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Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 432, 22 March 1890, Page 3

Several Poverty Bay matters came on at the last meeting of the H.B. Land Board, but each one was deferred on some pretext or other.

Church of England country services to morrow -.—Karaka, 11; Ormond, 3 ; Te Arai, 3; Makaraka, 7. •‘The young man who ran away.” Special address to morrow evening, Theatre Royal, at 7 o'clock, by Rev. J Ward. Other Wesleyan services, to morrow : 11, church ; 2, Makaraka ; 3.30, Patutahi; Rev. J. Ward. The shareholders of the South Pacific Petroleum Company are notified that all calls in arrears must be paid to-day so as to avoid the cable charges. A meeting of creditors in the estate of W. J. Brown, of Karaka, was held on Thursday afternoon. There were present : Messrs W. Akroyd, Moore, Harper, Ward, and the debtor’s solicitor, Mr Watson. The debtor offered a composition of 2s 6d in the £, pay able in twelve months. If be could get settled the titles to the land in which he was interested, he would pay everyone off. Mr Moore pointed out that it was only a few years since the debtor bad previously gone bankrupt, and there were promises of a similar nature, and the speaker also directed attention to the fact that there was no security for the offer made. Debtor said that all the debls bad been incurred since he bad got into trouble through sickness in bis family, and in regard to bis previous bankruptcy . that bad occurred through his being pressed at an inconvenient time, and if bis estate had been properly managed be reckoned it should have yielded 40s in the pound. Mr Moore was not satisfied at the explanation. On the motion being put, Messrs Harper, Watson, and Ward voted for, and Mr Moore against, Mr Akroyd declined to vote and the Assignee expressed an opinion that being preeent and not voting he must be counted as against the motion. Mr Akroyd dissented from this, considering that he could please himeelf in the matter, and contending that the Assignea could not count his vote either way unless it was so recorded by tbe creditor himBelt. Af'er consideration tbe Assignee agreed that Mr Akroyd was right.

A private letter just received from Johannesberg, by a relative in Auckland, saya :— “ The train fare from Cape Town to Kimberley, 647 miles, costs £2 13s 4d, and takes forty hours. The journey from thence to Johannesberg is done by coach, drawn by fourteen mules, and costs £lO The mules are driven at a break-neck speed, and two men are required to manage them; one uses the whip, and the other handles the reins. Business in Johannesberg is very dull at present. The tradesmen most in demand are carpenters, masons, and blacksmiths, who get 25s a day : engineers and fitters £8 a week. Miners are at a very low premium ; they get from £3 to £5 a week, as nearly all the underground mining is performed by Kaffirs, a gang of twenty of whom are put in charge of one white man. Clerks and accountants are walking about idle. General laborers get 15s a day; compositors, Is 104 a thousand. The cost of living is £2 5s a week. The water supply is wretched. In wet weather tbe water is the color of blood, owing to the red elay washing into the reservoir. There are 150 cases of typoid fever at the present time. Inflammation of the lungs is also very prevalent, caused by the frequent dust storms, which are terrors. There is not a tree within sight; all one vast, rocky waste. Though I am making from £9 to £lO a week as a compositor I shall be off in September) I ffosH Mt advise yea to com Mt*.*;