LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 47, 15 June 1876, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Baaineaa wm particularly dull at the R. 31. I Court ttib morutng. There was not even a a "'tive-shtHtng drank." Considering the weather, ttiid spuak=t volumes for the tc-mper-n.te habits <>i the Oanmnianrf. A meeting of the Committee of the Oatn.iru Hospital ww held last evening for the purpose of considering the applications for the vacant otficej of warder ami matron. The following members were present :—Mes3rs. A. J. i>. Headland (in the chair), Locke, Lemon. T. 11. Br»wn, Clowes, Dunn, Steward, Rowland, and Mainland. There

were seventeen applicants for the appointment. On the motion of Mr. T. H. Brown, seconded by Mr.'John Locke, it was unanimously decided "That Mr. and Mrs. Thos. S. Moore he appointed warder and matron of the Oamaru Hospital." There being no further business to be transacted, the meeting adjourned. The Eev. P. P. Agnew is announced to lecture in the Masonic Hall, this evening, on "Botany Bay and its Martyrs." Mr. Agnew's talents as a lecturer are of the highest order, and we hope to see an appreciative audience.

With a view to discovering the persons who broke into the Union Bank, Waimate, the manager has offered a reward of £SO for information leading to their conviction. The announcement appears in our advertising columns. The exact amount of the Otago Bailway returns for the month of May is £11,73S 16s. Id. Towards tin's sum the northern lines contributed £1,252 3s. 9d. A special meeting of the Municipal Council was held shortly after four o'clock this afternoon, to consider the details of the Water S/.-heme as supplied by Mr. M'Leod, the Council's Engineer. Of course, the hour at which the meeting was held precludes us from giving any report of the business transacted, in the present issue.

One of the heaviest gales experienced in Oamaru for some years blew last night. It commenced to pipe up pretty lively from the N.W. at half-past eleven last evening, and then increased in violence till at midnight it had increased to a whole gale—in fact, a perfect hurrieanc. We have not a wind-gauge in oar establishment, but we have an empty nail-can on the top of the editorial chimney, and that was lifted. This can measures two feet six inches in diameter, and is sunk three inches in the chimney. The part exposed to the wind is one foot and a sixteenth of an inch, so that if the cube of the chimney is multiplied by twice the diameter of the nail can, and divided by the atmospheric pressure, which is lolbs. to the square inch, it will be seen that the wind must have been travelling at the rate of fortylive miles an hour. In some instances the gale played up high jinks. This morning Mr. Flctt, bookseller, found one of his shutters jammed up against the Harbour Board Office. One of the coach office notice boards, outside the Star and Garter Hotel, was bound for the Temperance Hall, in Teesstreet, when a limb of the law arrested its progress. A man called on us this morning to know if we had heard of a pair of scarlet blankets, and the left arm of a linen shirt, wliicli articles were last evening reposing "race-fully on a clothes line. We could not tell him where the blankets had gone to, but the arm of the shirt has started to look after ten feet of our smoke stack, which will probably be found at Maheno. Our special correspondent at Dunedin informs us by telegram that the Licensing Court yesterday refused renewals to three large hotels, because the applications were bulged after the prescribed time.

A curious case of -what is assumed to be fish poisoning occurred at Nelson a few days ag.>. From particulars received it appears that the parties partook of some smoked barraeotita for breakfast, anil shortly afterwards complained of violent pains in the head, accompanied with dizziness and great flushing of the skin. .Simple emetics were promptly taken with happy effects, and the "poisoned ones soon recovered their usual state of health ; but for the rest of the season they have agreed to "pass" old identity for breakfast, and make it chops, steaks, or sausage.=s, until new laid eggs become cheaper. A very curious case was heard recently in the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court. The plaintiff, Sarah Phillips, married a Mr. Baruet more than six years ago. He beat her, thereby (she says) permanently injnring her, and she was divorced from him, on the ground of adultery and cruelty. She now, as a single woman, sued him for damages, and her counsel argued that as she could when a wife indict her husband for violence, so she could, as a divorcee, bring an action for damages. The judges, however, decided that man and wife can bring no civil'action against each other, being in the eye of the law one person, and that divorce did not revive their right as if they they had continued single persons. The divorce did not destroy the marriage ab initio, but only destroyed it for the future. The point raised (observes the " Spectator") is said to be perfectly novel, and the decision is important, as otherwise a rrivorce suit might be followed up by all manner of actions, intended chic'ly- to gratify domestic hatred.

