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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 906, 5 January 1881, Page 4

The Post Offices at Matawhero and Whakato have been closed since the 31st of Dec. The settling night in connection with the sports at Makaraka will take place at the Roseland Hotel, on next Friday evening. Messrs. Bourke and Smith will sell by auction at their Mart, to-morrow, fruit, furniture, &c. In Texas there is a township called Gin, and in it a town called Brandy, and the name of the Post Office is Rummy. No State could ask for anything more spirituous. Mr. W. B. Flood, the well-known pianoforte tuner of Napier, will arrive in Gisborne on Sunday next. Orders can be left at the Standard office. The next English Mail via ’Frisco is due in Auckland on Monday next. The next homeward mail will leave Gisborne on Saturday, 29tli January.

Messrs. F. J. Moss and W. F. O’Sullivan intimate in the Government Gazette that they have sold their interest in the firm of Moss, Raine, and Co. to Mr. W. S. Raine, who will in future carry on the business. The Government notify in a recent Gazette that as a sitting of the Native Land Court will shortly be held in Gisborne, it is desirable that applicants should forward their claims to the Native Land Court Office as soon as possible.

Miss Aimee Thornton’s complimentary benefit will take place on Saturday evening next, in McFarlane’s Hall. Several lady and gentlemen amateurs have consented to assist, and active preparations are being made to make the entertainment both a financial and social success. We trust the fair beneficiare will be rewarded with a bumper house. How’s this for funny ? We take it from last night’s Herald: “ A spring cart, a female, named Alton who was driving came in contact with a dray, when the former was capsized.” We wonder of what gender the dray was ; if masculine, it was very naughty behaviour on the part of the spring cart. The foregoing is in good company with something to be found in the Dog Registration Act. The marginal note giving the substance of the 16th section, says it is a “ penalty on owners of dogs attacking persons or frightening horses.”

From our Napier exchanges we learn of the death of Mr. Edwin Carter, settler of Wairoa, on the 27th of December last, after a short illness of three days. The deceased gentleman was much respected, and his sudden death cast quite an universal gloom over the community amongst whom he had resided for upwards of 20 years. The particular cause of his death has not yet reached us. Mr. Carter held some valuable properties in the Wairoa County, the principal of them, we believe, were at Opoiti, some distance to the north of Te Kapu, on the road to Gisborne. He was a Justice of the Peace for the Colony; and was living in retirement on means he had accumulated since his arrival in the Colony. Mr. Carter, therefore, leaves his wife and family in independent circumstances.

During Mr. Thornton’s stay in Gisborne he has turned his powers as a scenic artiste to some account, having painted a small drop scene for the Masonic Hall, and is now engaged in painting an Act drop for McFarlane’s Hall, which, we believe, will be in readiness for Miss 'Thornton’s benefit night. Mr. Thornton decorated the whole of the Theatre Royal, Auckland, and the principal portion of the Imperial Opera House, Wellington, recently burnt down ; and those who have seen the taste and skill displayed therein, can gauge the merits of the artist who executed them.

We have to acknowledge the courtesy of Mr. R. C. Harding, the well-known printer of Napier, in forwarding a copy of his new Almanac for 1881. This is only the second year of publication, but it is an epitome of almost everything required to be hurredly referred to in ordinary circumstances. It is at once, a diary, year book, local guide, and directory, and the matter and spaces appertaining to each are so well arranged as to make their use, items of great convenience. The calendar appears in triplicate—in English, Scandanavian, and Maori, and is full of interesting memorabilia. The volume is well supplied with advertisements ; and the letter press is a credit to the enterprise of the proprietor.