LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue VI, 7 March 1879, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There is rather an important advertise* ment by the County Clerk m our columns this evening. It will be seen thereby that those who defer paying their rates till after the 31st March, will lose their ratepayers qualification to be put on the Electoral Roll of the distriot ; and will consequently lose their votes. We should strongly recommend our readers to pay at once. The rate comes to no more if paid at once, than if paid a month hence ; and present payment has these advantages, the payer retains his qualification, and he saves legal expenses. * A large number of Maoris were m town to-day, their object being to adjust some disputed land m the vicinity of Waeranga-a-hika. In the present issue we publish the revised Bye-laws of the Borough Council, which were passed last night, and which will become force of law, within the legal time, after having received the assent of His Excellency the Governor-uvCouncil. The consecration of ihe Nesbitt Lodge, I. C, will take place this evening, m the New Freemasons' Hall, after which follows the installation of officers. The members of both lodges, and visiting brethren, are expected to be present. The sum of £3094 0s lOd was lately m one day collected as duty on goods at the Dunedin Custom-House, and £2250 15s lid of that amount was on drapery alone. An amusing case was recently heard m one of our District Courts m which two theatricals personages were involved. It transpired m evidence that a panorama •was used for a year's representation of the Indian mutiny. After being somewhat altered it did duty recently as a representation of the Russo-Turkish war, and proved unsuccessful m the provinces, where the audiences refused to accept the appearance of the Highlanders, elephants, and Sepoys as historically accurate. There was no small excitement (says the Napier Telegraph) among sporting circles on Friday when it was known that the race-horse Otupai belonging to Renata Kawepo had been seized for debt at the suit of the Brothers Donnelly, and thereby placed out of training for the -Hawke's Bay Cup to be run for on the 17th. of March. We are glad to state that, as far as Otupai is concerned, the bailiffs have been satisfied, and measures have been taken to keep the favourite m training. Among the Zulus, a nation of Caffres, according to etiquette, the mother-in-law, cannot face the son-io-law, but must hide, or pretend to hide when she sees him, In this country the custom is reversed. It is the son-in-law who does the dodging. Private letters received m Wellington state that Mr. R. J. Creighton formerly editor of the Southern Cross, Otago Guardian, and New Zealand Times, and who is now running a journal at San Francisco, and Acting Agent for the New Zealand Government, was offered the editorship of the New Zealand Herald, but declined the appointmentr He purposes shortly to visit New Zealand, but will return to 'Frisco. The Oamaru Harbour Board have prepared a statement showing the number of shipping casualities which have occurred m this port off Oamaru during the past 18 years. The number of total is 26 ; number stranded and got off, 13 ; total, 33. For the last three years there has not been a single casuality, and there was only one m the proceeding year, 1875. This state of affairs is to be attributed to the fact that since 1875 the breakwater has been sufficiently far advanced to offer protection to nearly all kinds of shipping. Special telegrams from Hongkong . state that China has not escaped the commercial depression now being experienced m every quarter of the globe. Several large firms have been declared insolvent at Hongkong with large liabilities.