The Evening Star. MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4070, 13 March 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star. MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1876.

The seventy applications for the engineership to the Oamaru municipality, to which is attached a yearly salary of Ll,ooo, have been reduced to fifteen, from which the Council will this evening appoint one to the office.

Telegraphic news has been received by Mr Stout that the appeal case to the Privy Council of Bell v. the Waste Land Board has been dismissed with costs. This is a decision in favor of the Province, and upholds that givfen by the New Zealand Appeal Court.

On Saturday afternoon a contractor named Richard Smith died very suddenly in King street. He was walking in from the Northeast Valley with his brother and a friend, and was taken very ill; when .he fell down and immediately expired. Heart disease was the cause of death. A part of the Circus troupe and Mr Darrell’s dramatic company were passengers by the Comerang to-day for Invercargill, where they appear this week. The latter include Miss Leake, Messrs Stoneham, Musgrave, Hooper, &c.; and it is not unlikely that Mr and Airs Walter Hill will join them. At the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Port Chalmers, this morning, before Mr Hansford, R.M., William Tatley, for drunkenness, was discharged with a caution, William Moore fined ss, with the usual alternative, and Joseph Binney, a seamen belonging to the ship Olive, fined 20s, or, in default, three days’ imprisonment, with hard labor.

A piece of sharp practice was done in the Resident Magistrate’s Court to-day. In an action brought by the Caveraham Road Board, Mr Stout, who defended, objected to Mr Stewart appearing without an authority under seal, the Board being a corporate body. That Mr Stewart held no such authority soon became evident, and while counsel were arguing the point Mr Denniston got the.Board’s chairman to sign the necessary authority, and triumphantly handed it to Mr Stewart, doubtless to Mr Stout’s discomfiture. This sanction his Worship considered sufficient, but took a note that it was signed after the objection waa made. 1

Provincial Councils .are by tbe Abolition Act prohibited from meeting again, but there is nothing in that measure to prevent vacancies intheir bodies being filled' up, so the hollow farce of electing a Councillor was gone through at Eden op Saturday. Two Victorian turf notabilities arrived by the steamer Ringarpoma from Melbourne yesterday. One is Mr E.. Chapman, .who contributes sporting articles to the ‘ Australasian ’ under the nom de plume of * Augur.’ This gentleman is on a tour of inspection of all the New Zealand establishments for the breeding of racehorses, and he leaves for Christchurch to-day, returning in time to witness our approaching race meeting. The other visitor is the jockey Batty, one of the best riders in Australia, and "who has'steered the winner of many of the principal events .on the other side, including the last Melbourne Cup. He has been engaged by Mr H. Yeend to ride King Philip in our Cup race.

The undermentioned prisoners were received into the gaol on Saturday night from Oamaru ;—Matthew MTvor, alias Low, alias; Hardy, sentenced on the 7th inst. by Mr Parker, R.M., to six calendar months’ imprisonment, with hard labor,-for stealing a pocketbook containing L 4 ss; Elizabeth Oliver, sentenced on the 11th inst,, by Mr Sumpter, J.P., to five weeks’ imprisonment, with hard labor, for using very obscene and indecent language at Maheno, near Oamaru. An old offender named Jeremiah Leahy was conveyed from the gaol oft v aturday night, en route to Invercargill per steamer Comerang, charged with stealing a watch in that pla ce a few months ago,

