The Oamaru Mail THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 19 August 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1880.

The monthly meeting of the Committee of the North Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Association called for to-day lapsed Gwin? to there not 1 ciug sufficient members present to form a quorum. As the business was of the utmost importance, the fact that the meeting lapsed for want of interest is a matter for regret, and that regret is greatly heightened by a knowledge of the fact that the want of a quorum was solely attributable to the abseuce of the town members of the Committee. The country members rolled up in very strong force, very much to their personal this being for them the busiest season or the yeni, ciid the knowledge that they had neglected import tant work without being able to do nny good for the Association was far from satisfactoiy. Ti.o meeting was adjourned until Thursday next.

In another portion of this issue wp publish the annual balance-sheets of the Waitaiu, Wsiareka, and Kakanv.i Road Boards. It is pleasing to notice that at the end of the year the whoie of tiie Ucards had satisfactory balances to their credit. The Kakanui Board had a balance of L255J' 0s 4d, the Yv aitak; LUGS 9s sd, and the Waiareka, which for years has had to contend against a deficit, had a balance of L 939 7s Sd.

Captain pdwin telegraphs to-day :—Bad weather is approaching in any direction between north and west and south-west; a heavy gale. The glass will fall Sgain very soon, but rising within 12 hours.

Our readers are reminded that to-morrow jifdit the Caledonian Society's concert in aid of the funds of the Oamaru Hospital and Benevolent Society will take place in the Volunteer Hall. A large number of tickets have been sold, and it is expected that the hall will be densely crowded. Doors will be opened at 7.15, and ticket-holders exclusively will be admitted till 7.45, no money being taken at the door till that time. Mr. Fryer, owing to want of support, has decided to withdraw his art union of pictures, and those who have purchased tickets can have their money returned. The pictures will now be offered for private sale until Saturday, 21st instant. The Health Gazette is the title of a new journal, the first number of which ha 3 reached us. This new aspirant for public favor is issued from the Wanganui Herald office, and bases its claim to support on a desire "to bring to the knowledge of the colonists those matters that are now scattered through the extensive literature of all civilised countries, and that will be beneficial for all persons to become acquainted with," It contains many readable articles of an apparently useful nature, but, of their value in this respect we must leave the medical profession to speak more positively more than we can do. Amongst the entries for the Queen's Birthday Meeting (1SS1) of the Adelaide Racing Club we find the following -.—Adelaide St. Leger, the Hon. Robert Campbell's Sir Modred; Nursery Stakes, the Hon. Robert Campbell's b or br c byTfaducer—ldalia, and the Hon. Robert Campbell's be bj' Traducer—Hammock.

The only item of interest to this district at the meeting of the Waste Lands Board yesterday was an application from Mr. William Strachan that his deferred-payment section 4, block 111., Kurow, should be transferred to Mr. John Orr.—Agreed to be done on fulfilment of conditions.

The monthly inspection of the Oamaru Volunteers will be held this evening, at half-past seven o'clock.

The New Zealand hor3e Camballo has been entered for the Flying Handicap, of 70 sovs., and the Members' Handicap, of 70 so vs., to be run at Hawkesbury (N.S.W.) on the 25th and 27th inst.

I Tlie late Mr. Ireland was an Irishman by j birth, and a member of the Wesleyan denomination. The Tuapcka Times states that the deceased very rarely spoke about his relative:-', but has been known to say that lie had a daughter in the Home Country, and it is believed that he has a brother in business in Sydney. The name "Ireland" was a name he himself had adopted; his real name wa« Renwick. My friend the portrait-painter (writes " /Egles" in the Australasian) has been engaged upon a memorial picture of one d£ the ablest administrators upon the roll of Colonial Governors. Now, Sir Samson's friends were desirous that the portrait should represent his Exoellency in all the

splendour of his official uniform, and that •was a settled preliminary. But prior to the first sitting, said his Excellency : "Now, Mr. F., you know I am attached, to sport. Could not this be made something of a picture—horses running—the grand stand—a crowd of onlookers, &c. ?"—" Just so, your Excellency—capital idea. Of course, I shall paint ycu from behind—looking out of a window." There was no one more amused subsequently at his own proposal than Sir Samson.

