LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 832, 11 July 1879, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

We are requested to remind the local voluuteers that the usual company parade for drill takes place this evening, at Mr. McFarlane's Hall, at 7 p.m. sharp. At the R.M.'s Court this morning, John Clark was charged with stealing a saddle, the property of Mr. Cooper, of the Waerenga-a-hika Hotel. The charge was fully sustained and the prisoner was sentenced to two months' imprisonment in Gisborne gaol with hard labor. The remaiuder of the business consisted of a few unimportant debt cases. The witness Tuta Nihoniho left at midday to-day by the Southern Cross for Wellington. Cooper and Brodie's case is set down for Monday. Elsewhere will be found a very carefully prepared report, concerning matters connected with the construction of a railway between Gisborne and Ormond. The report and estimate are the joint labors of Mr. Drummond, and Mr. Winter, respectively, the Borough Council and County Council Engineers. It will be seen how very much cheaper a railway line can be constructed as compared with a macadamized road. The report will be read with interest. Our readers will observe in another column an advertisement of a meeting to be held in the Library to-morrow evening, at 8 o'clock, to endeavour to render this institution a little more creditable to the district than it has hitherto been, and all interested, whether subscribers or not, are earnestly invited to attend. The Orangemen of Gisborne to-night will celebrate an important epoch in their history, with* a soiree, concert and ball, at the Masonic Hall The committee have left nothing undone to make the whole affair a success, and a most edjoyable evening may be anticipated. We have seen the programme of dances, which have been most judiciously selected, and every attention will be paid to have the floor in firstclass order. A scratch football match will be played on the Waikanae to-morrow afternoon, play to commence at 3 o'clock precisely. Without prejudice, we imagine that it would be advisable for the players to put in a little more punctual appearance than is generally the case, as often at 2 o'clock or half-past, or whatever time is advertised in our local news, a player arrives on the ground at the appointed time, and finds it deserted until 3 o'clock and later, when the players come struggling in, conduct which we deem very reprehensible. The players should understand if they want to become good footballers, they should attend punctually, and four half-hours hard play be indulged in, instead of the 20 minutes system. Then when playing an important match of four 20 minutes, they are enabled to play fast and hard throughout. We understand that the Napier Club have accepted the challange sent by the Gisborne Club, and intimate that they will probably come here during the latter end of next month. Those who desire to study economy in household affairs are requested to peruse Robjohns and East's new advertisement, which will be found in our advertising columns. Their store being situated at the extreme end of the town, is indeed a great boon to the residents, which, in addition to the very moderate prices, we have no doubt they will not fail to appreciate. The Melbourne correspondent of the Christchurch Press writes :— Some explanation of the ill-luck that has attended some of our smaller and more recent finaucial institutions is to be found in the unfitness of the men to whom their management has too' often been entrusted. One bank had for its chairman a gentleman in may respects excellent, but so impecunious that his £5 cheque would ii"t run ; and one of his colleagues at the Board, soon after leaving it, got a term of imprisonment for fraudulent conversion of poods. Another Melbourne chairman of Bank Directors is a practical coach maker, and a third an equally practical copper* smith.

Savings' Banks in Schools are not prospering in the South Island. Where adopted the children have been paying in and drawing out with such frequency, that school book-keeping has absorbed much of the time of the teachers. As showing how precocious are .our Colonial youth, they have, in the spirit of their fathers, in many instances been asking for overdrafts. The School Savings' Bank scheme is a pernicious one, and every thinking man will feel pleased to learn it is likely to prove a rank failure.

Last Friday a man who had been living in the Kauieri district, near Hokitika, for the last year or two, and who had filed his schedule, was honored on quiting the locality by being accompanied by a tin kettle band, as a mark of esteem from his creditors, but much to the debtor's discomfiture. Fifty years ago; a seaman on a voyage, when found broaching cargo was shot whether taken in the act or subsequently discovered. Now the sentence tor an offence which endangers a Bhipload of human lives is from a fortnight to three months imprisonment, In the oaae of broaching cargo in the ship Celceno, lately arrived at Napier from London, the master stated that the man Keeshan, when detected in the hold, was striking matches close to the powder magazine, and allowing them to fall as they burnt out ; "and it was just through God's mercy that the ship was not blown to atoms." Of course liquor was the object of their search. A case of "champagne cider," and a case of whiskey, are believed to have been stolen ; but the precise extent of the depredations will not be known until the cargo is discharged. The Greymouth Justices of the Peace have given a very proper and a liberal interpretation to the provisions of the Licensing Ordinance. The police there recently laid an information against a local publican for having his licensed house open after hours. The evidence showed that the front doors of the house were closed, and the bars in darkness, but that the attesting policeman, as counsel for the defence put it, sneaked round to the back, saw a light in a back parlor, heard a jingling of spoons and glasses, heard laughing and talking, and opening the door without knocking he walked in. There he found three gentlemen and the landlady chatting over the fire. The argument for the defence was that it was never intended that publicans should be compelled to turn people out of a private parlor at a stated hour, and the Bench held the opinion that if the law was carried out to such an extent, as was attempted to be done in this case, it would entail great hardship on hotelkeepers. A few gentlemen sitting in a parlor could not be construed into a breach of the Licensing Ordinance. The case was dismissed.