ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1849, 13 May 1884, Page 4

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

THH " Pacific slope " seems to be going out of fashion, and absconding clcbloi a appear now a prefer going to Australia, that being a less expensive trip than to Sail Francisco. We have had two or three sudden departures lately. About a fortnight ago a man who had been the licensee ot a suburban hotel, disposed of his interest, and shoitly after receiving the proceeds of the sale, cleared out for Sydney, leaving a number of disappointed creditors behind him. The victim most deserving of pity is a dressmaker who supplied and made ,i dress for the supposed wife of the lpvantcr, who, however, it is said, is the wife of another man. The dressmaker declined to givo up the dress befoie receiving payment, so the le van tor paid her wit'i a post dated cheque which was duly dishonoured on presentation. Some of the creditors decided to have the absconding debtor arrested and biouqhfc back, but they fouud that tin- cosr of doing so would be consului ible, and that it was very uncertain whether they would be successful in the attempt, so they curio to the conclu&ion that "the gune was not worth the candle" and abandoned proceedings. It seems that an absconding debtor can be arrested in Sydney, under a telegraphic warrant and detained until a policeman goes over and produces evidence of the oii'ence. It the evidence is suthcient to satisfy the magistrate that the accused is really an absconding debtor, an oidtr is nude that he be detained in prison for fifteen days, to allow him an opportunity to appeal against the decision if he feels disposed .to do so. If he does not appeal he will be sent to New Zealand, but if, as he is almost sure to do, he does appeal, it is extremely probable that the lawyer employed by him will obtain his release by some legal quibble. It really seems as if the object of the law was to protect the absconding debtor, and not his unfortuuate creditors. it 1 By the "Zealanrtia,'' which left for Sydney on .Sunday night a man named Stephcuson suddenly departed without having paid his numerous creditors. It is only about a year since he got his discharge from the Bankruptcy Court, but being respectably connected and having a number of confiding friends, ho had not much diiliculty in beginning business agaiu and getting credit. How lie has do no it no one seems to know, as he appea;3 to have kept no books, but ho has succeeded m getting into debt to the extent of somewheie about -Cl,OOO, and has gone away leaving no available assets. He was a buildet, and took contracts tor erecting houses, sub-letting the plumbing, brickwork. &c, omitting to pay the sub-eontiactors, so that a number of hii cieditois aio woiking plumbers and biicMayeis, who have been victimised by him. At a meeting of Ins creditois the advisability of having him arrested and brought back was considered, and the majority of those present were in favour of attempting to do so, but the gi eater numbci ot the laiger creditors were opposed co this course, as they considered it would be only " throwing good money after bad," and so nothing was done. Of course it is a pity that a rogue should escape unpunished, but those who had aheidy lost heavily by him could haidly bo blamed ior declining to incur the expense of punishing him. If the man had stopped some one in the sticet, and lobbed him of his watcli, woith five pounds, befoie clearing out, tiic police would ha\c taken the matter up, and had him biought back at the expense of the State, but seeing that he has robbed a numbei of people of a tliOiisind pounds the police refuse- to take any action in the matter unless thp expenses ;u o paid by the victims ' ' Tinu c's something lottcn m the State of Denniaik."' This (Thursday) afternoon the new building iiist, completed ior the Auckland Savings Maul; was ioim.illy opened by His Excellency tho (.Joveinoi, who i*> n oJ/il«j piesulent of the institution. A ivondeilnl change has taken place in Auckland since tlic establishment of the bank in IS 17, and tho hrstoiy of the bank gives a vciy good idea of the pi ogress of the city, though no lristoij that could bo wiittcn would gi\o any idea ot the amount of comfoit that has been added to the h\es of what are ki.oun as the "working classes " by the savings they hate mado thiough its instrumentality. Many a poor man has deposited a few shillings per week until he had suih'cient accumulated to buy a piece of land, and has continued to save rnfcil he had enough to build a house on his land, and so was enabled to live i out fioe, md sa\ c the sum he had been paying for ) out to enable him to live in comfoit when he was no longer able to woik. Like so many other great institutions, the Savings Bank began opeiations m a veiy small way, the number of depositors the iiist year beine ID, and the amount, deposited and withdrawn in that jc >r being £210 and £40 respectively. The business lias grown to such an extent that at the end of 1883 tho iniiuiici ot dtpoMtors vcsii 71>4,, to whoiC ciuht those was the large sum ot it'2U4,.")l(J (fn aveiage of upwa'ds ot £34 for each depositor), the deposits and withdrawals dm mtr the \ear having been £217,11:} and -t'2oo, i4L icspectivoly. This wondoiful mciease ot business, dcs pite the fact tnat the Post-office Savings Bank also tiansnets a larye amount of business in Auckland, speaks volumes for the way in which the afiaiis of the bank are conducted by the tiu^tees, whoieceive no leuuuicration for their sen ices, and the energetic manager, Mr Richard Camei on. The Onehunga Chamber of Commerce is determined to make another attempt to obtain local control ovei the M ami I; an Hiirboiu, and Sn Mam ice O'llorke, the member foi the electoiate, lias promised to diaw up a bill to gi\ c eilect to their desire, and to endeavour to get it cauied dining the ne*t session of Pailiamcnt. I do not wonder at the decision anhed at, as the Onehurga w hai yes are now under the contiol and management of the Kailway Department, and wo know what that means. The < o sequence is that the charges are higher on the Ouehuncra than on the Auckland wh.mes, while the facilities otieicd to shippeis aie of the negative sort. Though t am not surpiised that the Onehunga people want a change made, I am cxticmoly soriy that they do not see that it would be to their interest to have the control of their harbour vested in the Auckland Harbour Board. With the prospect of the Panama Canal being opened tor tiaflic in the course ot a tew years, variously stated of from four to eight, it is of the greatest importance to this portion of New Zealand that a canal should be cut through the nanow stiip of land separating the waters of the Waitemata and Mauuk.au harbours. If this were done, through that canal would be the direct course for vessels going from England to Australia and vice Vf?sc thiongh the Panama Canal, but it will be much more difficult to do it if the two harbours are under different controls than if both were under the control of the same board. Therefore, without wishing any harm to the Onehunga people, I hope that the Bill to be drawn and mtioduced by Sir Maurice O'ftorke will be thrown out. In Wednesday's Herald there appeared, over tne signature of Mr L. D. Nathan, a letter protesting against the imputation of usury being levelled at the Jews. It ia all veiy well for Mr Nathan to object to the imputation, and I have no hesitation in saying that if all Chiistians. as well as Jews, were as fair and honourable in their transactions as MiNathan and the members of his family it •would be a good thing for the community. But the fact remains that the so-called Loan and Discount Banks in this city are conducted by members of the Jewish race, and, as I mentioned some weeks ago, it was a Jew of the priestly house of Cohen who lent a man £15, for which he received a receipt for fil8 t and for >yhioh borrower w&8 to.

