LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 44, 12 June 1876, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Oamaru Football Club played,a scratch-, match on the" 1 Cricket Ground,, pn Saturday afternoon, at which there was a good muster of players, and notwithstanding the rain during the week the ground was in very fair order. Sides were; chosen by Messrs. Millingfon'and Nicholls,' and play was 'carried on for some "time under the Association Rules, but jfc was afterwards decided to continue -the game under the Rugby Union Rules, when the play became more lively, and enabled those who could run to display their agility. After some close scrimmaging, Xicolls succeeded in kicking a goal, and this was soon followed by another, byM'Glashan, for the same side. The game then went on for some time longer, and although both sides tried their level best to get a goal, neither succeeded. Tliis was the best game of the season, and if the players turn out as well on succeeding Saturdays, the Oamaru Club will be able to make some show against the Duneilin men when they come here next month.

Grant, of Dunedin notoriety, whose communications are too wildly written to suit the Dunedin Press, has been testing the good nature of editors further afield. In the "Nelson Times" the following significant notice appears:—"J. G. S. Grant. Dunedin.— Your letter can appear in our columns as an advertisement. Pending your decision it is held over."

There was a clean charge sheet at the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning. It is announced elsewhere that a concert ami dramatic performance, in aid of the Oaniaru Cemetery, will be given in the Masonic Hall, on Friday next. We understand that a very attractive programme is in course of preparation, and we hope to see a crowded house.

About eight o'clock this morning an immense swarm of flying fish passed or crossed the bay. They were bound north.

The traffic on the Dunedin and Clutlia line must be increasing very considerably, The other day when a deputation waited on the •Superintendent regarding a site for a Sailor's Home, his Honor stated that he could not grant one near the station, as he thought the ground would be required for railway purposes on the formation of a double line to Port Chalmers and the Clutha.

Commenting on the present financial position of New Zealand, the " Saturday Advertiser " says:—"Things generally have touched their lowest, and capitalists who expect better bargains, will be woefully disappointed this turn. Our workshops are full of orders, our harbour is a busy scene, while our railways afford an excellent index of the progress of production by shewing a total yearly traffic of above £ 150,000. Mining prospects are also improving. lien who were tenrpted away by hi::h wages to Government contracts, arc now returning to gold-seeking and independence. I f Hock-masters are ruined by drought in Australia, it will increase values in New Zealand. On every side, the signs of the times give good hope that the era of panic is past, and that we may look for an early and continued advancement in the way of prosperity." The Wellington correspondent of the Auckland " Star " telegraphed the other day to that journal as follows :—Another feeler is being ingeniously put forward. The "Argus" last night says : "A rumour is current that amongst the proposals winch the Government will submit to Parliament during the coming session will be one for a further loan of six millions, to extend over three years, to be raised at the rate of two millions per annum." We are not in a position to pronounce whether this rumour is correct or not, hut we hope it may be true. Large as our debt already is, we see no reason why we should be afraid to increase it so long as the money is prudently and wisely expended in reproductive works. "This is not the first appearance of this manufactured rumour, for the Wellington correspondent of the "Lyttelton Times "sent the following:—"Rumours arc current that the Government will propose to Parliament a further loan of six millions, extended over three years." Such a coincidence might be deceptive if people did not know that the said correspondent and editor of the "Argus" are identical, and that there never was any such rumour in Wellington until the "Argus " started it." For real good thunder-and-lightning writing, commend us to the " Liberator," the new organ of the Good Templars in Otago. Our contemporary, in an article on Sunday Liquor Traffic, says :—" Wcask, are the publicans determined to be the willing slaves of Satan—to circumvent the preaching of the Gospel ? Do they wish to shut and bolt the doors of mercy and eternal life, throw wide open the gates of everlasting perdition, dry up the fountain of atoning blood with the fire of the pit, pull down the Cross, demonise the human race, and turn both hemispheres of earth from the equator to the poles into an universal carnival of drunken madness and Satanic glee ? Let the Sabath, with its divine obligations, happy associations, and its merciful and ennobling services, stand aside. Throw open the public-houses; let their taps run day and night for every week-day, and Sunday too; and let the demoniac trampeters of perdition proclaim with infernal blast the jubilee of doom. This is all the

