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Kumara Times, Issue 1649, 11 January 1882, Page 2

The Zealandia, with the inward San Francisco mail* arrived at Auckland at ndon yesterday, one day after its due date. The mail coach from Springfield, with East Coast mails* left the Bealey at the usual hour this morning, and arrived at the Kumara Post-office at 3.10 pam A telegram having been forwarded by the Reception Committee to the Hon. Mr Rolleston, Minister of Mines, to a banquet on the occasion of his visit here, the following reply has been received : To his Worship the Mayor* Kumara. I shall have great pleasure in accepting your kind invitation. I hope to reach Greymouth about Wednesday next, and Kumara about the end of the week. W. Rollkston. Lyell, Jan. 10, 1882. A telegram from Reefton this afternoon informs us that the Exchange Hotel, Reefton, was burned to the ground this morning. We acknowledge receipt from Mr MacDermott, the postmaster, the “Postal and Telegraph Guide” for the quarter commencing Jan uary, 1882. Among the principal alterations since the issue of the last Guide is the Table of Hew Rates of Foreign Postage. There were sixteen passengers by Mr Rugg’s coach yesterday morning to Christchurch. Mrs Wickes (formerly of Greymouth) and child were returning home to Christchurch, and there were five members of the late Pirates of Penzance Opera Company, which company disbanded in Hokitika, and now have formed a smaller company for the performance of comedy and burlesque. We observe that Miss Amy Johns, one of the new organization, takes a benefit at Hokitika on Friday night. The time for the district prize firing for the Kumara Rifle Volunteers is fixed for Tuesday, 31st inst. Diphtheria manifested itself in true form at Dillman’s Town yesterday, from which cause the decease of the young person whose death forms the subject of a funeral notice in this issue is, on good authority, said to be attributable. Mr Wm. Perkins, solicitor, of Greymouth (the Argus states) has been appointed Crown Prosecutor for the. judical districts of this coast. Greymouth will therefore be the head-quarters of the Crown Prosecutor, instead of Hokitika as heretofore. Mr Perkins’s first trip in connection with his new duties will be to Westport, for which place lie left in the Kennedy this morning at a very early hour. The Union Company’s s.s. Alhambra’s departure from Melbourne is postponed until Saturday, the 14th instant. Her departure for Sydney and Melbourne from the Coast will consequently be extended until the 24th instant. The Hon. W. Gisborne and Mrs Gisborne, accompanied by several members of their family, left recently for England, via Melbourne. Mr T. S. Weston, M. H.R. for Inangahua, has been on a visit to New Plymouth. The Lyell Times of the 7th says:— “News reached town on Wednesday that a fatal accident had happened in the Matakitaki River on the previous evening. From the meagre particulars to hand, it appears that a young man named Walter Moffatt was crossing the Matakitaki, near Rowe’s on his way to Hampden, when he was seen to fall off his horse, and was immediately carried away by the very rapid current. He drifted as far as the junction of the stream with the Buller, when he sank to rise no more.” Preserving peaches will he carried on vigorously this season at the Thames, and already the tinsmiths are fully engaged making tins. Mr Fagg, of Pollen street, Auckland, has ox-ders for 500,000 tins. The Union Fix-e and Marine Insux'ance Company have declared an interim dividend for the half-year ending the 30th November last, equal to 10 per cent, per annum. It seems that blood was near being spilled at an Aldershot review the other day. Writing about “ one of the prettiest field days they have held at Aldershot this season,” the London military correspondent of a contemporary says :—“The Duke of Connaught's Brigade foriaed the-

defending force trying to retire across the Basingstoke canal, with the enemy attacking them across the Long .Valley. The Duke made a most vigorous stand, and certainly very few of the other force would have got across the Long Valley alive. But they did so all the same, and got so excite'd over it that the 74th Highlanders actually fixed bayonets, and, rushing up within forty yards of the Duke's position, were preparing to charge the 93rd and 82nd. The colonel of the" 82rid, luckily, with great presence of mind, put himself in front of his den, and gave the order to ' cease firing,' { order arms,' wliich instructions were dßeyed, and directly afterwards thd * cease firing' sounded along the line. So no lives were lost, as they doubtless would have been but for the actidii df Colonel Walter's, who seeing the danger of the position, took upon himself to act independently, and thus prevent what might have proved a most unpleasant business. The English Old Testament Company have finished their seventy-first session. The second revision of Isaiah was carried as far ae xlv. 14.