The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, MARCH 26.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 384, 26 March 1880, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, MARCH 26.

We are happy to be able to state that the rumour, which for the past few days has been going round the circle of Akaroa, to the effect that the Alice Jane was wrecked or missing is not true, as she is now lying safe and sound in Lyttelton harbour.

In consequence of having to go to press on Thursday night instead of our usual time, in order to permit of our hands having a holiday on Good Friday, we have been compelled to hold over the supplement. It will, however, appear in next Tuesday's issue.

The annual boat raco between Oxford and Cambridge was rowed on Tuesday Inst, and won by the former University. Oxford, by this victory, is now one ahead. As each University had till now scored seventeen wins, and one race has resulted in a dead heat.

As will be seen by an advertisement in a Christchurch paper, that well-known old established institution known as O»bb'e office has changed the location of ite home, and the corner of the Triangle, the familiar rendezvous of old Canterbury travellers, now knows it no more. The office of Messrs Cobb is now to be found in the more pretentious, if not more conveniently situated, structure recently erected opposite the Post-office in Cathedral square.

Business is bad I nothing doing! must shut up! is the cry everywhere, and it would appear that not only does the little grocer or fish hawker feel the general despondency. Not only is the large wholesale merchant moaning and deploring the present wretched stagnation in trade, but from an exchange we-find that even those magnates, those useful members of society, those preventers of crime, the Chritstchurch detectives and prominent members of the police force there — than which n©ne better, none more vigilant in the wiiole colony—are reiterating the same cry, are bewailing their wretched fate, are to be seen all in aheap, like Brown's cows, outside the Court house vehemently gesticulating, and declaring it to be too bad. "Only just fancy! nothing but one wretched, miserable drunk, and him let off wit'i a caution ; it's too bad ; we shall have to depart for Utah !' What a godsend either a fire or an embezzlement case would be just at present for those gentlemen, or even a repetition of the now farfamed Thnaru riots.

The French cynic says that there is something gratifying to us in the misfortunes of our best friends, and after the local municipal troubles we have had here it is not with feelings of unmixed grief that we learn that Ihe Balclutha Borough Council, from the report of their last meet ing, will not be able to light up the town during the eotning winter. Not only like the foolish virgins have thoy no oil, but they cannot go to those that sell and buy for themselves for want of funds.

The Bruce Standard is responsible for the following :—"Leo XLIL, tlie head of the Roman Catholic Church, suiters, it is said, from fits and shivers and great prostration. "Physician heal thyself." Never having he?trd that the Pope profcsscb to bo a physician, or claims inimnnity from sickness and death, we fail to ■see the point of what its author probably intends for a scathing bii of satire.

Under the heading " The Noble Art of Self-defence," The Wanganui Chronicle moralizes thusly:—lf self-defence consists in leaving a town without paying one's bills, Mr West who acted as agent for Hicken, the pugilist, during his recent visit to Wanganui, must be considered a master of the art. We speak from personal experience, having been one of his victims. Another was a servant girl at Mr Ferry's, of the Occidental Hotel, who actually paid for the man's washing out ef her own pocket. He was asked for the money, said he wonld be back in a minute, and then went out, got into a cab, and drove off to the railway station without paying. We commend these facts to the consideration of onr contemporaries in Napier and elsewhere.

