LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 49, 17 June 1876, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The ordinarily fortnightly meeting of the Oamaru Harbour Board was held yesterday afternoon, Mr. G. Sumpter'..occupying the chair. The Draft Bill, for increased'borrowing powers and landed endowment, was submitted and approved; and it was resolved that Mr. T. W. Hislop, M.H.R., be requested to proceed with the same as early as possible. The Board then wehifinto Committee to consider the engineer's report, after which it was resolved to'conven'e -a special meeting of the Board for Tuesday next, at 3 p.m.

The adjourned meeting of the Waiareka Relief Fund Committee was held in the Star and Garter Hotel, last night, Mr. John Main .occupying the chair. The report of the subcommittee was received, and after some few amendments had been made, recommended that .Mrs. Mitchell receive £200; Mrs. Orr, £2OO ; Mrs. Page, £IOO ; Miss Taylor, £SO ; CVJin Campbell, £SO; and Kennedy, £3O. The report was received, and ordered to be submitted to a general meeting of subscribers, to be held 021 Thursday next.

We have pleasure in stating that Mr. G. Greenfield received this afternoon from Mr. Barron the respectable sum of twenty guineas, subscribed by the workmen oil the Waiareka contract in aid of the Accident I' und.

At a recent meeting of the Marlborough Itacing Club, Mr. Uedwood, the veteran sportsman, enunciated a somewhat novel thcorv, viz., that it was a mistake to rely upon'public subscriptions. He maintained that money so obtained was very much like ah estate in Chancery, costing more in the getting than it really was worth. It was because of his being so convinced on that point that lie had proposed that public subscriptions should not be sought, and that the club should rely solely on the members' subscriptions and on the other means open to it for obtaining funds. He was glad to say that the result had fully proved the correctness of his idea, and that now the Club was not in a position of a former time, but instead, they had their treasurer coming before tlieni with a gl. wing account and a smiling face. The "Poverty Bay Standard" has an article on the inequality and smallness of sonic of the salaries paid to Government officers, in the course of which it says : " We have been led to make these remarks from a sense of duty devolving upon us in reference to the removal, from the public service, of our late Postmaster, Mr. Corbett, jun. Tliis gentleman, who is the son of a superannuated Postmaster at Auckland, Mr. Corbett, sen., has, we believe, been an officer in the Post-ollice department for. a period of ten years, and received the appointment of Postmaster of Gisborne some fourteen months aw. The salary attached to this office is £2OO per annum, out of which house-rent, at the rate of fifteen shillings a week has to be paid." , ...... An eclipse of the sun will be visible in Xew Zealand on September 17 and 18 of the present yean* It 3 track of totality is wholly on the Pacific Ocean, and in such course that only two or three small islands or reefs ap-

pear to be situate near the central liiie. In New Zealand the eclipse attains a magnitude of about 0.5 at Auckland, greatest phase at 91i. 18m. a.ni. ; towards the extremity of the Southern Island, about Otago, one-third of the sun's diameter will be obscured about 9h. 12m. local time. A partial eclipse between similar limits will be visible on the east coast of Australia and Van Dieinen's Land.

As evidence of the advance of Hawke's Bay in dairy produce, probably owing to the exertions of Hawke's Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Society, the following \note has been sent to a grocer hr town by a customer : "Dear —Who do you get your butter from? Last week Ave eat salt—in huge lumpscemented into a blind of edible concrete, with the smallest possible quantity of butter. This week we are felting our interiors with greased fluff. I never saw such peculiar butter. The best butter is as you know perfectly bald-headed; but this stuff is hairer than Esau ever was. Whether that cow had the mange internally or not I do not know, but as I cannot shave the butter she produces, please cashier- her, and in future I won't pay you for-any butter hairer than a turnip—an average turnip is.—l am, &c." Two Maori gentlemen (says the " Post" of June 1) arrived by the Napier from Foxton this morning, with the object of paying a visit to the Philadelphia Exhibition; and leaving by the mail steamer to-morrow, in accordance with the invitation received. It is not yet definitely settled whether one will go, but we understand it is not probable that any arrangements will be made by the Commissioners.

The Rev. P. P. Agnew will conduct Divine service in the Masonic Hall to-morrow, morning ami evening, at 11 and. 0.30. The subject for the evening will be " The Battle of Life," and some hymns from " Hymns, Ancient and Modern," will be sung.