The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, JDLY 3, 1888. The Municipal Balance Sheet.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2940, 3 July 1888, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, JDLY 3, 1888. The Municipal Balance Sheet.

i,ViTH our last issue was published a supplementary sheet containing the accounts of the Borough of Masterton for the year ended in March last. Wo do not know if any of our readers mistook it for the financial statement of tho Colonial Treasurer; it was almost voluminous enough to represent the incomings and outgoings of the whole of New Zealand. There is, howover, one advantage in the i details which are supplied so liberally, and that is that each ratepayer can verify for himself any particniar matter iu which he may take a special interest. It could hardly be expected that any one ratepayer could grasp the statement as a whole; indeed, we question whether even a Councillor could do this, and are disposed to beliovo that if flis Worship the Mayor were cross-examined on the numerous facts disclosed' by its innumerable figures he would break down down before he could get half through its columns, The broad features of the Borough budget are simplo enough. Tho ordinaryincome amounts to nearly two thousand pounds, a sum that could be very easily expended by a less number of councillors than twelve. About £I2OO out of the £2,000 comes from rates, about £4OO from license fees; rents, taxes and fines make up £l5O, and subsidy £IOO. It is, as we suggested, extremely easy to spend less than £2,000 a year in the leading country town of the North Island of New Zealaud. Certain services more or less necessary make big holes in such a sum, so that when all of them aw paid for tbero is not such a great amount left for repairing old roads, and tho residuum left for making new ones is hardly worth having. Fire protection swallows up £250, and with rising insurance rates we must put up with this. Lighting the streets takes £l5O, and if it is not worth this to us it probably cannot be done for less. Interest takes £IOO, and this is an unsatisfactory item, Charitable Aid and the Park absorb nearly £IOO, and when the expenses of management are defrayed, only about £BOO is left for mending and making streets, The machinery for driving our Borough business is rather on a big scale, almost large enough to run a town with three or four times our population, The general financial position is however sound, and year by year our roads are kept in fair if not in good order, and now and then a littlebit of new street makes an appearance, and swells the mileage of our road map, Turning to the gas accouut, however, the city fathers are not exactly on the firm ground that they find themselves with respect to their ordinary revenue and expenditure. They made Ll,loo worth of gas last year, and it cost L 950 to make it, A margin of Ll5O was left for paying over five hundred pounds worth of interest. In other words the gas account was L 350 to the bad last year. Let us hope this LBSO will, year by year grow less aud less until it disappears, but the process of making the gas pay will be a slow one. At present the gas enterprise is a millstone round tho neck of the ratepayers. _ Tho other separate account shewn in the balance sheet is the Library statement, and perhaps the less said about this the better, If the Council, out of a library income of nearly £3OO, cannot find £SO a year for tho purchase of books and periodicals, it is a failure iu this line of business. The leading idea of the Council as a library proprietary is to spend money on gas. With a revenue of £3OO a year, Masterton ought to have a library and a reading room of which it could be proud, but the former is one of the worst accumulations of literary rubbish in the colony, and the latter is only remarkable for tho brilliancy of its gas jets. A well defined proportion of the publio monies so freely devoted to library purposes, ought to be set apart for the purchase of standard works of some permanent value.

Mr F. H. Wood adds to his Toratalii T: stock sale on Thursday a lino of 200 ewes I ill lamb and Hi lambg, ■' '• \

The Elito Roller Skating Rink events' for the week afe given in another column, Notice is; given- in this issne of the removal of tho Mauricoville Road Board office to Mr G, Gunderson's store. Heavy rains have been experienced in | the Foity-Mile Bush duriiig the past few. i days, the result being that crocks in the district aro considerably Bwollen, >! Messrs Friedlander Bros., of Aahburton, solo agents in Wow Zealand for the Massey Roaper and Binder, havo an announcement in our columns of importance to farmers. A largo hall, with shop attached, 1* about to bo erected at Mauriccvillo for tho convenience of danoers, etc, Mr C, Beckman has mado extensivo additions and imprvoments to his wellknown house in Eketahuna, which is now open as tho Universal Hotel. We refer oar readers to his advertisement which appears in another column, Complaints are being made by tho settlers that owing to a recent slip the road at the Mauriceville-Mangamahoe junction is impassible, Children havo been prevented from attending the public school as a result of tho quagmire. Skating has evidently become a mania in New Zealand. We have it on good authority that there is not a township, with a population of over one hundred but what is running a rink at the present time.

Messrs Lowes and lorns hold their fortnightly stock sale at their Renallstreot yards to-morrow, when they sell a very largo catalogue of sheep of all classes, cattle, horses, pigs, vehicles etc.