pay £3 par month interest, which is ab tha rate oi" upwards of 280 per cunt, per annum. It that 13 not imtry I would like to know what is, and so long as it is proved in evidence that a Jew has evtorted such usurious interest, so long will people describe Jews as usurers, though it is as unfair to c.ill all Jews usuiers, because theie are some among the raccjas it would be to call all religious people rascals because Stephenson, the absconding debtor, professed to be a religious man. I heard of one man who ga\e him credit because he saw him playing the harmonium in the church he attended. ' * Some people, with very soft hearts, or very soft heads, or both, have been writing to the newspapers, deprecating the infliction of coiporal punishment on a m.vi convicted of ,x criminal assault on A woman Well, cither the man was guilty of the offence or he was not. The puy, befoic whom the case was tried, decided tint ho was guilty, and unless stiong evidence to the contiary can bo adduced, we may fauly accept their verdict. Gi anted that the man was guilty, he richly meiitcd the sentence passed on him, floggings included, and 1 have no sympathy with those who would seek to rob him of that which he certainly deserved—the cat. If a man acts like a brute, he must expect to receive the punishment duo to ;v brute. There is a ecitam good old book which prescribes " a rod for tho fool's back." If it is a good thing fot the fool's back, how much more suitable is it for the back of the villain who brutally ill-treats a woman. By all means let the scoundi el have his second dose of the cat, as prescribed by Judge Gillies. St. Muxgo.

A Yovxa writer asks us if you know " any way by which the imagination can be goaded iuto a trance-like presentation of strange plots and conceptions." Young man, have yon ever tried delirium tremens? — Bur. Fice Press.

