South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 4, 1880. NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2144, 4 February 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 4, 1880. NEWS OF THE DAY.

At the 11. M. Court this morning, Patrick Hanlon, brought up for lunacy, was remanded for eight days. A first offender was fined 5s for drunkenness. The Waxworks Show was not on view last night owing to the arrangements not being completed. All being now ready, the exhibition, which is well worth seeing, is now open to the public, and will remain in Timaru until Saturday.

The first meeeting of the newly elected Committee of the Timaru Public School was held last night. Present —Messrs Walcot (Chairman), Machin, Bruce, Hall, Hart, Hamilton, and Jones. It was resolved not to employ a paid Secretary at present, and it was further resolved that each member of the Committee, with the exception of the Chairman, act as Secretary for two months ; Mr Jones to act in that capacity for the next two months. Correspondence was read from:—The Head Master advising that the present school hours be altered, Resolved that the proposed change of school hours he referred to the Visitors to report at next meeting. Prom the Board of Education intimating that the sum of £21!) 7s Id, had been j>aid to the credit of the School Committee for salaries for January 1880. With regard to nominations for the Board of Education it was resolved that Messrs E. Wakefield and Jas. Bruce be nominated for the vacant seats. It was also resolved that the Chairman and Mr Hart be authorised to sign cheques for the ensuing year. The Chairman and Mr Bruce were appointed visitors for the ensuing month ; two small accounts were passed for payment, and the meeting adjourned. The funeral of a young bride attracted a large concourse of mourners to the Primitive Methodist Church yesterday. The deceased was the daughter of Mr Benjamin Wallis, cabinet-maker. The circumstances connected with her death were unusually painful. Her marriage and death occurred within a month of each other. She was married on New Year’s morning, and died on Feb. Ist. Miss Wallis was young, amiable, and accomplished, and her untimely death created mourners far and wide beyond the circle of her relatives. The church was crowded with relatives, Sunday-school children, and their teachers, for Miss Wallis, up to the time of her illness, had been one of their number. The Rev Mr Dumbell conducted the funeral service at the church and at the grave, where the children, crowding round, strewed the coflin with floral tributes. The service was aided by the presence of the church choir, and the “ Dead March,” followed by Pope’s ode, were impressively rendered. The annual Sunday School treat and picnic in connection with St. Mary’s Church, Timaru, takes place to-morrow, in Mr Green’s paddock Elizabeth street. The festival being open to all children, the Committee of the Public School have decided to close the school for the day in accordance with the request of the Ven. Archdeacon Harper. The affair promises to be a most enjoyable one. The Timaru portion of the Suez Mail (which arrived per Ringarooma at the Bluff at 5.10 p.m. yesterday), arrived here by special train at half-past two this morning. A general meeting of the Timaru Gas Company will be held on Feb. 25, for the purpose of receiving the Directors’ report and balance sheet, and appointing four directors and two auditors.

An inspection parade of the Temuka Volunteers takes place on Friday when the new busbies, just to hand from Home, will be served out to the men.

The Chess match, Mr Jacobsen, of Christchurchurchv. six local players, takes place this evening at the Mechanics’ Institute. Play to commence at half past seven. The New Plymouth Borough Council is in trouble. John McDonald, burgess, seeks compensation for the loss of his wife. Mrs McDonald was drowned in the river through falling over the approaches which the husband alleges were not properly protected The bridge was a private one leading from the hotel, and the Council pleads that it is not indebted on the ground that Mrs McDonald was not sober at the time.

A case of suicide has occurred at Tai Tapu. It was found on inquiry that a single man named John Stewart, employed as a teamster by Mr, Coup, timber merchant, Little River - , had been drinking heavily late, and that on Monday night he was put to bed in a whare at Tai Tapu, belonging to his employer. He was looked after by a wheelwright named John Breeze, and when left at about 10 o’clock, he appeared to be in good spirits. At about noon a lad noticed that the horses had not been fed, and wont to look for the deceased, when he found the body suspended from a beam in a whare. A phenomenon in the shape of a luminous perpendicular streak or belt of light was observed last evening between eight and nine p.m., to the south-west. Various conjectures were hazarded as to the nature of the nocturnal visitor, some supposing it to be a portion of a lunar rainbow, while more prosaic individuals suggested that it was but the reflection from one of the hotel or factory skylights. We have since learnt that the mysterious streak was also observed at Blenheim and elsewhere last night and is conjectured to have been the tail of an unusually fine comet.

