POLICE CLOTHING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 198, 24 August 1867, Page 2

POLICE CLOTHING.

To the Editor op the Nelson Evening Mail. Sir — A paragraph appeared in your issue of Tuesday last, statiug as a reason for the fact that the making of the police uniforms in this city were not submitted to public tender, that the " sum voted is insuficient to make up the amount required, and they [the police] are obliged to make up the deficiency themselves." Surely, sir, you must have been misinformed on the subject, seeing that this year no less a sum than £200 appears on the Estimates for supplying the police with clothing.. I consider therefore that I am justified in regarding the course at present pursued by the authorities as "totally at variance with the system adopted in other places, '* as your correspondent stated. Public tender is the only legitimate course to be adopted iv the expenditure of public money. Space in your columns for the above will oblige, Your 8, etc., A Tradesman. August 22nd, 1867.

THE MEAT QUESTION, To the Editor op thk Nelson Evening Mail. Sib — The Evenivq Mail of the 1 6th instant contains a letter signed "J. Pratt" in answer to a letter signed "A Voice.," and directing attention to the quality of mutton supplied by him to the public institutions of Nelson. I would not have troubled you at present had not Mr Pratt wound up his epistle hy stating an untruth, I afc the same time attempting to " take a rise" out of the two messengers who some time back called at his shop for a balance of meat (81bs) found hy Mrs Walker to be short. As I was one of the messengers I beg most respectfully to contradict Mr Pratt's assertion and to state that no such question was ever asked as " why he did not supply the patientß at the Taranaki Buildings with" — those very unique articles, quite a rarity in a butcher's shop it would appear — -"rumpsteak and sausage;" in short beef was asked for, and it was supplied. The attendant at the Hospital may not have complained about the meat, but some time back when the bread supplied was bad he at once went aud purchased good bread; but the case has been very. different at the Taranaki Buildings : complaints have been made and the mutton returned from both the Branch Hospital and the Lunatic Asylum, but not the slightest notice was ever taken of these just and truthful complaints. Great credit is due to Dr Cusack for the bold and fearless, manner iv which he denounces the custom which the butchers ; bave of purchasing diseased sheep. It I would form a very interestißg inquiry for the medical profession were they to ascer- i : taihr by -analysi?"whetheT -lhe present epi- '|

demic of measles may not be attributed to the consumption of unsound mutton ? About eight years ago, when pleuro-pneu-mouia broke out in Victoria, nine-tenths of the cattle sold at Melbourne were infected. A Commission was appointed to make inquiry as to the fitness of this meat for consumption; and the late Dr MAdam analysed the infected meat and fouud it unfit for human food, aud that the disease . then raging so fatally amongst the youth of the colony, known as diphtheria, was one and the same disease—the latter caused by the use of pleuropneurnonic meat. iMilk from cows so infected was also condemned as unfit for use. I am, etc., Joseph's Mate. August 19th, 1867.

At the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning the following cases were heard: — Ef. Hargreaves v. Way. This was an action for an assault alleged to have been committed by the defendant. Ifc appeared from the complainant's evidence that, on returning home about 5 o'clock ou Monday evening last, he fouud defeodant quarrelling with complainant's wife about a bucket, and threatening to strike her. The complainant told defendant to strike him and not bis wife, and he did so, striking him on tbe forehead with his fist, which complainant returned. The parties are next-door neighbors, and the assault took placo ou Hargreaves's premises. The defendant asserted that the complainant first assaulted him. Defendant 10s and costs, or in default, one week's imprisonment with hard labor.- — H. Black v. Robert M'Donald, An action to recover £10 2s 6d for bread supplied to the defendaut, who did not appear, and was adjudged to pay tbe amount claimed with costs. —H. Wilkins v. G. F. Joues. Action to recover £10 18s lOd, tho balance of an account due for confectionery, &c. supplied by the plaintiff. The defendant objected to the item in the account, "cocoa-nut ice," which was charged at ls. 4d. per lb., as beiug excessive. Evidence was produced to prove that this was the price usually charge for this delicacy, though it was admitted that another confectioner, Mr Thomson, charged ls per lb. for it. Judgment for plaintiff in £10 16s lid and costs. — William Emms, who admitted the offence, was fined 10s and costs for having an unregistered dog in his possession. A special meeting of justices of the peace, for the granting and transferring of publicans' licenses, will be held on Tuesday, 17th September, at the Court-house, Nelson. We have inspected a very interesting group of photographic portraits of his Honor the Superintendent and the Speaker and Members of the Provincial Council, which have lately been taken at Mr Fletcher's studio in Hardy-street by Mr Bloch. The portrait of the Superintendent, surmounting a view of the Provincial Buildings, occupies the centre of the group, round which are arranged the different members of the Council, diverging, in the same order in which they are seated during the session, from the Speaker, whose portrait forms the apex of the group. The Clerk and DeputyClerk of the Council are also very properly included in this "presentment" of the'patres conscripti' ofthe province, and all the portraits, with perhaps only two or three exceptions, are most admirable likenesses. The group forms a very acceptable souvenir of the session of 1867, which, doubtless, many will desire to " possess. We learn that the measles are still very prevalent in the country districts, very many of the Provincial schools being closed in consequence of the large number of absentees either through actual illness or attendance on sick relatives, or through fear of infection. The disease, happily, in general assumes a mild type, and we have heard of very few cases indeed which have terminated fatally. T"**The Lady Barkly left the Government Wharf, for Motueka, this morning, with 17 passengers a_re a party of diggers for tbe Karamea. A brisk competition took place this morning at the Crown Lands^Office, when the lease of the Government Wharf for the current year was put up to public auction; £800 was the upset price, and the bidding was confined to two or three individuals, the lease being finally knocked down to Mr George Aitken for £1030, an advance of £180 on the rental for the preceding : years. Death has this morning removed another i,

