The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1881.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 486, 11 March 1881, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1881.

Ths Akaroa County Council elsewhere gives notice of its intention to take certain land for the purpoee of forming a continuation ef Balguerie road. Any objection to the taking- of the land in question must be made to the Council within forty days of the publication of the notice.

The Akaroa and Wainui Road Board, hold & meeting to-morrow, at their offices after the sitting af the Assessment Court,

Mr J. Aylmkr as judge of the Assossment Court held a sitting yesterday, to consider the valuation lint for the Borough of Aknroa. In nearly every overy case tho valation was sustuined. To-morrow (Saturday), the Court sits at Duvauchelle's Bay, and on Monday at Okain's Hay, when the list of the respective Road Boards will be gone through.

Some time ago there existed a Bank's Peninsula Building and Investment Society. It did not enjoy a sufficient amount of local support, and waa consequently amalgamated with, or absorbed by the Lyttelton Society. The latter iw How turning its attention to Akaroa and elsewhere announces that it is prepared to do business on the Peninsula. The facilities offered by these societies to men of Binali means to become proprietors of homes of their own nre too woll known to neod recapitulation, and we expect that a fair amount of local burners can be dono. Mr W. H. Ilonniiig has been appointed agent for Akaroa arid all particulars may bo obtain i J from him.

Mr J. Olliver. Provincial District Auditor, arrived in Akaroa on Wednesday, and has been engaged in auditing the accounts of the Akaroa and Wainui Road Board. To-day he will audit those of the Okain's Road Board. It will be good news for those having still unsatisfied claims for compensation for land taken for roads that Mr Olliver will be prepared during his stay to settle all such claims ac have been approved by the Crown Solicitor. Mr OHivier may be found at WagstafFs Hotel, up to Tuesday next.

FitOM a notice in the Gnzette of March 3 we learn that the Governor, by an Orderin Council, vests the management of the Akaron Wharf and the wharf locally known as Datys wharf in the Akaroa Borough Council

On tlie Victorian railways it has been found that the payment of compensation to fanners for property destroyed in special cases by sparks from the locomo. tive has led to a host of claims being preferred. Owners of farms, in view of compensation, it is said, prefer to erect their haystacks near the railway line, and the authorities have been compelled to warn them to remove the stacks or take the consequences. Under a clause of the Victorian Kailways Act, the onus of protecting property, in such cases, is thrown on property owners, and it has hod a wonderful effect in keeping down bogus claima for compensation. The Otago Daily Times deprecates the severe sentonces which the Dunedin Resident Magistrate is inflicting on youthful orchard robbers. It says :—" If we remember rightly, Dγ Stuart confesses to stealing apples when a boy. Did Mr Watt himself never steal apples ? " Tub Elloamere Qnardian is informed on very good authority that there is every likelihood of a meeting being called on an early date to consider the advisability of starting a cheese and butter factory in Southbridge Wβ einccraly trust that, ehouli the information wo have received prove correct, the importance of the sub., jeel will insure a good attendance, as we : are of opinion that, were a factory of the above description established in our midst, it would prove of great bonufil to the community at largo. The Newcastle correspondent of the Sydney Evening Neios states that the destitution there is appalling. Many oases of actual want and starvation are occurring A miner's child lay for three days unburied, the parents being unable to afford a coffin or the funeral expenses. Eventually a subscription among the poor neigh bore was instituted, and the corpse waa decently buried. A middle-age , ) gentleman went to take a bath at a first-clasa hotel in Dunedin the other day. There are several knobs by turning which you can get cold, hot, or tepid water, and our bather got on very well with the cold plug, but when he wanted a warmer shower, then his troubles began. He turned the wrong knob, and brought down boiling water then he lost all presence of mind, set all knobs going together, and finally, in desperation, screamed for help. The only person who was up at that hour was the house-maid, who rushed to the bath-room nnd then had to beat a hasty retreat, as the gentleman's dress was scarcely fitted for a reception. The house-maid roused up " boots," who rushed into the bathroom, and aftor getting a good ducking succooded in stepping the flood. At the Land Court, at Cambridge, Auck. land, Maihi Rangikabeke, Arekahera, and other influential chiefs of the Rotorua natives protested against the outrage committed at Iloruhora. They counselled the natives present to discountenance al such proceedings, and contended that no good would result therefrom to the Maoris or Europeans. The former said that Otutai, by whom the outrage was planned, promked \u 1873 that the e\>ord would be sheathed. He was surprised at the conduct he was now pursuing. Thirty years ago Great Britan consumed foreign cheese to the amount of only 1 lb per head per year ; to-day it is nearly 6 lb per head per year, or a total of' 137.000,000 lbs. Shebkkns are so numerous in Oainaru that cvory now and again the quosiion comes before the Magi s tin to's Court there. Remarking on the number of cases of drunkenness which came before the Resident Magistrate)'? Court on Monday, one of the presiding jiibtices, Mr Shrimski, expressed a belief that sly grog houses were a great refngo for tipplers on Sundays. Mr Shrimski hoped that the police would do all that they could to suppress those dens. Some excitement was caused on January 8 by a report that an attempt had been made to burn down the Custom House, London. It appears that about half past seven in the evening an officer passing through a room in the tea department of the building discovered what appearc to have been an attempt to set fire to tho place. The room contains ranges of shelves from floor to ceiling , crammed with papers. Against one of the wooden partitions a hamper of loose paper had been placed and set on fire. The hampor was partially burned and the shelves charred, but the fire had not had time to make any serious progress, and it was at once extinguished. The Irish Land League are rivalling the notorious comorra of Southern Italy in their methods of destroying their enemies. The principal tradesman in the neighborhood of Headford was unlucky enough to incur their displeasure. They accordingly " excommunicated " him, with the result that he his only sold four shillings worth of flour since his " excommunication." The girl who had bought the flour did not succeed in carrying it home as an emissary of the Leaguu ripped up the bag containing it, and the Hour was reduced to mud and the girl to tears. This htter sight, howc-'cr, touched the heart of tho Irishman : hr. p;.i:l K-r the Vflliif- of the flour on r-mrni(o; ; r in future to buy her biearhtuffs ai another ! shop. !

