LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 938, 31 October 1879, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Georgia Minstrels, last night, were simply immense. Nothing could excel the comicalities of the two corner men. Tambourines is a caution. He is just tremendous, and there is no other word to give him. He is like no other "nigger" we have ever seen, and no other nigger is like unto him. The performance is original, unique, and m short, extraordinary. They all sing well and play well, and tell funny yarns m a comical way, which make people laugh in' spite of themselves ; but it is impossible to resist. It is all so very good that it cannot be described. It must be seen and heard to be understood m any sense the entertainment is meant for ; and that is all we can say about it. After the termination of the Soiree at Makaraka last night, and after the majority of those attending had left for their homes, an impromptu quadrille party was got up, and to the lively strains of the music of Mr. M'Farlane and family, dancing was kept up and protracted till bright Phoebus began to tip the hills with his golden rays. Iv our commercial columns of this afternoon will be found the monthly report of Messrs. Bourke and Smith, auctioneers and commission agents of this town. The information will, we. think, be found useful to up-country residents, who from the distance they live from the centre of population are ignorant of the state of the local markets. Mr. H. C. Wilson informs us that he will leave Gisborne by the first steamer leaviug for Napier, and that to whom it may concern, he advises those requiring his assitauce m dental surgery not to wait until the last hour before calling upon him for his professional services, as his engagements are numereus. Auctioneers, says the Riverton Star, are proverbial for being the authors of good jokes. A devout member of this fraternity who resides we shall say, to give the circumstance a local name and habitation, within 1000 miles of Riverton, and who is celebrated for this knowledge of Scripture and his frequent quotations therefrom, a few days ago received a telegrams from a client, enquiring if he would put up a number of trees at a sale to be held a day or two afterwards. The reply was characteristically profane : — " Yes, even though they be cedars from Lebanon or myrtles from the Holy Land." Divine service is announced to be held every sabbath afternoon at 3 p.m. m the new Matawhero school, by the Rev. W. L. Salter. These services, though irregularly held during the winter months m the Makaraka Hall, were well attended, but now that the roads have improved, and the weather also, we should expect to find a larger congregation from the country districts attending. In the month of August, 1877, considerable attention was given to telegrams received from Nelson, relative to the finding of a vessel's head-rail, - with the words ". Antofagasta " marked thereon. It was surmised that it was a portion of the wreck of a vessel of that name, but nothing further was elicited for many months. At last, the vessel was recorded as having arrived m Europe. The elucidation of the loss of the' rail, however, was never made public, that we are aware of, until recently, when the Australian Shipping Gazette published the following explanation : — " Under the heading of " Wreckage," m our issue of Ist September, 1877, we gave an account of the picking up of the head-rail of a vessel at Massacre Bay, New Zealand, which had the word "ANTOFAGASTA" cut into it. We notice the following m connection with this case m a New Zealand paper: — "By the last mail Mr. John Harding, of Mount Vernon, received a letter from his son, who is now at Antofagasta. He saw the captain of the vessel, who explained that the rail was lost m latitude 42-20 S, longtitude 137 '40 E, m ! October, 1875, during his first voyage to England. The board was found 1650 miles from the spot where it was lost. To have reached Cape Farewell it must have cleared Tasmania, and then floated north again. This is important to mariners, as showing the set of the current m this quarter of the globe." j The committee on Sir George Grey's election was composed and voted as follows : Against the validity of Sir George Grey's election, Mr. Fulton (chairman), Messrs. Allright, Moorhouse, McCaughan. In favour of validity, Oiipt. Colbeck, Messrs. Tawhai, and Stewart. Lawrence, the murderer of Mr Finlayson, of the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay railway, whose death-sentence has just been commuted to one of imprisonment for life, served m the New Zealand war. Roumania is not the only country where hostility to the Jews still finds expression m a way more or less disagreeable to that people fsayß the Pall Mall Gazelle). Since they were shut out from the principal hotel at Saratoga a year' or two ago as customers who damaged the business of the house, there has been a running discussion m America as to whether they really do drive Christians away from the places to which they resort. A Mr. Austin Corbin has no doubt whatever on the matter ; and he has even gone so far as to exclude Jews from the Manhatta Branch railway. This has given great offence m all quarters ; and the general feeling is that Mr. Corbin has injured his railway and infringed his charter. At the same time it is surprising to observe the number of hotel keepers who state that they find themselves obliged to ask from Jews what are virtually prohibitive prices for rooms, because they would otherwise lose their connection. But when so much is being said about the behavior of the Roumanians to the Jews—and Bhamenil their conduct undeniably is— it is not amiss, perhaps to call to mind that even m enlightened America the same prejudice exists without any reason, or ratner with many reasons against it.