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Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2827, 7 March 1878, Page 2

The Harbor Board held a meeting last night which lasted nearly three hours. The discussions were of a very desultory character, but relieved once by a brilliant scintillation of wit. Maxwell's wharf was the topic of talk, and the want of courtesy shown by Maxwell in not replying to the Board's communications. The chairman said he had seen Maxwell, who told him he had written a letter but had placed it on the mantlepicce and forgot to send it; which, a member said, looked like " shelving " the matter. The members laughed, and the reporters awoke.

At the usual meeting of the Waste Lands Board held on Tuesday an application was' received from Mr William Odium (says the Herald) for land in the Onetai Block, Thames, on the deferred payment system. Applicant to bo informed that the land is not waste lands of the Crown.

Mil AITKKN, dispenser to tUo Thatnus Hospital, hns lvccivi'il from Mr VValsli Hie sum of £1, being the amount of a disputed bet.

His Worship the Mayor hns received the sum of £50 from the Auckland Insu ranee Offices, bring the annual contribution of ihoso bodies towards the maintenance of the Borough Fire Brigades.

A public meeting in connection with the flLanios brunch of the Auckland Scripture Gift and Prize Association will be held at the Congregational Church this evening, when prizes will bo distributed and addresses delivered by ministers and others.

A pnACTiCAii joke was played on a well known medico the other night. Mr had been married, and hod arrived with his bride by a late steamer. The couple were received by some friends and proceeded at once to indulge in a little festivity becoming the occasion. One of the company, imbued with a spirit of mischief, proceeded to the doctor's residence and informed him that Mr -— was dangerously ill, and required his assistance. The'doctor mounted his horse and rode away, and was soon at the residence of his expected patient, whom he found with glass in hand responding to the toast of " the bride and bridegroom " instead of being sick unto death. The doctor was about the only one who didn't appreciate the joke.

The officers of No. 2 HauraH Eifles have invited the various volunteer companies to join them in a Church parade on Sunday next to the Congregational Church, the respected minister of which —tho liev. It. Laishley—has been elected chaplain to No. 2 Company.

A Press Agency telegram of the 3rd instant, from Dunedin, says : At 2 o'clock on the afternoon of the 3rd inst., a girl named Bella Bell, while gathering firewood near the Kail way station, Blueskin, found a box, with a label on the lid, on which was written in large letters the following words:—" If you find my motherless darling, I pray, for Jesus' sake, bury it in the true Catholic way." The girl imtrediately reported the matter to the constable stationed in the district, and on going to the place he found a soap box: as described- It was tied systematically with small twine, and on opening it the constable found the body of a male child apparently eight or tan days old, in a perfect state. No mark of violence was on the body, and the child was dressed in a neat and respectable manner. It is supposed that the body was left there by a passenger by the evening train on Sunday.

The Town and Country Journal of the 23rd ulfc. says : We understand that Mr W. H. Lock arrived here from Melbourne within the past few weeks for the purpose of taking to England, with the permission of the Government, Win, Creswick, now in Paramatta Lunatic Asylum, who is supposed to be the veritable Arthur Orton. With a view of carrying out this object, Mr Lock is posessed of a power of attorney from Chester Orton, the brother of the lunatic Arthur, otherwise Creßwell, of whom he caused portraits to be taken some months ago, and forwarded to England. This resulted in placing at his disposal the sworn testimony of fcrty or fifty persons verifying him as the Orton whose name obtained so much notoriety in connection with thj celebrated Tichborne case. It appears that Mrs Jury, who was here, and visited the lunatic in the company of Mr Lock, identified Orton as being the person wanted. Mr Lock is at present staying at Eckford's Hotel.

Insertion lias been reqaested for the following, baring reference to an article published in Tuesday's Star from Vanity Fair, entitled " A Horrible Affair." The extract is from The Banner of Truth, a Sydney denominational publication :—lt is thirty years since I knew Governor Grey in Jamaica, and I cannot find that there has been any ' Governor Gray' since then. I believe that was Sir Charles Grey, and that no 'Sir William Gray' has ever governed that island. Then there was no • Reformatory,' nor have I heard of one since. Such an establishment was not needed, nor likely to be. JNTo Baptist clergymen was erer made Superintendent of such a place in Jamaica, nor are Government Institutions so left to themselves that negligence so marked could so long be unreported. Nor is the 'tick' tho insect described, but the * chiftoo flea.' Any boys in a Reformatory would soon free themselves of such things without reference to the Superintendent, and no surgeons would amputate the limbs of boys in a Reformatory oue after another without reporting to the authorities. Such a result from the chigoe flea may just be possible, but I doubt if there were an instance. The idea is absurd ! That in a Reformatory containing dCD bojs any could be shackled in cells and 'forgotten' for three days is just as preposterous. Were there no wardens, teachers, masters, or matrons P Is everything left to the ' Baptist Clergyman ?' Then a number of these worst and wildest of boys ' outside with knives,' with only one warden 1 Why, (he lot would hare taken to their heels without cariug a moment for neighbors' gardens. That they did not this is proof enough that the whole tale is untrue. Beside this, Jamaica is the last spot on earth where Baptist Clergymen would have a chance of any Government appointment whatever. Yftt, admitting tho most improbable possibility, by what means could one boy in every firr—-80 out of 400— have been handed to tho surgeon to undergo amputation? How could all the authorities have beeu so hoodwinked as to let such things go on P And how would such an affair have been referred to Lord Carnarvon ? Is it usual to write a Despatch on a single case for local administration ? What has the Colonial Secretary to do with such matters P There may, indeed, be a Reformatory now, but I much question it; and I am certain our English papers would have noticed the subject if there had bern any case at all resembling this."