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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 941, 23 April 1879, Page 2

TWre s«cms to W little hope th»t his Kxcelttmcy the Governor will remain iV Chtiosm thswi tBo tinur atatccl in the itiamrary for luis trip—one hoar and a half. The Secretary to the Reception Committee telegraphed to his Excellency's Aide-de-etump asking that a stay of four hours might be made iu Oamara by tlw vice-regal party, and tteoagh no definite rmply fjas Wen obtamed, aa answer has h.;eii rteeiirtd to the rtfect that his will wirtewforlto m«:w. B»tt«hof the tow it a.* Tbif would certainty appear tr» mean that no alUratiou oil tit* programme will be made. ( A further effort to induce his Excellency to extend his stay here is Uiatf made, but if it not prove snicessfol tfce programme arranged for his Excellency's reckon will ngain to be modified to some extent, Jt is a iff***"* for regret that those entreated

with the talk of drawing up the itinerary hould have given so little prominence to Oamaru in it. There arc many things of interest that wc could show his Excellency, and that he would wc feel sure in bis desire to obtain full information about the Colony have ken glad to see. A telegram from Wellington informs-us that a Gazette proclamation ; declares the. open Maion for shooting Californian quail and cock pheasants an<| for conning hares in this country to be from the Ist June to the* 31st July, while in other portions of Otago. the season extends from the Ist May to the, Slat .Inly. A very grave mistake seems to Stave ken made in regard to tile O[H.-n season for thij conntv. So far as we are aware. no recommendation has been made by the \\ ait ifet County Acclimatisation Society for the curtailment of the season; indeed, if we are not mistaken, it recommended that the immh for coursing hares should be extended to four months. The present arrangement a very serious matter to the Coursing CEttb. which, in the full belief that the season would commence on the Ist of May, has

a.i-v;i;fj.'nd its programme accordingly. A uustake muat iisve been made somewhere,

pjid we ttni-j that stejn will be taken to have j the matter remedied as speedily a« possible, j Titu could no doubt i>e accomplished by the |>ctbiication of another proclamation altering the date, and those at the head of the Acclimatisation Society and Courainsf Club should I<m« no time in bringing the 'matter under the notice of the «Soveroineiit. There may j lie some excuse for limiting the season for shooting Caitfoniian quail and cock plica- j stant. but no excuse can be pleaded for curtailing the time during which hares may be parsed, for. if" report sjieaka truly, lir.r.rf are very plentiful ill the district, as well they might be, as the care bestowed by the" Hon. M. Holmes) and other admirers of cMrainjt have carefully preserved them from bartn. Oamarn w the great centre of coursins: and tho stea»on for carrying on this genuine kind of sport shot.id not therefore be cur-, tailed. Since writing tbe aUiVc, we learn that Mr. G>nnett r .Secretary of tho Waitaki Acclimatisation Society, has sent a telegram to Mr. f». S. Cooper, Under-Secretary, asking whether the statement is correct that the coursing season o(iens in Otago on May Ist. with the exception of the Waitaki district, where it opens on Ist June; and informs Mr. Cooper that the Waitaki coursing season has been advertised to open in May. The work of forming the long-promised railway siding from Ilarhor-stroet to the breakwater line, desigised for the purpose of taeililtating traflie with the port, which has been to a great extent crippled by the present line fieing constantly blocked, is preceedcd with. Tlie rails arc being laid, and we may hope shortly to see the siding I ready for trashe.

A special passenger tmiii will kave Oainaru at H. l.'i ij.in. this evening, for .Mr. Jolm Keid's. hlderslie, ami will return at 3 a.m. JC(».t rucks will he attached to the train. Jo tins Eas'wood. the Timarti volunteer, whra was charged with committing .1 breach «•>£ the peace in Stuart-street on the night of the 15th April, and also with having stolon L*>. the property of Kathcrine Walker, was brought tin at the Resident Magistrate's Court, Ditncdin. this morning, and was committed to take bis trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court. Mr. llesfceth informs us that the nominated immigrants ex Westlami arrived today at 10 o'clock from Dunedin. A blank alie«'t was presented at the Resident Magistrate' 9 Court to-day. We to-day observed in the Oamaru Cemetery oil obelisk nionutiiuii« which has just tieon erected to the order of II r. David Booth, of Keidstoji. The stone need for the purpose was taken from the Oamaru Stone Company's quarries at Totara, and is an excellent specimen of what can be obtained in tise district. The basement course is 39iii. sqnare, and the total height to the summit of the shaft is 14ft. Sin. The work has been creditably performed by Messrs. Adam and King of *tbi3 town. In reference to our charge against the Municipal Council in Inst evening's i.»ue, we have much pleasure in st.iting that we have ascertained that a member of our literary statf received an invitation to be present at List Monday's Committee meeting, at which the business was transacted which was reported in Tuesday's Xorth Otago Times. The report, we are informed by His Worship the Mayor, was written from full information and document? supplied to that paper by the Council, it having been decided at the close of the meeting that the proceedings should be made public through the Press. Two pairs of timber tnicks were sent to Waimate to lie loaded with waterworks timber yesterday. The Waimate stationmaster undertook the responsibility of loading these tracks with timber forTim.irti, the result being that only 2000 t'eet instead of 12.000 feet of timber were supplied to the waterworks yesterday, and it can easily be imagined that great inconvenience ir.ay accrue.