The Mayor of Wellington has the courage of his opinions, and other Mayors of New Zealand ought to support him in wiring an emphatic “ No!” to the Lord Mayor of London, The gentleman referred to has intimatedthat he declines to take any action in the matter of tire Howland Hill memorial as he does not consider the times sufficiently propitious to justify an appeal in aid of the object. Who is to blame ? The following cloudy judgment has been delivered by the Court of Enquiry which has been investigating the circumstances connected with the striking of the U.S.S. Co.’s llotomahana, on a rock near Barrier Island “ The Court finds that no wrongful act or default can be attributed to Captain Underwood in the striking of the llotomahana on a rock, on Jan. 1 last, but at the same time the Court is of opinion that sending such a ship as the Rotomahana on a pleasure excursion with a large number of passengers to a port seldom visited by large ships, and further prescribing a channel not even thou usually employed, was highly injudicious, and is reprehensible. The engagement, too, of a person as pilot who cannot understand a chart is blameable, but the Court finds the conduct of the master and officers, after the accident was praiseworthy, there being no confusion nor unnecessary alarm on board after the striking.” An inebriate retreat established in Adelaide a year or two ago has not been an unmixed success. The receipts last year were £BOO less than the expenditure, and although a certain number of drunkards had been kept sober for a limited period, the return under the head of decided cures is very meagre. The official catalogue of the wool exhibits at the Sydney Exhibition shows that New Zealand comes out much better than could have been expected. Fourteen awards out of thirty-two exhibits were awarded to this Colon}'. The total number of wool exhibits at the Exhibition was 428, and the total number of awards 100.

A bird of passage from the Sydney Exhibition has been neatly trapped at Auckland. On the arrival there of the Arawata, Detective Jeffreys arrested a man named Berthold Dodieshamcr, alias Bite, on the strength of a description given in a cablegram, for stealing a sum of money from Eugene Koarge in Sydney. The man had intended transhipping to San Francisco in the steamer by which a warrant came for his arrest. Koarge, the man robbed, is connected with the German department of the Sydney Exhibition. The accused looked a respectable man, but an examination of his trunk satisfied the detective. Bite has evidently been bitten. Bush fires arc industriously reducing the property tax for the Colonial Treasurer. A New Plymouth telegram states that Major Atkinson’s estate has suffered considerable damage, over a mile of fencing having been burned, besides hedges, etc. It was feared at one time that a large stack would have caught, but it was most fortunately saved. This calamity will be a serious loss to the revenue of the Colony.

We have been asked if we can explain what the Timaru Jockey Club arc about that no programme for the races in April has yet been announced. Our reply is that we cannot tell. Probably the Jockey Club know their own business best. As a committee, however, has been appointed, it might be as well if owners of horses were enlightened on the subject of the forthcoming races a few weeks in advance, so that they could make their arrangements. The witholding of the programme till the eleventh hour is not calculated to promote the success of the events.

The stewards of the Wellington Pacing Club have decided not to prosecute the Postmaster at Otaki for ante-dating a letter containing an entry for a racehorse. The owner has been disqualified from running on any course under the Club’s control, and the Secretary was requested to communicate with other Clubs in the colony, asking them to sustain their action. Stevens, the trainer of the horse, and Mr Champion, owner, are to be disqualified, unless they can give a satisfactory explanation of their action in the matter.

Home journalists are frequently held up to ridicule because of their “ bulls” in connection with the geography of New Zealand and the adjacent colonies. Will it be credited that an old-established publishing firm in Melbourne has, within the last few weeks, addressed letters intended for this office first to “ South Canterbmy, Napier,” and then to “ South Canterbury, Nelson,” while to crown their efforts a parcel has been addressed “ South Canterbury, Dunedin.”

Messrs Maclean and Stewart will sell tomorrow, at their rooms, at noon, various lots of wool, skins, and hides.