The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2226, 14 October 1886, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Kqu.il <md cx.act justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or politic <il.

THURSDAY, OCT. l' lt 1886. » The admonition to " support local industry/ which we so often meet in trade advertisements, is not heeded as it deserves to be. If the local industries of New Zealand were encouraged as they ought to be, that is to say, by the people investing their money in them, it would be a great deal better for the country at large and for every individual member of the national community in particular. Let it not be supposed that we are about to change front and advocate a policy of protection. It is because we hold firmly that the true protection must spring from within the colony that we venture to make an appeal to the people to purchase, for choice, that which is manufactured in their midst. If the place in which we live can produce an article equal in price and quality with that which is imported, it is not only our duty as patriots, but to our interest as individuals, to " keep the money at home." Legislation which compels us to support local manufactures to the disadvantage of our own pockets not only inflicts a wrong — it is a blunder. The advocates of a protective policy tell us, with a profusion of protestations, that only those articles which can be turned out as cheaply in the Colonies as at Home should receive the benefit of a restrictive tariff, and we are quite prepared to believe that those among them who are not directly interested in trade are perfectly honest in what they say. But it is one thing to impose a tariff and another tiling to take it off, and while politicians are wrangling over principles the wily manufacturer gathers in his ill-gotten harvest. Let us support local industries by all means, save those which open the door to extortion. Everybody knows, and if everybody does not it is someone's fault, that the woollen factories of New Zealand, at Kaiapoi, Oamaru, Mosgiel and other places, can turn out a tweed or a flannel quite the equal in price and the superior in quality of what our kinsmen send us across the ocean ; the farmers know, or ought to know, that there is no longer any necessity to send to the old country for manures, and little to send for seeds, while the householder can be supplied with most of the articles necessary to the routine of daily life from the factories and workshops of his adopted land. It is not protection that we need, but enlightenment. No man in his senses, or woman either, would buy an article of English or American manufacture if they thought they could be as well served by the New Zealand handicraftsman ; but a policy which would seek to compel us to deal in this, that or the other market, in opposition to the dictates of our own reason, would not only be impolitic, but opposed to every principle of freedom which is dear J to the heart of a Briton. If local industries are to be promoted and encouraged it must be done through fair and legitimate channels. In a country where the inhabitants can all read and write, all preliminary difficulties in the way are easily disposed of, and those that remain are not very formidable. The admirable system of industrial exhibitions, for which we are in large measure indebted to the present Colonial Treasurer, is an important means to the achievement of the end kept in view. We venture to say that the amount of good wrought by these institutions is, humanly speaking, incalculable. Private and individual enterprise has also done wonders. It is a fact, patent to everybody, that colonial manufactures are driving their imported rivals out of the market in all cases where the price and quality of tho former approximate closely to those of the latter, and tho circumstance is most cheering. The more the question is considered, the more clearly is it to be seen that it is not protection, in the ordinary acceptation of the word, that is wanted, but merely a comparison of merits. For ourselves we are quite convinced that the time has gone by when wo required to run out of the country, so to speak, for every little article of personal, domestic, or out-of-door use, and those who determine to patronise local industry because it pays them to do so will pr©ve to be not only the soundest financiers, but also the warmest supporters of true protection.

The Pakur&ngn. bounds will run a di.xs: ;it the Caa.budgu racecourse at 3 p.m. to-d.iy. At the R.M. Court, Hamilton, yesterd.u , only i few civil cases were dibpo^ud of, none of any public interest. The erection of a new Iflour mill for Mr J. G. Filth, on the reclamation near the railway bttition,_ Vucklarjd, wilj. shortly bo started. The full programme of the sports meeting to be held at Te Awamutu on the 3rd November will be found in our business columns. The programme is a most liberal om 1 , and should secure a very 3uccent>ful meeting.

A beautiful fish, pronounced by experts to be a Californian salmon, was accidentally caught in a net at Ingle's Bay, near Wellington, on Tuesday.

General Booth, of the Salvation Army, has promised to visit Australia and New Zealand next year. The " General" is at present in Canada.

The barque Rapido, which went from Auckland to Cambridge Gulf some time ago, has been wrecked when on her w.iy from the gulf named to a South Australian port.

The dead body of an infant a few weeks old has been discovered by the police buried in a garden at Oamaru, horribly mutilated. The mother of the child is supposed to be known.

The Wellington Press states that Mr Gurr, the schoolmaster, who committed suicide by drowning in the Manuknu Harbour on M >nday, had charge of the Featherstone school a few years ago. He was much respected and esteemed in the Wairarapa.

Mr P. R. Fraser, of Te Kowhai, has disposed of his farm to Mr Corbett, of Ngaruawahia. The above property was previously occupied by Messrs Carpenter and Byron, and is one of the most fertile and desirable farms in the Wai pa, situated about five miles above Ngaruawahia.

The fencing in of the Hamilton Domain allotments recently leased proceeds apace. All four contracts are being carried on, including the fencing in of the East and West commonages, which will be ready to receive their occupants in the course of 9 or 10 days time, and so enable the Borough Council to abate the cattle nuisance.

By advertisement elsewhere it will be seen that the Hamilton Cricket Club open the season with a practice on Sydney Square on Saturday next, to commence at 3 o'clock. All who intend playing this season are requested to attend. If a sufficient number turn np scratch teams will be picked. The annual meeting will be held the same evening.

We are glad to notice that the Hamilton Brass Band is making very favourable progress under the able leadership of Mr Y. Munro. It played a series of pieces on Tuesday night in Victoria-street, and its performances will, we have no doubt, be a most interesting entertainment in the summer evenings.

