NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2330, 4 September 1880, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

A combine and elevator and about 700 bushels of oats in the sheaf, the property cf Mr Taylor, of Makikihi wci c destroyed by fire at 8 o’clock last evening. The engine and about 800 bushels of thrashed oats were saved. The engine was insured in the National for £OO and the combine and and elevator for £2lO in the same office.

At the monthly meeting of the Timaru Hospital Commissioners yesterday a letter was read from Government, intimating that 10 per cent, must be taken off all salaries and wages. It was shown that the servants were at present receiving lower wages than were paid at other Hospitals and at private houses. It was resolved to obtain statistics of the rate of wages obtaining elsewhere and submit the same to the Government. After the transaction of some routine business, the steward’s statement for the month of August was read as follows, and the meeting adjourned Patients under treatment at date of last return —males, 20; females, 2 ; total, 22 Admitted during mouth—males, 11; females, 1. Discharged during month — Cured, males, 7; females, 1. Relieved—males, 6 ; females, 1. Incurable, 1 male ; dead, 1 male. Total discharged—males 15; females, 2. Remaining under treat, ment—males, 19 ; females, -1.

The Resident Magistrate at Ashburton holds that no person can legally enter a dwelling without knocking, even should the door be open. For committing a trespass of this kind he, the other day, ordered a man to pay damages to the amount of £lO, which carried £5 13s costs.

Among the visitors for the Melbourne Exhibiton is the Duke of Manchester who has arrived per s.s. Sorata.

The Timaru Building Society after paying off the Harbor Board’s debentures, and thereby saving two or three of the members from a premature end, and having met every obligation, is now in a position to advance loans at reasonable rates, on good security. In another column the Secretary announces that he is prepared to receive applications from borrowers. A much married individual at Auckland, named H. S. Shepherdson, has been bound over to keep the peace towards his third wife. Three marriage certificates were produced in Court, shewing that he was in the habit of sampling wives every ten years. Shepherdson is to be prosecuted for bigamy after which he intends to join the Mormons.

A number of French vignerons, who intended settling in Auckland, are so disgusted at being offered 600 acres of barren land covered with an impenetrable scrub by the Waste Land Board ;that they intend retracing their steps to America. A company is being formed at Christchurch to construct a railway to Sumner.

The body of Richardson, who has been missing from the ship Loch Awe for several days, was found in the harbor at Lyttelton, yesterday.

Seven thousand acres of the Waimate Plains arc to be opened for sale next month. The price fixed is £4 per acre for cash, and £5 for deferred payments extending over ten years. Samples of brandy lately collected by the police at Oamavu have been analysed. In every instance the spirit was found to be unduly adulterated, and the offenders arc to be prosecuted.

Large withdrawals of gold are being made from the Bank of England for North America.

New forms under the Property Assessment Act have been adopted, and will be issued next week. It is probable that the time for sending in returns will be extended to the middle of next month.

Saving the spigot and losing by the bung bole accurately represents the retrenchmentpolicy of the administration. It is stated that about £IOO has been spent in fitting and furnishing hired rooms for the Deputy Commissioner under the property tax, while there arc apartments splendidly fitted up and ready for occupation in the new Government buildings, which the authorities arc quite at a loss how to occupy. This is nearly as bad as Dr Pollen’s pension and yet 10 per cent is being deducted from the scullery-maids at the Hospital.

Mr Armstrong the discharged locomotive superintendent at at Dunedin is the hero of the hour. Last evening he was presented with one one hundred sovereigns and a complimentary address, by Mr AV. Conyers, Commissioner for the Middle Island railways, on behalf of live hundred railway employees. Another testimonial will probably be presented to Mr Armstrong by the general public to-night. Mr Armstrong positively denied that he had ever been afforded an opportunity of rebutting the charges brought against him. He had been condemned unheard. In conclusion he said he had never in the whole course of his life seen such an exhibition of malice, treachery and untruthful ness as had been displayed in connectionwith the whole of this miserable business.

It is asserted by a New South Whiles paper that there are about a dozen libel actions pending against Sydney newspapers. The aggregate damages claimed amount to a total of somewhere about the respectable sum of £40,000. A correspondent in Egypt writes as follows : “ In spite of the Europeanising tentcncics at work in Egypt, and the astonishing proof of European agency which was given in the payment in full of the official salaries last March, the reactionary or Eastern party- are gaining strength. It is strange in a country which is supposed to be daily becoming more Frankish to see how the Moslem spirit survives and even grows more powerful under the stimulus of opposition. The number of devotees who lay down at the last Dosch to let the Sheik’s horse ride over their bodies was estimated at 800; and the present Khedive who is a great stickler for the Mahommedan religion, expressed, it is said much satisfaction at the increase in the numbers. Dervishes recite their zikrs and drive themselves into hysterics as much as ever; and if the fine mosque of Sultan Hassam is allowed to fall to pieces a modern caricature of it is being set up close by. It is true a band plays Offenbach and Lecocq in the Ezbckiah ; but on Friday, the Mussulman Sabbath, it performs the monotonous dirges of the land, Cairo is tolerably Eastern after all; and under the young Khedive is likely to remain so.” The “ llrucc Herald ” is advertising for a sober editor. The editor of the “ North Otago Times,” at one time a staunch Greyite, is delighted with Mr Alfred Saunders and the work of the past session.