of our oldest-inhabitants. Mr Alexander Rankin, who died about 10 a.ra. this day at a ripe old age, was -one of the earliest settlers from Wellington, and was also one of the members of the first Board of Works elected in this city. The next sittings of the Court in Bankruptcy will take place on Tuesday next the 27th inst., by which date it is expected that his Honor Mr Justice Richmond will have returned from Wellington. No telegram of the arrival , of ,tho Panama Mail at Wellington has as yet been received. The Athenaeum says that the rumor that the wife of a duke and the wife of a bishop are about to appear in public as singers, will probably be enough to fill even Exeter Hall with an eager audience. For once the goodnatured public will be right in following its instincts. The cause which has won the goodwill of a host of patrons, and which has decided the Duchess of Newcastle and Mrs Ellicott (wife of the Bishop of Gloucester) to appear in public — the desire to assist with funds the home relief for childreu with chronic diseases of the joints — is worthy of every one's helping hand. The oratorio selected for performance is Herr Schnachner's "Israel's Return from Babylon." The Earl of Belmore, w ho has been appointed successor to Sir John Young in the Governorship of Ne w South Wales, is a large landed proprietor in the north of Ireland, and his seat in the county Fermanagh is perhaps the finest mansion .in all Irelaud. The Countess of Belmore is a niece of Mr Gladstone, and is described as a beautiful and charming lady. Lord Belmore was born in 1835. The Panama Mercantile Chronicle understands that arangements have been made to book passengers through from Australia and New Zealand to New York and vice versa. Tbis will doubtless cause a considerable passenger traffic to spring up between the places named, and will be advantageous alike to the respective companies, and to the countries thus brought into speedy communication with each other. The Victorians are busily engaged in making preparations on the most extensive scale for the approaching reception of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh. Iv the first instance £5000 was voted by Parliament for the purpose, but this sum being deemed quite insufficient, the Legislature proposed to allow the Committee of Management carte blanche. The Governor will be the chief host and entertainer of the Prince, and a new billiard room, additional servants' rooms and stabling, with new entrance gates and lodge, are being erected at the Viceregal residence at Toorak. The Governor will give a grand banquet and a ball to His Royal Highness, who wiil also be invited to dine with the members of both branches of the Legislature at the Parliament Houses. What the Corporation of Melbourne will do, is not yet determined, but no doubt they will act in a manner which will be worthy of the wealthiest city in the Australian colonies. The-= Melbourne Philharmonic Society will offer a magnificent concert to the Prince, and ifc is proposed to give a grand ball at the new Exhibition Buildings, to raise funds for the erection of a new wing to the Sailors' Home. It is probable thafc Prince Alfred will visit the three gold-fields of Ballarat, Casfclemaine, and Bendigo, and on each he will meet with a hearty and princely welcome. Mr Gunn, of Wentworth, and Mr Stilling, of Adelaide, have offered the Government the free use of the Murray steamer for the Duke of Edinburgh, should he purpose visiting the Murray mouth, the lakes, and river scenery.