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Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 291, 26 September 1874, Page 2

The Marquis of Normanby will sail for New Zealand in October.

The English mail will close at the district post offices on Monday, the 28th inst.

The_ adjourned meeting of those interested in the formation of a local Coal Company is fixed by advertisement for Monday evening next.

The Home mails to arrive by Suez and Brindisi, if exactly punctual to date would arrive on Tuesday next; if one day late, on Wednesday; but probably will not' be -to hand before the Saturday.'

Intending- mail contractors will observe that the last day for the receipt in Dunedin of tenders is the 3rd of October. We are glad to observe that a weekly service between St. Bathans and "Welshman's Gully is at last contemplated. Our Maerewhenua readers will, observe that the adjourned meeting of the Court will .beheld on the 7th October, at the usual hour. Applications, &c, will be received the day previous; at seven p.m. The new applications to be considered in addition to those already published are:—Prater, head race'; Bailey, head race? Bailey, Head race. The Cricket Club are making preparatory movements, we are glad to learn. They are, however, as might be expected, rather disheartened at the present aspect ,of the ground they have formerly spent so much money upon. We do hope the Corporation will feel justified in smoothing matters a little. A meeting is called by advertisement for Monday evening next.

We are glad to learn that the Sludge Channel, at the altered depths, is now fairly under weigh. The.new contract is arranged to the satisfaction of both Mie Government and the contractors. "We wish we could say anything as to the determination point of the work—but fliat has .yet to be fought out.' Six months is the time reported as° granted for the completion of the present contract.

The Hospital Committee have beeu making strenuous efforts to supply the vacancy at the District Hospital. The Secretary, upon the decease of the late doctor, at once telegraphed to Dr. Stirling, asking him to supply the vacancy in the interim. The doctor, however, finally replied that it was impossible. The local committee summoned appointed a sub-committee, telegrams were sent to the Superintendent and to Mr. Oliver, M.P.C., urging that the services of some competent medical man should be placed at lhe disposal of the district, until time was given for advertisements to be published. Dr. Lake, of Switzers, telegraphed, offering to take the permanent post at the Hospital; but of course the Committee could rot accede to that. Yesterday, at noon, no replies had been received, but shortly after one came from Mr. Oliver, stating that a surgeon had left on Tuesday. This was followed in seven minutes by a message from his Honor, stating that, so far, the Government had been unsuccessful, but the medical officer at the Port had been communicated with to try to induce a ship's surgeon to start. On going to press last night no arrangement had been made. To-day, it i«s hoped, will prove more successful. The Committee, through their Secretary, have been most persevering in their efforts.

The remains of the late Dr. Dick were,; oh, Tuesday last borne to their last resting place in the Naseby .Cemetery. Every male resident in the town, we should judge, followed to the grave. The Masons, the Oddfellows, and the members of the Hibernian Society attended in their office decorations—finding relays of willing hands to bear the remains of one so universally respected, and loved. At the grave the Rev. J. M'Cosh Smith read these few impressive words, "For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ—which is for better: nevertheless, to abide. in the flesh is more needful for you," and offered up an earnest prayer; after which the Masons present drew round the grave, and the Masonic funeralservice was read—each lodge of Oddfellows in turn paying a similar, sad honor to their deceased brother and surgeon. The weather was bleak and miserable—the day bring the coldest felt for some time—and the wind unpleasantly boisterous. The gloom thrown over the town since Monday has been so spontaneous and general as to evidence to anyone how deeply the late doctor had rooted himself in the affections of the people. His successor will have no easy task before him, to please those accustomed to the skill and kinddness of Dr. Dick. The unanimous wish of the public that a oublic monument should be erected is met by the appointment of a Committee of ten, at the suggestion of his Worship the Mayor, who will receive the donations; which, it is suggested, should, in the first instance, be at such a low rate that every one will be able to feel that, irrespective of their individual means, they had equally shared in doing him honor.

Wrnufc fully recognising the folly of noticing every yelping cur th.it raises its voice in tne streets, we yet tiiink it necessary to allude to a paragraph' inserted in last week's witness,' deserving of .notion only for the sake oi the paper in which, it was inserted,

The author of "The Firefly," a novelettelwe had something to say about a few weeks ago, published in the same journal, has been trying his hand on different material. It must be him: there cannot be two such writers even on the 'Daily Times' staff. Naseby is said to be in an uncomfortable mood just now—the city—the place on a map—the ne plus ultra of dulness and slowness- a place of galvanised stores, tailings, and many public houses—a city, the very sight of which would make Mr. Bathgate weep, or rouse Mr Fox to eloquence—the "unhappy example " of Otago Good Templaiism," &c. The first cause of this panegyric is that a respected man, living ten miles away from Naseby, was so unfortunate as to be choked, and was brought to .N aseby simply for his burial. No doubt the phillipic of Mr. "Pissing Notes" will be as balm of Gilead to his widow and -children. The second cause is a strange one: That a Dunedin man, surfeited, for all we know, with the opposite to dullness and slowness we presume exists in Dunedin —where hundreds can easily be got together by liberal payments of 10s. fees to clamor for the desecration of the Sunday—attempted to destroy his own life, and was only saved, by the constant care and skill of some of those living in this despised locality. To those who know* Naseby we need not say that crime is unknown oh the records of the Court, and the only cases of drunkennes3 at all conspicuous.'are those unfortunates (for the most part .offshoots from Dunedin) drifted up .to. more charitable, places, who should long ago have been eared for by voluntarily supported institutions in the metropolitan town. If Mr. Passing Notes would look at home first; if he would lift the veil from the drunken debauch and hell tables to_be found closed from public observation in private sanctuaries ; if .he would decry the prostitution crowding the streets of Dunedin (but "no, Mr. Passing Notes would, if we remember rightly, license it) ; we might then, doubtless, be glad to have pointed out to us the motes in our own small town. Till then, it may be more decorous and prudent to localise the washing of dirty clothes.