LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 105, 22 August 1876, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tlio latest grievance which is exercising the public mind in Dunedin at the present time is the <1 iHereiice between the town clock and that of the Post Oliice. Tlie Cu•iiili'M considers it simply disgraceful that such a perpetual nuisance .should be allowed to continue. Our contemporary hopes, now that the Reparation resolutions are (plashed, the proceedings of these two horological institutions—the one Provincial, the other Colonial —might be made to practically exhibit that spirit of unity and harmony and peace which we are promised in the Centralistic millennium. A special meeting of the Municipal Council was held this morning. It was decided to adopt the plans and reports of the Engineer regarding the water supply scheme, and to apply to the Waste Lands Board for the land through which the water will have to be conducted. A report of the business appears in another column. Wc understand the Oamaru Footballers are-making preparations for their contest with the Dunedin Club 011 Saturday next. The team has been selected, and a meeting is to be held to-night, in the Northern Hotel, at eight o'clock, to elect a captain and subcommittee, and to choose uniform. The Club will have practice every evening at half-past four, an opportunity of which, no doubt, each member will avail himself. The following instance of the pursuit of knowledge under unusual difficulties, 011 the part of a scholar atttending a school in the Province of Xelson, is given by the Inspector of Schools in his annual report :—" A lad of fifteen, who has had 110 previous schooling, attends regularly, though his home is separated from his school by nearly eight miles of a rough hill track and an unfordable river. To cross the latter, he has hewn out a canoe for himself, and each week trudges -eventy-live miles, and ferries himself over a dangerous creek ten ti:;ies, in order to obtain instruction that many who live within a few hundred vards of ti:c school hold very cheap.'" Some very interesting letters from San Francisco have lately appeared in the Dunedin Star, aud there is evidence in them that

tliey proceed. from the pen of Mr. R. G. Creighton, lately editor of the New Zealand Times. The writer evidently does not believe in the permanency of the present San Francisco service, for in one of his letters he says : —"And one word regarding Trenor K. Park, "«'ho has beaten -Tay Gould at own weapons. He is a mighty speculator, not over nice or particular, and was the operator who went to London and worked the Emma Mine swindle. He has presently control of the Panama Railway and Transit Companies, antl lias been able to run Gould to earth : but tliese are not the parties with which the Colonies can deal for a mail service for a long term of years. They may be 'dead broke' any day, and even this new combination mav repudiate.. and wlmt then ? That postal connection with England via- San Francisco should be kept up I have 110 doubt, but I fear that the present arrangement will not continue much longer. There is no stability about anything, and the company's staff is demoralised." One of those incidents of success in mining which reward every now and again the patience and perseverance of individual miners repeated itself the other day in the locality of the Arrow River Falls. In the case we (Ob-wrer) are alluding to the tenacious individual not only stuck to his claim for considerably more than twelve months without making anything more than "strong tucker," but actually wore out the patience of not less than six mates whom he had taken into partnership in regular succession. Nothing daunted, he worked away, and a few weeks ago struck the lead, from which he took out in two days not less than five °unces of gold, and last week brought to light a nice little nugget, which turned the

scale at six and a half ounces. In passing the familiar verdict as "sarve liim right,'' we wis)] that the lead may last and continue to yield something like the above samples. The Southland Nnrs says that those who attended the C'hureli of England at Invercargill 011 Sunday evening were put to great annoyance by au occurrence which does not often take place. This was nothing less than the intrusion of a man who was unmistakeably drunk. His condition was not at iiivt generally noticed, but when singing Avas started he joined in with such vigor and utter disregard of the laws of harmony that those in his vicinity felt constrained to change their seats. Their doing so roused the anger of this most undesirable church-goer, and he denounced their conduct in exceedingly bad language. He might have become still more demonstrative, but for the appearance of two constables who happened to be among the congregation, and by whom he was speedily marched off to less sacred, but more suitable, rjuarters. Xext morning lie increased the revenue of tlu: Colony by handing over 10sDuring the year ended March 31, the expenditure on construction, &c., on branch railways within the Province of Otago has been as follows :—Orepuki Kailway, 7 miles 41 chains, £5,952; Otautau, 17 miles 20 chains, £13,000; Wallac-etown, 12 miles 72 chains, £11,137: Awamoko, 21 iniles 30 chains, £14,113 ; Waiareka, 14 miles 72 chains, £3.3,004 ; main line to Outrarn, via Mosgiel, 8 miles 77 chains, £11,501 ; Green Island Branch railway (rails, &c.), £2,545; survey of new railways, £1,187. Total, £95,039. In the history of Colonial forest administration an outlawed woodcutter may be regarded as a novelty. At the last meeting of the Waste Lands Board (says the Guardian) it was unanimously resolved that a contumacious woodman should be practically outlawed. The Crown Lands Ranger forwarded a lengthy communication on the subject of the woodcutter's conduct. He complained that the feller of trees conducted his operations on a wholesale scale, employing men, and under cover of a timber license ranging at liberty in quest of valuable trees over the length and breadth of the district forests. In accordance with the officer's suggestion the Board determined to put a stop to the woodman's extensive operations by refusing to grant his license in future. In a late issue of one of our Dunedin weekly contemporaries under the heading of births, we find the following : —On the —, at her residence, street, Mr. So-and-so, of a daughter." In the LtjtteHon Times of of the ] Gth inst., we observe that a wellknown Christchurch auctioneer advertises as to be sold by him " 10,000 fruit trees, consisting of apples, pears, rhubarb.'" This is out-Darwining Darwin with a vengeance. It is stated by one of the Wellington papers that in order to enable the New Zea.land Times to publish the recent speech of the Minister for Justice at length, the report of the Hansard, staff was placed at the disposal of that journal, and that the Government type was loaned for the occasion. Last session some members were allowed to get speeches printed off on broad-sheets on payment for the extra work necessitated, but the above statement seeins to indicate that to the Nev: Zealand Times the department has been yet more accommodating.