The programme for the fortiiont'-.r meeting of the Xew Zealand Grand N.l rll a 1 .Steeplechase Club appears in another column, and 15 a satisfyjtory one. putting lortii strong iiitliKcmtnU suHicicnt to entice the owners of all the best steeplechasers in the Colony to enter for one or more of the events. It comprises four events, to each of which : stakes of a naturo liavc been given. There is a Maiden Plate of ICO sovs, with a sweepstake of •> sovs for acceptors, to go to the second horse : the Xew Zealand iSnrnd National Handicap, of 200 sovs, with a sweepstake of 5 sovs, to go to the second horse; the Hunt Club Handicap, of 1.10 sovs, with n of 5 sovs, to the second horae; anil the Consolation Handicap, of 50 sovs, with a sweepstake of 2 sovs, to go to the second horse. Such a programme as this cannot fail to obtain large fields, and should certainly result in some excellent sport. The course selected is an one, situated on a portion of the Hon. Mathow Holmes' Awamoa estate, and has been kindly placed at the disposal of the Club fiy that gentleman. It possesses many natural advantages, and will, we are assured, be made all that can be desired, the Managing Committee being determined to spare no expense or {rouble to make the first meeting of the Club in this district a complete success in every sense of the word, and to afford the public of the district one of the best days* sport ever witnessed here. Of course, all this cannot be done without receiving from the public some amount of pecuniary support, and seeing that the town will obtain no small amount of benefit from the holding of the meeting hero, besides being afforded a day's »»>ort rjitcii an is seldom afforded in this district, we have little doubt | that the collectors will meet with every encouragement when they go their routi-ls. Arrangements are t» !>'- r:ctdc for the running of Special tr.sins. and i.tnumbers of visitors may be expected from all jarts of the island, more especially as the day selected for the meeting is a public holidav (Queen's Birthday). \V« are also informed that an additional attraction will be provided in the shape of a pigeon match lictween Canterbury and Otago shots, which will take place on the course. We should remind owners of steeplechasers that nominations mast be sent in to the Hon. Secretary (Mr. Frank Egan), Christchurch, before S o'clock on Saturday evening next. In order to meet the large demands upon the Kaiapoi Woollen Factory for woollen goods (says the Lyttelton Times), another superior carding and condensing engine, and five improved cloth looms have been ordered from Kngfand. In all sixty packages of machinery are expected to arrive per the Red Canntlet. The winter having set in, the manufactures of the company are in such request that persons wishing to obtain suits of tweed have to give their orders with the retail honses. Since the public opening of the mill, it 13 found that the goods are turned out in large quantities and in better time, so that it is fair to expect the company will be able to meet all the orders of this season received from our own merchants and those of neighboring provinces. Several large orders for the south have been supplied, which speaks well for the quality of the good*. The following Js /rosn one of the Rev. J. Boiler's letters from England to the Xew Zealand Wesleynn ; —"J I;ave lately been reading the pages of the I\'cw Zealand Hansard. It is a bulkv volume. IgfcllJfal many of the recorded speeches wigEmMMr/i bnt, after all. could not help I cry, bjit little woe! !' Still I rejoice in tliu J evident prwoerity of the Colony. It is to be hoped that nic people will not lose their heads. TJic t jnieof pinch will inevitably come. Borrowed money will not lagfc always, and financiers teli ra« that it will bo to effect another loan in tlio London market. The last ona of three millions, they say, was

secured only just in time. 'The prudent man foreaceth the evil, and liideth himself. 1 Let our friends prepare themselves for the crisis, that it may not take them unawares. This much, however, i 3 clear; whatever monetary difficulty may arise will be only temporary. The colony has now acquired a momentum which, tinder good pilotage, will safely carry it over troubled waters into a sate anchorage. . . . I was sorry-to find •that very few are rising up to fill the places •of men'who are growing oldiii the work, and there is an equal dearth of . other' circuit officers; and'this, I believe, is but a specimen of many of our country circuits in England. The outlook is discouraging. In the face of an intolerant revived activity on the part of the National Church; the combined opposition of the squirearchy and clergy, and tiie education of the youth being mainly under their control, as far as we see, nothing hut a copious effusion of the Holy Spirit can save Methodism from all but dying out in such places, or, at least, from sinking down from the position of self-supporting circuits to dependent mission stations. As it is, the scale or circnit allowances is a very slender one. The torpid influence of the dominant Church is fatal to spiritual life and evangelistic enterprise/'