In the course of bhe recent proceedings Kegina v. Millar, at Nelson, a characteristic letter from the late Provincial Engineer to the Superintendent of the Province was read. Having asserted that he Had faithfully fulfilled all the duties imposed upon him in his official capacity, Mr Millar goes on to say ;—“That, too, under an admittedly vicious regime, as, on the one hand, having inefficient and dishonest ignorant loafers in conduct of the work, utterly unworthy of employment in a public capacity, unreliable, holding irresponsible charge of L 50,000 worth of work ontheS.W. Coast, sowing the public funds broadcast amongst contractors (some of whom are now in gaol, and who, with few exceptions, were of the same caste) under the guise of trumped-Up extras, and false measurements.” _ It will be remembered that some little time ago statements were published relating to reported discoveries of gold and silver at Otepopo. Under instruction of the Government, Captain Hutton, Provincial Geologist, has visited the locality and reported thereon, the report showing that the valuable deposits spoken of exist only in the fertile imaginations of the informants, who, however, we (‘N, 0. Times’) are bound to say, have evidenced their own belief in the genuineness of the supposed discoveries by expending very considerable sums of money, and, in one case, something like two years’tlabor. The repbrt nf Captain Hutton is as follows : —** l have visited the locality. No coal is known to exist on the property. I was only shown a band of dark-colored clay with a few streaks of coal in it. I recommended Mr Fenwick not to spend aiiy money bn it. The silver ore is ‘ arsenical iron pyrites.’ It appears that Professor Black had previously reported the same to Mr Fenwick The ‘antimony ore’ was also iron pyrites.” A short sharp shock was felt at Oamarti on Friday morning, and a very heavy one, accompanied by a rumbling sound, at 5.35. Another shock of a fainter character was experienced between six and seven o’clock, and tremulous vibrations, at intervals, continued for some time. It is worth noting that | several observers report that the direction of the shocks was from west to east—the exact reverse of the direction of those previously noted. The following circumstance, the accuracy of which is vouched for, is also worth recording, viz., that a never-failing spring of water at the Maerewhemia Station ceased flowing after the two heavy shocks on the 26th February for some time, and has since been running intermittently. Apropos of earthquakes and Captain’s Hutton’s lectures thereon, the ‘N. 0. Times’ says the Provincial Geologist’s opinion on the subject' is not set much store by, since shocks have been so frequent of late. The spirit of unbelief has reached even to the juveniles, for on Friday a little boy, awakened by the shock at half-past five, jumped out of his bed and ran to his mother’s room, exclaiming “ Mother, mother, did you feel that ? There now ! wasn’t Captain Hutton telling a lie 1”

Mr Talfourd Young is now making arrangements for a farewe I tour of those popular artisies Mr and Mrs F. M. Bates.

A mbeling of the Picnic Committee of the Yorkshire C ub will be held at the -E i pire Hotel, to-morrow evening, at e : ght o’clock.

The committee of the South Duned n Working Men’s Literarjrlnsti ute have resolved on having a series of discussions, the first of which will take place to-morrow (Tuesday) evening.

A meeting of,Dunedin shareholders iu the indTifanicStealCompany w 11 be held at Clifford and Morris's photogiaphic gallery. Arcade, on Wednesday evening, at eigho o’clock.

Our readers are reminded that the sa’e of the privileges in connection with the emuing race meeting will be held to-morrow morning, by Messrs Wrght, Stephenson, and Co., at the Provincial Sale-yaids The ‘ New Zealand Liberator ’ is the title of t L e new weekly temperance journal, the firet number of which was is ued on Saturday. Io is understood that W. Hooper is editor. The openiug arricle is in a thoroughly hyperbolical stra'h. If the writer was io eimeso when be said. “ We shall not lay down our arms till the fortress is won, til the enemy is conquered” he reckons ot a life-long existence for the ‘Liberator.’ The closing paragraph of the same is ready good in its way“ The clarg of the battle may be loud, the onslaught may be fierce, and the contest long and determined, but of victory we have not a shadow of doubt. Frieuds may forsake us, cur foes may be many and cruel, our contemporaries may rush at us wbh opea mouth and loudly denounce ns, but the memojy of the tdain! the groans of the dy’ng ! the c ains of the slave ! and the virion of liberty ! shad nerve us to prolong the strife till loud and long huzzas shall proclaim that unive’sa'man is fe - from the inebriating curse ’’ Mean’s Coulls and Culling are the printers of the ‘ Liberator.’