The popular hostelry known as the Criterion Hotel, Cambridge, will change hands on the Ist November. Mr Arthur Bach, who for a long time in the past dispensed reviving draughts to weary and exhausted travellers at the bar of the Criterion, and who subsequently was the popular boniface of the "Royal," Hamilton, has leased the property for a term ot five years. Mr Bach's popularity is sure to make his venture a successful one.

A. correspondent at Ngaruawahia writes :—Yesterday we were agreeably surprised by an open-air performance by a new band, calling themselves the Ngaruawahia Amateur Brass Band, in contradistinction to the professional Brass Band. They consist of nine instruments, under the leadership of Mr W. Hutt, and their performance was highly creditable, and delighted a large audience for an heur, and it is to be hoped that the performance will be continued.

We regret to have to report that Dr Waddington met with rather a severe accident on Tuesday. He was alighting from the Te Awamutu train at Frankton, in the afternoon of that day, and by some means or other twisted his left ankle, fracturing the small bone of the leg. He was able, with slight assistance, to get into the coach, and attended to some patients at Hamilton before returning to Cambridge, but is now laid up. The doctor expectn to be about again by tha end of the week.

The case of Mrs Vincent and another v. the Imperial Fire Insurance Company for £200, under a policy of insurance, is set down amongst the civil cases for hearing at the Supreme Court Sittings, Auckland, for the 18th. Mr Cooper, instructed by Mr Play, will appear for Mrs Vincent. A little over twelve months ago, it will be remembered, Mrs Vincent's house and furniture were totally destroyed by fire, and the claim under dispute is for the building, the insurance on the furniture having been paid aoii'O time back by the Colonial Insurance Company. The contention is that the building being unoccupied at the time of tho fire the company were not liable.

The following is a copy of the Stock Auctioneers' List at one of their regular stock sales held in the Corporation Yaids, Newmarket, Melbourne. We print this to give an idea of the style and expedition in which stock sales are carried out in the other colonies. 130(5 head of cattle were disposed of by 1G firms of auctioneers on Wednesday, September 1, between the hours of 10.10 a m. and 3.38 p.m. :—" We, the following agents, agree to sell according to the respective time specified on this list, which allows 2h minutes for each pen, and tiust the trade will give every assistance to carry it out, otherwise it will be quite impossible to sell the cattle in one day." Here follow the signatures of sixteen firms of auctioneers, as a guarantee for the correctness of the number of cattle for sale as under the following agents have bound themselves in the sum of 2s Gd per head for all cattle short of their respective numbers." Here follow the signatures of seventeen agents.

A correspondent writing from London, August 17th, states that the Indian and Colonial Exhibition still keeps up its popularity with all classes of the community. The attendance has been something quite unprecedented, the number of visitors up to the present date exceeding two millions. The desire to make it permanent is taking a firm hold of the public mind, and there seems little doubt 7io\v that, under the powerful advocacy of the Prince of Wales, it will be made assume the form of a permanent Colonial Museum and Exhibition, conducted on much the same principle as the present Exhibition, but on a smaller scale and in a more compact form. Sir C. Tupper, the Canadian High Commissioner, is espousing the subject with much earnestness, and has returned to the Dominion for the express purpose of urging the matter on the attention of the Government and the people. The several Agents-General have become interested, and will move their respective colonies not to be behind the rest in this great enterprise. The Imperial Government will contribute, and it is hoped that tho private guarantee fund will amount to £100,000.

News to hand from Noumea, dated 21st September, states that a horrible murder was committed at Koenta Koenta, a penitentiary farm, situated a few miles from Noumea, by a convict employed on the estate, the victim being the wife of one of the surveillants. This unfortunate woman was gathering some vegetables when the convict stabbed her with a large butcher's knife, the instrument penetrating to the heart. He then went into the house of a surveillant, and took down a doublobarrelled gun and shot himself through the head, death being instantaneous. On the 15th another horrible crime was committed in the Quartier Latin, Noumea, the victim in this case being a woman of the unfortunate class who had been living with a libe*re\ It appears from the statement of the murderer, who reported the matter and gave himself up to tho authorities, that after the departure of a comrade, another libere, who had been spending the evening with him and his paramour, the latter began to abuse him and break the effects in the shape of crockery ; after he had retired he got up and, seizing hold of her, cut her throat almost from ear to ear with a razor, after which, he states, he retired until the morning when he coolly reported the matter. Two Kanakas were shot by an agent of police here on Sunday, the sth ; one was mortally wounded, but the other is likely to recover, It appears that the policeman was attacked about ten p.m. by a body of New Hebrides natives, who usually invade our streets in a drunken state on Sunday. He fired on them three times with the above result. Unfortunately, the boy killed was a steady boy, and had evidently not been an aergressor. It is almost time that the Government introduced measures similar to those existing in Fiji to prevent natives being supplied with intoxicating liquor.

Burolak's Advertisement.— (Joods carefully removed. Friend, to young writer: "I see that your publisher has failed, and has been sent to an asylum hopelessly insane." Young writer, bitterly : " Just my luck ! It was only last week that he accepted a story of mine " Mr S. Tucker's new advertisement in another column. ])r. I>ainnan, of Te Awamutu, asserts a business card in this issue. Mr Windsor, of the firm of Koinpt and Wmdior, surgeon dentists, has again anived in Hamilton, and may be consulted daily up to the 20th inst,