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Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 38, 28 February 1877, Page 2

We understand that the first meeting of the Foxton Harbour Board will be held at Foxton on Friday next. The Manawatu County Council will meet m the Athenaeum, Foxton, this day, at one o'clock p.m., for the despatch of business. The steamer Tui will arrive at Foxton on Friday morning next, and will leave for Wellington and Lyttelton on the evening of the same day. Mr E. S. Thynne's sale by auction of valuable freehold properties with improvements, will take place at his Sale Rooms, Foxton, on Friday next at 2 o'clock p.m. For particulars see advertisements. It is said that Easter Monday will be quite a day of amusement at Feilding. We understand that a cricket match is to be played between the Foresters and the Manchester Cricket Club, and a Foresters' dinner and ball are to be given m the evening. The narrowness of the road between Palmerston and the Lower Ferry is a constant source of inconvenience and even danger to those travelling that way. It is a matter of some difficulty for two ordinary vehicles to pass each other without colliding. With quiet horses careful driving may ensure safety, but when the animals driven are high spirited their meeting with such a vehicle as the Napier coach might be attended with serious consequences, for the slightest swerve to one side would precipitate any vehicle attached to them into the side cutting which m places is very deep. Furthermore, it is said to be a matter of impossibility to turn a four-wheeler at any place between this township and the Ferry. This latter evil, at least, might be very easily remedied, for at a trifling cost expansions could be made m the road at intervals that would serve as turning places. Such would be well appreciated by all who travel this way, and would doubtless enable our townsfolk to enjoy more frequently than heretofore the beautiful scenery that lies towai'ds the Q-orge. We are pleased to chronicle the advent of another lond fide settler to our district. Mr Skerman, who has just arrived from England with a family of eleven children, has, we understand, purchased some 500 acres of land m close proximity if not adjoining the residence of Mr McNeil on the Rangitikei Road. A portion of the land, we believe, was purchased from Mr Flyger, and it is Mr Skerman's intention to settle upon it at once with his large family. We would like to welcome many more such settlers as Mr Skerman to our midst ; and, m bidding him welcome and wishing him success m his enterprise, we trust that his good example may soon be followed by others. We had occasion some time ago to allude m hopeful terms to a new industry which had been commenced m Palmerston. We were this week shown some of the fruit of that industry m the shape of old files made new, or as competent judges affirm, better than new. Mr Johan Jacobsen has been quietly labouring for some time past m getting his apparatus into good working order, and now, having secured that end, he is m a position to receive orders to almost any extent for cutting steel files or converting old worn-out steel files of every description into an article that will last longer and give more satisfaction m using than those purchased new. To those immediately interested m the business of re-cutting old files, Mr Jacobsen's handicraft will be of great utility, and those of us who never use a file can still regard the advent of every new trade as a step towards the complement of our well-being and independence.

