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Dunstan Times, Issue 941, 30 April 1880, Page 2

The bridge across the Manuherikia, at Blacks, being now completed, the County authorities have but three bridges on hand, the works in connretion with which are being pushed ahead. The Alexandra bridge contractors (Messrs. Drummy and Co.) are making the most of the fine weather, and are doing grandly—one pier is completed to the roadway, and with the other good headway is being made. Clyde bridge, tire moorings are all laid, and the pier on the east bank is being built Hawea bridge, the structure is so far completed that the stretching of the wires This completes the list of bridges on hand ; the ones shortly to follow we .expect will be Lawder creek, on the main Dunedin road : Earnscleugh, on the road from Clyde bridge to Butcher’s gully, and last but not least connecting the east and west banks of the Clutha above Cromwell

Dr Lemon, Superintendent of N. Z. Telegraphs, accompanied by Mr Logan, Inspector for Otago, passed through Clyde on Friday last e?i route for Lawrence. If the trip was an official one, by the rate they ran through the country—as they left Queenstown that morning, and reached Teviot the same evening—they must have been emulating the other Governmental big whigs, who wiffiin the past'few mouths have been doing Otago. We notice by our exchanges that the price for wheat, barley, and oats are pretty even throughout the country. The prices quoted being, wheat, 3s lOd to 4s ; barley, 4s 6d to 5s ; oats, 2s 6d to 3s 6d per bushel. With these prices and good crops, wo do not think the farmers have cause to complain.

The Rev. Mr Ash left the district on Saturday lost for Dunedin, -where we understand he intends to make his head quarters for a time at least. The rev. gentleman informed us that before settling down again he purposes making a tour of the country lecturing, and that in about five or six weeks he will be again in the locality after having visited Invercargill, Riverton, Lakes and Cromwell. We have received the second number of “ New South Wales Stamp Collectors’ Magazine.” To philatelists or collectors of postage stamps, the number before us contains interesting information. The publishing price being only 2d per number or Gd the month it should secure a large circulation. The publishers are Buckley, Bluusum and Co., 6 Bligh-streot, Sydney. The report for the year ending Slat December, 1879 of the Benevolent Institution, Dunedin, in so far as the prospect of its ability to continue its usefulness is anything but satisfactory. The transactions of the past year shew an increase in the expenditure of nearly LSOO above receipts, while again in the receipts fur the year is the sum of L 1724 subsidy on Carnival, therefore, basing the expenditure the same as last year the receipts will require to be L2OOO more this year than last To place funds at tbe disposal of the Committee it is proposed to hold a monster Bazaar and Bruce Auction, by which means a considerable sum, it is thought, will be raised. As the up country districts do not, as a rule, contribute very heavily to the Institution the present is a good time to make up for past omissions. We (Mount Ida Chronicle) understand that a special meeting of the Mauiototo Council has been called for the 30th instant to consider the advisability of a conference being held between the Maniototo and Vincent County Councils on the subjects of the Otago Central Railway and the Land question.

We are requested to draw the attention of farmers and others to the advertisement “ Acorns for Sale.” As the obtaining of sound locally grown seed is not always possible, and as the present is the proper season for sewing forest tree seed, the opportunity should not be allowed to slip. We are specially requested to draw attention to the fact that the opening of the new bridge across the Manuhorikia, at Blacks, will take place on Monday, the 10th May, when we believe that a demonstration of a very pleasurable description will take place. On Saturday the Bth May next,' Mr Geo. Faohe will dispose of by public auction, the whole of the remaining stock of Mr William Auckland, of Clyde, who has definitely determined to relinquish business. (See advertisement).

The thirty-seventh half-yearly meeting of the Bank of New Zealand was held on Friday last the 23rd inst. The net profit for the half-year ending 31st March, ISSO, amounts to L 97,1 St, 3s 9d, available for division. A dividend of ter, per cent, was declared, and bonus of 5s per share—equal to five per cent.

