The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 1883.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1235, 17 August 1883, Page 2

The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 1883.

The Dargaville cwwiAtkinson embroglio in the House of Ropreßentavives, if it — irss~no other effect, has at all events served to shed a ray of light upon the relationship which exists, or is said to exist, between the present Government and the Bank of New Zealand. Somehow or other the impression has been long fixed in the public mind that between the institution in question and the Government there exists some mysterious connection. It ia not an impression of to-day or yesterday, but its origin is dated years back, and from time to time in the history of the Colony many circumstances have arisen to strengthen if, till at length the belief has become firmly rooted in the popular mu*d and it would require a good deal to remove it. What the exact nature of the connection is is mere matter of speculation. We occasionally hear dark hints of some mysterious " Power behind the Throne" and it is even not an unusual thing to be told that the Bank of New Zealand governs the country, but nobody seems to be able to get any deeper than this into the mystery, and after a short season the subject is forgotten. Everybody remembers the Piako Swamp transaction, with which the names of Whitaker, Eussell, and other leading spirits of the Bank of New Zealand were connected, and by which some hundreds of thousands of acres of the finest land in the Colony passed from the possession of the State at 2s. 6d. per acre. A tremendous fuss was made over the transaction at the time, but Messrs. Whitaker and Eussell triumphed on that occasion, as they have no doubt done on many others of the same kind. Now we have the charge of Sir George Grey, connecting the name of Waitaker with yet another large transaction in land, and following it the announcement that the Premier will shortly retire from pnblic life. What all this has to do with the Bank of New Zealand is a question which readily suggests itself, but it is one which is difficult to answer, and which probably never will be answered satisfactorily. As one step in the direction a Select Committee has been appointed to inquire into Mr Dargaville's charges, but that the Committee never will inquire is perfectly certain, and already we see that attempts have been made to bring about a withdrawal of the accusations so as to gloss over the matter. The following, which we take from a contemporary Bums up MrDargaville's accusations : — "So far as can be gathered from the meagre reports of Mr Dargaville's im-' preachment of the Colonial Treasurer, his charges were very serious ones. He asserted that the principal inducement to the New Zealand Government for raising a loan last year, was their consideration for the interests of the Bank of New Zealand. The Treasurer had not placed a quarter of a million of inscribed stock on the market, because it did not suit the Bank of NW Zealand. He had paid

his friends in that bank £16,000 in exchange, during the past year. Government had been so flush of money, that they had been able to keep £660, 000 lying in the Bankfc>f New Zealand. It had cost the country £80, 000 to keep this large average balance at the bank, and the Treasurer's strange financing always resulted in putting money into the bank's coffers. The Major had managed to cost the country £450,000 in three years, all profit to the bank. The Government of the Colony was carried on by a money ring in Auckland, and the Colonial Treasurer was only the obedient tool and flunkey of that ring. If only a portion of Mr Dargaville's statements are true, it is not at all surprising that the Bank of New Zealand pays good dividends to the shareholders.

