ONE THING AND ANOTHER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 241, 8 November 1878, Page 3

ONE THING AND ANOTHER.

(Collated from our Exchanges.)

On the. occasion of a contemplated visit of his Excellency the Governor to a certain Borough in New Zealand (not in Canterbury), the question of providing the Mayor with robes of office was under discussion, when a Councillor proposed that " a velvet robe lined with vermin he procured." The Mayor objected.

Respecting the Wellington tramway (the first one established in a town in New Zealand), we learn that the expectations of the most sanguine shareholders in the success of the tramway have been far outstripped by the traffic which has fallen to its lot. Week by week there is alarg« increase in the numbers carried, until last week—that is, for the week ending Saturday, the 19th Oct., the number reached 19,446 passengers, and the passenger fares £223 2s 13d. Who will say after this we are not a travelling community ?

It is thought in Melbourne that there is a strong probability of the Marquis of INbrmanby being the new Governor of Victoria. It is considered more than likely that Sir Hercules Robinson will go to the Cape, and Sir Bartle Frere be moved on to Madras. It is understood that Lord Normanby would have much preferred Sydney, and that he was not particularly anxious for the appointment to Victoria.

Things are coming to a pretty pass when children have to be bound over to keep the peace towards each other. Yet an instance of this kind has just been brought before the notice of the public through the Dunedin City Police Court, in which a boy of ten years, Daniel Wadsworth by name, was bound over in £5 to keep the peace towards Mary MAuley, for six months, for having assaulted her. A suggestion to kiss -and make friends was rejected with scorn by the juvenile parties, and so the law had to take its course.

A Wellington paper says :—" Some time ago, we drew the attention of the police to the cruelty practiced in a city restaurant, upon a number of rats, by placing them over the stove fire and roasting their insides out. The police took this matter in hand, with the result, that at the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, before Mr Mansford, R.M., Charles Tafner was charged with cruelly torturing certain rats on the 25th of September last. Mr Fitzgerald, for the defence, contended that there was no offence within the meaning of the Act. His Worehip said that this was a charge brought owing to comments In the public press. He would like to be able to punish a man for torturing any animal, but there was no provision for such animals as rats. The information had been made for publicity's sake, and would have to be dismissed." By all means, Mr Mansford, let the greatest publicity be given to the case. If no means exist of punishing , such a fiend in human shape, but by holdiua: him and his proceedings up to public execration, we willingly assist in doing so. It were a gross libel on the lower animals to call such a creature a brute.

The Christclmrch ladies are claiming the right to paddle their own canoe, four of them having arranged for a boat race on the Avon. As they float on the crystal stream the admiring spectators will be" calling them dear ducks. We think the fair competitors will be a species of wild duck. A lady has enough to do ■when she has one good loving head to manage. A pair of sculls are too many. At a recent meeting of a Municipal body not very far distant from here, the absence of the representatives of the fourth estate was specially noted by one of the worthy Councillors, whereupon another, giving a shrug peculiar to himself, said—" Oh, yes, we are our own masters to-night , " The debates that ensued showed that they did indeed require some restraint to be placed upon ihem.

Mr D. M. Luckie, newspaper editor, is reported to have been appointed Commissioner of Land Tax at £650 a year. _ Hβ will be cheap at the money if his experience leads tlie Govermnent to adopt schedules A and Bof of the English Act. We will then dul> tins Commissioner an A.B.

We hi'iir of the unearned increment which is dubiously spoken about, but the claim of the Police to the earned increment is universally admitted. If we want a reliable force we must y.\y them well, otherwise the best irien will seek out other beats. We are glad to hear that the pay of the constables is to be raised, although it is only " a song of sixpence."