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Dunstan Times, Issue 654, 30 October 1874, Page 2

The Pneumatic dredge got up steam yesterday, and Commence sinking this day. Members, of the Clyde Cricket Club are requested to attend practice to morrow, (Saturday) afternoon. The usual monthly meeting of the Committee of Management of the Dunstan District Hospital will be held on Monday evenin', the 2nd proximo. Members are requested to attend early. Mr Fache, auctioneer, requests us to draw attention to the sale of freehold Section of land to morrow ; also, to the sale of the Salamander steam dredge on Wednesday the 4th proximo. The Cromwell Jockey Chib have fixed upon Tuesday and Wednesday, December ,28th and 2!)fch as the date of their next Annual Meeting, and resolved upon 1400 being Ihe amount of stakes to be competed for.

In consequence of (he absence of W. L. Simpson, Eaq., Warden and R.M., at the Teviot on the inquest of Morrison, Tov n Clerk, Roxburgh, who committed sncide on Monday morning hast bv banging, there was no business transacted yesterday in the local Courts.

The yield of gold of the Shotover Ten-ace Company tor the past fortnight amounted to 3.10z 15gr,. the work during that period having been principally confined to fresh timbering the ground. A constable yesterday whilst drresting three men on suspicion of stealing some bottles o f spirits, and rifling the till of the bar of the Port Philip Hotel, was attacked by one of the ruffians and somewhat severely handled, he however succeeded in capturing In's assailant and a mate, and lodged them safely in the Clyde lock-np ; the third man during the fracas made good Ms esoane. but as his dc.s wintion is well known his run will not be hj n;. Attention is specia’ly directed to the very excellent programme put forth (see advertisement.) for the entertainment in aid of the Dunstan District Hospital to take place on Wednesday the llth of next month in the Town Hall, Clyde. Apart from the benevolent intention sought to be attained, the programme is sufficient to draw a crowded house. The Alexandra Darkey Minstrels make their first appearance on Clyde on the occasion. The Tasmanian papers complain of the departure of large numbers of young men from that island to the other colonies, and c pecially to New Zealand. Measles continue to be very prevalent in Dunedin, We hear that no less than seven members of one family have been simnlta-neou-ly attacked by the disease.—Daily Times.

Major Gordon, the Inspector of Gener.il Government Stores and Property arrived in Clyde last evening per coach, and we believe inspected the various Offices. We do not know if he stamped the broad arrow on all the rulers, penholders, pencils and the other tools of trade used by ourresident officials as he is reported to have done in other places ; if so, he must have spent a most pleasant evening. This morning he proceeded by coach to Queenstown via Cromwell.

The Tnapeka Times says that a large number of cattle and sheep are already falling victims to the poisonous tutu, which is now growing rapidly. In ordinary seasons this plant causes the death of a large number of cattle, and owing to the scarcity of grass this spring the animals devour this tutu eagerly, making the losses proportionately large. From the news received by the steamer Hero, from Sydney, according to the latest acvices from the Palmer gold-fields, the miners are leaving in hundreds, ynd that a famine is feared next winter, unless the Government open up communication. Bookmaking must pay. The Melbourne Herald says :—“ Mr Joseph Thompson, the bookmaker, is building a superb mansion in Albert-street, a little past the Hon. J. G. Francis’s. Mr Thompson’s house is nearly finished, and will cost altogether, with its furniture and the price of the land, probably not less than 1,20,000. The place is of very elegant architecture, stuccoed, with iron verandah and balcony in front, of airy design. It is built close to the road, with an iron palPading and gates, hearing the inscription ' Don Juan House,’ named after the great racer with which Mr Thompson made such a coup last year.” We wonder how many of the betting public outside " the ring” have been able to build mansions worth L 20,000 out of their profits.

The police made another raid, yesterday, | on the cows rambling within the town and took them to the pound. Last week we drew attention to the first impounding, and advised tbe employment of a herd-boy to Veep them out of damage, we repeat the advice.

The Dunedin Guardian is {responsible for the following“ The vacancy in the Provincial Council caused by the resignation of Mr Robert Clarke, has been filled up. The only candidate nominated was Mr Manders, who consequently was declared “ duly elected ”as member for the Arrow District.”'

The following is a fuller account of the election of a candidate to represent the Wakat'p district, which we extract from the Wakatip Mail: —l ‘ Saturday last, at the hour of noon, in the Court-house, was fixed fqr the nomination of a candidate for the vacant seat in the Provincial Council. The procet dings were of an uninteresting character. At one minute after twelve o’clock returning officer, Mr Bcetham, R.M., made the usual statement concerning the necessity of duly electing a member. The attendance was limited. Mr A. M‘Bride said he had great pleasure in again proposing Mr H. Manders as a fit and proper person to till the office of Provincial Councillor for the Lakes’ District; Mr John Boyle was equally happy in having the honor to second the proposal. No other candidate being proposed, the Returning Officer duly declared Mr Manders elected, who, in return, congratulated Mr Beetham upon having presided over so peaceable and quiet an election, and pioposed the usual vote of thanks. Just as the proceedings had terminated, there was a rush to the hustings by Mr Cope and his supporters, but, as that gentleman afterwards explained at Mr Manders’ meeting at Arrow town, ‘they arrived just a minute too late, having gone by mistake to the Town Hall, where a municipal nomination was proceeding.’ The rush ‘ too late ’ however caused a good deal of amusement and chaff amongst the crowd, which had increase 1 outride.”

