The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, SEPT. 27, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 27 September 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, SEPT. 27, 1880.

The nomination of candidates for the vacant sent in the Municipal Council took place in Mr. Hardy's office to-day. Messrs. John M'Combe and William M'lntosh having been duly proposed and seconded, a poll will be necessary, which will .take place on Friday next, the Ist of October.

The dust that was wafted about the town during to-day indicated that it is time that the Council commenced watering operations. There is noiv uc iaufc of water—nor will there be, so long as the race is kept in good order and the Waitaki exists—ami it »'o;jld greatly improve our water supply if the pipes were cleared out occasionally by drawing off water. There would be a double advantage therefore—the duct would be laid, and the water would be improved in quality. Since writing the above we have becu informed that the Water Works Committee have instructed the officer in charge of the Water Works to provide hydrant stands and hoses to lay the dust in Thames, Tees, and Itchenstreets during the prevailing warm winds. An experimental one was triod zt St. Luke's corner to-day, and appeared to be suitable for t};e purpose.

The first esse heard in Oamaru of loading a vessel below the icacl-line, otherwise known as a breach of the Plimsoil 4-ct. came before the Resident Magistrate's Court tp-day. Wiliiani Cross, master of the Isabella Pratt, was charged with having committed a breach of the Shipping and Seamen's Act, 1577, by loading his vessel so as to submerge the centre disc marked upon her side to indicate the maximum load-line. The Collector of Customs prosecuted. The defendant pleaded guilty. Evidence having been taken in support of the charge, his Worship discharged the defendant with 3 caution.

Captain Edwin predicts as follows :—Bad weather is approaching between north-west and west and south. The glass will rise within eicrht hours.

The total Customs duties collected in Oarn.iru last week readied L 317 Is 3d.

Ti:? usual monthly meeting of the Waiareka Road Board will be held in ihe offices. Tvne-strcet, to-rnGrrow, at one o'clock.

The sailing of the s.s. Grafton for the North and West Coast ports, announced for to-uay. has been indefinitely postponed. The Grafton is bar-bound at Greymouth.

The meeting cf the North Otago Rifle Association ha 3 been postponed till Friday, Ist October next.

The Oamani Volunteers held their first Church Parade yesterday, and the gathering was highly successful in every respect. There was a good muster, and everything {xwsed off quietly and unostentatiously, as befitted the occasion. The parade state was a3 follows : —Staff: 1 major and 1 drill instructor. Artillery: 1 captain, 1 lieutenant, - "> sergeants, 1 trumpeter, 20 gunners ; total, 2S. Rifles: 1 captain, 1 lieutenant, 1 sublieutenant, 5 sergeants, 26 rank and file; ictal, 34. Rifles Band: 1 bandmaster, 1 band sergeant, 21 bandsmen ; total, 23. Citizen Cadets: 1 captain, 1 lieutenant, 3 sergeants, 23 ra.uk and file; total, 30. Prior to the companies falling .2, the Baud played D in a highly creditable manner cij the old cricket ground Mendelssohn's "March of I, the Priests" from Athalic," Mozart's 0 " Sanetaa " and "Benedictns" (12th Mass), and Haydn J 3 "Gloria" (Imperial Mass). s The first named piece was particularly well e performed, but the higU wind blowing tended somewhat to mar the effej-'t of the music. The several corps having been formed * up, the whole marched to the Presbyterian 5 Church, headed by the Band, playing hymns 3 from jSankey's collection, arranged as J marches, and including " The Home over 1 there,** "Come to the Saviour," &c. At the Church the Artillery in«J Cadets took up : their position on the right of the centre aisle ' and the Rifles and Band on the left. Tin; ' whole service bore special appropriateness to she occasion. The Rev. A. B. Todd took ; for hia text the 15th ver?e of the 17th chapter of Kxodus: "And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah- • nisai j" that is, the Lord my Banner. The rev. gentleman thereof based a sermon dealing with the war between the Israelites under Joshua and the Amalekites that led to building of the altar, and contrasted this : TEfar with those of modern times. With few exceptions, the wars of modern times were dictated by s, jisgire for conquest, acquisition of territory, or tiifi glory of arms. The fight between the Israelites and the Amalekites, on the contrary, for tiw sacred purpose of self - preservation and seif-.lefciicc. Thus he showed the strong affinity between the Israelite army under : Joshua and the YoltiuL:ers of modern times, i It was for the holy purp&ii of defending their hearths and homes that the Volunteers ' of the fatherland had been brought into j existence, stvl it was with this object that . the movement had spread to this Colony. : He showed that the maintenance of the , principle of self-preservation was in harmony ] ■with the grand principles of Christianity, j and the Volunteer movement was therefore ] deserving of support and encouragement, t The organising and training of yonth bad a £ strong tendency to create a patriotic fueling, c wad under its auspices the rose, thistle, and t shamrock might be entwined together as the £ I .national badge. The rev. gentleman was t .highly eloquqqfc .daring the greater portion a

