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Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 76, 10 April 1877, Page 2

Larrikinism is rampart in Akaroa among a class of persons who set themselves up as gentlemen and members of refined society, but if we are to accept their " riotous and blackguardly" behaviour of Friday last as an evidence of their high breeding and attainments, we are inclined to admit that they possess all the qualifications for another walk in life, and towards which they are most assuredly drifting. Since the advent of the " Knickerbocker Contingent " in this district, larrikinism has assumed alarming proportions, and the actions of this band of midnight revellers demand prompt measures on the part of the police to suppress. It is, however, singular to remark that we have a constable who is peculiarly unfortunate in his perambulations in meeting with persons of opprobrious tastes, but when scenes similar to that which took place on Friday night are being enacted, he is conspicuous by his absence. We trust that Sergeant Ramsay upon his return will cause these " pests" to society to be kept under the surveillance of the police whenever they chance to visit Akaroa for a " carousal." Several tenders received by the Akaroa and Wainui Road Board, for works on Saturday last, were considered informal owing to the deposits, as provided by the specifications, not accompanying the tenders. Persons, in future, would do well to make themselves acquainted with the amount of deposit necessary before sending in their tenders. We have to acknowledge the receipt of another prodigious specimen of the vegetable kind, in the shape of a turnip, grown by Mr. Thomas Mould, Head of the Bay, and it is without doubt the largest of its species we remember seeing. The circumference of this remarkable turnip is a trifle over three feet, and its length is fifteen inches. On being cut, the heart was hollow and the flesh spongy. From the Cambridge University Gazette. we observe the name of Bell, New Zealand, amongst those who ha\e acquitted themselves as to deserve mathematical honours. Mr. Bell was educated at Christ College Grammar School, Christchurch. The severe gale of Sunday last did considerable damage to property in and around Akaroa. The western window of the Presbyterian Church was knocked in and smashed. The new protective wall, Beach-road, has suffered considerable damage. Several small boats have broke away from their moorings, among the number being Mr. Black's Venture, which was thrown up on the rocks opposite Mr-. Rowe's residence, and sustained some slight injury. The Literary Society are in receipt of the first instalment of new books ordered from England. They consist chiefly of fiction, travels, and autobiography. The books of reference are in Christchurch, and may be expected to reach Akaroa in the course of a few days. As the financial year begins in May, we trust to see the subscribers' list largely added to, and greater interest manifested in the society's welfare during the ensuing year.

