ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1909, 30 September 1884, Page 3

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

♦ Tub City Council aud the Harbour Board aiv al logger- heads just now, and, though the latter body has obtained a present advantage, I think it will be only a temporal y one. The question at issue is the making of streets on land reclaimed from the harbour. If a private individual cuts up his propeity and lays out streets through it, he must make those streets before they will be taken over by the city council, and the members of that body aie of opinion that the harbour board should be placed in the same position as a private person. To elleet their purpose they passed a 1 evolution to the efloct that a chaise, maturing tlie harbour board to make the stieets beioie leasing any allotments should be introduced into the haibour boaid bill now before Paihauient. To this &oine of the membeis of the boaid objected, and, at a special meeting held on Monday last, it Mas decided to object to the inseition of the clause. The necessity foi some such pro\ ision was amply shown a few yeais ago, when the boaid reclumed the laud to the west ot the Queen sUeet whaif. The council lef used to ha\e the leclamation piocl uiued as a poition ot tlie city until the stieets wete tunnel, so the ln'aid .uhetfcised the allotments tot lease, intimating that, as the land was not within the city, the Insets miglit build in wood if they thought tit. M\ Bietl, who was then Mayoi, naturally objected to the adoption of such a oouise, as it would have reoulted in the eiCLtion of a lot ot wooden shanties at tut vu*y enti.mcc of tne city. He found that the only way to pi event it was to have the u-clamation pioclanned .is within the dty ot Auckland. He got this done and the di&/ijuicincnt of the city, to say nothing of the dangci, was pre\ented, but the Ilaibour Board could not be compelled to make the streets, so the City Council had to do it at a cost of £10,000. ■/• It does seem absiud that two public bodies, repiesentnig to a laige extent tue same people, should not be able to agree on a matter ot tins sort, but so it is. The contention of the Harbour Boa id is that, as the City Council will tcouve the Kites fiom the piopcities abutting on the stieets they should make the street, while the council's reply is that, seeing that the tates leceivable aiunotmoiu than suriicient to maintain tlie btieets m proper repair, they should be tonncd by the ovvneis, who receive a laige revenue fiom the pioperty. As one member of the conucil said on l'hui&day evening, it is most unfair that a pin ate citizen like Sir F. Whitaker, u ho pioposes to make a street thiough his piopeityin Symonds St., should be compelled to ioun the stiect while a wealthy coipni ition like tlie llaibonr Board may compel the city to take over unformed stiects, and nuke them at the expense ot the ratepayers. ilowc\et, 1 hope, despite the opposition oi the haibour boaid, the clause will be inserted in the bill. If it is not, it is quite ceit.un that a special bill will bj passed during next session of J'aihanicut to attain the object desnvd. 'lhe only objection to this couise is that it entails delay and exneuae. c r . * Sir George Grey is giving us another of Ins " Libeial' ineasuies, in the shape of a bill to make justices of the peace elective. I suppose, if he cauies this measure, his next will be to make .Resident Magistiatc, Diatnet Judges and Judges of the Supreme Court elective also. \\ hat a nice collection of judges of all soits we will Iwe then, and w hat puic and impaitial justice we will get ! Ueitainly, it justices of the peace weie elected, we would not be likely to pet wOl se men on the bench than tonic w lio weie appointed when Sir (4eoige (iiey was Piemicr. It may be lomeinbered that it was one of them who .sat on rhc bench at the espicss wish ot a fnend, some say a iclati\e, of his, who was to be hi ought up at the Police Court on a cutmnal charge, and dismissed the case. The accused oxerieached himself, howevei, as a fiosh infoimation was laid, he was committed for trial, tned, found guilty, and sentenced to two yeais' impiisonment. The geneial belief at the time was that, had the accused not attemped to pack the l)ench, but allowed the ease to be tiled in an impaitial niannei, he would have been acquitted. •* One of the worst cases of packing the bench occuned in Melbourne ,i tew jeo-rs ago, when L. Stevenson and Sous, one "t the laigest soft goods Hi ms in that oit) , were ehaiged with defiauding the customs levenne by means of "salted " invoices. \Vhcu the ease came on for trial, the bench was rilled with fi muds and business connections oi tnc film, and the ca^o was dismissed. However, the stoppage oi business caused by the sei/uie of the firm's warehouse by Customs olticeis and th< unenviable notoiiety that the turn trained by the case had the effect of unolwng Hum to .such an extent that they weie unable to meet their engagements. Talking ot Stevenson's case leminds me of a case which occuned in Auckland some years ago, which created a gKat sensation at the time on account of its tiagical ending. A Jew, named L.uar, I think, began business, in premises in Shoitland street, adjoining those lately occupied by tiie Bank of New South Wale-, as an impoiter of china and t.aithui\v.U(\ When passing his Customs i nti ies he passed a quantity of china as earthenware, the duty being then about four times as much oil the former as on the latter. An intoimation was laid against him for a breach of tlie Customs regulations, 'hiough a series of delays, the case was finally decided on a Satin day afternoon, when Lazar was fined £100, the goods being confiscated. He rendered his own cheque in payment of the fine, but the collector of Customs declined to accept it, as it was not " maiked " by the bank. He siid that, as the bank was closed he could not get it " marked," but was told that he must remain in custody until the fine was paid. He said that, in that ease, he must go to prison. As soon as he had been removed to the police station, preparatoiy to being taken to Mount Eden, he fell down dead. There was a great outcry raised about the matter at this time, but as it was evident that the Collector of Customs had no option but to refuse the cheque he was exonerated from blame. Had he ac cepted the cheque and had it been dishonoured he would have been personally liable for tlie amount, and would have incurred severe censure for breach of duty. Dr. Bond, the House Surgeon at the Hospital, has been getting into trouble through being too willing to undertake extra woik. Dr. Young, the Medical Superintendent at the Lunatic Asylum, who has been unwell for some time past, applied to the Government for six' weeks' leave of absence. This was grouted and a telegram was sent to Dr. Bond, asking him to take phaige of the Asylum. Though be has plenty of work to do already, he replied to the effect that he would do so, without consulting the Hospital Committee. The committee met on Monday, decided that Dr. Bond could not be spared from the hospital, telegraphed to the Government asking them to appoint some one else to look after the asylum, and informed Dr. Bnnd that he had no business to make arrangements for absenting himself from the hospital without first consulting them. I think that the committee are quite right. The house surgeon has as much as he can do to look after his own work and should not be away from it for several hours at a time every day, a.nd whoever acts as medioal superintendent at the asylum should be constantly there, more especially considering tbe way in which that institution is over-crowded.' I wonder. how much longer that disgraceful over-crowding is to continue. 'When the Governor was here he opened an Auxiliary Asylum, capable of accommodating abonfc sixty of the harmless patients, but, in spite of the relief thus afforded tfte , in^n huiWißft diwiTC ar*

more than twice aßmftny inmates as there is room for. This must be most injurious to the health of the patients and must minimise the chances of their recovery. , St. Mungo.