NEWS OF THE DAY.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 753, 17 November 1876, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

R.M. Court.—The only case heard this morning at the above Court was an inebriate named James Parr, who was fined ss. Lyttelton Town Clock.—The S.W. face of this clock was blown in yesterday morning,

Blood Stock.—The race horses Lady of the Lake and Nectar were sent north in the Wellington yesterday.

New Bailway Station.—We understand that the foundation stone of the new railway station at Christchurch will be laid by Mr Bolleston on Wednesday forenoon, C.J.C.—A general meeting of the Jockey Club will be held on Wednesday next, at four o'clock, at Warner's Hotel, when the autumn programme will be considered. Stock. —By the s.s Wellington yesterday some magnificent cattle and sheep, purchased at the late sales by Captain and Mr Praser and Mr Gilligan, were sent to Wellington and Auckland, The San Francisco Mail.—Thooutward mail, consisting of seventeen bags, fifteen from Ohristchurch, one from Hokitika, and one from Lyttelton, went in the City of New fork yesterday. She sailed at 12.30 p.m.

St. John's Association.—A meeting of the Junior Debating Society was held last night in the schoolroom. The business consisted of readings and recitations, and criticisms. There waß a good attendance. Next week a debate will take place on " Cremation."

City Bates,-—Over 100 summonses were taken out yesterday against ratepayers who have not paid this year's rates, and instructions have been given to continue this course until all the rates in arrear are paid. Horticultural Society.—A meeting of the committee was held last evening, at Warner's Hotel, Mr J Greenaway in the chair. It was decided that the rose show should be held on the Ist of December, and Messrs Potts, Webb, and Clark were appointed judges. Messrs T. Allen, T. Gordon, and the secretary, were appointed to make the necessary arrangements for holding it.

Lyttelton Cricket Club.—At a meeting held at the Mitre Hotel on Wednesday evening last, it was resolved to play the opening match, Married v Single, on Saturday afternoon. There are now about fifty members in the club, which promises to be a great success. It was determined that quoits should be procured as well as cricketing materials for the use of members, as that game can be played at Lyttelton. Shearing in Otago.—The Daily Times of the 15th instant says :—" In the struggle at present going on between the flockmasters of the province and the shearers, the former have obtained an advantage by the arrival of between seventy and eighty hands from Victoria in the steamer Arawata. About onehalf of them landed at the Bluff, and the remainder here yesterday. We hear that another contingent may be expected in the s.s Ringarooma, due next Monday or Tuesday —she was to leave Melbourne to day—and also that two or three influential squatters have sent across to Sydney by the Basby for a further supply of shearing labor."

