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Dunstan Times, Issue 516, 8 March 1872, Page 2

Wo are requested to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of 10/. 8s 6d, being the net proceeds of the Dunstan Band of Hope entertainment in aid of the Church of England Parsonage Fund. The 25th instant is the day fixed for the election of School Committees at Cromwell and Arrow. In the Provincial Government Gazette of Feb. 23, it is notified that Sec. 22, Beg. 12 of the Gold Fields Buies and Regulations, imposing a rent of five shillings per annum for every head of water, is revoked, and that the whole of Regulation 23—relating to sleeping shareholders, is also revoked. At the Meeting of the Waste Lands Board held on the 28th nit. Mr. Howorth, for Mr. John Richards, applied to purchase an acre of land at Bannockburn, and on which his house and premises are situate. The application was agreed to price, 51 ; the land to be surveyed by the district surveyor at the applicant's expense, and survey approved by the Board. ' By advertisement appearing in another column, it will be seen that -the Clyde School committee arc prepared to receive tenders for the erection of a new schoolhouse. The plans and specifications received from Dunedin are designed for a roomy and substantial edifice, which will be sufficient for the requirements of this district for many years to come. From the • number of lads and lasses who seem to be i getting a lengthened holiday at present, the | sooner the building is commenced the better.

The usual monthly subscription night of the Gold-fields’ Building Society is advertised for Mondaynext the 11th instant. It is satisfactory, to recoijl that this young society flourishes, and its permanent success is now well assured. All preliminary difficulties have been, safely tided over, and good investments are found for the constantly accruing funds. We are informed that the clear profit realised on the first six mouths’ transactions, exceeds’ the anticipations of the originators of the society, At the fast meeting of Directors, the resignation of Vincent Pyke, Esq., on his leaving the district, was accepted, and'a vote of thanks was recorder! forhis untiring efforts ilithe promotion of the Society. Mr. John Honywill was elected in his stead. A smart earthquake shock was experienced in Clyde and vicinity on Wednesday afternoon last, 2. 53 p.m. Its course was south west and north east. The Star Comique Troupe gave one ot their entertainments in the Town Hall, Clyde, on Wednesday evening last to an appreciative, but limited audience. The singing of Mr. Clark, a gentleman who possesses a most excellent tenor voice, was warmly received, as was also the negro delineation business of Mr. Kelly. Mr. Barry O'Neil, as the Haw Haw swell was a very gcoff get up, and Professor ‘Saunbers’ accompaniment and solos on the harp were a treat; this gentleman appears a master of his instrument, and his playing must be considered as above the aveiaga. As a whole the Company is a [good one and deserving of support. Wo particularly draw attention to the advertisement, which appears in another column, giving notice -of a Ball to take place at Black’s, on the loth instant, on behalf of the funds of the Black’s school. We learn from a Parliamentary paper, that there were on the Ist July, 1871, 2,349 Crown Grants .ready for uplifting in Otago, and 2,537 ; still to be made out. Another paper states the number of grants ready for uplifting is 2,326, and upon which is due 2,042/.[l4s 7d for grants, and 1,216/. Is Id for custody, making a total of 3,523/. 15s Bd. Dr. Gray, an eminent Oxford physical! 1 has just been writing on the popular subject of smoking, the moderate use of which he approves of“To quiet nervousjunrest, to soothe a ruffled temper, to favor cal.,; and impartial thought so steady and clear (not to cloud) a confused, overworked brain, to counteract the effects, of physical exhaustion,” these he says are just the things which tobacco doog and if it can effect these ends safely and pleasantly, who shall deny it aplace among God’s good gifts to men T The Australasian of Fib. 17, says—“lt will be remembered that some time ago, an ingenious dodge known as the Carpet and Shoddy swindle was expo*ed. It was managed in this way—A well dressed person of good address sails upon a small storekeeper, represents himself as traveller for some commercial house, and producing samples, engages to execute a large order for a valuable carpet at a ruinously low price, while he is paid at an exorbitant rate for parcels of shoddy goods he happens l?to have in his buggy. Of course the commercial bouse will! [which he is connected is a myth, and the retail dealer never reaps the advantage of the fine j bargain he thinks he has made in the carpet transaction. From the Southland Times we take the following extract from a letter dated 25th Dec., 1871, andscntlya gentlemen at one of the South Sea-Islands to a friend',in Sydney:— “Dcba”— that island has’a bait name The natives will chase a vessel if it is calm and fight her. In fact all the islands arc getbad for the treatment inflicted by labor vessels is truly frightful. One man told me himself that he had landed and tried to burn down a village it would not burn (it was after rain), so bo went on board, got some kerosene, then burnt and plundered it Ho brought here some kind of idol with human beads upon it. Another captain of a vessel also told me lie asisted to burn the village. Every ship can tell talcs of braggart villany, which, if true, ought to hang some one. Canoes are run down and the people taken from them. A cutter of 15 or 18 tons, now here witldbuhvarks only ten inches high has forty-two natives on board, about thirty-five ot them for sale—children boys and girls, seven years, aigbt and nine years old up to grown men and women! It is horrible and should bo stopped. I hope a man-of-war will soon bo here to see about it.”

