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Kumara Times, Issue 2083, 3 May 1883, Page 2

To-day being Holy Thursday, or Ascension Day, mass was celebrated at St. Patrick’s Church at 11 o’clock in the morning. The mail coach from Christchurch, due yesterday, but which had been detained by the impassable state of the Kowai River at the foot of the eastern side of Porter’s Pass, arrived at the usual hour, this afternoon. The ordinary fortnightly meeting of the Borough Council will be held this evening; the appointed hour of meeting is half-past seven o’clock. Sittings of the R.M. and Warden’s Courts will be held at the Court House at 10 o’clock to-morrow morning. The following telegram was received yesterday afternoon from Captain Edwin : “Indications of strong south to east and north-east wind and increasing sea from south to west within 12 hours.” Edward M‘Caffrey, one of the alleged four actual assassins of Lord Cavendish and Mr Burke in Phoenix Park, Dublin, on the 6th of May last year, is the sixth man put on trial for these murders. According to the evidence of Carey, the informer, at the examination of the prisoners at the Kilmainhatn Police Court, 1 ‘ Edward M‘Caffrey was never in the Park,” and in this connection he added, “ He never was there to my knowledge—he could not be there without it. I want to make it clear and sure that he never was there.” James Pitzharris, who was acquitted of the charge of murdering Lord Cavendish and Mr Burke will be tried for conspiring to murder those gentlemen. By our late cablegrams this afternoon it will be seen that Patrick Delaney and Thomas Caffrey have confessed to their complicity in these murders, and have been sentenced to death. Telegrams from Timaru state that the weather has cleared up, and the floods have gone down. With the exception of breaches in the railway line from Hinds to Waimate, not so much damage has been done as was expected. Railway communication between Christchurch and Dunedin will be completed to-night. Large numbers of Chinamen are at present patrolling the streets and making merry. They are feasting and rejoicing over the recovery of the remains of some of their countrymen who have died in years past, and whose bones they are going to send back to the country from whence they came. The remains of four were brought up from Stafford yesterday ; and the leper who was buried about three years ago near the Blue Bluff, Westbrook, was also exhumed and brought from the other side of the Teremakau this morning. In all parts of the colony this process of exhumation is being allowed. Those who delight in the healthy and invigorating exercise of dancing will now have opportunities of gratifying their desires in this respect during the coming season. The large room near Mr Peters’ hotel, at Dillman’s Town, where young people were wont last season to devote much of their leisure hours in the enjoyment of this pleasing pastime has now been specially enlarged for this purpose ; and to-night a quadrille assembly will be' inaugurated there for the season. Ladies and gentlemen wishing to join are requested to attend this evening. Dancing is an amusement which has been discouraged by many people for the reason that

the time consumed in preparing for a ball,' the waste of thought upon it, the extravagance of dress, the late hours and the consequent exhaustion of strength, and the lanquor of the succeeeding—or rather the remainder of the following—day, are strong reasons for banishing this pleasure altogether. But dancing ought not therefore to be proscribed. On the contrary, if dancing be commenced at an early hour in the evening, as we find it will be for this assembly, the exercise should prove most healthful. The body as well as the mind feels its gladdening influence, and especially so when the various steps and figures are prompted with such good music and perfect time as are known to exist in the qualifications of the gentlemen who have been engaged for conducting the instrumental harmony for this assembly. The Southland Times has the following; “Asa proof the value of the deferredpayment system as an aid in the work of settlement in New Zealand, we find on investigation that about 800 deferredpayment settlers are located in Southland, west of the Mataura River. Of this number, about 170 have become freeholders by complying with the conditions of settlement. Six hundred and thirty are at present fulfilling the residence and other conditions attached to the license to occupy. About 5 per cent, only fail to fulfil the conditions of residence and forfeit the right to occupy. This result must be deemed very satisfactory, and should induce the Waste Lands Board to encourage in every way bona fide applications for deferred-payment selections.”