Pursuant to a resolution of the Town Board, adopted at Mmday's moating, a deputation, comprising Messrs. Hardy, Hulme, and Cargiil, waited yesterday upon his Honor the Superin tendent at the Government offices, with reference to the existing nuisance of the manure depot. We understand that his Honor received the deputation with courtesy, and listened to them with deference, and that the result of the interview was the ghing a guarantee or promise on the part of the Government to adopt prompt measures with reference to the depot in question, whenever the Town Board may arrive at a final decisiou on the subject ; in fact, that tho Government will .shut up the manure depot if the Town Beard wish it. It appears from the letter of our correspondent at Tokomairiro, that that district has not been proclaimed a district under the Slaughter Houses Act, aud that not only is there thus no means of compelling proper cleanliness in slaughter yards, but in the absence of any Inspector there is positively no check upon the slaughtering of cattle, and consequently any butcher in haste to be rich -might, if he would only take the precaution to destroy the hides, get his meat at an exceedingly cheap rate off the neighboring ruu. In Victoria we know that the practice alluded to was carried on by man}' butchers in the neighborhood of diggings. One man at Avocia carried on the game for seven years before he was detected. Cattle disappeared, and nothing more was heard of them. This man not only destroyed tho hides, but used to boil down tho heads so as to destroy all means of recognition. He was ouly caught at last by a ruse on the part of the owner of a beast that he had slaughtered and cut up. The owner had watched him from the bush and seen him shoot the bnllo.ck, and bringing the police found the head in a boiler, and was able to swear to it. Oor correspondent at Tokomairiro draws attention to the want of a registry of the brands of cattle, of the same nature as that for the brands of sheep. It certainly scorns a strange oversight that nothing of the kind should exist. Desertions from both services have been but'too rife in this colony, and wo are glad to find that the p:diee authorities in Aucklau! are taking active measures to bring the culprits to justice The Southern Crosso? tlie lOthinst. states that "a few days ago Mr. Commissioner Naughton had a deserter from H.M.S. Elk, placed on board the H.u-rier. In this instance the deserter has been at large upwards of two years. A deserter from H.M.S. Pawn, wis also put on board H.M.S. Harrier yesterday. The vigilance of the police •in capturing deserters is worthy of the highest commendation." This is not the only journal which has had to complain of the piracy of reports, as appears fro 11 the following in the Daily Southern Cross of June 11 :—" The following is the opening sentence in the leading article of yesterday's Auch-' lander: —' A case which was before the Supreme Court of this colony on Saturday last, and of which we have endeavored to g'wc as full a report as possible, is highly illustrative of what one of our sage 3of the law. pronounced the perfection of human wisdom, the statute and common law of England.' On referring to the report in question we found, to our surprise, that the editor of the Aucklander had made his scissors do the work of a reporter, for the five-column report in his paper was taken from the Daily Southern Cross of Monday. If tho Aucklander had acknowledged the report it would not have mattered so much ; but we think that the fact we have stated, and the opening paragraph of his article, are singularly inconsistent with his profession as an immaculate journalist. As we are more liable to this sort of literary theft, now that we publish daily, we will insist on all our contemporaries . acknowledging the Daily Southern Cross when they borrow from our columns."

The informer, William La we, is tp h?. prosecuted for perjury. It will be in the recollection of most, of our readers that this man charged Wm. Oarr, of the Steam Packet Hotel, with having, on the Hth June instant, unlawfully sold two glasses of gin without legal license. The information was tried before the Superintendent of the Province, the Collector of Customs, and the Resident Magistrate, last Tuesday the 21th instant at the. Court House, Dunedin. On that occasion, William Lowe, stated upon oath in his evidence in chief, that he saw tlie defendant, William C.irr, serve the waiter with three glasses of gin out of a decanter ; and, in the course of his cross-examina-tion by Mr. Ward, counsel for the defence, he further swore that he saw the defendant haul the bottle to the waiter. Robert Handle swore that the defendant, William Can-, did not make his personal appearance in the public room of the Steam Packet Hotel until between eleven and twelve o clock ou the night of the 11th June—the date in question; and another witn ss named William Welts as distinctly swore that William Ciu-r was by the bedside of his partner—the now deceased Mr. Martin—from earl/ in the morning until late at night. Witness was certain that at four o'clock in the afternoon of the 11 th June William Carr was not at the Steam Pasket Hotel ; and he could not have been there without his (Wells,) knowledge. Tiie informer, in his evidanee, swore that he visited the defendant's premises about five o'clock in the afternoon, when the defendant served the waiter with three glasses of gin from a bottle. Herein lies manifest perjury on one side or the other ; and the Bar have been instructed to prosecute Lowe.

Oa Monday the Resident Magistrate did not take his scat upon the Bench until ten minutes past eleven, and the business of the Court was protracted until a quarter past four o'clock. On Tuesday, his Worship did not sit until twentyminutes before twelve, and the proceedings of the day did not / terminate until five and twenty minutes after 'five o'clock. Yesterday, there were thirty-five civil cases for adjudication, twelve of which were remands from Monday, thc£3v-d inst.; and yet, notwithstanding this accumulation of Court business, Mr. Strode, allows the best part of the day to elapse before he ascends the Bench, for it Avas twenty-seven minutes after cle\-en before lie came in. ' His Worship acts ap? parently upon the- inverse maxim, " Proct-astinar tion is the.soul of business, and punctuality tlie thief of time," In Melbourne, the Police Court "generally opens at ten, nnd the heaviest day.is usually over by three iv the afternoon.

