Local Intelligence.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 464, 15 April 1857, Page 8

Local Intelligence.

The Provincial Council has not been sitting during the past'week,,so that there is nothing 1 new to report cf its actions or passions. It met ' again after the adjournment, last night, but we have not yet received a report of its proceedings. According tothe notice paper, there was an overwhelming mass of business to be got through, ■ some of which must be put off for many days to come. Whether there is to be the same throng of' notices on the paper throughout the1 Session, and the Council is to do a most unusual amount of work, or whether members are pushing their own affairs forward, in order by priority to secure the consideration * of the Council in its early vigour, is a matter of ■ doubt. Probably- the crowding in question is i> due to the miscellaneous character of the busi- . nessj and that to the inactive part taken by the Government in the House, which gives more prominence to private members, and stimulates their brains to extraordinary activity. In any case, it would be well for those gentlemen who . have business to bring forward to make arrangements for dividing the work, so that members andthe .public may have an idea when any important matter is to be introduced, instead- of being misled by a notice postponed from day to day., • ,

, The present month, of April is the appointed time 'for forwarding claims to register as an elector on the General Roll, established four years ago by the proclamation of Sir George Grey. We have seen no notice of the places or persons that such claims are to be sent to, this year. Last year, claims were sent for Lyttelton to the Resident '[Magistrate's Office, Lyttelton : for the town or district of Christclmreh to the office of the Clerk to the Bench, Government Offices, Christchureh. Claims sent to the same places this yoar will doubtless be received. Por those who have not the means cf obtaining the information elsewhere, we may add that the claimant should give his Christian and sur-

n^tnes at full length, his place of residence, his trade or occupation, and the qualification by which he claims, whether household, freehold, or leasehold. The locality of the holding is .not always given, though we believe it.should, be. While on this subject, we must distinctly repeat that the General Roll and the Provincial Roll are two separate things; that the former only is compiled during the present month, for the latter is- not yet in force. When the time comes' for the formation of the new Provincial Roll, we shall give full particulars concerning it. - Easter, whose proverbial fine weather at home makes it the season for the first display of spring bonnets and tender early finery, was of course justified in producing in these antipodal regions a fine crop of shawls and great coats. The first really wet Sunday since the beginning of the year has been Easter day. Winter is really comingl, and Lyttelton may consider herself'supplied with water until December next. -The Bishop of Christehurch visited Rangiora on Sunday, and performed Divine.Service and administered the holy communion in the morning, in the building. erected for a church and school-house by the inhabitants of that district. The very unfavourable weather unfortunately prevented an attendance in the afternoon when a number of children were to have been baptized. Peculiar to Easter Monday is the election of churchwardens. At Kaiapoi, on that day, Mr. J. Fuller was elected and Mr, Homersham appointed churchwardens for the ensuing year. At Lyttelton, after a conversation on the subject of the appropriation of sittings, the meeting was adjourned till next Tuesday evening, when the names of four gentlemen proposed for the office will be submitted and two of them chosen, and other business .transacted in the terms of the advertisement which appears in our columns today. " At the meeting at Kaiapoi, on Monday, it was announced that the Trustees of the Church Property had agreed to • the appropriation of1 five acres of town land in Kaiapoi for a glebe; one'acre of land we believe will be taken as a grant while the.remainder will be leased at a. nominal rent, so as to allow of its ultimate reappropriation. If farmers are to be saved from ruin by machine labour they may consider themselves nearly safe by this time. One large steam engine and farm machinery attached, imported in the William and Jane, has just been set to work on the Plains; and four more have been landed out of the Rose of Sharon. One of the latter, with circular saw and gear belonging it, is, we believe, on its way to the Peninsula to work a saw mill; its locality, we understand, is to be Bone's Bay. The' above engines are from , four to eight horse power. These are not the first importations £of steam machinery into the province. Farmers will know that an engine of three-horse power has worked a thrashing machine for two years past with great success on the Plains. The Rose of Sharon will sail very soon for Singapore. As a mail will be made up for her, a good opportunity is thus . offered of sending letters to England by a speedy route.