The Oamaru Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1211, 4 March 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1880.

The Oamaru Waterworks Loan has been floated at LlO4 gross. Yesterday afternoon a deputation from the High School waited upon Miss Cleary, the late matron, bearing with them an excellent marble timepiece 3nd ornament, purchased by the subscriptions of her late pupils and fellow teachers. With the gift was the following letter of presentation from the rector: —"High School, Oamarn, 3rd March, ISSO. Miss Louisa C. Cleary— Dear Madam,—l have been requested by yoar late pupils and fello\v teachers to hand to you the accompanying present as an indication of the love and esteem which they have for you, and as a remembrancer to you of the long and happy connection which you have had with the High School of Oamaru. I have also, on their behalf, to wish you: happiness, health, and success in whatsoever sphere you may hereafter be. I am, &c, Robert Peattie, Rector." Miss Cleary feelingly and appropriately thanked the deputation. The timepiece was supplied by Mr. T. Scllar, Thames-street. • We have good news for the lovers of Bport and friends of acclimatisation. In the Upper Waitaki County, somewhere in the vicinity of iMon.cn Hills, a herd of about 60 deer has been sfeen by an Oamaru gentleman who lias just returned from that locality. They have chosen a spot for their haunts seldom visited by man, and just sufficiently inaccessible to be tempting to the sportsman. But it is to be hoped that he will restrain any temptation to make havoc amongst them until they have become so thoroughly established that there will be no danger of their becoming extinct. It is probable that the herd that our informant has seen has grown out of a small number of these animals that were supplied to Mr. John M'Lean by the Acclimatisation Society-, and let loose in the Morven Hills station several years ago. The monthly meeting of the Committee of the North Otago Horticultural Society was held at Mr. Earl's rooms last evening, when there were present —Dr. de Lautour (in the chair), Messrs. Earle, Forsyth, Hartley, Lemon, Montagu, and Spratt (hon. sec.) After some discussion it was resolved to hold the autumn show on Saturday, the •20th instant, and it was decided that bylaw No. 1, having reference to the time that exhibits should be in the possession of exhibitors before they could be entered for competition, should be strictly adhered to, and that a special meeting should be held on the 16th" instant, to make arrangements for the show. ~ , , • Mr. Arthur Sketchley, the accomplished and versatile humorist and lecturer, will appear at the Volunteer Hall this evening, I andtell us all about the eccentric sayings and doings of the celebrated Mrs. Brown] of his own creation. .We have not heard; Mr. Sketchley, but we have the authority of some of the leading papers of the world for saying that his entertainments are irresistibly funny whilst they are devoid of any approach to the vulgarity which is unfortunately too often an adjunct of modern 1 humor. Perhaps we should add that the subject matter of this evening's lectare has not yet been published, except in volume form. ' ■ At the Kesident Magistrates Court to»-| day, before T. W, Parker, Esq, R.M., | William Copland, for allowing four horses to wander at large, was fined l/ss. John Hamie and John Campbell were charged with drunkenness, the former being fined ( ss, while the latter was discharged with a caution. The charge against Stewart Doig, J. Anderson, and J. Scott was further adjourned till Thursday next on account of the absence of Mr. Hamersley, who • was! engaged at the Supreme Court, Timarn. Henry Collingwood, alias James Hartley, on remand, was charged with feloniously receiving from Samuel jN'ewey the sum of L 5 by means of a valueless cheque. Inspector Thompson, who prosecuted, atated that the case had been adjourned to allow of accused nroducins: a letter of .advice which he said he £52. got Irom lionie. XUe «/ssjrua hka every assistance to obtain the letter, when accused told him he had lost it. He wa3 sentenced to four months' imprisonment with hard labor in the Dunedin Gaol. George Thorpe was charged with indecently assaulting one Ellen George, the wife of John George, on the 13th February, at Wbitstone. On the application of Mr. Newton, who appeared for the accused, the case was remanded till to-morrow, bail being allowed. . An analysis of the South Australian Register's harvest returns for the Colony of 6o»th Australi* shows that the area reaped was 1,480,910 acres, and the average yield 14 bushels, leaving 361,572 tons for export. Rain ha 3 been generally heavy in the north. The railway lines were injured at Walsely and Hamley bridge. There are now on exhibition .in the window of Mr. C. G. Moore's establishment, six glass "supers" full of £he most .delicious honey we have ever seen,; The honey was collected by attaching them to Neighbor's patent bee-hives, which have rained such celebrity. Judging from what Mr. Moore has to show, the method of collecting honey invented by Mr. Neighbor is perfect in every re'-pect. There is not the slightest impurity of any kind visible in these " supers, ! ' the bee-bread «id lavaj being deposited in tbehive