The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1885.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1517, 4 March 1885, Page 2

The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1885.

Three attempts have now been mane to explain the monstrous job perpetrated by the County Council in regard to its printing and advertising, and each attempt Ins only hud the effect of making the transaction look blacker and blacker. The County Chairman was the first to essay the task, but he was unable to get beyond a prac'ic 1 admission that the Cou cil had done everything that had been charged against it in this matter. Sincaithenwe hava bad two qfchwij "e^PR r atilsn> l>^|^nrtlie pepef^flMV received the public money, and tnWf are just of the character which might be expected from sm-h a source. Ti.e ratepayers are told about something which happened in 1881, jnstas if that was any answer to a .specific charge of gross jobbery committed by the Council in 1885 We shall have something

o soy directly al>oiit what wa^ clone in 1881, but for the present pi'efer to keep carefully to the main issue. The charge is a very simple one. It was put categorically to the Chairman at tha last meeting of the Council, and lias never yet been answered. In case there should be any mistake about it «•■• will now put the charge airam. a;:d in su-li a form that, if it can explain.'. 1, clitt i-x.j!ii-i:i tinn may be forthcoming, it is tliis : Why the printing contract of 1888 having been from Ist January to 31st December, the contract for last year should have been made terminable on the 30th September, or three months short of the usual term. This embraces the whole charge against the Council. All previous printing and advertising contracts had run from January ti> December in each year, l»ut last year because the. general elections were pending the contract ended in time to allow the contractor to charge full ratus for all work done • etween September and 81st December. Now this is a simple matter, and is not to be explained at all by anything which happened in 1881. As we have air »ady pointed out on several occasions, all preceding contracts for the same work were from January to Decembtr and why should the alteration have been made last year? This is the question which Mr Menteath put to the County Chairman at the last meeting, and the reason of which Mr Brennan did not attempt to explain The fact is patent on the face of it that it is capable of no explanation, and this being so the next question which naturally arises is, why was the alteration made ? The answer to this question is self-evident. Had the contract been to the 3 1st December, as on all previous occasions, die printing and advertising of the elections would have, been covered by it, and, hence this £109 of public money would not have gone into the pocket of the propiietor of the. Iletall. But the most disgraceful part of the whole transaction is the manner in which it was effected. That it was done with the connivance of the County Clerk, and with the full knowledge and consent of the County Chairman and those of the Councillors who Vote, with him, is byond question — was in fact admitted by the former at the last meeting. We have already seen that the offer of the contractor to continue his contract to the 30th September 1884 was dated 15th October 1883— three months before his enrrent contract had expired. At the last meeting of the Council in answer 1o Mr Menteath the clerk said he told the contractor when he put in the offer that it could not be entertained because the contract time had not expired. Now we are told that the offer did not reach the clerk till December 1883. The "offer" is dated loth October, and vet it doe« not reach the clerk until December I Why should the document be dated the 15th October if it was only handed to the clerk in December? But let the facts speak for themselves. The offer i« dated 15th October and agrees to continue the contract for another year. If therefore it only reached the clerk in Decembpr "another year" would « 1 j arly carry the contract to the December following. But the contractor says no. Three months of the offer had expired before the Council were, asked to accept it. In other words the Council let the printing contractfor ui'ie months only. This is precisely the charge laid against the Council. So we see the position this bungling "explanation" lauds both the Council and the contractor IM. If the offer was lodged in October, as there is very little doubt it was, the clerk and the Council were guilty of a gross violation of the law in not recording its receipt in the minute book of t,he Council, anl if it was not lodged till December, then the Council were culpable in a still higher degree for accepting a tender which they know perfectly well liofl only M<xnc f;i«lit or nine rn-iiitl'S ti> i tut vii whi.-li voiiM terminate in tim", tn hJIu-.v th<; contractor to charge full rates for the election worlc. Now ;ih to the manipulation of the minute book. Tliy only M-coiit of thi< (lis^nvi'-cfnl businuss in the :nin it« book isth» following on the 2'Jnl .Jminstry, --three month* after the written i'a f e of the •if r : — *' offer rtyei\ c 1 from C. Mirtfn to continu* his printing "onfrsft on the shuic t'-rnis as that hi h.-ts done in i.is nrtvioiir- c •jfia.-t." M;irk th

scrupulous oniissir n in thisof any reference to when the contract was to begin or end. — Simply "On the same terms as that he has done in his previous contract." Thus we see he seoresy with which the whole job was planned and carried into execution. Now with regard to what took place in ISBI In January of that year the proprietor of the Times was the successful tenderer, and although the general elections were also then impending the contract was to the 31st December, and consequently embraced all the election pr ni ig and advertising. I', has been the coutliti m of all the printing and advertising contracts of the Council that in the event of the Council during the currency of the agreement advertising in any other local paper than the one contrasted with, the conti actor shall iie paid ;iu amount equivalent to the sum so paid to such other paper. Now, it so happened that at the elections in 1881, the contractiiii' paper was in opposition to the ruling faction of the Council, and they being desirous of throwing a douceur of public money into the lap of the Herald proprietor as a reward for services rendered to the party, took advantage of the raiuseiu question and paid that paper £32 for advertising and this entitled the contractor to an equivalent sum. It will thus bo seen that that was only another jo-> of the Councils, for unless £32 had heen paid to the Hvnild the contracting p:\ner would have received nothing for the who!.* „f the election work. It is rather unfortuate therefore that this transac-tii >-j hp- I>p i

