The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. MONDAY, JUNE 20, 1881.

Kumara Times, Issue 1475, 20 June 1881, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. MONDAY, JUNE 20, 1881.

Mr Fokli, Dolman's Town, (not Mr C. F. Holmes, as we erroneously stated in in our report of the meeting of the Borough Council on Friday last) was the tenderer for the supply of kerosene to the borough for the current year.

With regard to the comet which is still visible in the evenings for a little while after sunset and at early morn before sunrfse, we have to correct one of our contemporaries. The Press Association agent at Timaru, telegraphing on the 13th states : —"Two comets are now distinctly visible here, one setting at seven o'clock in the evening, and the other rising before the sun about five in the morning." We can assure our Timaru friend that for at least three weeks back we have observed the comet alluded to, both in the evening and morning, and although the tail appears on these occasions extended in a different direction, that is simply due to our own position on the earth and the earth's rotation on its own axis; they are the same body. The tail f>f a comet always appears extended in an opposite direction to the sun from it nucleus, and it is for this reason some theorists assert that the tail is formed by the rays of light emitted by the sun through the nucleus, and which they aver is porous. There seems to be good reason for supposing that this comet is identical with Pons' comet, discovered on the 20th July, 1812, which has been calculated as having a period of 69 years, and which would therefore be now due. Astronomers have been on the look out for a comet this year. At the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, before E. Barff, Esq., J.P., Lousia O'Brien was charged with the larceny of books, the property of Robert Wright. On the application of Sergeant Emmerson, the prisoner was remanded until to-morrow.

The uproar produced by mobs of boys when playing marbles in the streets of the town on Sundays, has been a public nuisance for a long time past ; but it is satisfactory to know that an attempt was made yesterday to put a stop to it. The police made a raid upon a group of the noisy ones, and confiscated their marbles, much to the disgust of the boys, but greatly to the gratification of the dwellers in the vicinity. The annual licensing festival at Mr Hannan's Post Office Hotel will be held on Friday evening next, 24th inst. An opportunity is now offered to parties who may be waiting to invest in the now most popular method of extracting gold from the numerous claims in this district, as a whole claim is advertised for sale by tender, with tools and working plant complete. It is situate at Patrick's Terrace, Dillman's Town Road. Tenders are to be forwarded to Mr John Davidson, blacksmith, Seddon street, by Monday next, the 27th inst. At a meeting of the Otago Education Board held at Dunedin last Thuasday, a letter was read from Mr John Hislop, Secretary of Education, in reply to a resolution forwarded by the Board. The letter said—" I am to say that the resolution recommending that power be given to sell the General Education Reserves involves a very serious question of policy, affecting not only Otago but the whole of New Zealand, and that, after giving the subject in all its bearings very careful consideration, the Government are at present unable to see that it would be expedient to give the power proposed, but rather the reverse." Among the despatches received by the Government from the Agent-General by the San Francisco and Suez mails, there is a return of the amount of the five million loan, which has been converted into four per cent, inscribed stock; the amount so inscribed is £4,470,000 out of £5,000,000, leaving little more than half a million not converted. A new Catholic church is to be erected at Kaiapoi. The superstructure will be of timber, on a foundation of concrete which will rise two feet above the ground line and will be very prettily moulded. The Freemasons of Invercargill have arranged to erect a hall in that town, which, with the site, will cost nearly £2OOO. The foundation stone is to be laid on St. John's the Baptist's day, 24th inst. Mr Harry Prince, the bookmaker, returned to Dunedin from Adelaide by the Rotorua, but he did not bi'ing Mata, who, it is believed, stays in Melbourne till an application can be heard for the V.R.C. to remove the disqualification. All the Australian papers seem opposed to this. Another eruption of Vesuvius has taken place. Streams of lava poured down the side of the mountain causing considerable damage. Two thousand two hundred persons attended the Exhibition ball at Melbourne, on the Ist of June. This number is said to have been considerably less than was expected ; but the arrangements were excellent, and the affair generally successful.

The body of a man named W. H. Matheson was drowned in the Tauranga harbor last Wednesday. He had been missing for some days. A hitch has occurred in the formation of the team of professional cricketers who are to visit Australia during the coming season. The Nottingham contingent are dissatisfied with the financial arrangements, and threaten to withdraw altogether. Chickens have for a long time been hatched by steam, but the latest invention, which is said to be the work of an Illinois farmer, is described as an " arrangement in electricity,'' by means of which any experienced and trustworthy hen may be enabled to hatch an indefinite number of broods at one and the same time without incurring any abnormal waste of vital force.