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Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 314, 26 April 1877, Page 2

The Oamaru correspondent of the Daily Times has favoured us with another long letter in reference to the matter in dispute between him and ourselves ; but, as we think the subject has been pursued quite far enough, we must decline to publish the letter, especially as 110 good whatever can accrue to the public by continuing the warfare.

It has not been deemed necessary to hold an inquest upon the body of the boy who ■was drowned some days ago, and whose body was found yesterday. Mr. Michael Collins, the unfortunate boy's father, has identified the body, and being convinced that the child came to his death through no other cause than his own folly, he has requested that there should be no inquest, and the request has been complied with.

A degree meeting of the Lodge of Independent Order of Oddfellows was held last evening, when six members passed the first and second degrees.

We would remind our readers that Mr. ■Thomas Bracken's lecture, "An Evening witli Samuel Lover," in aid of the Mechanics' Institute, takes place to-morrow evening, in the Masonic Hall. "We believe the Committee are working very hard to make the affair a financial success, and, in order to bring together a large audience, have reduced the§prices to 2s. and Is. The usual fortnightly meeting of the Harbour Board will be held to-morrow, at 11 a.m. Mr. E. B. Pearce notifies by advertisement in another column that he has removed to new offices near the Star and Garter Hotel.

The Theatre Royal Company (Wellington) has i L-ccived £l(j()0 rental during the year. It declares a dividend of 10 per cent., carries forward the rest, and gives the secretary, Mr. Hillsden, a bonus of £25.

The extraordinary feat (says the Daily Tiiiies) of eating twelve dozen oysters within an hour was accomplished by a young man of sliin proportions at one of the city oyster saloons on Monday night. He easily won the wager that was laid against him.

In his address to the electors of Totara, Mr. Gisborne says :—"I may state generally that I would support the Government in measures to give successful effect to the Public Works Policy of 1870, with which I was identified, to maintain the union of the Colony, to follow up Provincial abolition by securing substantial local self-government in goldfields and other districts, and to place the finances of the Colony in a sound and satisfactory position."

The Wellington Argus says Mr. J. H Pollock, of the City Butchery, met with, a strange accident on Saturday last. He was passing through a glass-panel door in the shop when the door slammed upon him and broke the glass, one large piece piercing his side, and cutting a large blood vessel. Mr. Pollock has been laid up since, and though out of all danger now, the accident might have had very. seriou3 consequences, as the internal hemorrhage was greatly to be feared. The accident is certainly a remarkable one.

The "Intelligent Vagrant," writing in the JVeit! Zealand Mail, says " A Wellington jeweller was heard telling of an inexpensive manner for appearing at a ball in very costly ornaments. You liave only to occupy a certain station in life, then on the day of the ball to direct the jeweller to send you several 'sets' on approval, wear the nicest, lend the others to your friends for the night, and return the whole to'the jeweller the next day, with a polite note stating that none of them would suit.'"

There will soon be "six Hichmonds'in the field," and the feats of the original Harry will become as common as wheeling a barrow. We notice in the Sydney paper 3 that a tight rope performer, styling himself the "Canadian Blondin," is giving entertainments similar to those of Blondin No. 1, balancing on chairs, walking blindfolded, and so forth.

The Dunedin Star supplies the following : —"A. new rush has taken place at the Teremakau, of which great expectations are entertained. The claims are pegged off on the table land of the terrace, and fully 100 claims have been marked off. Melican and party, the prospectors, discovered that the ground was payable, they having obtained from 17 dishes an average of 3grs. to the dish, and from some dishes they obtained as much as ldwt. They kept the matter quiet until the friends they had communicated with had arrived. During the night parties commenced marking off claims, and it is estimated that there were 403 men at least on the ground the next day."

The Wellington Argus says : —"A daring robbery was perpetrated at the Clarendon Hotel yesterday afternoon. Mr. Bould, the landlord, left a cash-box in his bedroom, and on going to it fox* some change he found that the box, with its contents (£25 and some papers) had been stolen. The box was afterwards found in a bedroom in Gillespie s Hotel, Tinakori-road, so that the thief must have gone there and broken it open, and decamped "with its contents. The suspected person is supposed to have left Wellington yesterday evening in either the Taupo or the Easby, and telegrams have been despatched to the destination of both steamers to arrest him on his arrival."

A meeting was recently held in Ballarat to consider what means should be taken to prevent the overworking of sewing girls. Two speakers detailed cases, and named two firms who had occasionally kept their girls from 9 in the morning till 10, 11, 12, and after 12 o'clock at night, and on one occasion till 3 o'clock on a Sunday morning. They knew several girls who suffered from bad health in cons erjuence, and the medical men who attended tliem knew that, in some cases, a girl was set to watch for the police, and on their coming notice was given, and the girls were rushed into the private dining-room of the firm, and kept at work there. Others suggested that an appeal should be made to the ladies of Ballarat by the girls themselves, not to hurry the making of their dresses, and that private sempstresses who took work home and kept girls very late should also be watched. Finally, a Committee was appointed to inquire into the matter, and they were urged to get the girls at each establishment to appoint small committees to correspond with the principal Committee, and give notice of all breaches of the law.

A London paper relates the following: " Mcllle. Titiens sang recently at the Guildhall, Plymouth, and in response to an encore gave the well-known song, 'Kathleen Mavourneen.' The author of this song, it appears, was Mr. Crouch, a Plymouth musicmaster, who received for the copyright a £5 note. He left town a quarter of a century ago. Exactly a year ago Mdlle. Titiens, being in New York, gave the same song as an encore, the only time she did so while in the States. It excited a furore of applause, and when it had subsided she was told that some man, presumed to be a lunatic, was fighting his way over the barriers from the pit to the stalls (it was in the Opera-house), saying he was determined to speak to Titiens. The prima donna told them to let him in. On approaching her he burst into tears, sobbing out, ' Oh, Mdlle. Titiens, I never before heard my song sung as you have just sung it!' 'Your song!' was the reply, 'why you are not Crouch, surelyV 'I am, indeed,' rejoined the poor old composer, ' and I felt I must thank you myself.' Crouch had scraped together the two dollars for a pit seat, little thinking to hear his now famous song made the most telling morceau of the night."

A correspondent, writing to the New Zealand Mail, says " Sir,—Your numerous musical readers will, doubtless, be pleased and surprised to know that Purcell, one of the greatest of English musicians, is the composer of what is very generally and erroneously known as Matthew Locke s celebrated music to ' Macbeth.' I append the exact words correcting this venerable error, extracted from a paper read by "W. H. Cumming, on Purcell, before the Musical Association on Monday, 4th December, 1876. He says: 'The Civil Wars and the Protectorate had destroyed organs, music books, and dispersed and banished choirs so effectually, that at the restoration of Charles, music had to be composed for men's voices only; or if soprano could not be dispensed with, they were played on cornets, for there were no treble boys capable of singing. Dramatic music there was none; it is true Locke had attempted something in that line; but the very piece on which his fame has been chiefly sustained, was really not his at all, but the composition of Henry Purcell when a youth. I refer to the well-known "Macbeth" music,"'

They have an eye. to business. J Napier correspondent, Dunedin $ says :—" Several n, at Porong^ state that a European named Tierney, Kane, has left that district for Welling after exhibiting specimens of nuggetty g c which, he alleged, had been found on tk land. Henare Matua, who states he | seen the specimens, complains that the j borrowed tools from his people, and said had pegged off 100 feet where he obtain the gold. The natives are particularly an ous that if he shows gold at Wellington: should be seized and made to tell from whi he obtained it."