LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 949, 13 November 1879, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

How is it that the punt on the Turanganui river is lying sunk at its place instead of being used for the purpose it was built and paid, and the annual rental tendered for and accepted. There is a large horse traffic over the river, and there is frequently a demand upon the punt for the conveyance oE drays, buggies, and carts. But there is the punt, so to speak, stuck in the mud, full of water, and useless. The public wish to be informed of the reason of this, and we are really unable to afford them a satisfactory answer. Perhaps some one or other of our Borough Councillors will oblige us. Some of the boys attending the Nelson College have been indulgiug in pranks of a more reprehensible character than ordinary. Sixteen of them, it appears have been practising petty thefts iu the shops of the Nfilson tradesmen. They went about it in a very systematic manner, some of the boys entering the shop and engaging the shopkeeper in conversation, while others abstracted articles from the counter or window. Six of the ringleaders were promptly expelled, while the others wera> sentenced to a whipping, the terrors of which were aggravated by the fact that they were not told when it was to be inflicted. The affair has naturally caused a good deal of comment, the more so from the position in society held by the parents of some of the boys, A woven book has been manufactured at Lyons, the whole of the letter-press being executed in silken thread. Portraits, verses, and brief addresses have often been reproduced by the loom, but an entire volume from the weaver's hand is a novelty. So pushed for money is the Town Council of Ashbuton that it is proposed to discharge all the municipal officers except the Town Clerk and the inspector of Nuisances. The country newspaper states that the Borough Engineer "has kindly agreed to suspend his services altogether for four months, in the hope that by that time affairs will be more prosperous.