The Mount Ida Chronicle reports the hearing of Ihe charge against R. M. Rollinsbaw for an attempted suicide. Mr Rowlatt watched the ease for the accused. After a careful hearing, the accused was discharged, but required to enter into recognisances to keep the peace for six months, himself in LIOO, and two sureties in LSO each.

The Queenstown correspondent to the Daily Times telegraphs as follows The The American Tnnsit-of-Venus expedition has arrived here, numbering seven, under the leadership of Professor Peters and Lieutenant Pass. They have begun to make their camp out. They will have a telegraph line in connection with the local station, to he in constant communication with the British Expedition at Christchurch.—There are two candidates for the seat in the Provincial Council—Mr Manders and Mr Cope. It is said that Mr Cope will have a very good show. One of the most popular preachers in London just now is the Rev. Donald Fraser, who preaches in a Presbyterian chapel in Berkeley-street, just off the Bdgewareroad. His style and manner arc far move like an Italian’s than a Scot's, and he uses a great amount of action, Sometimes he says a good thing with a real dry Scotch humor. For instance, iu a recent sermon he said, “ I wish to inform yon that there are pickpockets present. I have not the smallest objection to their being present, and I hope what they will hear will do them good. Only I may as well tell them that the eye of Providence is upon them, and that there are policemen in the gallevy.” Our horticultural readers will be interested in heaving that a Nelson gentleman, MrLightband has discovered a remedy for the blight on fruit trees. From the “ Colonist ” we learn that for a long time Mr Lightband’s trees suffered considerably from both scaly and American blight, and he tried many so-called remedies, but without success. At length, however, he hit upon a plan by which he has cucceeded iu eradicating the disease entirely. For the American blight he found that by grafting an apple tree with another species of the same fruit (slips from trees bearing an early dessert and a late apple being used as grafts) - the blight was completely destroyed. The grafting process only applies to the American disease, hut MrLightband happily discovered an equally good cure tor the scaly blight. Ho states that he dissolved one pound of caustic soda in a gallon of water and applied the mixture to the diseased trees with a syringe on a fine winter s day. The trees so treated are now clean and healthy, the scaly blight having diaappeared, at least for this season, and should it re-appeav next year, the remedy can easily be (re-applied. Mr Lightband desires us to state that he will be happy to show the trees to any person interested, and give a full explanation. We were informed by the Mayor and Councillor Hazlett on their return from Dunedin a few weeks ago, that the Government had promised to send to Clyde some of the newly arrived immigrants; since then however, we have heard nothing further, and it appears that the promise is not likely to be kept. A suggestion was made to us the other day by a gentleman, who has some knowledge of the art of Governmental rope-pulling, which we think worthy the consideration of our Mayor and Council It is, —That on the arrival of the next immigrant ship, the Mayor should be deputed to wait on the Superintendent in Dunedin, represent to him the great scarcity of labor in the district, and ask for an order to go lect a certain number and guarantee their sate delivery at Clyde—the Government as a matter of course paying their expenses of transit, and as this could be done by means o r wag.>on, that item would be very inronaideranle. The suggestion is doubtless an excellent one, and as we before said, well worthy the consideration ot the Tows Coun cil.at its next meeting.

A moat unfortunate exchange of property occurred at Plea&nt Ci-eet recently, as a consequence of the joviality of two resi dents of that district. They had been spending the day at Stawell, in the transaction of business, and, when evening came, passed a few hours in social intercourse. The night was far advanced when they left the hotel they had chosen as a rendezvous and, when they mounted their horses at the door, the horses were more intelligent than their masters, who, as they parted, allowed their steeds to choose the read. The nags were used to Ibis work, and one cantered off towards Great Western, while the other trotted soberly on towards another out-lying centre of settlement. Unfortunately, in the dark each had mounted the other’s horse, and, when tie spouse of Mr B rose on hearing the wellknown sound of old Surefor .’s hoof, and went to admit her husband, she found a stranger. Her trouble was in no way lessened when she found that A was unable to er.pla.in, and in fact fell fast asleep in a chair as soon as he entered the house. Meanwhile B fared even worse. He jogged along on his friend’s pony until he reached the latter's residence, and pulled up in due course before the door. Mrs A, however, as a lady of spirit, felt it incumbent upon her to punish drunkenness in her spouse, and before her supposed husband had time to notice that he was in a strange country she belabored him soundly with a stout switch. He roared lustily, and became almost sober by the time that his assailant discover! d her mistake, and mingled her apologies with inquiries for her missing lord. Messrs A and B have since arranged that they will never again ride horses of the same color when coming to Stawell to spend the evening.

