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Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 67, 9 March 1877, Page 2

At the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, slaughtering licenses were granted to T. Oldridge, Le Bon's ; James Reynolds, Little River ; Saxton and Williams, Robinson's Bay. «' The Pigeon Bay Oddfellows' will celebrate the Anniversary of their Lodge, by a dinner and ball on Thursday, the sth of April. St Patrick's day, the 17th, is not at all likely to be allowed to pass by without some event to mark it, as in other towns, by those who own Saint Patrick as their patron saint. A ball will be held at the Town Hall, as will be seen by an advertisement in another column, under the patronage of the Hibernians. We have no cause to think ourselves more unfortunate than others in the matter of floods. An equal amount of damage has been caused by the overflow of the Thames and other rivers a Home. The Midland Counties are the greatest sufferers by these floods. Subscriptions have been started all over the country with the hope of alleviating to some extent the distress of the poorer classes. Our attention has been drawn to the rotten state of some of the deck planks, upon that portion of the Government jetty, last completed. Considering the short time it is since this work was done it seems that the decay of the timber used has commenced prematurely. We hear that the opening of the New Native School Room at Little River was attended with great success. The weather was very fine, and the attendance everything that could be wished. We are promised a fuller report from our own correspondent for our next issue. In the European Mail of December 22, the death is recorded of Eliza Ann Hobson, widow of the late Captain Hobson, R.N., Governor of New Zealand, aged 65. It may be remembered that it was to Captain Hobson's prompt action that we owe the preservation of Akaroa as a British possession. The gallant captain, having learned privately the intention of the French to hoist their flag at that point, pushed on with all speed to Akaroa, and had only just finished saluting the British flag when the French corvette dashed in for the purpose of erecting the French standard. Thus Akaroa only escaped by about an hour falling into the hands of the French.

A correspondent, who has been diligently working out the sum we set in our report of the Jockey Club, has at last solved it and sent us the answer, but as some of our readers may have forgotten the question, we will quote it again :—lf a table at an hotel hold 18 persons and each man takes 3 hours to eat his dinner, how long will it be before three hundred hungry persons will have satisfied. themselves at the same rate. Well our correspondent's answer is 50 hours ; therefore if the first man sits down at 12 o'clock on Wednesday, the last may expect his dinner at somewhere about the same hour on Friday, by which time we should imagine he would be tired of waiting. The German Bay School Committee have appointed Mr. Clement W. Lee to the position of teacher, subject to the approval of the Education Board. Mr. Lee is a comparatively new arrival in the colony, and his English testimonials bespeak highly of his abilities. The new master will not enter upon his duties till his appointment is confirmed by the Board. The loss by the late flood in the Motueka district is estimated at £30,000. The Otago Guardian computes the loss on the Taieri plains at between £35,000 and £50,000. It says, the plain presented a pitiable sight. The fields were covered with water, and hundreds of tons-of grain have been swept down the river and carried out to sea. On many farms the crops were cut and stacked at the time the rain commenced, and farmers were looking forward to a lucrative harvest. John Brown, one of the oldest settlers in Otago, and a resident in the Taieri for 25 years, asserts that the flood has been two feet higher than it has ever been before. For miles there was nothing to be seen but a clear sheet of water, with here and there tops of cabbage trees. At Grey town the flood rose ten feet, and the water rose level with the platform at thej railway station. The principal sufferer among farmers on the plains is James Shand. The whole of his crops are totally destroyed ; 1200 sheep of his are also drowned, and 45 head of cattle. His loss has been put down at £5,000. The Meadow's Bank estate loses over £3,000 ; Menlove, of Windsor Park, £4,000. It was the carrying away of the embankment near Outram that did all the mischief. Respecting the appointment of Dr. Giles, lately Magistrate at Wanganui, to the Under-Secretaryship of Crown Lands, the Wellington Argus says : " Resident Magistrates are in luck now. One was not so very long ago made minister of Justice, another has been made Commissioner of Crown Lands in Otago, and now a third is made Under-Secretary for Crown Lands."

