The Oamaru Mail SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 3 July 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1880.

There certainly must be an inquiry to ascertain who is telling a falsehood in regard to the condition in which certain railway carriages made in Dunedin were delivered in Christchnrch. Mr. Alison Smith told the' Civil Service Commission that the carriages were delivered in a wretched state. The Civil Service Commission, without, so far as we know, making further enquiries, gave prominence to the statement in their report. Then Mr. Blair, the engineer responsible for thematter, gave a denial of thestatement, and backed up his view of the matter with apparently strong circumstantial evidence. Mr. Alison Smith followed with a reiteration of the charge, and now we are told that the Engineer was desirous of making another report, but that he was prevented from doing so by the Minister for Public Works, who declined to be made a medium for the interchange of compliments between two railway officials. There has already been too much of this kind of "Your another" sort of thing about this wretched business. What the public now want to know is : Who is the perverter of the truth 2 To get at this we must have some further evidence, and that too of a reliable character.

Several milkmen waited upon us to-day to complain of the injustice done to them by the non-publication of Professor Black's analysis of the whole of the samples of milk submitted to him. They complain that as the report has not been published they do not receive er.edjt fpr their milk passing successfully through the analysis, and that they are left open to suspicion. For t)i£ information of these gentlemen we may mention that we learned from a brief perusal of the report of Professor Black that none of the samples submitted to analysis were proved to be adultered, save those of the two persons who have been brought before the Court. The mere mention of this fact should prove highly satisfactory to the milkmen of the district, &cd especially so to their customers. Mr. Saunders gaye notice in the House of Representatives yesterday, that he would ask the Government under what circumstances Mr. James White, who gave evidence before the Civil Service Commission, was dismissed from his employment at Christchurch by order of the South Island Railway Commissioner.

The following cases were disposed of at the R.M. Court to-day, before % W. Parker, Esq., R.M. :—John Stacey, for being drunk and disorderly, was cautioned and discharged ; and for using obscene language in a public place, was fined 30s, with the alternative of five days' imprisonment with hard labor. Annie Nugent, for being drunk and disorderiy, was fined ss, with the option of 24 hours' hard labor.

The Raphael Troupe appeared again &t fcfto Volunteer Hall last evening to an indifferent house. The programme was similar to that presented the previous evening, bnt Jjhe; Artillery Band gave some life to the per*; fopnance by playing a number of very goodj selections,

We would remind owners of greyhounds that entries for the President's Cup Meeting of the North OtagO Conrsing Cltib close on Monday evening, at eight o'clock.

An Oriental exhibition, consisting of a variety of interesting articles from the East, will be opened at the New Tees-street Hall at 3 o'clock on Monday.

Captain Edwin telegraphs that bad weather is approaching from any direction - between south-east and east and north. A further fall of the glass will take place. The sea will be heavy within 24 hours; There are strong indications of inuch rain. .

Mr. A. H. Maude reports having held a sale to-day of Municipal leases for 21 years on account of the Corporation of Oamaru . Section 5, block 25, was knocked down at the upset price of L3O per annum; section 14, block 47, brought a rental of L 5 15s per annum ; section 4, block 78, fetched L 5 per annum; and section 22, block 14, was quitted at the upset price of LB. For two remaining sections offered in block 14 theie was no bid ; and the sections advertised for sale in block 95 had to be passed in for the same reason. Another instance of the careless way in which the gaps caused by the laying of the water-pipes are filled up was shown near the Criterion Hotel to-day, a dray having sunk up to the axle, necessitating unloading and an extra team being hitched on to draw the empty dray out. "We are hearing reports of these accidents from all quarters of the town, in addition to those which have come actually under our own qbspryation. It is really time that efficient supervision should be exercised over those whose duty it is to fill up these places, or some serious accident will occur.

Th§ Bruce Herald says "We have been seriously informed" that on an early day a duel has been arranged to be fought with pistols by two-well-known residents of Tokopiairiro, but we are not acquainted with the particulars.''

To-day's Christchurch Press says: —The grain' season has practically ceased; any parcels that come through now being too small to be worth mentioning, and consequently. no official. record has been -kept gince the 30th of last month. There is pjip fifljl thing about the rpli of Justices (according to the Hawke's Bay Herald) which is worth noticing. All the "continuous Ministry" are Justices, so are all the present Ministry. But of Sir George Grey's colleagues only Mr. Gisborne is on the roll. We look in vain for the names of Sir George Grey, Mr. Macandrew, Mr. Ballance, Mr. Sheehan, Mr. Stout, Mr. Fisher, and Mr. Thompson.

4. yietorjan Mp. Wftlkor ftas sugr gested a kind of Upper House franchise which has the merit of originality at any rate. He says that a married man with a large family, especially if the latter consists chiefly of daughters, ought to have a greater voice ijx public affairs than a single and childless man, on account pf tlje larger contribution to the Customs revenue made by the former. Therefore he suggests that the electors for the Council should include all the married men of the Colony who have families. We lav a wager that Mr. Walker groaned in spirit when he laid stress on the fact of 3 man's having grown-up daughters, and that he knows by bitter experience the connection between fashionable bonnets and increased receipts at the Custom House.