LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 611, 23 May 1891, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

In this issue we publish a letter from His Worship the Mayor, on the subject of amalgamation. “X " also puts the case very strongly in favor of amalgamation, but unfortunately we haVe to hold the letter’oyer until Monday. “Truth” by resorting to personalities excludes himself from the discussion. We prefer to give the other side a monopoly of the personatllies liM&l

Gisborne has been getting wintry weather lately. Them was snow on the south-western ranges yesterday. There have been remarkably high tides in the Gisborne rivers during the past few days. On account of the preparations being made for the Ball there will be no rioking at the City Riok this evening,—Advt. The Standabd will be published on Monday next, instead of Tuesday, on account of the holiday. “ An aggregation of asses” is what one of our correspondents defines as the phrase which the Herald uses towards the leading men in the district. Mr Bright’s suggestion in regard to the amalgamation proposal is that the chief clerk’s salary be £3OO, second clerk £2OO, third clerk £lOO. Rev. H. T. Rohjons, 8.A., agent of the Bible Society, has passed the M.A. examination of the Sydney University. He did his studying while waiting at hotels and travelling by train and steamboat. It is said that efforts are being made to bring about a conference of masters and servants in all trades during the next session of Parliament. Mr Theodore Cooper has been making his mark in the important Edwards case. Mr Cooper is a man who has worked his way to the front, and now ranks among the highest in the New Zealand legal profession. A little goldfields rush has taken place at Cabbage Bay, near Coromandel, The Government have wired to Mr O'Hara Smith, stating that no charge will be made for the investigation into the Harbor and Borough accounts. In the Nuhaka district, beyond the Mahia, over two thousand acres of bush are to be fallen this year. The Opotiki natives, despite a big korero, are now offering to pick maize at 18s per acre. Owing to the holiday on Monday next the Building Society will meet on the following evening. A bookseller who went bankrupt in Auck land stated that to meet pressing accounts he had to raise loans at 60 per cent 1 Monday next will be observed as a close holiday. At the post office a delivery of letters will taka place over the counter at 8 a.m. The telegraph office will be open from 9 a.m. till 10 a.m. and 7 till 8 p.m.

A native woman named Rebecca Hakiwai was fined on Thursday last 10s for being drunk and disorderly, and ordered to pay the oab hire, 2s. The British Empire Stables have been taken over by Mr Donald McKenzie. The naw proprietor has had a great deal of experience among horses, is well-known to be a thoroughly reliable man, and has long been a respected resident in the district. He intends to apply himself energetically to the work, so as to gain the patronage of the public. He will be well entitled to support in his new venture.

The Queen’s Birthday race meeting takes place on the Waerenga-a-hika Jockey Club’s course on Monday next. Should the weather keep fine, it is expected that there will be a large attendance of the racing public, as the acceptances are the best the Club have ever received for their winter meeting, and as this is the last opportunity raoe-horse owners will have of making their nags pay for their winter’s feed, some exciting finishes may be anticipated.

A late telegram from Yalparaiso states :— Another engagement has taken place between the Government troops and the rebels, the former being routed, The battle raged fiercely for five hours, the fight being of the most desperate character, Commander Roubles, who led the Government forces, gallantly fought every inch of the ground until he was shot down. His body was afterwards hacked to pieces by some of the rebel soldiers. President Balmaoeda has made a proposal to the rebel leaders that each side should exchange the prisoners captured since the outbreak of the revolution. The recent defeat has had the effect of totally demoralising the Government troops, and they are likely to join the insurgents. Only three civil eases came on for hearing by Mr Booth on Thursday, and they were all wages cases. Another of the MoOredie cases, arising through the flaxmill at Tologa, came on. J. Lough, a straightforward looking and strong young fellow, sued Matthew MoCredie for |£l7 13s 5.1, for wages; Mr Watson for plaintiff, and Mr Finn for defendant, Mr Finn wanted an adjournment, and plaintiff objected, but after the case had gene on Lough got contused as to the particulars and an adjournment had to be applied for on his behalf. The case was then set down for June 18. Duncan Campbell sued J- Melnt osh, contractor, for £4 12s wages; Mr Jones for plaintiff. The plaintiff swore that he bad made no arrangement with Mclntosh, while the latter swore that he had agreed to work for 15s a week, which he had previously got from Mr R. Finlay. Judgment was given for 30a, less 3s 6d contras. G. Meek, who had been employed on the same work, sued Mclntosh for £4 12s; Mr Jones for plaintiff. Judgment was given for the full amount, less contras acknowledged. A judgment summons, James Erskine v. J. W. Reardon (Mr Jones for plaintiff, and Mr Day for defendant), was adjourned to June 18. The report of the Board appointed to inquire as to the leakage in the South Australian Telegraph Department has been dealt with by the Government, and four operators have been dismissed. One operator last year bought and sold £40,000 worth of stock. One instance of leakage ot important messages was as follows:-On the 6th March last Mr Horrocks telegraphed from Hobart, to Mr Irwin, of Adelaide: "Buy quickly to-morrow any part of 10,000 Adelaides, best under 13s. Struck immense carbonate lode; bulk assay, 6000z5." This was a bogus telegram sent iu pursuance of an arrangement previously proposed by Horrocks by letter to Irwin, under date March 3, and was intended as a test of the secrecy of the telegraph office. For a couple of months previously little had been doing in this stock, the price ruling to 7s. Mr Irwin did not receive the telegram till late on the following morning, but on the evening of the 6th Herbert Fisher, in the telegraph department, operated largely in these shares. The contents of the telegram had been known to two operators, Bradshaw and Madderforde. Fisher admitted that he had made a purchase of shares for another, but failed to give the name of his principal,

There was not a great deal of business on at the Court on Thursday, but a couple of wages cases had a special interest in themselves. In the first case the defendant interjected some very rough remarks at the expense of the plaintiff, He had not, he said, wind enough to blow a candle out, though the plaintiff stated that he had worked from daylight to dark. The plaintiff said the man could not wheel a barrow. " Not even an empty one, I suppose?’ adroitly put in counsel for the other side, who seemed to contemplate with serene satisfaction the way the witness weakened his testimony by drawing so much from the regions of improbability. “ No, not even an empty barrow,” he replied, and everyone laughed. He had called plaintiff an old cow, and be had left. Defendant father gave himself away when he tried to set up a weekly hiring, for the solicitor immediately took advantage of it (when he saw full wages would not be allowed), tn seek payment in full for a week which had been broken, aad also to get contras struck out In the next case the tables were changed as between the two main parties, for the plaintiff, who was Meek in name but seemingly dauntless in nature, let the defendant have it ss strong as the latitude allowed would permit him, and he not only obtained wbat he claimed, but he got in some sharp homethrusts that ought to enable bis mate to cry " quits ” for the way he had been handled,