A severe shock of earthquake, was felt 1 here yesterday morning, at about half past ol two o’clock, We have to particularly a notice that in this instance tho direction t( was nearly east 'and west. In all former b instances the direction has been different. hj Captain W. J. Barry informs the Tuapoka Times that he purposes delivering a Lecture in Lawrence when on his way back to R Cromwell I The interest attaching to the scene of the * Dewar’s murder remains unabated. Tea- ® terday the premises were visited by a large number of people who were perhaps attraded there in consequence of seeing a well-known photographer taking a picture of the room in which the murder was committed. He was probably doing this at the , instance of the police.—Daily Times. ‘ A Hokitika resident has got himself un- ( wittingly into a very queer predicament. ( The local Times says :-“He is, or was secretary to a company which was registered under the Joint Block Companies Act. That company once possessed property of ‘ varied descriptions, but it has long ago gone the way of all companies. It is, in • fact, defunct. The secretary omitted to take the name of tho company in question off the register, and thought no more about it until a day or two ago, when he received an intimation from Wellington that ho was fined LSO a day, and that the fine was still running on, and, like Tennyson’s brook, was likely to go on for ever. It appears that the Argus eyes of some Property Tax Commissioner discovered tho name of the departed company on the register, and ‘ dropped on ’ tho secretary in the manner already related. It remains to be seen whether the Government can recover the fine, but ‘ we trust not.’ Failing the money, will the sinniug secretary be scut to gaol during the pleasure of Her Most Gracious Majesty ? ” A tragical affair happened at Little river, Banks Peninsula, on the 21st instant. A 1 married woman, with a child five years old, 1 aud another servant named Annie M ‘Con- : nis, were in one of the bedrooms together ! at Mr Buchanan’s house, when the latter ' took up a loaded revolver lying on the table and presented it at the child, saying, “ Will I shoot you ?" Thereupon the weapon • exploded. The ball went through the • child’s head, and after lingering till 7p. in. ■ it died. 5 W r riling of the recent trial for murder in 1 Dunedin, the Lyttelton Times says . “Under the circumstances the verdict of ' ‘Not Guilty’ is the only rational conclusion for twelve reasonable men to have y come to. The judge, in sentencing Butler 5 for the burglary at Stamper’s, told him that the verdict in the murder case did not a relieve him from suspicion, though it was f a very proper verdict in accordance with 3 the evidence. That opinion is entitled to « great weight, coming from a man who pre- • sided at the trial with the nicest impartiality, aud summed up the evidence with luminous and remarkably unbiassed prei cision, as anyone can see who takes the :- trouble to read the reports of the trial.” - Commenting on Butler’s sentence for i- burglary, our contemporary says : - “It is n 1 well that a man of his stamp has been shut 0 up for a period of eighteen years. Tho man r is a hardened relapsed criminal, convicted of y burglary, certainly guilty of arson, who bad i, refused honest work, who had been arrested with a revolver and much ammunition in f his possession, against whom it was deposed that since his arrest burglaiies had to a great extent ceased in Dunedin, at a time when the must trivial complaints were, in consequence of tho terror spread by the murder of the Dewars, constantly made to the police. Quite apart from all suspicions arising out of the murder case, the protection of society required in bis case an exceptional sentence. In Judge Williams, But- ’ ler has met with a just judge aud society ’ an efficient protector. ig Now that it has been shown that fresh meat can be brought from Australia to the 6 ° ■ Homo country, “ Anglo-Australian ” suggests that New Zealand should go in largely for the exportation of rabbits, and , says—“lf rabbits could be exported to sell in this market at sixpence eacti, there can be no doubt that a roaring trade might be carried on. If, however, it should ho deemed unprofitable to export rabbits in 1 idio carcase, then labbit-skins might be a sent with every chance of finding a good y market, for it appears that some Belgian y skin-dressers have discovered a way of dressing rabbit-skins that makes them undistiuguishable from seal-skins. Perhaps, therefore, as this process will render the skin of more value than tho body it covers, it will be as well to export both body and skin, as it will be strange if fortune does not attend upon the double venture. Better thau all, however, would be the knowledge of the secret by which rabbitskins can be made to represent seal skins, enterprising men in Now Zealand might n then manufacture on their own account. Perhaps the Belgian skiu-dressers might be disposed to sell it for a consideration. It J ‘ is asserted in proof of this discovery that >r 10,900 rabbits were sold the other day upon 3 ’ the London market without their skins, aud that the skins were despatched to i- Belgium.”

.dEgles in the Australasian has the following “ A visitor to the western end of the Queensland and New South Wales boundary was attracted hy the moro than ordinarily intelligent look of a horseman travelling from that sister colony whose more remote inhabitants are distinguished by the title of “ Pigwecder.” The wayfarer was gradually drawn into conversation, with this result: —“No, I have never been to Melbourne ; have heard that it is a very big place—bigger than Hay or Deniliquin. —I was near going to Melbourne once, only the sheep was turned back at Deniliquin. Yes, I’ve heal'd of London : it’s a big place, too. ‘cause they says that the streets gets blocked with poo pie. Can’t swallow that quite, for I never saw the streets of Wilcannia block ed. —Anyway, if you want my opinion,

1 reckon Melbourne, for size, packs the lot of’em, London and all.” And he gently cantered off to the Mulga scrub, with a tomahawk, to cut a waddy to cudgel tbs black boy, who was late bringing up the horses—whistling the while “ Nancy Lee ” (considered quite new in those parts). A telegram from Christchurch says : Scab has broken out among sheep on Mr B. Jones’s run on the south side of the Rivers Hope and Waiau, caused by the sheep crossing the river from northern aide, Mr R. Foster, sheep inspector, recommended last year in his report on sheep in Amuri district, that the run on the North side should be fenced to effectually prevent sheep from crossing, and that the sheep should be killed as soon as possible. These instructions were not acted on, the result being that the sheep have crossed, and the disease is fast spreading. The squatters in the district are actively engaged and doing ah that can be done to meet the difficulty. A correspondent sends the Rangitikei Advocate the following social anomalies, which at one time would have been thought paradoxical, but which, owing to the present exigencies of fortune, farmers are daily becoming accustomed to :—A bushel of wheat costs 4s, and the millers will give you 4‘Jlbs of flour for it or will charge you 19s for lOOlbs of flour, or not quite 2i bushels of wheat, which, at 4s per bushel are worth 10s. Moral : Grind your own wheat. Anomaly No 2. —A laborer obtains Cs per day for binding ; oats aro sold for 8d per bushel; ergo, a binder this season was paid 9 bushels of oats for his day’s wages. Moral ; Sell your farm and go to sea.