The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 1880.

Kumara Times, Issue 1103, 13 April 1880, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 1880.

The fife-bell again gave forth an unwelcome sound last evening, the cause of alarm being a chimney in Seddon street, the flames from which tv ere quickly subdued. The deputation appointed by a public meeting held relative to the Kumara Education llcserve a short time ago, left by special coach this morning for Hokitika, to interview the School Commissioners on the subject of lifting the Reserve in accordance with a short Act passed with that Cbject last session.

We understand that the Government have declined to gazette his Worship the Mayor as a Justice of the'Peace under the “ Municipal Corporations Act, 187 G,” on the ground of the incompatibility of the business position he occupies with the duties of a magistrate ; but at the same time in so doing they point out that this course is also adopted with members of the legal profession, and that in declining to make the appointment the' Government are simply conforming to an established precedent.

The usual weekly parade of the local Rifles will be held this evening, when the district prizes will be presented, and the new committee of management for the ensuing year elected.

Acting, we presume, on a well-known adage of the learned profession to “always make the best of a bad case,” Mr A. R. Guinness, of Greymouth, has favored both of our morning contemporaries with an explanation relative to a paragraph that appeared in the columns of the Kumar a Times on the Ist inst. anent his absence from the Magistrate’s Court on that day. With the correctness or otherwise of the statement contained in the paragraph to which Mr Guinness objects we have nothing to do ; but that such statement was made in open Court by the Resident Magistrate we most unhesitatingly affirm. As in Mr Guinness’s opinion we cast a reflection on his professional conduct by publishing the remarks of the Bench on the occasion, if they were erroneously made, why did not Mr Guinness offer his explanation to the public through the medium of our columns ? and not as it were “trail a red herring across the scent” by excusing his action in the columns of our contemporaries, who, in reprinting the paragraph, quoted us as their authority.

A well-known boniface of this town, who was the happy possessor of a hive of bees and whose soul delighted in watching these industrious little insects “improve each shining hour,” has of late noticed the gradual but certain reduction in the number of his favorites. In dozens they left the hive to scan the country round, but in units they returned, and the reason was unexplainable. The mystery lias now, however, been solved by the discovery of a “ bee exterminator” in a neighboru’s garden in the form of a Tui, and whose food, containing honey, naturally attracted the attention of boniface’s bees, which no sooner were in the cage engaged in enjoying the sweets of the spoil than a sharp quick snap was heard, and they shared their predecessor’s fate.

We (West Coast Times) learn that an information has been laid against Mr Rogers, or Rodgers, for illegally acting as a member of the Arahura Road Board. VV alter Cook was committed for trial at the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Greymouth, yesterday, on two charges of forging the name of Walter Besant, of Charleston, to two cheques on the Bank of New Zealand, for five pounds each. Mr John Reid, of Elderslie (says the Oamarn Mail), has resolved upon feeding his sheep upon oats, rather than sell them at the prices now being offered. He is of opinion that about 2s per bushel can be realised for them by adopting this means of utilising them, whilst the land will be vastly benefitted. .One paddock of 200 acres of oats is expected to yield over 100 bushels to the acre. The crop is nearly all stacked, there being one stack to every five acres. Sucb extraordinary yields must be disposed in some manner, and Mr Reid’s method—a method that is being adopted elsewhere in the district—possesses these virtues :—lt will make the most of this cereal under the circumstances, and help to relieve a glutted market.

One of the items of news brought by the Californian mail steamer, City of New York, reads as follows.—The police have ferretted out a gang of robbers and murderers near a railway depot East Misssouri. Their plan was to lure passengers by the night cars to the platform, kill them, and, after robbery, bury the bodies in the marshes close by. The action of this gang accounts, it is said, for disappearance of several prominent men of late.

An extraordinary discovery (says Atlas in the World) has just been matte, or is strongly believed to have been made, by the India Office. The sister of a Bedfordshire baronet, who, being then a young girl of considerable beauty, was lost during the Indian mutiny, has been found in a harem at Mecca. The lady is now in India, and questions have been sent out to secure evidence of her indentity, which it is suspected there may be a desire to conceal.

The wonderful Mrs Smith of Westmoreland County, Ya., is dead. She measured thirty-four inches across the shoulders, and weighed within a fraction of ClOlb. The coffin was of immense size, and before it was delivered two ordinary men lay in it side by side on their backs without crowding each other in the least. When brought to the house it could not be got through the door, and it was necessary to leave it outside until the time set for the funeral, when the corpse was carried out to the coffin.”