NEWS OF THE DAY.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 731, 23 October 1876, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Education Bates,— lt is notified in the Gazette that the following rates have been levied :—Sumner, a rate of iOd in the £, payable to Mr 0. L. Davies ; Heathcote Valley, a rate of 3d in the £, payable to Mr 0. L, Davies ; Kaiapoi, a rate of 3d in the £, payable to Mr B, Bevell. Canterbury Railways,— The receipts on the Canterbury Railways during September amounted to £16,398 16s Bd. The items were as follows ;—Merchandise, £84345s 3d; rents. £298 16s 8d ; wharfage (£IOB6 2s 2d) and cranage (£65 17s 8d), £ll6l 19s lOd ; passengers, £5924 15s lid ; parcels, £384 19s 4d ; horses, carriages, &c, £173 19s 6d. The tonnage was 20,037 as compared with 20,883 for the same month in 1875. The number of passengers was 58,925, as com pared with 43,052 for the corresponding month in 1875.

Wharfage Rates. The following wharfage rates upon wool are notified in the Gazette to take effect on and after October 2Brd : —Single bales, 4d each ; double dumps, 8d each ; treble dumps, Is each.

Diocesan Synod. —The annual session of the Diocesan Synod of Canterbury will be opened to-morrow at 1 p.m. in the College Library, by the Most Rev the Primate. This evening there will be full choral service at Sfc Michael’s in connection with the opening of the Synod, when the various choirs of the city, together with other musical amateurs, will assist. A full practice, with eighty-two voices, took place last evening. The choir will meet this evening at St Michael’s schoolroom punctually at a quarter past seven. The Yen Archdeacon Harper will preach this evening.

Heathcote Valley Presentation.— Advantage was taken on Friday afternoon last, on the occasion of Miss Rachael Stewart, assistant mistress of the school there, resigning her charge, to present that lady with a very handsome electro plated tea and coffee service as an acknowledgement of the praiseworthy manner in which she had discharged her duty for nearly five years, Mr William Dunlop, the chairman of committee, in making the presentation, remarked that the subscription list had been filled up entirely in the district ; and although the district is a small one, the handsome amount required had been subscribed, and the name of every one having children at the school appeared on it, thus showing their appreciation of Miss Stewart as a teacher. He spoke very highly of Miss Stewart’s zeal, energy, and good temper. She had endeared herself to both parents and children, and she carried with her the best wishes of the entire community. Miss Stewart replied, thanking all for the great kindness and courtesy shown her ever since she had been connected with the school, and that in doing her duty she was proud to hear, and also see by the very handsome present now before her, that she had their approval. She hoped to keep the gift as long as she lived in remembrance of the many happy days she had spent in the valley. Timaru Regatta Club.— A public meeting, says the Herald, was held on Friday night, at the Club Hotel, to take steps for holding an annual regatta in Timaru. About thirty persons were present, Mr Cliff, who was voted to the chair, explained the object of the meeting, and read the advertisement calling the meeting. The secretary (Mr G. B. Hall) of the preliminary committee read the rules as passed by the committee, which were then passed by the meeting. The following officers were appointed; Commodore, Mr G. Cliff; vice-commodore, Mr M. Jonas; treasurer, Mr F. A. Sims; secretary, Mr G. B. Hall, After considerable discussion, the following were elected from seventeen proposed as members of the committee: — Captain Mills, Messrs MeMeikan, Mclntosh, Mclntyre, M. White, Fulton, Simpson, Chapman, Hill, and Bradley, Messrs Jonas, Hall, White, and Sims, were appointed a sub-committee to collect subscriptions. On the subject of the banking account being brought up, the Union Bank of Australia was agreed on as the Club’s bank, the number of votes for the various banks being as follows : —New South Wales, 3 for and 12 against; New Zealand, 6 for and 13 against ; National, 6 for and 9 against; Union, 8 for and 6 against. It was arranged that the committee should draw up a programme and submit to a general meeting, to be held on Monday, the 30th of October. The secretary read a state ment, showing a balance of £5 12s 3d due to the regatta fund from last year, and sub scriptions to the amount of £7 6s were collected in the room, making a balance of £l2 18s 3d in hand now,

