The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, AUGUST 3.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 421, 3 August 1880, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, AUGUST 3.

Tiie vacancy in the Akaroa Borough Council has at last been filled up. V- •' day Mr Campbell Brown waa d::'. tinted, and in thn abscpto r v->-<. - ■■ dates wan at onve - :-..•'■;.

In another column will" be found a report of a meeting held at Pigeon Bay, with the objeot of. protesting against the proposed action of the Postal authorities in discontinuing the present mail service to the Peninsula via Pigeon Bay. We observe that the Mayor of Akaroa. in response to an iniiuentially signed requisition has convened a meeting to be held at the Town Hall to take die same matter into consideration. hope to see a full attendance.

We have been favored by Mr Dixon. Steward of the Akaroa Hospital, with the following statement of returns from that institution for tho month ending July 31, 1880 Males 4, died-*-Males X),-.females 1 ;. Males 5, females 0; total in hospital on the above date—Males 3, females 0.

A meeting of the. Akaroa and Wainui, Road Board should have beerj held on Saturday last; owing however to the two powerful counter attractions of Messrs Wood and Co.'s sale, add a meeting of sheep falmers, iho quorum could be secured. Mr Chappell (Chairman) and-Mr & McDonald were in attendance, and after waiting till (four o'clock, adjourned the meeting till, Saturday next at 11 o'clock. An unusually' large number of persons were in attendance with grievances, which they,wished to bring under the notice of the Board, [i .n-i - j ■ ■ ■ Messrs W. H. Wood held their first cattle sale at IMr Shadbolt's yards, Head of the Bay, oh Saturday list*: Owing to the inclemency dfthe weather in the forenoon, several lines which had been entered did' not put in jan appearance. The attendance of buyersi however, was excellent, and we understand that tba prices obtained were satisfactory.i An unpleasant occurrence took place at Barry's Bay on Sunday; last. For some time past'the schoolroom has been used on stated (Sundays for Divine service. On Sunday last, according to our informant, the Rev Mr Stocker had arrived, and a considerable congregation; had assembled to meet him, when; to. their surprise they found the door of tho schoolroom locked, and admission refused them. To add to the disagreeable nature of the proceeding the weathor was very inclement, and several ladies were among: those thus unceremoniously shut out in the rain. A meeting of the School Committee was held last evening to investigate the matter, but up to the time ! of our ■ going to press no report of the proceedings had reached us. <Ws learn that the weather at Le Bon's Bay has been most tempestuous since the recent tidal wave, the sea washing over the Government jetty in an unprecedented way. A quantity of small pieces of wreckage was washed ashore last Tuesday, but nothing of any importance except a large spar, probably a porti6n of the Jane Hannah, which wns Wrecked some weeks ago. ';■•— \ A highly successful entertainment was given in the Robinson's Bay Schoolroom on Friday evening last. The affair was simply a Bocial gathering, no charge being made for admission. Readings were given by Messrs Wfeitfield, Duxbnry, and Spurr. Mr G. Moyan contributed a recitation ; some instrumental music was nicely rendered by Messrs Johnson and Hartley. A feature in the entertainment was the singing of two sons of the schoolmaster—Masters Arthur and Aubrey Sputr. Their performance on the bones and tambourine was very good. There was also some singing by the school children at large,and some of the boys acted an amusing farce in a highly creditable manner. The entertainment wound up with a dance, and ail appeared to enjoy themselves muchly.

We learn that on Saturday morning last, the 30th ult., a very narrow escape from drowning occurred in this harbor. From what we can gather, one of our local fisherman, Wm. Stewart by name, was returning at an early hour in the morning in his boat at Tikao' Bay, when a sudden squall came on and struck the boat His hands were lo benumbed with the cold that he was unable to properly manage his sail, and the boat lurched over and nearly filled. Stewart went forwaid and cut away the mast and enabled the boat to right herself j and then endeavored to paddle to the shore, which he would not probably have succeeded in reaching, had not Dr Guthrie, who happened to be ascending a hill on tlie Wainui side, noticed the sudden disappearance of the boat. He called the attention of Messrs Wright Bros, who were with him to the fact, and they immediately set out to his rescue, and succeeded in bringing him : safely; to the shore.

