The Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1877. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 230, 17 January 1877, Page 2

The Evening Mail.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1877. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

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. It im notified by the Telegraph DepartBitai thai mailt lor Australia per Arawata will dm at the Bluff on Thursday, the 18th Sail, at 11 aA There were no caaes, either police or civil, «& the hat to-day, consequently no Court waaheld. We an in receipt of the Supplement to the Jftta Ztalcmd Gazette of the 4th mat. It irtrotftfr"* the decision of the Native Land Ctaut held at Tologo Bay on the sth of July laat m the matter of Maori claims. With it ( waa aeat the (taxttte of the Ilth mat. The aerrice in aid (of the Melanesian «t St. Luke's Church laat night, firam various extraneous causes, was not so good ae might have been expected. The ». Banr. Mr* Selwyn peached a.very interesting etinaoa, in the course of which he referred to the general apathy ahown in the Colony ' with regard to missionary matters. By aa advertisement in oar columns it wflEt be seen that a meeting of those in- - tereated in promoting bathing accommodation for oar town will be lutl la Boderick M'Xenxiea Hotel at 3 o'clock this evening. Mr. W. C. Hodgson, the Nelson Inspector of Schoola, aaye :— *' I may state that 1 am - with the majority of our teachers in thinking that it weald be unwise to deprive them of • the power of iniiictfag corporal punishment ta extreme cam To do this would be to •fier a premium to insubordination. While believing that the «ae of the cane may well to diapaaaod with in our upper ciaiae*, where labHi of obedience have be«B formed, and ' W> w ttow exata aaenaeaf shame that can

b* apj*a)«d to, 1 cannot aee bow the younger many of whom have the very rudiaatate of discipline to learn, can he brought into aabjectioa, especially in oar larger ■^J« t without an occasional appeal to phyaical force. On the whole, 1 do not think any interference on the part of the Board would mend matter*." We have to acknowledge the receipt of a very well got up almanac, in book form, published by Mr. Mackay of the Bruce Herald. It contains a large amount of valuable information, and has, as a frontispiece, a map of the now defunct Province of Otago. Means. Kohler and Bent terminated their aeries of performances in Oamani last night. Owing to the state of the weather the attend- »«/•« was not large, but in spite of that the entertainment was, if anything; better than the previous ones. Mr. Kohler's playing on various instruments was, as usual, superb, and Mr. Bent, in a musical melange on the " Seven Ages of Man," showed great powers of acting. A screaming farce concluded the performance, in which a gentleman amateur took part. The official statement is that there are now 4,560 persons on the Knmara diggings, 3,000 of whom are engaged in mining. A new and distinct lead, known as the Shamrock, has been opened, and on it there are upwards of 460 miners on payable claims. One of the finest, if not the finest trout that has yet been taken from the Shag River near Palmerston (says the Times of that place), was caught by Mr. R. Mathcson a few days ago. It weighed 121b., was 2ft. Sin. long, and 17ft. in circumference. Only a short time back the same gentleman caught another trout weighing 81b. Sir Rowland Hill's claim (says the Times) to be regarded as the author of the penny postage system of Great Britain, is contested very strongly by a gentleman at present residing in Dunedin, and who formerly lived iaEssex, England. In a memorial to Sir Stafford Northcote, the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Francis Worrell Steven3 sets forth that, about the year 1534, or daring the time Lord Althorp was Chancellor of the Exchequer, he submitted to that nobleman a proposition for the establishment of a universal penny postage system, and also a penny stamp for parcels. At that time, Sir Rowland Hill, who was Private Secretary to Lord Althorp, in the name of his Lordships forwarded a letter of thanks to Mr. Stevens. As everyone knows, the penny postage system was afterwards successfully established, and Mr. Stevens asserts that the only difference between the penny stamp in use and the one proposed by him is the substitution of Her Majesty's head for the Royal Arms. Mr. Stevens says that, as he has recently learned that Sir Rowland Hill, as the suppoaed original proposer of the system, received a reward of £40,000 from the British House of Commons, he thinks he is fairly entitled to claim some recognition of his efforts as the real suggesfcer of a system which has proved so beneficial in every respect. In Wellington the land system is apparently much the same as the Canadian described by us in a recent issue. The Rangitikei Advocate has the following :—"We are glad to learn that, though unlegislated upon during the last session, the views enunciated by the Government with regard to the disposal of Crown lands on the deferred payments system have been given effect to by the Waste Lands Board of the Provincial District of Wellington. In a Gazette, published ott Thursday last, there appears a notification that the Board have 3ct apart certain sections in the township of Sandon for sale on deferred payments, at 20a. per acre. The schedule comprises 4S sections, containing S,SSO acres. The time of payment extends to five years from the date of application, and the purchaser must, during the first two years, build a house of the value of £lO, and clear for croporlay down in grass one-tenth part of the land. It will thus be seen that the terms and conditions upon which this land is obainable are extremely liberal." The following (says the Grey River A rgus) is the text of the petition presented against the return of Mr. A. R. Guinness as member for Marsden Riding in the Grey County Council:— '* We, the undersigned electors of the Marsden Riding of the Grey County hereby declare that we verily believe that the election to the office of Councillor of the Council of the said Grey County, holden at Paroa and Marsden on the 22nd of December, 1576, at which Arthur Robert Guinness was declared to be duly elected to the said office, the said election of the said Arthur Guinness is void upon the followtnggrounds: 1. That intimidation or violence was used at the said election to such a degree as to prevent certain electors from polling. 2. That other irregularities occurred in the pcoceeed-

ings that tended to defeat the fairness of the election. And we pray that an inquiry may be made into the said election under the provisions of 'The Regulations of Local Elections Act, 1876,' and that the said election may be declared void. Given under our hands this sth day of January, IS/7. — John Card, Jas. Hamilton, D. T. Faulkner." The fire which occurred at Manor House (says the Otago Guardian) on Thursday last formed the subject of a coroner's inquiry yesterday. The evidence failed to shed any extra light on the origin of the accident, and the jury, after a painstaking investigation which lasted fully four hours, had to return an open verdict. In summing up, the Coroner (Dr. Hocken) commented at considerable length on the carelessness too frequently displayed by insurance companies and their agents in accepting fire risks. A rider was returned calling the attention of the insurers to the necessity of making regular inspections of the premises insured. A few years ago, at an investigation of a similar kind held in Victoria, it transpired that the insurance agent—a member of Parliament —had actually insured a quantity of furniture which he had never seen, and which was proved In the Criminal Court in Melbourne to have been purely a myth. The opinion of Dr. Hocken —that the manner in which insurance risks were effected offered a premium to incendiarism —is based upon a large experience in connection with these inquiries, and will doubtless receive the attention it deserves.