Local and General.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 486, 15 March 1881, Page 2

Local and General.

From an advertisement elsewhere it will be seen that a meeting of subscribers to a testimonial to H. H. Fenton. Esq., will be held at Rodrigues' Hotel to-morrow evening, at 8 p.m. From the long residence of Mr Fenton here, and the many friends ho has made, we expect to see a large muster. Mr A. 0. Knight, ofTekau Bay, will present the testimonial, which we understand will assume the shape of a purse of sovereigns.

Wtt have to remind tenders that offers for the publicans' booths at the Little River races, on Friday 25th March, must be sent to tho Secretary by Thursday.

Wednesday is the last day on which applications for the renewal of petroleum and carriers licenses, in the Borough of Akaroa, can be left with the Town Clerk. The new license comences on April 1. The necessary forms can be had on application at the Town Clerk's office.

A FAUMEii named Burns, residing at North Rakaia, had six stacks of wheat, barley, and oats totally destroyed by fire on Tuesday. It is supposed that an incendiary fired tbe stacks, which were insured in the New Zealand office.

An extraordinary inst nee of cruelty at Newark, Ohio, has come to light. John Cummings, a laborer, forbad bis eight-year-old son coasting on an adjacent milldam, and crucified him for disobedienc . The Akaroa and Wainui Road Board meeting, which should have taken place on Saturday last, lapsed for want of a quorum. None of the munhers put in an appearance, Messrs Williams, M'Donald, and Piper having important engage re )A elsewhere, while we regret to hear that Messrs Sha*'bolt and the Chairman (Mr Chappell) were absent through indisposition. The Clerk, after waiting for the statutory period, adjourned the me* ting till Saturday, March 19, at 2 p.m. The Post Office authorities have extended the time for closing tbe letter-box at Garwood and Co's store forhalf-au-hour in the morning. The time for clenring the box is now 7-30 a.m. instead of 7 a.m. This will be a great advantage to many living at tbe south end of the town, as half an-hour on a winter's morning is of importance to some people. The Union Company's s.s. Penguin, which (according to the time table) wan | due hero this morning, has been delayed, through being docked, until to-morrow morning, when she will sail for Lyttelton . and Northern ports. The s.s. Hawea will call here on Thursday next, on her way to Dunedin, thus making an extra trip not shown in tbe Company's time table on our first page. Mr Dksborough, of Southbridge, has sent home a shipment of butter prepared with tbe Aylesbury Company's preservative, and two months ago a package was made up, which will he opened by tin* Agricultural.and Pastoral Asso* ia ion in June. The result of the experiments itawaited with interest. As an instance of how the reprehensible practice of masters of vessels throwing ballast overboard alongside tho wharves affects the convenience of shippers here, the captain of tho s.s. Go-ahead, after reading the report of the case of the Har bormaster against the master of the Amaranth, as reported in the papers, refused to go alongside the Barry's Bay jetty for a quantity of grass feed. The shipper (Mr W. 11. Wood) had to lighter off the goods at a large increase in cost of the amount of shipment. We learn that somediffi. culty exists in reference to the proceedings to be taken under " The Harbor Act." If any such is really in tbe way, immediate stepß should bo taken to have the matter put on a clear footin?. so that persons of the Amaranth type may be severely dealt with. In the event of the expansion of the railway to Little River, the Barry's Bay wharf must be one of considerable use and importance. Here is a chance for the unemployed who know anything about rabbit catching. The Otago Daily Times of Thursday says:—An advertisement in another column makes a demand for 250.000 snared rabbits (not poisoned), delivered at the Meat Pieserving Works at Woodlands, Southland. The price wid bo obtained at the works, and 2000 per diem can be taken for six months if satisfactory arrangements can ; be made Last year a number of men ! made 15-= a- lay at this work. j A number of men have taken p-issnge fn*m Ti.i.aru for Sydney, where they go to ! work on Mr|Proud foot's railway contn.ct.

A i/AHQE number of Natives are arriving at Ma»terton from all parts of the country to attend the large N-tttvo -meeting to be held there shortly, and when a new prophet is to address them.

A Gazette contain* a proclamation that Her Majesty has ceased to have any interest in that portion.of certain Native lands known as Patetere.

Whle the, Duke of Manchester was travelling in Queensland be was expected on a station, and a paddock was specially set apart for the horses of his expected retimn. His train, however, consisted only of himself and ariother,and by chance they rode up to this paddock, and were turning their horses into it before going on to the station, when one ot the men came up and asked what the sanguinary so and so did they mean by putting their horses in there? The Duke, with some hauteur, explained that he was the Duke; of Manchester. " The Dook ! tbe Dook 1 a pretty looking Dook you are! Clar out quicU, or I'll bring the bossdown on yea!" roared the hnshman, who evidently thought a duke was not made of common clay.

Dr Agnew draws £4200 per annum in dividends from the Mount Bischorl tin mine ; the keeper of a small draper's shop in Ilobart £2000 ; the Bishop of' Tasmania £1200. The Rev J. A. Fawns (rather an eccentric individual) bought a quantity of shares a few months since, in order to be spoken of as the largest shareholder ; and he is, £5000 a-year being the amount he takes in dividends.

Says a Dunedin item—"Some wheat crops on the Tuieri Plain have yielded seventy bushels to the acre. On one farm, one hundred ancl ten bags of barley were obtained from ten acres."

The Saturday Advertiser, speaking of our bankruptcy laws, considers that in all cases below £100 the employment of solicitors and professional trustees is an absurdity. The Wanganui Herald says tbat during the past year no less a sum than £900,000 has been lent on mortage in the Provincial District of Auckland, and only about £80,000 has been paid off. A gentleman went into an Auckland auction market recently, while a quantity of bananas were being so d. The auctioneer was selling two lots, by which tbe gentleman thought he meant two 1 unch.es. He bid for them, and they were knocked down to him. His astonishment may be imagined when be discovered tbat ho had bought nearly a ton of fruit. A theatrical paper states that it is currently reported that one of the features in Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan's new comic opera will be a chorus of curates. A woman named Emily Ba-nctt, a lodger with Mrs Alexander, Wynyard street, Auckland, poisoned hem-lf with strychnine. Dr Alexander, who was in the garden, heard her screams, and found her in convulsions. She got the poison out of bis study.