LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 200, 11 December 1876, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

We understand that there are still two married couples and seven single men at the Immigration Barracks -who are not yet engaged. A severe shock of earthquake was felt today about ten minutes past twop m., causing a tremulous vibration of the ground to be felt for some seconds afterwards. It formed the chief topic of conversation this afternoon, but we have not yet heard of any damage being done. It will be seen by advertisement that we are to have a visit from Bachelder's Pantascope of the Pacific Mail Route, which will commence a short season at the Masonic Hall to-morrow evening The exhibition, we understand, is a capital one, and besides the panorama embraces two clever trapezists, who stand upon their heads on a rope while it is in foil swing.

A match has been arranged between the Oatnaru and Timaru Grammar School Cricket Clubs, to be played at Waimate on Saturday, 16th inst. The match Committee have selected the folio win g'xplayers to represent the QamaraxGrammar ' School:— Smith, "Rice, Davidson, Hewart, G. Fenwick, Spence, Craig, Church, Todd, Hardy, and Grey. Mr. W. C. Armitage will act as scorer. The Oaniani players have their work before them if ihey mean to go in and win, as the Timaru players are known to be crack batsmen, and nothing can come near them in the way of fielding. As the fielding of our local team is very loose, we would advise them to pay particular attention to this fact, and attend practice regularly every afternoon. As a proof of what members of the Fourth Estate have occasionally to contend against in catering for the public, we clip the following from the Grey River Argus: —"Although the local papers have most religiously abstained from any exaggerated account of the Kumara diggings, and have endeavored to prevent a ' rush,' they are still liable to accusations. Some years ago the office of this paper had to be protected by armed police against the possible realisation of the threats made by a body of indignant and unreasonable miners, because certain information published in good faith had been a little overcolored by an enthusiastic reporter ; and the then and present editor was solemnly fined £IOO at a public meeting, which he witnessed in the calmest manner from the top of a boulder on Cobdeu's shore. Now it appears we are threatened with another exhibition of the great affection with which disappointed diggers regard newspapers. We received the following by post yesterday :—' Sir, —If it was not for you and your damd paper, I would never have never have left my claim and now I am a wanderer you have a dale to answer for some of those days for your skitting and blowing.—From John M'Turk, late of "Waitahuny, Otagy.' " The Hurunui, a fine vessel belonging to the New Zealand Shipping Company, and well found in every respect, started out in October for Wellington, !New Zealand, with a large number of immigrants on board (says the Rome News). Scarlet fever broke out the day after her departure, the ship went into Weymouth, and two families were landed. The Hurunui then went on to Plymouth, and in the interval, as might be expected, four fresh cases occurred. As a natural consecpience, these unfortunate emigrants have been turned out of their ship into a Government hulk lent for the purpose, and will in all probability be detained at h at least a fortnight. The question ar —conld the disease have been discovered at Gravesend when the medical examination took place before starting ? The Government tariff for medical inspection of immigrants is rather more than per head, or in roun<- numbers 20s. "for every lOOpersonsso examined." So reads the Act. Those who witness the inspection at 2.f d. per head can best tell whether such an examination is, medically speaking, protective in any way or not. If not the New Zealand emigration "events" of the past two years reflect very discreditably upon the Board of Trade, and tend most materially to discountenance a system of emigration that has been and is assuming very healthy proportions.

Dr. Spencer and Colonel "Whitmore have both written to the New Zealand Times to correct the assertions made by that journal respecting the circumstances in life, the death and burial of the late Cjlonal Fadly. Cjloael Wnitmire states that Colonel Faddy, lata R >yal Artillery, was a year ago in so miserable a stats of poverty and destitution in Loa lon as fcD be covered with sores and vermin from heal to foot, and to be compelled to sleep on doorsteps or the baskets of Covent Garden. From this pitiable state I rescued him, feeding and clothing him, givinghini a little money and collecting more, which I placed in the hands of Canon Nisbet, Eector of St. Giles, for his use. Further than thi3, I wrote to hi 3 father and induced him, in spite of his well-grounded resentment, to make him a weekly allowance of 503. Colonel Faddy called on my wife a day or two before I left for New Zealand, and expressed his warm gratitude for my kindness, and said he was now fairly off my hands. Dr. Spencer says : —"I knew nothing of Colonel Faddy previously to his arrival at Napier. I saw him the day he landed with his two boys, half starved and wretched. A few weeks after I wa3 asked to see him at the house of a Mrs. Palin, where I ascertained he was lodged and boarded at the expense of Colonel Whitmore. He and his children remained with Mrs. Palin until she informed me she could keep him no longer. I then procured an admission ticket for him to the Provincial Hospital, where, after a shore illness, he died, not of a broken heart, but of senile debility and bronchitis. Dying, as he did, friendless and penniless in the public hospital, he was of course only enitleJ to th.3 funsral of a pauper. A few riends, however, attributed funds to give him a funeral as befitting his rank and posi- | tion as wa3 possible in a little town like Napier." Through the influence of Colonel Whitmore and Captain Russell, Dr. Spencer procured an order for the boys admission to the training ship at Auckland, but Mrs. Palin refused to part with the boys.

A rathergood story (says the Greymouty Starj is told concerning a member of the. learned profession, who has strong religious tendencies. While defending a sly-grog seller lately, in a Court not more than a thousand mile from Kumara, he evidently lost his temper with^he-jsresiding.Justice, who appeared to hold too much with the informer, for he at length exclaimed : " Why, your Worship, you take the word of these two scoundrels, these purjured villains, against that of honest men. I verily believe that, were it, possible, you would take the word of the Devil himself against that of the arch" angel Gabriel." The Magistrate smiled, and didn't seem to care a button about the strong simile. I don't venture (writes on racing tips myself—before the event. Little Mully in Sydney did. A friend asked him his real opinion about the Cup. Mully sent it by wire thus : " I think the ' Stew,' "With 'Spark' and 'Feu,' Might fill the forward places : But Wilson James, Plays funny games, And he might win with ' Briseis.'" A cruel practical joke was played off at a regatta at Opotiki the other. The whaleboat that was confidently expected to be first in a certain race only came in a bad third, though her crew was most decidedly the best of those competing. Subsequently to the race the mystery was- explained. Some ingenious gentleman had nailed a kerosene tin to the bottom of the boat.