LOCAL AND GENERAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 631, 20 February 1879, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

At about twenty minutes before 12 o'clock last night the shock of a very severe earthquake passed under Gisborne, and was felt by all who were awake at the time. The shock was one of the heaviest which has been felt In Gisborne for some years, and caused considerable alarm. For at no time does man feel his utter helplessness more than when the rumble of an earthquake is felt under his feet. In hotels the bottles rattled against each other, and so with crockery and glasses in the kitchens and rooms of private dwellings. The quakes lasted from between five and seven seconds, and were in the direction of from east to west. Perhaps the Borough Council, before insisting upon brick buildings being erected in the place of wood, will give some consideration as to what would be the consequences should an earthquake of a more serious nature occur than that of last night. A falling barometer this morning with a shift of wind this afternoon, gives all the indications of a coming storm. Bain is still greatly needed for the country, and farmers will look anxiously for a coming downpour. We are glad to learn that fever cases are less frequent since the last rain, which have been followed by cool, bracing nights and mornings. Among the arrivals in the Hawea, yesterday, was the Rev. Bishop of Waiapu, whom, we are given to understand, will preach in the Holy Trinity Church on Sunday next, both in the morning and in the evening. In the morning the Bishop will administer the Holy Communion. As the Bishop is an eloquent and earnest preacher, the congregation no doubt will be overflowing. The Bishop taking the Rev. S. Williams' duty on Sunday morning, will enable the rev. gentleman to hold Divine Service at Mr. C. Evans, Te Ari, on that day, at 11 a.m. We understand that contractors will, in future, insist upon it, as a rule, that mechanics engaged upon wooden erections shall not smoke during the hours they are at work. A very good and wholesome rule indeed, which we shall be glad to see enforced. In the home countries, smoking is not permitted during hours of work. Here, in the Colony, a workman will think nothing of asking his employer for a pipe of his tobacco, going so far at times as to ask for a draw of his pipe. The world is topsy-turving at this end of it. Tenders are called for by the. County Engineer for painting -and tarring the Waipaoa Bridge. Tenders are to be deposited not later than 7.'20 p.m. to-morrow (Friday). Tenders are required by the Engineer to the Poverty Bay Highway Board, for form* ing and levelling that part of Pouparae Road between Mr. Hardy's house and Waerenga-a-hika Corner. Tenders are to be addressed to the Chairman of the Board, Matawhero, not later than the Ist March. Elsewhere, Mr. Good, watchmaker, announces that he has commenced business "On the Ashes," in the Gladstone Road. "On the Ashes " is the site of his former premises. We could say something about the present building having risen, phrenixlike, out of the old one, but we are under a sort of impression that, at some one time or another of our existence, we have heard a similar sort of remark. The simile is much too exquisite for our poor inventive faculties. When the few courses of bricks, which it was thought advisable to remove from Mr. Adair's store, were examined, the bricks were found to be quite uninjured, in fact rather better than otherwise from the extra baking they had received. Severe contests between the police and roughs of Melbourne appear to be of daily occurence. One affray on the 27th was caused by the police going to the rescue of two women, whom the men were illusing, in Little Bourke street early in the evening. A mob soon gathered, and serious wounds were received on both sides, the women being eventually rescued, and three of the men arrested. A Glasgow paper gives a list of upwards of 150 failures in Glasgow and the West of Scotland directly and indirectly traceable to the stoppage of the City of Glasgow Bank. The total liabilities of the Scotch firms who have been dragged down are £25,000,000. The value of the capital of the Scotch banks on October Ist was £24,000,000. The value on Saturday 16th November, was £19,000,000. Lately, in Dunedin, Mr. Robinson, a j negro bottle gatherer, was brought up for | vagrancy, and discharged, on promising to clean himself. The police had arrested him solely that he might be shampooed in gaol. A disagreeable woman in Dorset has presented her husband with five children at one fell swoop — a boy and four girls. Her husband was in treaty for a free passage to New Zealand for himself and family, when the accident occurred. The Wellington Post observes— "That Walsh (the Invercargill wife murderer) was righteously convicted no one who read the evidence given at the trial could well doubt. The murder was a brutal and unprovoked one, and so long as such offences are i>unishable by death, there was no possible reason why the penalty should not be inflicted in this case. When people learned that a reprieve had been granted, they were naturally astonished ; and this feeling was increased when the Government organ came out with an elaborate defence of the merciful tendencies of the present Ministry, the Premier especially. Certainly, the "quality of mercy is not strained," but the mercy of keeping an unfortunate human being, even a murderer, in an agony of suspense for about a month, very much resembles the mercy of the man who cut a little bit off his dog's tail every day, as it would be cruel to cut it all off at once. There has really been a refinement of cruelty in the vacillation and delay apparent on the part of the Ministers in this case. Their conduct appears inexcusable, and it is evident that a most serious miscarriage of justice was only narrowly escaped.

Poor Mr. Luckie's appointment to the Couimissionership of Annuities is still hanging fire (says the writer of Notes in the Timaru Heaald), and it seems very doubtful whether the "journalist of long standing" will get the plum of the Civil Service after all. The piesent Ministry do such extraordinary things, that we are never much surprised now to hear of the most eccentric proceeding on their part ; . but in this case they have done what they very rarely do. It seems certain that the Commissioner of Annuities, one of the most important posts in the patronage of the Government, with a salary attached to it of £800 a-year, waa disposed of by some of the Ministers who happened to be in Wellington, without the Premier being consulted at all. Before it was gazetted, however, though not before Mr. Luckie had installed himself in his office, down came .Sir George Grey from the North, and put a stop to the whole thing. The Wellingtou papers say that on the Premier, refusing to allow the appointment to be' made, Mr. Luckie offered to take it at £500 a year instead of £800— a system of Dutch auction, which is decidedly a novelty in public patronage. We shall have the Government next advertising ''Billets for Sale," in their organs — "To old journalists and Ministerial supporters generally. For sale, to the lowest bidder, a good fat Sinecure. Nothing to do, and plenty of clerks to do it. Private office, smoking and lunch allowed. Apply to the Min- : ister on duty at the seat of Government." At the forthcoming Horticultural Society's Show at Christchurch the principle will be introduced of admission by tickets entitling the holder to a chance in a lottery for a pot of plants. A bank deposit receipt for £100 was found blowing about in Colombo-street, Christchurch, this week. The owner was eventually found, and the " picker up " of this unconsidered trifle received a handsome present. .