Untitled

Dunstan Times, Issue 1260, 23 April 1886, Page 2

Oar advertising columns contain a notice by public auction in Dunedin, on Monday, 10th May, 1886,” at noon,- of -Government lands pretty vyell :aE over the Provincial District of Otago, and of nearly every class. We' also distribute with this issue hand bills which will be found to con> tain fall particulars of the lands. We specially draw attention to the place of sale— Dunedin —because we really do not believe there is'one man out of every score but would let that fact escape-him, as he wonld argue if there is a place that where any reasonable man would try to sell his wares why it would be on the ground or in locality, and not in Dunedin, in some instances 200 miles away. To our mind the Waste Lands Board is aping some of the lorger hoards in trying to discover some means of ho w not to do it. With local auctioneers in nearly every small hamlet throughout the , country, and amongst them men fully as capable as the Waste Lands Board’s officer, there is no excuse for this centralising policy, and it simply means that for nineteen out of every twenty lots to be offered there will be no bids, and the wrong inference wilT be drawn th&t there is no demand.

Mr M. Fraer, of Lawrence, has been again elected Chairman of the Education Board. The position, however, was gained by the Chairman’s own casting vote— Messrs Clark. M'Kenzie, Macgregor, and the Chairman voting with the ayes, whilst Messrs Fraser, Begg, Dick, and Dr Brown were on the side of the noes. Dr Brown was the other candidate for the office. Hand Bills, which we must confess have been very ' -industriously distributed throughout the township announce that the annual meeting of householders for the election of School Committees for the en suing year will be held on Tuesday next, the 27th inst, at 7.30 p.ro. To-day. being Good Friday, will be observed as a close holiday at all Govern* ment Offices, Past ’and Telegraph included. Next Monday will also be a holiday, but we believe the’customary mails will be despatched and.received from all Post Offices. That energy and enterprise on the gdldfields is not dead is borne out by the big undertakings that are being carried out by the many , parties in the Valley of the Clu*ha to obtain the. gold from the bed of that stream. The last venture is that of Messrs E. Finlay, X. Garda, J. M‘Kersey, and O. Spencer, of Alexandra, who have smarted the. construction of a perfect Leviathan in the matter of dredges. The barge is to be built on the twin system, each boat being 80ft in length, by a beam of about 7ft, and the ladder well Oft wide, the entire breadth of deck will be accordingly 20ft. All the timber and cross beams are of blue gum firmly bolted to* gether, whilst the planking is to be kanri 2to 3 inches (Irek. The beach where the boats are being built, as also Mr Gant’s smithy, where the buckets and all the other ironwork that can possibly bo locally made, present during the day quits a busy appearance rparkedly different to what meets the eye in most of our up-country towns. As the work progresses we hope to further notice this important work. While speaking of dredges we notice the Dunedin Company's steam dredge keeps steadily at work about two miles above Alexandra, and Mr Ley on's .current wheeler is now hard at work immediately below the junction of the Manuherikia with the Molyneux. We have received from Mr D. M. tuckie, the general manager of the New Zealand Government Life Assurance Association, a circular to the effect that the whole of the data and returns of the Association have been despatched to London for investigation by three London actuaries of the highest standing, and | that as the work of declaring individual bonuses , cannot be commenced until the actuaries’ report is received, aud moreover aa there are upwards of 2(5,000 policies to be dealt with, it is expected that the result will, not be known until the close of the present year, but it will he the effort to bring the result of the Association’s operations for the past five years and a-half before the policy holders at as early a date as possible. This assurance from the association is most timely, aa the question was getting very general amongst policy holders as to when the declaration of bonuses was to be made, and foreign offices were trying to make capital of what was considered the unnecessary delay. We notice that our esteemed sporting man Mr J; Rivers, has his horses Don Jose and Cheap Jack pretty freely nominated for the rich events at the forthcoming Dunedin meeting. We had a look at the horses the other day, both appearing to have improved wonderfully since Christmas, and by the time the meeting comes round that careful and painstaking trainer Georgo Mason, should have them very pink, and no doubt one, or both, will place a win or two to the credit of their popular owner. A representative eleven of the Clyde Cricket Club left for Wanaka this morning at 4 o’clock, expecting to reach their dcatii nation, between 5 and 6 o’clock in the evening, the distance being some 53 miles. Owing to the distance, and partly to the lateness of the season, the Club will not be represented to its full strength, hut with the following players no doubt the name of the Club will be creditably upheld: - Messrs Stevens (captain), Thomson, Shaw, M’Connochio, Hogan, Laidlaw, Sitnmonds, Holden, Knight. Frith, and Harris.

60,000 bricks will be used in the con" struotion of the new bridge at .Roxburgh, hud to supply same Mr I). Rees has entered into a contract.

