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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 933, 14 April 1879, Page 2

TU' 1 - Waitangi Tribune says that the late Mr. IJotdammer. the cr.twcyr.ncc of whose t't 1 main* fi'om \\ aimate -y rat!, on 1 bur.--lay tast. caused <v mwh annoyance to a number t.f passengers. wit" strongly protested against them being put in the mail van, died from the effects of a severe cold contracted whilst .attending a funeral. We are glad to ; be able to pisbltah this statement, for it is> at VM.rtil-tU't'T with the pretty general opinion that Mr. IJotdammer died of typhoid fever, and it if pleasant to be able to feel that there i* no eartse to fear that the conveyance to Hnnedin, in a van that is itse.l for general pttrpoaes. of Mr. Coldammer's remains, is likely to be productive of the evils we referred to in wtr short article of Thursday. On this occasion we appear to have been mistaken, and wo have inttcli pleasure in savins so. J>nt we raised the alarm in the interests of the piiMie. feeling that the evidence that Mr. Goblammer died of I tvphoid fever was Butlicicntly weighty to warrant tis irt warning the public. True, we ! did not adopt the happy suggestion of the medical otfieer of the Oamarn Hospital, that we sh'rtdd ennttire at headtjnarters before making any statements such as those contained in ottr artitde, by proceeding to Wai- ! mate and investiiratinr -.' ie whole affair, in order to arrive at the truth ; but I

we felt that immediate action was urgent, and that if we erred at all it woidd l>c on the right side. The Estrclla. the second Home ship of the season, arrived here on Saturday from Wellington. She is an iron banpte, and is under charter to Messrs. I*. Cunningham A: Co. The Estretta will bo berthed and commence taking in a cargo for Home aa soon as she has discharged about 300 tons of ballast. The whole of her cargo is engaged, and consists of 630 tons of wheat to be shipped by Mkssts. P. Cunningham & Co. and Messrs. Hay and Barr.

There is nothing so conclusive, as ocular demonstration —-that is, in the normal state of one's optical organs—and it is certain that if those who feared that the waterworks letets had been erroneouely taken, hail seen the water coursing through the race, from the headworks as far as Aitchcson's, on Saturday last, they would have doubted their engineering ability.

The Oainaru portion of the San Francisco mail arrived by to-day's express from Cliristchurch.

Mr. M'Leod, and a number of Provincial Councillors proceeded by buggies, to-day, to make an inspection of the waterworks. The Town Clerk to-day handed to Mr. Parker, Revising Officer for this district, 554 names to be placed upon the electoral roll, being an increase on the number given in last year of 122 names. The list consists of those ratepayers who have paid-their rates from the 31st March, IS7S, to the 31st March, IS7O.

The monthly meeting of the Hospital Committee will be held to-morrow evening.

The Stadt Haarlem, which arrived off Otago Heads at half-past 5 last evening, after a voyage of 57 days from Plymouth, brings 145 immigrants for Otago, 350 for Canterbury, and 140 for "Wellington. The vessel was drawing ISi feet of water, and the sea on the Port Chalmers bar was ,;o rough that Mr. Selwyn Smith sent her on to Lyttelton. These facts, gleaned from a telegram, are pregnant with meaning; and, whatever may be the depth of water discovered by the Engineer, it would appear that it is not sufficiently great to induce Mr. Sehvyn Smith to risk a vessel drawing only IS£ feet upon it in rough weather. The late exciting and curious occurrence whereby Colonel Whitmore became the recipient of the inmost political Eentiments of the Hon. Mr. Hall, has afforded the Hon. Mj-. Waterhouse an occasion for reading a lecture to all implicated in exposing those sentiments, and supplied the Opposition with another weapon to use against the Ministry. Tiie concluding sentence of Mr. Waterhouse's tirade is characteristic of that gentleman. He says :—" There has been throughout the affair an absence of honorable feeling and sucli brazen facedness of conduct as would till one with apprehension for the future of New Zealand if one could believe that such <{iialities were common amongst her publx men." What Mr. Waterhouse means is that tile party to which lie belongs, and which has his sympathies, are not half such blackguards as the members of the present Ministry. Let a comparison be instituted by the light of the proceedings of the last hours of the late Administration.

