Local and General.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume 5, Issue 494, 9 June 1877, Page 3

Local and General.

We learn with extreme regret that our universally respected Resident Magistrate, Herbert W. Brabant, Esq., haß Buffered a relapse, and is very seriously ill. \Hfeiarnent is summoned to meet on Thursday, July 19th, for despatch of business. Air B. F. J. Qlarko, of Tauranga, has been appointed an interpreter under the Native Lands Act, 1873, Mr John Turnbull Thompson has been gazetted Inspector of Surveys under the Native Lands Act, 1873. Herbert W. Brabant, Esq., R.M., is gazetted a Resident) Magistrate for the dis> triot of Maketu, with jurisdiction to £50 : the appointment to data from 24th ultimo. Captain Preeee, J.P., is gazetted Resident Magistrate for the district of Opotiki, and for the district of Maketu, vice id. W. Brabant Esq., R.M., and F. E. Hamlin, Esq., J.P., resigned, with jurisdiction to £50, The ap« pointmect fco date from the 24th ultimo. Captain Gilbert Mair, Captain William Alfred Clarke, Mr William Jordan, Sergeant Oroabie Kidd, and Constables, Davo* ren, Joseph Kelly, and William Joyce, are gazetted, Rangers, under the Protection of Animals. Act, 1873* A successful first meeting of the Free Tern* plar Total Abstinence and Benefit Society was held at Mr Lundon's cottage in Willow etreeb on. Wednesday evening. Fifteen mem« bora were, initiated, and it was decided to hold the weekly meetings on. Tuesday evenings in future. The Wairoa natives, Eoverfcy Bay, have developed, a. form of Sabbatarianism, by actually forbidding travellers to pass, through their land-on Sundays. TChey have forbidden intemperan.ee,- and resolved to pub down fornication, , ail of which .they deservedly reprobate- Not satisfied with .this they propose to go a step further by fcheinvention of a bran new. religion* They rfay that suoh things have been., done before, and they don't see why they should not try their hands at the bwsjness.

A petition to His Fxcellency the Governor, to nave the township of Tauranga oon» stUuted a Borough is in course of signature, and is being numerously signed. Tenders are invited by the Officer Commanding the Armed Constabulary Foroe in the Opotiki District, for Forage and Shoeing, at luuranga, Opotiki, and Te Teko Stations. We are informed that a meeting of the Tauranga County Council will bo held at their office, Government Buildings, on Monday, at two o'clock in the afternoon, A report is current in the Southern papers that Mr Bolleeton is about to join the Ministry, and that it is not improbable that Mr Whitaker will retire from the Attorney Generalship. The Revising Court for the East Coast Electoral District adjourned from the 6th inst. will be bald at the JKevising Court, Govern- . ment Buildings, at 11 o'olook to-day, by Mr Hopkins Clarke, the Revising Officer. The Cornhill Magazine in an article on the great atorm of 1825, states that the Captain of a ship reported that his vessel was lifted by the hurricane out of the aea.and "shipwreoked in the aii." Where is our pilot? The secretary of the Tauranga Lodge of Good Templars has shown us copies of two petit, tions whioh have been reoeived from the Grand Lodge in Auokland, " directed against the attempt now on foot, to. legalise, the Sunday traffic in intoxicating liquors, and in favour of a Looal Option Bill." We are informed that the petitions are in course of signature. The result of the enquiry into the wreck of the s s Go- Ahead, at Giaborne, was the acquittal of the Captain. The Court found that Captain Cooper, in attempting to cross the bar without the pilot, allowed his anxiety to get to sea, to get the better of his prudence ; but that the pilot gave him to understand there was a probability of his succeeding ; that Captain Cooper's mistake was not of a character to warrant the suspension of his certificate. The New Zealand Herald in a notice of the proposed new wharf to be erected at the foot of Harington Street, says : — We hope to see Tauranga make progress in other respects, so that the new wharf may soon have abundance of trade. The settlers have of late shown a good deal of spirit in urging on the Government to remove the incubus that has so long rested on the district, and they have only to continue their exertions to be successful in the long run. The Western Morning Times, the leading West Country paper/published at Plymouth, has the following, concerning the late Bishop of this Diocese for the trutlrof which we will not vouch :-—* nother Colonial bishop has resigned— Dr Williamß, Bishop of Waiapu, New Zea'and. He had held the post for 18 years. A good story is told of him. One Sunday, when he was preaching at Paihia, he saw through the window a hostile native plundering the goods of some of the congregaition. The Bishop descended from the pulpit threw off his eurpliee, rushed out after the thief, and caught him, and recovered the stolen property. Whether he dragged the culprit back into church and converted him with the remainder of the sermon is not on record. According to Mr Whitoker, he is after all not Resident Minister in Auckland. In the course of some remarks made by him to a deputation which waited on him in regard to the non-payment of the County Subsidies, Mr Whitaker according to the Herald ob» served :— "I may say lam not Eesident Minister, People oatl me so, but Ido not call my self bo. I ocoupy my present position only temporarily, I have no*-, taken upon myself the function of administering the whole of the province of Auckland. I have, I think, gone out of my way sometimes in advising people who came to me. I did so in order to make things smooth for them if I could do so. I have sufficient to occupy me in drawing up bills and papers to be submitted to the General Assembly." We can only say that Mr Whitaker has for months past, been allu 1 ded to in offioial correspondence from Welling' ton, as " the Resident Minister, Auokland." Miss Hamilton, and Mrs Carr, announce that the De^onport School will open on Wednesday next, for the tuition of young ladies and little boys. These ladies have hitherto conducted separate schools, and though no special reference is made in the advertisement to their having joined in partnership the association of their names together may be taken as a proof that they have done so, and we presume the fact is generally known. The school will be opened on Wednesday in a new building, erected for the purpose, whioh we have casually visited. Outwardly it has the appearance of what it is intended for, but Mr Lundon, the builder, has evidently taken great pains in its construction, and on going inside one finds the building very compaotly finished, and likely to be warm and comfortable in . winter, and cool in summer. We wish Misß Hamilton and Mrs Oarr, every suocess in'their joint undertaking, and feel every confidence in doing so, from the esteem in whioh these | ladies are universally held. We are surprised that steps have not been taken by the police before this, to stop the praotice of firing off dynamite in the harbour. Some time ago it was a common thing to hear several shots fired off daily, but as the praotice | has latterly ceased, we supposed that an official caution to the persons indulging in it, had put a stop to it for the future. The sound of an unusually loud report was, however, heard from the wharf on Thursday morning, and the residents on the Strand might have been seen running out from their 'stores to see what was the matter. It was j found that dynamite was the cause, but in this instance the shot exploded before reaching I the water, thuß making the report an un» usually loud one. What pleasure or profit can be derived from firing off this combustible we are at a loss to conceive, though after 'all if either existed, that would have nothing to do with the objections that are raised that the conousßion from the shot is likely to damage the wbarf, that the report is liable to frighten horses in the draye, and that it is dangerous to the crowd of idlers who congre gate on the wharf to see a few wretched little fish float stunned on, the -surface of thn water. In Auokland, ■ Wellington, and elsewhere, the custom has been put a stop to pveremtorily, and there is no reason why Tauranga should be exceptionally treated. The Polioe should iput a atop to this childish .pastijae..