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Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 60, 13 February 1877, Page 2

The members of the Mutual Improvement Society are reminded of the meeting to-night at 8 o'clock, when a paper will be read on "The Government and Disraeli, and mis-Government and Gladstone, European matters in general, and the Eastern Question in particular." The s.s. Wanaka, under the charge of Captain Malcolm, made her first visit to this port on Sunday last, and as her stay in harbour extended over the day, a large number of persons took the opportunity of boarding her and making a personal inspection. She is certainly a fine ship, with comfortable saloons and cabins, and being under the command of Captain Malcolm, who has been long and favourably known as commander of the Maori, the Wanaka cannot fail but prove a popular boat. The next meeting of the Akaroa County Council takes place on Thursday next, at Mrs. Haine's Hotel, on the Hill Top, at 11 a.m. The discussion on the adoption of the third schedule of the- Act will be resumed, but as one or two opponents of the measure appear to attach no little weight upon the course likely to be adopted by the Selwyn County, it is doubtful whether a decision will be arrived at on Thursday next, as the county has set up as its model has postponed its verdict for a few days. To-morrow will be St. Valentine's day, and from the success the vendors of sentimental and other valentines have had, we expect the Postmaster will be fully employed at post time.

On Sunday last, at the Head of the Bay, during an altercation with another, whose name we have not heard, Mr. Kennedy, sen., had his coat torn off, and a sum of seven or eight pounds abstracted from the pocket. Sergeant Ramsay went yesterday to the Head of the Bay, and made' diligent enquiry for the person alleged to have committed the robbery, but could discover nothing about it, at which Mr. Kennedy did not seem as annoyed as we should have supposed, neither was he inclined to take any further steps in the matter. Te Waka Kawhatini, a chief of pme note at one time in Hawke's Bay, and the owner of considerable blocks of land, is now (says the Telegraph) begging his bread from the settlers of Clive. The old Maori, having parted with all his posses sions, and squandered may be the proceeds of their sale, is too infirm to work at the potato patches of his hapu. He is consequently neglected by his people, who probably have helped to drink the rum, eat the sugar and flour, smoke the tobacco, and wear out the clothes bought by the old man's money. Such is life. The orange has been sucked, and poor Waka is the peel that has been thrown away. A young man at Newcastle, named Charles Nichol, after being two hours apparently dead, from drowning, was restored to consciousness. The new Midland coupled express engines, in England, returning in the usual course, have been timed GB, 70, and 72 miles an hour. Fevers have been engendered at Montreal by burning coffins which were were exhumed from an old burying.ground at the new canal basin. The following latest information respecting the new rush at Kumara has been obligingly supplied to the local 'Times by Mr. Sub-Inspector O'Donnell: —" Edward, Nidd, and party informed the constable that they are on payable gold, at 12ft. sinking, and the dirt will average from one to two grains to the dish, and that there are about ten or twelve claims bottomed on gold during the last ten days. Flatt and party, Blanchard and party, gave the constable the information, and state that double that number of holes are going down, while the number of claims pegged out are fully fifty or more. The lead runs parallel with Tui-street, and is pegged out in a line with Fourth-street, parties mentioned think it will come out about the Police Camp when crossing the Greenstone-road. The depth of the wash is about five feet, and a great quantity of heavy boulders in it. There is an old saying which declares that the man who plants a tree confers a lasting benefit on posterity, but the Biscayans go a step further, and confer a double benefit. In the Province of Biscay every landowner must plant two saplings for every timber tree ho cuts down. In Java the birth of every child is celebrated by planting a fruit tree, which is carefully tended as a record of the age of the child whose age it registers. This wise regard for the future deserves imitation. Many people complain of fatigue in the eyes, or weakness of sight; they cannot read or write for any length of time without the page becoming indistinct and the letters running into each other. These are symptoms which can he removed by attention to the general health, rest, tonics, and frequently (three or four times a day) bathing the forehead and eyes with cold water. But never neglect them. Cold bathing of the whole body every day, making a habit of it, in fact, is a grand conservator of the sight. For this puipos, if the person can bear it, the shower bath is the best, but in taking a pliunge bath always dash a little water in the face first, then spring boldly iv ; don't take the water a toe at a time. When your eyes are at all weak never work in the twilight, and never go out in very bright sunshine. The (New Zealand Herald) of January 20, referring to the execution of Curtin, says :— " There need be no apprehension in the public mind that there will be any difficulty in carrying out the sentence through the absence of a hangman, as several individuals have already intimated their willingness to perform the disagreeable operation should the matter be entrusted to them. Amongst the applicants is a person who has satisfactorily discharged similar duties on pi - evious occasions. The hangman's fee is £10.

The Napier Municipal Council voted the sum of £200 to his Worship the Mayor as a honorarium, and as a mark of the Council's appreiation of that gentleman's exertions on behalf of the Borough. Mrs Ann Smith, who died at Auckland a day or two since, arrived in New Zealand in 1842. She was 78 years of age, and leaves 29 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. At a recent sale in Victoria, Mr. F. Wentworth, of Greystances, New South Wales, paid 1000 gnineas for a heifer, the 14th Derrimut. Some persons holding respectable positions in Nelson have been guilty of destroying the trout in the Maitai river by means of dynamite. A frightful accident has occurred at Messrs. Bagnall's works at Lea Brook, adjoining Wed nesbury. A man named Elijah Grillith, aged 52, was throwing a bloom of red-hot iron under the steam hammer, when he fell forward, and was crushed by the blow intended for the ball of metal.

