NEWS OF THE DAY.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2642, 26 September 1882, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Bangioea F.ST. Coubt. —At the Eangiora Court this morning, V. Macleod, who wan proved to have attempted the rescue of cattle seized for impounding, was fined £5. After iho flue was paid, Mr 3packman, who was tubssquently consulted, g eve notice of appeal, on the ground of informality in the information, and upon the evidence given. An interesting poiut will have to bo decided whether, after a fine has been paid before notice of appeal is given, tha appeal can bs sustained.— A local Friendly Society sued its medical officer for non-payment cf a fine of £5 impose ion him b/ I'm so slaty by virtue of its rules for non attendance on a patient connected with the O.der. fhe claim wei settled cut cf Court by cf the amountMusro at the Osphanage,—On Saturday night the Lyttelton brass oand performed a number cf their best pieces at the Canterbury Orphanage, to the great enjoyment of the orphans. There were a good many of the ra adonis present. Subsequently the members of thu baud availed themselves of the opportunity of expressing their regret that the master ot the Orphanage, Mr Sopp, wag leaving Lyttelton, and joined in wishing him health and success in the future. Three hearty cheers were given for Mr and Mr* Sapp. Some good music and songs, and throe cheers for the bsnd, given by the children, broagh* a vary pleasant occasion to a termination. A public entertainment it to taka place next Friday night, in aid of the Lyttelton brass ba.-d uniform fund. CaNTEKBHBT A ItiTEUR ATHLETIC CLUE. -A genera! meelbig of the above, for the election of members, i", will take place this evening, at tho Commercial Hotel. Concert —A concert will be given this evening at the Consregati oil'd schoolroom, by Mr A. A. North’s choral class. The first part of tho programme rill comprise the cantata “ Under tho Folma,” and tho second part vocal and instrumental solos, duets, Ac. Befdsino to show Hailwav Tickets.— A passenger on the north train last evening persistently refused to show the guard his ticket, and proceedings, it is said, will be taken to prove that, under the railway bylaws, it is compulsory for passengers to show their ticket* when requested by the railway officials.

Shipping.—The Arawata, from the North, and the Hawes, from Dunedin and Akt ros, arrived this afternoon. Canterbury COLLEGE.—A meeting of the Board of Governors was held yesterday, tut the business tratsaoted was of a purely routine character. Accident.—A fi-h-seller, named Frederick Newton, whilst plying his avocation in Biogsland last evening, was thrown from his cart, the wheel of which passed over his head inflicting a scalp wennd. He was taken to the Hospital, where his injuries received prompt attention. Narrow Escape.—A narrow escape from fire occurred at Bangiora early on Sunday morning. It appears that a daughter of Mr 6. B. Bartrnm was aroused by hearing a crackling noise, and on getting up discovered that an outbuilding was on fire. Fortunately, with a good supply of water at hand, Mr Bastrum was enabled to stop what might of been a serious fire. News of Edgar Winter.—A telegram has been received by Mr Brobam from Hokitika stating that Edgar Winter, whose disappearance has caused such trouble _ and anxiety, has turned up in that township, is located at Owen's Hotel, and that ho has obtained employment as a clerk with Mr Alfred Langley. He has written to his friends in Christchurch. Kaiapoi Parish Church. —The Eev. D. O. Hampton preached his farewell sermon as incumbent of this parish on Sunday morning and evening last, when there were large congregations present. It has been impossible to make definite arrangements for the appointment of a ouco’eding clergyman, but the Bishop will send a minister to take the Sunday duty till the parishioners can select one whom they will appoint and give the necessary guarantee for his stipend. Weather Exchange. New Zealand, yesterday—Decreased pressure in the South, with N.E. wind ; elsewhere N. W. wind and cvercist and showery. Heavy sea on West Coast. Australia—There is an area of high pressure over Tasmania and the east of Australia. Barometer—Bussell, 29 8 j Wellington, 29 3 j Bluff, 29.1 j Hobart, 30 2 j Portland, 30 1 ; Sydney, 29,8. Cricket. —A friendly match was played on Saturday last between an eleven from the officers of the Bailway Traffic Department, Christ church,and an eleven of the clerical staff of the L:co. Department, Addington. It resulted in a victory for the former by five ■wickets and 11 runs.—The opening game of the Bangiora Cricket Club was p'ayed on ( Saturday last. There was a moderate attendance, and sides were chosen by Messrs Good eve and Good, and the game resulted in favor of the side of the latter, which won by 19 runs. , Attempted Burglary. —On Saturday afternoon last the office premises o! Mr G, D. Branson, solicitor, of Ashburton, were , forcibly entered by some person porseased of the reverse of honest intentions. The office was entered from a door leading to the back , premises, and to gain admission considerable i pressure must have been brought to bear on j the door, the look of which was forced off ■ and roken in several places. Beyond this | no farther loss was sustained by Mr Branson, , his uninvited friends appearing to have con- j tented themselves with a little harmless ran- j Making. < Linseed Oil and Fibeb Company.