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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3141, 22 July 1881, Page 2

We would remind the members of the Athenaeum that the annual general meeting in connection therewith will be held this eveninsr at 8 o'clock. It is important that the attendance fhould be good, aa the election of the new officers and committee will be made, and the report of the retiring executive be considered.

It is reported that one of the Town Councillors employs himself so bußily in the Town Clerk's Office that a memorandum is likely to be made of the subject, to which the attention of either the Council or the Public Works Committee will be called. For choice it should be brought before the committee, so that things may remain Bnug and pleasant.

As an example of railway administration we may state that up to about a month ago the inspection of the permanent-way was in the hands of one inepeotor. A Bub-in-spector was then appointed, who receives eighteenpence a-day more than his superior. Are two officers required to do work that has been done by one, or must the friends of those in power be provided for P

In our correspondence column is another letter referring to the proposed removal of the Custom House, and we learn that a counter-petition, with an equal number of names, and as influential as the one pent for the change, has been forwarded to the Commissioner of Customs. With the two petitions before them it is difficult to conjecture what will be the deoision of the Government in the matter.

That master-piece of engineering skill— the storm water drains and silt traps—has fulfilled our prediction, by presenting itself this morning as a miserable failure. The poor thing caught as much silt as it could hold, and then, like the boy who had eaten till he could eat no longer, it had to give in. How about the tenders for cleaning out the trap ? Mr Black ought to discharge the rain for prejudicing the price of the contract. On Wednesday afternoon, at the Napier railway station, Mr Robert Smith, while engaged at coupling, got his left arm between the buffers, and the fleshy part of the arm above the elbow was burst open for two-thirds of the size of the arm. Fortunately the bone escaped; had the arm been but a little lower the bone must have been smashed. Dr. Spencer was early in attendance, and now Mr Smith is progreasing favorably. The continued rains of the last three days has caused the rivers to rise, and during- this morning nearly the whole of the Whare-o-maraenui block was under water, and the water is still rising. Doubtless if the rain continues much longer we shall have some disasters to chronicle from the low-lying districts. Nearly the whole of Clive was under water at ten o'clock this morning from the overflow from the Tuki Tuki, Ngaruroro, and ! Waitangi rivers. The Parliamentary correspondent of the Wanganui Herald says of Mr Ormond that he is as determined as ever to insist on his demands for an intermediate body which shall take over the duties now being badly performed by the General Government. He is not likely to waver or shrink from his position. No man is more capable of forming a just contrast between the way Provincial Governments performed their work, and the way the Government is now performing similar work. Even in Wanganui, which was sacrificed to Wellington, the people must have seen how opposed to its interests is the present system of centralising all important functions in the General Government. Mr Ormond has had bitter experience, as his speech at Waipawa showed, of the working of the present system. Judgment in the recent case of Ellis v. the Union Steam Shipping Company has been satisfied. It will be remembered that last Friday Mr G. Ellis sued the company for £27 lis 6d, the amount of loss sustained by the Boojum-Sir Donald collision, judgment was given in favor of Mr Ellis, but counsel for defendant intimated an intention to appeal on a law point. The time having expired for entering the appeal, Mr Ellis applied for a judgment warrant, which was executed yesterday by the bailiff, who, entering the office of the company, demanded the keys of the safe from the agent. From the safe the bailiff took the sum required, and the Clerk of the Court handed the amount over to Mr Ellis this morning. Yesterday Mr Lascelles telegraphed to say that he had obtained an injunction from the Supreme Court at Wellington, but as no information of the kind had been received by the Court here judgment had to be satisfied. ,

It is said that great men make their own circumstances; it is a thousand pities for our borough engineer authorities that the adage was not the other way about, for then could they claim to take high rank. Tho storm water drain, having failed in its duty, professional talent had to ally itself to common place labor, and with the happy combination of skill to devise and readiness to execute the design a marvellous result was attained. With the aid of the top of an old oase and half a dozen bricks a barricade was erected across the street channel in front of Mr Cassin's shop. By this simple means the water from the Shakespeare hill and Brewster-street was stopped from flowing towards the bungedup silt trap at Messrs Price and Innes' corner. The momentous question then arose, what shall we do with our water ? Our engineer was equal to the emergency, and with the simplicity of true genius authorised a gulch to be cut across the roadway. This was promptly done, and now the storm water, when it debouches at the Government lawn gate, emulates the wind and goeth whithersover it listeth.

One evening Sir Archibald Miohie, while on. circuit in the western district of Victoria, was dining with the judges and bar. Presently a huge red head was thrust into the room, and a voics *aid, with a fine County Cork aooent, " Is Misther Michael here if you plaze ?" "Michael? No one of that name here," replied the judge. But as the man hesitated, he took the letter. " Why, you stupid blockhead," said he,, "its Michie not Michael." " Sure your Honour an' didn't I know it was Micky, but I didn't loike to be so familiar."

An Ashburton correspondent of the Titnaru Herald mentions a case in which " A farmer took his grain to a merchant to be sent home for sale. On this grain he sot an advance of £600. It brought over £1200 in the London market. Out of that how much do you think he has to get from the merchant? Not a cent, but has to refund £50, the hundred-and-one little expenses that farmers have to pay between the railway Btation in New Zealand and the hands of the London buyers just swallowing about half what the produce brought when sold in the great metropolis." The competency of a lad aged seven years to give evidence was decided in the Supreme Court at JDunedin last week. It seemed that the little fellow's education had been very much neglected, and when he stepped on to the chair His Honor asked him what would happed to him if he told a lie. The boy said, " God will punish me." His Honour then pressed him to say when God would punish him, and finding that the boy hesitated, he said, " You do not know P " and tbe reply was in the affirmative. This was regarded as a crucial test, and the boy stood down. A barrister interjected the remark that he would like to know who knew when God would punish one for telling a lie or for any other offence. Meeting of the members of the Napier Athenaeum this evening at 8. Annual meeting of ratepayers of the Okawa district at 1 p.m. to-morrow. Annual meeting of ratepayers in the Petane Eoad Board district to-morrow at 2 p.m. Annual meeting of ratepayers in the Meanee district to-morrow at 2 p.m. Messi's Monteith and Co will sell tomorrow horses, produce, &c, at 1.30 p.m. Mr A. Campbell, draper, Emerson-street, advertises an incontestably cheap sale. The New Zealand Clothing Factory insert a new advertisement over the leader. An entertainment will be given in the Theatre Royal on Tuesday evening next, by natives of the Wbatiapite tribe. A notice concerning Borne lost cattle is inserted. Owing to the bad weather, Messrs H. Monteith and Co.'s sale of thoroughbred horses is postponed from to-morrow till the following Saturday. Messrs Blythe and Co. have boots of all kind 8 in stock. Messrs Murray, Roberts and Co., have oats, fencing wire, &c, for sale. Mr Beilby, Hastings, has old hay for sale.| A number of new advertisements will be found in our " Wanted " column.