LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 20, 15 May 1876, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

It w.mlil harrlly be a fair thing to Mr. Courtis to state that Oamartt was lighted ; by gas for the first time last Saturday, for, l as a matter of fact, the gas was merely turned on through the mains to drive out the air. .Some jiereony, however, who were in the secret, tried their taps, and finding soine- , thing very much like gas coming through them, applied a light, and hence the illumi- : nation in a few shops. Perhaps the best lighted shop was Mr. Milligau's. The window [ was well dressed, and the lights 1 icing ]>roperly arranged, the effect was very pleasing. I Messrs. Toohey and Inglis also turned on a little gas, hut as their fittings were not quite completed, we could form no opinion of what the effect would l>e. In the course of a day or two we shall be able to judge , better. Mr. Headland also illtunined, and a v«y good show be made" over the counter*. At the Star and Garter there was a iirst-rate display) and host Longford informs na tliat the Masonic Hall was no«k. brilliantly lighted, and ' looked splendid. - We would' suggest, in passing; that the mail irho looks after the lights in this establishment, should be pretty clear on one point, namely, which, is the tapfor.the hotel,»nd which fort tie

The weights for the Ileitis ton Cup aucl Handicap are pitlilished in another column. A good day's sport lias been arranged for these races, which •will take place on the Queen's Birthday, and as it is intended to open the line of railway to Maheno oil the 24th instant, we anticipate that a large number of our town friends will attend the meeting. Host M'Kay has been getting the course in good order, and the creature comforts will be well looked after at his hands. Fine weather is only required to make the meeting a great success.

()n Friday last a trial was held on the Port Chalmers line of a new locomotive just -urned out at Messrs. Davidson and Co.'s Otago Foundry. The engine (says the Dunedin "Star.") is intended for use on the Awamoka line, and is one of several now in course of construction by the same firm. Steam w;is got up about three o'clock, and the run down to Burke's BrCwery was done nine minutes. The engine, which weighs about ten and a-lialf tons, worked entirely to the satisfaction of Mr. Conyers, Superintendent of Otago Railways.

The dignity of labour lias its peculiar phases, which lias just been exemplified by the female bookfolders at the Government Printing-office. The " Evening Argus" states that on Saturday week they 'struck' from rather a novel cau.se. The -work being done, the overseer asked them to wash down their benches. This was too much for Miss .Jemima .Sprigging, whose parents had been—well, it doesn't matter what they had been—Miss Spriggins was herself a lady, " wasn't a-goin' to wasli down 110 bench." She resigned, and all the other folders, taking up Jemima's ipiarrel, resigned too. The Government Printer parted with the mutineers, and asked for time to consider his position. And so the matter standsr I3ut- they didn't scrub down that bench.

" Land aiul Water" publishes the balancesheet of the Captain Webb Testimonial Fund, ■which it started last year. The total amount received was €3,434 4s. lid. Several other sums have been presented to Captain Webb from various quarters. In (Shropshire between £7<H) and t'S(H) has been collected, which Webb lias handed over to his father, who has been in ill health for some .time.

Mr. Frederick I'evans Chapman, the newly appointed law lecturer at the Otago University, is a native of this Colony—his birthplace, Tarori, near Wellington, where. his father, then a Judge of the Supreme Court, resided for many years in the early days of Colony. Mr. Chapman (says the " Saturday Advertiser) was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in May, IS7I ; and his brother, Mr. Martin Chapman, who is also a native of Xew Zealand, now at Wellington, was called on the same day. The first New Zealander who went to the English Bar was Mr. Philip Abraham, now practising very successfully in Kngland.

Coursing is likely to become a favourite amusement in Southland. The Invercargill papers inform us that on Wednesday a number of gentlemen and the managers of the Kdendale Station had a capital afternoon's coursing -with well-bred dogs. There was excellent sport., and four fine hares "were killed. One weighed nine pounds. These did not belong to the Acclimatisation Society, but were, private property belonging to the New Zealand Land Company. .