>ii 1 1 mi 1 1 ii n>i^i mvjmii I ifl^i riy^ the Council. There \v,7fl[t).it?)i.)ir ruuiln-it-nia in the circumstances >>f t •-,(• twi> cast**. The posiriou in 18S1 was simply tli.it the Council were unuMe, owing to the cm tract tliHii in existence, to reward their favorite "orsran," without rendering themselves liable to the contractor for an equal sum. hut such was their generosity, and such their regard for the ratepayers' money that they heroically incurred the penalty, and this is how the elections of 1881 coat the County some £70 when they should not hare cost a penny of it. But •in the later occasion a better method has been provided by the combined genius of the contractor, the clerk and the Council of accomplishing the same end, for by it the favored "organ " receives LlO9. and the opposition paper receives untiring, which must he to all the parties concerned an infinitely nv>re <n ti<<factory way of doing the business. VVn have indeed a forcible illustration of this in what, has happened since the recent November elections. After the struggle was over — after the •'organ" of the triumphant majority had reaped the rich harvest which had been prepared for him hy a grateful Council, it is then decided to invite tenders for printing and advertising, to close on the 2nd December. Suddenly petitions are lodged against the elections, when a new vista at mien <>pen« n>> to the eye of the Council "organ." Visions of another rich harvest within grasp, and all to In- lost if the tenders close on the 2nd December. Sequel— the tenders close on the 2nd D.'cemher, and the "Execitive Committee " meet a day or two aftei, l>ut behold what follows. The Execitive Coii-mittee decide not to open the tenders. They come to the conclusion that it is better to leave them for the acceptance of the "new Council "' Nett result, LGO additional to the Council "organ " for its efforts against the machinations of a nunib-r of evil disposed ratepayers. To such a depth of degradation has "local government" in Reefton been brought. Who could doubt the nature of the relationship which should exist between such a paper and such a Council.

The contractors in thelnyiewood shaft have been timbering up to-day and have not broken out any more of the new stone struck yesierday, its position is about 6 feet east "f, and appnrantly parallel with the reef cuf previously in the shaft It is totally different in appearance to any stone previously obtained in this mine, it shows gold ftvely. The adjoining claim the Pluenix, had two blocks in the upper levels parallel with each other, and this possibly may be a continuation, if so, it should be got in the upper levels of the luglewond in the foot wjvll.

From the tone of the Cable messages on the subject received from Sydney fur some time back the public were led to expect, a most exciting contest between Beach and Clifford, but the "great boatrace for the championship of the world " ai-em to have ended in a fizzle, the former winning with the utmost ease, and no other result beinfj apparently anticipated by the Sydney public.

It has been brought to our notice that there were one or two inaccuracies in the j result of the poll for the Licensing Com- | mi t tee at given by ns on Monday last. Below we give the correct B^ures : — (fotinolly, James 53 Kin<j. C. 15 51 Collinas, W. 0 48 Campbell, W 41 i Grieve, James .. .. ... 38 [The above were elected] Mirfin, Charles 30 ! Joice, O. 34 Informal ... ... 4 i Total 302 I Several of the leading collieries on the West. Cioist have (says the Grey Hirer \ Jfffttx) adopted a simple method for de- j tectinw the presence of fire damp in coal mines. It consists in adapting the well known childish toy— an ordinary hollow india-rubber hall, without a valve of any description — to the purpose of taking a sample of the suspected air. The ball is compressed in the hollow of the hand in the ordinary fashion, and it is then allowed to expand where the yass is supposed to | be, near the r>>of ami goal. The sample j so obtained can then he forced at leisure I through a tul>e on to a flame, and the | amount of " fire damp" is smoii recognised by the trained eyr. Henceforth there will be no explosions brought about hy " trying for fire-damp."

Truth is a stranger than fiction gitys tlie Wairarnpa Daily. S<»me forty years at»o two boy« wero schoolfi'llows in ;i remote i.sliiii'l, an " nU.iina T!m!<\ ' lyin« to l.><> North «>f Sootlaiul. Wiiun these two hoys <jrew ii |> they uniiyratefl to this colony jiikl biicaiiiu New ZtKtlaiul schoolmasters (),i e of them isyet a teachur <>f the .stitndanl in an obscure up country Wairnnipa school, the nth-tr is the Preiuinr of New Zeahiiid and Minister of Educati.in.

A priz-j tiiih! fur £300 a site was sett'ed

jti the viciuty "f .MarrickviiJj. iieat Sjvlnev

the other day. The contestants were a olerk employed in a leading colonial monetary institution and a well known provincial boxer. The tight was arranged to take place at 5 o'clock in the morning, but owing to the presence of the police in the neighborhood, the contestants did n«t begin their trncculent encounter until nearly 11 o'clock. At that hour both nieu stepped into a well arrange. l 24ft ring, stripped to the waists, and with naked fists. The manager of the institution, of which one of the contestants is a clerk, was present, and offered Jong odds on the representative of his establishment. The fight is <i escribed as having been mo3t. brutal, and lasted until half-past two o'clock. The seconds of the provincial man threw up the sponge. Their man was iv a weak and exhausted condition, and fearfully cut and Ir.iised. His opponent also was punished very severely. The sjloct few who witnessed the encounter returned to town shortly after three o'clock with bated breath, and with an air of innocence as if nothing beyond the ordinary had taken place. The result caused several thousands of pounds to change hands.

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