" Jimmy, wheie were yon yesterday evening .'" " Well, the first paitof the evening I tied a pack of firecrackers to our dog's tail, ami he ran under the smoke house and set it afire, and after tliat pa and me went on a whaling expedition." — Judge. She stiuck my fancy when we met. With love my lieait was stricken ; T stioked her hau and called her pct — It stake-, me 1 shall ne'er foiget Tlit* -troke tli.it made me quicken My snail-hlce pace And leave that place. " You came here uninvited, and I whh yon would leave immediately," was the inhospitable leinaik of a citizen when the liver came into the parlour. •' I have scd-i-ment to leave in a shoit time, and I will do so." — Vanity Fair. Mv son, ' said an old negro, " now d.\t youi's outen dc penitentiary, try ter keep out, an' aiter dis, doan steal, leastwise doan do lack \er did bofo', steel a p.iir o' boots wat was too big fur yeself an* to little for yer old daddy. Ef yer kaint pick up suthin dat'll do yer some good try an 1 be hones'." — Texas Swiftings. At a Boston Sew ing Circle for the relief of 01 ph. inert Esquimau "c a debate arose over the iclati\e merits of Leigh Hunt and Charles Lamb, in the course of which one of the visitors present, a lady from Cincinnati, was asked the question'"Do jou prefer Lamb?" "Served with gieen peas, I think I do," she simpeied sweetly. <% Otherwise I piefer poik. ' In* the leccnt conflagration in London, which destroyed £1,2.10,000 woith of propeity, St. Paul s Cathedral sterns to ha\e hart .i nanow escape and was only saved by the diiection of the wind, lint the judgment, the f-olid caution of these English houses, which were laid in ashes, i-> told in in the follow ing four words: " All coveicd by insurance."

If you will pei mit me to say so, doctor, remarked the patient, " science has in you one of its most persevei ing disciples." The doctor's) face expressed the gratification the compliment gave him, and the patient continued : " But I have oncf.uovu to ask you." " Name it said the pleased and smiling Galen. " You have ti cited me scientifically for six weeks." " Ye?." " Well, give mo something now to get well on."

Lu:i:if;, an authority in matters of health and tilings which are good to eat and di ink, thus wrote : Sheiry and stions? cider are tnoie quickly intoxicating than the of wines, and they havu a, pcciih.ii influence on the gastric juices of the stomach. The intoxication of beer is heavy and dull, but its use does not hinder the thinker from gaining ilesh. The di inkers of whisky and brandy are going to cci tain death. Red wine is tlio least Inn If nl, and in some cases really beneficial.''

Tin. Ship Rmlav vv Across jMf.mco. — Tlie ship iail\\ay acio3s the Mexican Isthmus of roliiiantcpec is bcintc pressed foiwaidm earnest. The survey of the isthmus lias been completed under the care ot Mr Van Brocklin, an eminent Ameiican civil engineer. A route with o\en iiioi c moderate giadients and cuttings than were expected has been adopted, and the works have been commenced. Mr J. B. Eads, C.E., the builder of the great steel bridge across the Mississippi at St. Louis, and whose unpiovpiiicnt of the Mississippi navigation has opened up New Orleans to ship, of the deepest draught, is now in London codceiting business arrangements with sliipowneis and otheis, and the probability is that the ship railway will come under British control financially and otherwise. Several (gentleman, eminent in and in connection with the shipping woild, are taking the subject np warmly, as this rout will shorten 'the sailing distance between Europe and the Noith Ameiica Pacific coast, including of couise, the British Possession, by more than S.OOO statute miles, and is 1,200 miles loss that the Panama loute. — The feJum mat y.

It was in a country church, and the vicar, befoio morning service, told the cuiate to give out a notice about baptisms, and another about some new hymn-books. In leading the notices the cuiate leversed their order, and Rave them as follows: "For the future, Hymns Ancient and Modern will be used in this church." "There will be a baptism of infants held in this church on .Sunday next." " All parents wishing to have their children baptised must send in their names to the vicav before Wednesday.'' The vicar, who was somewhat deaf, heard the curate's voice cease, but did not observe that the order of the notices had been l'eversed, so he rose and said : " And I should further like to mention that those who wish to procure home of the latter can obtain them on applying at the Vicarage for one shilling, or with extra strong backs for eighteen pence,"

Dkied Apricots.— Calif ornian fruitgrowers have discovered that appricots bleached with sulphur fnines and then dried in the sun, are superior to those that are dried in any other manner, or that are canned. They regard this fact of very great importance to the whole State. It enables every fruit culturist, however limited his means, and however small the pioducts of his orchards, to dry his own fruit for market, and makes him independent of the canning factories. Tfc is also stated that fruit can be prepared in this manner more cheaply than in any other, that its weight is better preserved and that it is of superior flavour. Large dealers in dried fruit say that the market for such products of Califoruian orchards will always be greater than the supply can possibly be. The United States alono will readily take all the fruit of the kind and quality now being produced by the sun-drying process that California can even raise. Many thousands of apricot trees have been planted within a recent date, in orchard form, in Southern California.. Sun-dried apricots are' being sold to Califorman dealers at, double the price paid for the best r*isin», , ,