The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 1880.

Kumara Times, Issue 1110, 21 April 1880, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 1880.

There was one passenger and four bags of mails for Kumara on the Christchurch coach, which passed the Bealey early this morning. What might have proved a serious fire occurred this morning at the south end of Main street; but fortunately, owing to being discovered in time, the flames were subdued before much injury was done to the building. The settling night on Gilbert Stewart's consultation on the Sydney Cup drew together a large attendance of prize winners to his hotel last evening, who promptly received the respective amounts gained by their fortunate investment. There was a capital muster of the local Rifles last evening, and four new members were proposed. It was unanimously agreed that a drum and fife band would be a great acquisition to the company, and a meeting for carrying out this object will, we understand, be held at an early date. Judgment in the case of John Rogers charged with illegally acting as a member of the Arahura Road Board will be given by Dr Giles at Stafford Town to-morrow morning. We understand it is in contemplation by a number of the friends of Mr George King, who was formerly an old and respected resident of this town, to shortly give an entertainment on his behalf, as we regret to loarn that Mr King is not only totally blind, but is dependant for the means of living solely on a weekly allowance made him by the Oddfellows Lodge. The following telegram from the Lord Mayor of Dublin, dated 18th inst. has been received by Sir John O'Shanassy : "On St. Patrick's Day Ireland thanks Australian continent. Please repeat to colonics."

" To-morrow, being St. George's Davj all the Banks in this town will be closed in honor of England's patron saint; The first prize (150 guineas) for an inaugural cantata for the Victorian International Exhibition was awarded to Mr J. W. Meaden, a draper, of Collingwood, near Melbourne. L ' We publish the poem in another column. A "New Zealand Poet" obtained fourth place in the competition ; his nom de plume was " Lyre Bird."

The following is the number of bull'seyes, centres, outers, and misses made by the champion shot in nine matches fired at the recent rifle competition at Nelson : Bull's-eyes, 90; centres, 78 ; outers, 11 ; misses, 5. Total number of shots fired, 184. We may mention that the whole of the misses were made at the GOO yards' range in the match North v. Southj the wind being very changeable at the time. The above excellent shooting -will show what perfection our rising shootists have to reach if they aspire for the position of champion shot. The Dnnedin Star asserts that "The Royal Commission on the Civil Service have come and gone, leaving it is understood, considerable consternation behind them in certain quarters, owing to the character of the examination to -which certain departments were subjected. The railway workshops and the work in progress therein were critically looked, into, with the result, it is whispered, of special representations about to be made to the Government in respect to certain nice little arrangements of the past and present. When the report of this commission is made public, it is probable that the general surprise at the railways not paying interest on the construction will be changed into wonder that the receipts have balanced the expenditure;" The Chicago Railway Review of January 17 says that a terrible bridge disaster was barely averted on Sunday at Boston by the alertness of the engineer of a New York and New England train and the Westinghouse air break. The large iron steamer Lancaster had crashed into the railway bridge beyond the Congress street draw, because a broken bell-wire had failed to give the steamer's engineer the signal to stop, badly twisting the bridge timbers, breaking the door lock, and devt ating the rails 18in. out of line. No one was on the bridge or in the vicinity to warn the inward-bound train, whose engineer saw the trouble when but a train's length from the bridge. He reversed and applied the brake, stopping the five cars 15ft. from the bridge abutment. But for this the train would have gone into the river, and, as the tide was high, the loss of life would have been great.