LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 875, 28 August 1879, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Elsewhere we have given a condensed report of Mr. Allan McDonald's address to the electors at Tauranga, which appears in the Bay of Plenty Times. The condensation process will make portions of it read somewhat disjointedly ; but Mr. McDpuald was most enthusiastically received, and his deliverance constantly interrupted by frequent and prolonged cheering and expressions of approval. The betting runs high in Tauranga that Mr. McDonald will top the poll against Captain Morris by three to one. Here, in Gisborne, Mr. McDonald's Committee are working very ' hard, and as we understand very successfully in his favor. The Maori votes, since the retirement of Captain Porter, will be very much in his favor, as Wi Pere has promised to bring all his iufluence to bear to secure his return. [Since the above was in type it will be seen that Captain Morris Chairman of Committee holds quite another opinion.] The additions to the Gisborne Government together with the fittings and furniture, are now completed, and will be occupied for the first time on Monday next. There will be distinct entrances for boys and girls; as also distinct class rooms. In about a fortnight Mr. H. Hill, the inspector, will be in Gisborne to be present at the September examinations of the children. The Poverty Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Society will hold its annual general meeting on Friday, 12th September, at 2 p.m., at the Masonic Hotel. Smart things are occasionally done by local bodies, and the Municipal Council of New Plymouth is just now a point ahead. For years it has kept a useless old engine house encroaching on a public road — an eyesore to the people. The other day this Taluable property was sold by auction, and a summons promptly taken out against the buyer for obstructing a thoroughfare ! The Resident Magistrate had no option but to fine the transgressor, but inflicted a merely nominal penalty. During a speech to the electors at Wellington, Dr. Newman made it a sort of charge against one of the Ministers that, while claiming £1,500 a year and travelling expenses, he was sending his son to a free school. (A voice : " He's a Liberal.") The Napier Weekly Mercury in noticing the. Premier's first address to the electors, has the following heading in very large black letters : — " Sir George Grey on the Stump : His First Speech (No 1)." " iEgles," in the Australasian, says : — " I hear on good authority that a Melbourne gentleman, whose name can readily be guessed, has sold a New Zealand property to a company, with English capital, lor £600,000 r. The Working Men's Club of Wellington, which has been only two years in existence, has 395 bona fide members and. a credit balance of £359, in spite of having lately been burnt out. Recent attemps have been made by political place-hunters to convert the Club into a mere political organization but without success. The president pointed this out in a recent speech and advised that political questions be left to the newly-formed Work g Men's Rights' League. Blenheim bakers put some indigestible material into their bread, apparently. We cut the following letter and editorial note from the Marlborough Express : — " Sir, — Our bakers charge a high, price for their bread, as I have thought unreasonably, as flour is not dear, but on Saturday evening I discovered the reason, and wonder they don't charge a great deal more, for on attempting to eat a piece of fresh bread I found to my amazement a watch, which I fortunately did not swallow, or the result may have been at least very uncomfortable. I enclose the watch, which I beg you will hand to the claimant, should one. appear to own it. — Yours truly, Fides:" "[Our correspondent has enclosed the dial and one wheel of a lady's watch, which remains at the call of the owner ; some other person has apparently got the remainder of the works."] We clip the following from the Wellington Chronicle, instancing the nonchalence with which bankrupts are noticed s — "Mr. Samuel Meyer, a grocer by trade, has knocked under, and invites his creditors to meet him at the Supreme Court buildings next Wednesday." Happily instances of heroism, even in the jaws of death, are not wanting in the Anglo-Saxon race. Mr. Pascoe Marks, in his evidence before the Coroner's inquest as to the late melancholy drowning case at Tauranga, deposed : — " Our boat heeled over, and shipped a large quantity of water. We had a large quantity of chain in for ballast, and the boat immediately sank. I was pulled under water by the staysail sheet. When I managed to get to the surface, my father and uncle were trying to hold one another up. My brother was struggling in the water about three yards distance. He said, "Here, here." '•All right," I said, as I struck out for him. I held on to him for about five minutes, when he said — " Never mind me ; let me go — save yourself. lam done ; good-bye." I held on to him till he sank. He was perfectly still. At this time, Mr. Warbrick had.hold of* my father and uncle. I knew my brother was done, and it was no use holding on to him while there was a chance of saving my father and uncle. 1 struck out for the forehead grating, and held on by it to regain breath. I then struck out for Mr, Warbrick's boat. He encouraged me by words while he held on by my father and uncle, and when I got near he threw me the end of a rope, and I managed by means of it to scramble in. I then caught hold of my father, and held him while Mr. Warbrick separated my uncle from him and lifted him into the boat. We then lifted my father into the boat, and the only thing he did was to move his eyelids a little and give a long sigh." There are some amusing passages in the report of the meeting of Mr. J. S. Macfarlaue with the Waitemata constituency. This gentleman made many unsuccessful attempts to gain a seat in Parliament, and having gained his object, " seems to have found it less desirable than he anticipated. He appears to realise that he will not be returned again, and possibly' on this account was more ' plain-spoken than he otherwise would have been. "If returned again," he said — "but he supposed he would not be. Loud applause.) '. . . They took the dues off English ham, bacon, etc., but who the d-: : wanted the duty oft those articles? (Laughter and applause). A voice : That's not Parliamentary. Well if it was not Parliamentary he had given them (the Ministry) worse than that, (Loud laughter)." At the same meeting Mr. Stark proposed a vote of confidence in Mr. Macfarlane, and paid the following original compliment to the Premier: — "Sir George Grey had done what no other man in New Zealand would. He had gone up the Waikato at the risk of his life. They knew the Maori settlements were swarming with fleas. (Laughter.)" The want of confidence vote was carried with but one dissentient, and a vote of thanks to Mr. Macfarlane for his address was recorded.

The Auckland Herald agrees with a minister who lately condemned the estentatious use of the symbol " D.V." as not tending to edification, and tells the following story : An Auckland teacher, about to open a private school, notified the fact in the daily papers, but that the public might be under no mistake about the matter, the learned pedagogue announced that the school " Would open, Deo volente, on Monday morning." The " printers' devil" was familiar with D.V., but the Deo volente beat him. After wrestling with it, the phrase ultimately appeared in the~newspaper as Deo volante. The state of that schoolmaster need not be described. Professor Pepper, a scientific lecturer and marvellous illusionist, is taking Mel-: hourne by surprise. This is the account given by the Argus of one of his exhibitions, termed "An Artist's Dream": — '•A lay figure is brought to the artist's studio and put together on the stage. The figure was placed in a chair in the recess at the back of the stage. The artist falls asleep while reading the paper, and suddenly a small imp appears out of of nothig, and after making a few passes at the lay figure, the latter rises and walks forward to an easel in front of the stage, draws a caricature of the artist, and then sits down in a chair. The imp then makes passes at the artist, who follows in his sleep in the chair in the recess. The lay figure and the imp then go to the recess and carry the artist forward, when he is found to be a dummy. They replace him in the chair, and after some passes from the imp the dummy rises from the chair and walks forward to his original seat. The lay figure then, obeying the gestures of the imp, takes his place in the recess. The imp, while standing in front of him, fades from view, and the artist wakes up in a fright. The servants rush in, they pull the lay figure to pieces, and the curtain falls, leaving the audience in a state of the most utter bewilderment as to how the deception has been managed" "