A large leg bone of a moa has been brought to the office of the North Otago Times by Mr. A. V. Johns. It was found at Marewhenua, 70 feet below the surface, and is petrified to the hardness of bluestone. In some parts of Otago, owners of orchards have taken extraordinary, precautions to preserve their' fruit from pickers and stealers. A southern contemporary says, in some cases a supply of strong fishhooks have been procured, and will be so adjusted that the hand that plucks the fruit will be caught, and should the thief he will be identified when he goes to the doctor to have the hook cut out. In addition to those placed at the fruit to catch the hand, others will be so laid as to bite the feet and legs. These measures may be thought by some to be too severe, but the hooks have been successfully employed to catch garden thieves in the Home country, and everything else seems to have failed here. The fact that Paris owes much of its good health to a lavish use of water affords a fine illustration in support of those who urge the importance of the provision of a good street supply for our own town. In the French capital, besides the reservoirs of Menilmontant and Montsouris, there are sixteen other reservoirs on a smaller scale, where water is collected before forced through the 1,500,000 metres of pipes which extend into even the smallest streets and passages in the city. In the squares and public places there are fountains which play daily, refreshing the air. There are sixty-one in addition to the seven hundred and twenty-five hydrants, 4,593 water jets, which the employers have the keys of, and which are opened every day in order to sprinkle the streets. and pavements, and an immense number of sprinkling machines drawn by horses. During the hot weather the authorities watch zealously over the refreshing and cleaning of the capital, and thus doubtless avoid much sickness.

But few of the heroes of "bloody Waterloo" now survive. It is doubtful if there are now any living who took part in the action at Corunna. But there is living at North Kissack, near Inverness, one who was there—James Sharp, formerty a seedsman and florist at Inverness, but now acting as a clerk, and in very reduced circumstances. His father was Sergeantmajor Sharp, of the 42ud Highlanders— the gallant soldier into whose arms Sir Moore fell when he received the fatal bullet. Young Sharp was there—a boy, with his mother and the baggage, then between two and three years of age. He narrowly escaped drowning in the Bay of Biscay after the army embarked. After a long life of vicissitudes he still survives, and when animated with a little aquavitae can still valiantlyfightthe battle of Corunna over again. No fewer than 36 insolvents (says the Guardian of February 21st) have filed their schedules in Dunedin since the commencement of the year. The fact of such an accession of bankruptcy business is attributed not simply to temporary commercial stagnation, but mainly to the increase facilities for "' whitewashing" afforded under the new Debtor and Cred i tors Act. The effect of the new regulations is to render the process rather agreeable than otherwise, and it is little matter of astonishment that, under the circumstances, so many should take advantage of its provision to escape those little financial embarrassments which colonists, like Colonial Governments, are sometimes liable to. The Act is conveniently framed to specially protect local creditors at the expense of the absent, for the power of accepting a compromise or amicably arranging affairs with the insolvent is entrusted to a majority of those " present" at the meetings convened to deal with the estates. Mr. Registrar Ward commented on thefactyesterday. remarking that the provision seemed an extraordinary one. A diabhlical atrocity (says the Oamaru Mail, has been perpetrated in Dunedin. It seems that a poor widow woman named Blake kept a store at the Otago Heads, and in order to eke out an existance for herself and her children she did a litle business in the sly-grog selling line. The police got to hear of this, and the poor woman was summoned and fined. She has been taken to gaol, leaving a houseful of children, and while she herself was on the eve of her confinement. Comment is

needleess. While literature continues, plagiarism will exist, and pretenders snatch from honest writers their dues. A friend of ours, smart enough in his way, but not quite equal to his position as minister, for years pursued a very clever system of plagiarism and through the excellence of the sermons he delivered, became a favourite with his people. By and by one of his old college mates paid him a visit, spent the Sabbath with him, and he heard him preach. The visitor was surprised at the depth and power of the sermon, and questioned him afterwards concerning it, saying it was the best he had ever heard. .The minister laughed. " You can keep a secret ?" he asked. " Well, then, I'll tell you about it. My wife is a scholar She selects sermons for me and translates them into Latin; then I take her translation, without having seen the original, and re-translate it into English. The sermon you heard to-day was one of Dr. Clarke's ; and I don't believe he could have recognised it if he had heard it himself:" And that's the way fraud' flourishes.

