NEWS OF THE DAY.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 479, 30 December 1875, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Canterbury Deutscher Verein.—The annual picnic of the Verein will be held at Mr Tish’s farm, North road, on New Year's day. Stamp Feb Act, 1875,—The New Zealand Gazette of December 24th contains rules, regulations, &c, issued under the Stamp Fee Act, 1875. Revising Barrister.— His Excellency the Governor has accepted the resignation of Mr W. S. Moorhouse as revising barrister under the Building and Land Societies’ Act, 1866, and the Friendly Societies’ Act, 1867.

Kaiapoi Borough Council. —On Tuesday evening the ordinary meeting was adjourned, as there was not a quorum of members present. Those in attendance were the Mayor, Crs Parnham and Blackwell. Orphan Asylum, Lyttelton. —lt is notified in the New Zealand Gazette that the Orphan Asylum, Lyttelton, shall be, from and after the Ist of January, an] industrial school for the purposes set forth iu the 73rd section of the Neglected and Criminal Children’s Act, 1867. 1.0.0. F, M.U. —A special meeting of the Loyal City of Christchurch Lodge, will be held this evening, to consider the desirability of holding the lodge meetings weekly, and to consider the appointment of medical officers.

Representative Firing. —The firing for representatives at the Colonial Prize Firing, 1876, has been going on during the past few days, and would have been completed yesterday had the weather been favorable. The Cavalry have yet to fire, which will complete the Canterbury corps.

Grand Lodge of Good Templars.— At the meeting of the Grand Lodge of Good Templars held yesterday at Dunedin, the following officers were appointed—Chief,' Bro Adams ; counsellor, Bro Mills ; vice, Bro Turnbull; secretary, Bro Cameron ; trea surer, Bro Carr; chaplin, Bro Christie ; marshal, Bro Price ; member of Executive, Bro Andrews.

Telegraphic. —The Ringarooma is expected to leave Hokitika this nay, at 8 p.m. Telegrams for the Australian colonies or Europe, via Java cable, will be received at the telegraph office for transmission to Hokitika up till 7.30 p,m. this evening.—The steamer Hero is expected to leave Auckland on Monday, the 3rd inst, at 9 a.m. Telegrams for the Australian colonies or Europe via Java, cable will be received at the Christ church telegraph office for transmission to Auckland up till 5.30 p.m. of the Ist prox. Lyttelton Regatta. —The Xarifa yacht, owned by Mr ITirmin, of Wellington, sailed from that port on the 24th. She was not seen by the Taupo on her passage down, but may be hourly expected with the present wind. No doubt the thick weather has prevented her arrival to-day. Through the kindness of the contractors both the breakwaters have been placed at the disposal of the Lyttelton Regatta Committee for New Year’s Day, and they have determined to rail off a space at the end of each, from which a splendid view of the regatta can be obtained. A charge of Is per head, children half-price, will be made for admittance to the outer end of the Gladstone Pier, where seats will be provided, and 6d will be charged for the Naval Point breakwater. The money taken will go towards the regatta fund. Lecture.—The Rev P. P. Agnew delivered a lecture last evening, at the Music Hall, on “ Truth stranger than fiction, or the early sufferers and martyrs of Botany Bay.” His Worship occupied the chair, and the hall was crowded. The rev lecturer, w. o for over twenty years was Government chaplain in New South Wales, described the introduction of convictism into that colony with its attendant horrors, and the miserable provision made in the transport ships for the accommodation of the prisoners, and their subsequent transfer to Cockatoo Island with similar discomfort. He also gave anecdotes of the peculiarities of noted prisoners, with the satisfactory results in some instances attained after their release. The indignation of one man who had been sentenced to be hanged and who had received a reprieve was also amusingly told. Throughout, the attention of his audience was maintained by the lecturer, who, while describing incidents truthfully, presented the light and shade of his experiences, creating and sustaining the interest of the audience during the recital of W" s anecdotes. The lecture was merely an introductory one to a description of mor c thrilling scenes in future lectures ; an d /rom the earnest attention given by the large number present, the succeeding lectures will no doubt be looked for with very great interest. The lecture was concluded by the rev gentleman reading a piece of poetry written by a prisoner on the eve of his departure from Cockatoo Island. Before the audience separated, a hearty vote of thanks was passed to his Worship for presiding,