Vanity Fair" hints at a coming change in the life of the Earl of Beaconsfield.-. It says:—" It is not often that a man -after 73 years of active life, commences to turn his thoughts to matrimony as a serious profession, yet I am told that the evergreen Earl has almost made up his mind." The Long Range Challenge C'up # was won by the Irish team at Dollymount. Seven Americans and ten of the Irish team competed, the ranges being 800, 900, and 1000 yards. The American team beat the Irish in turn on the 2Stli, The score stood ; Americans, 1202; Irishmen, 12S0. The American team also won in the competition of military rifles, and carried off all the prizes in the Abercom competition.

Riley Brothers, drapers, of Sydney (remarks an Australian paper), have spent L 37.000 in advertising in six years. Commencing in a small way, they now employ 200 hands, and have many branches. The firm commenced advertising largely in 187't. In May of that year their receipts were L4O a month. By April of the following year they had risen to LlOl7 a month. They increased tl;e;r advertising with their business, and in May, 1575, the receipts had risen to L2OOO a month. In IS7O the business was close upon L 150,009. According to the Vienna Allgemeine Zeitung, a painful tragedy occurred recently during the transport of a convoy of convicts to Siberia. Among the convicts was a Polish nobleman, who had been convicted of high but who had been allowed to take

liis young motheileaa boy, ten years old, with him into his banishment. On the \yay the boy fell ill, and the father asked the officer in charge of the guard to allow him to hire a waggon for his son. The father grew urc'Giit in his entreaties, and as the soldiers forced him hack into his place in the melancholy procession, he, in his excitement, trie;} to snatch a rifie from a soldier, when he was immediately shot dead before the eyes of his horrified sou.

Thomas Dale, alias Jordon, ex-captain of the Canadian cricketers, owes his trouble to too ranch matrimony. He left a wife in Eugland when Ke went to America, but soon after he married a woman of Natchez, Miss. The English wife followed him across the ocean, and had him arrested for bigamy; but she consented, for pay, to his getting a divorce from her and marrying the Natchez wife over again. She assured him also that she had obtained a promise from Sir Garnet Woheley that lie could yipit England without danger o? punishment for desertion. This representation seems to have been false.

We clip the following from an exchange : —'"'Governor Weld, late of Tasmania, and now administering the Government at the Straits Settlements, has been knighted, and is now Sir Frederick Aloysins Weld, K.C.M.G. This distinction has been very hardly earned, and those who have known what Sir Frederick's services have been in connection with the settlement of the New Zealand native difficulty and subsequently as Governor of "Western Australia and Tasmania, have wondered why the recognition of Her Majesty has so long been withhold. Sir Frederick is a scion of one of the noblest English families, and cousin to Archbishop Vaughan."

A well-dressed young man (says Wednesday's Press) appeared yesterday at the Resident Magistrate's Court to' tell the reason •why he had not paid the sum of seven shillings which that Court had, on a previous occasion, ordered him to pay. In answer to his Worship, the debtor said he v,-as a baker, out of work, unmarried, and was unable to pay, being pressed, he had no othor reason to give except that he couldn't. While his Worship was pondering over the difficulties of the case defendant raised his hand to caress his whiskers, and in doing so exhibited g, njassive-looking signet ring. Upon this Mr. Stringer, who hippeppd to be in Court, suggested in a promiscuous kind of way, as amicus ciir'm probably, that defendant might have raised the wind by the sale of some of his jewellery, and out of the proceeds satisfied his creditor. This happy thought did not of course influence the magistrate's decision, but the fact remains that der fendant was ordered to pay the amount, plus accrued expenses, within forty-eight hours, or go to prison for a week.