The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1876. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 186, 24 November 1876, Page 2

The Evening Mail.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1876. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

"Went* arc thins*, and a ttr»P of ink UtHnr n|v>na thought in;vy produce that wbtdi nito thousand.* think".""

We have often been surprised at the amount of time wasted in the hearing of paltry cases at the Police Cotirt, depositions being taken in the moat trivial charges. This morning in a case of abusive 1 inguage, after the end ace of the persecutor hal heen baard and taken down by the Magistrate, the prisoner was asked what he had to say to the charge. The accused did not deny the offence, bat urged that he was under the influence of drink, and did not know what he had been doing. We should have imagined the case being proved, and the offence not denied, judgment would at once

follow. Bat no ! the wife of the prosecutor was then called, and a considerable tim 3 lost in listening to exactly the same evidence. It may l)e urged that the taking of depositions may be necessary in the event of appeals being applied for—although the course is not adopted in other courts —but in the case alluded to above no such result could have been anticipated, the prisoner, as we pointed oat, admitting the charge. The ordinary fortnightly meeting of the Municipal Council was held last evening. Hi 3 Worship the Mayor presided, and the Councillors present were—Headland, Mainland, and Galbraith. The business was not of very great importance, the principal being the consideration of the Lodging House Ordinance, with regard to which the following resolution was passed :— '* That the whole Council be appointed a Committee to take all necessary steps under the Common Lodging House Ordinance, 1532, and Amendment Ordinance, ISM, the first meeting of the Committee to be called for Tuesday next, at S p.m."

It will be noticed by advertisement that our juveniles are promised a rare treat at the Masonic Hall to-morrow. An entertainment is to be given at three o'clock for their especial benefit, that of the orthodox Punch and Judy Show. As the admission is only sixpence, there it little doubt the youngsters will muster in good force on the

occasion. They say " Music hath channs to soothe the savage breast," and the truth of the adage was never more fully exemplified than in the conduct of the deities at the Masonic Hall last night. Lulled into repose by the soothing strains of the Troupe, the audience in the lower portion of the hall enjoyed a most pleasing respite from the uproarious jubilations and interjections usually indulged in by the gods. A very successful and enjoyable ball took place last night in the Drill-shed. There could not of been less than sixty or seventy couples present, and the "ball was kept rolling" with full spirit till long after "daylight did appear." • A .»om> and concert, the occasion being the third anniversary or the Star of Hope Lodge, No. 22, 1.0. U.T., took place in the Volunteer Hall last evening. There was not so good an attendance as was expected. Mr. Jas. Patrick provided tea for those present, to which ample justice was done. The tables were presided over by the following ladies— Mcsdames Conway, Crockett, Harding, Harrison, Weir, and Wilson, assisted by Misses Arnold, Carruth, Crockett, Fraser, Gaudin, Holmes, M'Ghie, and Ward. After full justice had been done to the good things provided, the tables were cleared away and the hall put into shape for the musical part of • the programme, which was opened by those present singing " Friends of Temperance, Welcome Here." The Chairman (Mr. D. Booth) then addressed the meeting, pointing out in a very forcible manner the evil results of in temperance, and recapitulated a number of instance? proving the benefits of sobriety. He concluded his remarks bycalling on Mr. Shaw, who sang "Tom Bowling " very feelingly. Mm. Bashford's renderings of "The Minstrel Boy " and " I Cannot Sing the Old Songs," were particularly good. Mr. Weir would have been heard to more advantage in " Auld Robin Gray " had she not been troubled with that feeling to which amateurs are prone nervousness. Miss Casey sang " I am Lonely To-night, Love " very pleadingly ; Mr. W. Jennings, who evidently was suffering from a cold, struggled through his song, " Thy Voice is Near Me." Recitations by Miss Ward and that little wonder, Master J. Weir, were very creditably given. The comic part of the entertainment was ably gone through by Messrs. M'Dougall, M'Cluskey, Sinclair, and Master J. Walls. Mrs. Carncross presided at the piano, and accompanied the various singers. A very enjoyable evening was brought to a close by a vote of thanks to the chairman and the ladies and gentlemen who kindly gave their services, by the singing of the National Anthem. We notice by our Australian files that Frank Hewitt has proved the victor in his contest with Davis or Stone, the American Champion. The hundred yards for £IOO came off in Melbourne on the Sth, and was won easily by the Englishman, Hewitt running away from his opponent, and beating him by fully five yards. Wc notice, however, the time was U).\ sec. This is considerably behind the time in which Hewitt has covered the distance before, for, if we mistake not, in his contest with Harris, he accomplished the task in 01 sec. In explanation of the muddle in not transmitting the name 3 of the second and third horses in the Melbourne Cup, it is stated that the Pross Agency had an agent on the Flemington Course, who not only sent the name of the winner of the Cup before the [ numbers were up, but immediately afterj wards sent the fuller partictdars. The second I telegram, however, got astray in the hands of the Telegraph Department befoie trans- ■ mission, and was not discovered until com- | munication by cable to New Zealand had ! closed for the night, and the department ; have promptly intimated this to the Agency, taking all the blame. The old criminal records of Van Diemen's

