Local and General.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 477, 22 February 1881, Page 2

Local and General.

The p.s. Titan made an excursion trip to Akaroa on Saturday, arriving here between seven and eight o'clock. The number of excursionists was very small, buttl'ose who came had a mo.-st enjoyable trip, as the weather was delightful and the sea like glass. On Sunday the Titan made a trip round tho harbor of which ft number availed themselves. She left for Lyttelton again about eleven p.m.

A meeting of dairy fanners was held a the Somerset Hotel, Head of the Bay, on Saturday afternoon. The meeting took pace in response to an invitation signed by Mr Chappell and three other gentlemen } and published in this journal. The attendance was large and influential, over sixty being present, every part of the Peninsula being represented. Mr C. McDonald was voted to the chair, and explained that the object of the meeting was to form an association of dairy-farmers, in order to take steps towards establishing an export trade in their staple product, cheese. Mr Chappell proposed a resolution to the effect thai those present form themselves into a Dairy-farmers' Association. Mr W. Barnetl spoke at come length on the subject" and detailed the steps he had taken towards obtaining information on the subject and support for the project. Several others present gave their opinions, all of which wera favorable to the scheme,though various differences existed as to matters of detail. The resolution was carried unanimously, and over ferty persons at once put down their names as members. The tubscription waa fixed at 10s per annum. The following officers were elected :—President, C. McDonald ; VicePresident, W Barnett; Committee, Messrs G. Checkley, B. Shadbolt, T. S. Johnston, W. Barnett, C. McDonald, W. Curry, S. Hunt, Goodwin, Callaghan, Chappell, Coop, and J. B. Barker. The meeting then adjourned to be called together again wherever the committee should deem it necessary. A meeting of committee was afterwards held, at which Mr J. Barwick was appointed secretary.

During the second act of the opera at Wellington, on Wednesday night, an unrehearsed incident in the performances somewhat aroused the risible faculties of tie audience. On three occasions a large rat traversed a narrow ledge situated immediately above the proscenium arch, and temporarily alienated the attention of the audience from the performers.

The Parihaka meeting has terminated. There were present about ten Europeans and a large number of Natives. Tβ Whiti made an inoffensive speech, saying that, although the Government had taken up arms against him be would not do so against the Pnkehns. He intended to stop where he was to carry out his work. He would not 8 'nd hia Natives for the Europeans to make prisoners through breaking the law. The Government might do whal they liked, but the Natives would not obstruct them. With reference to Mr Bryce's resignation, he said, that if the Government took Parihaka the Natives would make no resistance. They might take him and Tohu prisoners. He compared the Government to a cannibal, or a chief who would destroy his (Te Whiti's) people. Tohu spoke m a similar strain.

The New Zealand Times states that large quantities of green flax have lately been cent to Melbourne from Wellington for paper making. The buyers seem to have tired of paying freight for a lot of useless material, and have made an offer to a Wellington citizen to reduce the flax to pulp before being sent, the useless pnrt of the plant being- thus thrown away here instead of at Melbourne. It is computed that it takes six tons of flax to yield a ton of pulp for paper making, and therefore the the saving in freight if the proposed course is taken will be very considerable. Flax contains a valuable medical gum, and its possible an endeavor will be made to extract this in reducing the plant to to pulp. In responding to a toast in Southland the other evening, one speoker said that in several parts of the colony it was the opinion of people that the banks were to be blamed for the dull times, but to this be took except on. The reason was not fnr to seek. Such a complaint was not made in <i district where the farmer kept to a fair and legitimate business, and did not launch out into speculations regardless of consequences. In other places he had visited people were kept afloat with a lot of bills, and when the bank, as in duty bound, came down on them and wound them up, they blamed the bank and not themselves Tiik Lytteltou Time* learns that the contract for the construction of the Sumner railway bus been accepted, subject to some little modification, at an amount approximating to £12.000. This will include survey anil the construction of the line with steel rails, and as the Government has undertaken to furnish the i.il!jtioptock jinrl work the b'no, it is anticipated lint llio citizens may look forward to lieing earned to Simmer at ;i moderate rate in nine months' time-. A large number of abnrcH have been taken up. Tlio details of tho lino were published in rLese columns tjuine moiitbrt since. Wri.vr's in a name ? ''&. dosr wan rem'sf.e."?.'l lit n -'rw d.i\y;s ;i;ro lmv'm" ti""> foiifAvim-Y iviii.M-Viliir'-^YfM'-' , " '- ••i"-—

Even in a cricketer, and that a Wellingtonian, there is (tho Times says) to bo found an amount of verdant and juvenile innocence which, in ihese days,is perfectly refreshing. " Spofforth eats jelly at lunch,' said an aspiring Wellington bowler sotto voce, " and so will I." And he did eat it, but one has the stern duty of paying that whether or not Spofforth's greased lightning spots are acceleift'ed by jelly, it was perfectly certain that the loca! howler did iioir gain a single wicket after devouring several plates of the savory compound.

