THE CIVIL SERVICE AND THE GOVERNMENT.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7826, 19 August 1887, Page 2

THE CIVIL SERVICE AND THE GOVERNMENT.

Silt,— T have just noticed in looking over your last week's files, a paragraph in tUe issue of the. 12tU referring to my dismissal from the Government service for Laving purchased a section or two of land, while our Premier may spend as much of the public time as lie pleases in making money privately at his profession. Although the above fact may lie pretty generally known, the public may not l>e so well aware that a gentleman now seeking our votes at the coming election was the prime mover in that disgraceful transaction. It was Mr Smith who first brought the matter to the notice of the Minister of Lauds, and also referred to it in one of the debates in the House, when the Minister informed him (no doubt greatly to Mr Smith's satisfaction) that the officer had been dismissed. Quite recently, when addressing a meeting of electors, Mr Smith denied that he had ever tried to obtain the dismissal of public servants, but on the contrary had endeavored to help them when possible. Anyone who will deliberately be guilty of such a mean disreputable act and then coolly deny it is not (it to represent us in Parliament ; and when giving our votes on the polling day no doubt this will be remembered. In the present crisis of the colony we require men above all sucli paltry p'ettyfopging, who will give their whole attention to placing the country in a sound liimncial position, and not those who to gratify their ambition or further their own views and gain the support of a certain class, will in an underhand manner effect the dimissal of useful Government ollieials. I am, &c, Alkkku J.ut.UAX. Napier, 17th August, ISB7. A VOOLISH SLANDER REFUTED >Siu, — There appeared in the columns of a local print yesterday evening a notice saying that Mr Orruond had printed up on his gate " No swaggers allowed in here." I have been at the station dozens and dozens of times, and have never seen any such notice. It is nothing else but .1 lie to say so. Krom what I have seen and known of Mr Ormoud lie is a real good man, and an honest one too. If a swagger comes there late at night and wants some tea and a bed for the night, Mr Ormond will tell him to go into the men's whare and stay there for the night, and will give him his breakfast next morning and something to help him on his journey. — I am, &c, A Sw'AiiOKi:. August 18, 1887.

is urged, as American manufacturers will thus be enabled to introduce their goods into the Australian colonies. The returns show this year's vintage in California to be only two-thirds of that in 1880. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company threatens to build its new steamships abroad and sail them under the English Hag unless the United States Government increases the pay for mail transportation. If built at Chester, Pennsylvania, each steamer will cost 1.000.000d015, while if built on the Clyde the cost would only be 7So,ooodols each. An association is about to be formed in Sullivan County, N.Y. , to be known as the Empire Sheep and Land Company of North America. The object i.-< to clear up timber lands in several New York connties and lay them down in permanent grasses in order to breed sheep snperinr in quality for both wool and mutton. Sergeant Soper, of Troop A., Second United States Cavalry, in garrison at San Francisco, was shot at nnd instantly killed by Trooper Rateman on July 25th. Bateinan fancied that Soper had wronged him in exercising authority over him. On the same eveniug two brothers named Kelly were shot, down by a watchman named Thomas Langen in the Chinese quarter of the city. The trouble grew out of disputed rights to the watchman's beat. The celebration of the 4th of July in San Francisco was the most perfect thin;; of the kind that has been seen in the city for ten years. Among the incidents of the anniversary on the coast was the igniting of 1001b of red fire on the top of Mount Hood, the highest peak in Oregon, and the display of the Confederate flag over a house in Portland, in the same State, the^_ removal of which had to be forcibly made.

The Earl of Aberdeen wss feasted by 200 Irish Americans and other citizens on July 7th at St. Paul, Minnesota. He evaded with great tact all efforts to draw him out on the Irish question. The counsel of Hugh M. Brooks, alias Maxwell, who was sentenced at St. Louis, to be hanged on August 26th for the murder of C. Arthur Preller, have refused to carry his case to a higher Court, and he therefore will be hanged at the time stated. Mathew Gurnee, a wealthy manufacturer of Haverstraw, N.Y., died on July Bth in terrible agony from hydrophobia, caused by the bite of a pet terrier. Oscar J. Harvey, of the Washington Treasury, was arrested on July 9th for a series of brilliant and audacious forgeries. An investigation following the arrest showed that the auditing officers have not the slightest idea how the disbursing officials of the Government stand at the present day, and that there is not a. single disbursing clerk upon whom there is a check placed by any of the present systems of doing business. Among the arrivals at San Francisco by the Mariposa from Australia on July 9th were Sir John Thurston, LieutenantGovernor of Fiji and Assistant-High Commissioner of the Pacific, who it is reported will proceed to Washington to interview the British Minister on matters connected with the Hawaiian trouble ; Mr Patrick Comiskey, a New Zealand capitalist interested in the frozen meat industry ; and Mr A. G. Horton, one of the proprietors of the New Zealand Herald, Auckland. The two gentlemen last named have left for London via New York. A proposition to make San Diego, in South California, a port of call for the Australian mail steamers to and from San Francisco, is being favorably entertained by J. D. Sprockets and Co., the contractors and owners of the line. Mr Spreckels ami party visited SanDiego recently in relation to the matter. Mr H. \V. Markham, assistant paymaster in the British navy, was arrested in Kansas City on July 14tti, charged with forging the name of his superior officer for amounts aggregating about £3000. The crime was committed, over a year ago. Wlien bis ship was cruising off the coast of Ghana he left the vessel ostensibly for Yukatan and all cine to him hod been lo3tl>efoie his misdeeds came to light,-, The cose was formally handed over £0 the Scotland V'ai d detectives, who have been seeking Markham ever since. Wlien be Jeft the service lie went to Shanghai juid spent money liberally in company with i San Francisco adventuress named Gn<wje Bland, travelling as Mrs and Dr. Forest. When he found out incidentally that search was being made for him he fled to California, and eventually brought up in Kansas, where he was arrested, and where under the assumed name of <»rayler he had been acting as agent for a wellknown Insurance Company. . His delilau returned to California from China on the steamer following the one on which he took passage, and it was through her that the detectives found their man. Frank Take, one of the oldest pioneers in California and in 1840 Alcalde of San Francisco— then called Yerba Buena — under Ayuntimento, died in 'that city on July 15th, Aged 69. At one time lie was rich in landed property, and ownedmost of what is known now as Nob Hill. He died in the City and County Almshouse.

