YESTERDAY'S NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 3081, 3 January 1873, Page 3

YESTERDAY'S NEWS.

On Friday last the Rev, R. L. Stanford was presented by his late parishoners at Tokomairiro with a silver tea and coffee service as a token of their esteem and affection for him. Mr Bills, who is returning to Canterbury by the Charlotte Gladstone with a large consignment of insectivorous birds for the Christchurch Accliraitisatinn Society, is bringing a lot of bumble-bees out with him. We arc pleased to learn that amongst the various manufactnies selected from amongst those exhibited at Christchurch as being worthy of being sent to the International Exhibition at Vienna, are the liquors, wines, cordials, and mineral waters manufactured by Messrs Reeves and Co. of this city. The number of inmates at the Benevolent Institution, Cavershara, on the 31st Dec,, 1872, was 78. comprising 26 girls, 37 boys, 1 man, and 14 women. The number of cases of out-door relief during the month of December was 275, comprising 18 men, 67 women, and 190 children, the average cost per week being Ll4 12s. There is a second Caledonian mine at Lyell, where, says the Grey Hirer Argus of the 23rd inst., the Alpine Company vvi 1 have, as the result of their Christmas washup, 1500 ounces of gold from 1 0 t-ns of stone crushed out of the main reef. Samples of stone brought to Reefton from this claim indicate extraordinary richness, and it is confidently anticipated that the yield will be fully up to looz. to the ton. Mr A. R. Mackay, District Surveyor, has furnished the local paper with the following particulars of the finding of a moa’s egg in the sandy ground on the north-west side of Cromwelll found it on the 27th of November, partially imbedded in and completely filled with sand. It measures seven and a half inches in length, and five and a half inches in diameter. The shell is about an eighth of an inch thick, and is broken on the smaller end, where I think the young moa must have escaped from its prison. This is the second moa’s egg found in Cromwell, and the sixth found in New Zealand.” The Grey mouth Star records the occurrence of a fatal and mysterious death on tbe North Beach, a little north of the Cobden road. A youth named Howie was passing down, when he saw what he supposed to be a log lying just out of the surf, but, ongoing close, found it to be the corpse of an old miner known as Yorky Sam, a resident for a length of time on the Seventeen Mile Beach. Howie immediately obtained assistance, and the body was put into a coffin and brought to the Cobden Camp, Deceased had on his person nearly 41b weight of gold, some 1 is in silver, and a deposit receipt for LSO. It was evident that death had. been occasioned but a very short time before the body was found, for blood was then issuing from the nose, and the corpse was warm. The bruise on the nose was the only visible mark of injury, and the surmise is that deceased had a tit while walking near tbe sea, and was washed into the surf and drowned.

A heavy bush tire has been raging at the north-west end of the Big Bush, Akatore, since Tuesday, and has already done much damage. All the woodwork c nnected with Lewis’s sawmill, the mill itself and adjoining cattle shed-), workmen’s huts, with greater part of their contents, together with from 20,000 to 30,000 feet of timber, have been consumed. The Bruce Herahl says that so rapidly did it proceed that the men were obliged to unhook their teams and hurry them to a place of safety, leaving the truck, sledge, and timber to their fate, which was speedily sealed, Mr Lewis’s loss cannot be under L4OO, no part of which is covered by insurance. By the following forenoon the fire had extended over about 1,000 acres, chiefly where the large trees had been cut, and the ground covered with tops and branches suitable only for firewood. It has also gone through a considerable area of standing timber, which, if shortly brought into use, will be little the worse, having only got a good scorching. The fire still burns, and no doubt will continue until extinguished by a heavy rain, and what may be the ultimate damage to this fine bush it is impossible $0 tell. Under the heading “ A Wonderful Cure,” one of the West Coast papers tells this story :—A most miraculous cure of what seemed a hopeless case occurred at the Ahaura last week, in connection with the Hospital building and its uses, A week or two ago a woman, who used to support herself and her children formerly by washing and jobbing about, was found in a hut on the Napoleon Road in a hideous state of filth and misery, brought on, it is said by her own dissolute and dissipated habits. The hovel she lived in was in such a condition that it was necessary, to prevent the generation of disease, that it should be thoroughly cleansed. The police interfered, and caused the woman to be removed and placed in a sort of quarantine in the Hospital building. She remained there, and although she received every attention, it was at one time feared she would not live. When news of the recent fatal accident at HalfOupoe reached the Ahaura the authorities at Once took steps to make such preparation as would be necessary in case the bodies were recovered. Among these, an order was given to have coffins made, but when one of them was finished it was found it would not be Wanted, as the friende of the men had them piade at Half-Ounce. The carpenter then received instructions to store it in the hospital building until it should unfortunately be required on a future occasion. He took it there and placed it near the bed of the patient. She anxiously inquired what use he intended to make of it, and, with a recklessness of consequences highly censurable under the circumstances, he heartlessly frightened the poor woman by telling her that “her time had come, for the people were get'iug tired of her, and, as she was incorrigible, they had made up their minds to bury her alive.” He further told her that she would be buried comfortably and decently, for he had received instructions to envelope her in nice new shavings, which he left to procure. The moment be turned liia back, the patient, who was paralytic and bedridden a few minutes before, made a rush through one of the windows, scudding away down the road to the township, where afterwards she “ made it lively ” for a few people before she had done with them.