Mr Griffith's Sale. We should naturally have supposed that a sale of so carefully selected and well known a stud as Mr Griffith's would have attracted a large number of purchasers. Such, however, was not the case. There were, it is trne, some intending buyers, several of whom were frem the neighboring provinces. The weather, we were surprised to see, kept away many whom we know intended to have become possessors, if possible, of some of the feprey don stock. The sale wasadvertised to take place at two o'clock yesterday, and previous to this a very excellent luncheon, provided by Mr Morton, was discussed. As the rain still continued to pour down heavily, Mr Griffith decided to wait till three o'clock, in the hope of the weather clearing ; but finding there was no chance of this, Mr Newton, the auctioneer, announced that it had been decided to postpone the Bale. Mr Griffith afterwards stated that it had been his intention to hold an unreserved sale of his whole stock. In the absence of many known intending purchasers, had he gone on with the auction he would have been obliged to place reserves. He was sorry for any disappointment he might have occasioned, but under the circumstances he had thought it best to postpone the sale until the Autumn Meeting. Union Rowing Club.—A general meeting of this club was held last evening at Warner's Hotel; Mr G. Jameson in the chair. There was a good attendance of members. Mr Sharland, after referring to the necessity for paying off the liabilities of the club and ordering new boats for next season without taxing the present members more than necessary, by adopting some means by which future members would also have to bear their share of the responsibility, moved —" That the committee be instructed to obtain a loan of £SO from the Permanent Loan and Investment Euilding Society, with the view of paying off outstanding liabilities, and that the consent of the trustees be asked to the same." Mr Searrell seconded the motion, which was agreed to. An application from Mr Vogler, who had recently paid his entrance fee and subscription, asking that the latter might be refunded as he had removed to Hokitika, was declined with regret, as the rules of the club prevented a compliance with the request. Mr Sharland moved—" That in the event of a loan being obtained from the Permanent Society, a four-oared practice outrigged boat, similar to the Isis, and a pairoared pleasure boat, same as the Snowdrop, be ootained from Salter and 00, Oxford, also pairs of oars and sculls, if the funds of the club will admit." Mr Caterer seconded the motion. An amendment by Mr Harding, substituting a sculling boat for the pairoar, was carried. On the motion of Mr Sharland, the existing rules of the club were rescinded for the purpose of substituting others. A list of rules revised by the subcommittee was submitted and adopted, with amendments. Messrs Hobday and Culpin were elected members of the committee, the rule being altered to make the number of committee men seven instead of five. A resolution altering the colors of the club was carried—cap to be dark blue * jersey trimmed with blue. The meeting then adjourned. Suicide in Auckland.—The Cross gives the following particulars of a suicide which took place on the 7th instant:—" A most determined and melancholy case of suicide occurred in the city yesterday morning. About half-past ten a little boy rushed to Mr Samuel Felshaw's house, which is situated in the right of way between the grocery shop of Mr J. W. Prime and Mr Morrison's Eising Sun Hotel, on the city side of the Karangahape road. The boy told Mr Felshaw that a man was lying in the urinal connected with the hotel covered with blood. He and two or three of the men employed laying the water pipes in the road, immediately went to the spot, and found the man, John Soar, as described by the boy, bleeding from two wounds in the throat. One of the men went for Dr Purchas, another for Dr Kennedy, and Felshaw went down to the police station, and on his way met Constable Foreman, who when he arrived, found that the doctors had considered it advisable to send the man at once to the hospital without sewing up the wound, as they thought he might try to tear it open again. Felßhaw meanwhile had proceeded to the police station, and informed the authorities there, and Sergeant Gamble went to the district and gathered all particulars of the occurrence. The man was taken to the hospital in an express, by Constable Foreman, and placed under the care of Dr Philson, but he rapidly sank, and expired from exhaustion and loss of blood before noon. Previous to his death, Soar informed Dr Philson that ho had taken a quantity of green copperas, but finding that it did not take effect he cnt his throat with a razor. In answer to the question why he had committed the rash deed, he feebly replied, 'Trouble, trouble.' Mr Charles Johnson, who helped to convey the deceased from the urinal to the Rising Sun Hotel, picked up a kit and an open razor in the placo, Soar ie said to have been a strict |

teetotaller, but the affliction of his wife, was, till about ten days ago, an inmate of the Lunatic Asylum, preyed upon his mind, and probably pre-disposed him to suicide. He procured his wife's discharge ten days since, and she is now residing at Cabbage Tree Swamp. Deceased was forty years of age, and had no family."

The War in South Africa.—The following telegram has been received from Governor Sir Henry Barkly, G.0.M.G., K.C 8., via Madeira, dated Cape Town, September Ist, 1876 :— ° Transvaal news confirmed. All quiet here." Plymouth, September 19th—The African brings news from Cape Town to August 26th, A telegram from Kimberley, dated August 25th, published there, gives the following details of the defeat of the Transvaal forces under President Burgers:—" On August 2nd President Burgers with 2000 whites, 900 Mapochs, and one cannon, advanced on the town, The attack commenced at midnight, the President's force being divided into two columns. The eastern column, under Jonbers and Yan der Venter, behaved well, scaled the mountains to the north-east of the Stadt, and remained under fire, losing two whites. The losses sustained by the blacks are not mentioned. The right wing, under Pretorius and Smith, with whom were the Mapoch Kafirs, behaved badly. All their officers have since been tried by courtmartial, and fined various sums, from £2 LOs to £5, for neglect of duty. The right must nearly have entered the town; but the main body did not even strive to engage the enemy, leaving to about forty men the brunt of the affair, in which not one man seems to have been killed. When these forty found themselves unsupported byijthe right they retired, as also did the eastern division. The retreat, although not interrupted, was a hasty one, and tended to increase the present demoralisation. The men were mutinous, many grumbling at the commissariat, which was defectively organised. President Burgers ordered forts to be built, one at Steel Poort and one at Magali, and offered land to men willing to remain. Many refused to work, and others deserted. One officer marched off with 500 picked men to work his way down to Hydenburg, now become an exposed point, President Burgers has determined upon a protracted system of war, to be maintained by sending monthly reliefs to occupy the border in connection with the forts.'

Two works of travel of some interest are announced, Mr Eugene Schuyler'a " Turkistan ; Notes of a Journey in the Russian Provinces of Central Asia, and the Khanates of Bokhara and Khokand," will be ready for publication in a few days. There iB also in the press a narrative of journeys made by Colonel Playfair in the steps of the famous Abyssinian traveller, James Bruce. Peculiar interest attaches to this volume (the Academy says) because, by the kindness of Lord and Lady Thurlow, the great-granddaughter of James Bruce, a very large collection of his original drawings, which have never been made public, have been placed at the die* posal of Colonel Playfair.