- The work of the year in the direction of attacking the rabbit pest is becoming general throughout this district. On many of tha stations as many as thiry men are employed, whilst again on others the manner totals up to fifty and more. On the lowlands where the grass is plentiful and < Kreeb, trapping,' shooting, and smothering with Bi-Sulphate of Carbon is adopted, but on the high lands poisoned grain is being used and we learn with good effect, the numhe rof skins obtained being very large, though in nothing like the number of previous years. All who have used the BiSnlphate in a proper mannner, that is by firmly securing the months of the burrows, speak highly of it, and we have heard many say that if the Bi-Snlphate was systematically and properly used throughout the low j country the rabbit pest would soon dwindle { down to insignificance. As to ferrets and weazieS, these animals appear to hare but few friends, it being thought that in a very short time they will become a greater pest than the rabbit; moreover it is averred that they will only kill to satisfy their hunger, and that already they are to be seen playing about with and that they do not frighten the rabbits as it was thought they would. .according toj Goldsborongh’a Monthly Circular, 1,045,389 bales of wool have been shipped from Australia 'and New .Zealand since,the Ist ofJ.Tnly to the Ist April, being an increase of 45,008 hales shipped in the corresponding period of last year. .And yet there are some’people who wonder at the reduced value of that staple. The newly discovered gold fields at Kim» beriey, Western Australia, are creating a great sensation throughout the whole of Australia. All accounts, however, agree that the field is not a poor man’s rush, as the diggings can only be reached with great difficulty, and at considerate expense.

Donald Keith, who was lost with Mr Postmaster Dewar when on their way to Martins Bay from Qieenstowa, has, we regret to learn, died from the eff .cts of the ex* posure. A strange thing it is in connection with this sad affair that knowing full well the bad state poor Keith was in, no medical man was sent out to him.

On Thursday morning. January 28, pro bably the densest fog of the present season overhung -London. The fog was specially thick and suffocating in the S. E. and S. W. districts. Up to eleven o’clock in the forenoon, when the fog cleared away, the tramcars and many cabs had tbeir lamps lighted. In the neighbourhood of the Elephant and Castle there were several miner collisions between vehicles just about the time (from 9.30 a.m. to 10 30 a.m.) when City men were proceeding to business. Over the Thames in the whole metropolitan area dense banka of fog were hanging during the early part of the morning, so much so that all river traffic, whether of steamboats or barges, was completely suspended. On all / theauiburban lines of railway the fog signals were being constantly exploded, and many of the trains were late in arriving at the London termini. The fog was not so dense in the city as in the out-lying districts.—At the Lambeth County Court, before Judge Powell, Q C., next morning, considerable amusement was caused by a shoemaker named Mann, wh i asked that aa order made in his absence shuild be reconsidered.— fde Judge: Why ware you nob here when the ease wu hen 1 ? Applicant ; I was hero at twentyfive minutes past ten. —The Judge : But you ought to have been here at ten o’clock. I was. Applicant : And I would have been, only 1 was lost in the fog.—(Loud Laughter.)— The Judge ; Lost in the fog. Where ? Applicant: Ta Kennigton Park. 1 got in, but could not find my way out.—The Judge said the excuse was a reasonable one, and consented to re-hear the case.

The strongest man in the world, according to the * Turf, Field, and Farm,’ lives in Nevada, and is named Angelo Cardelia. He • is an Italian, aged thirty-eight, and stands sft lOin, weighing 1381b. Bis spinal column is double the ordinary width, and his bones and joints are made on a similarly laige and generous scale. Ho has lifted a man of 2001b with the middle finger of his right hand. The man stood with one foot on the floor, his arms outstretched, his hands grasped by two parsons to balance his bo ly. Cardelia then stooped down and placed the third finger of his right hand under the man’s foot, and with scarcely any perceptible effort, raised him to the height of four feet, and deposited him on a table near at hand.

It Is very generally known that the service of summonses for debt are delayed according to law in certain cases, for instance, against M.P.’s during the session of Parliament, and also, it is presumed, against soldiers in active service ; but the latest excuse for delay in service of a summons comes from Oxford where it is said a bailiff of another Magistrates Court had been nnable to effect a service of a summons for rates of five years’ standing against a defendant for the reason that ho could not be found, as ho had joined the Salvation Army I A nice hit of scandal reaches us from Paris where a viscount has been sentenced to fifteen days’ imprisonment for knockin'* his wife down. It appears that Vicomto Tredern had behaved himself so badly that his wife obtained a judicial separation from him, and some litigation took place as to the guardianship of their children. One day ho called on her to remonstrate, and in the course of the visit, his temper getting the best of him, he violently assaulted her. There was no witness, but the servants hearing her cries for help came in and founds® her on the floor, and so bruised that was unable to rise. The Viscount swore that it was she who assaulted h; m and tbit he merely thrust her off. One' tribunal believed this version, but the Appeal Court aid not. The Vicomte Tredern is taking the affair to the Court of Cassation. Ho is well known on tho turf and in the fashions able world. His wife is one of the heiresses of tho enormonsly-wealthy surar refiner M- Constant Say, cousin of M. Leon Say Why do American Hop Bitters cure so much ? Because they give good digestion, rich blood and healthy action of all the organs.