LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume vii, Issue 1142, 8 October 1880, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The civil cases in the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning comprised Rahill v. White, adjourned for a fortnight W. Adair v. A. Banks, claimed £16, H>.s. sd. ; and E. K. Brown v. Hapi Kiniha. claimed £14, 15s. in both of which judgment was entered up on confession. Mr. J. Shrimpton, late postmaster at Greymouth is expected to arrive in Gisborue per s.s. Arawata on Sunday next. He is appointed to succeed Mr. G. J. Browne, who has been transferred to Napier, where we trust he will soon have as wide a circle of friends aa he lias in this community. In Grey street, near Mr. Thompson's house, several men are now at work unearthing what was once the top part of a huge tree, a totara (podocarpus totara), shewing that not many years ago the whole of. the Sat on which the town of 'Gisborue is built was a dense forest. There are no trees of the same kind within very many miles ('thirty) of the place where the tree grew, long before Captain Cook or Tasman visited these shores. Doubtless at the time this giant of the forest flourished the Bay was teeming with Maories, many of whom most probably have obtained a meal off it, by decoying birds. It is easy to carry one's mind back and picture an old Maori siting np in the branches with a decoy kaka just over where Mr. Thompson is now living, hid away, as was the custom in the good old days, trying to obtain food in the way indicated. George Lee and others are at work splitting this huge log into blocks and posts, powder having to be used in the work. The butis imbeded in Thompson's garden, and is said to be ten feet through. We fell into an error in our issue of Wednesday, which we are asked to correct. We there stated— speaking of the first load of wool of the season — that it was consigned to Messrs. Graham & Co., instead of which it was consigned to Mr. William Adair. The mistake came about in this way : — Standing at the Masonic corner on Wednesday, just at about the hour when in nautical phraseology the sun is said to be over the foreyard, was our reporter. With him or near to him stood a greatly esteemed gentleman who deals largely in our chief staple. Near to him again were others, all respected townsmen. Then when the two teams were seen coming along the Gladstone Road wool-laden, they were ! stated to be the first down of the season and our respected merchant who afforded the information looked at the wool, then looked at the sun, and feeling satisfied with regard to both he next glanced at the inside of the Masonic, and then looking at those near him gave a significant nod of his head in the direction of Mr. Page's bar. What followed is as easy to imagine as it would be to describe. Our reporter in the narrowness of his understanding could not comprehend the magnanimity of a man who offered liquid refreshments on the strength of another man's wool, and so the error. This having been notified Air. William Adair will it is hoped know what must be his duty to-morrow when the time arrives that the sun is over the foreyard. Mr. Milnef informs us that our Resident Magistrate has so arranged the prosecution of the man Carrol, charged with perjury, as to dispense with his (Mr. Miluer's) evidence. To have remained in the Colony until the. time" of trial would, huve been seriouslyctetrlmental to Mr. Milner's interests, and he feels that the consideration shown ig worthy of all remembrance. The continued firmness of the wool sales in England affords a most gratifying assurance to. growers in this colony that the clip just now being shorn will j ield a good financial return, for the prices now maintained are not likely to suddenly diminish. In connection with this subject, we notice from Messrs. Goldsborough's current monthly circular that foreign buyers have already arrived in Melbourne in anticipa- | tion of the early commencement of the season, and there is no doubt that there will be a very large'attendauce of representatives from the various manufacturing districts of Europe and America at the opening sale, which will probably be held at Messrs. Goldsborough's warehouses about the end of the present month. The firm look for strong competition and good prices. The Southland News states that a lad sentenced to be whipped for poultry-steal-ing has been seriously ill since receiving his punishment — so seriously -as to require the most active medical treatment at the hands of Dr. Cotterill. Whether the illness was caused by the whipping, or by some other cause, the News is unable to say ; but, as it was inflicted in the presence of the gaol surgeon, it must be presumed that no undue severity was used. The boy, however, is said to have fainted under the l.ish, and again on reaching home ; but this might have been caused more by excitement and terror than by actual pain. Be this as it may, the circumstances should act as a caution for the future to Justices of the Peace not to pass such indefinite sentences as the one delivered by Messrs. J. Turnbnll and J. W. Mitchell, who adjudicated in the case. " Forty-eight hours' imprisonment and a good flogging " was their decision, an'l, at first sight, not a bad one. But then " a good flogging " is an uncertain quantity, depending entirely upon the temper, disposition and physique of the giver. Municipal Corporations, as administrative bodies, have lately come in for some severe remarks from our law makers. First we have the Attorney-General stating that, to prevent Corporations from committing legal errors would occupy the time of at least six Attorney-Generals, and more recently we find it reported in Hansard that the Hon. Dr. Grace, in his place in the Legislative Council, said, "he entirely mistrusted Municipal Corporations. He never saw them exercise any power without exercising it in the most thoroughly wasteful manner. He thought it would be found that Municipal Corporations all over the colony were about the worst administrators in the colony, and he always objected to extending the powers which they now enjoyed." This is far from complimentary, and if true in fact, it is only so because ratepayers will not take the trouble to see whether local affairs everywhere are administered in a satisfactory manner or not. The New Zealand Freeman's Journal of date the 11th, instant., contains no less than eleven columns of names of persons of the aristocracy of England who have been converted to Catholicity during the last half century. Sparking across a garden fence admits of a good deal being said on both sides.