NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2187, 22 March 1880, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

On Saturdays boy named John Mclntosh, aged nine, son of a hotel-keeper at Lower Hutt, while trying to secure some driftwood, slipped into the river and was drowned.

Robert Harris, an old man, laid down in a stable at the back of Barrett’s Hotel Wellington, yesterday, and shortly afterwards was found to be dead.

News from the West Coast states, that a young man named Richard Wood, who was searching for cattle, was drowned while crossing the Teremakau river near the Gorge on Friday last.

A witness in the District Court at Palmerston North, on Monday last explained that he had taken a gun from a friend to clean it because his Mend’s wife being absent there would he no “hot water” in his home.

William Brown, a carpenter employed on the barque Hcottish Prince, was found drowned in the Wellington harbor, yesterday morning. He was near-sighted and on Saturday night he was the worse of liquor, so that his death is probably due to an unfortunate slip while trying to board his vessel.

Nominations for the Timaru Cup, Flying Handicap, S.C.J.C. Handicap, Hurdle Race, and Winter Oats Handicap must he made with the Secretary of the S.C.J.C. not later than 8.0 p.m. to-morrow (Tuesday). The weights will be declared on April 1,

The price of the “ North Otago Times ” is to be reduced to one penny. A man named Patrick Hanley bad a narrow escape on Saturday afternoon. Hanley was a passenger by the Southern express, and when the train was approaching Normanby station he fell from the platform of one of the carriages, it is supposed, while endeavoring to light his jnpe. The occurrence having been wired to Mr Jones, station-master, Timaru, be immediately proceeded on an engine in search of the man. The police had also been informed of the accident. It was discovered that the man was none the worse for his fall, however, having walked to Makikihi, and thence ridden on to his home at Waiho.

The cadet corps of Timaru, Oamaru, and Christchurch will take part in the encampment of volunteer cadets at Waimate at Easter. The cadets will probably muster 150 strong. They will arrive at Waimate on Friday, bold a field day on Saturday, and church parade on Sunday. MajorSteward will take command. The whole of the preliminaries have now been arranged, and the gathering promises to he a most successful one.

A child of Mrs Allen’s, of Brown street, was kicked by a horse which was running at large in the streets yesterday afternoon* and sustained some severe injuries, including a kick over her right eye, which necessitated her prompt removal to the Hospital. The child was subsequently taken home by her parents, and is now, we understand, in a fair way to recover.

A meeting of the millers of South Canterbury was held on Saturday afternoon at the (irosvenor Hotel. The meeting was called with a view to forming an Association for the purpose of better regulating the the existing relations between the millers, bakers, and wholesale purchasers. It was resolved that an Association, to be called the “ South Canterbury Millers’ and Baker’s Association,” be formed for the furtherance of the above object. After some further discussion, the meeting adjourned to Thursday next, at 2 p.ra.

It is alleged in Christchurch that free railway passes arc granted to captains of ships during their stay in Port, while passes arc withheld from Civil servants who obtain a holiday to recruit their health. It is also stated that pressure has been brought to bear upon employees in the railway workshops to record their votes in the manner most agreeable with the political sympathies of their chiefs.

A neat little boat for the use of the engineer of the Timaru Harbor Board, the workmanship of Mr Hubert Sutherland, was launched on Saturday. Next morning she was found in a sadly damaged condition washed ashore on the beach near the breakwater. During the night her shackling had given way and as the result of an evening’s meditations among the concrete blocks that line the beach like tombstones, eight of her bottom planks were staved in. The boat is the property of the contractors for the extension of the breakwater and it is believed that £lO will cover tire damage.

Owing to the terror which recent events have inspired in Dunedin, the police of that city arc to be temporarily strengthened by additions from Christchurch and Wellington. Firearms, particularly revolvers, arc in great request in that city for personal protective purposes, and the “Daily Times’’ apprehends sonic “serious accidents amounting to manslaughter.” The remains of Thomas Birch, ex-Mayor of Dunedin, having been brought down from Auckland, were buried at Dunedin yesterday with civic and military honors. According to the “Daily Times” the City Guards’ band played “ Bcots whahae”at the funeral; but the “ Herald ” declares it was “ The Land o’ the Leal.” New York must be a delightful city to live in. Here is a flattering picture of the place drawn by one of its own papers. The “Herald” says that the streets arc reeking with slimy filth ; that citizens are wantonly clubbed by the fierce untamed policemen ; that people are roasted to death because the building laws are not enforced; that 10,000 grog shops exist, with gambling houses and other dens without number. Detroit ought to get up a fund to send missionaries to New York.

The prize-taker in long wool at the Sydney Exhibition, was the Me Charles Reed, of Ashburton, not of Auc’-dand as telegraphed.

At the R.M. Court, this morning, Charles Kidney, who, it appeared from the evidence is a habitual drunkard, was brought up on a charge of vagrancy, and sentenced to 11 days imprisonment with hard labour. A first offender was fined os for drunkenness. Those were the only cases at the Court this morning. A child had a miraculous escape from being run over on the public footpath to-day Shortly after 11 o’clock, the driver of Davidson’s express van was discharging some luggage at the Timaru Hotel, and had just got the last box oil when the horses took fright. On reaching Woollcombe street,they swerved to the right, and took the footpath down through Roger’s verandah, as far as Green, the butcher’s, where they were stopped by the telegraph pole. The footpath was occupied by a number of passengers, who fled for their lives into the adjacent shops, but one little boy about five years of age lay sprawling on the pavement ust as the horses came up. The animals were scarcely a yard away, when Mr J. Fisher, runner for the S. (J. 'Times, hastily snatched him up and passed him to his mother, who, with another child, stood trembling and terrified in the doorway of Oabitcs and Plante’s drapery warehouse. A few yards Rather on a boy of twelve or fourteen, in his hurry and consternation, stumbled and fell, but, with singular presence of mind, rolled himself down off the kerb just as the wheels almost grazed his body. Both escapes were something miraculous. As oats arc cheap at present, and horse-flesh is in good running condition, extra precaution on the part of the drivers of public vehicles should be used, in order to prevent such accidents.

Open air preaching, under the auspices of Mr J. O. S. Grant of tract celebrity, was commenced on Sunday last in the Octagon, Dunedin. Mr Grant's ovation was “Thomas Chalmers,'’ hut in instituting comparisons with the great departed he characterised the Colonial clergy as “low, miserable reptiles,” and the University professors as “muckworms.” The ovation is to be published if it can find subscribers. Messrs Mb Collins and Co. will sell at their rooms, to-morrow, at 2 p.m., freehold property, &c., together with household furniture. Messrs Jonas, Hart and Wildie will sell at their rooms, at 2 p.m., freehold property at Normanby and Silverstream. In another column will be found an announcement respecting Hudson’s Hclf-llais-ing Flour, an article which lately created guile a consternation among the bakers and millers of Dunedin, where it threatened to supersede the ordinary bread of commerce. We can recommend it to all housewives as an article which they have only to try and they will never again he without.