THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 21, 1880.

Inangahua Times, 21 January 1880, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 21, 1880.

Owing to the great disorder occasioned in our office by the harried removal of the plant during the fire, we publish this moming under some difficu'ty, and henefr the meagrenpss of our present number. Mr Vincent Fama ..yesterday received a letter from Melbourne, informing him of the death there of Antonio Perrin, , M. de Olivekionp, of Stockholm, Judge of the Supreme Court of Sweden, in a letter to the Sectary of the Howard Association, London, remarks— •• The G-otbenbuvg system was introduced into Stockholm in October, 1877. It is progressing most fayorably. All the police officials of this metropolis are of the opinion that it has exercised a very beneficial influence on the public morality. Oasps of drunkenness are not nearly so frequent as previously. In Scandinavia the Gothenburg system consist in putting all l'quor licenses (limited to a very few) wp to auction for the benefit of the local public funds. No other licenses are permitted, and no compensation is given for the loss or withdrawal being regarded as that of a privilege and not of a right.' The great increase in tbe pr'ce of kauri gum (says the Auckland Star) has had the <-ff ct of diverting labour from various other occupations in th> country. In some respects ♦he open'ng up ot this chanml of employ" went occurred at an opportune moment, a numbrr of hands having been liberated through slackness at the Sawmills. Some of these men, w6 are informed, are earning, with the assistance of their wives, bs much as £10 a week. Tbe women occasionally venture out wiih spear and spade, but their n*uil oecupa« tion is scraping the gum at horns, an amusement which fills in the spare evenings of the single gum-diggers. It is estimated by a competent authority that from £30-000 to £40,000 a month of English and American capital is now coming- into the country by gum. The stimulus hak sei nt work not only hundreds of Northern Maoris, but also Waftato natives, to, turn over old abandoned fields, yet the demand still keeps ahead of the supply, £65 being readily obtainable for good gum. .'.'.,/■ The Dunstan Times says '.—The Mountain Water Race (IJiue Duel) Company and some other company at Tinker's Gully have during the wpek had a washing up, and in each instance with .results beyond the most sanguine expectations. The amount of gold obtained is not generally known, but we are informed that close on 2000 Ounces of this precious metal will not be far wrong either one way or the other. In an article entitled 'Embezzlement v. Fraudulent bankruptcy,' the Wellington, Chronicle says i—Thomas Chalmers Beid embezzled £1500, of the funds belonging to the Cofoniat-Building and fnyistmertt '"Society at Dunedfn, and has been sent^nfed to eight years of hftrd labor on ttia roads, Tbis.gen» ' tence is a very hpavy one, and people guilty of far more serious acts of embezzlement have often escaped " with lighter punishment. Thomas Chalmers Keid affected to be a pro nouncod religious man, and unaer the cloak of sanctity perpetrated those frauds, which for a time he concealed by making false entries in the books of the comp any. He has now been,, found out, consigned to a felon's cert^a^s'S-ained," while his jiH-fe-and children are, left to "the fold charity Of the world. Now, had Thomas Chalmers Eeid carefully, Btudied the bankruptcy laws of NeW Zealand and gone into trade wrh little or no capital he might have obtained extensive credit, bought very largely, put away some £2000 or £3000 in a secret way, and then filled his schedule, paying his creditors a shilling in the pound, an-1 obtaining a full discharge from all his liabilities. Then he woul||%tye had a nice little capital of £2000 to start afresh, a free and whitewashed nun. It may be said that so large a sum bs £2000 could not be s ! creted by a bankrupt without discovery and criminal prosecution. We reply to this that an able and unscrupulous man, who hsd determined to perpetrate a swindle of the kind, sufficiently long be rorehand, and understood all about bills of sale, and the art of showing fictitious losses, cou'd manage to become bankrupt for a large sum, Bnd defaud bis customers of thousand*. If he were very clever he would perpefra'e the fraud and escape! scot free. If he Wandered and got found ou f — what then. ? Why be would be prosecuted for fraudulent bankruptfy, and, if convicted, would gat four, sis, or nine months' imprisonment— these beins: the usual sentences awarded by Judges. The moral of all this is that if a man wants to defraud his fellow men of £1500 he can do it easily and pleasantly under the protection of our mild bankruptcy laws, and escape all punishment, while, if he fooliably embezzles the money under the Larceny Act, he will be sent to work on the roarls for eight years. There are some people in Wellington who are at liberty and enjoying, lite to the full, possessing both money and cred t, who have committed frauds under the protection of the bankruptcy l.iws, of far higher amounts than that for which Thomas Chalmers Reid has been sent to tho roads for eight years.