NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2157, 17 February 1880, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

For the convenience of intending visitors to the Dunedin Daces, railway return tickets at single fares will be issued from Feb 23 to Feb 28, from all stations between Christchurch and Invercargill, available for the return journey up to Tuesday, March 2. Pastor Chihiquy delivers his opening lecture “ Why I with 25,000 of my fellowcountrymen left the Church of Home,” at the Presbyterian Church to-night at 8. Mr Archibald Forbes was to have delivered a lecture on the Zulu war in Cork Theatre recently, but was prevented by the Nationalists from obtaining a hearing. Placards had-* been circulated in the city calling attention to his letters to the “ Daily News " from Tipperary in 1875, on the occasion of John Mitchell’s election, in which he is alleged to have described Mitchell’s aupjmrters as drunken tatterdemalions, The gallery and pit were packed with an organised mob ; and when Mr Forbes appeared on the stage he was received with a storm of groans and hooting. He remained for nearly a quarter of an hour, and tried several times to address the assembly, but was quite inaudible in the din.

On Friday an interesting discovery was made at Kaiapoi of the (articles surreptitiously removed from the parish church on the night of Dec. 22, 1877. While removing some hooks placed in a building by the Bank of New Zealand, one of the clerks remarked a small box branded “ Levy’s Hair Oil. - ’ Upon opening this the missing emblems were discovered and were handed over to the police. They include two wooden eucharistic candlesticks, two threebranch vesper lights, two brass altar vases, a brass cross, two dossels of damask cloth, and two crimson desk frontals. These were the property of the Eev. H. K. Carlyon, and were valued at £BO. The articles included some which the members of the vestry had petitioned the Bishop to cause to be removed from the chancel.

A breach of promise case was recently tried in Glasgow. The lady obtained a verdict for £1 damages. In a note the sheriff who tried the case says : A somewhat lengthened proof has been led in this case. The result has been to satisfy the Sheriff-Substitute that the pursuer is a very foolish old woman, and the defender an unscrupulous adventurer. It may be he was not serious-in promising to marry the pursuer, but it is quite plain that she believed that he was. He got the old woman’s money, and traded on her unwise confidence. Foolish, however, that she may have been, that is no reason why the defender should plunder her. V’ The Opera-Bouffe and Comedy Company , open this evening at the Theatre Itoyal. Taking everything into consideration, the entertainments of this Company should be very successful, and it is to be hoped that a good house will greet their first appearance here. £lB5 has been collected at Waimate in aid of the sufferers by the Irish famine. The was a moderately heavy downpour of rain last evening, and slight showers this morning, but the weather shows signs of clearing up. A good deal of the crops have been gathered, and unless the weather continues unsettled, the injury done will be but slight. As instancing the extraordinary heat experienced on Sunday last, it may be mentioned that a lad 11 years of age, named Thomas Adamson, died at midnight on Sunday from the effects of sunstroke received during the day. A report of the inquest appears elsewhere. A man named Thomas O’Brien who was, as the Magistrate , remarked, a pitiable object, was brought up charged with lunacy from drink, and remanded for eight days. There were no other cases to-day, the civil cases being adjourned until Friday. At New Plymouth a young man named Patrick Foley, has died from the effects of being dragged with a rope round his neck for 500 yard by a horse he was untethering.

It is stated that Walter Bishop late collector for the “New Zealand Sun,” intends to commence a criminal action for libel against that paper, for publishing an advertisement in connection with him.

Willie Hogg a Nelson poet, died at the hospital there on Sunday, aged 7(5. Henry Adams ? solicitor of Nelson, who has been practising for many years and held the position of Crown Prosecutor, has executed a deed of assignment. An impudent attempt to burn down the house of- 11. A. Webb, of Auckland, was discovered on Sunday night. The fire was found on the verandah after the family had retired. They were aroused by a neighbour; who put it out. Captain 0. U. Smith has been appointed pilot at Kaipara.

Mr W. llowe (late M.H.lf.) is very ill. He will have to relinquish the Caledonian mine, being unable, through the opposition of all the capitalists, to float the projected new Company.

The Native Commission has written' to Te Whiti, telling him that it will sit at Opunake to hear claims. Te Whiti sent back word that they had better come on to Parihaka and hold their sitting, as that was where the natives resided, and .there were no natives at Opunake. About 850 hands engaged on the “ unemployed ” sections of the Otago railways will bo knocked off work immediately, by order of the Government.

At Balclutha the gale of Sunday threshed the oat crop. An Auckland telegram received this afternoon states the s.s. liotorua has arrived from Sydney with 130 passengers and 610 tons cargo. She left at 6 p.m. on Thursday last and encountered two days head sea and foggy weather.

At Auckland on Saturday last a brutal rape was committed by a Fijian on a little girl five years old, .daughter of George Smith, in Bishop’s paddock, Parnell. The police gave chase and the perpetrator ran into a swamp near Kohimarama. The police got bogged, but the Fijian escaped to the bush. A file of policemen surrounded the swamp all Saturday and Sunday night, but the Fijian is supposed to have escaped. It is the same bush that Winiata got into. The police are scouring the country, and and the telegraph has been put in motion warning the police in the out districts. Mr J. Thompson, of Oamaru, has invited a family washer, which appears to accomplish a great saving of the time and labour necessary for the washing of a family’s apparel by any other process. This is how it works; it is simply a hollow disc of iron, from the centre of which a curved pipe of a few inches in length rises. Put this in the family copper, with the pipe standing above the water, and all you have to do then is light your fire, and, when the water boils, it will rise through the pipe and pour in a constant stream upon the clothes which you may jmt in—with more or less soap, according to circumstances—and then the feat is accomplished without the ringings and rincing, or turning of slow, laborious wheels, or dancing of wild war dances in tubs, after the manner of the ancient Celts. If this is not a happy release from one day’s toil and sorrow, at all events, let men return to their old misery. —“ North Otago Times.” Mr J. B. Stansell, Government observer, has favored us with the following respecting the unusually hot weather experienced on Sunday:—The barometer at 9 a.m. on Feb. 14 read 30.081, at 0 a.m. on Sunday 29.489, and at 4.30 p.m. 29.403. The maximum thermometer in shade on Feb. 15 reached the great height of 92 deg., and the solar radiation thermometer (black bulb) mounted to 144 deg. The degree of moisture (saturation —100) fell to the very low figure of 42. The direction of the wind was N.W. Sunday was the hottest day but one that has been experienced in Canterbury since the establishment of the observatory in Christchurch. The following are the highest temperatures yet recorded: —Jan. 24, 1871, 95.7 Fah. ; Jan. 12, 1879, 89.0 Fah. ; Feb. 15, 1880, 92.0 Fah.

Messrs Jonas, Hart, and Wildie will sell at the premises of Mr F. A. Sims, Church street, cordials, pipes, sewing machine, kerosene lamps, Ac. Hale at 2 o’clock. A meeting of the Members of the Loyal Star of Canterbury Lodge, takes place to-morrow evening at 8 o’clock, at the Hall Sophia Street.