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Evening Star, Issue 4002, 22 December 1875, Page 2

In compliance with numerous requests that trains should be allowed to run on the Cluthai Hue on Christmas day, the Secretary for Railways has)given instructions to the department to run ~.wo through trains on that day at the usual hours, viz,, 7 a.m. and 4 pm. About ten o’clock last night a fire broke out in a stable at the back of the premises occupied by Mr Walker, of Clyie street, -he Fire Brigade was quickly on the spot, but its assistance was not needed. Ihe City Council have banded tbe sum of L 5, sent anonymously to their Inspector of Works, over to the master of the Industrial School, to be expended in providing a Christmas treat for the children attending that institution. The management of the gasworks, which will be assumed by the City authorities after the 31st iust., is to undergo no change the Council having re-appomted Mr Genever to be gas engineer, Mr Steadman to be clerk and accountant, and Mr Taylor to be accountant. We wonder who is the bicyclist who passed th-ough Waikouaiii on Wednesday en route for Cuiistchurch The * Herald ’ says that after leaving Palmerston that night he came to grief through a collision with a buggy, which precipitated him and tbe machine down an embankment. At the Port Chalmers Police Court to-dav, James Henry Develin, for drunkenness, was discharged with a caution. A charge against hrank oyer of assaulting a seaman belonging to the barque Gift, named Edward Andrews, on the lOch of August, at Port Logan, on the coast of Peru, was withdrawn. Mr Mansford occupied the bench. Hoberg’s entertainment at the Temperance Hall attracted a fairly numerous attendance la l l evening. Mr Moulton, the lightning calculator, astonished his audience by the rapidity with which he added; and the dog Chip caused endless amusement by the manner in which he answered the questions put to him.

Skyiarks arc frequently heard singing at tvlaluuo and near Totara, while partridges are becoming very numerous the K akauni, on the Island Block, and elsewhere. North of < amaru both these kinds of birds ap ear to be thriving. (-a Mr Honor’s pro perty a partridge’s neat contaicg twenty eggs was dbcoverel a few days ago. In future the Pelichot Bay Baths will be open free to all youths under fifteen years ot ago. (his decision of tho City Council was not altogether satisfactory to Or, Isaac, who would have preferred to have seen the baths thrown open to the whole of the citizens, ‘provided the baths were kept clean and bathers found their own towels.’’ Tho rest of the councillors seemed to think it war hopeless to expect either condition to Oe fulfil ed,

By a telegram received this morning we learn with regret that Mr' Charles Smite, who was for many years Clerk to tho Pro* vineial Council, was drowned yesterday uimmoim whim bathing at Ivivertou. jVir '•mi:h resigned his position as clerk to the Council about four years ago, on account of iil health, and since that lime Ins bc. : n cm ucched with tho Press of Utago, having cun r lihuted pretty regularly to some o' t.e •■ a m i jour■ hs m the Provi-.oe. Pa;tg, ..idi au,w ro health, un i partly ou but! tic-s, hew-nt to Kuerten on Saturday, an 3 c ti-rday, eing nn expert swimmer In y ears to have gone ahn- to bathe m th dver. liis cloche:, were found ou tho hj .».* i/u ; , though tho river was dtagged last night and again this morning hi. lu.dv had nm be..u i\ o>veTQti up to Hie time of our going to press.

This morning the deputation from St. Kilda and Musselburgh that waited on the superintendent yesterday again interviewed ki* Honor, bringing up their complaints', n writing, as requested. His Honor said he bad in the meantime obtained the opinions of the Attorney-General and tho Provincial Solicitor on the matter, nod they were both idvised that he had no power to deal with the complaints—ho had no locus standi, and it was a matter that the Supreme Court alone had power to move in.

Our obituary to-day records the death at Ballarat of Mrs Crawford, who filled the office of matron of tho Immigration Doj (i!; here for upwards of fourteen years. Being h' del cate health for some mouths back Mrs Crawford asked for two months’ leave o' absence to proceed to Victoria to recruit, but the change evidently bad not the desired effect. Crawford possessed in an eminent degree two qualities very requisite in a good raatr m, viz., firmness, combined with kindness. Her duties were often trying and difficult, but her tact and energy I overcame every obstacle, 't will be a difficult matter to fill her place. A deputation consisting of Messrs R. K. Murray, A. J Burns, J Brown, and ban lauds waited upon the Superintendent this mining to draw his Honor’s attention to tho i hardship accruing to their employes by no trains running on the Clutba railway on Christmas Day The deputation urged that numbers of persons employed in business would be benefited by a trip into the country on that day, which they were now prevented from doing. His Honor said th it bo nad already laid the matter before Mr Donald t eid, whose department it affected, and that gentleman had promised to s?e what < ould bo done. Perhaps already he had arranged for an early traiu to be run on that day. The grub is becoming very destructive in the northern districts. In Bhag Valley many of the fields aro beginning to show its ravages ; p debts occur hero and there, poin'ingout the locality of their attacks. At Moeraki whole Holds suffer, especially those that lie well up to the sun. Farmers say they will let them alone, and plough up the fields in tbc spring. In the mean time (adds the ‘ Herald ’) they must suffer for want of feed for their stock. The ‘ Times ’ reports that thp crops’generally r n the Oamaru district are looking healthy and promising, and the same may be said of those around Waikouaiti, but farther south, towards Blues-tin, they are looking sickly as if from the effect of a too heavy rainfall. A little boy, tho son of Dennis Daly, residing with Mr M. Green, of Waikouaiti, had a very narrow escape from drowning on Friday, while bathing in the Waikouaiti river? just below the bridge ; and it is to the heroism of Mrs Robert Blair, Island farm, that the lad owes his life. He had gone beyond his depth, and a little girl of Mr Blair’s noticing hia disappearance under water ran into the house and informed her mother, who, with the courage and nerve that would put to the blush Lome of the sterner sex, ru-hed into the river and clutched the lads wrist just as he rose in the « ater ; and, at great peril to herself, brought Mm out. The * Herald ’ tells us that in her anxiety to rescue the lad, Mrs Blair had gone too far, and was almost sacrit ficing her own life. In a paragraph published by one of our contemporaries regarding the arrangements for promises made by the National Insurance Company, there was a slight misconception. 1 ho facts are these : the National In uiauce Company have purchased the building now occupied by Messrs Ha lenstein and C"., as a clothing factory, as well as the nhw building erecte.i by them adjoining the New Zealand nsurauce Company, for the sum of L 11.750. They ur to occupy part of tho ground floor of the new building, and also a portion of tho basement of the adjoining one, on which a fire-proof strong room is to be constructed. Ihe r main ler ot the property will be occupied by Messrs Halleustein and Co., for the prosecution of th ir business, who have agreed to give a fair rental for the premises. Me-srs Hdlenstcin and Co, by the extension of the buildings, will acoui e about three times tiie space formerly devoted to their business, f his is a groat advantage, as their rapidly increasing trade required additional floor-room. Th» adjourned annual meeting of the Antidote Division Sons of I'etnperance, will bo held in the temperance Hall, on the 27th inst., at 6.30 p.m. A special meeting of the Universal Temple, 1.0. G.T., will be held in the Masonic Hall, Port Chalmers, to-morrow (Thursday), at 7.30 p.m. Wo would direct the attention of intending excursionists to the newly arranged timetables of the Dunedin and Clucha Railway for C'hr.straas and Boxing Days.