LOCAL AND GENERAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 627, 15 February 1879, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A meeting of the members of the Poverty Bay Club was held at the Masonic Hotel yesterday evening. There was a large attendance. A committee was appointed to take the necessary action to secure premises for the use of the Club, and to report to a meeting of members to be held next week.

Our enterprising fellow-townsman, Capt. Porter, has again become sole proprietor of the Masonic Hall. It is requested that all rents may be paid to Mr. Piesse. We understand that the Hall is to be enlarged and improved to meet the extended requirements of the district.

"Sermons m stones, ami good m everything." It will be observed, from advertisement m our columns, the Hey. W. L. Salter p\irposes delivering m the Wesleyan Church a sermon having special reference to the late destructive fire m Gisborne. We trust many will attend m response to the advertisement.

Mr. Townley hag again broken his contract. Mr. Adam's shop was to have been finished by daylight this morning, with the first coat of paint on it. Another extension of time having been given, the building is now to be completed by sundown this evening, including the glazing and a panel door.

The vital statistics for the month ending January show 140 deaths for the Christchurch district, the most ever known. The average monthly number formally years past has been about 48, but m February 1876 it reached 90. With that exception, 75 was the- largest number registered m any month, and that season was notoriously sickly, and the population of the district is about the same.

The Rev. Mr. McAra will conduct Divine Service to-inorrow — Ormond, 11 a.m. ; Matawhero, 2.30 p.m. ; St. Andrews, 7 p.m.

The completing of the alterations of the temporary Bank of New Zealand, which has been effected with such marvellous rapidity, is due to the Bank contractors, Messrs. Hughes and Leslie, and the Bank's clerk of the works, Mr. Lerwell. A smarter bit of quick carpentering and joinering, and pulling down and putting up, has not been seen before m the Bay. It will be seen by an official advertisement, which appears m our columns, that the survey of the Gisborne harbor is now being proceeded with. In order to carry on the work, a number of flags and marks will be placed m various parts of the harbor. Any person removing, shifting, or meddling with any of these flags or marks, will subject himself to a penalty of £40.

The notes and silver which the Bank of New Zealand furnished us to-day, for weekly disbursements, were — notes very much scorched and very strongly scented with fire singe. The silver, most of it, quite black from the heat it had been subjected to. We asked our hands whether they would .accept of the notes and silver as payment for wjvges, or whether they would wait a few weeks until the Bank received new notes from London, and bright silver from the English mint. The compositors thought they would rather not wait.

Here is a " wrinkle " for the Land Tax gatherer, which he can make use of or not just as he likes. The owner of a block of land situated within a hundred miles of any given point of the Wellington- Wairarailway line (Valley section) had 'occasion some months ago to value his sections m view of an appropriation made for railway extension purposes. £27 sterling per acre was the sum put down on that occasion. Two or three days before yesterday the same authority was reqnired to put a valuation on the same property for land tax purposes, and he set it downat the modest sum of £2 per acre. Comment on transaction of this sort (says the Carterfcon Guardian) is surely not necessary. A serious charge of conspiracy was made against Henry Smith, lately managing clerk to Messrs Adamson and Ronaldson, ship-brokers and owners, of Leadenhall street, and Oliver Robert Strickland, manager to the New Zealand Shipping Company. This case (says the European Mail) has been several times under investigation. The specific charges against the defendants was that Smith, who was employed by|the prosecutors as chartering clerk, having been engaged m 1875 m chartering three vessels for the, named the Caller Ou, the Dilpussund, and the Lauctua, of the New Zealand Shipping Company, had made an arrangement with the other defendant, Strickland, that onefourth of the commission chargeable on those vessels should be divided betweeu them, the prosecutors alleging that they had been defrauded of the amount so paid. The answer to the charge appeared to be that what had been done was a common practice m the shipping trade, and that prosecutors themselves had on several occasions done the same thing ; but it was also proved that the defendant Smith had admitted that he had done wrong, and entreated the firm to take him back to his employment. Mr. Wontner having intimated that the case for the prosecution was conoluded, the learned councel for the defendants addressed the Lord Mayor m their behalf, and they argued that the charge of conspiracy entirely failed m proof, and as regarded Strickland m particular there had not been the slightest attempt at concealment, and that every one of the transactions was fully recorded m the books of the New Zealand Shipping Company, and anyone who chose connected with the company might have become acquainted with all that had taken place. The Lord Mayor, after a long investigation, decided upon dismissing the charge against both defendants, and said that Mr. Strickland left the Court without any stain on his character! There was loud applause at the result.