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Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 654, 7 June 1878, Page 2

By reference fo the advertisement of the Colonial Insurance Company of New Zealand, which appears in another column, it will be seen that the share list for the Oamaru district will close in Oamara on Friday, 1-Uh June nest. Intending applicants should send in their applications without delay to Mr. Joseph Booth, Tyne-street. The following is from the Xorth Otago Times of Thursday morning : —"Th" Whitaker-Jones Case—The "Wellington Post is severe about the costs in this case, summing up its remarks as follows : —' The plain English of the whole business is, that thisL2ll7 Ms. bill of costs is one of the most outrageous and monstrous claims, in proportion to the amount of work done. which we have ever heard of.' " Onr contemporary says that the Post's remarks are severe. Thi3 is open to question. There w»3 a time when the Post was a power in the country ; but then the late talented and conscientious Clifford and the present editor of the New Zealander (Mr. E. T. Gillon) tilled the editorial chair. We have the pleasure of a slight acquaintance with the person who at present conducts the literary department of the Post, and nothing that he wrote would surprise us. Fiction i 3 now snnstttnterf for the solid argument which obtained for the Post colonial fame. The present editor cares nothing for facts ; and as he is not celebrated for a superabundance of good principle, it cannot be expected that the paper conducted by him should partake of a different character. We think that the remarks quoted by our contemporary as being "severe" are mild for the editor of the Post. He usually stigmatises the troth, a3 he did when writing of the Whitaker-Jones libel case, as "a tissne of inventions and lies." He knew nothing about the case, an} - more than he is acquainted with the merits of the subject of the paragraph we have just quoted, for he does not consider that necessary; but that is the style of language he has been accus- j tomed to, and it is only natural that it should come out at the end of his pen. We think that those at whom the remarks copied by onr contemporary are aimed, may view it that the}* have been dealt with very kindly by the editor of the Post. He is a decent sort of fellow to speak to, and cherishes no iit-feeling, and is very forgivinrr, although he may write against you. There are some editors that will shake ; hands and wish you all sorts of nice things at three o'clock, and at four slate you in their papers. Men in whom 3 - on cannot plare rel.ance without being betrayed—insincere poor creatures who seem to desire to be friendly, but there is something warring within them that will not admit of any sincerity. They fawn around you at one time, and at another act as though they wonld like to be yonr hangmau. It is rather awkward for the subject of these sportive traits : bnt they mean nothing, and rarcly do much harm. But we think it injudicious that such remarks should be made upon a matter sub jmt!>v, and it is just as wrong to copy them. Supposing that there is anything—ln the choice language of onr contemporary —"outrageous and monstrous" in these claims, which is scarcely likely, taxation in the ordinary way, and not the comments of such papers as the Post and the sympathy of onr morning contemporary, is the recognised method of putting them right.

At the nomination for two members of the Waioreka Head Board for the Tapui Subdivision on Tuesday Dr. Webster was reelected, and Mr. W. Gardiner was chosen to till the other vacancy.]

A meeting of the Football Club is called for Saturday next, at the Koyal Hotel, at eight o'clock, for the purpose of electing an Hon. Treasurer and Secretary to the Club, Mr. Blackburne being about to leave this district. A special service for the young will be held at Paul's Church on Sunday morning next, to which parents and children are invited. The election of a member of the Kakanui Road Board for the Totara Sub-division took place yefterday, and resulted in the re-election of Mr. Robert Morton. The election of a member for the Weymouth Sub-division of the Waitaki Road Board, which took place on Wednesday, resulted in the return of Mr. H. Schluter. We are informed that the Early Closing Association contemplate holding a public meeting about the 20th inst. in support of the early closing movement. The nomination of candidates for the vacant seats in the Waitaki Road Board for the JPapakaio sub-division, took place yesterday at Mr. Wilson's farm. Messrs. Daniel Bonie, Jasper Kicolls, and William Smillie were duly proposed. The number of candidates proposed being in excess of the number of vacant seats, a poll will be taken on Thursday next. The meeting of the Waitaki County Acclimatisation Society, called for 11 o'clock today, lapsed for want of attendance of members. Colonel Brett's station, at Mount Torlesse, consisting of 21,000 acres leasehold, 530 preemptive right, SOO freehold, 10,000 sheep, and house and station buildings, lately sold for LI 1,000. The following paragraph from the Taranaki Herald is too rich to be let pass by unnoticed :—"Many are the jokes that have been passed upon our railway. It has more than once been designated as a toy ; and horsemen have boasted of beating it in reaching town from the Waitara. Natives have been known to run in front of it aiid race the engine ; and other comical tales have been circulated, but what happened on Monday evening when the 5.3S train from Waitara came to the Waiongona Hill can scarcely be credited when we mention it. At the spot named, either the Fox or the Ferret—we are not certain which engine it was—failed to do its work in taking its living freight up the hill; and, nothing loth, a large number of the mail passengers alighted from the carriages, and, putting their shoulders against the end carriage, assisted the 'puffing and panting' iron hovae to reach the summit of the hill with its load. We have heard of passengers by a coach getting out to lighten it when ascending steep hills, but this is the first time we ever heard of it occurring on a railway ; and it is time that the attention of the anient was drawn to the fact that the »ng'nes employed on the line here are not powerful enough to perform the work required of them."