Land are being utilised as packing by the Hobart Town Jam Manufacturers; and occasionally some curiosities find their way into the hands of the public. A local storekeeper at Reefton (says the Herald) recently got a muster-sheet into his possession, and it completely verifies the statement that in the " good old days " men were transported for trifling offences. On the sheet referred to there are three life sentences, the offence in one case being stealing a knife. There are sentences of seven years each, for stealing fowls, a shirt and fork ; and fourteen years each for desertion from the army and striking a sergeant.

There's nothing like putting a matter plain and intelligibly, so that a reader can, at a glance, take in one's meaning. In this art the American newspaper reporter stands preeminent, and as perhaps some of our readers have had the pleasure of listening to the Rev. Charles Clark, the following criticism of that gentleman's lecture by the Alta Californian will strike them as singularly correct : " From the beautiful exodium through mediaeval and modern instances of fascinating historical interest, enlivened by a certain interstratification of side-remark and ponderous jocoserious parenthesis, judiciously appropriated to philosophy, to fancy, and to humor, to the eloquent peroration on ' Our Modern Liberties,' the gifted lecturer thoroughly enchained the attention of his hearers, who frequently gave expression to their hearty appreciation of his versatile talents." Just our sentiments to aT.

Pending the " big gooseberries "expanding a bit, the Clutha Leader has to mention peculiar conduct on .the part of a turkey-cock. Last year he was a resident in the Waitepeka district, and there his strange instincts were first observed. When his better half had deposited the allotted number of egg 3, and had betaken herself to the matrimonial duties of hatching, the old gentleman was seen to collect a number of potatoes and deposit them in a nest he had prepared for them. He then followed the example of his mate, and sat closely upon the vegetables. He 3 owner, thinking it a pity that love's labor should be lost, removed the potatoes and replaced them with hens' eggs. The change seemed much to gratify the " Bubby Jock," and in due course of time he hatched a fine clutch of birds. Of these he took the greatest care for a few days, till the hen appeared with her brood of turkeys, when he delivered to her his youthful charge. This year the cock removed to a new habitation at the Waiwera, but hi 3 peculiar instincts still remain unchanged, as he has again hatched out a fine brood of chickens, which have just been handed to the charge of the hen as last year. The Melbourne correspondent to the Dunedin Daily Times among other thing 3 says : —" Only the night previous to the race, the bookmaker 3 laid the owner of Briseis a thousand to nothing, and paid up the nomination and so induced him to start the filly, so that it was in reality only on Friday night that it was finally decided that Briseis should start for the Derby. However, had the bookmakers seen Jfewminster as he appeared on the course on Saturday, when he came out for his preliminary canter, they would scarcely have taken such precaution, as the horse was not fit."

The "Intelligent Vagrant" in 'the ' New Zealand Mail pays the following high compliment to Mr. Gillon, the editor of the Wellington Argus: —" A mean attempt has been made to deprive my graceful and accomplished friend Mr. Gillon of" the honors he has successfully won as a dramatist. I hasten to neutralise that attempt. He did dramatise 'Lady Audley's Secret,'and, one point excepted, it is a beautiful dramatisation. Its interest would have been heightened, however, if he had introduced a final sensation scene in which Lady Audley, previously to being sent to a mad house, should have pushed the ta'ented dramatist himself down the well. He might (have engaged me permanently to assist by putting the cover on the well subsequently and sitting on it. For the sake of playing so important a would not have haggled on the question of salary,"

There are numbers who would be scandalised, insulted, were the term " gambler " applied to them, who yet have no hesitation in betting on a horse race. On this point, " Atticus," of the Leader, says : —" I wonder how many of the men who stand to win or lose hundreds on the events of the next few days would recognise the horses upon which they have laid their money if they saw them quietly ridden down Collins-street? The bookmakers are known well enough, the odds against the horses in singles, doubles, trebles are in everyone's mouth, but the horses themselves are known only to a select few. It is counted gambling if one bets on cards or dice in a game he may know well, but in this game, where not one in a thousand has, except from hearsay, the slightest idea of what the result is likely to be, betting is raised almost to the position of a commercial pursuit." The notorious slaver brig Carl has come to a fitting end, the men engaged in breaking her up at Bluff Harbor having reached the keel. The News says that all over the vessel the breakers-up discovered bullets imbedded in her timbers, and in one part they found that a cannon ball had been through her, an indication that at the date of the Mount and Morris massacre she was not new to the slave trade, and had been an object of chase to one of Her Majesty's cruisers.