The Evening Mail. MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 603, 8 April 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail. MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1878.

It is time tfiat the Government took some steps to provide Ngapara with some police protection. On Saturday night, or about 1 o'clock on Sunday morning, that "sweet little haven of rest " to the weary traveller was the scene of a disgraceful row, when night was made hideous by the imprecations of about eight Chinese from Kerry, whose devotion at the shrine of the "rosy" God r'ave them peculiar ideas of the beauties of the English language, and apparently impelled them to use forms of speech towards each other which were far from Chesterfieldian. A few of these worthy "foreigners" considered an empty pnrter bovtle_ a very powerful medium in enforcing their arguments.

The Kev. J. Armitage delivered his farewell discourse in Wesley Church last evening. It will lie remembered that in pursuance of one of the rules of Methodism, Mr. Armitage was appointed at last conference to the charge of the Kaiapoi district, and that the llev. H. Dewsbury was chosen to undertake the pastorate of Oamaru. The church was well filled, and the congregation evinced considerable int-rest in the impressive farewell words of their departing minister, the text being selected from Acts xx. •2G-27— " Wherefore 1 take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men ; for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." This evening there will be a meeting of the con-<n-e«'ation at the church, when Mr. and Mrs Armitage will bid their friends good-bye, and be the recipents of a memento to remind them of their sojourn in Oamaru.

During the past week or two trains have been running night and day on the Watareka line, and on Saturday piles of bags full of grain were stacked at intervals along the line, tracks were filled and taken away, but the cry was "still they come." This will be the best paying line in the district, and we are glad to notice that the arrangements for transportation (so far as the appliances would permit, which are by far too meagre) seemed to be faultless. Even at the Ngapara station the place seemed covered with grain stacks. Such prosperity must be a source of gratification to everybody.

There was no business done at the District Court to-day.

The usual monthly meeting of the Oamaru Harbour Board will" be held next Friday at 10.30 a.m. Mails for Sydney, per City of New York, due on Tuesday, close immediately after her arrival at Auckland. The April competition of the North Otago Rifle Association will take place on Saturday, the 13th instant. To-morrow, the twenty-third anniversary of the storming of Sebastopol will be celebrated in London by a great popular demonstration. The Collector for the Oamaru Hospital requests us to acknowledge the receipt of L2 as a donation by Mr. Jacob Loudon, per Mr. John Hood. Mr. Walker, of the firm of Glen, Walker, and Co., Melbourne, has purchased (says the Melbourne A<je) all the Queensland properties of the New Zealand Land Company, with 120,000 sheep, 6,000 head of cattle, and 500 horses. Speaking of the Waimate Steeplechase the WailaiKji Tribune, says : —"North Otago will, we believe, furnish several animals for this event, while hopes are entertained that one or two Waimate horses will come to the post for the Maiden. If the Oamaru and Waimate Clubs were to unite the steeplechase of the Colony might be held on the Willow Bridge course. Mr. Rees' novel, " Sir Gilbert Leigh," has made quite as favourable an impression at Home as in the Colony. Several of the Loudon magazines and newspapers are loud in the praises of its author. The Pall Mall Gazette says, in its review of the work : '•There is a wealth of fact, and a power of descriptive writing, and an earnestness in all he says, which raises Mr. Rees' book far above the level of ordinary novels." The Intelligent Vagrant, Mr. J. M. Perrier, who is well known in this Provincial District, having for some time been connected with the literary departments of the Brwe Herald and Guardian, and who has of late years been engaged on the JV. Z. Times and Arfjti*, has had personal and experimental acquaintance with the promptitude and plain speaking that are characteristics of the Americans. A Mr Gardiner has lately purchased the Wellington Argun, now called the Chronkk, and has ideas evidently different from those of Mr Perrier as to how newspapers should be conducted. The Star special correspondent says:—"Mr Gardiner, the new proprietor, is a Californian Scotchman of great decision of character. Yesterday

morning Mr Perrier came down to the office as usual, when Mr Gardiner said to him, " Look here; I'm not going to keep a man •who does so precious little. Make up your account and vamose." Mr Perrier made out his account for five weeks' salary and L3O in place of notice. Mr Gardiner instantly gave him his cheque for that amount and told him to clear out, which he did after a brief editorship of three days.

A destructive fire occurred at Acton Station on Thursday, by which the woolshed, containing about L 3,000 worth of grass seed and about L2OOO of grain, consisting of wheat and oats, was destroyed, besides a quantity of tobacco, sheepskins, stores, wool press, and a large portion of the sheep yards. The total loss is estimated by the manager, Mr. Maclean, at L 7.500. It was partly covered by insurance, but to nothing near the value. There is at present no clue to the origin of the fire.— Timaru Herald.

