DUNEDIN.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1159, 16 April 1872, Page 2

DUNEDIN.

i V J&f ♦ i \JoO!si OUR OWN COBRBSPONDBKT.J "'"*"'' April 6. The quarterly sitting of the Supreme Court for the despatch of criminal buaiJfltodawklßyg— "gfere were very few cases for trial, aid his Honor ia his address- to? Jthb Gbfibdr Jury alluded to this and accounted foritpartly bythe^reeeßfr^ugtoUinhwjufcufirPiubiict Court at Oamariij.rat -:g#iich several cases have been tried that would in due course have had to be tried here. None of the cases was seriQUB)>iitoF|to any of them call for special r.em£|Ejj||liPwere disposed of early on ThtHjffijffl|||fon the Court adjourned sine, die.. „ ..,,,,, r, r ,jn.,« — . ' T^e Peninsula el6cW>n'.^r)^^ap^he return of Mr W. A v Tplin'ie 'Kjrja, Jwg*fjiajprity over his two of these (Hutcheson) was at all formidable, Robertson having only polled nine votes, while the other had over ,SQ. Tolmie's politics are rather mi&tj^'anC '?%" Caia hardly tell whe+her to ptft^im^dowii^as a supporter of the presemtf.statebJrfJbbio^s or not. Hej however,- gpea'iais%dffg r icfean undenominational system 4n ( educational matters, which" is di^iyecieeißa^^qlnt in his platform. A vacant liasjpccurred in the repreßeniatiim of^o&'Olialmeis by the resignation of MrtJjftbraifhVahd already three candidates are ready to bid for the honor. Mr 'Haugh'fonyhfcvlng been appointed to/ an office iindpr^he' General Goveirimenti v has t res^hedhis;p£tt i '£br|he Lakes district, and,a keen 1 contest; 3p expected there too. : The;Pr^fflcial;Co'uncil is to be called together; |6r 'ihe; despatch of business on the last Jay^f.th^^rppnth. Mr George McLean," M. SIR: 1 "for* Waikouaiti, having resigned on accognt of,illhealth, an election is expected shortly for the vacancy. Our Mayor, 1 Hi S. Fish, is reported as a probable candidate. An extraordinary; meeting-of. the Water Company was held on, r Mbnday>/ifor the purpose of considering a proposal from tihe City Corporation; for; the punjhase/;pfjthe whole concerm . Thelattepipffe^ed a premium of L 2 per LlO share, but this was re j ected, and the meeting lad the whole matter befof eithem: in' thelshapefof several reports — from the Secretary on the financial prosjtectsi : and :■ from SnActuaty • or^ the probable foiure. ''Bot1i ( of the reports* were, of course, highly flattering'-'tb the shareholders, Jhough received rather coldly ; indeed^he^^feter one was nov**--printed, bifi^^^^ffl^, a motion that it should be pxllleipTHKrorculated having been. lost. The meeting waa rather; warm, and the Directors met with some opposition. .- . Mr J. Bathgate, who was one of the original oor.thef r. the Company, and the Chairman, and even a large shareholder," haY : notf for; some' inexplicable reason gone in dead against the concero, and moved that the offer of jthe Corporation be accepted on .public grounds, whatever they may be ; but he was out- voted a long way. , Eyentuajly5 i p,ower was given the Directors to further negotiate with the Corporation. . ., ..■•... „,•■•■' The autumn sports of the Amateur Athletic Club came off on Monday, and was in every way a success, both .as regards the various competitions themselves and the number of visitors in attendance. The sports;-came off on the North Recreation Gwgnd, the Grand Stand being fairly occupied, and ,the -ling surrounded by a pretty fringe of spectators, who took a keen interest in the various events on the programme. A good deal of excitement was, occasioned by a velocipede, race, for T "which there were three entries, but only two started — a bicycle, the other- a; ttricy,cjer(the wellknown King Cobb, the winner of previous matches on the same grpund)i ! The fore-and-after was cleverly ridden by a young man -named Johnston, and started from scratch ; while the three-wheeler had a much heavier rider, M'^rregbr : (who had just previously won thetwo-miie walking match, and was consequently hardly fit for another bout), and had 120 yards of a start. The c light . machine was rapidly making up its Vi ieeway^"%hen M'Gregor fouled the rope, and shortly after boggled over some, rough ground,, whiph allowed Johnston ; to win easily. M'Gregor jumped off when he was" passed, and a younger and lighter man took his place, driving the King at a rate which showed it was the' fault of the rider rather than the machine that; he ! did fttif ; pull l off the prize. The walking match brought out three athletes — M'Gregor scratch, Eadie 80 yards, and Bbdetf 120 yards'. M'Gregor started off at a great pace, and when, the first mile was walked; all three were abreast; Eadie put on : a spurt, but M'Gregor was too 'much for him, an£. passed him, winning by about 30 yardsT The St. Patrick's Band was. on the ground, and played throughput!.": the day. The weather was excellent, with a fine cool breeze blowing, with no dust. — A large number of pleasure ; trips, jjic-nics, &c, came off during the "day," and in the evening several bills toot place. Public attention during the. week has been* pretty fully concentrated on? the doings of our Volunteer representation at the Colonial Prize Firing at Christchurch. So far as the competition has gone, we have no reason to be ashamed of. our men — as the returns . published yesterday morning show that otft-Qf -:the:jfcen leading scores OUgo claims, six. f,. However, the most severe trials have yei ,to take place, and there is no saying what may turn tip, but : i:he yolun,t§erB he.ce Law very sanguine about the Belt coming: rback; to ; Otrgo. The Christchurch scores have made havoc with, the expectation^ formed of some of the local shots. Some of those whose scores were highest in fhe' preliminary firing are now nowhere ; ia.s particular Dixon, who had : the tpp:^gure, has not yet taken a prize, and & jvery far down the list. On the other hanld, some of the steady shots have shown . that they can always be depended on, and are where they were, expected to be, either at the head or thereabout. : ■ ■ ■ The Saturday half-holiday- movement comes into operation to-day. 7 In order to obviate any inconve ; hienee 'which might occur, most .of the shops 1 kept open last night till eight o'clock ', It was unfortunate, however, that the weather prevented anything like a fair te^t being given to this provision, -for, during, all yesterday, for the first time for many, monthsj a steady rainfeil,' firstLUakt.andltilienJieaTiy,4asting all night and still pourirg down this morning. From the telegram iri |his morning's paper, I see that, the ram has stopped at Christchurch, so I suppose it will clear up here in the course of the day. The rain will rejoice the hearji pf , many a one, both in town and country, for tanks and barrels, and dams and resi&ryoiri*, as well" as running streams, have all alike been dry, or hearly so- for these few weeks back. The diggers particularly will

reap the benefit, for the drought has been felt very severely'on all the alluvial working ; so much so that the last escort was nearly a third below tbe average, only totting up the small amount of 11,2190z. In connection with holiday movement a concert is to take place to-night, but I am afraid that the damp streets will rather Incline people to stay at home, although the proceeds are to be given to the Benevolent Institution. . . . . . . , ■ ■

People 1 heire are in high dudgeon at the failure of the San Francisco mail boat in its promised punctuality, a3 it is now twelve days overdue, andiwith two months' mails on board. Besides, what is to be done with the outgoing mail ; supposing the boat at Auckland now, it will be impoijsibhvfpr ifyto get .away With the mail on* Friday next from Port Chalmers. There must be something seriously wrong this time.