" A loafing . fellow, named William Wells," was fined 40s. by the Melbourne City Bench lately for insulting and assaulting an unoffending citizen, in Carltongardens, on the previous evening. But the offence of which the fellow was proved guilty was of so insidious and dangerous a character that the punishment meted out to him seems to us to have been absurdly inadequate. The Argus states that the complainant in the case was in the gardens named in company with a lady, when Wells pounced upon the pair, and by vile insinuations and threats endeavoured to extort money from the complainant. The latter resisted his importunities, and Wells seized upon him, under the pretence that he intended taking him to the watchhouse, on which a constable, who had been watching his (Wells's) proceedings, name up and took him into custody. That the constable happened to be at hand at the time was entirely owing to the fact that Wells and other contemptible scoundrels of the same class had for some time previously been playing their miserable calling with great effrontery. But only imagine the position in which the complainant in the case would have been if no constable had appeared on the scene! He must either have yielded to the demands of the fellow, or incurred the risk of being brought before the magistrates on a scandalous charge, which, although it could not have been proved against him, would still, in the opinion of many, have left some stain upon his character. Then, if he felt disposed to defend himself against a false charge, so far as he was personally concerned, considerations for the character and feelings of his companion would almost certainly have caused him to give in in the end, rather th.°.n appear in court. And this suggests the belief that many other innocent men, or innocent couples, must have paid black-mail to Wells and others like him in the past If a class like this can manage to live, they must find victims, and their practices amount to a cruel and galling presecution of unoffending persons. We extract the following practical suggestions on the management of bees, from a well-informed exchange :—To those who keep bees, and wish to have the proprietor's rent in honey, without adopting the cruel and barbarous plan of smothering the industrious insects, chloroform is attended I with the best success to sttipify the bees until the master can remove what combs he may require or think proper to take. The feat is done thus :—On a table near the hive spread a linen cloth, and on this place a plate having the sixth-part of an ounce of chloroform, covered with gause wire to prevent any bees falling in. Gently lift the hive on the plate, and cover it over with a sheet of cloth. In twenty minutes the bees will be all asleep, and out of the comb, lying , helpless on the table. Your beesAvill soon revive and return, on receiving fresh air, to fill up the void anew. The best time is early on a line morning, as the little insects will have the benefit of a fine day to recover from their torpidity. They have a " blighted being" in Nelson, who advertises that if there is any more scandal to the detriment of his wife's character after January 15th, he, Samuel Blight, of Nile-street West, Nelson, intends taking legal proceedings. An instance of throwing bread upon the waters and having it returned after many days has occurred (the Chines Guardian remarks) in connection with the diminutive jockey who rode Briseis for the Melbourne Cup. Some years ago the boy was wandering about the streets of Geelong a friendless waif, when Mr Wilson, with that kindheartedness for which he is so well known, took him home, fed, clothed, and adopted him. Not only did he do this, but as the little fellow was totally ignorant of his parentage on either side, Mr Wilson bestowed upon him the aristocratic name of his own residence (St. Albans), taught him to ride, and one of the results is that the lad, with the help of the filly Briseis, landed for his master the rich racing stake in question. Lads who are in the habit of stripping orchards (says the Dunedin Evening Star) would do well to take heed at the lesson some little fellows received at the hands of Mr. Watt on Wednesday morning for indulging in that practise. Being convicted of stealing apples two lads were ordered to receive six stripes on the bare back, while an elder boy was sent to goal for seven days, with hard labor. A fourth youth did not appear and a warrant was ordered to issue for his apprehension. ' Towards the end of 1868, the Daily Times reprinted from an English paper an account of a wager for 1,000 guineas, made and won by Sir John Throgmorton in 1811, that gentleman undertaking to wear at dinner in the evening a coat made of wool, which had been growing on the sheep's back the same morning. Through the energy of a clothier named Coxeter, the conditions were fulfilled within thirteen hours, and Sir i John duly wore the coat at rejoicings in which 5,000 persons participated. The event is recalled by the death of Mrs. Coxeter, which took place on November 27th, at Newbury. Mrs. Coxeter was then 101 years and nine months old, and retained all her faculties to the last. She was born at Witney, and distinctly remembered hearing John Wesley preach there. She was married at the age of eighteen, and had eleven children, of whom five are still living.

An artist named Eastwood was drowned while bathing in the Matai river, Nelson, on Monday evening last. Mr. T. E. Welch ( who is unfortunately a cripple and unable to swim, saw him sink, and a,boy named Whitting, only fourteen yeara of age, plunged in with his clothes on to try and save Mr. Eastwood, but without The deceased, who was a resident of Onehunga, and was returning home from"| a pleasure trip, leaves a widow arid six children. The incidental expenses of the Nelson regatta amounted to £160. A recent Auckland telegram says : —A seaman fell overboard from the maintopgallant yard of the Sapphire. Another sailor and one of the officers who witnessed the accident, sprang to the assistance of the unfortunate man, who had struck something in his fall, or was stunned by contact with the water and came to the surface quite insensible. The two noble fellows who had jumped in after him got to his side simultaneously, and held him up. A life buoy was thrown from the ship and placed round the helpless man's body, and he was taken on board. But for this bravery the accident would undoubtedly have been a fatal one. In the Gazette the following notices appear : —The reserve of a site for a lighthouse at Akaroa Heads. The acceptance of the tender of W. Birss, Invercargill, at £2984 2s, for the erection of a lighthouse at Puysegur Point, the south head of the entrance of Preservation Inlet, and that of W. Boyd, Invercargill, at £2078 19s> for the erection of a lighthouse on Centre Island, on the north shore of the western entrance of Foveaux Strait, and near Riverton. Counterfeit sovereigns, to a large extent are in circulation in Sydney. Sir Arthur Guinness, the well-known Dublin brewer, has dissolved partnership with his brother, Mr. Cecil Guinness, on account of his slate of healih.