NEWS OF TEE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2128, 17 January 1880, Page 2

NEWS OF TEE DAY .

The violence of the thunder storms .yesterday afternoon was such that two telegraph poles at Otaio were broken and one splintered by lightning. Two] vivid flashes passed through the lightning guards in the Timaru Telegraph office with reports like pistols but without doing damage.

A drunk was “ run in” this afternoon and will be accommodated with free quarters by the police until Monday, when he will make his appearance at the E. M. Court.

Eiley and Robertson, the two men who were arrested at Washdyke yesterday, appeared before the bench to-day charged with robbery with violence, and on the application of the police were remanded. Several charges of way-laying drunken men in Timaru and robbing them of their money and valuables will be preferred against them. It is understood that they hail from Dunedin. Their alleged robberies vary from a silver watch to £5 and downwards. The authorities will doubtless do their best to vigorously stamp out this kind of amateur bushranging. The valuation list of the Temuka Road District, is now open for inspection, at the Road Board Office. Objections must be lodged at the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Temuka, on or before the Feb. 15, and copies left at the Road Board Office, at least seven days before the sitting of the Assessment Court.

In replying to a deputation which waited upon him in a North Island town recently, Major Atkinson, the Colonial Treasurer, said that he could not give any indication as to when subsidies to local bodies were likely to cease. The Government had promised to bring down a scheme next session. The subsidies were provided for up to the end of March, but really the finances of the country were in such a deplorable condition as to give him grave cause for anxiety. It is understood that his Honor Mr Justice Johnston and Mr Reed, SolicitorGeneral, have been appointed Commissioners to consolidate the Statutes of the Colony. The Wakamarira bridge contract has been let to Joseph Gilberton of Nelson for £1,673. Professor Von Haast of Christchurch Museum and “Midden ” celebrity has been awarded the Knighthood of the Order of the Crown of Italy. A resident of Auckland, named Brandon, has been awarded £IOO and £25 costs by assessors at the Supreme Court, for injury done to his property through improvements made by the City Council. The amount claimed was £SOO. Thursday, March 11 and the following day have been fixed for the Canterbury ram and ewe fair. The show takes place on the Association Ground, Christchurch, and entries will close on Saturday, Feb. 28. At the Supreme Court, Wellington, a gentleman named O’Grady sought to recover from the firm of Johnston and Co. the sum of £3OOO damages for alleged breach of agreement on the part of the defendants in not endorsing a promissory note after having promised to do so. The jury considered Mr O’Grady had severely over-estimated his injuries for they only awarded him £lO.

The barometer has lately been:-rather •rough pn the breakwater. A few flays ago although there was but little wind a terribly •heavy sea calne rolling in, /washing partly over the top of the concrete. Yesterday and to-day has been more favorable and the contractor has taken advantage of the lull in-, the atmosphere. He has now completed 32 feet of his contract and made a good beginning with the next 18, foot section. The diver has explored 50 feet ahead and beyond a small piece of rock which will’ easily be moved there are no great obstacles to contend against.

In dismissing a man from custody this morning, who had been under treatment during the past week for lunacy from drink, and whose condition had not, it seems, been properly certified to, by two medical men in accordance with the Act, His Worship the R. M. took occasion to remark that the initiation of the system of having each man brought before him on charges of this kind examined by two doctors, would be to saddle the country with an enormous expense. It would be far better. His Worship went on to suggest, that such men should be charged with being drunkards, and if they exhibited symptons of insanity, let them be charged with being habitual drunkards, and be dealt with accordingly.

At a meeting of the Association, for Encouraging Local Industries, held in Christchurch on Thursday evening, a member said that a son of Mr Watson, of the firm of Watson, Gow, and Co., of the great ironfounders, Glasgow, had recently paid a visit to this colony, and had called upon him. Mr Watson stated that he had seen a stove at the foundry of Messrs Scott Bros. —a very handsome one—and inquired it it was manufactured here, and on being answered in the affirmative said that it was no use sending any more stoves to Christchurch from Glasgow, as they could not compete at home with such an article as he had seen.

The Dunedin “Star” bitterly laments the decay of political vitality in Otago’s metropolis. This is partly attributed to the want of an outspoken opposition journal. Our contemporary overlooks the fact that the elders of the Kirk are so omnipotent in Dunedin, that anything in the shape of a radical newspaper |would be squeezed to death. The modern Edinburgh, it is to be feared, reeks with political cant and religioushypocrisy almost as strongly as did its ancient namesake in days of yore with the filth of its population. It is impossible for politics to thrive or attain a healthy condition in a city which elects a contractor for its mayor and revenges through its council the interference of the strong arm of the law on the side of public honesty. The Union Company’s s.s. Penguin having recovered from the effects of her rub with the Tauranga sand bank indulged in a race down the coast with the G.S. Hineraoa. The Hinemoa had the best of it.

A very sad and sudden death occurred at Picton on Saturday evening, Jan. 10, at about five o’clock. A young man named Samuel Porter, a well-known bushman, had been indulging in practical joking by sitting on the gunwale of a small boat rowed by his mate, James Paul, and while near the wharf he tumbled, intentionally, several times into the water, and being an expert swimmer never gave a thought to the danger. After they had started for the Grove, and were a mile and a-half from Picton, Porter again began rolling the boat about, and as his companion had warned him, the boat filled and capsized, and Porterdisappeared under the water and was never seen again. Paul was picked up by Mr Stokes, of the Grove, who was passing, but nothing could be seen of the decesased. It is generally thought that he must have taken the cramp, as he had been sitting in his wet clothes for over an hour and ahalf previously ; others again fear that he may have fallen a victim to a shark that may have found its way up the Sound. The occurrence cast a gloom over Picton. Everyone who knew Porter liked him for his kindly good nature. He was about 27 years of age. —“ Express.”

A meeting of the South Canterbury Caledonian Society will be held at the Grosvenor Hotel, on Tuesday evening, at 8 o’clock.

The Theatre Royal will be opened on Tuesday evening next by Mr J. P, Hydes and his company. The pantomine “ Harlequin Mazourka,” which has been very successfully played by the company in Invercargill, will be the opening piece. Lovers of good beer should lose no time in paying a visit to the Clarendon Hotel, where Mr Edwards has now on draught some Tasmanian ale of exceptionally fine quality. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and, during the hot weather, especially, no better drink can be found than this “ Cascade ale ” which, possessing a capital flavour, is as clear as sherry, and as mild as lemonade.— [Auvi.]