A railroad accident occurred on July 28th on the Atlantic and Pacific line near a place called The Needles in New Mexico. The engine of a freight train plunged full speed into a dry creek. Fireman^ Sparks was killed and his body burned in the blazing train. Gibson, a bnikeinan, was also fatally injured. The los3 to the company was about 90,000 dols. An engineer, a fireman, and a brakeman were killed the same day in a collision on the Missouri line. Harris Hirsch, familiarly called Rabbi Hirsch, a Polish Jew, died in New York on July 23th at the advanced age of 109 years. He was born near Warsaw, and with eight of his brothers served Huder the first Napoleon. Just as the steamer Alaroeda was about to leave San Fraeisco for New Zealand on July Ist shewats boarded by a woman known as Mas Mary*Hammersniith And more recently as Miss Mary Von, who after a few words with George Wesley Bishop, an intending passenger, shot him so that he died the next day. The affair took place in tbe after part of ! the steerage. BiaJwp wan w elderly person, and was j&aid to he a druggist or chemist doing hwiia&eio New Zealand, bat was born von Ajwerieui. joe arrived here on the %Xii M huttiiateti, and during -his *rfay in the -city became acquainted wjtii j|is V«n through the medium of a sheet called the MatrimonialGazette, and according to the woman's statejaient-tbey lived together as roan and wife. % The unfortunate man was induced to furnisli a house for the adventuresjs, and trouble irrosevheu she failed tojiav the rent according to' the -agreement, fle brought a suit for the rent sn3 also to recover 299d015. 99 cents., the price of the furniture. The plaintiff denied during the trial that he had sought Mrs Von ou matrimonial business because' lie already had a wife iu New Zealand. He confessed, however, that they were " affectionate," and that lie had made her numerous presents. When Bishop applied for an interview with the " beautiful creature," as she was represented in the Matrimonial Gazette, he described himself as "from London, England, aged ■Hi, chemist, retired from business and travelling." He got judgment in the case. Mrs Von has had many husbands. ■Beades and Hughes are two of the names she has also been known by, and the trial revealed the fact that she had served a term in the State prison for assanlj with intent to murder. It. P. Clement, president ol the Citizens' Savings Bank, Leavenworth. Kansas, defaulted to the tune of 50,000doLs and levanted on July 27th. Wheat speculation did it. Two railway accidents occurred on July 27th. A construction train was run into on the Chicago and Alton-road, killing many laborers ; and a misplaced switch on the Baltimore and Ohio Hue at York, Indiana, killed the engineer and fireman of an express and mortally wounded the engineer of a freight train. Jacob Sharpe, a millionaire belonging to what is known in New York as the IJoodling Ganyr, whose alleged business it is to bribe legislative bodies to pass, private thieving bills, has had a searching trial and been convicted. He was sentenced on the 14th of July to pay a iine of SOOOdols and be imprisoned for four years at hard labor. The culprit is nearly 70 years ot age. The New York journals express great satisfaction with the result of the trial. A movement is on foot in Boston by various English aud Scottish associations to naturalise their members and all British subjects residing in the city whomay be eligible for^ American citizenship. Those interested in the movement sav that the proposed action is necessary for their own protection, and furthermore, that it is a duty that has been too long neglected. It is calculated by a careful estimate that there are at least 27 000 unnaturalised British-born men in Massachusetts. This is one of the outgrowth* of the recent demonstration by the IrishAmericans against the use of a hall for the celebration of the Queen's Jubilee. A man named Lee Shellenbemer, who murdered his little daughter in Nebraska city, was hanged by Lynch law on July 24th. He was strung up while a curse was on his lips, and a threat to the crowd of " I'll haunt you if I can." Therynchers were mostly German farmers living in the vicinity of the murderer's home. After, the bunging they dispersed sjoging'.^ chorus a German song. . ' James Russell Eads, a, you.n.j; man 9$ fine acquirements, uut^v>M W°rtaHßt» associations in San Francisco,, QOtutaittect suicide there nn July $t!h. ' iSfe is said! to have been well conngptpjlh 'Adelaide. South Australia, from, which place hecame somo time ago to, Pajiforiiia A Irogedyooourred on the Erie railwav trnck on July 24th! about twenty-three-inilesnorth of Jersey City,.\vhen a belatedl Chicago express suddenly rushed round a curve without warning and dashed into a. gang of railroad laborers, killing twelve