The good people of Waimate at the present time arc sorely exercised about the boundaries of their township. It appears that the pb.ec has been gazetted under the provisions of the old Government township, which was surveyed in IS(J2. The "Tribune," com* menting on the matter, says : —" When it is considered that far more extended boundaries were set forth in the petition, and that the .Superintendent must have been aware that the Government township includes less than one-half of the places of residences in Waimate, it will, no doubt, seem strange to the unitiatect that his Honor should have only iuserted the old survey boundaries in the* proclamation, As the matter now stands, the police know not how to act with respect to the suppression of nuisances, High-street,

one of the principal thoroughfares in Waimate, being,the northern boundary of the gazetted township." The annual " Dead Letter Sale" of the Post Office at Washington took place on the 17th March, when 8,534 unclaimed packages were sold by auction. The articles specified in the catalogue, which contaiued no feAver than sixty-six pages, included a library of about i,OOO books, a quantity of sham and real jewellery, a black-lace shawl, endless gold pins, white kid gloves, knives, necklets, spectacles, handkerchiefs, "144 clock hands," soap, a wolf-skin, a squirrel's tail, and the wings of a bat, two skirts, a pair of " calfskin uppers," microscopes, revolvers, a blanket, a piece of rubber hose, a fire kindler, two large plugs of tobacco, a piecrust cutter, a scouring brick, a soap gauge, a box of chewing gum, a gas-burner, a harmouicon, a pack of cards and fifty "poker chips, "a flute, a boy's jacket, a box of pumpkin meal, a towel, a shirt, a pair of slippers, a briarwood pipe, a can of fresh pineapple, a pocket-com-pass, a baby yoke, a collection of foreign stamps, three odd gloves, a gold-tasselled necktie, five imitation birds, a tape measure, a fish-line, some small saws, eleven buttons, and ten fishhooks.

On Saturday last (says the "News") a resident of Invercargill essayed to proceed on horseback from Piverton to Orepuki along the railway formation. He was accompanied by a digger, who was also mounted. They had got about half-way between Piverton and Colac Bay, still on the railway line, when the horse ridden by the digger suddenly went down in a bog. The other horseman speedily came to the rescue, got the man clear of the horse, and then both set to work to extricate the poor animal. This they could only do by fixing a stirrup strap to its legs and rolling it out on to firm ground. The animal was then in a very exhausted state, but as its rider had only about four miles further to go he pushed on. The other, after trying the road a bit further, came to the conclusion that it would be wiser to return whence he came, and while doing so narrowly escaped being bogged himself. We learn from the " Waitangi Tribune " that on Saturday last, about eleven o'clock, an accident occurred to one of the workmen at Mr. Bruce's mill, named William Brown, whereby the poor fellow lost a leg. It appears that he was one of three men working at a ripping-off bench, who were waiting for a flitch coming from the flitching-bench, and as the two others jumped up to help forward the ffitch, Brown stood with his back to the saw, leaning with both elbows on the bench. While in this position, he swung his leg to kick the sawdust off his foot, and, as the leg went under the bench, the saw caught his trousers, dragging up the leg and cutting it off a little below the knee, with the exception of about an inch of skin and flesh. One of his mates had the presence of mind to jump down, speedily place the piece of calf around the stump, and bind it up. The manager (Mr. Flinn) went after a doctor, and, fortunately, met Dr. Webb in Waimate, when that gentleman sjJeedily proceeded to the assistance of the injured man. The doctor, administering an ineffectual application of chloroform to his patient, cut away the connecting skin, and bound up the leg. The poor fellow stood the dressing first-rate, although the chloroform was insufficient to affect him, and, escorted by Dr. Webb, was driven to the Timaru Hospital in a two-horse trap Mr. Bruce obtained for the purpose. Drs. Webb and MTntyre took the stump off a little above the knee, and we are pleased to learn by latest advices that the poor man is progressing as well as could be anticipated. Brown is a Scotchman, aged about thirty-five.

A reference to our advertising columns will show that the required number of shares have been taken up in the Oamaru Mutual Permanent Building Society. A meeting of shareholders is therefore called on Monday evening next, the 26th iust., to consider the Provisional Committee's report, and the election of officers.