Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-12-31
count, to which we will refer, in regard to
s. few items of disbursements, and the un-
satisfactory manner in which the account
is given to the public.
i.aborers for the south.


is given to the public.
-----------------------
Laborers for the South.
The continued demand for labor in the
South is bringing to the surface many new
experiments for the purpose of filing that
section with operatives, and thus enabling
the planters to crop fuller area and reap
more abundant results. Among these plans
is one which promises to realize the expec-
tations Of its projectors. It Is copied from
the practice prevailing in England. where
bodies of men from Scotland and Ireland
make their appearance with the annual
harvests, help to cut and gather the same,
and then return home. The st. Louis
Republican calls attention to the new move
ment, and says: "Our readers are aware
that the cotton and sugar crop are not usu-
ally gathered and saved before December,
and frequently not till February, the har-
vest of these great staples commencing
only at the time in the fall when the grain
and grass crops of the West and North
west are completely gathered. Thus what
we cali ''harvest' in this latitude, is entire
ly over by the middle of September, when
cotton picking in the South has not fully
begun, and cane grinding is still month
distant Il occurred to Southern planters
, that the laborers who had finished the har-
vest in the West might be employed to as
sist in securing the crops at the South, and
, a number of them came to Illinois and
Indiana in October to look for hands.
They succeeded beyond their expectations,
and returned with force of industrious
laborers sufficient to pick their cotton and
| grind their cane independent of the ire
l sponsibe negroes who, in some places,
r leave the plantations at. the time they are
5 most needed. One planter went to Chica.
1 go, and chose twenty-six men out of three
s hundred applicants who offered their SER
vices. They are to remain in Louisiana al
: the winter, until April, when, if they de-
sire to, they can return to assist in putting
8 in the crop in Illinois" There seems tc
+ be determination on the part of Southern
D planters and agriculturists to give this plar
fair trial They should do so. It is no
8 without fair promise. and anything calcu-
S lated to increase the production of the
South is worthy of consideration.
2 City Fiuances--i.ettcr from the Treasurer
4 W1LMINGToN, n. G. Dec. 30, 1869.
To the Editor Of lie Journal:
2 Seeing your article Of this date relative
y to my yearly statement as Treasurer an(
y Collector for 1869, beg leave to most re
O specially inform you that tho Statement
70 has been corrected. The errors were
% merely clerical and were caused by The
u great haste in which the statement was
prepared, and from the fact ttat the Audit
o ing Committee had not time to revise it
I should have much preferred your being
8 less hasty in your action, AS by an exami
. nation Of my books have no doubt YOU
- would have seen how the errors occurred
Very respectfully,
Benz. DURFEE,
b Treasurer and Collector.
, Our article elsewhere is sufficient answer
y to Mr.. Durfee's ackno wledgment of hi
' clerical errors. The Treasurer cannot af
y ford to make mistakes; he had no business
to be in great haste. He is paid to be
correct. He has clerk, which none o
: his predecessors were allowed, to proven
any haste or Overwork. And the Auditing
Committee should have taken time to re
wise the account The money of othel
people and Mr.. Durfee's own characte,
were involved, and he should have deman
. ded thorough revisal of his account, and
: the certificate of the Committee that i
was correct.
AS to the hasty action of the Editor, We
, have to say that we informed Mr.. Durfee
=. on Tuesday afternoon, when we asked hin
= for the account. the second time on thai
day, that we had found grave errors in it,
' and we wanted now to be certain of it. We
told him we did not intend to DO him any
injustice and desired to verify our own
. figures. At his request we promised to
let him know if our revisal verified the
errors. Upon returning the account some
half an hour afterwards, the Treasurer was
= taking his afternoon ride, apparently
little concerned in regard to our investi-
: cations. We informed his clerk that we
had found that errors existed involving
more than twenty Thousand dollars. We
informed both Mr.. Durfee and his clerk
that We intended to publish these facts next
morning, and told the clerk before leaving
, that Mr.. Durfee could find us at our office
y at 6 o'clock if he desired to see what we
had written. in order to make any expla-
nations he might wish.
AS to examining the Treasurer's books,
y we interviewed" an Alderman upon that
subject. and were told anybody could do
SO by paying fifty cents. We had no
money to invest in that way. Mr.. Durfee
did not offer his books to us when we told
him that errors existed in his account.
Yankees in IL Charleston Negro Court
! One of our dead head subscribers,
? who happened to be over in Charleston
the other day, tells the following: