LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 117, 5 September 1876, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

According to announcement, the ordinary monthly meeting of the Committee of the North Otago Horticultural Society was to have been held last evening, but owing to the difficulty of obtaining access to the arranged p'an of meeting, the affair lapsed. A number of gentlemen who had assembled remained for some considerable time in close consultation under the bare canopy of heaven, and they ultimately resolved that another meeting should be called for Monday next, at the usual hour. Practical jokes are getting to be of frequent occurrence in "oor toon," and we regret to say they are too often attended with damage to property. Between seven or eight o'clock last night and daylight this morning, some humorously-inclined individuals took it into their head* to introduce a novelty, not provided for in th.3 impounding laws, and the details of the occurrence, a3 supplied to us, are rather peculiar. It appears that a large boat, the property of Messrs. Lses and Moore, was cha'ned and padlocked to something attached to a door of the race running through their works. This morning the boat was discovered in the Oa-naru Pound, and the chain and padlock that hail fastened it up ware found locking the Poun I gates. Some Davenport business must have bean put in force to get the boat loo3e in the first place, bat it seems p3rfectly inexplicable how the chain and lock were used to fasten up the gate? without breaking anything, unless the perpetrators are connected with the establishment and become possessed of the ' key. We are pleased to be able to state that no d.image vfsa done by those who put the i dam-boat in the pound. As a consequence of the high price of gas in this town, we understand that both Messrs. Long'ord and Maitland, of the Star and Garter and Commercial Hotels, intend to return to the U3e of kerosene again. Both | establishments have brought out the neglected

lamps, and they are to be put into requisition once more this evening. We have been informed by Mr. Longford that the cost of lighting up his hotel since the introduction of gas has been no less that £3O per month. Although admitting its superiority as an illumina'or over kerosene, he does n>t value the difference as equal to the disproportion in price, and hence the retrogressive step. John Lewis Horn, charged with forging and uttering, was brought up at the Magistrate's Court, this morning, and on the application of Inspector M'Cluskey was remanded until Monday next. The usual quarterly sitting of the Licensing Court took place this morning. There were several applications for transfers and bottle licenses, but the following only were entertained :—Transfer :—Waitaki House, from Robert Dunbar to John Johnston. Bottle License: From James Bee to John Thomas Spence. Mr. A. H. Maude offered for sale to-day the leasehold, for tweufcy-one years, of three sections, the property of the Harbour Board, situated in Thames-street, adjoining Mr. H. Aitken's property. Sections 1 and 2 realised £3 per foot, and fell to Mr. Aitken's bid For section 3 there was no bid, and was accordingly passed in. The frontages of the lots sold are 26;'t. each.