A narrow e.scape from drowning occurred in the harbor to-day. While a boat of the schooner Pelican was passing over a rope attached to a vessel the latter suddenly tightened and the boat capsized. Two seamen were thrown out, and, after being an unpleasantly long time in the water, the boat having righted herself, they scrambled in and were once more safe.

The Kev. Samuel Kdgar, a gentleman who stands aloof from all religious sects because he thinks they are 110 better than they should lie, and is a religious pedant, has added to his other numerous eccentricities that of expressing a belief in Dr. Slade, the Spiritualist, has been adjudged a vile impostor before the world. It is singular that a man who is so hard to please in other respects should have been led captive at the will of the erratic doctor to such an extent as to express a belief in the genuineness of that which has been proved to be, in his ease, humbug.

[ Yesterday being Easter Sunday, the usual j jubilant services were held in St. Luke's Church. The interior was tastefully decorated with various ferns, flowers, and leaves, a noticeable feature being the free use of red geranium, mingled with laurel, the two colors contrasting admirably. The congregation in the morning was very large, and we do not remember evnr having seen the building so crowded as it was at the evening service. An exceptionally good choir rendered the musical portion extremely well, the whole concluding with the "Hallelujah (.'horns," Handel's masterpiece, from " The Messiah." The collections, which were liberal, being the offerings of tile parish- > loners to the Rev. the Incumbent, were for- [ maily handed to him by the Churchwardens [ at the close of the day.

To-day, at the E.M. Court, before W. H. Roberts, K.sijl, .T.P., Mary Morgan was charged with having been drunk and disorderly 011 the 12th, and was fined 10s, or •IS hours' imprisonment. This was all the business before the Court.

The own correspondent of the Otago Daily Times says that a disagreement has occurred between the Volunteers in Invercargill. The picket attempted to force their way into the Melbourne Hotel, where the Naval Brigade was billeted, but Captain Smith refused, because it would disturb the men who had been on duty the previous night. The picket subsequently left, and returned doubled in number and beaded by a lieutenant. On '--iiig again refused, two sergeants laid their hands on Captain Smith v.iiii the idea of arresting him. They, however, feared the Naval Brigade, and let him go. The officer who gave his pickets the orders is greatly blamed. C'apt. Smith exercised jireat forbearance, or there would have been a real fight. It is to be hoped that those who are responsible for such unruly conduct will be taught a lesson that they will not readily forget.

There is considerable rejoicing in Blenheim over the fact that, notwithstanding "banking oppression and monetary thumb-screwing,' the Bank of New Zealand has granted an overdraft of L3OO to the Borough Council. The Times says that the information, when conveyed to the Council, elicited 110 special comment; still, it was received with that silent complacency which betokens relief. We know several other directions in which a similar announcement would be received with something more than mere sighs of relief.

We have been accused by not a few persons of endeavouring to create a " fever scare ami those persons have actually ridiculed the matter, as if it were one of no consequence. "The fever is not infectious," says one; "Affairs at Waiinatc are nof bad as represented," say hat will rl>n3/-,n.vpil; say to the following remarks, made by a medical man resident at Waimate, and having every facility for speaking authoritatively on the subject. During an interview with the County Council of that place, 33 reported by the Tribune, "Dr. Deane said he had been desired by the deputation to make a few remarks about the fever. There was no exaggeration with regard to it. He liad that day seen ten caae3 of fever. In one house there were lour and in another there were two cases of fever, and in both houses there were large families. First the children took the fever and then it spread. Some of the cases he had seen that day ought to have been dealt with separate from the rest of the family. In a two-roomed house he considered the disease as highly dangerous. He considered it necessary to have a building to treat those cases in. There had been several instances where young men had gone to the Timaru and Oamaru Hospitals, but he thought it must be very unpleasant for those towns to be burdened witli fever patients from TVainiatc. He considered the want of a good

water supply as the prime cause of the epidemic. He had come to this conclusion after two or three weeks of careful observation. The water was contaminated by filth from the surface. He had seen at least one positive proof of this in a sample of water which was contaminated by the presence of a noxious description of gas. There was no exaggeration with reference to the nature of the causes, and they were still increasing, He felt it was the duty of himself and the other medical men in the town to have the cases of this serious disease isolated." The Education Board, by advertisement, invite applications for the positions of Head Master of the North School, First Assistant of the South School, and Head Master of the Waiareka School.

