NEWS OF THE DAY.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1260, 2 April 1878, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Lyttelton Bubgess List.— -The above burgess list for 1878 will be open for inspection lor a fortnight at the Borough Council office. All objections must he lodged on or 'before the 15th instant. ! Lyttelton Ohoeal Society.— A meeting of members and others interested in the formation of a choral society at Lyttelton, will he held in the Colonists’ Hall this evening, at half-past seven. Lyttelton Borough Schools. The children attending the Lyttelton Borough Schools will, through the kindness of Mr H, P. Murray-Aynsley, be taken to see, the great show to-morrow. Customs Retuens. —The Customs returns for the Port of Lyttelton for the quarter just ended are published this morning. From these it will be seen that the revenue! at this port showed an increase during the quarter of £16,266, as compared with the sum collected during the corresponding quarter of 1877. Sib John Goods. —ln pursuance of the arrangement with the Government for the inspection of certain harbors in New Zealand, Sir John Goode arrived at the Bluff by the Arawata yesterday. As his stay in the colony is very limited, he will not be able to ’spare any great length of time upon any one harbor, and it is improbable that anything will he known of the results of his inspection until after he has left the colony, and had leisure to compile his reports. A New Point. —In the course of the criminal sessions yesterday Mr G. L. Lee, the foreman of the Grand Jury, called his Honor’s attention to the fact, that in the various indictments submitted Christchurch was stated as being in the County of Selwyn. Under the Counties Act, Mr Lee pointed out, Christchurch stood alone, as all municipalities were excluded from counties; hence, to describe Christchurch as being in the County of Selwyn, was wrong. His Honor altered the indictment by striking out the words “in the County of Selwyn.” Treat foe School-Childben.— ln order to give the children attending the district schools an opportunity of visiting the menagerie and circus, the committee of the Colombo road school invited the co-operation of the East and West Christchurch school com,' mittees for that purpose. The former committee have replied that they have no fund from which they could defray the cost, and the latter committee have not yet replied. The Colombo road committee now intend tosend the children attending their schoolnumbering about 600—if favorable terms cart be obtained from Messrs Cooper and Bailey. Fiee. —At 340 this morning a threeroomed lean-to, situated in a right-of-way off Montreal street, one hundred and fifty yards south of the railway gates, waa discovered to be on fire. It way occupied by Henry Wray, tin-smith, his wife and child, and a young woman (Miss Skinner). The latter was awakened by a noise, and found the hack of the house all in flames. She called the other inmates, who had barely time to escape. All the furniture and their clothing were destroyed. Wray believes that the fire waa caused by a spark from the fire, which was not out when they went to bed. The house is valued at about £BO, and the owner has an insurance on it for £SO. The Fire Brigade turned out, but their services were unavailing, as there was no water.

Drainage Board.—A meeting of the Drainage Board was held this, morning, at which Mr Clark’s report on the drainage of Christchurch and suburbs was read. Mr Clark was present, and the Beard being in committee, conversational remarks were made on some of the clauses of the report. Among other explanations, Mr Clark said that with reference to the Ferry road drain, he would hare preferred laying down a 12-inoh pipe to carry away the drainage from the area ot that neighbourhood, and then treating the ditch as a covered drain. He had, however, provided for its being filled up, but would prefer this work being done gradually. In reply to other questions, Mr Clark said that it would be an impossibility to effectually drain Christchurch by means of surface drainage, and the time had come when it became necessary to drain it by means of sewers, and he had spoken very strongly on this necessity. All sanitary engineers were strongly opposed to the removal of excreta by pans or tubs, and Manchester was an instance of the ill effects of that system. After the report had been read, a vote of thanks was accorded to Mr Clark for his exhaustive paper; and that gentleman, in replying, said he had left his address in the office, and he would be very happy if it were required to give any information he was possessed of with regard to the drainage of the district, or further explain any of the clauses in his report, Mr Clark then retired, and the Board adjourned for a fortnight. Cooper and Bailey’s Circus. —The first afternoon show of the mammoth circus attracted a large audience yesterday, both in the aide show and the circus. The programme in each was substantially the same as on Saturday evening, and the performances in both were much applauded. In the evening there was a very large attendance, between 4000 and 5000 being present. Mr Batchelder’s feats, those of Mai'tin Lowande and the trapeze performance of M. and Mdlle. Belmont were excellent, especially the riding of Mr Lowande and his sons. The animals, under the supervision of Professor Johnson, attracted a large amount of attention, and were the centre of groups of visitors both during the afternoon and evening. The side show, as on the former occasion, was thronged. The programme was changed from that of Saturday evening, in so far as the introduction of a troupe of male and female minstrels, who sang and joked in the approved burnt cork style. Mr Phil Gibbons, who was one of the end men, propounded quite'' a number of conundrums, which Mr Johnson, represented by M. Chalet, had perforce to give up. Mr Davenport sang some Dutch songs well, and Mdlia. Fritz also gave a motto song very nicely. Mr and Miss Belmont danced a clog hornpipe capitally, and Little Daisy secured an encore for her song, “ Keep on kissing me,” to which she responded by a sand jig, nicely danced. Mr Mitchell, the Fire King, again appeared in his wonderful feats, which require to be seen to be appreciated 5 and M. Chalet’s veutriloquial feats were as surprising as ever. Last but not least, Mr Allen and his educated pig, Bismarck, had large audiences, and the latter succeeded in beating the champions of the audience at euchre, whilst the former sold the books descriptive of his method of educating the learned pig as ! fast as possible. To-night the show will be open at seven o’clock and those who pay it a visit will not regret it. Flaxton. —On Sunday the Primate administered the rite of confirmation to a number of candidates in St. Paul’s Church, at Flaxton. A large congregation wag weiejjfc on the occasion, r

Little Ritbb.—At a meeting of tlie School Committee held on Thursday the following gentlemen were nominated as members of the North Canterbury Board of Education :—Messrs Montgomery, Inglis, Rolleston, Bowen, Webb, Turnbull, E. J. Lee, Veel, and Cook.