On February 25th, states the "N. Z. Times," the police received a telegram from Featherston to this effect : — " Price's tunnel fell mon Saturday. Two men buried. Will bring bodies here to-day." Subsequently another telegram was received as follows : — " Names of men buried m Price's tunnel McCullam and Marshall. Marshall's body not yet discovered. An inquest will be held to-morrow." We learn that the following sections m the Manawatu district, for which there had been conflicting applications, at 20s per acre, were sold at the Land Office on Friday last : — Section 197, 187 acres, fetched 23s per acre ; section 199, 168 acres, fetched 275. per acre ; section 203, 187 acres fetched 27s per acre ; section 205, 168 acres, fetched 26s per acre ; section 262, 197 acres, fetched 275. per acre. One-fifth of the purchase money was paid down at once, which amounted to £234 13s. 2d. The total purchase money would be £1,168 6s. The following tenders were received by the Public Works Department for carting 21,800 sleepers from Feilding to points on the Wanganui-Manawatu Railway, viz. : — Accepted : Emigrant and Colonists' Aid Corporation, £1044. Declined : T. J. Allen, £1362 ; G-. Y. Lethbridge, £1453 j R. Slattery, £1589 ; do (alternative tender), £2233 ; W. H. Taylor, £1589 5 J. and C. Bull, £1589 ; T. Denby, £1771 ; Hall and Irons, £2866. The following tenders were received by the Public Works Department for the construction of the Kopua bridge on the Napier to Manawatu Railway, viz. : — Accepted : A. Mackay, Waipukurau, £1139. Declined : D. McLeod, Waipukurau, £1255 ; Alex. Smith, Auckland, £1356 ; Kavanagh and Watson, Aitckland, £1430 ; R. Mclnnes, Pakuratahi, £1485; J. B. Ross, Woodville, £1059 ; Messrs. Miller, Murray, and Watson, Waipukurau, £1724 ; Boelstad and Co., do*, £1730 ; J. MeSweeney, Napier, £1770 j H. Monteith, Waipukurau, £1856 j W. GK Boss, Wanganui, £2609. According to the " N. Z. Times " some of the excuses offered by persons at the R. M. Court, Wellington, who had failed to register I their canine pets were of a somewhat amusl ing character. The following is a good specimen : — A lady, who was chargedj with having an unregistered pet, declared that it wasn't of age ! — an assertion which caused a general titter m Court. Constable Shields, who was connected with a number of the cases, and seemed to have laid himself out energetically for^ dog catching, said m reply to his Worship that the dog was " purty big," but not being, like Mr Weller's friend, "a ackerate judge of a animal," he declined to make any positive statement about the dog's age. The Town Clerk of Lawrence is a genius m his way. The local paper says that Lawrence was considerably startled the other day by the appearance of what at first sight looked like a Maori dressed m his wai 1 paint. " He had on a low slouch hat, and his head was thrust through a hole hi the centre of a large yellow, black, and grey striped blanket. One of our staff made inquiries, and eventually interviewed the stranger, who was found to be no other person than Mr Lawrence Carter Holmes, our respected Town Clerk. It appears that at a recent sitting of the Town Council complaint was made that the rates did not come m rapidly enough, so the Town Clerk resolved to alter matters, and assumed the disguise of a Maori m order to attract attention. He says when once he can get sight of a ratepayer he is bound to get his money, but when m his ordinary attire the lynx-eyed citizen sees him entering the front, his man strikes a bee line through the back door, and thus evades payment. In very truth necessity is the mother of invention." The following amusing story, says the Wellington " Argus," wherein figure ladies of high! local pedigree as well as a foreign knight who resides at Christchurch, is going the rounds of the Southern press. The scene is laid m the Christchurch Museum. Says the correspondent ;— The Christchurch Museum possesses a statuary room, and among the copies of classical works there displayed is a Venus di Medici. A party of ladies, leaders of ton, having heard so much of its perfections as the beau ideal of the female form, made up a quiet little party at an ealy hour one morning to study, admire, and compare notes. They saw and criticised, and were unanimous m the opinion that there was no such very singular perfection after all, and expressed with consentient voice the conviction that they could severally compare with the model, to no disadvantage. Thus far good ; but alas ! a gentleman of foreign accent had been m an adjoining lobby, and had overheard, and unable to restrain his feelings, burst out with, "It ees imposseble ; I will not believe it ontil I see ze fac." Tableau ! A rustle of skirts, and lo ! the lady critics had incontinently disappeared. The New Zealand correspondent of the "Brisbane Courier" makes the following startling but unfounded statement with regai'd to the Counties Act and the system of Government introduced under its authority : — " A Bill was brought m by Ministers intituled the Counties Act, and when it came to be sifted and its contents analysed, it was found that there were to be sixty-three distinct Governments carried on under the name of County Councils. These were to possess powers within themselves far m excess of what had been given to Provincial Councils. Sixty-three local bodies were to be allowed to levy general rates, special rates, and separate rates ; to raise loans of themselves to four times the extent of their annual revenue ; to borrow moneys for special purposes ; they were to support their own hospitals, charitable institutions, gaols, and lunatic asylums ; they were to levy tolls, build markets, and impose dues The working of the Counties system has set all the people of New Zealand at feud with one another — even to the setting of brother against brother, and father against son — that members of County Councils, opposed to each other, go into public houses, get excited, fall to fighting, and get bound over to keep the peace ; that the rich oppress the poor, and the poor endeavour to unfairly overtax the rich, and that generally a condition of the greatest anarchy and confusion has arisen."

Mr Arthur Warburton, says a Welling* ton paper of late date, who for many years held the appointment of accountant m the branch of the Sank of New South Wales m this city, and was promoted a few months ago to the management of tile Feilding branch of the same batik, has been offered the post of Manager of the Te Aro (Manners*street) branch of the Bank of New Zealand m this city, and has accepted the ap* pointment, and entered on his new duties today. The late manager, Mr Steel, has been appointed manager of the Wanganui branch, and left for that place by the last coach. Mr H. A. Severn, who is at present making a tour of New Zealand before returning to the old country, delivering ' experimental science lectures on light and spectrum analysis, solar physic, galvanism, artificial illumination, magnetism, &c., the earth and its satellite, &c., will arrive Jn Wanganui m the course of a few days, and hold a social science congress. The lectures are illustrated by magnificent apparatus of the very best kind which Mr Severn has collected, purchased, or himself constructed. Browning's spectrum analysis lantern and radiometer, oxy-hydrogen microscope, photographs on the screen of the sun, moon, and planets, growth of crystals, 500 views of Europe, &c. Mr Severn has just been lecturing iqr Auckland to the evident satisfaction and pleasure of his audiences, which gave expression to their feelings, according to a local paper, by frequent outbursts of applause. Mr Severn has been some twenty-;, five years working at science, twenty-two m the colonies, and we hope he will be well supported m Wanganui. : ""9is2.v We clip the following from the " Post" —A somewhat peculiar case will come 1 before the Resident Magistrate's Court tomorrow. It appears that for many years past Mr S. Levy has allowed a portion of his land on Lambton Quay, betwjien his premises and those of Mr Lewis Mjßfeto be ■ used as a right of Way. Recentlwsie sold his land and premises to a Dunedin firm,. and they now want to build on the land previously used as a right-of-way. This Mr Moss objects to on the ground that he will be deprived of light. Mr Levy put up some boardings on his own ground m front of Mr Moss's windows, and Mr Moss knocked them down. Mr Levy, to test- the legality of the thing, has entered an action against Mr Moss to recover £1 damages. It is- - quite possible that the case will ultimately* go into the Supreme Court.