NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2312, 14 August 1880, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The return match between the Timaru and Temuka Chess Clubs, will take place in Timaru on August 25 at the Mechanics’ Institute, Timaru. Temuka will bo represented on the occasion by Messrs Guinness, Dickenson, Ollivicr, Mason, Nicholas, and Bolton. The Timaru team has not yet been selected.

The members of the Lyttelton Harbor Board bad a plain looking model of tbcir new graving dock constructed at tbcir railway workshops for the purpose of exhibiting at the Melbourne Exhibition. They are now terribly disgusted at receiving a bill for £bo for the unpretentious toy. How Mr Gladstone, says the London “ Spectator,”.; must sigh over American finance. On May 11th Mr Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury, made a speech in which he declared that the Union had entered on a cycle of prosperity, that the only trade still under depression was the ocean carrying trade, and that the surplus revenue of the year would amount to 100,000,000 dolrs., or £20,000,000. Twenty years of that kind of surplus would pay off the whole American debt.

The report of the Colonial Industries Commission has been tabled. After general remarks, tobacco is classed as the most important agricultural industry brought under the notice of the Commission. The evidence on sugar is meagre and somewhat contradictionary. Fruits and preserves is an industry for which New Zealand is better adapted than any country in the world. Linseed cannot fail to succeed as a product of great value. For starch the Commissioners recomcndcd that bonuses should be offered. They also favour the manufacture and of olives, mulberries, and honey. The report contains 25 other recommendations. The report was tabled too late to make a fuller summary; 207 witnesses wore examined.

It has been decided by the residents to hold a monthly fair at Woodbury for the sale of stock, &c. The first fair will be held shortly.

The Temuka Race Club Committee have decided upon the following events for their next meeting, the date of which is not yet definitely fixed Hurdle Bace of £3O; Maiden Plate of £2O; Temuka Cup of £4O ; Publicans’ Purse of £2O; Hack Bace of £10; and Consolation of £10; also, that the Hurdle and Cup should be open races, the Maiden Plate and Purse to be County races, and the Hack Bace to be a district race. The next Committee meeting takes place on Thursday evening August 2(5. Timaru has been so quiet lately that it was generally believed that the Practical Jokers Association had become extinct. That it has only been asleep and has suddenly revived, was made evident last evening by the breakage of several large panes of glass in Johnstone’s butcher’s shop, and the partial destruction of certain boarding-house fences, and Mrs Crickmorc’s windows, in Church Street. The larrikins seem to have travelled from Church street along Sophia street j and Elizabeth street. As they passed Mrs Osborne’s shop a tumbler was dashed through the window, barely escaping the head of Mrs Osborne, who sat up all night trembling lest a bottle might follow. About half-past eleven Mr Clayton, of the concrete store, had his slumbers disturbed by hearing several large panes in his show window undergoing destruction. He leaped from his bed in time to see three full-grown men careering up the street as fast as their limbs would enable them. Chase was given and the jokers had some hot work before they made good their retreat which eventually they did. To-day the police have been making enquiries.

Travellers by the Albury line to Pleasant Point bitterly complain of their unpleasant experiences at that station. Last evening, wo are informed, a group of seven passengers, including two females,were allowed to linger in the dark for nearly an hour awaiting tiro train which leaves shortly before seven. The night was dark, windy, and wet, and what rendered their situation peculiarly aggravating was the fact that there were lamps and a ladies room, but the one was locked, and the others were unlighted. When the train did make a start, the only article used to make darkness visible to cheer the drooping spirits of the benighted was the dim bull’s eye lantern of the station master. Surely times arc not quite so bad with the department that a little kerosene cannot be squandered. As the result of an enquiry at New Plymouth re the stranding of the schooner Vogel, at Waitava, the captains certificate was returned, but the owners were censured for not keeping the vessel properly equipped. The Bank of New Zealand has grossly offended the Hokitika Borough Council byrefusing them an overdraft of £3OO. The Oamaru ratepayers ought to feel cheerful. Their civic fathers propose to borrow another £IO,OOO to complete the waterworks scheme, and to guarantee the security a special rate of (id in the £ will be levied; this will make the rating of Oamaru 3s 3d in the £. The Baroness Burdett-Contts has never married—it is said because she is too homely to bo attractive, and will not be married for her money. She is rather below the medium height, with a prominent nose, and hair brushed tightly over the temples in the good old-fashioned way, and has a bad complexion which makes her look as if she drank to excess, although she is very abstemious.

It was rumoured in Oamaru yesterday by some Chiuamcm that the body 7 of their countryman “ Charlie,” who was lost from the Beautiful Star on a recent trip, had been found on the Kakanui Beach, but up to a late hour last night, there had been no re-

port of the matter to the police. Several persons have been on the look-out for his body, as he is said to have £BO and a watch on his person. One or two residents, who witnessed Charlie's end, inform the “North Otago Times’ that to one watching from the breakwater he did not appear to have thrown himself oil the taffrail, but to have fallen off accidently on the vessel giving a lurch. If so, his motive in stepping on the taffrail must remain a mystery. The cane which Mr D. C. F. Moodie used to chastise Mr A. T. Clark, of Melbourne, with for libelling the Queen has been mounted and tipped with pure gold, and on the plate forming the handle the following inscription has been engraved : —“ With this cane Mr 1). C. Moodie thrashed A, T. Clark, M.P., for insulting Her Majesty Queen Victoria. Presented by a few Melbourne gentlemen, June, 1880.”_

Many “printer’s errors” do not result so droily as the following“ At Hamburg every year, at the end of February, there is held a horse fair. The almanacs which announced when it was to be held, printed in the town, by error boro date of Ith February instead of the 21th. On the Ith a number of dealers, leading some 000 horses, arrived in the town’s market place to the astonishment of the authorities who had made no dispositions for their reception, and originally opposed the fair being held. Inquiry resulted in the cause of the mistake being discovered, and after explanation, leave was given lor the holding of a supplementary fair.”

Mr James Mackay, whose services as a Native Land rurchase Agent have been dispensed with by the Government, is an object for public sympathy. He was paid off with £BOOO commission, although ho was entitled to £IB,OOO. The colony should weep for him. James has petitioned the legislature for relief.

A sad accident happened off Aratapu, near Auckland yesterday. Four persons were drowned by the upsetting of a sailing boat in a squall. Cole, of the ship Minister of Marine notoriety, Allwright, a clerk at Kopuru, Wilson, a clerk at Mangaewhare, and John"Ficlder, carpenter, of Mangaewharc were drowned. The fifth, isimms, got ashore. Wilson was married, and has a family in Canterbury.

A Northern resident bearing the euphonious title of Fitzgibbon Louch, C.E., has started for England, on the special settlement business. "What between the Fitzgibbons and the Fitzgeralds, the North Island ought be speedily populated.