From a correspondent in the Okain's Bay we learn that dire warfare has been raging between sheep-farmers and the owners of the canine tribe. Several times the Bheep in that locality have lately been worried by the dogs in the vicinity, but the worst case appeared on Monday week last when it appears a lot of them surronnded two whole mobs of sheep and drove them to a neighbouring creek and thero the carnage commenced. Several of the poor creatures were literally mangled to death, while others were severely bitten. Fortunately a settler was not far off and seeing what was going on f'fti.i 0 t(< •ll'* rn-"-;ir> H > c-V ' 'Vi •>' i.'H ;

By advertisement elsewhere it will be seen that the Education Board for North Canterbury announces a reduction in the salaries of teachers in their employ to take effect from the la of August. The reason given is that Government has intimated that the appropriations for educational purposes have been reduced. We understand from our Pigeon Bay ! correspondent, as well as from various other sources, that great uneasiness is being felt generally on the Peninsula; owing to the determination of, the Government to discontinue the mail subsidy between Akaroa and Pigeon Bay having been announced.* Active steps have already been takenjn the matter by the t residents in the last-namedi locality to induce jthe .Government to reconsider their determination, and we believe it is intended to follow them up with a perseverance worthy of. the caijse. We trust this may not be without avail, as we consider. the Peninsula has all along suffered quite enough, arid been leffi out in the cold far too long.. A very general ex;-. pl'anationfor tbis fack of-s|iar)ng,in the good things going, given by many, is a fwant of energy! anct, activity org the part of the settlers themselves of Banks' Peninsula. Let this be>the causftno longer;? There is an old saying— is not worth asking for is not worth- LetHiß'at any rate ask, and one thing certain ,is that we are neither, likely tp get anything without' asking, nor are we likely to get more than weask for. ■■' z',An unexpected'and involHntary immersion, happened iota iwell-krioWn'Wainui settler on Saturday last. It appears that ;he ;been s worshippings sPniewhaf. too) freely at the shrine/of Bacchus,, and on his going on the wharf accompanied by his triates. 'and making for- we presume the salt water must have looked- tempting to, hjm. At any rate he left the firm, ?sub-. stantial planking to be'found on that structure, and took a sudden dive, into the briny deep. Mr. Cam Brown happening to be oh the wharf at the time—of course by cbahije : , and not to see the Wainui boys off i --jumped into the boat, and fished our hero up. He /was quickly taken $6\ Mr Wes. Chamberlain's hotel, and his necessi-; ties attended to. We think it is almost time the attention of the members of the Borough Council or of the Works, Committee was againcalled to the bad state of the road, or that portion of the road forming, as it might be called, the commencement of the footpath in Jollie street.< Hardly, a day's rain' occurs before a small pond is to be found round the kerbing of the footpath each side of the lamp post near the Mail Office. Surely this state of affairs ought to be remedied. It is most certainly a source of great inconvenience to the residents in the same street, aud it is almost impossible for the fair sex using the footpath after dark to escape wet feet, a sure precursor to colds, congiiSj.diphtheria, ej;c,. AVe.do not think a large expense need necessarily be involved in remedying the evil, but it is for the Works Committee rather than for us to, j decide about that. At any rate tbo works ought to bo done, the present Btatd of affairs being simply a disgrace to the Borough. I The reductions in the police" force I which have been decided upon ;by , Government took* effect from, Saturday*! In Superintendent Broham's districtr which includes Canterbury and; Westland, the force iB reduced by one detective and ten constables. Further economy' is practised by reducing one ''second-class sergeant to third-class third-class sergeants to acting,sergeants ; two first-class constables to second - class; and five .second - class- constables to third - class* The following five police stations in Mr Broham'« district are being closed :— * Bay, Head of Akaroa Bay, Pleasant Point, Waitaki. and Greenstone. In Christchurch the force is now weakened by one detective and one constable. j In tho case " Bracken v. Price,'' heard at the Supreme Court, Dunedin" lately, the question, "what is a local?" was .discussed. „His Honor Judge Johnston fug-, gested .that " it was something between a leading ; article and penny-a-lining." A witness expressed the opinion that "a local was an article containing a series of anonymous statements." g ' We learn that an accident of a most serious nature happened yesterday to the eldest son of Mr James Reynolds, Little River. It?appears that tha lad, who is only 14 years of age, is employed at Mr White's mill. He was shunting a truck of timber, when in some manner he managed to slip and the wheel.of the truck receding passed over his right hand. The injury was found to be very great, and the boy was at once. conveyed to Akaroa, and placed under the. charge of Dr Guthrie, who found it necessary to amputate the first joint of the third finger. The lad bore the pain bravely and when we went to press last night was progressing favorably.