A Hobart telegram informs us that the proposal to impuso a land tax has been carried, The Treasurer announced that if all the taxation proposals of tho Government were .not agreod to an appeal would bo mado to tho country. AVe understand, through a difficulty in obtaining diseased Bheep, the public trial of Haslie and Tmdall's lung worm euro, advertised to tako place to-morrow will havo to bo postponed, Down's "Farmer's Friend," for preventing smut in wheat, can be purchased at Messrs M, Casclberg and Co's store, The regular monthly meeting of the North Wairarapa Benevolent Society takes place to-morrow. We havo received a circular of the •'Riseand progress of the Salvation Army," from which it appears tho Army has been in existenco ten years. It is established in thirty-one different countries and colonies, with a total of 2478 corps, officered by G217 men and women. It's organ, " Tho War Cry" is printed hi eleven different languages and dialects, and has a weekly circulation of something liko half-a-million, whilst "All the World," an illustrated magazine devoted to Army work has a monthly circulation of 108,000 copies. A famous Fronch chemist, M. Fromy, who presides over the Paris Museum of Natural History, has been exhibiting some polyhedral crystals, demonstrating to the satisfaction of all, that tho problem of the chemical production of tho natural ruby is now practically solved, and that nothing remains but for the industrial world to tako possession of the discovery. That these artificial gems are equal in every respect to natural rubies, M des CloissauH, Professor of Mineralogy in the Paris Museum, declares that he has mado a minute crystallo-grapliical examination of them, and could find no fault with them. They were of perfect crystalline form, of adamantine brilliancy of absolute transparency, and without the slightest traco of horiuiu,

Last Saturday was tho occasion of one; of those winter evening entorlainments 1 at Brancepeth Station, which are held periodically in the wooi-slied, and give much pleasure to the participants therein. The programmo was a large ono, tho first part consisting of solo songs by Messrs H. Smith, Turner, Edridgo, and Po»e. Miss O'Connor sang "lis but a littlo faded' flower," and Miss Donald " Far' away", in a very pleasing manner. Part two consisted of a performance by the Taueru Amatour Christy Minstrels, who in addition to some capital corner business, sang with great effect several good standard nigger melodies. A Btump speech by Mr P. Hanson followed, and an Ethiopion farce "Tho Haunted House," concluded a most enjoyable programme,

The National Insuranco Company, on tho recommendation of their local agents here, Messrs Lowes &lorns, havo handed Mr W, Greathead achequo amounting to £75 being in full satisfaction of his claim apainst them of Ll5O as the amount his building was insured for and lately destroyed by fire. In doing this tho Company wish it to be generally known that thoy do it purely as a mattor of graco, as his neglect to comply with tho conditions of his policy released the Company from any liability In pnyin? this sum it must be understood that it does not form a precedent, as the Company state they will m futuro hold strictly to the conditions of their policy with regard to unoccupied buildings, and wo trust tho public and policy-holders will tako this as n warning to respect the conditions as indicated by their policies,

The Greatest Blessinq,—A simple, pure and harmless remedy, that cures overy time, and prevents disoaso by keeping the blood pure, stomach regular, kidneys and liver active, is tho greatest blessing ever conferred upun man, Dr Soule's Amsrican Hop Bitters is that remedy, and its proprietors aro being b'essed by thousands who lmvo been saVcd and cured by it. Will you try it ? See another column. " Easlo' 1 ■;; GIVEN OP BY THE DoOTOIIS —" Is it possible that Mr Godfrey is up and-at work, and cured by so simple a romedy'i' 1 "I assure you'that ho is entirely cured, and with nothing but Dr Soulo's American Hop Bitters; and only ten days, ago his doctors gave him up and said he must die," " Well a-day 1 This is remarkable! I will go this day and get aomefor my poor George. I know hops are good."—Post, The honourable member for Kumara evinced a largo amount of wisdom in the debate on the new tariff in supporting the increased duty of 25 per cent on trimmed millinery. Ho _ said that tho bonnets and hats locally trimmed were as pretty, i( not prettier, than any imported from London or' Paris - , and, added the honorable member, in a fine glow of enthusiasm, " this can easily be proved by a single visit to To Aro House, Wellington. The honourable member is to be thanked for the justly deserved compliment to our abilities. Ho only stales in the Hou3o what the ladies ot Wellington have said in their homes and among their friends, that choice, charming, attractive, and elegant millinery our own special make is to be at all times obtained at Te Avo House, Wellington. This season is no exception to others that have precceded it. We never had a greater profusion, a choicer selection or greater taste displayed. We have never had richer material, more graceful styles, more varied shades of colours, and more brilliant results than in onr millinery for the present winter season, at Te Aro House, Wellington. Wellington Jadies have always well patronised our millinery department, and it now only remains for our legislators to do the same, With the honourable member for Kumara leading tho van, and followed by every member of the House, there might be' a grand selection made by each to take to their wives, their cousins, their sisters, or aunts, specimens of artistio skill from the millinery department at tho Wholesale Family Drapery Warehouse, To Aro House Wellington.—Advt,