The preliminary investigation into the charge of criminal libel against the Otago Daily Times and Witness was concluded on Monday last. The alleged libel was contained in a paragraph of sporting intelligence which appeared in the Otago Witness and ran as follows: — "The Dunedin Cup Race.—Mr G. Fraser's chestnut gelding Longlande, by Totara—Marchioness, 5 yrs, 7et 121b, was bred in Auckland by Mr James Watt, and is a very good horse, though ecarcely able to hold his own with the best at weight for age. He has achieved a great reputation for gameness and speed, but is principally notorious for his two consecutive wins in the Great Autumn Handicap. He has not done a great amount of work, the course observed being much the same as is pursued with Mata —score a remunerative win and then either lay him up for a time or run him totally unfit, the result being that somo handicapper lets him in cheaply for another big race, and again he 'lands a moral.'" All the directors had bean summoned, but only the managing director, Mr Fenwick, put in an appearance. Mr Spacktnan, for the complainant, contented himself with proving publication, and putting the prosecutor (Mr Stead) in the the box, who said that he ran horses under the name of Fraser, that the paragraph referred to him, and that there was no truth in it. For the defence, Mr Garrick contended that there was no evidence to warrant a committal (1), because there was no evidence of jurisdiction ; (2) that there was nothing to show that the de fendant was aware that Stead and Fraser was one and the same person; (3) that there was no evidence of the purchase of the paper in Cliristchurch. The Bench was of opinion that a prima facie case had been made out, and defendant was committed for trial, bail being accepted in his own recognizances. The case against the other defendants was, by consent, withdrawn. We learn from the Lyttelton Times that in addition to the list of corps already published who propose to attend the review on Easter Monday, a telegram was received on Saturday night that 110 volunteors will leave Nelson by the Hinemoa on Thursday, via" Wellington. It is also, that a further addition to those coming from Wellington will be made by the City Guards, whose uniforms from England are likely to arrive in time. Altogether, includiug the Christchurch corps, these would bring the number of men on the ground to the handsome total of over 1700, and that number of men under arms will, we venture to say, be a spectacle such as may not be again presented in Canterbury for many a day to come. The Committee in finding billets and making arrangements have been indefatigable, and their efforts deserve the hearty support of the public. The Lyttelton Times says:—lt will be remembered that some months ago an actor namud Tyrrell was arrested at Port Chalmers in mistake for another man, brought to Chrietchurch, and put to very great inconvenience in consequence. The case as was pointed out at the time was a particularly hard one, and the authorities made as much amends as possible by giving Tyrrell a free pass to Invercargill. TJais, however, was not much, and we are glad to learn from a southern paper that the Government have given the young man £30 in satisfaction of his claims for compensation. It was stated, with what truth we do not know, that an action for £1000 damages had been entered against the detective who arrested Tyrrell- Uuder the circumstances it is not likely that more will be heard of it. A witness in the now celebrated Ashburton libel case, who gives his name as Harry Friedlander, states that he is " a gentleman now, and was formerly Rate Collector." Happy Harry ! He has been able to cast off the dull chrysalis form of a mere collector, and soar aloft into the blue empyrean of gentility. We wonder how he likes it, so far as he has got. An autobiographical sketch of a gentleman, formerly a Rate Collector, would be a gem, and should be edited by a colonial JenkinsThe new Electoral rolls are to come into force on the Ist of May next. Forms of application to be placed on the new roll may be obtained of the registrar, at his office, R. M. Court, Akaroa. It will be seen that the Land Tax is made payable on the Ist of April next, and must be paid within ten days of that date. The place of payment for the the Borough of Akaroa and the eastern portion of the County is the Post-office, Akaroa, and Mr Stratton is the receiving oEcer.

It is as well to see ourselves as others see us. The following; view of Akaroa will have the charm of novelty to many of its residents. Under the heading of "An Eye-opener," a contemporary thus discourses :—" A gentleman who is eminently indebted to his imagination for his facts (tays the North Otdgo Times) ha 9 been telling a Belfast paper what he knows and thinks of New He mentions Oamarii, Timaru, .a\}d Akaroa third-rate sort of places, and blandly says that, of the three, Akaroa is the most important. We, of course, would never think of contradicting a gentleman who writes to any paper published within the Three Kingdoms ; but we would say, with many humble apologies, that, as a matter of rude, stern reality, Oamaru has a population of fully six thousand, that Timaru is quite as populous as Oamaru, and that Akaroa is a pretty Arcadean village, with cattle grazing in its busiest squares, with a total population of some seven hundred souls, and that fifteen out of every seventeen persons you meet within its preeints are marriageable girls with wonderfully fascinating eyes. .The place is really-pleasafitj but its importance 'is' about qs great as that of a Scotch clacHan. Perhaps the attractions of those Akaroa ladies gave the place its importance in the eyes of the Belfast gentleman.

The following gentlemen have been gazetted as Trustees of the Little Akaloa Cemetery:— J. B. Barker, George Ashton, Henry Bennett, Henry M'lntosh, and James Speight. AMr Francis John Morton Dugdale Walmsley has been appointed chief clerk in the Land Tax Office at Christchurch, and Mr Arthur Sugden Haylock a cadet in the Survey Department, the latter appointment dating from Nov. 1. 1877.

Among delicate positions, that of being conductor to a troupe of savages must hold a leading place. One Mr Colley, who has been exhibiting five friendly Zulus for nine weekg in London, has been obliged to part with them to a more enterprising manager; they have cost him £300 already, he says, in spite of their great public attraction, and he " will have nothing more to do with them even for a day. , ' In Paris two of them took to drink, and "getting out" smashed a very valuable mirror. They were not allowed to get out, it seems, lest they should be seen for nothing, but were taken about in closed carriages. After the customs of the bush this must have been rather irksome to them. The whole case has been brought before a Magistrate, but though one of the Zulus (Nomanprave in his own country, Squash in ours) offered to be sworn as interpreter, he could not be accepted, since all that could be extracted from him as the profession of Ms religious faith, was the single word Manilla. It was not even Havannah!