The Herald. Alexandra, Thursday, August 20, 1903

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 380, 20 August 1903, Page 4

The Herald. Alexandra, Thursday, August 20, 1903

The Alexandra Brass Band will play a number of selections in front of the town ball on Saturday evening; The County Council contract for repairs to the Clyde water race has been let to Messrs M'Connocbie and Gye. THE N.S.W., Government has decided to appoint a Royal Commissioner to inquire into the alarming decrease in the birth rate. • The licensed victuallers of the colony propose raising £4O, 00 to be used as a fighting fund at the next general election. Feebk. Courteney was sentenced to a month's imprisonment for using obscene language while playing in a football match at Oamaru. i The attention of our readers is directed to the alteration in the advertisement of the American School of Correspondence, appearing in this issue. The new king of servia has received endless begging letters and other communications from strangers, including one from an American millionaire offering his daughter in marriage. Thf mail coach from Opunake to Eltham was washed down the Mangawhere Kiver, on Thursday last, and the driver (Eidd) and two horses were drowned, and the coach and mails lost. Parties are out searching for the body and mails. Sevgai fedgs «f tfife tatttt k&vt been recovered «

By advertisement elsewhere in this issue it will be seen that the Vincent County Council intends, at the next ordinary meeting, to make a general rate of four fathings in the £. * Mr Pbdersoh, of Denmark, who has been appointed one of the Government's butter experts, is to receive a salaiy of £4OO a year A similar salary, will be paid to a cheese expert whom the Government is getting from Canada. The performance intended to have been given in the Alexandra town hall to-morrow (Friday) evening, by the Clyde Dramatic Club, has been postponed till Friday 4th September, so as to avoid clashing with tbe Dredgemen's Social at Eamscleugh. A consignment of 47 new books for the Alexandra Public Library arrived at the latter end of last week and are now being issued to subscribers. The volumes include many leading works of fiction, and the addition to the library will doubtless be appreciated by subscribers. Messrs M'Kechnie and Fleming have com - pleted their contract of laying the malleable iron pipes, connecting the reservoir with the mains, in connection with the Alexandra

water works, and tbe pipes will be tested under pressure as soon as water is available. The race has been" frozen up for a week or two past. A lecture on "William Makepeace Thackeray" was given in the Alexandra schoolhouse on Tuesday evening by the Rev. J. A. Hosking, before a fairly large audience. Tho lecturer, dealt with the subject in an extremely interesting and able manner, and, at the close, he was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.

Mr Charees T. Batkin, formerly Assistant Controller and Auditor-Generalj shot himself with a revolver at Wellington last Thursday night and died shortly afterwards. Deceased had been seriously ill for some months past, and was suffering from a painful malady. He had retired from the Civil Service on a pension, and was in his eightyfirst year. Theke resides in Dunedin a man who has lived 46 years in the same house, and worked all the time for the one employer. During that time (says " Taieri Advocate ") he has buried two wives, two mothers-in-law, one father-in-law, two sons, one brother-in-law, and one niece, all of whom died in his house. There were celebrated in the same house eight marriages and one golden wedding during that time. "As this township is just over the border of the Ashburton prohibition area," writes the Chertsey correspondent of the " Lyttleton Times," " it is quite common to see a few come here by express, and go back again by the evening train to Ashburton. The express crosses at Rakaia, giving people time to quench their thirst and take a bottle home with them. Chertsey has only lately sprung into a town of note. Red Light—Danger! We'd better |ook out When we see such an ominous sign: That peril's ahead, there isn't much doubt. Perhaps its a slip on the line. We feel just the same when we get a bad cough, Out safety we haste to secure, By buying the stuff that will soon shake it off. , .') : Some-- r Woods' Great Peppermint Cure.. Says the " Cromwell Argus ": —Mr Charles Clark had a severe experience last week. He and his sister were up among the snow on Mt. Pisa picking up dead rabbits, when the girl began to fall over a precipice. Clark seized her and got her into safety, then, losing his balance, fell over himself on to some rocks below with suoh force as to break his pelvis, and to receive a large open wound in the groin. The girl went home for assistance, and after a while returned with her father-in-law, Mr A Brown, and they did what they could tor the sufferer and then left him alone among the hills, going to Mt. Pisa Station for assistance. A relief party set put and brought tfce sufferer down, the journey taking eight hours, the injured man being Carried on a stretcher. ,Thej accident happened on Friday afternoon, and rlarke spent hours on the hill alone and wounded, and did not get to the station till Saturday morning. He sewed up the wound in bis body by piercing the skin with the tongue of a buckle and drawing the edges together with bootlaces. Clarke served his time in the Grenadier Guards and is in the Colony on a nine months' furlough. He is now in the Hospital and is expected to recover from the accident and tbe exposure.