• v ■'•Members of tho. Mastertoii Football , Club aro requested to turn out to pracj tico to-morrow afternoon/ i.\ Dr Robertson, who has arrived at Westport from New South to oxamine j the Ngakawau coal leases on behalf of a j syndicate whointended to purchase, has j completed'his examination, ind is said • to bo favourably impressed; with the property, The'sucooss of those negotiations moans a groat expansion of the local coaltrado. :, ; An Inyercargill■ telegram slatei that the body of a man was found- in the estuary yesterday. - It is supposed to.be that of Scott or Judscn, two seamen of Hatch's sealing schoouor Awarua, who left the jetty in a boat on a stormy night three months ago, and no traces of whom have Binco boon obtained, ■Thopolicp willsond a boat for tho remains to-day.V Tho manufacture of butter and choose appears to be a successful industry down South, In Southlund alone there are no less than nino factories, most «f which i aro ■ payin? a dividend. How many of tins-description have wo in flourishing i Wairarapa'f It has beon ascertained that the fires at the Woolston and Philhpstowu police ■ stations on Thursday last wore lighted by a lunatic namod William Allison, who was this afternoon committed to the asy- ■ him, '•■',

Our Presbytorian frionds and the public'generally may expect a treat tonight in hearing tho Rov. E. D. Coed's lecture on "spiritualism'" The Wellington papers speak highly ofhis capabilities as a lecturer, and the subject for tonight in the hands of the reverend gentleman" will without doubt prove deeply interesting, ■■'.... Sows has boon received from.Perth thijt thoKimberley reef, Jackson mine, has struck unusually rich. stone. Seven hundred eunces was obtained from a small quantity of quartz in two or three days. " The Printers' Society Melbourne havo given a week's notico to the employers that unless their demands are acceded they will go on strike. They ask that the stab rate shall bo increased to three pound per week and the wages for the piece-work to one shilling and twopence per thousand. " The Town Lands Trust Bill makora of Maslerton announced the othcrday, that as Mr 6. Beetham would not tako up their handiwork they would put it through Parliament under tho charge of an influential personago, who was understood to bo Sir George Grey, K. 0.8. N:iw they stato that they havo sent the Bill down to Mr Beetham, after giving publicity to tho fact that ho was unlikely to have airything.to do with it, and after opening up negotiations with another party on its behalf, All this looks very mysterious, and means what has been understood for a long time, viz, that tho Bill won't go through at all, • A largely-attended public' meeting was hold last night at Auckland, tho Mayor presiding, to consider a motiou proposed at a previous meeting by Mr G. M, Reed, namely,'' That, in consideration of tho financial position of the Colony, and the necessity for further retrenchment, the school ago bo raised to seven years, and freo education stop at the fourth standard," Last night, Mr Reed divided tho motion into two parts, and - submitted the first. To that portion referring to school a°o, Mr Thoo. Cooper moved an amondmenfc, that no interference'be made with the present Stato system of education, either by way of raising tho school ago or lessening tho school ago; but, that in tho opinion of the meeting, a large sum of money can and should bo saved by a moro economical administration of educational matters. After an animated discussion, lasting for 'throe hours, MrCoopor's amendment was carried by a large majority.

■ A reconfc visitor to Groytown reports that owing, to tlio crowded state of the Maori quarters tlio sanitary condition of tho town is vory bad ; so much so that sickness has broken out nmonysb tho Natives, and' Bovernl serious cases of typhoid fovor aro said tooxist amongst tlie'tn. Putrid fish, fruit and vegetables are thrown about around tho stills on which tho natives expose market produce for sale. That, in conjunction with the bad accommodation for lodging tho Maoris,' is stated to be the principal causo of the sickucss so prevalent with them. The natives are also surrounded by i numerous retinue of dogs, and they, instead of acting as scavengers, lio around in tho filth and watch tho approach of the unwary equestrian, when with one accord they leap out at tho horse and ridor and fairly chase them away.