NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2314, 17 August 1880, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Two Dunedin pilots have been summarily dismissed by the Otago Harbor Board for refusing to bump a vessel drawing 20 feet of water over the bar with 18 feet (i indies at high tide. Harbor Master Thompson, and another pilot did the “ bumping” successfully, and the faint-hearted officers were consequently deemed incompetent. It is not everyone’s luck to be so well treated as ex-constable M'Williams, of Wellington. The day that the Government sent him his cheque for £155 compensation for dismissal the cajitain of H.M.S. Raleigh gave him a free passage to England in that vessel. The American census enumeration now in progress shows that the district of Colombia, including Washington, has gained 10,000 in ten years. New York City is credited with a population of 1,500,000; San Francisco, 500,000 to 550,000; Boston lias 551,000; Philadelphia, 900,000. The older Western States show a decrease. A son of Mr S. Graham of the Government Landing Scrvioc yesterday attempted to tire off a squib of his own manufacture when it burst in his band, scorching his face and c.ycs. The sufferer was conveyed at once to the Hospital where his injuries were at once attended to b t y Dr Hogg.

The adjourned meeting of the Borough Council which was to have been held last evening for the purpose of receiving the Engineers 1 report on coitain matters connected with the waterworks, was allowed to Lapse in order to give Messrs Dobson some further time to prepare their report. The matter will' come under discussion at the next ordinary meeting of the Council.

A number of men left Oamaru in the s.s. Grafton for the Okarito rush on the West Coast yesterday.

Delaney, an Auckland carter, has had his skull fractured by a kick from a horse. Andrew Clark, a resident of the Thames lias died from spinal injuries received while working in the Sawmill bush. Two of the public-houses lately closed by the Licensing bench at Grahamstown, have been rc-opcncd, one as a hardware warehouse and the other as a temperance restaurant.

Acting on a report from the Health Office at Christchurch that typhoid fever has been communicated to families by means of milk supplied from filthy dairies, the Board of Health have resolved to inspect the premises of all milksellcrs. ,

Mathew Henderson arrested at Wellington for wife desertion yesterday on the strength of a telegram from Christchurch was, in the absence of a warrant, discharged. In the afternoon Henderson was re-arrested for embezzlement and larceny. Some fine specimens of Moa bones have been discovered by the railway workmen at Weka Pass, in twelve feet of clay.

The Amberlcy telegraph office has proved a good investment. The gentlemen who guaranteed the subsidy required to initiate it have received an account current for the year ending 50th June, showing a balance to the credit of the office, after paying expenses, of TllO 18s.

The eccentric individual who looks after the Dramatic Author's copyright in New Zealand appears to be in a state of everlasting litigation. Not content with lus last diappointment at Auckland, he has commenced proceedings against the proprietors of the Chrischurch Theatre Royal, for producing “ His Last Legs.” O’Callaghan lias been in a few scrapes and he will doubtless get out of this one. The Wellington correspondent of the “ Lyttelton Times ” understands that £I7OO alleged arrears of pension, which Mr Stout, when in office, and Mr Reid, Solici-tor-General, recommended not to be jraid to Dr Pollen, has, notwithstanding, been paid. It will form the subject of an enquiry. It is believed to be almost certain that the beer duty will be reduced to threepence per gallon.