The Oamaru Mail. FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1286, 21 May 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1880.

The sale of the privileges in connection with the forthcoming Volunteer Review has been postponed till to-morrow. Over 150 men are at present employed on the Windsor-Livingstone railway, and rapid progress is being made with the work.

At the R.M. Court this morning, Patrick Kelly was charged with being drunk and disorderly, and was dismissed with a caution.

Captain Edwin wire 3 as follows : —Noon. —Ead weather approaching from any direction between N.E. and N.W. The glass will fall again within 12 hours. Expect considerable S.E. sea.

Tiie charges against Wil'iam Rayner and Thomas Carline, for having stolen a number of lemonade bottles, the property of Daniel M'C'arthy, which occupied the hearing of the Resilient Magistrate's Court nearly the whole of yesterday, wa3 further adjourned till Thursday next.

The final performance of the Froliques was not largely attended last evening, owing, no doubt, to the threatening appearance of the weather. The company, however, went through the various items on the programme to the satisfaction of those present. They appear in Waimate this evening. The members of St. Paul's Yonng Men's Association met last evening, Mr. M'Farlane occupying the chair. After the opening business, a series of impromptu speeches were given by those present, with more or 1e33 credit. Next week an essay will be read on " Mahommed, and the Koran." Mr. O'Grady, the person who is to be arraigned at the Resident Magistrate's Court on a charge of keeping a slj'-grog store at Reidston, called at our office to-day, and demanded the name of the writer of the letter which appeared in our last evening's issue, treating on the subject of sly-grog-selling at Reidston and its connection with the death of the lad Haggie. Of course, we did not cratify Mr. O'Gradv's curiosity, and he left otir office vowing vengeance against the Mail and threatening the terrors of the law. Mr. O'Orady immediately proceeds to Dunedin to consult his solicitor. The worst feature of the matter, however, is that he has stopped his paper.

The installation of the W.M. and officers of the Waitaki Lodge, No. 1111, E.G., took place last evening, in the Masonic Hall. P.M. Matlieson, assisted by P.M.'s Grant, Wansbrough, and Aitken, ably performed the annual installation ceremonies. There was a large attendance of members and visit? ing members from the sister Lodges. The following brethren were inducted into and invested with the respective badges of their offices :—Bro. J. H. Rice, W.M. ; Bro. J. Rowland, S.W.; Bro. T. Sellar, J.W.; Bro. T. Procter, Treasurer; Bro. G. Brownlee, Secretary : Bro. H. N. Harper, S.D. ; Bro. J. M-Jennett, J.D. ; Bro. T, Cunningham, I.G. ; Bro. J. H. Pliillips, Tyler. Bjr.o, F. W. O. Grant took his chair as P.M. oftjie Lodge. The ceremonies being over, a large number of the brethren sat down to a sumptuous banquet provided in a first-class style by Mr. A. Gordon, of the Temperance Hotel. The chair was ably filled by W.M. ! Bro. Rice, who opened the proceedings by giving the toast of "The Queen and the Craft," which was loyally responded to, and the patriotic song " The Union Jack of Old England" was given by tlieSecretary. During the evening the usual Masonic toasts were dnly honored, and songs by Bros. Procter, York, Newev, M'Corkindale, Given, Gaitt, Grant, and others were agreeable interspersed. An agreeable evening having been spent, the brethren joined in singing "God Save the Queen" and "Auld Lang Syne," and the meeting broke up in due and ancient form.

A meeting of the Melbourne Exhibition Committee was held at the Harbor Board Otßce at 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Present—Messrs Thos. Meek (Chairman), Burbnry, Forrester, Evans, and Snmpter. Mr. Evans stated that he had received several communications from Wellington requesting that the committee of the Sydney Exhibition should act for the Melbourne Exhibition, and that he had replied that the committee

no longer existed, and that several members' had left the district; that he subsequently received a telegram suggesting the names of several gentlemen, which also requested him to get others to act as a committee; that he complied with the request and waited on several gentlemen, who consented to act; that he advised the interim secretary in Wellington, and requested to be supplied with the necessary papers, and advised of the amount which would be. placed at the dispbsaToJ: the committee ; "that he received on Tuesday a .reply, with a cheque for LlO for preliminary expenses. All the information that he possessed was laid before the committee. It was then resolved that Mr. Meek be chairman and treasurer of committee, Mr> - Evans, secretary and canvasser for exhibits; that the public be advised of whom and where information may 'be obtained, by advertisement in each paper one week alternately. Other preliminary business being despatched a vote of thanks to . the Chairman terminated the proceedings. The Philharmonic Society's practice will be held this evening in the Volunteer Hall, instead of St. Andrew's Hall as before announced.

Practice for the Volunteer concert to be given on the Queen's Birthday will coiiimence in the Volunteer Hall this evening at half-past 7 sharp. All who intend to take part in the performance ave requested to attend. •

A fire occurred yesterday morning at halfpast 3, at Mr. Wallace's farm, about six miles north of Oamaru. A stack of oaten straw and some bags of oats were destroyed. The threshing mill had got through, and had been taken away, or it would have been destroyed The fire is said to have originated from the .ashes from the engine, which had been blown into flames by the high wind, and had then ignited the loose straw, which at once communicated the flames to the bagged oats. Mr. Wallace, being uninsured, loses about LIOO.

It will be perhaps news to most people to hear that when the Mormon Elders were in New Zealand, Brother Pierce was "mobbed only by 1500 people, and shot at four times, but escaped uninjured in every case." This, however, is the statement gravely put forth by the Deseret a Mormon paper published in Salt Lake City. It goes on tp say :—" The mobb'ng took, place in Christchurch, at the instigation of ' Christian' ministers who first turned off the gas in a meeting where the elders were preaching, and then incited the multitude to surround the brethren after they had emerged from the building, and followed them for a distance of four miles, throwing rocks at them, hitting them with flour sacks, and heaping other indignities upon them. The time Brother Pierce was shot at was at a time when some baptisms were performed, while he was standing on the beach after the cere? mony. The would-be assassin, it was strongly suspected, was the husband of a lady who had joined the Church, he having given his consent to her being baptised, and after* wards becoming violently angry because it had been done. A great many had been baptised, and quite a number had emigrated."—Wellington Post.

Many millions of acres of land in the Far West are almost entirely without value unless they can be irrigated by water supplied by artificial means. The arid rigion of the United States embraces 900,000,000 acres lying in the territories of Arizona, Dakota, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, the State of Colorado, Nevada, California, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon, and Texas, and thelndian territory Not one per cent, of this vast area has been sold. It has been ascertained that about 200,000,00J acres are mountainous land, upon which agriculture cannot be success; fully carried on, even with an abundance of water. Of the remainder 200,000,000 acres are lava lands, covered with cinders, &c., lands without soil or vegetation, and desert plains of drifting sand. On the greater part of the 500,000,000 acres not included above valuable crops can be raised by the aid of water. By spreading the water of streams over the land while the crops are growing several thousands of acres of this area have already been reclaimed, but these methods can be applied to not more than 15,000,000 acres. There remains 485,000,000 acres which are now used only for pasturage, and on which the vegetation is so scanty that they are almost worthless. It has been shown that the introduction of water is all that is needed to make these lands fertile. The Government is asked to provide for the sinking of two artesian wells east of the Rocky Mountains, and three "west of the Rocky Mountains, as an experiment towards the solution of a great problem—the reclamation of what used to be described on maps as the great American Desert.