Suppose (writes the Port Darwin corresp ndent of tho Quemslamler) I were to say that a I.OOOoz. nugget had been found on the Margaret, 1 would be rnnb'oed immediately. I heard lately that such was the case, 80 I went to tho spot to ascertain the particulars. Of course, as usual, they wen exaggerated, but the find was an extra ordinary one for all that. It was not a nugget hit a specimen, and although the yield was not I.OOOoz, it exceeded 700oz— not a bad find for one man. TII3 specimen was a quartz boulder, known to nearly every one on tho creek. I knew it myself well, and had often sat down on it to enjoy a smoke. It was in the very centre of the thoroughfare, only fifty yards from the police camp, and a party of tour Germans camped alongside of it. It might be described as a large nugget completely coated in quartz, and a Chinaman one day passing broke the skin with the head of his pick, and the golden kernel was discovered. The stone waa broken up, and th cc bags of specimens and gravel were taken to the nearest water. The police and a number of Europeans attended to see tho washing. It was supposed the Europeans would make a scramble for the treasure, but they were law-abiding, however tempting the circumstance, and the Mongolians took the gold with them—about TUOozs for an hour's work. If I stopped at this the story might be sensational, but there was a rush to the place, and 300 men worked for a week without getting a speck of gold within 300 yards of where the boulder lay. It had been a huge stone rolled from a distance, but took a different direction from the usual nuggets.

The proceedings on the civil side at the R.M. Court (says Friday's Press) have heen wofiilly dull of late. Whether or not it is owing to the ten per cent reduction or the defeat of the Canterbury Fifteen it is impossible to say, but the only merriment indulged in this long time has been shown by mere half laughs or pursers grins, which the sailors say indicate loser's opinions of matter?. There wa c , however, a little joke got off yesterday, quite uniiilenfinnally, and not very excruciating in its fun, but, taking the hard times into consideration, it was as good as could he expected. The crier called out. in the usual manner, " Skillet v. Duflilmgs," and Uis Worship—whose attention had been called to something else, proceeded, nfter a while, somewhat in this manner—" There is a lot of chaff in this case, and after going over the accounts carefully, I find the price paid for it is as much as it was worth, etc.," and so on for some time. The professional gentlemen sitting round the Horseshoe looked at each other for a while at last a smile stole over their faces, and one of them rising, said, " Er, your Wshp, there must be some mistake here, Er!" " Mistake ! mistake, how can that he ? I am giving judgement in the case ' Skinley v Bragall. This chaff as I was Eaying " — "Excuse me, your Wshp," put in the lawyer. " dr, but the chaff is what we could not understand, and the case called was' Skillet v Duffbag,' Kr, Kγ!" Oh, ah hum!" said His Worship, "there is not any chaff in that case, as 3-011 seem to hint, and, apologising for my mistake, we wil ■ hear what you have to say about it." The names given above may Not be quite correct, but, owing to the bad acoustic properties of the Court-room, they are as near right as could be provided.

" It may be interesting news," says the San Francisco Ncics Letter "that 'the Roiterdamsche Handelsvereeniging loses 7,000,000 florins by the failure of the Afrikansche Handelsvereeninging.' but to impart such information by telegraph murt be very wearing on the wires. Tliat is the smallest part of the evil, however. We know of three compositors and one foreman printer who have committed suicide by drowning since those Dutch bank s began to fail, thereby causing a glut in the shrimp market, and giving an inky flavor to the crabs; those unfortunate men did not belong to the News Letter office. Not at all. We are too careful of the lives of our printers for that, and have a machine (patent applied for) expressly invented for such emergencies. Tt is like a gigantic inverted poper cantor., with holes in the lid large enough to let type slip through freely. It takes pome time to get the name of a Dutch bank along the wires, and as soon as we are warned by the arrival of the first instalment, our machine is promptly hoisted into povilion over the form. A" (Ik , nepie

continues to come in, four able-bodied men fihovel type into Ihe T>iilc!)nn\ot"pr I'rom i\ well-mixed btvip of nil tlio It tiers in the a'phabof. i.!io lufichine is then violently suriiated l»y i'oii'ia , boa (en wiih a cast-iron e'tib, and af'tor flic iyna bfis