of his sermon. At the close of the service, the Volunteers were formed np again, and, headed by the band playing " We are inarching on," specially arranged for the occasion, marched down Thames-street'to Wansbeckstreet, the Rifles and Cadets .attending the Artillery to the gnn-\shed. They marched back to the Post-office, when they were dismissed.

At the Resident Magistrate's Court today, before T. W. Parker, Esq., K.M., Andrew Cassels and Hector Beaton were fined 5s each, with the alternative of 24 hours' imprisonment, for having been drunk and disorderly. James Kelly, who appeared for the 49th time, was fined L 5, with the alternative of 14 days' imprisonment.

There was a large attendance at the sale of the Agricultural Company's land at Gore on Saturday. Township sections, quarteracres, from L2O to Ll3O ; agricultural laud from IjIO to Lls per acre. The bidding was spirited.

The Postmaster-General has given notice to a country postmaster, who performs his duties gratuitously, that his salary is to be reduced 10 per cent. ! We are not surprised at this, for in the case of Dr. Pollen's pension, the Ministry floterpiinsd that, though no salary was paid him, he was in receipt of a salary of LSOO a year !—Echo.

The Dominion Government has, according to the Ottawa Herald, all but completed negotiations with an English syndicate for the formation of a compan3 r with a capital of L2Q,000,000 to construct the whole of the Pacific railway, a land subsidy of 50,000,000 acres being granted to the company. They manage public works better in Canada than we do in this Colony.

The numbers of working men who left for Australia by the Hero and Wakitipu, last wepk, says a Wellington paper, took with them, in the aggregate, a large amount of capital. During the ea-ly part qf the week there was quite a " run" upon the Post Office Savings Bank, and the number of L3O, L4O, and LoO deposits withdrawn in so short a period was wholly unprecedented. It is estimated that a Burr? between LIO.OOQ and L 15,000 has been taken from Wellington in this manner, and is now on its way to Aus? tralia.

"Anyone coming from New Zealand cannot but be struck with the awful amount of

misery and distress prevailing here. At first one's sight is dazed by the beautiful appearance the pity presents, the glare and glitter of the streets, the gorgeous display in the shop windows, and the lavish abundance • f amusements offered every evening ; but' after some of the novelty has worn off, and one has opportunity to look beneath the surface, it is soon seen that side by side, P.rid itnderh ing appearances of great luxury and wealth, is a vast amount of destitution." — Melbourne correspondent of the N.Z. Times.

r pays ; "A party of surveyors laying out some Grown land %yere supplied with their beef and mutton by the nearest squa'ter. After a time the meat supplied was of a quality so inferior that one of the narty resolved to seek an interview with Mr. Broada/;res and lay his complaint before him. Now Mr. 8., v/liq was a magistrate of pompous manner, and who, by a pertain loftiness of demeanour overawed his neighr bors, heard the plaintive surveyor to the end and then proceeded to annihilate him. 'Sir, I supply beef - the same as I use myself,' and then, as if with the warmth of growing indignation, 'and, fellow, do you kuow to whom you are speaking ?' 'Well, of course, I may be wrong,' said the young surveyor, 'but I take you to be our camp butcher/ "

/ivgle.3, in the Australasian, writes : Mistress Nelly 0 , who has spent most of hc-i' days on a station where the patricians of ilie ilocks and liertl3 are knpwi; by aristocratic names, visited Ballarat last week during the champion sheep show. A friend who had not seen her for years, ancl who was good-naturedly anxious to parade some rJ the amusements of the golden city, asked permission to soncl her tickets for the concert that evening at the Acadejny of Music. By way of further inducement he said, "You will see the Duke of Manchester there. 1 ' " Oh, indeed," said she, "I heard they w.ont- to the railway station to meet him, and afterwards brought him to the cattle-yards ; but how will they get h f jn} oil stage ? Will they rope him, or handle him, or what ?" " Rope him," said her friend, in astonishment, " why should a man be roped to go to a concert" Man !" said the lady, "is it only a man? Faith, they made so much talk about hii#, I thought he was

