The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, AUGUST 28, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 23 August 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, AUGUST 28, 1880.

Communication by telegraph with the portion of the Colony north of Chrigtchurch has not yet been restored. The breakages are, wc believe, north of Cheviot and west of Bealcy. It is expected that communication will be re-established to-morrow.

The Colonial Bank building had a narrow cso&po from destruction bj' fire on Sunday morning. About a quarter to 1 o'clock some gentlemen who were passing the building observed that there was a fire at tj;s foot of the staircase amongst some survey poles, &c, The door, which is generally left open, was at once closed to check the draught through the building, and one of the gentlemen gave the alarm by ringing the bell of St. Luke's Church. Constable M-'Ganghran was quickly in attendance, and having fprccd open the door, a supply of buckets of water was pj.-o : cured from the Star and Garter Hotel, and by this means the fire was quickly got under. Mr. Gillespie, an honorary member of the Fire Brigade, single-handed, opened the engine station and brought out the hose. This he attached to the hydrant, and had made all arrangement tor a full supply of water when several members of the brigade turned up. There was, however, little need for their services, the fire being by this time well nigh extinguished. The snow on the Canterbury ranges has already began to melt, and, added to the heavy rains of yesterday, it liaa caused floods in the Wainiakariri, Rakaia, and Eangitata Eivers, but so far 110 damage has been done.

On Friday night Mr. John Cairns, a married man, and a storeman engaged in the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company's store, had one of his legs broken by a. s.rtck of grain falling upon it. There are uosr five prisoners in the Oamani Gaol, under committal for trial, two to the Supreme Court and three to the District Court.

The Rifles 1 Band on Saturday evening performed a number of selections of music, chiefly waltzes and quadrilles, on the open space adjoining the Council Chambers. The various items -were rendered in a manner giving evidence of the very great studies the Band has taken during the past few months. There was a large attendance of the public, despite the unpleasantly moist nature of the ground. Notwithstanding the unfavorable weather which prevailed on Friday evening, the anniversary soiree of the Star of Otepopo Lodge, 1.0. G.T., passed off in a most satisfactory manner. Some disappointment was occasioned by the non-appearance of any member of the Grand Lodge. After all present had freely partaken of the good tilings provided, a public meeting was held, Bro. C. Beckingsale occupying the chair. Th,e Rev, Bro. J. Ryley delivered an address on temperance, and a number of vocal selections were given by the church choir and members of the Lodge. Those of our readers who are fond of eight-seeing should not fail to pay a visit to Thompson's Grand Confederate Dioroma, which opens to-night at 7.30 in the Volunteer Hall. Besides tke attraction of the Diorama, Lieutenant Herman ?yjll give his marvellous ventriloquial performance, sad a distribution of prizes offers an extra inducement to persons of a speculative turn of mind.

To-day's Daily Times says yery hard case has arisen in connection with the land sold some time back by Mr. J. S. Webb at Hillside township. A number of the purchasers have paid money or given acceptances for the full price of sections that it now appears are mortgaged to the Permanent Building Society. Some of the purchasers succeeded in getting titles, we believe, before Mr. Webb's departure, but others are left out in the cold, aad are liable to have the land sold over their heads by the mortgagees. Of course it may be said that these purchasers ought to have acted under legal advice, and to have seen that they were protected before paying any money or giving acceptances. But although ; this is true, we think it is also true that auctioneers should be careful to protect the interests of their buyers, and we hope the present example will have the effect of preventing any other instance of the same kind occurring. We cannot, of course, blame mortgagees for claiming their money before parting with their security, but certainly the purchasers should have betn duly notified of the mortgage at the time of the sale, We [ imagine the law as it stands is quite sufficient for the prevention of such disasters, if auctioneers only charge themselves with the responsibility of a proper search, and take the needful steps to procure a valid title before they part with the proceeds of the sale, thus acting temporarily as trustees for all persons concerned.

The whistling buoys now in use weigh about fifteen tons each : and in their plunging, even during calm weather, a force of nearly three-horse power is evolved. To utilise this waste energy, Mr. Edison has devised a •small dynamo machine to be carried by the ; bnov, the current from which will sustain an electric light equal to one gas jet. If successful, these self-illuminating buoys must be of great use to mariners.

Friday's Wellington Evening Post says "The Premier has addressed a letter to the chairman of the Local Industries Commission conveying the thanks of the Government for their valuable report, and intimating the "intention of Ministers to give due consideration to their recommendations during the recess. Amendments in the tariff ■mil be proposed during the present session; but with this exception, the Government do not anticipate being able to make any general proposal for giving effect immediately to those recommendations."

Cetewayo's detention in. his present confinement is, as we (Pall Mall Gazette) have more than once had occasion to say, an odious ihiquity, because the war which led to his capture was a piece of 'iniquity. The fact, however, that he is detained without legal authority is in conformity with a memorable precedent. He is exactly in the position of Napoleon before the passing of the Act of 1816, which legalised an imprisonment that was already a fail accompli. The difficulty of restoring Cetewayo to Zululand is obvious enough. It means, for one thing, a breach of the faith pledged to the cbiefsaniopgwhoni Cetewayo's kingdom was parcelled out. They refused, including' John Dunn, to have anything to do with the country if Cetev/ayo was to be let loose upon them. The present Government are noc responsible fpr tl)e original war, nor for the settlement which followed it ; but they are bound to press for Cetewayo's immediate release from his present condition, and from any narrow confinement.