The following little paragraph which we find in one of our exchanges is too good to be lost:—" Read this.—-The latest amusement is termed th» ' Printers delight, and is performed in the fol lowing manner: —Take a sheet of noto-paper, fold it up carefully and enclose a bank-note sufficiently large to pay up arrears and a year in advance. And what adds immensely to the feat is to send along the name of a new subscriber with cash to balance. Keep your eye on the printer, and if you see him smilo, the trick ia a success. Try it."

Thby do seme smart things in the States (writes a correspondent to a contemporary). A tale is told, and a true one ( of a resident in Auckland who was walking up the levee in New Orleans where he saw a quantity of tobacco to be sold. Hβ knew as much abont tobacco as squaring a circle, but it was cheap and he bought it. Then came the selling. Nobody would buy it, it wasn't in shape, and there was a ring besides. The first thing was to storo it, or the niggers would steal it ; but the stores were closed. Our friend was not to be beaten. Hβ sent his wife trotting, and filled the house with the weed. Then it had to be pressed, but the pressers were with the ring. At last the trail of a retired presser was struck, who wouldn't see the new arrival jammed. That tobacco waa made trim and tight, and a trial made at the auction. The ring found that the game was up, bought the lot at a good figure, and Q. R. cleared a little fortune.

A very funny quasi-literary contest is proceeding at present in Wellington. It appears there is some person there named Chantrey connected with a local paper.and who, as reader, seea all the manuscript that is sent in to be printed. A wager was laid that this person would be mndo to print three times in his paper the words— " Chantrey is an idiot." The first time the bait was not only taken, buttakon eagerly. The offensive words took the shape of an acrostic, and the versos in which it was conveyed were not only inserted, but a foot-note was attached, to the effect that the editor admired the verses, and hoped to hoar from the writer again. The eecond shot was fired on Thursday, in the form of a letter touching the "Management of Lunatics," in which the following sentence occurs :—" The Japanese, amongst whom it was my lot to live for some years,have a proverb, Todii Threyanc si 7ia, broadly interpreted, meaning, " Where there is one sore the whole body is diseased." Will this not apply to one whole system of management of lunatics ? I think you would do a public service by advocating a commission of enquiry having a wider scope than the present one.—l am, etc." A very simple transposition of tho italicised words will show that they read " Chantrey is an idiot." The third " time of asking " has, we presume, yet to come off, and as it is said that a condition of the wager is that the victim is to have fair warning ; all literary men will watch with interest for the result. Nearly every hotel in Wellington has the acrostic and the " Japanese proverb " pasted up, and the whole thing is the local joke of the day.