An important experiment was tried at the Melbourne Butts, in the presence of several scientific experts, and two members of the ministry, to determine the relative powers of the new explosive dynamite and ordinary blasting powder. Three quarters of an ounce of Hall's blasting powder was placed on a slab below a 3211) shot, and exploded. The result was that the ball was thrown up to a height of C feet. The same quantity of dynamite was then placed under the ball, and exploded by a cap at the cad of the fuse. The result was that the ball was thrown to a height of about a 1000 feet, and was ten seconds in the air before it reached the ground again. The charge of dynamite was then increased to one ounce, when the ball was sent still higher, an d was thirteen seconds int’the air. The next experiment wag with an ounce and a quarter of dynamite, when the shot was thrown so high that it was fourteen and a half seconds before it fell, and when it did fall it buried itself a foot deep in the earth, and was so hot as not to he easily handled- The dynamite was supplied by Messrs. Reynolds and English It is probable that these experiments, will be supplemented by others to show the relative explosive forces of the different powders in a confined space. It is claimed for the dynamite that it is not only more powerful, hut much safer than common powder, for, when sot alight by any other moans than the percussion cap, it burns slowly p.rd haimless away.

At Greymouth, the other day, Mr. Fox \ said that that town bid fair to be the metropolis of the gold-fields of the Middle Island, The Wanganui //eraW," referring to Mr. Fox’s toilr, says he is engaged in “ making any number of promises which he will never fulfil” liftelligenee was rrceieved by the Alhambra that the Chinaman, Kee Chang, who succeeded in duping certain gold-buyers at Orepuki a few weeks ago has been apprehended in Newcastle (N.S.W.), whither it will be remembered be succeeded in starting lor when ho made good his escape from New Zealand. On leaving this colony it would appear that the good fortune which attended Chang in his late adventure entirely deserted him The banker's draft he carried away has been intercepted, so that after all the fraud will not fall so heavily on the victims of his duplicity as atone time is threatened to do. Another bit of bad luck has befallen Chang in a peculiarity of the law of the place to which he proceeded in his flight. According to the statute book the offence with which he is charged is defined to be a misdemeanor, and strange to say in no other part of Australia than New South Wales conld Chang have been arrested. By the word arreet, we Southland Times mean of course for an offence committed outside of that colony. Unless the tide takes an expected turn in Chang’s favor, he may be expected back in a few days to]»peak for himself. A Canterbury runbolder has been': compelled to drive 10,000 sheep a distance of 100 miles in consequence of a fire destroying one of his runs. He ia'Vfortunate man to have a second run to take them to. ' The Whirlwind, arrived from Hong Kong to-day 28th_February and added 350 to our Chinese population it is reported that another vessel was loading at Hong Kong for Otago when she left. The death rate'in Christchurch and the suburbs, among infants is alarmingly high, and in one day last week as many as thirteen burials were recorded. From all accounts the epidemic answers to that known in England as choleraic diarrheea. The Ecening'-Slar says: — '‘Consequent on the intended holding of a circuit ofjtho Supreme Court at Lawrence, Sub-Inspector Thompson will proceed there next week to take charge of the district and Sergeant Millard, now at Lawrence will be transferred and become oflicer-iu-eharge of the Dunedin depot. Mr Thompson, during hu residence in Dunedin has proved himself to he a thoroughly efficient and zealous offieer and wo have little doubt that he will earn equally good opinions in his new sphere of action as he obtained for himself here. We lesrn that a fire occurred at the farm of Mr.„Hugh]Glass at Black’s, whereby a large stack_of straw, containing about 70 tons, was consumed, together witli a part of a threshing machine. Tho_circunistaiiccs | are—For the purpose of cLaring away a j lot of rubbish outside the stock-yard, it I was fired, and .the wind rising; suddenly, | carried the flames to the stack consumed. Upon the first alarm assistance from the | neighboring'Janns was soon on.the ground, andbydiitof great exertions, and at no slight personal risk the tire was prevented spreading, and some two thousand bushels of threshed oats, the threshing machine, and a lot of other valuable proper'y was saved. Mr. Glass’s loss is estimated at over ISO/. 'This warning againsQligliting fires in close contiguity to stack-yards and homesteads we hope will have its effect.