NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2310, 12 August 1880, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The football match on Saturday next will be again a team of twelve players v. the Club, The following are the twelve: —Bell (captain), Chapman, Mackay, Gordon, Wood, Eichbaum, Lukey, Smith, Jones, Campbell, Shirtcliffc, LeCren, Smith. The match with Oamaru takes place on August 21. At the Tcmnka R.M. Court yesterday, before F. Guinness, Esq, R.M., the following cases were disposed ofE. H. Elliott v. W. Hayhurst, claim £1 Is Gd; H. M. Langridge v. Wood and Hornbrook, claim, £33 Is 7d; Wilson and Son v. J. Stanley, claim £G 10s 3d; judgment for plaintiffs by default. T. Liston v. J. Reardon, claim £3 2s Id, Mr Austin for defendant, judgment for plaintiff for £2 18s Id ; T. Cleary v. H. Granger, claim £5 for value of a chaffcutter, and £lO as damages for detention of same. Mr Hamersley for plaintiff, Mr White for defendant. Judgment was given for plaintiff for £4, value of machine; no damages were allowed.

• The town of Oamaru has been proclaimed a borough under the Municipal Act of 1876.

Mr W. H Pearson, of poetic oyster memory, has resigned his appointment as visiting justice to the Invercargill gaol. The fifth of every month has been fixed by the Governor for sittings of the District Court at Waimate. Should that date be a Sunday or a holiday the Court will be held on the day following. I hear (says the Wellington correspondent of the “Lyttelton Times”) that an estimate has been made, showing that if the whole of the colony participated to the same extent in the expenditure of public money as does Taranaki, the annual expenditure would be twelve millions. This estimate is on the basis of population and includes cost of maintaining armed constabulary, but excludes cost of general admistration of Government. It applies simply to public money expended within the district.

A religious monomanic, named John Tyler, has been arrested at Hamilton. He is under the belief that ho has performed miraculous cures on the sick, and that he is being persecuted for so doing. He arrived in Auckland in February last from Napier, and has written letters to the Governments of New Zealand and Victoria, and to the Queen, asking for protection.

The following ingenuous advertisement appears in a southern paper : —N. L. v Bank of New South Wales. —I beg to intimate to the public that I have abandoned the above action after gaining my case in the District Court. I do so because lam unable to continue the contest against so wealthy a coiporation, and leave the public to judge as between this bank and myself. Had I only myself to consider I should, on public grounds, have endeavored to sustain the Judge’s ruling and Jury’s verdict. (Sec daily papers, April 28, 1880.) N.l!. — Although not able to fight the Bank of New South Wales, I am prepared to execute, in the best manner, all Sign-writing, Decorating, Glass Embossing, etc,, &c., entrusted to mo.

John Fraser Bell was charged at the Magistrate’s Court. Now Plymouth, yesterday, with the falsification of registration of the birth of a child. It appears he married a woman named Annie Lydia Haines, of Auckland, in 1809, and went afterwards to Wellington to reside. In 1877 a daughter of the woman came out from England, and Bell and his wife did not live happily together so they separated, and the daughter took up with him at Wanganui. They then went to Patea together, where they lived as husband and wife. They afterwards came to New Plymouth, where she gave birth to a male child. Bell registered the child as his legitimate offspring, hcncc the prosecution. 'The girl who is only 18 years of age, in her evidence said she left her home because her mother wished her to go on the street, and that as Bell cared for her she went to live with him. Her mother was not Bell’s wife, as she told witness she was married to another man. The EcvC. H. Schmackenbcrg, Wesleyan missionary at Raglan, died on the passage to Auckland. He had been in the mission work for 35 years and was a native of Germany. The “ Taranaki Herald’s ” correspondent at Urunni writes :—Most of our native friends started from Parihaka yesterday (Tuesday), I hear Te Whiti sent word for them to hurry up. Natives inform me that fencing is to be continued until only three men arc left at Parihaka, namely, Te Whiti, Tohu, and Hiroki. On learning of the death of the native prisoner at Dunedin, named Watson, there being two of that name the natives held a tanyi over the wrong man. The natives are angry at Government not informing them when their relations die. Nearly all the head men amongst the natives who came from the Chatham Islands twelve years ago to settle at Urunni are dead or in prison.” Mr Renter yesterday made us say that the British Premier'had gone to Windsor Castle as the guest of the Queen and the item was regarded as indicating a most ungracious rebuff for Lord Beaconstield. Today a correction appears, and it is found that the Dean, and not Her Majesty entertains Mr Gladstone—rather an important difference.

A correspondent writes to a Contemporary as follows; —While Mr Moss’ motion on Local Government is before the House it might be worth while to know the cost of administration of our local bodies. Here is a case in point—The Oxford Eoad Board has jurisdiction over a district containing nearly 100 square miles, of part flat and hilly country, and during the past three years this body has spent the sum of £28,000 on the Construction of roads, bridges, drains, Ac. The total cost of the administration of this sum is somewhat under 2£ per cent. This amount includes all clerical and survey work, office expenditure, reporting on water questions, and the various works required from time to time, and it must be borne in mind that a considerable portion of this sum is silent on small contracts under £2O. Compare this with Central Government administration, and the result will be found greatly in favor of Local Government.

The man Archibald Wilson, who was remanded by the Christchurch Bench, yesterday, on a charge of misappropriating £217, the money of the Government, has been employed as a contractor or sub-contractor on the railway works at Porter's Pass, and the money which he is alleged to have converted to his own use was entrusted to him for the payment of the workmen’s wages. If the facts alleged by the prosecution are established, he should receive the severest punishment that the law allows. A tailor’s strike on a small scale against 20 per cent reduction in wages has taken place at Wanganui. It is understood as the result of the proposed ten per cent reductions in the already badly paid postal and telegraph departments of the colony, that a strike is imminent, and the best experts are preparing to leave the colony for the United States, where wages and work in connection with such duties are established on a remunerative and satisfactory basis. A private letter from California says |that operators in the States receive from 100 to 150 dollars per month, equal to £22 10s to £34 for the same duties that realise in New Zealand from £8 to £lO per month.