Another change has taken place in the projected departure of the Union Company's steamers. The Taupo, advertised to leave this port on the 11th, for Dunedin, will not call, but the s. s. Wanaka will leave in her place this evening. Edward Pook-y and Albert Bramhall, two of the ' All-England Eleven, were charged at the late sitting of the Supreme Court, Christchurch, with malicious injury to property. The jury, after an absence- of half-an-hour, returned with a verdict of "Not guilty" against both prisoners. At a meeting of householders, of the Education District of Le Bon's, held last evening, about eight, candidates were nominated, among whom was the " Sundowner," the show of hands resulting in favour of Messrs Oldridge; Hall, Elliott, and Hartstone. A poll was demanded by Mr. H. Barnett on behalf of Mr. Condon. At the Supreme Court, Christchurch, on Saturday, E. A. Buchanan, late clerk of the Kesident Magistrate's Court, was placed on his trial for embezzlement, and the juryj -after an hour's deliberation, acquitted him. A public meeting of the householders of the education district of Akaroa was held last evening. Messrs W. Penlington,' T. B. Missen, W. Sims, and J. Annand were elected committeemen in the room of the retiring members. A report of the proceedings will appear in our next issue. The anniversary of the Loyal Heart and Hand Lodge, Pigeon Bay, was celebrated on Thursday evening last, by a ball, in Messrs Hay Bro's wool shed. The room was tastefully decorated with flags, kindly lent by Captain M'Lean for the occasion. Above 70 persons, including both sexes, were present, and all appeared to thoroughly enjoy themselves. The management in [ connection with the ball reflected the highest credit upon the committee. ! We again beg to remind our readers that Baker's farewell entertainment takes place this evening. A capital programme has been arranged, and we anticipate seeing a full house. The company leave by the Taranaki on Thursday morning, and therefore this will be the last chance of witnessing this really excellent exhibition. A strange case of murder, which shows the fatal effect of superstitious literature on weak minds, has just come before the assizes of the Hante-Savoie. It appeared from the evidence that on Palm Sunday last a widow named Jordan called on her sister-in-law during vespers, and asked her to come and help her to find a piece of money she said she had lost in the hayloft. The sister-in-law consented to do so and the couple proceeded to search for the missing money. A few nrinutos however, had hardly elapsed when the widow Jordan, taking .advantage of the position of her sister-in-law as she stooped down to look under a heap of wood, suddenly dealt her a fearful blow on the back of the head with a heavy log, Jordan then knelt on her, and completely smashed her skull to pieces with a large stone. Having committed the murder, the widow proceeded to the house of a neighbor, and showing her hands, red with the blood of her victim, exclaimed," I have killed Francoise; the demon will not trouble her any more ; you will find her body in the loft." She then went to the police station and made the same statement. Jordan is 49 years of age, and of a superstitious turn of mind. She denied that she had premeditated the crime. She said she believed in ghosts and spirits, and had killed her sister-in-law to evoke the demon. The medical testimony proved that the prisoner's mind had been upset by reading books on witchcraft and the like, and that she was not responsible for her acts. The jury brought in a verdict of not guilty, and she was acquitted.. A young Englishwoman in one of the manufacturing shires is in the habit of reading Shakespeare's plays to girls from the neighbouring factories, and sometimes stops in the middle of a scene and asks one of the girls whether she is sure she comprehends it. Not long ago she was reading from the opening scenes of " Hamlet," and had come to the passage in which the Queen implores her son to cast his nightly colour off, and not always mourning for his father. " Are you sure," she asked of one of the girls, " that you quite understand the meaning of this ?'> " Oh, yes, miss," said the worthy girl, " his mother thinks that he ought to begin to go out to teas and such like." It was not to be expected that Mr. Travers would let off the "Intelligent Vagrant" scot free. This is what he had. to say of him at one of his election meetI ings :—" I feel that in the matter of dirt throwing I am no match for my opponent. If I engage in such work I fear that I shall find myself very much in the position of a man whb kicks a pig because it happens to have'touched-his coat, and by the collision casts mud upon it, the chances being that the pig runs through his legs and capsizes him in the gutter. Therefore, since I do not want to be capsized by the pig who has choseu to run against me, I shall let him rest. (Laughter,) Moreover, gentlemen, so far as throwing dirt is concerned, my adversary is a greater adept at that than I.am or shall ever attempt to be, and I shall therefore let'him alone for the future." Commenting on this, the New Zealand Times remarked that Mr. Travers " inferentially called the Vagrant a pig." Mr. Benjamin Tonks. M.H.E. for Auckland City West, has resigned his seat, being about to proceed to England. Mr. F.J. Moss, once well known in politics is spoken of as a probably candidate for the seat.

Both Eussia and Turkey are eagerly buying up American revolvers and rifles. By the Colt machinery, bought by General Corloff', already 3,000,000 rifles have been turned out ; Russia has imported 100,000 Smith and Weston revolvers, and 20,000.000, cartidges, to say nothing of the 400,000 cartridges manufactured daily in Russia from American machines. Meanwhile Turkey has contracted in Rhode Island for 800,000 Martini-Henry rifles, of which 250,000 have already been shipped, and 100,000 more are ready for export.