The meeting of the stewards of the Jockey Club, fixed for last night, was adjourned until Monday evening next. There was a capital attendance at the Oddfellows' Hall last evening, and the performance passed off very successfully. The programme was, however, a very lengthy one, and it waa after 11 o'clock when the curtain dropped. We are compelled in consequence to defer our report. proceedings which appears in another column that the Reefton Permanent Building Society is now an accomplished fact, the required number of shares having been floated to enable the society to be registered. The entrance fee payable by each person becoming a shareholder is 4s. At the first general meeting of shareholders, and monthly thereafter, the contribution of 4s per share will be payable. Shareholders incur no liability beyond the sum actually paid in. and may withdraw at any time, receiving back the full amount of their subscriptions with interest added. It is expected that the first general meeting will be held in about six weeks time. A social re-union will be htld in the United Methodist Free Church building, Shiel-street, this evening, in aid of the Church funds. One of the features of entertainment is a temperance drama, illustrative of the evils of intemperance. The ordinary blight to be found upon almost every fruit-tree in the Inangahua, and which, to the unassisted vision, presents the appearance only of a white, fluffy attachment to the bark of the tree, becomes a most instructive and curious sight when subjected to the scrutiny of a powerful microscope. We were yesterday shown a speck of blight, just taken from an apple-tree, and this on being placed on the slide and brought under the operation of the glass exhibited a truly marvellous picture of vitality. The particle of blight examined was hardly larger than a pin's head, and yet presented a world of living organisms. Lying intact upon the slide, it had the appearance of a seething mass of insect life, all bound together by some invisible bond. Detaching the speck with the point of a needle, it was transformed into a vast menagerie just out for a holiday. The " animals " were all perfectly formed in appearance, being magnified to about the size of ordinary cock-roaches. The spectacle was made up largely of globulated masses resembling bunches of grapes and being no doubt the lavEe of "generations unborn." In the course of fifteen or twenty minutes all manifestations of life ceased, the whole community having given up the ghost. The present season of the year is tbe«most favourable for the examination, as the blight is just setting up in business, and in anticipation of brisk times ahead, is full of activity. Kerosene and water, castor oil, and tobacco water are each useful in keeping down the blight, and the present is the proper time to make the application. Mr C. Buckley, farmer and dairyman, of Coal Creek, near Greymoufch, fell dead in his boat after rowing across the Grey River on Monday last The deceased was a very old resident, and well known throughout the West Coast. The flood in Greymouth on Tuesday last was the heaviest since the great inundatiou of 1872, and submerged all the lower part of the town, doing, however, no serious damage. Referring to the assassination of Carey, the Timaru Herald says :— "This event, therefore, teaches a double lesson— firstly, that a murderer cannot make sure of his own safety by betraying his accomplices and dupes, and secondly, that those who wish to wreak illegal vengeance on informers must be prepared to pay the penalty with their own lives. All true friends to Ireland should rejoice that the mystery of the Phoenix Park tragedy was cleared up, and the murderers brought to their just doom, no matter by what means ; and no one, we suppose, will care very much if the result is a feud of extermination between the surviving In vincibles and the informers " Referring to the Gaming and Lotteries Act Amendment Bill recently introduced into the House of Representatives by Mr E. Shaw, the Wellington member for Inangahua, and which was thrown out on the second reading by a very large majority, the Christchurch Press, a Government paper, says:— "There are, we should mention, two distinct parties who are opposed to the Act as it stands. There are those who object to it on account of its forbidding sweeps and the lesser forms of gambling for amusement ; and there are those who object to it because it does not suppress consultations. These two parties are really antagonistic to one another, and there is no likelihood of their joining their forces to bring about an alteration of the law. Mr. Shaw was sanguine enough to suppose that by combining both the objects sought for in one Bill he would get the support of both parties. He, therefore, proposed to make it penal for the newspapers to advertise

consultations ; and at the same time to legalise sweepstakes on a racecourse up to twenty shillings. The result was just what might have been expected. The opponents of gambling voted against ;the Bill on account of the encouragement which it gave to sweepstakes, while the , supporters of gambling opposed it on account of the discouragement which it afforded to consultations. ' The truth is the Bill was a very ill-considered measure. Its principle was to make the law effective in relation to the 'perhicious institution of public lotteries ; and to relax its stringency in relation' to. gambling for amusement, and so far it was right enough. But the way in which it contemplated putting that principle into practice was manifestly unacceptable, and scarcely worthy of a legislator who also' has some reputation as a lawyer. The prohibition of gambling advertisements could only extend to papers , published in New Zealand, and the inevitable result would be that floods of Australian papers would be circulated here solely for the Bake of these advertisements. It would be worth while, indeed, to print an advertising sheet at Melbourne or Sydney specially for the New Zealand business, and to distribute it gratis here On the/ other hand, it would obviously be quite impoigibJb^^t.thjßssauthorities to kiibw %Eether a sweep on a racecourse was for half-crowns or for half-sovereigns, or for " ponies," or for " plums." It would require a constable to hold the hat in each separate case, in order to enforce the law. Mr Shaw's Bill was, therefore, an absurdity, and the House are to be commended on having made short work of it. The vigour of youth given to the aged and infirm by using Hop Bitters. Try it. Read.