LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 122, 11 September 1876, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

j The City of Sydney, with the English t mail* >;'t 'Frisco, arrived at Auckland at | at eleven o'clock this morning Up to the i time of going to prc-s we Lad received no Hou'c tvL'gramb from our agjnt in Auckland. f A prv.r little lV'l-nv, named John Alfred [ Miuchcu, r."p3arc-.l at the Police Court this ; morning, cliargjd with being a neglected ! child. He gtvs his ng: as nine year?. The i poor little fellow was hoc as high a-> the desk, J arid when brought beiV.ro Irs father he held his ht-a 1 down, and appeared most penitent. | He had been sleeping under houses and in j .-.table-for the last three months. His father gave hint a bad character, and paid that lie i I the Industrial School, and lie wonl-1 pay for ; Lis siinrwirt. The hoy had obtained articles | fr ttn Mm. Whits, grocer, under pretence that j he w.ts ?citt by hi.s father. Among the variI oit.n articles Mrs. White had supplied the boy with, were a bfttle of bran ly, jams, tea, lollies, and other articles. The youngster vr.ii ivmauded till three o'clock this after- | nn«!i. One of the witues.se:- in the Horn forgery ! case has evid-ntly mi-taken his calling. i This morning, Henry Richmond, engaged at ; Toolioy's draper shop, swore most positively | that, notwithstanding the prisoner being dis- | g'.dsed iu false whisker*, he recognised him [ in the gad as the inr-.ii who presented the E forged c)i««]hs. A man v. ho can recognise a disgnise I man when only in his company for a fV:w minutes, would inde-d be a valuable addition ii our Detective Police Force. We arc glad to notice that three more of I the Dunedin Poultry Association's trophies

come to Oamaru. Mr. G. M. Bruce has secured ti st prize for young coloured dorking. first prize for adult silver-spangleil P. >land, and second prize for adult cinnamon Cochin. Tiie Duneflin Pre-s Agent teleg-aphed to all the newspapers the other day a quarter - co'uiun leader from the Guar.liati on the Premier's ret'rement. The Grey Liver Arjus published it, but at the en I of the article.we h'nd the follow'ng:—'• We are almost ashamed to publish the foregoing rubbish, but it got into type be!"o ewe -aw it. Who the deuce c.ire : what the O'.'jo Guardian h.'.s to say upon the subject? We don't." There is a ca idour about this style of writing we cannot help admiring. The loss of a limb does not appear to affect a bird's chance of gaining a prize at the Dunedin Poultry Association's meetings. According to the Guard/a?!, a game duckwing cock, with only one leg. took second prize at the la-t show r . Our contemporary say 3 :—" Last 3*ear it took the first prize for gamecocks of its class. Shortly afterwards it fought a successful battle, and was sold to an admiring, sportsman. Incautiously the new proprietor put the qualifies of his feathered pugilist to a severe test. It was jetted against another game bird, but being overweighted to the extent of two pounds, had to throw up the gl-tvc with a broken leg. TII3 limb was n.-gl-ecte.l, and had to be amputate I ; and its owner, unwilling to convert the gallant old soldier into a " sent it home to .Mr. M'Dounell. The latter nursed it, the bird grew strong and vigorous, and now with its

one leg it has succee led in carrying off a second prize." We should like to t,ee this one-legged progeny shown against a one-eyed black-red belonging to a friend of our's. ■Surely the one-eyed would have as good a chance as the one-legged. A defeated candidate for municipal hoivrs at Hokit.ka, smarting under the mortification of defeat, forgot, after the declaration of the poll, to thank those of his frien Is an! supporters who iufce-ested themselves in his favor. After repairing the omission in the local Time*, he says : "That had not falsehood and treachery deirive.l nu of half of my promt--ed saipport, the result would have been a triumph in my favor. I wish the Council joy of their new acquisition." Tlic Hospital Sun lay subscriptions (says a London paper) will har.ll. turn o it so gtod as Uiii.al, but if all the London churches had subscribe I as the Jewidi cr>ng:-e.ratio is subscribed, there woull be nothing to complain r.f. Till- Chief Ttabbi, at the Great Syna-g->_'ue c illeete I £M >: the Syna g lenm gave Cile ; the Reformed C m^regation

of British Jews give £0)); an I Dr. Adler, at Bays water, raised £10) more—that is, the Chief liabhi g-it more from Iris people than the preachers at St. Paul's in the two services tog-ether ; the Portuguese Synagogue raise 1 more than the Bislnp of C irlUle extracted from the congregation in Christ Church, May Fair; the Reformed Jews ra'se.l more than any congregation of which we have as yet seen any account; and even Dr. Adler raised more than many Christian congreg itions of probably twice the size. It is clear that either Jews are relatively much richer than Christians, or they have a keener sympathy with the physical sufferings of their fellow - creatures. As yet, Hospital Sunday does not result in miracles of mercy.

Hokifika is scarcely the jilaee for a man in reduced circumstances to reside in at the present time. The local paper says : " .Never shice the eirlie ;t days of Tlokitika were goods of all kinds so earce as they are ! at present. Many of the stores which have j for years past been filled with every ela=s of ! merchandise, .-.re now presenting to thencustomers little beyond the bare w r alls. It is estimated that the: - e are no more thin ten tons of flour in town all told. The price asked is £2.) and £2l per ton, but the Waipara is expected to bring an additional supply daily. It is also said that the stock of kerosene is reduced to about twenty cases, and as h'gh as £2 per case is the market quotation. Oats are rapidly decreasing, and 3s. to .'»s. Gd. per bushel is readily obtainable. The market is said to be entirely bare of bran and pollard ; wdieat and chaff are also very scarce. There is no Melbourne chaff' in stock, and the local grown i s nearly exhausted. Teas are tolerably plentiful, but sugar, candles, and brandies are very low in stoek, and much in demand for the iush. Good butter is unobtainable, and very limited supplies of chee;e ate on hand. In the roadstead there is a good general stock of nearly all kinds of merchandise, and a fresh in the river is all that is retpiired to bring prices and stocks to their former levels. Referring to the prospect of the squatters in New South Wales during the approaching shearing season, the Hay S.a-ndard writes : " There will be shorn in Tsevr South Wales thisyear— IS7G—upwardsof 25,000,0005he3p, yielding approximately above 120,0J0,000 Us. of woo!, equal in value, at one shilling per lb., to £0,250,039 sterling. £(5,500,000 sterling every year is a good nest-egg even for a wealthy dependency of Oreat Jiritain. The co.-t of shearing this vast lot of sheep at 20s. per 10-1, about the average price, would be £125,0.>0. The cust of transmitting the wo. I to the seaport for exportation might be set down at about the same figure. Without going iatj any more minute details, if we es-

timate the value of the wool clip of New I Smth Wales for 1876 at £6,2.-,0,000, and set . down 25 per cent, of that as expenses in- | curred by the wool grown from the time the sheep enters the woolshed to be shorn (this is'- the estimated cost in the working of a wool-.-tation) until the net proceeds are in the woolgrower's bank, thsre will be disbursed £1,552,500. This sum wonl Igo in shearing, carriage to port, and to London, commission, brokerage Every year our wool is increasing in quantity and rising in qual'by, so that by the close of 188), four years hence, New .South Wales ought to have at least 3 J,000,00 > of sheep, which, with horned cattle and hor.es, ought approximately to represent in money value upwards of £50,000,000 terling.