Death from Burning-.—The little girl Maher, who was so severely burned a week or two ago when playing with matches, in company with other children, on a vacant piece of ground in the city of Auckland, subsequently died in the Hospital from the effects of the burns. Accident at Race-codbse Hill.—On Saturday last as Mr T. McKie was in the act of climbing to the top of a combine whilst in motion, he slipped and fell under the machine, and one of the front wheels passed over both his legs below the knee. Fortunately the machine was stopped before the hind wheel passed over him. Dr. Meadows was soon in attendance, and found that, although badly bruised, the legs were not broken.

Scarcity of Teachers in Otago.— School teachers (says the “ Otago Daily Times ”) are becoming a scarce commodity. Owing to the influx of children to the schools since the coming into force of the new Education Act, applications have of late been re-'’ quested for a considerable number of assistant teachers, and in no single case, we believe, have the applicants numbered more than three. In one or two cases —that of an assistant for the Waikouaiti School, for instance — there have been no applicants at all.

A Candid Minister. —The Colonial Secretary was in a candid mood when acknowledging a toast, at the Hamilton banquet the other day. He is reported to have said that the country was taking the present Ministry a good deal upon trust. They had lived upon promises, which he hoped they would be able to fulfil. He referred to the fact that Sir George Grey and Mr Sheehan were Auckland men, so that if the settlers of Auckland did not get what they considered they were entitled to, they must believe that it was from some good reason. In the present exceedingly nervous state of things in Europe there was no one knew what would be the event. Their agents advised them not to risk their credit or sell their securities at an unfair price, and for that reason they had withheld them until it was seen how European affairs were going to turn.

Waitaki akd Waieotjaiti Counties. — The following returns of the population of these two counties are published :—The population of the County of Waitaki is 6655, viz., 4370 males and 2285 females. Adding the population of the town, we arrive at 11,632 as the total for the Waitaki electoral district, as against 7193 in 1874, or an increase of 3719. The census returns for Waikouaiti County are as follow: —Electoral district of Waikouaiti (including boroughs of Hawkesbury and Palmerston) —Males, 2858; females, 2039; total, 4897. Borough of Hawkesbury-—Males, 364; females, 357; total, 721. Borough of Palmerston —Males, 461; females, 353 ; total, 814. County of Waikouaiti (including portion of electoral district of Port Chalmers) to 'Waitaki stream boundary Males, 3022 ; females, 2191; total, 5218.

Overtime to Railway Servants— The '“North Otago Times” of Thursday has the /following : —That extra work should mean -extra pay we have before said, and. have already indicated our opinion that in the matter of overtime and extra work the railway employes are not receiving fair treat’ment. We can quite understand that a railway employe should be asked and expected -on occasion to do a little, or even much more than he is specially paid to do, but we cannot admit that it is fair that over-time and extra work should he the rule, and always unpaid for. We are led to make this remark by the fact that for the last three days many of the men on this part of the line have been working either all night or till all hours of the morning in loading the show, and because we believe 'that if the rules of the department are rigidly -adhered to they will not get a single halfpenny for it.

A Mysterious Case. The “Bruce Herald ” of March 29th records the disappearance of a young child at Adams Elat on Tuesday last, under very unusual, and so far inexplicable, circumstances, leaving but -slight hope of the little wanderer’s ever being found alive. It would appear that Mrs Williams and four children arrived at Adams Elat on Monday afternoon, on a visit to the flpot where her husband was so long settled in business, and universally respected. _ They were the guests of his successor, Mr Hitchon storekeeper. While at dinner on Tuesday the youngest boy, aged 27 months, crept under the table from his mother’s side and left the room. After dinner Mrs Williams went to look for her child, but nowhere could it be found, or any trace left of its whereabouts. The hue and cry was at once raised, ann every effort made by the family and neighbors proved of no avail in revealing where the little one had got to. The search party yesterday formed a complete ring around Adams Elat, and searched every possible spot —miners’ worked-out shafts, claims, &c.—as they gradually neared the house. Constable Tait had not returned from the scene at a late hour last night.

The Railway Accident near Oamaru. —The “Timara Herald” publishes the following further particulars of the accident near Oamaru on Friday evening'The 4.30 p.m. tip train was just slackening speed on approaching Richmond’s crossing, when a bullock was seen making for the line a short distance ahead. It crossed the line all right, but immediately afterwards rushed back again. It was struck by the cow-catcher, and carried along for some thirty yards, when the front wheels went over it, and the engine was thrown off the line and capsized. The driver succeeded in jumping clear, but the stoker (Macintyre) had no chance of doing so, and his legs being caught underneath the engine, one of them was fearfully crushed. Fortunately the carriages remained on the line, otherwise many of the passengers might have been seriously injured. Macintyre was released as soon as possible and sent back to Oamaru, from whence a party of men shortly after arrived. The engine was found to be twisted and broken into a number of pieces, and was left lying where it fell. The*passengers waited at the spot till the arrival of the down train from Timaru, which lost no time in starting back here with them.