A serious accident happened at Waihola Gorge on Wednesday. While Miss Moore was driving her father's horse and spring cart home from the harvest field, the animal suddenly shied to one side arid capsized the cart, throwing out the three occupants. Miss Moore received a severe cut on her forehead, her little sister had her face very much bruised, and Mrs. Watt, who is 75 years of age, had her loft arm broken, and also received severe contusions all over her face. Dr. Rogers, of Milton, who was sent for, applied the necessary remedies.— Star.

Tlie South AiiMralioa Ber/ixler says that Mr. George Francis, the analytical chemist, has forwarded to the Government a supplementary and detailed report in reference to the impurity of the water in Lake Alexandrine, which he lately visited at the request of the Government. From the confervoid plant named Nedularia spumigera he procured when in a state of decomposition a remarkable blue coloring matter that is apparently quite new to science, and although somewhat like archil—a pigment obtained from a lichen by deeomjiositioii—is still distinct and marked in its chemical characters, and has a most extraordinary power of flourescence, being Blue by transmitted and blood-red by reflected light. Mr. Francis forwarded by the Stad -A msterdam a small bnx of sample tubes of the poisonous plant and fluid to several scientific gentlemen in London and Paris, with a request that they will be kind enough to favour him with their observations thereon.

For the benefit of those who are afflicted with deafness we reprint the following from the Dunedin Aye, and may just as well add that Professor ytanich is expected to shortly arrive in Oamaru :—" Deaf and dumb people have gennerally been regarded beyond the roach of medical and surgical treatment. A singular instance of the partial restoration of the faculties of hearing has just, however, come under our notice. Mr James Dow, farmer of Lower Harbour, has a son ten years of age, who has been deaf and dumb from infancy. Hearing of Professor Stanich, he consulted him in Dunedin a few weeks ago, and the boy has since been under that gentleman's treatment. The result is that the boy's sense of hearing has partly returned, and trie sudden restoration of a faculty which he never knew before makes every sound absolutely painful to him. "When placed under treatment, a bell rung at the back of his lead failed to attract the slightest attention. Nov.- the slightest tap alongside of his ear not only startles him, but causes him to p'ace his hand to his ear, as if the noise were disagreeable. Mr Stauich declares that the boy's sense of hearing is now partly restored, and that in the course of a few months the boy will be able to commence conversation. People, ho urges, are dumb, simply because they are deaf, and the restoration of the sense of hearing, is accompanied with the power of utterance. The boy, in the present instance, before he can acquire the power of expressing his thoughts, must be taught articulation in the same manner as a lisping infant, and it is anticipated that about six months must elapse before he will be able to make himself intelligible, and to understand what is said to him. Altogether the case is one of a most singular and interesting character.

Municipal pleasantries have become so much the order of the day at Roxburgh that they are now almost by common consent a part of the municipal programme; and although no actual notice of motion is made that Mr. A will blackguard Mr. B on a certain date, it is generally understood that some jjiquant controversy will occur, interlarded by language at once forcible, comprehensive, and to the point, although scarcely classical. On the 4th instant the Roxburgh Municipal Council met, as was its custom, to interchange mutual good wishes and pay their respects to each other, and this is how they did it:—"The Mayor: Who told you to ask that question?— Councillor Higgs : Never mind : I want to know.—The Mayor (in an excited manner) : I demand who told you to ask that question !—Councillor Higgs : Has there been any such correspondence ?—-The Mayor: No.—Councillor Higgs : You say there has not?— The Mayor: I did write on behalf of the Council. I know who told you to ask, and I'll see you and the party that told you to ask d -d first." The question asked was whether any correspondence had passed between the Mayor and the Government with reference to the local Court-house. The Mayor, as the highest civic functionary in the important municipality of Roxburgh, and a man who had had the honour of corresponding with the Government, evidently objected to being interrogated as to what had passed between him and the Government by a common Councilman. He had arrived at the meeting with his mind lifted far above those of his colleagues by the important event, and there was something decidedly infra dig. in holding intercourse with a plebeian, who had'not the decency to preface his remarks with "I have the honour, etc." The Mayor of the very important town of Roxburgh is a man of great force of character and words, and it must be quite an intellectual treat to have the honour of sitting at his feet to study the art of how to maintain Mayoral dignity in the choicest language of our nation.