LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 255, 15 February 1877, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tlit? greater portion of the forenoon was occupied at the Potiee Court with the hearing of a charge of bestiality preferred against i a man named William Brown. The evidence (which was unfit for publication) was most concdasive aa to the perpetration of the crime, and the prisoner was fully committed to take his trial at the Supreme Court, Duu--1 edin. The many friends of Mr. A. Y. Smith will regret to hear that he is ahottt to leave , the district* having received the appoint- : meat of Commercial Master to the High ■ School. Ilttrtediit. for which there were four application a. Mr. Smith * testimonials, as read before the Education Board yesterday. show that he has been a master in the i Oamartt School for the past five years, having been for about two years previously ; master of the Main School at Wiihola fJorge, and that he had been educated at the Grammar School, Kelso; the Scottish Institute. Edinburgh : and University College, London. I>r. Carr gave a repetition of his fr'nitce in the Masonic Hall last evening, and although : not so well attended as on previous evenings, there was a very fair hottse. A number of subjects went up on the stage to have their bumps mantptrtatfd. and the various readings of characters gave great amusement to the audience. The doctor managed during the mesmeric portion of the programme to secure an fxeeltent subject in th? person of Mr. Heavy Aitken's .dark, the: fxvtn-jt l*.<. of who-.: auti'j-s put to tltght any latent doubt .'i-i to the genuineness of the me-mtcric inthteuc?. There- wilt b<j no entertainment tonight, but the Sf.tw,-- will he repeated tomorrow evening. By a stupid bttindor—the futtti, however, of the reporter, and not of the printer—it wa-- stated in our last night's issue that the Hera had arrived from Ilobart Town. whereas it should have been Newcastle. At mid-day the Carron put in an appearance, and a F.anvt> v . supposed to W the William triffnrd.. stood in for the harbor early thi--morntng. but the breeze freshening from the north she put oat to sea again. From a special tet-grwn in another column it wilt be seen that there wilt be no disappointment on Saturday with the cricket match, as the Punedtn team has been selected, and leave town to-morrow. The latest number of the Gnvmnt'ttl C'ai.! zi'tt* contains the following notification : I "That Robert Thomson, Sttb-collector of Customs at, Oamaru, has been appointed to have, esercise, and perform, within the Provincial district of Otago. all the powers, ditties, and functions whb"h immediately befom the abolition of the Province formerly mcfuded within the-said district were vested in. or might be exercised or performed by. the Superintendent of the said Province, under the pi:ovi*t>>ns of an Ordinance of the Provincial Count-d of the said Proviince, shortly intituled 'The Licensed Auctioneers Ordinance. IS'.!-.' " Tho*e- who have read Captain Marryatt's* " Midddpman Easy." will remember .lack's celebrated apology to the Purser, .lack had said of his superior officer that " he was not tit to carry guts to a bear." but upon the Captain demanding that discipline should be maintained, and an apology made before the who to- ship's company, it was tendered in the following manner :—" I said that the purser wa* unfit to carry gnts to a bear. 1 regret assertion, which is not true in fact, and I now gladly retract it. and publicly acknowledge that that gentleman is admirably fitted for carrying guts to a bear." The editor of the Atytt* has evidently borrowed the hint from the great novelist, for he says •. —" A correspondent informs us that we were altogether misinformed as to the presentation of a letter of thanks to Mr. Towsey by the St. Paul's Vestry-. We make the correction with the greatest possible regret. When it was stated in our issue of Monduy that Mr. Towscy had been presented with a letter of thanks it was felt that the vestry had heeu thoughtful and considerate, if not generous, and the simple act was taken to prove ' that no smallminded itittuenees had Wen permitted to intercept the tribute due to a talented man.' It now seems that the Vestry were neither thoughtful, considerate, nor generous, and that the 'small-minded influences* Awry prevented the simple recognition which would have been so gratifying to Mr. Towscy. We

have now before us the naked fact that Mr. Towsey, the most accomplished organist in New Zealand, came to Wellington from Dunedin to give idiit to the organ festival, that he conducted the recitals and church services in a manner that gave the highest satisfaction, and then was permitted to depart without receiving the merest official acknowledgment from the Vestry." The English cricketers have not by any means been happy in their Antipodean tour. In Australia, where there are some really excellent club.-rf they cut but a sorry figure, and their boasted vast superiority over the Colonials was a perfect myth. Since their advent in New Zealand the conduct of their agent, Mr. Bennett, has not been such as to make the team popular, and their opening act in grossly breaking faith with Greymouth, was not calculated to raise them in the eyes of the public. We find now there is a hitch in the Wanganui match, for it is stated that the Wanganui cricketers have paid £IOO to get out of the Wanganui cricket match, in consequence of a disagreement amongst themselves, but Wanganui men in Wellington deny this, and say the fault rests with the English Eleven. Wc t.tke the following from the Mount f/.hi Chronkk : —" The following case was heard at J'aseby on Friday, the 2nd inst., before H. W. Robinson, Esq., R.M. :—E. T. George »*. L. W. Busch—lnformation that defendant being Mayor of the incorporated Town of Naseby did absent himself from meetings of the Council for more than one calendar month, to wit between the 17th of November and the ISth of December last without the leave of the Council, thereby rendering himself liable to a penalty not exceeding £SO. Mr. Rowlatt for plaintiff. Defendant conducted his own case, and, after some preliminary objections, pleaded 'not guilty.' The Town Clerk, on being examined as a witness produced the Council minute book, by which it appeared tint there h~<\ been two ordinary meetings of the Council sum noricd between the 16th November and the ISth Deeonib'-r, at both of v.hich the Mayor was absent, the meetings lapsing in coii-.equence. Two councillors (Messrs. Ceorg-j and Rowlatt) gave evidence to the effect that the Mayor had on various ocea-ioris stated, to them that he would not attend any meeting of the Council in the daytime. This the defendant emphatically denied. Other witnesses were c.illed, and, after a lengthy investigation, the Magistrate s.'dd lie thought the c:;-e clearly proved ; but as a h..avy {is.nK.iy w.u; not pivs.scd for, and as it had been admitted that the Mayor had ' been very :;-::idi!oU* i:> the discharge of hi;; duties, he would rmo him in the mirig.itcd penalty of2 K; costs of Court, S-.; one witness, 2U.i.; and professional fee, £2 2s.—in all it JO.?. Some idea of how much the rabbit tribe have increased in this quarter may be gathered from what has been done in the way of destroying them. Since the work has commenced one oivj station in Southland (says the SnnUihin>l A'"'--) the proprietor has Kent off as a marketable commodity the tidy lot of :3H.(l;;ti ski;is, while the carcases from which they were taken have richly manured his ground. The price lie pays for massacrcing " bunny" is 2d. per head, so that he has disbursed the sum of i'2,ji) at lea->t, but, as \v: gets Id. each for tho skins in Melbourne, the cost is reduced one-half. A3 it is reckoned that four rabbits will consume what would fat ecu one sheep, room will be made for about 7,05'0, a result which might be satisfactory if "bunny" did not apparently spring n:> again as fa*t as he is put ; down.