The Nelson Daily Times is of opinion that the All-England Cricket business is growing " monotonous," and concludes the paragraph in which that opinion is expresed with the. remark—"For our own part, we can say—in view of wire charges, &c.— that we shall receive with feelings of relief akin to pleasure the news that the AllEngland Eleven have carried their bats out of New Zealand-." We quite agree with our contemporary. The Wellington Argus tells how during a recent musical service in a fashionable church " Every man was exhorted to give 'not grudgingly, nor of necessity, but just as he felt disposed in his heart.' And they did it, or at least some did. The collection exposed the natures of at least three mean individuals, for when the bag was emptied two gelatine lozenges and one corn plaster were found among the contributions." We should think this was the church of organ, organist, and organbuilder notoriety. The Post says :—" From a calculation made at the Meteorological Office as to the amount of rain which fell during the recent five days' flood, it appears that taking the mean rainfall with the known area of New Zealand, the quantity of water precipitated on these islands during those five days amounted to the amazing total of 500 billions of tons. It does not appear to be generally known that, under the 64th section of the Counties Act, the members of the County Councils remain in office for a year and ten months, and after the next general election (unless the Act is amended in the meantime) for three years. The dyeing of animals is said to be quite common in Paris. A lady in that city recently drove four horses dyed a brilliant magenta. The Selwyn (Canterbury) County Council at a recent meeting voted £1 per day as travelling expenses to be paid to members residing more than ten miles from Christchurch. The Kumara Times mentions a rumour that heavy gold has been discovered in a creek about three miles from the punt on the Greenstone side of the Teremakau, in an easterly direction. The gold is said to be coarse and shotty—some of the pieces weighing several pennyweights.

A sheep breeder in the Wairarapa has boiled down 1160 sheep. The wool was •scoured by Mr. Tyer of Ngahauranga, in whose establishment the sheep were also boiled down. It was sold in London at an average price of Is Bd. The tallow fetched 41s 6d per cwt. The legs, &c. were sold in Wellington. The proceeds of all this amounted to the nice little sum of £611 8s 2d, or something near a penny over 10s per head. A Wellington butcher saw the sheep on the station and although much in want of mutton offered only 10s per head for a pick of 300, — Post. The Eden County Council has adopted a seal representing Eve's fall. It has a serpent wound round a fern tree, and a nude female figure standing in a flax bush reaching for apples from a canopy over, head. The Star suggests that the Council may be liable for circulating obscene publications. A Kentish paper announces the death of the " Swanley Fat Boy, Richard Beenham.' He was 12 years and four months old stood five feet in height, weighing 25 stone, and measuring 69 inches round the waist. A journalist's labours for the good of the community in which he has cast in his lot do not always go unrewarded in New South Wales. Mr Morgan, editor of the Dubbo Dispatch, has been presented with an elegant tea-service and a purse of £400, in recognition of his ssrvices to the Dubbo district. We (Auckland Star) learn upon unquestioned authority, that the servant maids of Auckland, although receiving good wages, are the least provident of the working classes, and occupy the lowest position in the list of savings bank depositors. This may be accounted for in two ways, short periods of service and love of dress. On November 25, at midnight, Robert Ross, a plumber, aged 29, climbed to a kitchen window of the third flat of a house in George's road, Glasgow, and while tapping on the pane to attract the attention of his sweetheart, the servant of the house, he fell backwards into a sunken area. He was lifted up insensible, and conveyed to the Western Infirmary, where he died.