A curious case was heard at the Greymouth E.M. Court: Mrs Woolcock had attempted to get a bail bound signed for the release of JamesWaddell from custody in Hokitika gaol, where he had been committed in default of finding sureties to keep the peace. Mr H. H. Lahman, J.P, attested the bail bound, as brought to him by one Betts, but signed his name in the wrong place, and Mrs Woolcock was charged with having afterwards altered it. A technical objection raised as to the illegality of the document resulted in accused being discharged. The cutter Dawn, which arrived at Waitara recently, has a Maori captain and a Maori crew on board, and from the style in which they took the bar, they evidently know well how to manage their craft. The Resident Magistrate at Wellington the other day, laid down the law that a person having for twenty years enjoyed the use of his neighbor's ground for the purpose of light to his own premises, thereby acquired a right to the outlook, and that the owner of such ground could not, in such case, build within five feet of him or in any way obstruct his light. Says a funny paragrapher in a West Coast paper:—" Some years ago when the only road to Hokitika was the beach, a friend of mine was escorting a newly arrived female immigrant from Hokitika to Greymouth where she had got a situation. While crossing the Teremakau, by some accident a carpet bag belonging to her fell into the river and was carried away; this bag contained amongst other things the girl's certificate of character, and she was isconsol able at the loss of her credentials, but my friend soothed her by saying he would put it all right, which he did. by writing her the following certificate .-—'This is to certify that Bridget Flanagan lost her character while crossing the Teramakau with me Patrick Ryam.' She was quiet satisfied, but I don't know whether she has had occasion to make use of this novel certificate.' In an article on the timber trade of Auckland, the Herald says:—The Wangape forest, of 21,000 acres, admittedly the finest in the North, was originally secured by a Melbourne Company, was afterwards purchased by Mr. Thomas Calcutt, of Dunedin, and subsequently leased by him to Mr. 11. M-'Lellan, to whose enterprise and determination is mainly due the solution of what was deemed by many an impossible matter. During the past three months over 1,500,000 feet of mag. nifieent timber, in seven vessels, have been shipped from this forest, thus spreading directly and indirectly a large sum throughout the district and city, not only in the price realised for the timber, but in the employment of vessels fitted for the service required. We wish every success to the picneers of such useful enterprises, to the men who find the sinews of war, and to those who have the firmness to carry out to a successful issue an undertaking fraught with immense ultimate interest to Auckland and her surroundings. A London correspondent of the Melbourne Argus, tells a story of a Hospital Sunday sermon, which shows that the clergy are aware or the " ticklish" nature of commercial credit. The rector of Bayswater parish read out, before his discourse, a letter which he said he had received from one of his congregation. It was a case of conscience.—" lam apparently well off," said the writer, " but I am in fact on the verge of bankruptcy. I should like to put my usual contribution —a £5 note — into your plate to-morrow, but I feel that it is really giving away the money of my creditors. What am I to do ?" The clergyman said that he had advised the gentleman to give nothing. " And I give the same advice, dear friends to you, if any of you are unhappily in the like position. Those, on the other hand, who are in good circumstances will, I am sure give in proportion to their means." It proved the largest collection that this wise rector had ever made. Mr. R. A. Proctor, tho well known astronomer, during a course of lectures at the theatre of the Society of Arts has started the theory of the growth of the earth. He asserts that not a night passes in which some falling stars are not seen, and in certain months and on particular nights the golden rain is incessant. Of course, meteors fall in the day time, too, although unseen. It is computed, said the lecturer, thathundreds of thousands of these extra terrene bodies become incorporated with the earth every 24 hours, 400,000,000 in the course of each year. The}* may vary in weight between a few grains and a ton. One is known to have fallen in South America which weighd 15 tons. Yet these small accretions to the earth's matter would take many millions .of years to add a single foot to its diameter.

It is now well understood in Dunedin> says the Licensed Victualler's Gazette, that the so-called bet between the Davenport brothers and " Captain" Barry of unenviable goldfield renown, was purely and simply on the part of. those cmi" nent tricksters to draw the local bawbees into their coffers. Of course the " Captain" made a good thing of it, and so did his confreres in the rope-tying swindle. The Dunedinites, however, saw through it all when it was too late, and they now duly rejoice—ron the wrong side of the face.