LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 664, 31 March 1879, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

We beg .to call the attention of < subscribers and advertisers to the circumstance that their accounts will be presented or forwarded to them during the currency of the week, which we trust will be received with a prompt recognition. Our scale of charges and our subscription are both too low to allow of long credit. A newspaper proprietary have to. meet all outgoings by cash payments, and unless accounts due from customers be paid within reasonable time, this would be an impossibility, unless by an unfair draw upon their resources. Will our customers take this into their consideration ? A Gazette notice is published giving the time for the shooting season m our district to be from Ist April (to-morrow) until 31st J^y» .•■..-.. A meeting of the Waerenga-a-hika Jockey Club, will be held to-morrow evening, at Mr. J. S. Cooper's Hotgl. Mr. George Wilson's lecture, on" Land Tensure Reform League," will be delivered this evening m the Masonic Hall, commencing at 8 o'clock. The lecturer is a comparative stranger to the district ; but we think wo know enough of the gentleman which will allow us to say that those who are present this evening are likely to receive both instruction, amusement, and food for abundant reflection. There will be no charge for admission. It is notified elsewhere, that instruction m the field piece drill will be given to the members of J. Battevy, New Zealand Volunteer Artillery, at Makaraka, to-mor-row evening, It ia requested that the attendance will be good, as this drill will commence the system of Battery instruction for the new financial year. Hitherto, we learn, that the Battery has been laboring under peculiar difficulties m the way of proper organisation ; now we are glad to be informed that measures are being adopted by Captain Porter, the officer commanding, with the assistance of the instructor, who has kindly placed his knowledge of gunnery, and a moiety of his time, at the disposal of the corps, to place the battery upon a proper footing without delay. The Variety Troupe, on Saturday evening, gave- an entertainment, which quite fell m with the tastes of people who, ever at the close of each week, look forward to an amusement, which while it diverts, does not tire or exhaust the patience. The singing was really exceptionally good ; the songs popular ; the airs all well-known favorites to the ear, and by the best composers. The chief recommendation of the entertainment consisted m nothing being too long. There were no pauses between each song. One effort quickly succeeded another, until the programme concluded. Miss Stewart m her rClc, Mr. Sceats m his, Mr. Smart, as banjoist and vocalist ; sometimes both together, and sometimes separately, Mr. Vaudy m sentiment song, all combined to make up an excellent night's divertisement. The hall Avas well filled ; the audience appreciative, and there was no hitch. Such entertainments will help to fill a gap between " Saturday evening and bed time, which is really all that can be looked for m a cheap . entertainment. Mr. Charles Bright, Free Thought lecturer, comes to Gisborne, so we read m the columns of a Wellington contemporary. Well, we would wish Mr. Bright would stay away. We would much prefer any day to witness the antics of a negro minstrel troupe, to the atheistical utterances of men who, for the sake of earning a lazy living, would unsettle the minds of the unthinking and unreflecting. The Government have completed negotiations for the acquisition of a block of 00,000 acrea of fine land m the Taupo district, known as the middle Tawhara block.

A bankruptcy at Bulls is thus Chronicled by the local journal : — C. Crocker, of Bulls, has also taken the first degree, and m due course will be admitted as an affiliated member of the honorable order of insol- | vents. The present Lord 'Mayor of London has made himself unprecedeutecUy unpopular. Seventy-nino sacks of flour, each adulterated. 70 per eeut. with plaster of Paris, were brought to be condemned. In spite of clear and irrefragible evidence, Sir C. Weth.un refused. The Medical Officer of Health very properly brought the matter before the Sewers Commission, and at the same time exhibited nn ass's head formed out of the so called (lour. The time table for the Union Steam Slapping Company, for April,, is an improvement upon those which proceeded it, and contains a much larger amount of useful information. In a Gazette of 21st inst. twenty-two new Justices of the Peace are gazetted. In the same publication the dismissal of Mr. H. Jackson, late Chief Surveyor, is notified. The circumstances that have given rise to the dismissal are already familiar to our readers. Regulations for the management of Penny Savings Banks, twenty-two m number, are gazetted and are now m force. These banks are solely for the use of children attending the public schools. Interest will be allowed to every depositor, and the 21st regulation says : — Strict secracy must be observed regarding all deposits." We very much doubt whether this commandment will be observed, but its promulgation can do no harm. . All the books necessary for carrying on the savings banks m connection with the public schools will be forwarded by the Government to the Education Boards during the current week.