LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1054, 28 June 1880, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In our cablegrams of Saturday, the word '•America" was printed in place of " Armenia." John Williamson was charged this morning at the R.M. Court, with stealing a cloth coat, value £1 7s Gd from the premises of Messrs Combs, & Co., drapers. Prisoner pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment with hard labor. The prisoner was observed by Mr. Oantell to be loitering about the shop, and it struck him that he was thnre with no good intention. Mr, Cautell, who was watching him, suddenly heard the twine snap by which the garment was suspended and just caught the prisoner as he was making off. Among the passengers which the Kingarooina brought on Saturday night, was Mr. Clarke and family from Sydney. This gentleman will at once set to work in the Oil Springs, having completed arrangements for effectually testing the ground, and for refining the oil when it is struck. The weather is at present against travelling, but so soon as it gives promise of breaking up, Mr. Clark, with a a.'number of hands, will be on the ground. It is an enterprise in which the people of the Bay are deeply interested, and will wait anxiously for the earliest intelligence of the progress making. We have arranged for an express courier to the Herald as soon as the oil has been struck, or important operations having commenced. Boriog will commence with the least possible delay. It may be a few days, or several weeks, before the ground has been tested ; but Mr. Clarke, as the principal representative of the company, intends going through with the work thoroughly, and upon the best basis known to experienced o}l miners. When the work has commenced, we shall be in a position to furnish Information at least once a week, and possibly twioe, until the winter continues unusually severe. At a debating class at Cromwell, the question for discussion was — Is Sir George Grey mad, or is he maliciously obstructing the progress of public business of Parliament? The question having being been put, the Chairman declared the votes to be equal on both sides. He declined to give a casting vote, as he could not make, up his mind one way or the other.

At the Wanganui Supreme Court lately Herman Rockell, J.P., late Warden for the^Manawatu Highway Board, was convicted of uttering a forged cheque with intent to defraud. Prisoner was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment with hard labor. The amount of the forged cheque was £53. It is very freely stated that Sir George Grey's opposition to the Property Tax Bill arises solely from the fact that he is possessed of so much property in the colony— £lo7,ooo it is said, and that his contribution to the revenue under the Act would be £4000 a-year, which, in his estimation, outweighs the whole human race. Dr. Wallis's virtuous indignation has been aroused by the highly reprehensible conduct of certain hou. members who seek popularity by advocating a reduction of the honorarium. He therefore gave notice in the House on Tuesday to move: — "That the honorarium be paid to members only to the amount they vote for, and those who vote fbr none receive none. That the House disapproves of the hypocrisy of voting against the honorarium and afterwards pocketing it." The motion is no doubt anticipatory of the one which Mr. Murray has threatened for a reduction in the amount of payment, and which would doubtless prove particularly inconvenient I to hon. members just now, when to vote I against it, whilst calling on the humblest member of the Civil Service to sacrifice himself on the altar of an impecunious country, would look extremely like that patriotism which exhausts itself in the shedding of other people's blood. On dit, that the Ministry are considering the question of re-construction, also that Mr. Swanson will be put up to move the previous question by the Government on Sir George Grey's amendment, The previous question, if carried, would stop farther discussion. Mr. Besley, of Wellington, states that he, on Sunday last, while at Island Bay, J saw an immense octopus lying on its back |on the beach. The dimensions, as described to us {Post) appear incredible. The feelers are stated to vary in length from 12 to 25 feet, whilst the length of the body is put down at 12ft 6in, and its width as 4ft. The " devil-fish," as the octopus is familiarly termed, is becoming a frequent visitor to the shores of our harbor, and bathers should be careful to avoid getting in the clutches of any of these creatures.