South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1880. NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2347, 24 September 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1880. NEWS OF THE DAY.

The funds of St Mary's Church will be augmented to the extent of £65 from the proceeds of the late soiree.

The people of Greymouth are agitating for the vigorous prosecution of their harbor works.

The annual meeting of the Timaru Boating Club has been fixed for Oct 5 and the opening of the boating season will probably take place on Oct 9.

A special train with the Timaru portion of the San Francisco mail arrived at 10 o’clock last evening. Owners of private boxes at the Post office were enabled to get their letters and newspapers by midnight.

The daughter of a Port Chalmers doctor whose weak point is penny savings banks,had an interview with the Colonial Secretary yesterday rc the introduction of his favorite hobby in the public schools. Mr Dick got rid of his fair friend by promising that the “penny” scheme would be laid before the Cabinet.

Tire Irish Pilgrim was awaited by a considerable crowd at the door of the Queen’s Hall last evening, but he failed to put in an appearance. In the absence of information on the subject we arc unable to explain the why or wherefore. Mr Armstrong has plenty of animal courage, so that the idea of Captain Barry’s egg shower having intimidated him is improbable. Of one thing we are satisfied that if the Pilgrim, through his agent, has been beguiled into perpetrating a hoax, it must have been done unwittingly. When last heard of Mr Armstrong was at Ashburton,

We have to acknowledge the receipt of a collection of interesting and valuable papers on medical subjects from Dr Wilkins of Christchurch, whose visit to Timaru a few days hence is announced elsewhere. They comprise a phamphlet on the treatment of diphtheria by local remedies only ; observations on cases of squint; an account of tire successful operation of cleft palate; and a full description of a most extraordinary ease of loss of voice on the part of a female adult, which was successfully treated after all the usual remedies had been tried unavailingly, by the application of galvanism. With reference to diphtheria, we may state that Dr Wilkins, as the result of his experience, places the utmost reliance on the application of glycerincd tannic acid for the destruction of the dipththoritic membrane. The application is stated to be safe, harmless, and effective. With regard to squint, the doctor gives details of a variety of operations by which the deformity has been successfully treated, even in the cases of adults. In his capacity of surgeon to the Alfred Hospital, and the Melbourne Infirmary for diseases of the chest, throat, eye, and ear, Dr Wilkins has had a wide and varied held for practice, and we can confidently recommend such of the afflicted as have suffered pecuniarily and otherwise from the visitations of empirics, to avail themselves of his skill and services. Dr Wilkins visits the Urosvenor Hotel on October 1.

There is a mixture of romance and tragedy in the composition of an Auckland resident named George Henry Sbeppcrson. He was recently before the bench for wife beating and in the course of his examination it transpired that he had three wives all alive and kicking. A telegram now informs us that on Wednesday night he went to Onehunga where his third wife lives, demanded admittance and was refused. The wife fled by the back-door for the police as Shcppcrson burst in the front door. On the police arriving they found the doors fastened up, but made an entrance and found Shcppcrson on the tloor with his throat partly cut. The wounds were stitched up a doctor, and Shepporson sent to the Hospital. He says he is weary of life, and does not want to live. He kept a diary which is in the hands of the police. In it he states his two first wives were spiritual, and the third veiled in the llesh and faulty. The returning officer for one of the Borough Wards in Oaraaru has been fined Is and ds costs for refusing to accept the nomination of a candidate on the ground that he did not possess a £25 property (qualification. It appears that this qualification has been abolished. The fine seems ridiculous, but the question will, we presume, bo raised whether the illegal action of the returning officer does not vitiate the election.

A Wellington sailmaker named Edwards complains that on Saturday night last he fell while stepping olf the footpath and broke his leg. Two constables came up and ordered him to “ move on.” He told them what had happened, but they paid no attention to his story, dragged him to the lock-up, gave him a rug to lie on, and left him in a cell till between seven and eight next morning, when he was sent in a vehicle to the hospital. The constables allege that Edwards was very drunk when arrested, while Edwards declares he was perfectly sober, and the affair will form the subject of a strict enquiry.