The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1880.

Kumara Times, Issue 1081, 18 March 1880, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1880.

The Kennedy, with the San Francisco mails, left Westport at midnight. She arrived in the Grey River at noon to-day, and the mail may be looked for by this evening's tram."

Besides peaches, plums, damsons, walnuts, chesnuts, filberts, and quinces, Mr Bladier yesterday exhibited 48 different kinds of apples and six of pears, all of his own growing at Arahura, and which for size, flavor, and freshness maybe taken as superior to the imported fruit. The cultivation of fruits and flowers is an industry carried on to a much greater extent in this and the adjoining districts than from the rarity of displays of this character many would imagine, and we hope to see such an exhibition as we witnessed yesterday in Kumara become a more general and frequent occurrence.

Graham Flowers, the alleged cattle stealer, who it will be remembered es-' caped some months ago from custody When being escorted to Hokitika, will be discharged (the Lyttelton Times says) from gaol on March 21, and will then be re-arrested on the charge of stealing cattle from Messrs Walker Bros., Maruia Station, Nelson, which he sold in the Rangiora sale yards. An illustration of one of the modern methods for teaching French is given by a contributor to the Timaru Herald, who thus writes :—The following is one of the facts of the nineteenth century, and relates how modern French is taught in a school not a thousand miles away.— Enter Dominie— " Hallo, what are rtll you boys holding your noses for ? "—the dread idea of typhoid seizing his mind. Eager boy, with strong French accent, replies, "Please, sir, we're learning French." Dominie sternly, but amused, and with a quite puzzled look at the lady teacher—-

"Nonsense, let go your noses." Eager boy, now free of the French accent and looking sweetly innocent—" Please sir,— but sir— Mrs says that's the way to get the true accent." Mrs looks not herself, iand wishes she was in well, Paris again. Moral: Remove foreign would-be linguists and piano thumpers, and replace with clean, plain cooks and needlewomen. The result would be bliss to the men and happier homes for the married. In fact, " Home sweet home'"' would be realised. How do teachers with such crude ideas get appointed. Mr S. Franck, who claims to be the sole patentee of the is at present on a visit to Chfistchurch.

A horrible murder has been committed at Moonlight Flat, near Bathurst; by a man named Poulson, who killed liis son and daughter, aged eleven and twelve years respectively, with an adze, in a fit of delirium tremens.

The weather must have been tolerably warm in South Australia during the past month, as the following extract from an Adelaide paper will show:—"The heat which for several days previously has been most oppressive, culminated on Tuesday in a regular South Australian summer's day. On Monday night houses had become so hot that sleep to residents of the city who were not possessed of underground apartments Was a matter of difficulty. The heat in Adelaide on Tuesday was most trying, and sunshades and green spectacles protected pedestrians in a very minor degree from the intense glare of the sun. At the west terrace observatory the thermometer registered 172 deg. in the sun, and 113 5 deg. in the shade. At Clare the glass was 115 deg. in the shade, at Georgetown 114 deg., and at Port Pirie 112 deg.". Professor Cavill started to swim frdm the Semaphore to Glenelg (ten miles), but when two miles and a half out he gave up, with his eyes very bloodshdt. Moodie, an amateur, swam some miles further.

The South Australian Register estimates the average yield of wheat at 11 bushels to the acre, making a total outturn of 16,300,000 bushels, of which 13,375,60 b bushels, or 361,500 tons, are available fdr sale or export. Mr Beckworth Smith has purchased for exportation to New Zealand, the wellknown filly Pulchfa, dut of Formosa, winner of the Thousand Guineas, in foal to Lord Falmouth's celebrated sire Massinger.

Mr John Bright proposes td the British Government to advance three-fdurths of the purchase money for farms in Ireland ; principal aud interest to be repayable in thirty-five years. The United States may well claim to be the granary of Europe, not only in the matter of cereals, but of more substantial produce. The agricultural yield for the present year is calculated as follows : Butter 170,000,000 dollars; cheese and milk, 130,000,000 dollars; beef, fresh and tinned, 270,000,000 dollars; pork and bacon, 250,000,000 dollars ;' Indian corn, 410,000,000 dollars; and wheat, 400,000,000 dollars; the total being 1,630,000,000.

One archbishop and two bishops were found imprisoned in a fortress at Gusdal, in the province of Vladimir. The archbishop had been incarcerated 22 years and the bishops 22 and 17 years respectively. The unfortunate clerics had been forgotten by the Government.

After an unnecessary amount of mystery and secret consultation, it has been finally decided by the Committee appointed for the purpose, that the English University Boat Race shall be rowed on Saturday, March 20. The time at which the tide serves on that day will necessitate a start being made about half-past seven in the morning. Some people have already begun to deplore this. On the following Saturday there is an afternoon tide, and a postponement of the race until that day was proposed, but seeing that it conies between Good Friday and Easter Sunday there would have been a fine outcry from the clericals if that day had been selected. Besides, after their howls for privacy in future years, the Blues would have been stultifying themselves to row the race in the afternoon, when there was the slightest chance of bringing the thing off in the comparative quiet of early morning.