Accident at Ohoka.— On Monday a serious accident happened to a child ten years of age, belonging to Mr Doyne, who is in the employ of Mr E. G. Wright on the Eyreton railway. He was bringing in his family on a trolly to the sports, when the trolly jumped over a stone which had been placed on the metals. The child was thrown off and pitched in the course of the trolly, so that the wheels ran over its arm. Mr Ovenden, surgeon, was quickly called in, and bound up the fracture.

Accident. —The Guardian of the 27th says : —A mysterious and melancholy affair was discovered on Saturday. While a party of pic-nickers were strolling on the beach in the neighbourhood of Tomahawk, they picked up two men’s hats, apparently washed in by the tide, and about 300 yards further on two shirts and two guns were picked up, This was about half-past 1, and under the impression that the owners were bathing in the vicinity, the matter received but casual attention. However, when after 4 o’clock no one turned up to claim them, the search was renewed, and two sets of clothing were found on the ledge of some rocks a short distance on. There was nothing to lead to the identification of those who belonged to them, but in the trousers pocket of one was a silver dog collar with the engraving on it, “ I am Harry Prince’s dog,” which, it is known that gentleman missed some time ago. The matter was reported to the police, by whom, with some civilians, a diligent search was made yesterday, but without any satisfactory result. A settler in the district spoke to two young men, each about seventeen years of age, early on Saturday morning, and, after their asking where good rabbit-shooting was to be found, they proceeded in the direction of where the clothes were found. Their names have not yet been ascertained. It is conjectured that they had stripped to wade out to some rocks with only their hats on, and been drowned. This locality is exceedingly dangerous, both on account of treacherous currents and quicksands, a gentleman named Begg having been drowned there, and another with difficulty extricated himself from a quicksand. One of the guns, which was loaded, had a hole in the barrel as large as a pea,

The Titanic Company.— The New Zealand Times says : Shareholders in the Titanic Steel and Iron Company may like to know how their property (which is regarded by some as a fanciful dream) is getting along. The works are situated in Taranaki, about three-quarters of a mile from the centre of the town, which may be taken to beat the boathouse or landing place. In dimensions the works are huge, the principal feature being the smelting apparatus—a large circular brick building with doors leading into the furnace, which is fed with the iron sand from the top. Attached to this is the blasting machine, a most complicated arrangement, and being worked by an engine quite as complicated, it would be rather difficult to give a description of these works which might be guaranteed to convey a correct impression of their magnitude. The cost must have been enormous, and there are not wanting shrewd men (who affect to “know you know”) that look upon this heavy cost as something regarding which shareholders had need to be sorrowful—they think in fact that it will prove so much money wasted, as they doubt whether they will be able to work the sand into iron after all. Tests made in the old country of the very best iron sand procurable from Taranaki have not turned out so remarkably satisfactory. Others have high hopes of ultimate success, when the machinery is got fairly to work. To this end operations are now being pushed ahead, with a view of getting the works in order, so as to commence operations next month. The furnace is finished, and has been fired for some time in order to dry it, and the apparatus lor creating the blast is nearly finished —indeed, all tee internal arrangements are complete, and all that is wanted is, that it should be roofed im A large number of bricks have been made with which to commence operations, and brickmaking is still being continued. In case it should not be understood what the manufacture of bricks has to do with smelting iron sand, it may be mentioned that the sand is put into the furnace in the form of bricks for greater convenience and to facilitate operations. The sand which is carted from the beach into the yard is there mixed with a clayey substance, formed into bricks, which are dried in sheds in the usual manner, and then baked in the kiln. These bricks are exceedingly heavy, and have a very polished metallic appearance. It is intended to mix with them some of the rough iron ore obtained from the Miranda and elsewhere, when the first experiment is made with the big furnace. It is supposed that this iron ore will assist the process materially. The end of next month will see the works ready for a fair start.