EPIDEMIC OF BANKRUPTCY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2084, 20 May 1907, Page 4

EPIDEMIC OF BANKRUPTCY.

Discussing with a Times representative the increase in the number of bankruptcies in the Wellington province, a merchant said: “My own impression is that there is too much extravagance among the 'working classes. They get good wages, but they spend toe freely 9n the to.talisator and other forms of recreationOutside of Wellington you will Pf fr bably find greater depression up the west coast than up the east. I have noticed this circumstance particularly for the last year or two. I have tried to find the cause of the difference, and think that it- can only be due to the heavy/ mortgages

that Manawatu farmers aro laboring undor. Land jiricos have been seriously inflated, and the east coast has oscapod from this pestilonco.” j Mr. Barkas, manager of the Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., thinks that so far as tho outer Suburbs of Wellington are concerned, undercapitalisation has beon tho , chief cause of failures. “There lias,” he said, “beon a tendency lately to rush into tho storokeoping business with too slender capital, owing to Lh,o impression that has got abroad that tlioro is money in it. This has inevitably led to collapses.” Another merchant puts tho blame upon the merchants themselves. It is nearly all due to feverish competition. Not in prices—that would not matter —but in extended terms of credit. It is vory foolish for merchants to compete with ono another, as they aro doing in that class o trade, but the practico is becoming very prevalent) Merchants do 110 make sufficient inquiries as to who a man is. Competition as to prices is not so serious as competition for extended credit terms. Inducements aro eagerly held out to customers to buy costly goods on deferred payment, and tho result is that the peoplo become extravagant, and are finally unable to pay their 6 8 - /Extravagance in shopping is 111 croasing.”

THREE MAORI PROBLEMS.

Interviewed before leaving Christchurch on tho subject of the grea ■ Maori gathering at Waaln, Mr. Massey referred to the enormous acreage of land held by the natives and kept, absolutely idle. He said: “They have the very best areas in North Island, •ind though here and there you will find a native or two able and willing to farm tho proporty, for the most part those huge tracks are boing given over to blackberry. In our most northern climato noxious weeds grow apace, especially on tho good land, and it will take years to work the native areas back to goood condition. Sonsiblo men will not touch Maori lands under the present conditions. I could tell you of men who took up lands from tho Maoris twenty years ago on the understanding that they wero to bo given some security of title or tenure. Thoy invested all their money in improvements, but they aro no nearer security now than they wero when thoy commenced. When tho term of the original lease elapses the lands and improvements will revert to the Maoris, lock, stock and barrel. I am satisfied that nothing but an absolutely clear title will do if native lands are to be taken up by European settlers. Tho system of dealing in Maori lands in the past has been very unsatisfactory. The Native- Land Court does not inspire confidence, and then it is notorious that payments of money are frequently necessary in order to secure the assistance and influence of native and half-caste agents. At present there aro nearly eight million acres of native lands. Much of it is as good as Cheviot. North of Whangaroi there is one stretch of a million as good as the average of the Canterbury plains. There is not a single settler on it, and I don’t know when there will be one, This, remember, is not an Auckland or North Island question. It is a colonial question. I don’t pretend to understand it as well as men like the Rev. W. Gittos do, but it is difficult not to agree with them. The natives, they say, are dying off like sheep, and simply because they are lazy and idle. If we could get this land on reasonable terms, and with a secure tenure, we could find room for any number of settlers. No questions are more urgently in need of settlement than the native difficulty, the occupation of native lands, and tho employment of native people.

A GRIM GAME.

So weak that she had to be provided with a seat in the dock, Isabella Hart, 35, a laborer’s wife, of Guinness buildings, Bermondsey, presented a pitiable spectacle when she was charged at Tower Bridge Police Court on March 26th with attempting to murder her two children, Ellen, aged 9, and Emily, aged two months, and also with attempting to commit suicide. Before the case had proceeded far prisoner fainted, and tho proceedings had to be stayed ponding her recovery. She appeared afterwards to be in a state of collapse, and was unable to walk without assistance. The girl Ellen, an intelligent child, said that on March 26 her mother said she had droamed that her husband had sold the witness to some thieves, and that they were burning her eyes out. Then she asked her to play blind man’s buff. Tho child was first blind-folded, then her mother, then the girl again. Her mother said, “Can you see what I am doing?” and when she answered that she could not, her mother pulled her on the bed and cut her throat. She screamed, “Oh, daddy 1” and, snatching the handkerchief from her eyes, saw her mother cutting the baby’s throat. She ran out' of the room and alarmed the neighbors, who found the woman cutting her own throat with a table knife. Tho baby was screaming on the bed. Acoused had been fretting over the loss of a daughter who died at Christmas time. Dr. L. G. Davis, house surgeon at Guy’s, said the woman had acted very strangely in the hospital, and the first night had to be strapped to the bed.

The accused, who expressed her sorrow, and said she did not know what she was doing at the time, was committed for trial,

£BO,OOO MAIL ROBBERY.

CLEVER ARREST.

Palis, Maich 21.—-The theft of 080,000 worth of securities from mails in transit between New York and Paris is announced to-day. On January 17, 3000 mail bags were despatched from New York by the liner La Savoie to Harve. Out of these 3300 bags, 226 bags were addressed to the Central Post Office at Paris. All of these arrived. The 'nags were received and checked in Paris on Japuary 25, and it was at once discovered that according to the delivery sheet made up ip New York there should have been seven bags ef registered packages, instead of which only six could he found, although the whole 226 bags mentioned oil the waybill were there. The American Post Office was immediately informed of the circumstances by cablegram, lint no reply was received until March 16. It was then found that the missing registered bag contained packages registered to the value of £BO,OOO.

Meanwhile the jiollce have by a strange coincidence arrested a man who was concerned in tlio robbery, though his arrest was not miule on that charge, Towards the end of January two detectives whose business it is to frequent cafes and other places observed that a well-dressed and handsome man was very frequently to be seen in the company of doubtful characters in well-known cafes. The detectives discovered that his name was Kounlieau, and that lie lived with his wife in the Rue Crespin. The most' careful shadowing, however, failed to show how lie came by so much money, which he disbursed in a most lavish manner, hiring motor-cars, buying expensive dresses for his wife, and ti eating hi? diaiMfld companions to champagne suppers. Oil March 16 last, accompanied by a friend, Rounneait came out of bis bouse, and having placed a valise in a cab, drove off to the Gare du Nord.

As he alighted from the cab at tlie

station, ho was arrested by throe dotectives who had followed him. At headquarters H. Halliard, Cliiof ol lho Detective Department, had the man soarcliod, and found on him a leather pocket wallet containing i;9G(K) worth of American railway sliaros.

Ail oxcliango of cablegrams with Now York showed beyond doubt that the railway bonds found on Rounnoau woro in tho stolon mail bag. This bag also contained a number of cheques drawn at throe and six months’ sight.