COUNTRY NEWS,

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2649, 14 August 1871, Page 2

COUNTRY NEWS,

A correspondent of the Dunstan Times states that school affairs at Moa Flat are in rather a disorganised condition, owing to the Committee’s sudden dismissal of the teacher. Legal proceedings are threatened on all sides. Horse-whippings have already eventuated. We are glad to learn that a party prospecting for gold in the Akatore district has discovered ground which shows a prospect likely to be payable after future trials. The Tuapeka Times states, with regard to the petition now being signed in favour of the present system of education in Otago, that parents and guardians representing 200 children who attend the Lawrence Grammar School have signed the petition, and. 35 parents and guardians, representing 131, have signed the petition in Wetherstones alone. We have not received the returns from the Blue Spur and Waitahuna, but we have no doubt there will be a similar response. The people of Otago as a rule are well satisfied with the system of education they already possess, and are content to “let well alone.” The inquest held on the body of the man Fleming, whose death in Southland was reported in a late issue, resulted in a verdict of temporary insanity, with a rider appended to the following effect: —“ The jury, having heard in evidence that deceased had previously attempted self-destruction by drowning, and that he was committed to the Lunatic Asy um, Dunedin, so late as the end of April or beginning of May last, are of opinion that he ought to have been discharged after so short a detention.” Never were the roads of this district in such a wretched state; and never was the Government so poor and incapable of repairing them. No wonder that complaints come in from all quarters of the outlying districts, and that the residents are daily becoming more discontented and disheartened.— Wakatip Mail, The Invercargill Weekly Times states, on good authority, that the Southland Railway Arbitratii.n case is costing the country LIOO per week. The sooner it is settled the better. On the evening of the 10th inst,, about half-past five, says the Dunstan Times, another unfortunate was added to the already long list of victims, who have met their death in the Molyueux. It appears the deceased and two others were in a small boat, and while attempting to board the Kearsage dredge, which is moored in the centre of the river, got foul of the shore lines, one of which caught the deceased, and precipitated him into the.seething current. The deceased rose struggling to the surface of the water once, but immediately sunk, and was never more seen. The two others with the boat were carried some distance down the stream, where they landed. The name of deceased was John Farley. At Alexandra and the Teviot he was kuowu as the “ Irish Ambassador.”