We are informed that the day of depar. ture of the Northern Gold field*’ Escort from Clyde is altered from the first Monday to the third Monday in each month ; and that the next Escort will not be despatched till Monday the IGth November. The controlling powers in this matter doubtless have valid and strong reasons for the change, b it being entirely in the dark as to these reasons we cannot venture an opinion upon them. However, we think it would have 1- en only considerate had the gold producers, or at any rate the Banks through whose hands the whole of the gold passes, p ior to the change. The question is, will it interfere with the arrangements of the business men of. the Northern Districts !o keep locked up and perfectly useless for trade, or speculative purposes 4000 or SCOO ounces of gold, representing a money value of nearly L 20.000. for a whole fortnight ? If it will not, we can only say they are a very great deal better off than they have credit for, snd must conclude that the croak ings of dull times and shortness of money we have heard for the past year or two were without foundation. We (Guardian) have been favored w'dh a view of an interesting letter from Captain Vo well, of the ship Undine, dated Foochow, August 12, 1874, whence, by permission, we make the following extract: —“ We got here on the 81st July, after the most mi. serable passage I ever had, as master, to comment upon. We had very bad weather ontheN.Z. coast. On the 12th June the boat that won the race was smashed to pieces on the davits, and lost her altogether oii the IGth. A new link put into the foretopsail tye at Port Chalmers broke, and carried away both topsail yards, and one of the crew, who was on the upper yard at the time, was lost overboard and drowned On the 29th June two of the crew knocked me down on deck, kicked and jumped upon me, and as nearly killed me as possible, whilst another one threatened to knock the mate’s brains out with an iron belaying pin if he interfered. 1 had to bring the three on in irons ; and one has got four months, with hard labor, another two months, and the third man ten days, in addition to the 32 days’ imprisonment on board. The not having hands enough to work the ship detained me seven or eight days on the passage. As I anticipated, we were too la'e for the first teas, and we are now loading with second teas at L 3 per ton, the detention in Dunedin making a dead loss to the ship of LI2O, as we should have got L 4 if we had been here on the 2nd July. The Chinamen were a very good lot, giving no trouble. I sent them down in the Douglas steamer, to Hong Kong on 2nd August.’’ The weather continues remarkably changeable for the time of year, bitter cold frosty nights and sunshiny days with hot scorching winds, the effect of which no doubt will be a, scant harvest. The fruit gardens as a rule present a doleful appearance, the show of apples, with but rare exceptions, being very bad, while as to stone fruits the crop will he light—this in a measure may be accounted for by the abundant crops last season, as it is rare for heavy yields two successive years, the weather however, will have a gre at deal to do with the coming bad crop. The eclipse of the moon on Sunday evening last was seen for about a quarter of an hour only, and then was but partial. On Thursday afternoon (yesterday) the sun was surrounded by a large ring similar to which may be seen frequently encircling the moon. What this unusual appearance portends we cannot say, the weatherwise, however, say a continuance of stormy broken weather. It will be as well for hotel-keepers to make themselves acquainted with the Licensing Act, as on the Ist of December next, applications for Licenses, transfer and renewal of Licenses will be considered. All notices require to be in the bands of the Clerk of the Licensing Court twenb « one clear days before the Ist of December. A medical officer in Christchurch has of» ficially announced to the Templar Lodge With which he is connected that some of the syrups ho had tested, and known as “ teetotal drinks,” contain preparations of opium to a considerable extent, am that indulgence in two or three wine glasses of snob although it did no f produce in toxica# tion, certainly induced sleep or stupor.

The Evening Star says, Mr J. C. Brown, M.H.R., is about to visit the Palmer diggings. '/ The Invercargill correspondent of tbs Bruce Herald says : —“ Constable Boyd, stationed at Winton, was brought into the Hospital on Wednesday last, having been severely bruised on the previous evening by being thrown from his horse near to the township of Winton. The occasion of his mishap was a very singular one, and exceeding difficult of explanation. Shortly after seven o’clock in the evening, the night being dark and squally, Constable Boyd, travelling towards Winton, and being close to the Meat Preserving Works, observed the outline of a man among the tussocks on the roadside, and shortly after passing him the discharge of a gun from the spot caused the constable’s horse to jump from the road into the drain at the side, when immediately a second shot was fired, at which the horse again plunged and got out, but not without throwing his rider, who was much shaken and bruised, and ultimately, with great difficulty, made his way to the township. No clue is held to the discovery of the man who fired the shots, and no motive can be assigned for the act. The constable is going on very well, and will probably soon get round.”

Judges d : ffer. Our telegrams inform us that an appeal from a decision of the Resident Magistrate of Wellington upon the question of the right to levy tolls upon conveyances carrying Her Majesty’s mails, has been decided in favor of the appellant, the Court holding that the Legislature holds all persons conveying mails free from toll. The decision is entirely opposed to that given not long ago by Mr Justice Richmond in a similar case—the difference be : ng that in the latter question hinged upon the right of a protected ferryman to charge toll upon a mail coach, whilst the former relates to the right to levy toll by a toll contractor upon a public highway. It may be that this is a distinction of some importance—at any rate, it would be well if some short statute were enacted to settle the question at once and » forever.—Grey River trgus. *