publicans "want—they ask for nothing more: Give them this, and they will ob*ey the law ; hut withhold it, and they will he rebels against the State—Her Majesty's writ is too contemptible'a thing for* their., respect. The 'law of God is beneath their'notice." A. most audacious attempt at robbing a bank occurred on Wednesday evening last, at about seven o'clock (says the "Waitangi Tribune "), during the temporary absence of Mr. Grant, the agent, for the Union Bank of Australia. An entrance was effected into the premises by breaking open the back door. The would-be thieves, armed with a sledgehammer, boiTOwed for the occasion from a neighbouring smithy, attempted to force open the safe, which, however, proved to he too good for them, and as all the bank properties of any value had been, as usual, carefully deposited therein, the burglars had to depart without the intended plunder. With the exception of the safe-door handle being knocked off, and the lock so tampered with that it could not be opened for a couple of hours, no inconvenience or loss of any kind has been sustained. One of the scoundrels was impudent enough to leave the following notice tacked to the back door:—"I will call again next week." It is to be hoped he may, when, no doubt, he will be warmly received and duly rewarded. At the burial of Mr. Dion Boucicault's son, who was lolled in the railway disaster, many of the bystanders were weeping during the reading of the burial service, and their sadness was not diminished by the excessive grief that Mr. Boucicault displayed. With his arm thrown round the neck of his young son, and his face hidden by his hat, he walked past the grave. At the close of the ceremony, after looking wistfully down for some time, he threw a black-edged envelope on the coffin, and then, sobbing bitterly, turned slowly away. Much speculation was caused as to the contents of the envelope, and the object it wa3 to serve, but on this subsequently being made known to Mr. Boucicault he remarked that both the object and the contents of the package must remain a secret to himself.

A Yankee menagerie-man, who bought a zebra from an individval who said that he had just arrived from Africa with the animal, kept his purchase closely confined in its cage for several weeks, until it needed cleaning badly ; and then he led it down to the creek, and gave it a good scrubbing for half an hour. At the end of that time the menagerie-man was surprised to perceive that the zebra's stripes had entirely disappeared. And now, if anybody wishes to buy an able-bodied and energetic mule, warranted to be kind in single harness and not to suffer from homesickness because it can't get back to Africa, such an article can be procured of this men-agerie-man, who is disgusted with zebras. °Au American paper has just received, by special cable despatch, a copy of Professor Tyndall's proposal to the daughter of Lord Hamilton. It is as follows :—" Saccharine conglomeration of protoplasm ! Adorable combination of matter and force ! Rarest product of infinite ages of evolution! The luminiferous ether is not more responsive to the rays of light than are my nerve-centres to the mystic influence which emanates from the protosphere of thy countenance. As the heliocentric system was evolved from primordial chaos by the working of inexorable law, so is that rarification of matter which men call my soul lifted from profound despair by the luminance issuing from thy visual organs. Deign, 0 admirable creature, to respect that attraction which draws me toward thee with a force inversely proportional to the squares of the distance. Grant that we shall be made double suns, describing concentrid orbits, which shall touch each other at all points of their peripheries. — Your own John Tvndall." —A fortiori—Ticket Collector (checking tickets of a company of Volunteers returning' from the Review, to one of the band, who has been refreshing) : "Now, then, make haste ! Where's your ticket ?" Bandsman: "Au've lost it." Ticket Collector: ■' Nonsence ! Feel in your pockets !" Bandsman: "Aw carina ! Why, man (hie), au've lost the big drum !"

The members of the Court Pride of Oamaru, A.0.F., are requested to meet in the Oddfellows' Hall, this evening, at eight o'clock.