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Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 162, 5 February 1878, Page 2

About three weeks ago, Mr R. Gresson's dinghy which was moored to the Robinson's Bay wharf unaccountably disappeared during the night, and up to the present time no traces of her have been found, though a careful search has been instituted. By advertisement in another column a reward is offered for any information that may lead to her discovery.

A great quantity of fruit was shipped south by the Taranaki, on Saturday last, plums more especially figuring among the exports. It is a great pity, that the Union Company do hot send in their boats bftener during the fruit season. There will be no other steamer going north or south for another week, and before that time a great; quantity of plums and greengages. will have spoiled. Everyseason this want of the means of export causes heavy monetary loss to the fruit growers and dealers of Akaroa.

We are informed that a strange species of fish was washed up in Flea Bay the other day. The fish is described as having something of the look of the Kawai, and as being silvery in appearance like the gar-fish Those who have seen it, and who are perfectly acquainted with the various kinds of the finny tribes which commonly frequent these waters, say that they have never seen one of the same species before.

The Melbourne Herald of January 10th says :—An unusual mortality amongst the milch cows has lately prevailed at Belfast, and some very fine beasts have been lost. Although some of the animals have been opened, there appeared to be nothing to indicate the cause of death, the organs being apparently in a sound state. It is thought that some poisonous herb on the coast has carried off these animals. The Gazette suggests that as some of them were valuable, and the deaths appear to be on the increase, it would be as well for owners of stock in the vicinity of the coast to get a post mortem performed on the first subject by a veterinary surgeon.

The meetings convened by the Board of Education, to, take place in Duvauchelle and Robinson's Bay on tho 26th ult., did not take place owing to not sufficient electors being in attendance.

The exuberant animal, and occasionally, we are of opinion, other spirits, which possess some of our residents, finds vent in different ways, but notably in acts of larrikinism. Early in the evening of Thursday last some sportive geniuses removed a number of empty cheese cases from the premises of his Worship the Mayor, and placed them upon the Beach road, where they were fortunately seen and removed before any horseman had passed along; had this not been done, a serious accident might have resulted. During the same night some rubbish was collected and set fire to in an open drain on the beach side of the road, fronting the wholesale store of Mr Watkins. This fire was started very near to the open mouth of a dry wooden culvert which runs under the road from Mr Watkins' premises. Had this culvert caught fire, nothing but a miracle could have prevented the flames extending to the stores and dwelling-house of the Mayor. A joke is a joke, but there can be no joke in parties being guilty of acts which may lead to the injury of life and limb, or the destruction of valuable property. The Inspector of Nuisances would do well to take a matutinal trip down the Government wharf now and then —say at about 6 a.m. The odours which arise from the shore end, and which have not emanated from " Araby the Blest," might cause that official to take steps to prevent tbe shooting of night soil, the cleaning of fish, and general depositing of offal at the locality referred to.

At the R. M. Court, Christchurch, on the Ist inst., Robert Macfaih'ne, jun., was committed tc take his trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court, on five seperate charges of forging and uttering. The Lyttelton Times says " the transactions by means of these cheques appear to extend over a period of nine months, and to represent a value of upwards of £600." There is one case from Akaroa against the prisoner, for uttering one of the forged cheques at Bruce's Hotel, and Mr Johnson and Mr Annand, have been subpoenaed to give evidence in support of the charge.

A meeting of the Lakes Reclamation and Akaroa Railway Trust is to take place to-day, at Wascoe's, Beach Arms Hotel, when business of importance is expected to be taken into consideration.

A gorse fence near the residence of Mr Maltby, - in Muter street, was on fire on Saturday last, and for some time blazed so furiously that it was thought Mr Maltby's dwelling-house could not escape from the flames. As it was, a cart belonging to Mr G. Kearney, which stood in the shade of the fence,' and could not be removed in time, was badly burnt, and a quantity of fruit on the trees in Mr Maltby's garden was destroyed, beside serious damage being done to the trees. The origin of the fire is one of those incomprehensible mysteries that no one seems able to discover or yet explain.

We read in the Church News of this month that " The Rev. Dr. Rowley, formerly Head Master of Bridgenorth Grammar School, and afterwards rector of Willey and Barrow, Shropshire, while preaching at Willey Church on Sunday, November 11th, suddenly stopped and fell dead in the pulpit. He had just entered his 82nd year. Dr. Rowley was an original land purchaser in the Canterbury settlement, and an intending colonist, and when the Canterbury Association set apart an endowment for a Cathedral Chapter, the office of Dean was offered to and accepted by him. Subsequently, on his appointment to the rectory of Willey, he gave up the idea of becoming a colonist. Two of his sons, however, came out to Canterbury, and are married to two daughters of the late Archdeacon Mathias." Dr. Rowley was the owner of that property in Barry's Bay, known as the Rowley estate, which was tenanted by Mr M. M. Jones for a number of years.

Last week, as Mr George " Kearney was out riding in the performance of his usual avocations, the bridle came off from the horse's head, causing the animal to start to one side, and so unseating its rider, who fell to the ground, breaking a bone near the shoulder. We are glad, however, to say that the injury is but slight, and will not entail any serious results.

We must again draw attention to the wanton destruction of sea-gulls which is occasionally indulged in by the cockney sportsmen who reside in, and visit Akaroa. When it is remembered that these birds are excellent scavengers, and, by carrying off the offal and other filth that pollutes the atmosphere of the beach, are of actual use in a sanitary point of view, the inadvisability, to say nothing of the cruelty, of killing them in such numbers, will, perhaps, be recognised.