The Telephone. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1. Local and General.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 249, 1 October 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1. Local and General.

A Bull.—Whilst the question as to the advisability of committees being appointed to settle blocks of native land was being dis cussed in the Conference last night, Mr. Joyce opposed them, and asked those present to look nt the committees at Waerengo-a-hika in the good nld days when those committees held & mortem examination on a flow’s body before he was dead.

County Council.—Only three councillors turned up at the special meeting of the County Council called for last even: ;g, but as it was decided the business propo-ad was unnecessary, the meeting was adjourned sine die.

E. P. Cowen.—At the creditors meeting in the estate of E. P. Cowen it was agreed to accept a composition of 12s. in the £l, five shillings cash, and seven shillings in six months.

Payments.—The following accounts were passed for payment at the Harbor Board last nightW. L. Rees £lO 12s. 2d, refunded by Common & Co.; G. Humphreys, £l3 4s. 6d., horse box at wharf; U. 5.8., £7 45., passage for one delegate to Wellington ; Wharfinger, £6 ; J. Boland, £1 Bs.; Ludlow, gas-fittings, £7.

Annual Soiree.—The annual soiree and concert of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church is announced to take place in McFarlane’s Hall on Thursday (to-morrow) evening. Tea at 6.30; concert at 8 o’clock. In addition to our usual musical favorites Mrs. Jones, a former Poverty Bay vocalist, is to sing.

Fair Salary.—Writes the Nelson Mail:— “In our Wellington correspondent’s telegram yesterday an item appeared from the estimates to the effect that the salary of the Clerk of the R.M. Court in Nelson had been raised from £3OO to £325. This, we understand, is not an increase for the present holder of the appointment, who in a similar office at Westport was in receipt of £415 a year with a house free of rent.” Even the modest sum of £6 10s. per week ought to be fair remuneration for an R.M.’a Clerk in Sleepy Hollow. No wonder the Court fees had to be raised. There would be some excuse for paying such a salary in Gisborne.

Eucation.—Returns laid before the House of Representatives show that in the year 1883 theexpense per scholar in New Zealand for Education was £3 4s 6d, exclusive of the cost of school buildings, or, inclusive of this, £4 3s 3£d per head. In England in 1882-83 the cost per scholar was, for maintenance, £2 3s 9|d, while the New Zealand cost for the same purpose was £3 14s 9fd, or an excess over the English cost of £1 Ils o|d. In Queensland the average cost per scholar is £4 3s or with buildings £5 7s 81d ; in New South Wales it is £4 ss, or with ouildings £6 15s 9|d per head ; in Victoria £4 8s lOd and £5 3s 2d respectively ; and in South Australia, £4 4s 4fd and £4 19s 3|d. In New Zealand for precisely the same results the figures are £4 3s G|d and £5 5s 3d. In New York State, the cost of instruction is £3 18s per head, in Ma«sachusets £4 6s 2d, and in Califoraia £5 5s 34. Mr. Joyce in Trouble.—ln the Harbor Board meeting last night, Mr. Joyce whilst asking that his notice of motion re deepening the river be postponed, remark that he had noticed what he might call a frivolous and erroneous article, which appeared in a newspaper of the 27th instant, in reference to this question. He did not know what it pointed at, but the writer in his manner evidently tried to be sarcastic, implying that members were in the habit of going in for river improvements in pieference to harbor works. As far as he was concerned he was in favor of both harbor works and river improvements. He did not protest to the article, but it was frivolous and erroneous. Inconsiderate people might think that Mr. Joyce was a little “sarcastic” when he said he “didn't know what the article was pointing at ” and yet he was able to explain that it was erroneous. But then Mr. Joyce was in one of his “ funny ” moods.