A meeting of the ratepayers of the Hampden Road District, will be held in the Board's office, Hampden, on Wednesday, the 23rd inst,, at 12 o'clock, to decide upon the stopping of district road through Sec. 43, Block 1., Moeraki district. It is scarcely necessary to remind our readers that this evening the first of the winter series of lectures in connection with the Young Men's Christian Association will be delivered in the New Tees-street Hall by the Rev. Dr. Copland, of Dunedin. " Bible in Schools" is the theme chosen for the lecture.

At the distribution of prizes at St. Paul's (Dunedin) Sunday School, yesterday, Archdeacon Edwards denounced the "policy of the Government" in excluding religious teaching from State schools, and urged parents and guardians to see that their children regularly attend Sunday School.

The Timaru Harbor Board has decided to get a steam launch to work their boats. With this object (we learn from the Herald) they made enquiries about the Customs steam launch at Lyttelton, and received a reply that it is totally unfit for use in the port of Timaru.

We are to have now a female Freethought lecturer. This is a capital idea and will be sure to draw. The other side must wake up or they will be nowhere. Cannot a female evangelist be imported ? Mr. Varley should be communicated with at once.—Dunedin Star.

During the past fortnight rumors have been current respecting the financial position of one or two prominent business men in this city. We have made enquiries, and may now state that these reports are utterly without foundation. It is, of course, impossible to trace the authors ; but those who are in the habit of repeating tales of this kind should remember that in letting their tongues wag so freely they are playing a stupid as well as a dangerous game. —Age. The steamer Stadt Haarlem is probably the largest vessel that ever came direct to Port Chalmers, and as she draws over 26 feet of " water, it will be interesting to observe how she gets over the bar at the Heads.—Age. The Timaru Herald says "An unusually strong surf continued to roll in all yesterday, but did 110 injury to the Breakwater, witli the exception of washing away some of the ballast from under the tramway laid down oil the south side to run trucks on. It, however, did considerable injury to the foreshore between the Breakwater and the Government Landing Service. Notwithstanding the protective works in the shape of concrete blocks, placed there recently, and of the success of which t-lie Harbor Board were so sanguine at the time, the reclaimed land up to a few feet of the sheds has all been swept away. The land is splitting up to near the sheds, and unless immediate steps are taken to prevent further damage, it is not improbable that the slieds will also go. The Akaroa, one of the Government landing service surf boats, which was lying 011 the embankment, was considerably injured. The land was swept away from 11:. "j.' her, and in the fall she got her bottom stove in. All the vessels in port remained at their anchorages, and, so far as we could learn, sustained 110 injury." During an interview which a deputation had with the Waimate County Council, some very hard things were said. With reference to the prevalence of fever in Waimate, Mr. Freeman remarked that the town was not properly looked after. "They had," he said, "at present a 'Ned Kelly' amongst tliern in the shape of a dire fever. He would like to know how the councillors would look if Ned Kelly came into the hall with a brace of revolvers, one in each hand, and menaced them. He for one could assure them that he would feel inclined to get into his stocking feet. The epidemic which was at present raging ni the town was worse than any Ned Kelly, and yet the Council had done nothing. They were letting the people die as if it were nothing to them whether they died or not. They had sent Home Sir Julius Vogel to arrange the loan of millions and also agents for sending out immigrants. They were bringing immigrants to the country and treating them in anything but a fair manner. They were stopping the public works whereby the immigrants might have a chance of subsistence. The public works should not be stopped. It was a disgrace to stop the public works. It was very easy for the councillors to sit in the soft leather chairs of the chambers ; but they should not forget that it was the ratepayers who put them there in their respective positions. The ratepayers were not going to be trampled on any longer." Other members of the deputation also spoke very strongly with reference to the want of action on the part of the County Council. After a tolerably lengthy discussion, we are informed by the Tribune that the following resolutions were carried : —"That the Hospital Committee be empowered to rent a suitable building for the purpose of a special fever ward, and if no suitable building be found a temporary ward be erected near the new ho^"^ 1 Juilding, so that it can lv- used again in cases of "That the Hospital Committee be instructed to have all nuisances

removed forthwith, under the provisions of the Public Health Act."