the j>ri;<e merino i" The various crops throughout the county of Ashburtoij hav§ been greatly benefited by the splendid rain of Sunday Pi'ght lasfc. Op all sides the crops have b;en the one universal topic throughout the week, and the long-wished for rain having fortunately come at the right time, the farming prospects are, even at this early stage, extremely promising. More rain is, uQvj'ever, urgently required on some lands, in order to tj;,c late-sown crops have a good start, and to bring the grass well forward for hay,—On tlje Plains the wheat lands look remarkably well, and in some places never looked better at this period of the year. In the Longbeach district the crops are also looking very well, and a large acreage has boon sown jn wheat this season.—ln the Upper Aehburton and Methven district there are to be seen some excellent crops of wheat. Some large areas are tinder crop in these districts. "Unfortunately, the heavy north-west wind cania at £ tip}e when some hundreds of acres were just sown, and, in cor.sequence, several farmers have suffered more or legs, through having the soil blown off. The danjage done, however, is not so serious ag if the wipd had come on late in the season, beoauge other crops can now be put in.—l/yttelfcou Times. The following from the Lyttelton Times wili tie #f interest to floriculturists :—On Saturday morning f spent a couple of hours in the bulb garden of Massfg. Adams and Son, Gloucester-street east, and had it b.ejeg possible, I would have passed the whole day there. I had received a kindly intimation that the hyacinths were in bloom ; and now, io everyone who can appreciate the rare beauties of flower forms, their rich harmonies of color, and their infinite variety of delicate odour 3, I pass on the intimation that " the hyacinths are in bloom,'- This j bulb growing, by the way, has developed j itself in a manner that was not anticipated. At first, the work was all up-hill, all giving and no taking, and it was disheartening accordingly. Of the many parcels of bulbs procured from England and elsewhere, a big per centage proved, on arrival, to be worthless. But there w.ere more ventures, with different modes of packing, and at the present time New Zealand bids fair to become a nursery ground for other countries. The tide has turned already, and ' parpels of gladioli and hyacinths have now been for? warded to one of the leading English -firms, some of the specimens sent Home measuring

over three inches acrosa. The same firm is also desirous of securing specimens of the seedlings raised here : and it is pretty certain that-some of these will command a large amount of , admiration" amongst. JEnglish florists.

Those who live in the country, and. some who live in towns, know that, the instructions to boundary-riders, especially in the lambing season, include an injunction to poison (that is, make bait of) every dead animal they come across, from a bullock to a bandicoot. • On the Lachlan, when the native dogs were more than usually "destructive, the boundary-rider was sent out in search of the station cook, two days missing, and last seen at a shanty, celebrated for the power of its strong waters. Very soon Sam rode back to the overseer and informed him that he had found old Callaghan, stretched out on one of the bends of the creek. " Good heavens !" said the alarmed overseer, "is he dead?" "No fear," said "or else I'd have stopped to poison him."—" iEgles" in the Australasian.

One of the most remarkable phenomena ever seen in the metropolis was witnessed yesterday evening by the passengers on the George Peabody river steamer, just as Big Ben of Westminster was on the point of striking 7. This was the appearance of a huge white elephant in the sky, making straight, as it seemed, for the Houses of Parliament. There was some little doubt at first as to the precise character of the heast as it charged thrqugh the air head first in a direct lino for the centre of Westminster Palace, as though its purpose were to sweep away the halls and passages which connect the Commons House with the House of Lords. The apparition rapidly decended through the air, and speculations were hazarded as to what it was. Men looked up . and trembled, while timid women screamed "T|]e end of the world is come, and we are all lost !" The captain of the George Peabody kindly moored his boat to the pier to give those who desired it the chance of escaping- by way of Lambeth Palace, In q.n the \yfts close u|ian the boat, and n chorus of startled voices shouted, "A white elephant!" There was no longer any doubt about the fact. It was an elephant, whose trunk was rapidly moving frotn side to side. With furious speed it passed-over the stern of the George Peabody, and dashed into the Thames. The spectators breathed' more freely. As soon as the elephant touched the water, half a (Jqgeu boats from tho pier to investigate the phenomenon. One oarsman was far in advance of the others. He was seen to thrust a hand towards the struggling monster, ancl in an ingtaflt it collapsed—it was a gisrantio elephant made of laths and paper.—London Evening Standard, July 23.