The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1885

Kumara Times, Issue 2637, 18 February 1885, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1885

The Ministerial party halted at the foot of the Otira Gorge last night. They proceeded on to and arrived at the Bealey early this morning, and hope to reach Springfield to-night. Mr Stout, Premier, will go on to Christchurch, and thence to Dunedin. Mr Larnach proceeds north by coach, via the Hamner Plains and Tophouse, to Nelson.

All accounts incurred by the Reception Committee appointed to entertain the Ministerial party in their visit to this town, and in connection with the banquet and ball are to be sent in to the Hon. Secretary (Mr G. R. Rudkin) before six o’clock to-morrow evening.

A pressure of cablegrams compels us to hold over our report of the banquet to Ministers, and a continuation of the report of interviews of mining deputations. The Christchurch mails arrived here at three o’clock this afternoon. We observe that it is in contemplation to erect a memorial to the late Gilbert Stewart, and persons willing to act on. a committee for the purpose of raising funds towards that very desirable object are requested to attend at the Town Hall on Friday evening next, at eight o’clock. At their weekly meeting on Monday night the Grey mouth Harbour Board accepted the tender of Messrs Hungerford and M‘Kay for extending the south training wall; amount, £17,938 6s Bd. The sureties are Messrs Robert Oxley and William Kane. There were only four tenders altogether ; two of them were very considerably in excess of the successful tenderer, while the third, although closely approaching the tender that was accepted, was only put in for one of the alternate tenders. Mr Alexander, the Australian Blondin, is performing in Greymouth, and last night gave an open air performance in front of the Fire Brigade Hall. There was a large muster of people present, probably not fewer than 500 or 600, the softer sex being proportionately well represented. A malignant form of whooping-cough is still (the Times of Monday states) alarmingly prevalent in Reefton, and a large number of deaths have occurred amongst children. Two or three deaths occurred last week, and the School Committee, acting on the advice of Dr. Whitton, have closed the school for a fortnight or three weeks. The Ministerial party are said to have given great offence to a number of farmers and settlers in the Grey Valley in consequence of traveling on a Sunday. By some (the Inangahua Times states) it is alleged that the Premier and Minister of Mines played the role of Sabbathbreakers in order to evade deputations, while others take higher ground, view this Sunday traveling as an offence against “public morals.” One well-known farmer on Totara Flat has expressed his intention of laying an information against the visitors under the Police Offences Act, and he rode down to Ahaura on Monday morning for the purpose of telling the Premier what he thought about such a desecration of the Lord’s Day. Messrs Stapleton and Fleming, the enterprising promoters of the “ Robin Hood Great Novelty Company,” had a visit to the West Coast lately, and were well received. Their programme on the Dunedin Cup is rapidly filling ; the 137 prizes vary from five to one thousand pounds. The Wellington Post says :—“lt is rumored in well-informed circles that Sir George Des Vceux, the Governor of Fiji, who is at present visiting New Zealand, will, in all probability, succeed Sir William Drummond Jervois as Governor of this colony, when the latter’s period of service expires.” The Auckland Hospital management has been in a state of turmoil for some time past. There are over a hundred patients and a staff of one to every four patients. Everybody seems to be master, and the servants instead of one responsible head squabble and carry their squabbles into committee meetings, where the fighting can be carried on by proxy. New regulations had to be made to prevent the steward and engineer coming into unpleasant contacts. Another time a committee meeting passed a regulation to compel the steward to obey the reasonable orders of the doctor, and got his resignation flung at them for trying to make him acknowledge authority in about the only person who everybody ordered abou t and no one obeyed. Out of the hundred patients it appears that one has been drawing up a sort of journal of trifling complaints against the doctor, his manner, his treatment, his incomings and outgoings, upon investigating which the circumstances have arisen that have caused the action reported in a telegram given elsewhere. Moral Turpitude.— Blame attaches to a jury of intelligent men when they condemn a man for crime whose moral nature has been perverted by indigestion, diseased liver and kidneys. A thoughtful judge may well consider whether society would not be better served by ordering a bottle of Hop Bitters for the unfortunate in the dock instead of years of penal servitude. Read A Good Account. —“To sum it up, six long years of bed-ridden sickness and suffering, costing £4O per year, total £240, all of which was stopped by three bottles of Hop Bitters taken by my wife, who has done her own housework for a year since without the loss of a day, and I want everybody to know it for their benefit,”— John Weeks, Butler. Find