascend at home, where a summer sun is diffusing around his warm rays, New Zjelund is not behind-hand, and demonstrationsof Orangemen ore taking pia.ee all over tin colony. The weather unfortunately has been unfavourable to a demonstration, but the Oracgemon of tho 'jhames will celebrata their euccers by a concert and ball, which will take place in the Academy of Music this evening. The Rev. T. W. Dunn wi 1 preside, and a most enjuyab'e evening may be anticipated.

The Vivid towed up from Coromandel 60, C-. ) feet of timber for the '1 hames Saw Mill yesterday, and we are glad to see by the return to us of our old fellow-citizen H. Gillespie, one of our principal industries added too. This is oiwl the first instalment of a regular eupply of kauri timber from Messrs Davis' bush nl Coromandel for the mill, which will bo* be kept constantly working, H. C. GHllespie and Co. having taken a large contract from Meßsrs Parrdw ond Bead for the supply of Government sleepers, &c.

At the Congregational Church last evening the Eev. it. liuiehlcy preached on the subject of emuseme ts and their unsuitabilifcy to professing Christians, especially to the younger members of tbo Church. In the course of his remarks he condemned in the strongest language each amusements us games of chance, horsorucing, and the theatre, in the first of which he argued there was nothing but cv.: ', and in the two latter the very small amount of innocent amusement to be derived was Taslly out-balanced by the evil which seemed to be inseparable from them.

The Bay of Plenty Times says: —During the last six weeks the as. Taupo has been lift )d by six successive attempts to a height of 7ft Zin aft and blocked up, thus giving an average clearance of about 2(t at the fractured parts. It has now been ascertained that the under part of the ke>'l fills up with sand and shells at each spring tide or strong breeze froni tho sea. The fractured portion of the vessel is now covered with one ply of No. 1 canvas, but this ia not considered sufficiently strong to lift the ship on, in consequence of tho continued silting up. The contractors hare, therefore, deemed it advisable to commence permanent repairs from the inside with Concrete, and a large quantity of cement for this purpose has arrived by tie GHeuleg. We are glad to be able to state that the late gules have not had the slightest effect on the ship. The proposed work on the iusideof the vessel will prevent any attempt being made to raise her for the next four weeks.

Fjf >M a telegram from Timaru we learn that the captain of tho Eihel reports sighting a float ng body in Cook's Btraits. Tf;e b.ig Emily met a terrible gale on the 19th and 20th itst. About noon on the former day a heavy sea. struck her, throwing her on her beam-ends, and smashing the bullworks, jolly boat, main and fore hatch, and washing away a!' the spars on deck. A sailor namedCassidy was washed overboard, but the backwash sea saved him, as he caught hold of a rope and was washed on board.

The amended forms of the Property Tax are ready. A man will be required to state his real estate, his personally, such as morgages held by him, money in the bank, &c, then make the deduction of £500, the remainder being tho amount on whish he has to pay.