AND WAITAKI REPORTER. THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 18GJ

North Otago Times, Volume 1, Issue 5, 24 March 1864, Page 4

AND WAITAKI REPORTER. THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 18GJ-

We beg to direct the attention of the Government and the Chief Postmaster to the report of the Resident Magistrate's Court in another column, as being a very strong instance of the immediate necessity of at once making another arrangement for Postoffice accommodation at Oamaru. It must be seen that th^ present accommodation is anything but commensurate to the exigency of the case. Besides, through the building containing the Post-office being composed of Avood, and used as a general store, and not under the control of the Postmaster, public property is, therefore, exposed to an unjustifiable risk. We are credibly informed that there is, moreover, inside the building a considerable quantity of combustible matter that may at any time, by a thousand causes, take fire, and end in the destruction of the office and all in it. Are not these sufficiently powerful reasons why this want should be attended to at once, not to speak of the responsibility of the Executive as the trustees of the people's property, and the auxiety and loss consequent on an accident, ending in the destruction of the coutents of the Postoffice ? But, we are also informed that it is the intention of the lessee not to renew the lease at the expiration of the present term, which will end in four months from the present time. There is not, therefore, much time left to arrange for future Postoffice accommodation, which must appear to all absolutely necessai'y. In the month of August next, it is expected that an Electric Telegraph Office will be opened here. What is there to prevent the Post-office from being contained in the same building, and both departments worked by the same individual ? This system has been adopted in the colony of Victoria, and other places, and has been

found to work well. It is, moreover, au economical one, and may be advantageously adopted in small communities, where there is not sufficient employment in either departments for one officer. And now, owing to the present financial state of the Province, it ought to be a matter of concern to limit the creation of new offices, and lessen the offic'al expenditure as much as possible. We are fully persuaded of the goorl intentions of the present Government, and their anxiety to do all in their power to supply impartially the wants of the entire community. It only, therefore, - remains for the people to spoak out, and , show what they really want, in a manner sufficiently demonstrative to convince the Government of their sincerity. It is to be hoped, therefore, that this matter will form one of the many important measures to be brought before the public meeting to be held on next Monday week. j

A person named Francis Homy Armstrong, while giving his evidence in a case heard at the Resident Magistrate's Court on Thursday last, and reported in another column, made a statement respecting Mr Frank Pinkerton, another witness in the same case, that requires a word of explanation. Mr Pinkerton has been in the habit of going to the Post-office, on the arrival of the Dunedin mail, for letters and newspapers addressed to the office of this paper. He lias done this through the courtesy of the Postmaster Armstrong must, therefore, have seen Mr Pinkerton at the Post-office frequently. We cannot, therefore, account for the uncalled-for and unjustifiable remark made, unless wo attribute it to a loose shingle, or that which characterized the case throughout — namely, unqualified malice. We learn from the Government Gazette of the 16th inst , that Thursday, the 31st inst , has been fi\ed upon for the holding of an election of one member of the Town Board of Oamaru, in place of Mr. Orenfell, resigned. We are requested to draw attention to the opening services of the Wesley an Chapel, Oamarii^ which -will lake place on Sunday, the 3rd prox T. Ferrens, Esq., and the Roy Mr Harding will officiate. On the following evening a tea and public meeting amII be held at the Chapel, at which appropriate addresses will be delivered A correspondent requests us to give public-it) to the following interesting paragraph taken from a home paper • — " A young woman belonging to the neighbourhood of Elie, vhile coming along Largo Sands, picked up a bottle below high water mark, firmly corked with paper which evidently had been in contact with fire. Tt contained the following statement, plainly written on a small slip of boiled paper — 'Lord Raglan, Sept 21th Fire broke out in the fore cabin, and is destroying the ship ' This paper is carefully kept, and may be seen by any one interested m the matter " Mr. James Home, Pleuro-pneumonia Inspector, reports, during the past week, several fresh ca^es of Pleuro-pneumonia near AVaikouaiti, and after being shot and opened, showed the disease in a very advanced Btate. The New Zealand Advertiser is responsible for the following item, respecting the Wellington Government — "That there h a split in the Provincial camp, owing to tho course taken by the Provincial Treasurer with reference to the Panama contract, in his capacity as a member of the Committee of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. The course recommended by Mr. Jonas Woodward, has the energetic opposition of His Honor the Superintendent, who wishes that the NZ S N Company had been at Hanover, rather than that the credit of the colony should be damaged by their short-sighted proceedings. The fact will come out if the (alked-of meeting comes to anything So much are His Honor's views opposed to those of leading members of the Chamber of Commerce, or rather, we should, perhaps, say of leading shareholders of the N Z.S N. Company, that they actually talk of dethroning him and of setting up the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce in his stead." A letter backed to us contains the following ■ — " On last Sunday, when going into Church, I observed a notice on the door stating that the offertory on next Sunday, being E.ister Day, will be set apart specially for the benefit of the Curate of this Parish I beg, therefore, to ask you, Sir, to urge upon the members of the Church of England in the Parish of Oamaru to show their appreciation of the services of our estimable pastor on that occasion by material mean 9. Of all men the clergy are the most helpless. They are dependent entirely upon the liberahtj of the people for maintenance." We quite agree with the remarks of our correspondent, and regret to see a characteristic so common to English communities taking root in this new country, namely, the paying of stipends to the clergy inn, r\f iMJjfrv)' n i their nupport. /&? "~: -

Wo are glad to be in a position to state thafc W.«J. Millar, Esq., our representative in the Provincial Council, has arranged to meet his eon- • Btituents at Oamaru, before the next meeting of Council. Arrangements are, therefore, being made to hold a public meeting on next Monday week, the 4th of April, to discuss such measures as may be deemed necessary to lay before the Council. It is said that Mr. Walker, the member for the Lindis, will be present. We learn from the New Zealand Advertiser that the Wellington Government are prepared to make arrangements with Bottlers, for the introduction of female servants from the United Kingdom, under the supervision of Miss Rye. On Monday evening last, a meeting of the Town Board was held at the offices of Mr. J. Y. Ward. No business was transacted beyond instructing the Clerk to communicate with the Government respecting the monies for which vouchers were forwarded some time since. A full meeting of the Board is advertised to be held at the Court House this evening. The latest telegraphic advices from Sydney in our Melbourne files of the 15th inst., announce the capture of Gardiner, the bushranger, near Rockhumpton, in Queensland. The A rgus telegram stijb — "The steamer Queensland arrived last night, bringing Frank Gardiner and Falkeuberg, the forger. The prisoner Gardiner, for some tune kept a store under the name of Christie , on the Peak Downs Road. He was recognised by Trooper Wells, of the Sydney detectives. M'Gloue and Pye, who effected his arrest, brought luru to UocLhampton, and he was, remanded to Sydney He is now in gaol auditing the steamer " Remarking upon this event, the Heruld of the 15th sa_ys. — "The capture of the notorious bushranger Gardiner, at Peak Dow ns, in Queensland, where he was keeping an inn, under the name oi Christie, refutes all the tales that have been in cumulation as to his whereabouts The news, which reaches us in a telegram from Bri&btine, btates that he has been lodged m Brisbane Gaol, and will be forwarded to Sydney, whither Ins companion, Mrs. Brown, will follow him. Tins was the person whom, it will be recollected, Gardiner was visiting when Sir Frederick Pottinger, with hib troopers, diseo\ered lv& whereabouts, and surrounded the lioube, but from whom he escaped on a wlute horse, amidst a harmleus shower of bullets."