LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 35, 1 June 1876, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The ordinary fortnightly meeting of the Harbour Board will take place to-morrow afternoon, at two o'clock. On enquiry at the Hospital, we learn that the unfortunate man Noah Page expired at eleven o'clock this morning. The usual quarterly Sacrament in connection with St. Paul's Presbyterian Church will be administered on Sunday next. A preparatory service will be held in the church this evening at 7.30. The regular monthly meeting of the Committee of the Mechanics' Institute will be held this evening at eight o'clock. If our readers shall discover anything at all hazy in our columns to-day, it can be asscribed to the fact that the editor for the last ten hours has been living in an atmosphere of coal smoke, with a density of 93. We have no desire to hurt the landlord of our premises, but if he has nothing particular to do tomorrow, and can arrange his business so that he can lay up for a week, we should like him to spend a few hours in the editor's room. We shall be happy to fix a few hand-rails round the room, so that he can feel his way about, because wc can guarantee that he will never be able to see where he is going to. Coal smoke is not calculated to improve the editorial brain, and lumps of soot flying round the room as big as beans don't sharpen the senses.

One of the most extraordinary discoveries which ever came under our notice (the " Border Post" says) is that made in the interior of the Darling district by a man who was employed well-sinking for Messrs. R. Goldsbrough and Co. The discovery referred to is a petrified portion of a human body. It was found at a depth of 200 feet below the surface of the ground, and is in a perfect state.

In a Sydney paper of May Gth, the following cablegram from Wellington is published : —" The tender of the Bank of New Zealand being the only tender for the Government account accepted, strong protests have been made by the Inspectors of the Bank of Australasia and the National Bank, who have also sent to the Government fresh conditions of tender." \Ye ("Southern Gross") were under the impression, and indeed it was generally reported, that the Bank of New Zealand was the only Bank which tendered for the Government account. If this telegram is correct, it would appear that three Banks sent in tenders.

".Kglcs," in the "Australasian," -writes : " Well, it was hard upon that skipper," says Backstay. "He had been a little late in town, having been all day settling—for fifty or so—claims against his ship for £IO,OOO. And then he went to the theatre. He might have had supper. So it was not much to be wondered at that he should be discovered in the grey of the next morning on the pier helping an iron water-tank to stand up straight, and thus soliloquising: 'I know tliis i 3 my ship. My ship's iron. This is iron. But where the mischief is the cabindoor ':' " Mr. Shaw, the manager of the Phcenix Foundry (the "Ballarat Star" remarks), gives a very simple explanation of the matter of breakages occurring in connection with the Ballarat-made engines and tenders. It seems that the locomotives and their tenders were constructed to work 'goods trains, and that they have been used for passenger trains. This will seem to some persons a distinction without a difference, but it is not so iti point of fact. Goods traffic means a speed of something like twenty miles an hour, for which the locomotives were built, and passenger traffic represents, say thirtyfive miles per hour, which is a much higher rate of speed than the engines can with safety be allowed to run at. The Melbourne correspondent of the "Star" writes : "Our Tasmanian friends are rousing up a little, and now and then really give us something interesting to talk about. Just lately it has been their main line of -railway across the island. They have quickened their speed of travelling to something like twenty miles an hour, since which time the mortality of horses has been something frightful. .The engines seem to be chiefly employed in running into herds of these animals. It is true that the trains are thrown off the line in the operation ; but that is of no consequence, since if they did not go off for that reason they would for some other. You can't think how nice it is to read about—in fact, it must be altogether delightful to live iu Tasmania—so long as you are neither a horse nor a passenger." Mr. Cracknell, Superintendent-Inspector of Telegraphs for New South "Wales, arrived at the Bluff per s.s. Arawata, en route to England per Eoyal Mail steamship Australia, on business connected with Telegraph Cable extension. The " News " states that on Monday morning Mr. Cracknell had occasion to send a telegram to Sydney. The message was put in at the Invercargill Office at 10.45, and he received an answer of 100 words at 12.45, just two hours later. Considering that the message has three re-trans-

missions in New Zealand, this speaks well for the smartness of the Telegraph Department and the efficiency of the cable.

Some years ago there was a lively discussion in the leading Melbourne journal of the affairs of the Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company. Some policyholders even questioned the safety of the company's life policies, a view stoutly combatted by the ' ' Argus." In the Chicago and Boston fires the Liverpool, London, and Globe Company lost and paid £874,000. The shareholders were for a while without dividends, and the management went vigorously to work in improving the character of the business. Last year a dividend of thirty per cent, was declared. In five years the fire premiums had amounted to £5,682,000, the losses paid £3,828,000, and at the close of a period without parallel for its losses the company has got back to thirty per cent, dividend, and its reserves are better by half a million sterling than when it last paid a dividend of that amount. Which shows what can be done by a bi"- company when it manfully faces a difficult position. The Melbourne correspondent of the "Guardian" writes :—" Taking up a recent number of the "Calcutta Englishman," one of the best papers in the world as regards its tone and management, I was surprised to remark the attention given to Australian matters. Setting apart a Melbourne correspondent's letter, which might be looked upon as a mere interesting exotic, the news column were quite permeated with Australia, the mail having just arrived. We are apt sometimes to think ourselves more overlooked than is the case. Talking of India, it will be noticed that most of our newspapers to hand are those of Bombay, the port of call for the mail steamers. Now Bombay reflects India just about as much as, and no more than, San Francisco does the United States. For instance, Bombay runs down the Prince of Wales, Calcutta cracks him up. I just mention this as an indication of the difference of opinion on the Eastern and Western side of the Indian Empire. The Eastern is the more powerful, and should receive the more attention. Thus, if you see statements in the Bombay papers about the Prince and his presents, take them cum grano salis. The other side of the peninsula might afford statements on the other side of the question. The native journals of Bengal, representing, as a body, the best natives, are loyal; those of the Bombay province are a thorn in the side of the authorities.