A Sydney paper says : —There is a clerk in one of the banks in George-street who is sft. lOAin. in height and ojiiy weighs six stone avoirdupois weight. He possesses most extraordinary digestive powers, and can assimilate almost anything from Kidman's cheese to a Cambridge sausage. Queensland owns him. Sir J. D. Astley, Bart., having been applied to for his usual subscriptions to the Iyeadby regatta, has replied as follows : ''As the electors pf North Lincolnshire have shown their preference for Mr. Laycock, their late member prefers to keep his money in his pocket, and will not continue his subscription to the Keadby regatta." It appears that among the as-ets of the City of Glasgow Bank was a gold reef in the Indian mines, to which public attention has lately been directed, and it now appears that this " claim" has pvoved very rich; iudeed it is rumored that its product may possibly be of sufficient value to return a moiety of the Bank's debts, the payment of which utterly ruined so many previous well-to-do shareholders. But those (and much the larger number) who have failed or compounded with the liquidators will have no share in this windfall, \yhich will go to the very small number who have beon rich enough to weather the storm and retain their position on the roll.

American speculators have long had a reputation for occasionally resorting to manoeuvres of a peculiarly daring and ingenious character. A remarkable plot of this nature, for producing panic in Pacific Mail and mining shares, has recently been disclosed, and is described in a letter from San Francisco quoted by the Cologne Gazette. Not long a Chicago detective arrived ill San Francisco imd took into custody one Thos. Hollister, who was formerly a telegraph official, but who in more recent times has associated himself with the " operators" of the stock exchanges. It appears that it had been arranged that Hollister should sever the telegraph wires on an outlying point of the Sierra Nevada, near Battle Mountain, and attach to the eastern portion an isolated battery and appliances, which were subsequently found concealed among the brushwood in the vicinity. He would then have despatched the following message to the offices of the Press Association in Chicago:—"At 10 this morning a hugh fiood-wave from the sea swept over San Francisco, and in 10 minutes the cit}' was completely washed away. The flood is spreading inland, and the watir is 10 feet deep in Sacramento and Stockton. A fearful earthquake, the shock of which was felt most severely in Virginia City, occurred at the same time. The Comstock mines are completely shattered. Further particulars of the catastrophe are wanting." An untimely decline in Comstock shares caused the execution of the project- to be postponed, as it was of course intended to take effect during an upward movement of prices. Its discovery has deprived newspaper readers of a very sensational item of intelligence.

Colonel Gordon has asked the Bombay correspondent of the London Standard to publishthefollowing statement: —"My fixed desire is to persuade the Chinese not to go to war with Russia, both in their own interests aud for the sake of those of the world, especially those of England, In the event of war breaking out I cannot answer how I should act for the present, but I should ardently desire a speedy peace." Colonel Gordon was (the correspondent says) invited to China by Li-Hung Chang.

The Queen never loses an opportunity to be gracious to Americans. A current incident, byway of example, has been mentioned. Mrs. Osgood has received the royal command to sing at the next State concert. Now this lady hag a cjelicate organ, and she never runs the risk of appearing in a lpwrngcked dress. It was, there/ore, to her a matter of much personal anxiety when she was re* quested to sing at the royal concert. But in the midst of her many engagements the chance of taking cold impelled her to have her case mentioned to the Queen, about whose insistence upon strict Court dress a good deal has been written of late. The Queon returned the answer one might have expected fvojn sq genuine a woman and so great a Queen Let Mrs, Osgood cpme in the dress that will be most agreeable to her." " |

The Dunstan Times has reason to believe that the late member for Waikaia was a son of Admiral Ren-wick, and arrived in Melbourne in 1852, by the Great Britain. Sir Charles Clifford, speaking at a recent meeting in London, at which Mr. A. F. Halcombe lectured on "The Resources of New Zealand," mentioned that when he went to New Zealand he took with him two servants, who had not the proverbial halfcrown. In thirteen years' time they were worth L 40,000, Another gentleman who went out at the same time with L 150,000 died a pauper. Now they might ring the changes on that, and say that if anyone had brains and money they would do better in New Zealand than in England ; but if they had neither brains jior money they had better stay at home, where they would have the workhouse to fall back upon.

It is recorded (cays a Home paper) that among the persons returned to the Parliament of 1361 (35 Edward III.) were ."Marie, Countesse de NorfF; Alianor, Countesse de :GiTson4; PJiilippa, Countesse March; Agnes, Countesse de Fembrpok, and Catherine, Countesse de Atholl." In the preceding year also there had been writs tesjted at

Roynton, on April 5, issued to clivers earls,' bishops, and to four abbesses, requiring their attendance at Westminster on the morrow of the Trinity, for tlie purpose of treating cff an aid for the making the King's eldest son S knight, &c. It does not however, that any ladies ever actually took their geats in Parliament by virtue of these suin ; mouses; but there are numerous instances on record of both squires and knights having sat in the House of Lords in right of their wives.

A new sort of wheat, which is said to have. been discovered in Arkansas about two years since, is at present attracting the attention of farmers in the United States. It is called wheat-rice, and is supposed to have been originally brought to- America by emigrants from the South of Russia. The grain is said to be wellrounded and full, rather smaller than that of corn, yielding a fine white flour, which is more nutritious than either maize, oats, or. rye, and forms an especially good food for every kind of cattle. The stalk of the plant is described as being tall, stiff, and plentiful. One of the peculiar qualities of the new cereal, and one whigK makes it particularly suitable to certain soils, is that it will thrive in districts where other kinds of corn would die on account of the dryness of the land. It remains unaffected by 3, drought pf eight months. Its hardness is likewise shown by the fact that it resists the attaoka of almost every sort of inseot; and the cost of cultivation is much less than that of wheat, maize, or rye. On analysis, the new corn has been found to contain 4 per cent, more starch and 3 per cent, more oily matter than wheat; but, qn other hand, it possesses 2 per cent, less nutritive matter, and £ per cent, less water,