DUNEDIN NOTES.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 231, 14 April 1874, Page 6

DUNEDIN NOTES.

By 0. P. Q. Another champion of the working classes has been airing his eloquence during the past week in the city; Mr J. G. S. Grant being no longer to the fore in the good cause. We have, however, seen the last of the new apostle, for he has taken his departure for Great Britain in one of the home ships, there to give his experience of the Colony, and to do his utmost to prevent emigration to our shore. MTherson is the name of the new stump orator; and the Guardian having thought fit to administer a pill to him in the shape of a smartly-written local in which his character was, doubtless correctly, hold’up to public view, “ Ta Pliairshon” considered himself aggrieved and slandered—-(these sort of people, somehow or another, always do get slandered and abused)—and called a public meeting in the Octagon to reply to and rebut the miserable aspersions. His speech was of the well-known claptrap kind, and the four or live hundred people who had assembled to hear it had about as much consideration for the M‘Pherson’s grievances as they used to have for those of his predecessor, Mr Grant. Tire crowd enjoyed themselves at the expense of the orator, and dispersed without being much influenced by his eloquence. , If he is as successful with his home audiences as he is with those in Dunedin, his visit to England to stop emigration to New Zealand will bo about as successful as would be an endeavour to bale out the Moly-neus-with a tin-pot. After a short discussion the other evening, the City Council struck the city rate for the year 1874-5 at Is 3d in the pound. The gross valuation for the year is £152,444 10s., as against £130,111 .for the preceding year.

In recognition of the very great satisfaction which the Town Clerk and City Engineer have given in the performance of the duties of their respective offices, Cr Walter has given notice of a motion for next meeting of Council, to the effect that the salaries of those gentlemen ho raised to £450 a year each. The approaching sessions of the Supreme Court will be remarkable as having the heaviest list of offenders for trial that has come before his Honor Mr Justice Chapman for a considerable time. Murder, forgery, embezzlement, robbery from the person, and other serious crimes are all represented, and will give His Honor occasion for expressing strong regret at the unpleasant increase of crime which has marked the last quarter. Judge Chapman has hitherto, as a rule, had occasion to congratulate the Province on the lightness of the calendars which have come before him, and it is to be hoped that the present session will prove quite an exception in the serious increase of crime which is noticeable. Among the novelties which constantly crop up in the advertising department of trade, an illustrated catalogue by an enterprising firm of timber merchants in the town is worthy of passing .notice. It is a pretty large-sized book, consisting of about forty pages of lithographed engravings of houses, doors, sashes, &c., issued by Messrs Findlay and Co. The elevations and ground plans of various styles of houses are shown, and a price is given on application for the whole of the timber required in the erection of a house of any particular plan that may be selected. This will be a very handy way of arriving at the cost of a building, and will prove a great convenience to those about to build ; while the money expended in the issuing of the catalogue will doubtless bo repaid to the publishers a hundredfold by the increased trade that will result from it.