The Kumara Times. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1878.

Kumara Times, Issue 562, 16 July 1878, Page 2

The Kumara Times. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1878.

We would again direct attention to the public meeting, to be held this evening at the Theatre Royal. As prospecting associations have been successfully launched in other parts of the coast, we trust that the report which will be brought up by the Committee this evening, will shew that they are in a position to commence operations forthwith, by sending out parties to prospect the surrounding country. The usual weekly parade of the local Rifles, will take place this evening at the Public Hall. The tenders for 8500 feet sawn timber, advertised in our issue yesterday as for "9-inch blocks," should have been 6-inch blocks. The correction appears in the advertisement.

As we have published telegrams giving very encouraging accounts of the success of some" of the recent New Guinea expeditions, it is only right to give the following telegram, to the Post, showing the other side of the case, so far as another of the expeditions is concerned. The telegram is dated Brisbane, Saturday, and is as follows :—" Distressing news has arrived about the Sydney Colonist expedition. After forming a camp at Laloke, it proceeded up to the western-most branch of the river. The thickness of the scrub' compelled them to keep to the river bed. Floods came and put a stop to prospecting, which resulted in prospects obtained being no better than those obtained by Goldle's party. On returning to the main camp, the whole party were seized with fever, twenty-two being down with illness at one time, one supposed to be dying. The men from Cooktowu are without means, being supported by the natives."

We observe from a letter that appears in the West Coast Times of to-day, from Mr R. J. Seddon, that he has virtually resigned his seat as one of the members for this district in- the County Council. Referring to the mismanagement of that body, he says : "My advice to the people is : Agitate for a separate County at once, while the House is sitting. The Borough of Kumara could join issue, and be the chief County town, and between the two rivers—Teremakau and Arahura—a County formed with a revenue of £12,000 per annum. The Road Board done away with, and only with about thirty miles of main road to keep, there would be £BOOO per annum to spend, in improving tliis unfortunate district, which, from the first of the West Coast, has been fleeced by the various governing bodies that have' administered its afl'uird in Hokitika."

■ A singular. vote of censure has been passed upon the. Nelson School .Committee by the children attending the Bridge street school. It appears : tuat the''committee ' decided to dispense 'with the services of the master. Hereupon the pupils presented? him'with an .addresanaore sympathetic than grammatical,-as will be seen by tlie following extract :—We exceedingly regret ihat j list at this crisis of our school life the l governing powers'wills ib, for reasons best known to themselves and unknown to us, that we are .to be withdrawn from your excellent teaching, to be tossed about we know not whither." The best tossing that the wretched LitLle prigs could have would be in a blanket. The master in his reply said:—"Was I fully satisfied that the address was wholly of your own inspiration and dictation, my satisfaction would be very great indeed, as its sonfcimeni; and its spirit is sj

fully in ageement with all I have endeavoured to impress upon you." It is not stated that the school committee' thus unmercifully lashed have resigned.

In reference to the Christchurch road and the severity of the weather, the Christchurch Press says :— a Judging from the reports to hand respecting the West Coast road, there has been a heavy fall of snow on the ranges. The lineman at the Bealey started out to repair a wire which had been broken, but was obliged to return, the snow being seven or eight feet deep a few miles from that place. On Arthur's Pass the snow is from fifteen to twenty feet deep, and the roadmen have been vainly endeavoring to cut a track through it. So soon as they cut a line the snow fell in upon them, so that they had to desist. It is many years since so heavy a fall of snow has occurred as that now reported." The Loch Ard was insured in various offices in Sydney to the extent of £IO,OOO.

At Napier recently, says a Northern contemporary, a telegram from New South Wales was put in evidence during a trial at the Supreme Court. His Honor the presiding Judge made a few remarks on the superior and convenient description of telegraph forms issued by the Sydney Government. He also said the writing on it was like copper-plate, and very unlike the scrawls we usually get in New Zealand. Mr George Gall has left £IOO in trust to the Mayor of Melbourne for the purpose of encouraging children to acquire the art of swimming. The conditions are that'the interest of the sum named shall be devoted to the purchase of silver cups to be competed for in swimming by natives of Victoria nuder 14 years of age. The rapacity (says Harper's Magazine) of country journalists is aptly illustrated in the story told of a provincial editor, who discovering that one of his neighbours had hung himself, would not cut him down, nor mention the discovery to anyone, but kept the b<>dy undor lock and key for two whole days. His reason was simple and. sufficient. His paper appears on Thursday, that'of his rival on Wednesday, and, 'Do you think,' he triumphantly asked, ' I was going to say anything about the suicide, and lot that scoundrel have the paragraph V The following incident happened lately in one of the public schools of a city : Teacher : "Define the word 'excavate.' " Scholar: "It means to hollow out." Teacher : "Construct a sentence in which the word is properly used." - Scholar : " The baby excavates when it gets hurt." For miraculous eures by the use of Eucalypti Extract, read fourth page.— [Advt.]