—The ■ usual weekly meeting of the promoters of the above was held yesterday afternoon, at , the Agricultural and Pastoral Association’s j rooms. Present—Messrs J. F. Jameson (in , the chair), J. G. Bnddenklau, G. King, T. ( Bruce, O. Elver, J. Uiln, Desborough, 1 Graham, and Cameron, Mr Davis attended . the meeting, and stated that during the past , three weeks he bad been through the Leeston, . South bridge, and Springston districts. He , had not done much in the way of canvassing, . the farmers being busily engaged with their ( spring crops, but he had had a good many , promises. He had sown thirty acres himself, ] and intended sowing thirty more dming the ( coming week. In reply to a question as to ( the amount of flax sown, Mr Davis stated , that a very large area had been planted, but , there was still a great deal to be got in, and r it would bo impossible to state approximately f the probable quantity. Mr T. is. Weston, . solicitor to the company, attended with the ( draft articles of association, which were gone . through seriatim , and, after some alight , alterations and additions, agreed to, and t finally passed. It was resolved to call a j meeting for Monday next, to elect permanent , directors. The meeting then adjourned. , Kaiapoi Licensing Court. —The ad- i jomned quarterly meeting was held at the i Magistrate’s Court, at 2 p.m., on Monday. 1 Present —Messrs Hurte (chairman), Porter, i Coup, Blackwell, and Bobins. Two peti- i tions were handed in, the first signed by 205 i names, including males and females, praying i that to preserve the peace and good order, i extension should not be granted after 10 p.m., i and the second from 156 male residents, ( memorialising the committee to grant exten- i dons to all the hotels to eleven o’clock, for i the convenience of the public and those who i attended meetings and entertainments. The i chairman announced that the committee had i decided to grant extensions to all the pub- i lioans in town as applied for till eleven o’clock, which he understood; that under the new Act they could do. Although no copy of the Act had been received, the committee wss informed, on] reliable authority, that it had passed the General Assembly. The extension would have to be endorsed on the license. In reply to one of the applicants, the chair man said the full fee would be charged for the extension, viz., £5. The fees for extensions to races, regattas, or ploughing matches, would be £1 la; public ball, 10s; private do, 5s ; and extensions for dinners ia the hotel, 10s. The committee then adjourned. The Pbesbrvation op Wood.—A new wood preserving process has been invented in France by M. Jacques. He first impregnates the timber thoroughly with a simple solution of soap, mixed with an acid—profj;r..bly phenio acid. This causes the fermentation, in a few days, within the wood of a fatty acid, which is insoluble in water, and impregnates the remotest fibres. The reaction of the acid on the soap dees not take place until a portion of the water ha r f evaporated. It is claimed that more perfect impregnation can be had in this way than with creosote, and there is no danger of the washing out of the preservative from the exposed surfaces, as when sulphate of copper is used. The Government commission on technical railroad operation in France is said to favour this process.

Bonuses, —Speaking at the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, the Chairman naid:— m He had prepared a short statement showing the bonuses which had been paid and claimed, and from this it appeared that the following bad been paid Paper (grey or wrapping), B. M'Glashan, Dunedin, paid April, 1877, £ISOO j pottery, Pottery and Glass Company, Dunedin, paid October, 1881, £250; sulphuric acid, Kempthorno, Prosser and Co., Dunedin, paid March, 1882, £500 ; frcaan • meat. New Zealand and Australian Land Company, Dunedin, paid August, 1882, £SOO. The following bonuses have been claimed: — Butter and cheese, £SOO, N.Z. and A. Land Co., Dunedin: sulphuric acid, £SOO, T. A. Moorhonse and Co., Christchurch ; starch, J. Oibscn and do., Dunedin ; linseed oil and oilcake, £SOO, F. Singer and Co., Dunedin. It was worthy the attention of the Chamber that such a largo proportion of those bonuses wae claimed by Dunedin people against other portions of the colony. He might add that a bonus of £IOOO had been offered for 125 tons of beet sugar, and £SOO for 100 tons of refined sugar, while other bonuses had boon offered for the production of silk, and the importation and breading of ostriches. Ho thought, at any rate, they might have secured tho £SOO for the establishment of a sugarrefinery in Wellington” Labbxeinism in Dunedin—One of the worst features of larrikinism appears to be developing itself in Dunedin, says the <• Daily Times,” viz, interference with, if not assaults upon, the police. At an early hour on Sunday morning Constable Daly arrested a young man in Tipper 86. Andrew street for drunkenness, when he was set upon by about twenty others, who had resolved upon tho rescue of tho prisoner. Tho constable, however, tuck to his man, and some gentlemen who happened to bo passing went to his assistance. One of these gentlemen by the display of a good des.l of firmness prevented tho rescue of the prisoner, who was, after two attempts had been made to take him from the constable, lodged in the North Dunedin station. The party of roughs followed to the station, where two of them were arrested on a charge of obstructing the police. Tho constable behaved with great courage considering the odds against him, and had it not been for tho useisUnoo given him by the gentlemen referred to, there is little donbt that he wonid have been severely treated, and probably would have lost his prisoner.