Projected Temperance Settlement in New Zealand —Some few months ago, we {New Zealand Times) mentioned that a Mr Broomhall, of Surrey, England, was about visiting New Zealand for the purpose of taking up land in New Zealand. He has arrived by the last mail, and in reference to him the Hawke's Bay Herald has the following Amongst the passengers for New Zealand by the mail steamer Australia is Mr J. Broomhall, a magistrate of the County of Surrey, England, and a director of the Temperance Life Assurance office, which numbers 32,000 policyholders, andhas an accumulated capital of 2,000,000. Mr Broomhall has come to the colony for the purpose of endeavouring to form a settlement on temperance principles. The Hon W. Fox (who has always had the welfare of the public at heart, and has spoken of it in his numerous public addresses on the temperance question during his present visit to England, as the best of all the British colonies for a thrifty and industrious people, and especially adapted for those who have a little capital to start with), has taken an active interest in this matter, and proposed to the leading men of the temperance body in England that they should endeavour to form a settlement in New Zealand on temperance principles, instancing the prosperity of the provinces o! Otago and Canterbury, both of which were founded on special class interests. The Whitworth Brothers, of Manchester, the well-known members of Parliament, and leaders of the temperance movement, who are also employers of 45,000 men, have been interested by Mr Fox in the enterprise, as well as other equally wealthy gentlemen; and we feel sure that if only a comparatively small percentage of steady industrious men, with a moderate capital, are only induced to emigrate, they will not only find the colony all that Mr Fox has represented it to be, but - also get a good return for their labour and capital. Mr Broomhall, who facetiously informed us that he has come out to New Zealand for the purpose of completing his education by a voyage round the world, has been detained in California by a number of banking gentlemen, who represented to him that numbers of people were constantly leaving New Zealand for California, and great efforts were made to induce him to purchase a large tract of land mortgaged to the late banking firm of Temple and Workman. Our cute Yankee friend appears to have made no little impression on Mr Broomhall, as he showed us a contract for the sale of 100,000 acres of land, with most elaborate plans, attested before the British Consul of San Francisco, and which simply awaits confirmation or otherwise in the event of Mr Broomhall not being able to obtain a suitable block in thip colony. It is a manifest absurdity to place the lands of California in comparison with those of New Zealand, and we hope, in the interest of the colony, that no effort on the part of the authorities will be spared to prove to Mr Broomhall the natural advantages we possess in good prolific land, well watered, which would be admirably adapted for the required object.

The Kumara Rush. —The correspondent of the West Coast Times writes on the 18th as follows;—“The great event of the week has been the rainfall on last Thursday night and Friday morning, after a long continuance of dry weather; and short as was the duration of the rain, it was sufficient to replenish the almost exhausted pools on which at present some two thousand people in the town and immediate locality are dependent, which were yielding not only inadequate quantities of the necessary element, but wretchedly inferior qualities. This will be easily understood when it is pointed out that although most of the little reservoirs along the sides of the street are connected with each other, portions of the same stream in fact, at some the washing of clothing is permitted, while others close by are adorned with little notice boards informing the public that they are reserved for ‘ domestic purposes,’ whatever that may mean. The sum total of the matter is that at present these small streams furnish both sewerage and water supply, and any long duration of dry weather would render them worse than useless, nay, highly ' dangerous, for the latter purpose. Along the line of workings after the rain, the utmost activity was observable on the part of the miners in washing up dirt, and the results were satisfactory in most cases, for I heard of some claims getting as much as 14dwts to the load, and the washing of a load of stuff by the ‘ Lucky Hit’ party, Larrikin terrace, which I witnessed, with a result of about half an ounce, infused new life among the numerous surrounding prospecting parties, who seem quite anxious now to bottom their shafts. One claim on the west and another on the east of this party have got on the wash, which, in the Lucky Hit is seven feet thick, and quite a large number of claims farther ahead expect to reach bottom this week, which may therefore prove eventful for the field. Shafts are going down all along the line of the water race and close to the Kapitea creek, where some will be bottomed this week. A great deal more gold has been sold in the township since the rain, and now much attention is being directed to the prospecting going on near Goodfellows’ on the Christchurch road, as many believe that the lead will be picked up there. Should this prove correct, a new township will spring up about that point, and a fresh rush will start to it. The important results from the slight and casual supply of water afforded by the rain, shows the importance to this field of water supply, and the shares of the Kapitea Race Company are at a premium of forty per cent. A party of miners are also about to bring in a race from the Kawhaka, beyond Goodfellows’. It must be mentioned, great as is the anxiety for the water, that when a quantity of rain fell a few weeks back, the miners suffered in health, and there were many cases of swamp fever and influenza, from which most of those affected are now recovering. Although mining prospects continue fairly encouraging, if not quite so brilliant as they were, very large numbers, almost equalling those arriving continue to leave the field. Many of those going away are compelled to do so from inability to bear the necessary expenses of testing the ground, but others leave because they do not consider the prizes rich enough to compensate for the risk and delay involved in prospecting in the present crowded state of the supposed extension of the lead, and because there is very little work at remunerative wages in the neighbourhood of the rush, most of what is going being taken up by parties of men on contracts at not very high rates. In carpenter’s work, but few are employed by the day, but where such work is obtained the rate is I6s per day. Contract work in this line is being taken at wonderfully low rates, There are also enough blacksmiths on the field for present requirements.