LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 54, 23 June 1876, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

"Better late than never." Mr..Holdsworth, the officer in charge of the Telegraph Department, has, sent us the folio whig pleasing notification this morning :—Orders in C'otincil just published authorises papers published before five p.m. 011 week 'days to receive, during the day, 500 words at evening rate.?; during the present Session of Parliament." While-we imi3t be thankful,for small mercie3, let us hope that the Government will see its way before the. Session is over to extend this privilege to the evening papers ad infinitum. We must again express a wish that this new order in Council will take effect from the commencement of the Session, and will include the Governor's .Speech. There was a Civil Sitting at the Magistrate's Court this morning,but tire proceedings were of 110 public interest.

Aii expensive love affair lias recently been adjusted in Sydney by the settlement out of Court of the case Post v. Donnelly, which plaintiffs claimed £4,000 for breach of promise and seduction. The following is the memorandum of agreement : —" Albury Sitting, April, 1876, Miss-Post v. Donnelly, J. Post v. Donnelly. The above actions and all claims in respect of any clauses Erf actions by either of the above plaintiffs against the defendant, arc settled upon the terms of the defendant, paying-£SOO in each action (that is, £I,OOO altogether) in discharge-thereof, and of all costs therein." > V. ,

The "Wellington Post" says :—"A large well-conducted hydropathic establishment, where the water-cure could be carried out on scientific principles,-lias long been a desideratum in New Zealand. Dr. Turner, formerly of Bombay, and more lately of Auckland, is endeavouring at present to establish such an institution, and with this object is visiting the several provinces to obtain shareholders. It is possible that Wellington will be the place selected for the establishment, as its central position would be convenient for patients coming from both North and South. Dr. Turner is now in Wellington, en route for Lyttelton and Dnnedin." If (says the " Times ") Dr. Turner pays Nelson a visit, he may possibly find a suitable site. The "News Letter" has been informed that a gentleman who possesses considerable musical talent is endeavouring'to organise a Maori brass band in Masterton. About ten have already subscribed their names v/itli the joining. " iEgles," in the Australasian, thus comments upon a complicated Customs case : "Baffle imjiorted fifteen tons of telegraph •wire, which came in free. Snaffle imported twenty tons fencing wire—a similar article — and paid duty upon it. Snaffle bought fifteen tons: and" sold it to Baffle at a profit in' the ordinary course of trade. Snaffle sold his thirty-five tons for use on a station in Eiverina, and as it was leaving Victoria applied for. and obtaineel, from the Customs department the drawback on thirty-five tons. To this day he does not know that the fifteen tons 011 which he obtained the drawback never paid any duty, and thus the State has absolutely paid away what it never received." The following "scene" is "depicted by the funny writer of the " Christjjfewrch Press" : —" The Court-house of a ccmntry district, in one of the neighbouring Provinces. The magisterial Solomon on the figurative Bench. The case before the Court is one for debt, the defendant being a knight of the thimble, goose, and sleeve-board. The defendant acknowledged the justness of the debt without any demur, but pleaded inability to pay at present. Said his Worship, " What time do you require to pay this debt in ?" " Well, your Worship," answered thp defendant, '' If you will 011 ly pay me that. little account you owe me, I can settle the claim at once.' The scene in the Court may perhaps be imagined, but it can't be easily described.

. A-. monster petition, containing over ;#O,O<X) signatures, against grants of money i'bging voted to any member of the Royal without a definite statement of their present.,income will be presented to the House of Commons by a prominent Radical member on the evening of Mr... Disraeli's motion for a supplementary grant to the Prince of' Wales for liis Indian trip. The petition,- Ims been got up by Mr. Charles Bradlanghl;

The "Nelson Daily Times," in a leading article on the New Zealand coal observes : '.'-It is a standing disgrace to the ruling powers that • the peoqle of Nelson (and, in fact, the whole of New Zealand) should be importing an inferior coal from, New South Wales, while millions of-tons of a superior mineral crop from the-sides of the hills of tliis 3?i-ovincej which are at present rendered comparatively worthless through the want of a suitable shipping port. - It will be absolutely necessary, during the coming session, for the Government to devise remunerative works to employ the surplus labour that will follow as a natural sequence upon the immigration .policy, whenever the public works now in hand are completed, and among works of this kind few are better deserving of the attention of the Assembly than the ..establishment of one good coal port upon the West Coast."