Local and General.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 530, 12 August 1881, Page 2

Local and General.

It is said that Mr Simonson cleared £3000 by his last New Zealand trip, and intends returning next year.

It is said that the New Zealand Drug Company have commenced the manufacture of sulphuric acid on their works at Look-out Point, near Dune.liv.

With this issue of the Mail appears the first number of our two page supplements, containing, among other matter, tbe commencement of a highly interesting novel by Marcus Clarke, entitled ''The Mystery of Major Molyneux."

A policeman was told off in Auckland to watch liitt pranks of a body of larrikins. Ho ensconced himself, according to the j report of the case in the Observer, in a cart, and quietly awaited their appearance on the scene. Whilst in this position lie fell asleep, and the larrikins who had watched the proceedings all the while, hearing - the snoring of the policeman, went and upnet the cart, and deposited its occupant in a pool of water, and then run away. The quarterly meeting of the Akaroa Hope Lodge of Good Templars took place on Wednesday. The following oflicers were installed for the ensuing term, the Lodge Deputy, Bro. Newton, performing (he instillation ceremony. W.U.T. Bro. Burke; W.V.T., Bro. Newton: W.S., Bro. Armstrong ; W.F.S., Bro. Bruce ; W.G., Bio. Pcnu ; W.M., Bro. Huylock ; W.1.G., Bro, D. Fyfe. Two candidates were proposed for membership, and the Lodge closed in the usual form. Fnoai a thoroughly well informed source we learn that in the Eedistribution of Seats Bill Canterbury is to have tut increase of sis members, not seven, as stated by the correspondents of several journals. At present we have fourteen members and a part of Mr Saunder's (member for Cheviot), and by the new Bill we are to have twenty members and jv part'bf Mr Satmrler's, or "some one in his place." We also understand that the Auckland members will be against the Bill, for though it proposes to give that province an additional inch;ber, tli;Q give Cante: bnry» .six..is. quite too dresi'lf'ul. Nelson and Westlaud will ako; oppose the Bill, and therefore the Otagoj and Canterbury memberf will vote for it with all its iainerI'ections to got simieihing like reprsen tation according to population.

The following f;:lvoiuai;;ant appoara in the columns A. -xn Ashburton contemporary.—' ; £25 reward. Tho above ro-v.-ard will be paid to any person if.vvug proof oi the authorship of the correspondt nee regarding Ashburton people, appearing in a Cbristclmrch Society Journal. Al! coiminuiicationa on the subject, to be addressed to " Sk.itik-traclcer," oflieeoftliia paper." 'jl lie snuie journal remarks thereon : It will be observed from our advertising coluuina that a substantial luward id offered for the discovery of tho peraon or persoriß who have lately maxio free with the names of Ashburton residents in the columns of an infamoua paper published in Cliristclnircli, We are unable to learn prtciaoiy what is to ensue if the reward should produce the expuutod result; ; but ihcie i.i <•; very generally expressed dotcriiiin:'.t:ou to lii&ko the Jieiyubomhood oi' Aslibnrtui: !-eeru particuhirly troulcub to U;e muiy or parties i:; Huesiion.

A lai.ge amount of the Little River railway has been washed away by the lake being allowed to rise to its present high level. The local bodies seem to take no interest in the matter, but the inhabitants of Little River as will be seen by an advertisement in this issue are quite alive to the importance ot public money not being wasted, as at present it eeemsto be through the supine position of the County Conncil or Road Board. We. hear that owing to Lako Elleemere not being let out as usual miles of tho embankment of the formation of the railway has been washed away. A public meeting , to consider tho position is convened to be held in tho Little River schoolroom to-morrow evening. Ws received a Press Association telegram from Invorcargill on the 25th ult., which reads as follows :—" Judge Ward decided at the District Court to-day, in the case of Dalgleish v. Moreton's trustee*> that a bill of sule given three days before a declaration of insolvency v.'as filed held good against the body of creditors. The decision has caused a widespread feeling of insecurity in commercial circles." The Otago Witness says :—" We are assured the facta are wrongly stated. The bill of sale referred to was given five weeks before bankruptcy (instead of throe days), in good faith, under pressure, and without contemplation of bankruptcy. It was not acted upon, moreover, until after the giver of it had failed. Under this altered complexion of things tbe • widespread feeling of insecurity in commercial circles' was probably imaginary."

Amongst other statements recently made by an ." unemployed " petition to Parliament from Oaniaru, was one that " some of the petitioners were going about almost naked, while many of their wives and children were ill and could not get medical aid." These unfortunates asked thai they should be shipped off to Mr Proudfoot's works in New tiouth Wales. The Government referred the petition to the Borough Council of Oamaru to make inquiry into tho ease of the petitioners, and this has resulted in a strange exposure, according to the North Ot£igo Times. That paper says :—"Scarcely any of the signatures were those of working men, let alone the unemployed. One wav the autograph of a genial wholesale merchant in Tyno street, who 33 certainly neither underfed, iilclothed, nor married, nor, perhaps we may add, likely to enter tho blissful state—at least not just yer. Two of tho signatures were those of geiiticmen who have been dead three years; ono was that of a loading draper in Oamaru, another was a well-to-do hotel-keeper ; one that of a veterinary surgeon ; one of a blacksmith ; and one of a master uaddler (a bachelor) now in England. Certainly none of theae gentle, men could justly describe themselves a« unemployed, nor do we suppose they would be eager to do bo. The names have evidently been cut from somo old memorial on lioino other subject, and attached to this unemployed pstition cither by way of hoax or swindle."

The San Francisco News Letter is responsible for the following ittle .story : "Mr John lloesch, of the Health Office, is seldom token in by outward appearances, although nothing stronger than tea is ever taken in by him inwardly, but he got sold so badly lately (hat the event is worth recording. A distinguished-looking gentleman walked into the Health Office recently, carrying an ulster, a valise, a pot dog, two umbrellas, and the tho smallpox. He was magnificently dressed in the best baggy English style, and the pink oi : perfection from his side-whiskers down to his watch-chain, studs, and flatbotturr.ed shoes. ' I believe there's somo awfully beastly thing the matter with me, by Jove,' he remarked, ' and the fellows at my hotel told me, you know, to come here and enquire about it.' Mr lioesch bowed very low, for ho felt he was in the preui.-nce of a true English swell. • Pardon me, my Lord,' he said, 'escape me your Grace, but it is my sad duly to inform you that you are suffering from small-pox. I will, telephone for the ambulance, my Lord, at once.' With many apologies for tho scanty accommodation, his Lordship was nut in the outhouse until the ambulance came, and, remarking to lloesch that he was ' wather a jolly sort of fellow, , lie entered it, Mr Hocbch assuring him tliat hid valet and effects would bo, .sent out to him from the Palace Hotel. .But it was l-iUhur annoying noxt day to find out tint the illustrious personage was a New Zealand barber, and fiat having the di» en.su vary slightly, he was ca&aged. in shaving ail the other patients at two bits a head. A fact." A Wellington paper wfjilu to know whether this could havo be'ju tho lamented George North.