LOCAL AND GENERAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 839, 19 July 1879, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Rotorua, from Wellington will arrive off the port early to-morrow morning. Our Post-master is not compelH by any orders from head-quarters to sort the mails, but to the great convienience of the public which ought to be indebted to him for the favor conferred, Mr. Browne always sorts out the letters for the boxes. Both the marts ef Messrs Ferris and Pitt, and Bourke and Smith -were well attended to-day, and fair prices were realised upon personal effects in the way of furniture, house fixings, glass and earthenware. The town sections appeared for sale did not realise as the owners would have wished, and some of the lots were bought in. ' We learn from private sources, throucrh the wires, that the '» Want of Confidence " debate will be brought to a division on Thursday next, and that if the Ministry are beaten on a diversion, Sir Ge-iree Grey will demand a dissolution. Whether it will be granted remains with Sir Hercules Robinson to determine. His Excellency is too reticent to allow it to be known what he will do in the matter. {

Messrs. Cooper and Brodies, trial is down for Wednesday next. There has been much cruel delay on the part of the Minister of Justice in allowing the defendants and their relatives to remain so long and so anxiously in doubt as to the result. The so-called ''child- woman," Jane Bond, from Raugitikei, has been exhibited in Napier, According to the description given, she is 22 years of age and her body is no larger then that of a child, while her head is that of a woman. She cannot speak, although she can readily understand everything that is said to her. Her height is 26 inches and her weight 261bs. We wish to draw special attention to the advertisement of Messrs Garrett Bros., which appears elsewhere in our columns. Boots for men and women, and shoes and boots for boys and girls, form a very large item of domestic expenditure. Any saving then, that can be effected by getting the same quality of article for less money then was previously procurable, must, in these times, be looked upon as no small boon ; and we are quite sure on reference to Messrs Garrett Bros.' advertisement this will be fduud to be the case. We must call our readers Special Attention to Leonard & Co.'s advertisement, and also to the fact that their Stock must be disposed of at once. — [Advt.] A correspondent of the New Zealander says that at a temperance meeting at Fielding Sir William Fox said that "he never enters the door of a public-house without faucying he saw the blood of the publican's victims on the doorstep of the house." In Wellington there are three different steamboat agents. Each firm has a shipping clerk. One is named Pope, another Bishop, and the third Deacon. All three have their offices under the same roof, and are in no way connected with one another. The Sydney Evening News states that Sarah Gale, the paramour of the murderer Greenacre, who many yeare ago was executed in England for the revolting murder of a woman, has just died iu Sydney. She was transported, got married and became eminently respectable. Many of the shops were shut as a mark of re* pect.

Daring the clairvoyante seance of Mrs. Ballwin m Wellington a young lady wrote the question, "Shall I die single?" The answer was that the young lady would marry for love and would have a very large tamily. The professor asked if any lady in the audience had asked the question. Of course no young lady would say " yes." Then the professor put it as a matter of houor, and a certain young lady in the front seat prompted her chaperon to tell Mr lialdwin thab she had asked the question. All eyes were at once fixed on the fair one who, of course, felt decidedly uncomfortable. The Otago Daily Times no longer swears by Sir George Grey, In a receut article it says: — "If we could make him Maori King, with ample powers, he would probably do well, but under Constitutional Government fails to agree with his Ministers, aud is therefore a source of weakness rather than of strength to any Ministry." Lately at Invercargill, Mr. Pox made an appeal to all reformed drunkards to crush public-houses. A worthy divine, then followed the champion teetotaller, delivoured the following touching and eloquent address : — " .ur. Fox was a great friend of my sainted father, who, I believe, is in heaven. (A pause.) New Zealand's noblest productions are her men ! New Zealand has produced many, many noble men t I was born in New Zealand !" Here the reverend divine stood with a smile on his countenance that would have gladdened the heart of a frostfish, waiting for the applause, but, alas ! to his disgust, he had to content himself with a look of astonishment from the lemonade exponents, and a suppressed tittle from the assemblage present. By a verdict of, "Not guilty " returned in oue case at the Supreme Court this week (says the Aucklaud 6'tor July 12) the public has been spared a shocking tragedy. One of the accused placed on trial, who had before been |held in high esteem as an honest iudustrious member of the community, felt this disgrace of the charge agaiust him so keenly that before surrendering to hia bail he had provided himself with a packet of strychnine. It is not customary to search prisoners out on bail until tuey are convicted, but this is done immediately after removal from the dock, It was the tirtn resolution of the unhappy man in this case to have swallowed the potent poison the moment the verdict was returned, and the quantity was so large that its operation must have almost been instantaneous.. Happily he was spared further trial anl restored to a better frame of mind by the declaration of his complete innocenee, arrived at by twelve of his country-men ,after a careful consideration of the evidence. Nevertheless, the dreadful ordeal through which he has passed and the awful suspense, with which, having formed such a resolution, he awaited the deliverance of the jury must be stamped in burning lines upon his memory.