In building wooden '.houses, and in the absenpe of a building ordinance, it would.be prudent to raise the chimnics to a height of 4 or 5 feet above the apex of the roof. In one or two instances, which have come under our observation, we find that the top layer of the chimney bricks is precisely level with the ridge of the roof. This looks

decidedly dangerous, because an accidental spark from the chimney might, in dry weather..cause a very destructive conflagration. It is imposible to observe too great caution in erecting wooden tenements in such a town as Dunedin.

We publish elsewhere a letter healel Law Reform. The necessity ot a. Onus of superior jurisdiction to that of the Rjsilent Migistcnta ha& long been recognised, and our correspondent's suggestion of a msnthly County Court appears to be a sound one. The County Courts have been found to bo a great convenience wherever they have been introduced, and particularly iv Victoria, tlie circumstances of which colony are iv many respects analogr.H to those of Otago. For the wantofsam-3 such court crclitors are often obliged to sacrifice great part of their just claims for the purpose of reducing the amount within the T^o'jurisdietiou of the Resident Magistrate. An instance was. reported one day last week of a man who had a claim of LtO against another, suing him before the Resident Magistrate for L2O rather than wait three months and risk the loss of the whole.

We understand that it is the intention of Capt. Baldwin to ofFer himself as a candidate for the representation of Bruce County, rendered vacant by the death of Mr. Kettle. Our Tokomairiro correspondent mentions that his candidature is favorably regarded in the district. There is no social luxury of late years, that has come so much into rerjuest as the Turkish Bath. Indeed, ia the principal cities of England and the Continent, it has ceased to be a luxury, it has passed the turning point where a luxury becomes a necessary. In Melbourne and Sydney, Turkish 3&t!i3 arc established, and we believe .they have given as much satisfaction to the pro-, prietors pecuniarily, as they have in other ways to the public who have found the greatest benefit from tlieir use» Otago, as yet, does not boast of a single establishment for public baths. We believe one for hot and shower baths i 3 in course ot erection, but will no one have the enterprise to undertake the errectionjof Turkish Baths ? A sort of guarantee might bo obtained by a number of persons undertaking in advance to become subscribers. Tho. adjourned Licensing Meeting, from, the 15th April last, will resume at eleven o'clock, tomorrow (Friday) fornoon, iv the Court house ; to consider applications from Thomas Little, John Hall, William Meliiish, Simon Ross, JohnMcCubbiuTanil Thomas Brooks Smith. Wo lately mentioned that information had beon received by tho-Rev. Mr. Stuart, of the engagement in Scotland of Mr. J. W. Jago as "agent" for the Dunedin Total Abstinence Society. The following extract from the Lemjua -Juumtl refers to the same gentleman : —" We ,'iave to congratulate our friends iv the proviaca of Otigo oa the appointment of Mr. T. W. Ja<;o, Glasgow, one of the directors of tho Abstainers' Union, as temperance missionary for this district. A bsttsr selection, we bjlieve, could hardly have been made, and our only regret is that the cause on this side will miss him."

We are glad to obssrvo that t'.ii subject of a •old.through the Island is attracting attention. Iv another cqluam appears a letter, signed " Locomotive," which d'ltars m->ro in detail than we were able to do into the features of the northern portion of the road. From enquiries we have made, we believe that if this province. do its portion there weuld bs littlo difficulty in getting the other provinces to do lliairs. "We are sorry to loam that the road which is being made between Dunedin and Waikouaiti i 3 little better than a bridle track, and that it will bs quite useless for carriage traffic. We cannot too earnestly recommend that it should at once be widened. Tho ex-. penso of doing so now that it is in course of for-

ma tion will bo trivial compared to what it will cost afterwards, and that it will have to be done. Nt some time or other no one can doubt. We should be glad to sea public action taken iri the matter ; assuredly the public aro much interested in it. We have to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of the Smthla-.id Gardener a handy little compendium of instructions for gardening operations for every month ia fio year. Tiie book is as its name imports written for the use of residents in the Province of Southlaal, but the climate iv Southland and Ofcacro is-so nearly the sama that what will do for one will do for the othar. Tho bnok is tho work of Mr. 11. H. Read of [uvcrcargill and is published at the office of the Sjiilhlun.l New s. Wo publish elsewhere the first of a scries of articles descriptive of ■' Rambles through the Goldfields," The writer, an old Victorian miner, brings to his task much skilled knowledge, and we make no doubt that our readers will find his letters not only interesting but instructive.. We l)2g to. make an appeal to the benevolent in behalf of the Poor Bik afc the Court House. Daring the present inclemant season, there are numerous cases ofdostitution, particularly of females, daily brought under the notice of the Resident Magistrate. Many of the applicants are said to ba deserving objosH of rjliaf. aa I we nv,v confidently rely upon the charitable instincts of the more wealthy classes of the community, to cast their mite into the paupers' treasury. Bis dat, gui eilo dat.