Police iNBPJSOToaa.— It has lately rumored, and has now been definitely arrange -- that Mr Broham, of Ohrietohuroh, is change places with Mr Pender, of Timarn, Mr Broham has been in charge of the Christchurch district since Msy, 1877, end Mr Fender of the Timarn district since 1874. Abusbb op Posmon.—lt is related that recently the “ New York Tribune ” applied to Dr. Stnrtevaut, of the New York Expen ment Station, for certain information, which was promptly given. The “ Tribune ” company at once forwarded a check for the service rendered. This check was promptly returned with the following explanation : “Being under pay of the State, it is oe_r.

tainly not proper for us to receive money in payment for replies to questions asked; I therefore return your check, No. 10,251. I trust you will feel at liberty to apply to me for such matter as comes within my province, as I shall feel it a pleasure to com* ply with any reasonable demands.” This was certainly a very honorable act on the part of Dr. Sturtevant. We can recall in stances where patties (says the “Prairie Farmer”) employed as scientists" by the United States Government have not been thus punctilious. In fact there are those who habitually make use of their positions to trade with the press, upon the information tbey are paid for obtaining and disseminating. This is the ease with State employes in many instances also. Tbo patents on certain sorghum processes, obtained by a couple of the late professors at Champaign, is in telling contrast to the course of Dr. Sturtevant. Exposure and press comment brought the proper reward of dismissal to these professors. It would be better for the public service if all such violators of morality were brought to general notice. Thb Obetasbbb of Mount Coox. —Prom the Bev. Mr W. S. Green’s account of his ascent of Mount Cook, published in the “Alpine Journal” for August, we take the following extra-I:—We spent some time sounding crevasses; into one moulin I lowered a stone with 320 ft of cord, but as the I cord was found to have tangled the observation could not be relied on. We then timed the fall of large stones, and on several occasions measured five seconds by my watch before the first crash was heard, giving a depth of 300 f t; and then a series of bangs followed for as long again j these crevasses must at the lowest computation be 500 ft deep. The glacier, which 1 have named the Ball glacier, after John Ball, M.8.T.A., one of the founders of Alpine exploration, close to our camp, had some points of special interest. Plowing from the b. W. it met the current of the main glacier coming from the north, and, failing to stem it, was pushed aside down the valley, its lower portion thus making an aonte angle with its former coarse. As our tent was in this angle I had abundant opportunity for watching its great slabs of ioe, which stood up high above the moraine, and by observation I found the ice moved past at the rate of one foot per day. At one point the pressure had been sufficient to push down the moraine, as a great wall might have been tumbled over; while immediately in front of our camp the glaoier was building up the rampart by a constant dropping of angular stones. Even in the stillness of night these sounds evidenced its icy life ; and one night we heard a bang as of a cannon shot when some new crevasses sprang into existence. Thb Mystbbies of Metals. —Notwith. standing the wonderful progress that has been made during the last hall century to the constitution and working of the useful metals (says the “Mining Press”) there is yet a vast deal to be learned. The metals when pore are oommonly supposed to be simple elements, yet there are some reasons for supposing that it may be proved that at least soma of them are compounds. Even the great Faraday gave utterance to the thought that the dreams of the alchemist might yet be realised—that gold and other metals might be found to be compounds, and that means might be devised whereby those compounds might be separated, and afterwards so differently re-united that the baser metals might be converted into precious. The changes which are wrought in iron and steel by converting, annealing, and hardening processes are far from being understood by the most advanced metallurgists of the present day. The mysteries of _ hydrogen gas and its intimate relations with iron are as much a puzzle as they were fifty years ago, and the theory advanced by Graham, that hydrogen is a metal, is still maintained by many chemists. It is only a few years ago that absolutely pure iron became known to scientists, and it is now shown to be a metal, almost as “ unstable as water,” and still found in the laboratory as a great curiosity. What had previously been known as pure iron was shown by Jacobi to be a compound of iron and hydrogen. He first separated the two so-called elements. Daring the process the iron increased in volume, changed from a dark to a silver ■ white substance, very ductile, and so soft as to be nearly as readily oat os lead. The experiment proved that hydrogen played an important part in hardening and tempering—as much so as carbon—but how or why none know to this day. It is found that much more difficulty is found in rolling and otherwise manipulating gold in a factory where much elec rioity is generated by the action of the machinery than in a room where no machinery is in operation, and where, consequently, frictional electricity is absent, The trouble is manifested in a disposition of the edges of the plates of thin bars to orack. Many other peculiarities already known might be mentioned, and there is no doubt thut closer observation will still largely increase the number of curious and as yet inexplicable phenomena connected with the working and general characteristics of the metals, both usefu I and precious. COMPIIMBHTABY DINNEE.— The COtcpl!. mentary dinner tendered by the electors of Sydenham to Mr W. White, jnn., M.H.8., for that borough, in appreciation of his efforts in Parliament during the past session, will take place to-morrow evening ut the Oddfellows’ Hall, Colombo road.