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Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 206, 7 February 1873, Page 3

The Apology oe a (xE^tlema:n t .—The editor of a Western exchange makes the amende honorable in the following elaborate style:—"There is a fly in our office—one particular aggressive fly, distinguished from his brethern by a pertinacity and untiring energy that, if properly directed, are enough to make him President. Other flies we can dispose of by whisking a paper at them, or putting them out of the window. But this fly we can't manage. We don't like to kill flies. There is something so confiding about them that it seems like a breach of hospitality to kill them. That fly tumbles into our inkstand, crawls out and dries his little feet by walking over our paper as we write. The compositor has hard' work to decipher out manuscript sometimes. And in this connexion we would make a slight correction. In the last number of our paper we called the Hon. Mr. : —'an unprincipled .demagogue ; we should have said 'a high-toned patriot.' It was all the fault of that fly. The brother of the Hon. Mr-———came into our office this morning with a new and substantial-looking cane, and reminded us of the misprint. A dig/cr writes as follows to the editor of the Auckland 'Evening Star:'—" I know you are always brave enough to "xnose ticlly-wink-in». Try then to prevent Ma-kny, Gillie?, Pollen, and Sheehan.irotn obfaini.og* for their private gain a part of the block now being bought from, the natives near Ohinemuri. All the diggers know of thisjittle game."

One of fc'ue' m )sL important-mining eises yet tried in Now Zealand -will be heard before His Rmor Ml-. Justice Chapman, at Lawrence on the 11th hist. The plaintiffs are Clayton and others, known as the Perseverance G-old Mining Company, and the defendants are W. D. Morrison, and others ;■ both parties are miners, occupying adjacent claims. The action is brought for alleged trespass and wrongful conversion of auriferous earth, wherefore plaintiffs claim £6,000 damages, together with special damages amountiug to £4,000. Defendants deny the' allegations, and plead jurisdiction by reason of a certain lease held by tlicm of a piece of auriferous ground, a portion of <vhic!< is said to form the subject of this action. The case has excited considerable interest amongst the mining community. The business of the Tuapeka Brauch of the Permanent Building Society of Otago is steadily increasing. The loans granted --are keeping considerably in advance of the subscription?, which is a very healthy sign for the society and for the town. Provincial Institutions in Auckland, according to the ; Herald', " are fairly starved out," It is stated the Government intend to increase the rdward for the discovery of the persons who robbed Mr. James Hayes, near, Ahauvn, to £590. Messrs Cargills and M'Lean report having": held their sixth wool sale for the season when the following lots wore sold:—WM, 1 balewashed crossbred, at Is lOd; do, Ido do pieces, and 12Jd ; P in diamond, 2 do greasy Leicester, at Is Id ; do, 2 do do merino, atIs ; TO, 5 do do pieces, at lOd ; do, 4 do dolocks, at G±; E in triangle, 91 do do merino, at 11-kl ; do, 20 do do pieces, at 8d; do, 6do do locks, at sfd; Sueepshears, 77 do do merino, at 3ld ; do, 21 do\lo pieces, at BJd. And privately, siuee last sale, M and Co, over' Ewebu-.-n, 49" bales greasy merino, at Is Oid - y do, 4 do. do pieces, a!: SJd.; do, 5 do do .locks, at 6rf-:l; W & J3 over Kyeburn, 265 do do merino, at Is. The tenth Intel-provincial Cricket match between Otago and Canterbury will be played atHagley Park, Christchurch,.about the 10th of this month. The following synopsis; of matches will show that Otago is at present two games to the good : 1864. Otago won by 78 runs 1865. Canterbury won by four wickets. IS6B. Otago won by two wickets. 1807. Otago won by one innings and 37 runs. 1868. Otago won by nine wickets. 1869. (February). Drawn, Canterbury having 17 runs .to make to win and 3 wickets to falL 1869. (December). Ofcigo" won by 4 wickets. IS7I. (January). - Canterbury won by one innings and 29 runs. 1871. (Doccmber). Canterbury won by ten wickets. We regret to observe that all hope of the ship Gleumark has been given up by the friends and relatives of the crew and passengers, as, in the columns of a recent'.'' Lyttelton Times,' appear obituary notices of Capt. Wrankmore, Messrs. Saunders,. Gordon, and Dr. Dry, '' lost at sea in the ship Glenmark, which is supposed to have foundered with all on board, in a hurricane, about the 6th of February last, within a week after "leaving Lyttelton." .-..-.'- ° The usual weekly meeting of xhe Waste Lands Board was held last week. Therewere present:—The Chief Commissioner, Mr. J. T. Thomson (in the chair), • and Messrs. Tolmie, Butterworth, Clarke, and Strode. No business-- of Goldfields interest was transacted. A Mighty Throw of a Cricket Ball.— A wonderful throw was witnessed, says the. 'Australasian,' by the spectators at the Clermont cricket match on Boxing Day... The. telegram says that between the innings',some discussion arose amongst the players as to thedistance some of them could throw, and it was decided to test the powers of those who professed to excel iu this line by a" match. Amongst several good throwers, Billy, the aboiiginal, astonished, everyone.-hy, sending the ball a distance of 140 yards as measured with a tape. This throw surpasses the best we have ever heard of in the Colonies or in England. It takes a good thrower to throw 100 yards; and in athletic sports in England. the man who can get beyond. 110. is almost certainly the winner. A 120 yards throw is very rarely heard of, and hitherto a throw of 130 has been quite unknown.

A youth, who desired to wear the matrimonial yoke, had not sufficient courage to pop the question. On informing his father of the difficulty he laboured under, the old man replied, quite passionately, " Why you booby, how doyou suppose I managed when I got married ?" Oh ! yes," said the promising- lover, " you. married mother, but IVe got to marry a strange girl!"

The General Government Inspector of Stores, with his futile efforts at branding-bed-room crockery, &c, used to be a stock subject for jocularities with the paragraphists of the colonial press—so much so, indeed, that the Government at last caved in, and dismissed him. The Government, however, it appears, are quite outdone. in that line by a private firm, the Messrs." Brogden. They have an Inspector of Stores in their employment who makes the rounds of the colony periodically, and .whoso duty it is to see that none of the spades oiv. wheelbarrows in use on the railway works go a-missinp - . A man named Hewitt was choked in bed at Lawrence.

A shepherd, named Macpherson, has been missing since the 3rd instant, and is supposed to have been drowned in tho ■Mataura.