itself. Apiarfcns, and all interested in the collection or eating of honey should not losa the present opportunity of inspecting this wonderful improvement" in the apiarian art. Amongst the New Zealand exhibits nf. the Sydney Exhibition is a quantity of cod-liver oil from Messrs. Elder and Innes, of Port, Chalmers. Tiiey have received np award,' although it looks just as good as the best; imported- We are afraid that the judges: dirt not taste it. —f , The drawing np of a special- report on the international wool exhibits has been entrusted to Messrs. J, H. Cox, W. Richardson, Abbott (of Mart and Co.), and Moss. The report will be mainly of an educational character, the chief object being rather to show how the best results may be obtained under special circumstances, than to critically compare the samples shown.Mr. Skuthorpe, the squatter, whose name has been mentioned in connection with the discovery of Olasaett, has .arrived at St. George, Queensland. Ha states that two half-caste oris, and a toothless roan pony branded JW near the shoulder, kaye been brouebt in by him from the Mulligan country. The children are believed to to, descendants of Classen, the brother-in-law of the explorer Leichar/lt, The following from the special correspondent of the Lyttelton Time* corroborates our statement in last night's issne th,a.t the. Government had extended charitable *jd to' those of the Wellington unemployed *hdtj they have sent to do road-making on the, Waimate Plains; —"The forces here now number upwards of 300. Fully 75 per cent, of the ' unemployed' «ait up are physically unfitted for bard work upon the roads, and as Bhowing the absurdity of their presence here, it may be mentioned that white these incapables are out on the roads,, between 20 and 30 Constabulary, who would otherwise also be at work road-making, arexe/jnu-ed to: act as a covering party by day, and sentries at night. Not only is the labor of these able-bodied men lost, but between 20 and 30 men, earning 6s 6d per day, are unremuneratively employed to guard a number whose rste of pay is 3s per day, and who are phyjtically incapable of getting through the same flinountof work hi a j>iven time as could Iks done by the Constabulary engaged in 'guarding tliem. Quite apart from the ' element of weakness that has been imparted i to our position on the Plains by the advent of this useless eu?wd, it will lie seen that a 'dead loss is incurred, to the Government, and that the progress of road-inaking will | be actually impeded. | A Spanish newspaper tluus states the origin of the war between Chili and Peru and Bolivia :—"Chili ceded to Bolivia, fcy a treaty most favorable to the Bolivians, the territory of Antofogasta., Naturally, as in the case of all contract*, this treaty, was subject to certain conditions, tj» jion-com.-pliance with which would make the eame uull and void. Bolivia, in»tigoted by Bej", jhowed herself ungrateful, and an appeal tft tlie sword had to be made by Chili, after all means at her disposal had been usc/j to avoid a war. .... God and her Bonn hare saved her, and out of this war, unlucky at its commencement for Chili, South America will come completely changed. This change ia demanded by a progressive

planet. The roadways to the capital of Peru (Lima) were open to her forces." "It seems," says theHawke's Bay Hefald, "that, after all, the famons white terrace at Rotomahana has become discolored. It will be remembered that a short time ago we reprinted a statement by the Waikato Times to a similar effect, but the Bay of Plenty Times flatly denied that the terrace had undergone any alteration. Our Taupo correspondent, who resides near the terrace, now telegraphs that the discoloration is an actual fact, and he ascribes it to the action of oxide of iron contained in the water. We believe that the terrace has now assumed a pinkish hne. We lately chronicled the death of a stout centenarian in the Island of Skye, an old woman; but the really " oldest inhabitant now dead, and she, too, was Scotch. Mrs. Margaret Kobertson, or Duncan, died ;two days since at Coupar Angus, in her 107 th year. She was boni in Glenehee, we-.are, told, in 1773, and had lived under the reigns of three British Kings and one Queen. Until about six or eight years ago she retained possession of all her faculties, but then she became blind, and about a year since bedridden. She was very intelligent, it is stated, and talked in terms of becoming scorn of the poor feeble creatures who could not manage to live longer than a paltry eighty or ninety years, which she declared was "nae age ava." (Anglice, "at all.") But how did this seasoned old dame, it may be asked, manage to "top" the century in longevity? For one .thing, she. was a devoted smoker. The clay pipe was constantly in her mouth, and she repudiated the notion that it could do her any harm. When spoken to about the injurious effects of the tobacco, her invariable answer was, "I've smoked a' my days. It's had plenty time to dae me ill, and it's never soehf (sought). Mrs. Duncan's deduction from her long experience will be admitted to be perfectly sound, and every smoker will refer with pride to the tough old lady of Coupar Angus as a conclusive proof of the antiseptic properties of bis favored weed.—London Telegraph.