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Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 224, 10 September 1878, Page 2

The cutter Alert, which has lately been uoed in the firewood trade between Wainui and this place, filled and sank the other day, and, owing to the bad weather coming on, no steps have as yet been taken to raise her. An informant tells us that the house about to be erected for Mr Tosswill will be an ornament to the district, especially as it will be situated in the beautiful little bay this side of Green's Point. We would remind carpenters that the tenders for this building close on Thursday next, and that plans and specifications may be seen at the office of Mr H, H. Fenton.

The colony generally will be highly interested by the intelligence published in our telegraphic columns, and which we received through the Press Agency, that one Ben Jones has bitten the nose of John Orchard clean off. We have thought that this must be a case of forbidden fruit, taken as it was out of an Orchard; but still we cannot see how a trivial case like this can be a matter of Colonial interest; but we suppose Ben Jones nose more about it than we do. Shakespaare says —" What's in a name ?—that which we call a nose, by any other name would smell as sweet."

The contract for the Oddfellows' Hall has been re-let by the Building Committee to Mr W. Penlington, who, we are assured, will carry out the work with all expedition. We shall be glad to see this really fine building finished as soon as possible, as the town is much in want of increased accommodation for public meetings and entertainments.

We understand that Dr Guthrie was enabled on Sunday last to set the injured limb of the man William Woods, whose unfortunate accident at Le Bon's Bay was mentioned in our last issue.

On the 23rd of last month the Ellesraere Reclamation snd Akaroa Railway Bill was discussed in the Legislative Council. The Hon. Mr Hall spoke strongly in favor of the project; and those who knew to what extent the people of the Plains would resort to Akaroa, would admit that a very large passenger traffic would result. In answer to Mr Miller, Mr Hall stated that the tunnel required would only be two miles in length, and that the first twentysix miles of the railway when opened, would reach the available timber in Little Kiver. The speaker shewed that the undertaking must, besides paying ample interest on outlay, open up a large area of valuable land for settlement. Sir Francis Bell allowed that, the work in question having been sanctioned by the Legislature, it was the duty of the Council to see that it did not fall to the ground. He, however, opposed the principle of setting up the Trust for the performance of great public duties, which ought to be confined to the Government. The original constitution of the Trust was for preliminary works, and now it was proposed to " continue " that power, as if it applied to the whole construction of the line. The general tenor of Sir F. Bell's speech was against the principle of the Bill. Further particulars of the debate have not yet reached us.

The weather has, during the last three days, been exceptionally severe. The rainfall has been, and still continues, so heavy that the Mail oflice and neighbouring buildings bid fair to be flooded, if not seriously damaged. The water has been coming down in torrents from the reclamation reserve; and the creek near Mr Meech's residence is in such force as to be more than an ordinary man could wade across. Should the weather continue in its present state, serious damage is likely to ensue, and the roads of the Peninsula will be next to impassable.

The following story is authenticated by a clergyman in the north of England :— An elderly primitive Methodist local preacher was ill, and in the course of his parochial duties our informant went to see what was the matter. He found the old preacher sitting before the fire, rocking himself and groaning. Of course, he sympathised, and on asking what was wrong, received the reply—' ; Well, sir, I have been fleeing from the wrath to come these forty years, and now it is settled in my stomach."

The entertainment in aid of St. Peter's Church, which was advertised to take place to-day, has been postponed to the 17th instant, owing to the notice given being rather short for the preparation of the musical items of the programme. Considering the change for the worse which Mis occurred in the weather, we think the postponement is a rather fortunate one. A programme will appear in our next issue. The treatment of the late George Sand in her last illness was peculiar. After four local doctors had failed to improve her condition, a Parisian physician administered no less than twelve bottles of sodawater. The patient, however, succumbed to peritonitis, caused by this novel procedure. It may bo doubted from this whether they really do those things better in France. The Opposition—save the name 1 is in a sad state of anguish at the bomb-shell thrown into their camp in the shape of the new Public Works Policy. All is confusion and sorrow ttiere. They wring their hands, tear their hair (those who have any left on the occiputal crown), and lift towards heaven eyes half-veiled by crocodile teara. The " carpet-baggers " who have sat on the traditional rail dare not descend from their perch, as the easy side is too plainly denned, and they would be too boisterously laughed at. " Poor " Bowen's temper is not improving, and J, E. Brown has withdrawn his rash offer to give 2000 dollars in greenbacks to bring Vogel out to {make him an honourable for life. All is confusion and chaos in fact, and Eolleston even cannot raise his .accustomed grin from ear to ear. And here on the subject of the new policy of un-rest of the present cabinet, a contemporary's clever sketch of the " rest" Ministry, now no more, is brought forcibly to our minds when it said that "it was altogether a manufacture composed by those who

thought more of statecraft than of statesmanship, and of place more than of party. It was a similitude and not a reality. The mirror which is held up to nature was paste and scissors. Major Atkinson himself was an exotic."* 1 'Mr Whitaker was cut

out of opposition, and put in as a frontispiece. Dr Pollen, who in His time had belonged to every party, furnished the padding. Mr Bowen, while carelessly sauntering in the flowery paths of judicial virtue, was seized by the Plutonian Vogeland transported to his shadowy dominions. MrOnnond was inserted as d correspondent with whose views " we must not be necessarily held to coincide." Mr Donald Reid was plagiarised ; and Mr George M'Lean was like the leaf which separates the Old and New Testaments. Another organic defeat in the late Government was that they lived, as it were by their wits. They were, in fact, if we may say so without offence, political vagrants. They lived from hand to mouth, and made no provision for the future. " Sufficient for the session is the evil thereof," was their motto. This characteristic pervaded the whole of what they called their policy. Thirdly, they had not adequate constructive or administrative ability. They pulled down but they could not build. Nor was their administration a success. What the Cabinet should have decided was left to individual Ministers; and what Ministers should have dealt with was left to Undersecretaries ; while details, which would have been properly managed by Undersecretaries were muddled by Ministers. These are the three beacons of warning which the history of the late Government holds out to their successors—disregard of constitutional principles ; political shortsightedness ; and want of administrative power. Alas! how the great (?) have indeed fallen.— Standard.

Hoani Nahe, who is a member of the Cabinet, was examined before the Thames Land Court in reference to the Te Aroha block ; and, when asked how he derived his claim, assumed an attitude of intense seriousness, crossing two fingers and leaning his head on one side after the manner peculiar to Maories, and exclaimed, "My ancestors killed and devoured the original owners." Hoani Nahe, wearing his congenial Heathen Chinee smile, which is seldom absent from his countenance, solemnly asserted that his " ancestors" crossed to the other side of the gulf, killed the inhabitants, and took possession of the land there, which they have since kept. They didn't kill people in these days for nothing. We are nothing surprised that Mr Pearce, the Government Agent, immediately jumped up and objected to this line of evidence.

A correspondent of the Wanganui Herald writes:—ln connection with the death of Te Eeimana, an up-river chief, some little time ago, it is related that his heirs, becoming possessed by his decease of some little property, thought fit to give the old man a respectable European funeral, so they sent down to a local storekeeper for a coffin. The coffin, decorated with crape and fringe and stuff, was taken up in a canoe, and Te Eeimana was put in and hawked round to two or three pahs in the neighbourhood before burial, to show how grandly the thing was done. The fringe, &c, was then taken off the coffin and constructed into head dresses for the lady friends of the deceased, and it is authoratirely stated that Te Reimana's successor wears one of the German silver coffin plates upon his breast.— Westport Times.