The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, JULY 29.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 526, 29 July 1881, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, JULY 29.

We regret to loam that the state vi health or the Rev J. Donovan precludes the poKPil'ility of his visiting Akaroa. The hhuul monthly services will consequently not be held at the Roman Catholic Church on Sunday next.

The following sounds almost too good to be true, but it is vouched for on the best authority. In a certain road district not a hundred miles from the Peninsula, there exists a locality known as the Devil's Gap. The Secretary, Clerk, and general factotum of the local governing body had occasion to refer to this profanely named epot in an official communication. Like the captain of the Pinafore, however, he never (or hardly ever) used a big. big D. So when he came to the obnoxious word he described the place as the D 's Gap. They are now wrangling in the House over local government, but what improvement can even be desired, while men of such punctilious propriety are entrusted with the conduct offaffaira ?

Our readsis have doubtless frequently noticed and admired the plantation of trees in the grounds surrounding the Roman Catholic Church, Akaroa. There is no doubt that these trees are a splendid selection, and in course of time will form quite an ornament to that part of the town. The committee have been lately engaged in transplanting a number of these trees, as they have been getting far too crowded. The expenses of labor for trenching, etc., will be considerable, and as the congregation is not by any means wealthy, they have determined to appeal to the public for 6Oine assistance. Several ladies and gentlemen of acknowledged talent have promised theirassistancoina dramatic andjljnuaical entertainment which is announced in another column to be given at the Oddfellows' Hall on Friday nest. We are aware that rehearsals have been proceeding with assiduity for sometime now, and taking into consideration the excellence ofgth-Q entertainment to be provided, the public nature of the work to be assisted, and the low charge for admission, we anticipate a crowded house.

A meeting of the Christchurch Hospital and Charitable Aid Board was held at the Chriatchurch Hospital, on Wednesday afternoon. In the statement of finance which was laid on the table, the following particulars were given respecting the Akaroa Hospital:—Number of patients in the Hospital on July 1, 1880, 3 ; number admitted from July 1, 1880, to June 30 ? 1881,33; total, 36; number discharged during that period, 32 ; deaths, 2; total 34; remaining in Hospital June 30, 1881, 2. The receipts for the year ending June 30 amount to £47 14s, as against £109 14s for the previous year; the expenditure was £430 14s sd, as against £563 14s 4d for the year preceeding. During the same period the expenditure on Charitable Aid in the County of Akaroa amounted to £115 3s 81. For the financial ye. r ending June 30, 1882, Mr March estimates the contributions to be required from our two local bodies to be as under: —Borough of Akaroa—Hospital, £31 15s 7<l ; Orphanage, etc., £8 14r 5d ; Charitable aid, £20 2s 7d; total, £60 12s 7d. County of Akaroa—Hospital, £193 4s 5d ; Orphanage, etc., £53 0s 6d ; charitable aid, £122 8s; total, £368 12s lid. The rate per head of the population is Is llfd. At the same meeting the appointment of Mr and Mrs Smart as caretaker and matron of the Akaroa Hospital was approved.

The current number of the New Zealand Country Journal contains the first of a series,of articles on the ferns of New Zealand by our neighbor. T. H. Potts F.L.S., of Governor's Bay. The list, which will appear from month to month, docs not aim at being an elaborate botanical catalogue of those interesting plants, but simply a list to enable fern collectors who have not the leisure for a systematic study of botany, but who have to undergo the everyday toil of a workaday life, to collect, arrange, and name these beautiful and interesting samples of cryptogamic life. Mr Potts is not only extensively known as one of the most eminent naturalists in New Zealand, but has the aptitude of imparting bis scientific knowledge with a facile pen. The opening chapter of the series explains in simple form the division of ferns into sub-orders, tribes, genera, and species, distinguished by some pecu iarity of form or character that entitles it to a name. As the Peninsula is well known as the habitat of a large variety of fern.*, and as their co lection is at once a health-giving , and pleasing occu pation, it is much to be hoped that Mr Potts will publish in separate book form hie classified list, after his papers appear in the Country Journal. Such a guide we are sure would bo hailed as a great boon to collectors, and enable the amateur to give to his collection an interest that is now only possessed by nioro pretentious herbariums. It must be in the recollection of all, the remarks of the judges year after year at onr local Industrial Exhibition on the subject of fern collections, that though the specimens were excellently prepared? they were quite shorn of all educational purposes, from the fact that no attempt was n.a !e at Arranging or naming• Mr Pottos book would supply the desidera" t J iin an.l hold out v holding hand to the plodding, collector. I

London never contains v more food than is sufficient for two days' consumption. Were the railways to be cut off, in less than a fortnight it would lie suffering from the extreme agonieß of famine.

At Mudgee (N.S.W.) three young men were recently fined one pound each for singing in the btreets, the magistrate telling them to go and sing no more. That Magistrate uhould corao over here, and his jurisdiction should be extended to offences of the kind committed in doors as well. We learn from a contemporary that the Dcsart peerage case has ended in establishing the present claimant's rights to the titles and estates. The fortunate litigant has been married to Miss Bischoff sheim, a wealthy heiress who will not regret having wasted her swoets on the Desart heir.

Probably the most serious slips which have been caused by the late floods, at least on the roads, are those close to Akaroa on the new German Bay road , As yet nothing has been done, as far as we can learn, towards removing them. Some thing has been done to make the old road passable, but it is by no means in a good state for traffic. Large ruts have been worn in the road by the continued pasaage of water across it. These have been temporarily filled in, but the filling is only mud, and we hear of a buggy which was nearly capsized by the wheels getting into one of these ruts. We are fully aware of the financial difficulties under which our local public bodies are laboring, but we hope that some means may be devised to do away with what is a serious public inconvenience.

Considerable progress is being made with tho fence round the grounds of the Akaroa District School. It is to be a neat picket fence, and will be a vast improvement on the unsightly erection with which wo were furnished by the Board of Education. A mistake, however, has been made, we venture to think, in the level at which it is being erected. The effect of this will be that whenever the street is filled in, and raised to its proper level, which must be done sooner or later> the fence will be buried to an average depth fully of eighteen inches. No doubt carrying it along at the higher level would have caused it to present a somewhat unsightly appearance for the present, but this inconvenience would have been as nothing compared to the partial destruction which awaits the fence as it is. We do not know who is responsible, but we repeat our conviction that a mistake has been made.