The Wairarapa Daily FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1891.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3940, 16 October 1891, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1891.

As an indication of the opinion felt in commercial circles in the South Island, regarding the character and policy of the present Government, the following extract from a private letter received frora a friend in Christchurch, by our Wellington correspondent, is both interesting and pertinent" You ask if business is brisk. I will give you the reply of one of our leading businessmen tome yesterday, i passed him in Hereford Street while be was standing in contemplation, apparently on the quiet* ness of the street, and 1 remarked that things seemed quiet enough. He replied, " Fearfully ; I don't know what the place is coming to !" And business is really very slow indeed. Whit with the strikes and the present Government's policy, all confidence is gone, and the people are at their wits end. They are uncertain what to do, and consequently money is not being circulated, work is 3carce with the mechanic, and business much lessened with the merchant and tradesman. This dastardly Government has (as you will no doubt have seen) also done its best to wreck Building Societies. A greater injustice was never done to a company of persons (principally working classes) associated for the purpose ot mutual financial good, and with an endeavour to provido for old age, etc. Tu tax them as they are to be taxed in the aggregate, when individually so many are exempt, is a disgraceful proceeding, and further to tax them so that members of the Society will have to pay a tax upon their own money and upon that of money be longing to the depositors is a dishoneßt, ignorant, thing?' Of course when a politician belonging to the Government Farty gets upon bis legs he is expected to demonstrate that the polony is on the road to that New Jerusalem of democracy in which he is bound to believe. Every pjaij is to sit down under his own vine and fig tree and pay a rental to the Government for the ground on which they grow. On the other hand, ihe politician on the Opposition side is expected to Bay that the country is going to the dogs, and that all the people in it worth having are being taxed and harried out of it. The utterances of politicians, on either 'side, may be taken with a grain of salt, but the spontaneous expressions of opinion which emanate from business men in leading centres of population are signs which may not be disregarded. In the letter from which we hav.e quoted extracts, a capable and intelligent business man gives an independent and candid.opinion on the present condition of affairs in this polony, aijd probably wiljl be surprised to find that his sentiments appeared in print in an unexpected quarter.

There are said to be over two hundred Auatrians on the Auckland gumtields.

Cream separators are now being introduced into the Forty-Mile Bush, and it is thought that before long they will be largely in use. Mr Sawera, the dairy expert, denies the statement that he has resigned.

The Wellington Woollen Company will pay a dividend of eight per cent.

A chim under the " Workmeu's Wages Act " was heard at Pahiatua on Tuesday.

A meetin? of the Match Committee of the Masterton Rifle Volunteers will be held on Monday next, to arrange the triangular match between Masterton, Taueru and Whakataki.

Fn the Wellington Supreme Court yesterlay, in the case Pahiatua County Council v. Reese, judgment was given for defendant on the counter claim, with £lolos costs.

Mr Wakeman, who was at one time custodian of the Masterton Club, has just returned to Pahiatua after a trip to America.

The World says that Rear-Admiral Stephenson will succeed Rear-Admiral Lord Charles Scott on the Australian Station, with Prince George of Wales as commander. In the course of a discussion on the truant question at the meeting n t the Masterton School Committee last evening, Mr Darnell stated that he had been surprised to find last week a boy fourteen years of age, whose parents were m constant work in the town, unable to read or write.

General Booth sailed from Sydney for Auckland on Wednesday evening. He was accorded a great send-off. Mr and Mrs James Smith, of Te Aro House, haye returned to Wellington from a trip to the Old Country, Nominations for the Taratahi-Carter-ton race meeting close oil Monday next.

The examination of the Masterton public school by Mr Inspector Lee commences on Monday next, It is rumoured that on the recommendation of the Member for Masterton Constable Roche will be shortly removed from Eketahuna. Nine-tenths of the resident settlers are strongly opposed to his removal.

The Masterton Rifle Volunteers hold their weekly parade in the Drill Hall last evening, about thirty five, rank and file, answering to the roll call. Captain Pownall was in command. The men were put through manual exercise, battalion movements, and guard mounting, acquitting themselves creditably.

The Masterton School Committee decided at its meeting last night to inform the Education Board that application has been made by the clergymen of Masterton to be allowed to give religious instruction in the public school for half an hour a we-sk, and ask if the committee has power to grant the request.

The increase of trade at the Bluff is something extraordinary. For the nine months ending 30th September, the receipts show an increase of £3300 compared with the corresponding period last year. The Harbour Board are now effecting repairs and extension to the wharf, which enables them to cope with the pressure of shipping, at a cost of £6OOO, the whole amount beine provided out of ordinary revenue.

The Hon. Mr Seddon, Minister for Defence, is touring the South Inland. He was at Nelson on Weduesday night, where he inspected the volunteers. Additional applications are invited from thoroughly competent valuers who are willing to act as assessors for the Masterton, Mauriceville, Upper Tauero, Featherston or Taratahi-Carterton Road Districts, Featherston Town District, the Wainuioru outlying district, and the Boroughs of Masterton, Carterton and Grevtown.

For the purposes of the Native Land Courts, the Colony is to be divided into seven districts as follows ; Auckland (with head quarters at Thames), King Country (with head quarters at Otorohanga), Gisborne, Rotorua, Wanganui, and Hawke's Bay (with head quarters at Hastings) and Wellington (including the South Island). Judee Mackay has bean appointed to the Wellington district, but the others are not yet appointed.

The opening of the boating season in Wellington last Saturday was a very great Buccess, the wind, weather, and water being in every way propitiatory. A fiist-rato picture of the scene in front of the Star Boating Club's sheds, has already been turned out by Messrs Price and Co., the expert photographers of Lambton Quay, and exhibited in their vestibule. It is in a chaste white and gold frame, and is attracting considerable attention and much admiration. The gne boat-house, with the rippling water in the foreground, the boats and the people together present a pretty sight, which has lost nothing in reproduction, so beautiful is Messrs Price and Co's picture. This firms general work in water colours and in oils, it might here be mentioned, has also been the subject of popular and flittering notice on many occasions. They are fortunate in possessing iff their principal, Mr Kinsey, an artist of much taste and of more thap ordinary skill, and his coloured poitraiture and also his sketches of Maori subjects in oil are both excellent examples of very pleasing art production?. The vestibule on Lauibfion Quay always contains an exhibition of superior portraijuie in which there is honest merit, and by which considerable knowledge of the principles of good photography is evidenced. It will repay inspection.