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Bay of Plenty Times, Volume II, Issue 164, 1 April 1874, Page 2

The Banka will, of coarse, be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday. Wo presume that both days will be generally observed as public holidays, in accordance with ihe good old orthodox custom prevailing throughout the length and breadth of Christendom. A meeting of the friends of temperance was held on Monday evening last, at 7 o’clock, at Mr Grey’s residence. Captain Tovey occupied the chair. The meeting was called for the purpose of taking steps to open a Good Templar Lodge in the district. The Rev Mr Jordan read a letter that he had received from Auckland, in which it was stated that a deputation would be sent down hy the next trip of the Southern Cross to open a Lodge at Tauranga ; also, that it was intended to form a Lodge amongst the Maoris at the same time. Enclosed in the letter was a form of application for a Lodge to be opened, which was signed by all present. The Rev Mr Jordan was requested to forward the document by the return mail. Messrs Grey, Sisley, and Maxwell were appointed a committee to receive Mr Atkin on his arrival at Tauranga. The meeting then separated. We are requested by Captain Tovey to state that the Opepe Memorial Tablet has been lying at his residence for the past five weeks, and that it will be erected as soon as he can obtain the services of carpenters to do so. ** The time appointed by the Act for registering claims to vote for the year 1874 expired last night, the 31st March. The time for receiving tenders for the erection of Trinity Church, Tauranga, expired on Saturday last, 28th March. The result is not yet known. A Northern journal, after advocating tho appointment of an efficient Inspector of Nuisances, thoughtfully remarks :—“ We tremble for the prolonged existence of our contemporary should he carry out the duties of his office in their integrity.”

A meeting of the Country Board was held at the office of the collector (Mr Henshaw) Te Papa on Monday evening last. Present—Captain’ lovey, Messrs Campoy, Lundon, and E Kirk Mr Lundon occupied the chair in the absence of Mr S. L. Clarke. After the last minutes were read and confirmed, it was proposed by Mr Kirkseconded by Captain Tovey, and carried, •* That Mr Henshaw bo empowered after this date to sue for all rates not paid up.” Mr Kirk proposed, M l Ctl T y T eCOn(od) and !t waß duly carried “That Mr Luhuob be requested to employ the necessary labour to remove the land slip at the Juuea cutting leading to the bridge.” The secretary was instructed to write to Mr McAuley contractor, requesting him to send in a plan, specifications, and estimate for certain works to be performed on the road leading from the Road to Hairini ford. On the motion of Mr Campny. seconded by Mr Kirk, it was agreed that the Board will meet every alternate Thursday at 12 o’clock, at the office of the collector, dating from Thursday, 9th April. The secretary was instructed to write to the Town Board requesting that the balance due on the erection of a public pound be paid forthwith. This concluded the business.

The Jewish festival of the Passover will commence this evening and continue for eight days. Everybody lias heard of passover cake, and everybody might learn something to hia advantage by studying the grinding and baking arrangements of our Jewish friends. This is how they manage matters m England The mill, in the first place, is * tidied, and all those parts minutely cleaned or covered with which the meal and flour come in contact. The stones and dressing machine are carefully brushed, and the meal troughs lined with new sacking. Only new marked sacks are used throughout for the meal and flour. The chief rabbi comes and witnesses the grinding begin, two men being left in charge to watch the manufacture to the end, and to put a sea! on the tie of each sack as it is weighed off. The flour is then stored and delivered to six different bakeries in London during the winter, when men are hard afc work daily making it up into stiff dough and rolling it with steel pins, on mahogany boards, into large thin cakes (some eight some six to the pound), which are straightway tossed into an oven by the side of a mass of wood embers, and almost immediately pitched out again with a large perforated iron peel. The biscuits are sold in the course of the season, and just before Passover a large number are distributed among the poor. The miller contracts with the Committee of the United Synagogues to supply all the flour required, and occasionally an extra grind is necessary to meet the final calls of the unfaithful for the indispensable cakes on the Passover.

“Bohemian” remarks“ The recent TiceBegal progress through Tauranga has been and passed away. Like other public events, it has left ‘ foot-prints on the sands of time but the impression formed has not, in every instance, been equally agreeable. It appears that his Excellency, notwithstanding the antecedents of bis family and his reputed large estates, has considered it necessary to look sharply after the bawbees. In some cases he mercilessly has taxed his hotel bills, and, in another, refused payment altogether. This was the case at the Tauranga Hotel, where he positively objected to pay the bill rendered him, amounting to £22 odd, for the entertainment of himself and suite during their stay in Tauranga. Such specimens of gubernatorial peculiarities are fortunately not very common in New Zealand, nor probably elsewhere ; and Governor Fergusson has in this his introductory tour departed from the recognised practice of munificence by rulers, After the trumpeting which heralded his approach, he has retired from the scene with anything but benedictions from his faithful people, lo the language of Albert Smith, he has gone up like a rocket and come down like its stick. He came in, truly, with a flourish of trumpets, and has gone out with a penny whistle. Eoyal and Yice-Regal visits are usually marked by some small display of official liberality; but lam told that his Excellency in no instance here, though treated with hospitality, connived at the rapacity of servants by giving a single * vail ’ —customary in the houses of the nobility and amongst persons of exalted rank—nor to the legitimate demands of hotelkeepers, whom he had the satisfaction of leaving lamenting his departure. This proceedure, though possibly usual in Ayrshire, is certainly unique in the Australasian colonies, where the public always contribute freely and heartily in according a welcome to the representative of her Majesty. '*

The unsuitableness of the practice of delivering funeral orations over the graves of departed friends is shown by the following extract from an lowa journal:—“ A young man died and was buried. After a most pathetic address, which brought tears from the eyes of all present, the minister who performed he ceremony inquired whether any of the dear friends of the deceased wished to say anything on the solemn occasion. A stranger here stepped forward, and, after expressing sympathy with the bereaved circle present, remarked that the ways of Providence are inscrutable j and in connection with this point he wished to observe that he was agent for a first-rate article for promoting and restoring the growth of hair, which he could recommend to all who were threatened with baldness in the State of lowa. The corpse had used it for several years with great advantage, and he earnestly requested the minister and undertaker present to give it a trial, the hair of both of these functionaries being painfully thin. ‘Shake the bottle, gentlemen,’ he added, * and rub the matter well in with a stiff brush.’ At this stage of the proceedings a slight disturbance occurred, and the agent for the ‘ Balm of lowa,* finding that his observations were not well received by the audience, quickly disappeared, bottle and all, being assisted in hia exit by some of the distressed relatives.”

A Christchurch paper reported that thistle-down was so plentiful in that town lately that it occasionally resembled a fall of snow. The south wind carried it up from the Peninsula.

Wanted to know .- When they make an oyster bed, do they use a sea weed mattress ?