LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 708, 2 June 1879, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The steamer City of New York, with the English and American mails, left San Francisco on the 12th May, contract time, and may therefore -be expected to arrive m Auckland to-morrow, a day before contract time. Should the Pretty Jane not have left Auckland, she would probably bring our portion of the mail, otherwise they will be despatched from the Mauukau by the Tairoa to Wellington. The long summer drought and intensely hot days, followed by the long, heavy, searching rains, have told seriously upon many of the earlier built, wooden tenements. Roofs that never leaked before, are leaky now. Wall papers have been damaged lo a great extent, and houses that a few weeks ago were comfortably tenantable are now no longer so. Tenants are insisting upon landlords effecting repairs ; landlords are stubborn, and refuse, and so there are many warnings to quit, and much of general household disturbance. Our readers will bear m mind there is an entertainment this eveniug m the Masonic Hall, by Mr. F. Whitmore Isitt. There is no charge for admission, and front st ats will be reserved for ladies. We are requested by the Secretary of the Football Club to call attention to the advertisement calling a meeting this evening of the members of the Club, at the Masonic Hotel, at 7.30. As set out m the advertisement the business is very important, and the Secretary is anxious that all members should put m an appearance. Messrs. Ferris and Pitt announce that m consequence of the sale of the Patutahi sections taking place on the 10th inst., their advertised sale of lambs, &c, has been postponed until the 12th. The usual monthly meeting of the L.0.L., Star of Gisborne, No. 407, will be held m Messrs Ferris and Pitt's Store, on Friday evening next, instead of Thursday, on account of the Presbyterian Church soiree taking place on the lastnamed evening. The members of the N.Z. Artillery Regiment, J Battery, are summoned to parade at Makaraka Hall to-morrow evening at 7 o'clock. The heavy rains have been followed by serious consequences. The country, m the vicinity of the Waipaoa punt, has been so flooded that the approaches have been washed away, and as will be seeu by our advertising columns, the punt cannot be worked. Mr. S. M. Wilson offers a superior lot of well-seasoned firewood at a price which we have no doubt will effect a speedy sale. House-holders who study economy will please consult the advertisement m another column. " Bridget," said a lady to her cook, "you can bring up the tomatoes undressed, when my husband comes home to dinner." When dinner was served, to the astonishmet of the gentleman and the horror of her mistress, Bridget appeared with tomatoes m her bare feet, and nothing on but a solitary abbreviated garment of a mjst primitive description. " What on earth do you mean?" gasped the lady. " What do I mane," cried Bridget ; " and shure, martn, ye toulcl me to sarve tomatets undressed, but divil another atitch will I take off, if i lave my place this blissud minute." \ '

One of the arrivals by the ship Boyne was recently quartered at the Immigration Barracks at Ashburton. Taking a glass of ale the other day with an acquaintance m the town, he was asked how he fared while living at the barracks. " Oh," said he, "it was dull enough, and then the food ! nothing but bread and tucker ; bread and tucker at every meal." " But what do you call tucker ?" inquired his companion, not a little amused. " Why, meat of course, " replied the new chum, with a bewildered look. At a coroner's inquest held a few days ago at Christchurch, a woman named Bridget Gillespie atated that she had viewed the body of deceased, and could indentify him as her brother, Michael Murray, although she had not 1 seen him alive tor thirty years, nor was she previously aware lie was m the colony. She protested that her knowledge that deceased had left property m Wellington had nothing to do with her power of being able to identify him after a lapse of thirty years. She was sure deceasedx was her brother, as his features closely resembled what they were when she remembered him at the age of twenty-one. It was pointed out that Murray gave his name as William, and age forty-tive, whereas the witness stated his name to be Michael, and his age fifty-one ; but still the woman was not to be shaken m her belief, and persisted m her assertion that the body she had just seen was none other than her brother. Of course, the coroner " took it all m."