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Kumara Times, Issue 1627, 14 December 1881, Page 2

The following telegram in reference to the movements of the Hon. W. Rolleston, Minister of Mines, has been handed to us by the Chairman of the public meeting held in the Theatre Royal on Saturday, 3rd inst. The meeting, it will be remembered, was called to take into consideration the important question of water-supply to this goldfield. To Mr Ambrose Creber, Kumara, Your telegram and letter of sth inst. as to commencing upper Kapitea dam is received. The Minister of Mines hopes to be in Kumara the first week in January, when the matter will be considered, O. Wakefield, Under-Secretary for Goldfields. Wellington, Dec. 13, 1881. A telegram has also been received from the Minister of Mines, as follows : To R. J. Seddon, Esq., M.H.R., Kumara. I hope to make a start next week overland from Nelson to Collingwood and Westport, and on down the Coast, so as to reach you about the first week in January. But I will advise you further. W. Rolleston. Wellington, Dec. 13, 1881. The last sentence, Ave are informed, has special reference to the construction of the upper dam, and the widening of the races. The mail coach from Christchurch arrived at the Post-office this. afternoon, at three o'clock. The entertainment to be given to-mor-row evening at the Adelphi Theatre by the Kumara Amateur Dramatic Club will be a treat we have been looking forward to for some time. It commences with the much-admired domestic drama " Time Tries AH"; will be followed by "A Musical Bouquet," and conclude with the laughable farce entitled Race for a Widow." The scenery and effects are magnificent, With such a compact of names as will be found in the programme, all well up in their respective parts, we may hope to see a grand house. The object, too, is a most deserving one, next to the Hospital we should say ; and as it is the first time, we believe, that an entertainment of this kind has been got up for the Benevolent Society, we hope the committee will have the pleasure of seeing their appeal liberally responded to. A meeting is to be held at the Town Hall to-morrow evening, at seven o'clock,

of gentlemen willing to form a committee to make arrangements for the usual New Year's Day picnic. The Pirates of Penzance Company repeated the opera of " Les Cloches de Corneville" to a fair house at the Adelphi last evening, and took their departure for Greymouth to-day, where they open for a few nights in grand operas. We observe by the Gazette of the Ist inst., that the Government is calling for alternative tenders for the conveyance of mails between the Post Offices at Belgrove (near Foxhill, Nelson) and Lyell, for a period of two or three years, as under : 1, by four-horse coach, weekly ; 2, by four-horse coach, twice weekly. So that passengers will be able to go right through to Nelson shortly by coach. To-night, Mr Wright, the evangelist, will hold the first of the three special farewell services in the Presbyterian Church. The meetings last for one hour exactly, from Bto 9 o'clock. There is a singing practice before, and a short meet' l ing for prayer after each service. All are invited.

The cry of the mopoke by night and of the kingfisher during the day are sounds familiar to all dwellers in Kumara, but the twittering of the sparrow is something entirely new. Two of these much persecuted birds put in an appearance yesterday, and were busily engaged in examining the new land in which they had arrived. They fluttered here, there, and everywhere, and it is to be presumed that they are merely the advanced guard of the main body of interesting strangers whose irruption into Canterbury and Otago has caused so much disturbance in the minds of the farmers.

F. J. D. Elmer, Esq., has been appointed to the Deputy of the Registrar of Marriages and of Births and Deaths for the district of Grey. Mr Pyke having „been reported to have said at one of his meetings that a seat in the Legislative Council was offered him, on the condition of his retiring from the House, the Hon. J. Hall telegraphed—"No offer of the kind made to Mr Pyke by our Government. Never heard of such an offer made by any other Government."