GOSSIPPY NOTES.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 156, 15 January 1878, Page 2

GOSSIPPY NOTES.

(FROM OUR TIMARU GOSSIP.)

New Years-eve vv*as observed here in the usual manner, i.e., half seriously and properly, ana 1 half in the larrikin style. Midnight serfices were held in the English and Roman Cftholic Churches, and the usual number.<?f bells were rung and gates wrenched!off. The firing of a salute at midnight," by the artillery, was, I think, the worst feature of the observance. This proceeding very much disturbed, and in some casos utterly destroyed the rest of some of. our citizens. The patients in. the Hospital were very much annoyed, by it. I am sure that if our gallant defenders understood that to many to fcleep, well is-happiness,

and quiet rest is health restoring* they would not again offend in this manner. The usual sports took place in various ' places on New Years-day. It is often > remarked that our seasonsfollow and resemble in a singular manner those experienced by our antipodes. It may interest some of your readers to knowthat one of the most eminent of Britieh scientific men, Professor Piazzi Smith r has* recently pointed out that times of greatest cold and heat follow each other closely,, and at regular intervals. The summer of 1868 was remarkably hot and it was proceeded by a late and severe winter in 1867~ The winter of 1877-8 in Europe, it is pre-' dieted, will be very severe indeed, and the summer of 1879 will be exceptionally hot—hotter even, it is calculated, that '68; when people as they walked the streets in New York dropped dead from sunstroke. The- Mackenzie Country and the neighbourhood of Mount Cook will, I believe,, in future years be a favorite resort of our tourists. I hear of two parties being madeup to visit the glaciers and to obtain, sketches. Another.party of three that I hear of will start early next month, and will endavour to find their way from theback of the Muller glacier to tbe head of the Haast River, and so down to the coast. I can't see any advantage to be gained by them in undertaking this trip ; it can onljr be made to satisfy the true British love of novelty and adventure, and the desire todo something that has not been either attempted or done before. In spite of tbe alleged depression in. business, our tradesmen and merchants can still find money to build with, and I must say that our architects exhibit good taste, too, in their designs. Messrs Miles, Archer, and Co., are erecting a fine block of officesarid stores for themselves, in Strathallanstreet; a large flour mill is now in course of erection at the east end of North-streefr-and an extensive flour and saw mill will be soon commenced in Gray-street,. for Mr James Bmce, of Waimate. I hear of several other buildings that will shortly be put in hand. To meet the demand for bricks caused by all this building, one ot our largest brick makers intends to build a. German kiln, as, under the old style, he isunable to keep pace with the orders hereceives ; he has at present nearly twenty handß employed, and sometimes four hugekilns going at one and the same time. It is rumoured that the Commission who sat upon designs for a breakwater here* tendin to bring forward a plan of their own—one with all the best points of thosesubmitted, and without what they consider as faults. Query: Who will sit on the commission's pi an ?