The North Eastern Ensign at KellyGang 22/1/1875
Benalla Council
From F M’Donnell, as attorney for Mr Younghusband, requesting that the rates on the property of the latter for 1873 should be assimilated to those of 1874, as the valuation of 1873 was, made in error. - The President said it appeared some error had been made in the assessment of Mr Younghusband's property, in 1873, and the same amount of rates had again been charged in 1874, which at the request of the proprietor had then been rectified but as no mention had been made of such error for the previous year the assessment had been passed by the auditors, and he could not see how it could now be rectified. The Council had no wish to act unjustly to Mr Younghusband, but he evidently should have appealed at the time. The rate collector states that no mention of this error had been made until last June, when the 1874 rate was made. A summons for the amount of the two rates, amounting to £220, had been ordered to issue, but an Mr M'Donnell had promised payment it had been withheld. The offer now made was to pay £150 in full, taking the two years rates at £90 each. He (the President) could not see clearly what should be done under the circumstances. The amount had been due some time, and as the Council were obliged to pay a heavy interest on it, as a portion of the bank overdraft, it had better be decided at once. - After a short discussion, the matter was deferred for legal advice.
KIALLA AND ARCADIA
(from Our Correspondent)
January 13.
We are given to understand that our enterprising publican, Mr Francis Whitfield, is about to apply for a postoffice at his very central and convenient place of business. At present Mr Whitfield is good enough to accommodate the public of this immediate neighborhood by chartering a loose bag, which is conveyed to and from Murchison twice a week. This temporary arrangement, however, secures' considerable advantage over the other letter boxes in Kialla, which only manage a delivery of letters once during the week. We sincerely hope that Mr Whitfield will be successful in his application.
It is rumored, upon reliable authority, that Mr Keady is about to give up his licensed publichouse and retire into private life. Mr Keady holds very valuable farm property on the Honeysuckle Creek, and intends, in the future, to devote his whole energies to its successful cultivation.
Horticulture does not appear to be a favorite pursuit among the farmers of Kialla. Vegetables and fruit can not be obtained for love or money. Mr Miller, of Arcadia, has a fine vineyard, and is reputed to make excellent wine, and Mr Pettybridge also has a garden moderately large and productive, but John Chinaman, the proverbial caterer of garden produce to a vegetable loving public, seems not to know the ins and onts of poor neglected Kialla, and so it cones to pass that the Kiallaites have to be contented without the gratification of their carnivorous and griminivorous appetites. Kialla is literally speaking a "land flowing with milk and honey." Bees and cows are superabundant. But many of our neighbors hailing from Kyneton and its neighborhood mourn dolefully over the loss of their gardens and orchards.
The Shepparton correspondent to the Melbourne Leader reports an average return of from 22 to 24 bushels of grain to the acre in that, most desirable neighbourhood and even goes so far is to promise a far larger return as the result of the general threshing throughout the district. Surely there is a mistake somewhere. Such a large and exceptional return challenges enquiry, and enquiry fails to substantiate the statement. We cannot see the utility or the wisdom (to say nothing of the honesty) of exaggerating in these matters, as a locality is more likely to lose than gain by a correspondent who draw, upon his imagination for his facts.
Mr Alkemade's withdrawal as a candidate for the extraordinary vacancy in the Benalla Shire Council takes us greatly by surprise, as it was thought his chance of election was a good one.
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