TiiltUi] out for an hour or two, we have

got. *;h:;t Miiu'io. about r>;= correct tts ;V>y of thf fi.ii!i"s. We 1 k>fir ilimv t.!i<- Soriciy For

tli» of r.- r ..'lv U", »>■]<

The Right Reverend tho Bishop of Christchiueh has beci visiting this part of his diocese during the past week. Our Okain's correspondent writes as follows :— l( On Friday the 18th ult. His Lordship the Primate of New Zealand paid a visit to Okain's Bay in consequence of a petition which had been forwarded to him by tho inhabitants, asking him to consecrate the cemetery in the district, a.s the necessary conditions had been complied withA good portion of the inhabitants were present during tho ceremony. After which the choir sang hymn IG9, Ancient ani Modern. His Lordship before the people dispersed delivered a very impressive address on the subject of the consecration of the cemeteries, showing it to be inherent in even barbarous tribes to set apart a place as sacred for the burial of their dead." Regarding the visit of the Bishop to Okain's it is worthy of being chronicled that it was made in a buggy,the first instance we believe, of a wheeled vehicle having been taken over these bills , Mr ft. Main officiated as driver on the occasion, and the journey was made without a hitch. On Saturday the Bishop consecrated the ground which has lately been taken into the church of England cemetery at Akaroa. Owing perhaps to the counter attractions of the cricket match, and the dairy-farmers meeting, tho attendance at the ceremony was but small. On Sunday His Lordship preached in the morning at St. Peter's Akaroa, and in the evening administered the rite of confirmation to ten candidates.

A Dunedin correspondent of a contemporary write as follows respecting the late fire in that city :—Amongst the startling incidents o£ the past week none havo atracted greater attention than the destrucive fire ot la-:t S laslay morning. Not only has this fire (which completely gutted Mr Hudson's flonr mill and factory) shown how incapable the present fire apparatus is to cope with a large conllagation, but also the insufficient means of escape provided by the Coffee Palace for its occupants Now if this building, which is the most recent public boarding-house erected, does not give sufficient means of escape what can bo expected of the old houses. I should have thought the warning given by the < )ctagon fire would have sufficed to put the Corporation on its guard against the erection of any building where life was not absolutely safe. This it appears was not the case, and that it was with groat difficulty the fonr occupants of the Palace were rescued seems an indication that yet another fearful tragedy must be enacted before the eyea of the people of Dunedin will be opened to the necessity of providing a perfect means of escape in times of fire, for if people are rescued with difficulty from buildings adjoining a fire how much chance would they have if they were in the midst of the burning mass.

Says Friday's Telegraph : —The passengers waiting at Eolleston for the South train this morning were afforded an opportunity of listening to an elaborate condemnation of the Licensing Commissioners for the Christchurch district. It appears that Mr Smith, by repeated applications, has been granted a license for a hotel at Conrtenay, and this so annoys a certain Colonel B 1 who resides in the district that be delivered an open-air denunciation of the same this morning, and wound up a magnificent peroration with the threat that in his seat in the Council he would abuse them, d—m them, and do his best to have fresh Commissioners appointed.

Another of the Peninsula pioneers has passed away. On Saturday last, Mrs Mclntosh (late of Mcintosli Bay) died at the ripe age of 81.

Elsewhere appears a notification from the Commissioner for Property Tax, notifying the times and place for its payment The two instalments of the tax are payable on the Bth and 22nd of March respectively The Commissioner notifies thrt the place of payment for the Canterbury district is the Deputy Commissioner's office, Christchurch. We had understood that the post offices were to be constituted places for payment, but the Commissioner's notice is silent as to this.

As a paragraph in our last issue has been construed to imply some neglect on the part of our local postmaster, we hasten to correct the impression, as it is an entirely unfounded one. We allude to the non-delivery of the report from Mr Barwick in time for the Council's meeting on Wednesday evening last. It appears that the letter containing , the same was not posted in Duvauchelle's Ray, but sent down to Akaroa. and posted here. As Mr Garwood's box is elearc-l immediately after the mail arrives, of course the letter

in question was not then in it, not having come with the mail. Hence,, although it bore tha post mark of the 16th, and was placed in the box on that date, it did not ranch its destination till the following day. The iinal meeting of the Financial Committee of tho Presbyterian Church Akaroa, "for the present year was held last evening in the church. All the memher* were proseut except Mr whose a'ovence w.ia unavoidable. Among other business transacted, it was moved liv Mr Black, seconded by Dr Gutbrie, and agreed to—''That in consequence of tli removal of the Rev, Mr Douglas to cother charge, n "farewell tea-meetitig should be held on Tuesday evening, the ihird Alarch, ;.. ;■:.i ''; '•■ w> , f!.•>'! i- s iirt! : or 'iar-