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Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3147, 20 March 1879, Page 2

A Misiuijsa-ojkdhe JJnion Cricket Club will be held tKis evening at ; Mr Lawless' at 8 p.m. "*$ consider the^ pjfoppsai of sending a team to

The monthly meeting of the Lodge Sir Walter Scott will be held this evening at the usual hour. .. ; . :r

I We direct attention to an advertisement in another column of the Open Lodge meeting of the Star of Thames -Lodge, I^6CG.J?.| to be held thisf evening./ The ißev. Mr vTones, o!f Wellington, a speaker of great ability and power, will deliver an address. His limited stay here has necessitated the meeting being got up at a very Bhort notice, but we trust notwithstanding that there will be a large attendance of the public generally.

An interesting was,made at the Content Scljoid on noon by i% yoijag^lady/pugils tO'Sister 1 Gabriel, to commemorate the conclusion of the rev. mother's fifth year of convent life on the Thames. The gift was a handsome/ [music, stand, [ manufactured by Mr F. Dann, and was subscribed for entirely by the scholars. One of the elder girls made the.prepe,ntation| and Sister Gabriel responded' in feeling terms. '

The following are the amounts of the several tenders; .for the: second' section (Shortland contract) of the Reclamation Works:—Hart and Horn, £8425 19s 4d ; O'Brien, £8400; J. Britton, £12,730; Souter and Co., £12,900; R. N. Smith, £10,948; Adams, £13,500; Ferguson,

The efficient manner in which the Fire Brigades worked this morning called forth complimentary remarks from many persons present at the fire. This appreciation of their exertions has taken a practical form, in a manner very much needed at present by tliQ: brigades, by Mr Richards of the Grahams^wn lintel, and MrEatterson, grocer, Owen Street; each gentleman handing to Mr Price £1, as a subscription to the funds. We may say that the balance of the brigade's bank account is very small, and'liberality like that shown by the above mentioned gentlemen would be very acceptable.

rp ,£Hi|Qlldm»gj«re the.salaries paid by rail. €fatebor . jßojteaVfa.. *etuH <o£ which His Worship the Mayor asked for at last night's meeting : — John Cdrtwright, for turning out gas on wharf, Is per day; Thomas Arnold, for collecting—tolls t aL Grahamstown Wharf, 3s 4d per day ; do. light-keeper at Tararu, 6s per day; O. tartest, magazine-keeper, £25 per year; •. d. ©ekV Harbor Master, £175 jjeryear; A. Peterson, light-keeper and boatman, £102 per year; E. Hughes, boat* man, £96 per year.

The benefit performance tendered by the Grahamstown Fire Brigade to the Kaitangata Relief Fund is advertised to be held on Wednesday evening next. We have not yet seen the programme, but we hear that Mr J. McLiver, who some years ago delighted Thames audiences with his Negro and Dutch delineations, will be one of the perforates.

The grounds for the dismissal of Mr Jackson the Chief Surveyor of the Wellington province were a series of charges brought against him by Mr J. T. Thomson, Surveyor-General, which may be briefly summarised : 1. That contrary to orders he had put all his surveys on magnetic or approximate magnetic meridian, instead of on true meridian. 2. That he encouraged insubordination among assistants by upholding them in setting aside the more essential principles of their general instructions, viz., true meridian, and methods of record and reduction. 3. That he ignored instructions for keeping office records, maps, &c. 4. That he neglected to prepare index maps showing records of alienation; and generally neglected to attend to the system of topographicalplans. The Commissioners appointed to investigat3 the charges found that in the main they were proved, although with reference to the office work they considered Mr Jackson had not been allowed an efficient staff capable of grappling with the work demanded of him. The whole case of trouble, we suspect, is . the feeling of jealousy occasioned by Mr Thompson's elevation from Provincial Surveyor of Otago over the heads of all the other Provincial Surveyors of the colony. According to the report of the Commissioners, Mr Jackson's faults have arisen out of a spirit of insubordination, which by example he extended to his assistants. He is an officer of long standing and of good reputation as a surveyor, but he has apparently continued to resent the supervision placed over him in the appointment of a Surveyor General. Following upon the report of the Commissioners, the Government informed Mr Jackson that he must resign to save himself from dismissal; but on condition of his resignation, an allowance of twelve months' salary, £600 would be made. We quote the correspondence which followed, and which we have received by telegraph. Mr Jackson wrote : "To have been requested in considerate terms to send in my resignation, I should have regarded as a hard judgment, even though tempered by the proposed" allowance of a

year's salary, because I conscientiously believ« it cpuld not hare been borne out by the evidence; but to be threatened with the alternative of dismissal if I fail to resign is, I submit, neither usual nor courteous, and my length service ought to have protected me from such treatrifeat. Under the circumstances, therefore, poor and friendless as I may be myself, respect forbids me to pocket a money consideration accompanied by a cruel indignity, and I am therefore obliged to decline to relieve those who have the power to* dismiss me from any portion of the responsibility of the act. — (Signed) Henby Jackson. — Auckland Star. „,...,.-.