LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 31, 27 May 1876, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A conference of Master Masons, members of Lodges Waitaki, 1,111, E.G., and Oamaru Kilwinning, 537, S.C., was held last evening in the Masonic Hall. There was a good in uster of members, and a tender, amounting ! to £."501>, for the erection of a new Masonic j Hall in Wansbeck-street, was accepted ; and | it was further decided that the remainder of the frontage be leased. There was no sitting of the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning. A meeting of the committee of the Northern Agricultural and Pastoral Association was held this afternoon in the Mechanics' Institute, a full report of which we hold over tiil our next issue.

The harmonium, recently the property of St. Luke's Church, was sold by public auction to-day, and realised the sum of £4B. Mr Joseph Booth was the purchaser. The programme for the special services in connection with the opening of the new organ in St. Luke's Church, which will take place to-morrow, is published in our advertising columns. There will be three services during the day, the Rev. R. L. Stanford, of Duncclin, probably being the officiating clergyman, and the offertories will be in aid of the Organ Fund. On Monday evening there will be an organ recital, for which an excellent programme has been prepared. Mr. A. J. Towaey, of Dunedin, will preside at the organ.

! There was a very brief sitting of the Dis- | trict Court this morning, when the case of Thomas Mee v. Angus M 'Donald, claim £ISS, adjourned from the previous clay, was proceeded with. Mr. Hislop appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. O'Meaghcr for the defendant. The learned counsel for the plaintiff, accepted a nonsuit. The Court adjourned sine die. A strange case is now in the Creswick Hospital. On the 25th of last month, John Tike, aged sixteen, of Bullarook, was brought (says the "Advertiser") to be treated as an out-patient. Although the symptoms were not very marked, there was something peculiar about him, and the resident surgeon advised his mother to let him remain in the hospital. He seemed well for two or three day 3 after his admission, but on the 28th, while talking to some of the patients in the ward, lie was suddenly struck blind. The next day all the organs of special sense were affected in order—he lost his smell, taste, and hearing, but was still sensible. Next day he wa3 unable to articulate, and then to swallow, and lastly he sank into a state of perfect insensibility. He continued in this itate some days, ■when all his faculties returned in the reverse order to that in which they had been lost, and at the present time he is apparently cmite welL On Monday evening (says the "Star") at about seven o'clock, two ladies were coming into Dunedin by the Anderson's Bay road,

and when near the railway crossing a man jumped up from the side of the road and accosted them in a very rough way, using very filthy language. They walked quickly away, but in a few minutes the man again ran up to them, and tried to seize one of the-ladies by the neck. . After a short struggle, the ruffian beat a retreat, but made a third attack just before reaching the end of the Cricket Ground. He then went off in the direction of town, and was seen to annoy another lady.

Referring to the melancholy end of Lord Lyttelton, as recorded in our cablegrams this week, the " Timaru Herald" says : " As many of our readers are probably aware, Lord Lyttelton took an active part in the colonisation of New Zealand, particularly of the Canterbury settlement; and was one of those among the Church party at Home who put their peculiar theories to the test of practice by investing money freelv-in the Pro-, vince. Lord Lyttelton 'thoroughly identified himself with the rise and progress of Canterbury ; and we are sure that all the older settlers, who are aware of the extent to which the Province is indebted to him for its very existence as a distinct effort of colonisation, will hear with regret of this sad termination of his useful life."

An extraordinary telegram reaches us from Christchurch. It is to the eflect that William Townsend, brother of Dr. Townsend, has been committed for trial on a charge of manslaughter, under the following circumstances :—He attended a confinement in his brother's name, and in the absence of other instruments, he used a large pair of pointed scissors to assist delivery. The child was bom with two severe cuts on its forehead. The post-mortem examination showed that the wound penetrated the skull and brain. The child lived thirty-six hours. Medical witnesses at the inquest asserted that, judging from the evidence of the nurse, and the fact of the child being born alive, no penetrating instruments of any kind were required, and that death resulted from the wounds inflicted by the scissors.