NEW ZEALAND.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2351, 29 September 1880, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND.

[Pee “Times” Special Wire.] Accident ta a Steamer. Wellington, Sept. 29. The steamer Manawatu on her passage from Wanganui to Wellington met with a mishap to her engine. She put in at Kapatai and will be towed into Wellington to-morrow. Arrival of a Home Ship. Lyttelton Sept. 29. Anived —Waitangi, ship, 1128 tons, from London with 64 passengers, 88 days out. There was one death on the voyage from heart disease, but no sickness. Dunedin Supreme Court - Dunedin, Sept. 29. In Mackenzie v Smith, Judge Williams gave judgment, upholding the jury’s verdict. Defendant gave notice of appeal. STi'icndly Societies on their IsSettle. Invercargill, Sept. 29. Owing to the uneasiness caused in the minds of members through an official report made to Parliament rc the unsatisfactory condition of the funds of Friendly Societies in the Otago district the heads of the local Lodges of all the Orders intend to make a thorough invc'tv gation with the view of making any adjustment necessary.

The “ Wairarapa Standard ” at a rough guess, estimates the cost of the breakwind sheds on the Rimutaka at from £BOOO to £IO,OOO. Edward Kerns, mate of the Sarah and the loss of which formed the subject of a recent enquiry, was yesterday sentenced to two months’ hard labor for stealing a pair of binocular glasses and a signal book from the vessel. Quartz mining on the West Coast is looking up. The Golden Fleece Quartz Miifing Company, Hecfton, cleaned up on Saturday, with a result of lOdOozs ISdwts retorted gold from !)82 tons of quartz, dividend of one shi’ ing per share has been declared. The United . jdne, Lyell, cleaned up on Friday, with a result of 4890zs amalgam from 158 tons of stone. Twenty pigeons arrived fromChriKtchnrch by train last evening, to compete for the President’s Cup, of the East Christchurch Pigeon Club. Eighteen of the birds wem liberated by Mr T. J. Kennedy this morning ; the first one at 7.30 ; and the rest at intervals of 15 minutes. The weather was magnificent, and the birds were soon out of sight, the majority disappearing in a northwesterly direction. The ninth bird disappeared the qiickcst of ah, being out cf sight in half a minute. ‘A Settler ” writes to an Oamaru paper as follows: —“As I was passing along a certain road in the Waiareka road district the other day. I saw a laborer engaged by the Hoard metalling the road with straw. Be was depositing a bit here and there in holes. I asked him what he was doing, and he said lie was mending the road. I call it setting snares for unwary drivers and horsemen. In my opinion Metal is the best. There is plenty of material at hand, and let ns honor the immortal Macadam by utilising it after the approved fashion.” A railway to Sumner has been projected in Christchurch, and the share list wiU close on Oct. 18. Sumner bears the same relationship to Christchurch that the Ocean Peach does to Dunedin, and it is only surprising that a railway line thither has not been constructed long ago. Most of the Australian cities—Melbourne for instance with its Hobson’s Pay line —have practicallyacknowledged the value of railway communication with the sea side. Visitors to Christchurch in common with its constant residents have long lamented the absence of cheap and easy facilities for r ’siting the beach, and enjoying such a health -giving change of scene and atmosphere as the sea-side affords. This line to Sumner properly managed ought to be one of the most productive “ specs” in the colony, and under any circumstances it must prove highly beneficial to the people of Christchurch.

Here is somethin" which wi ll probably make the Committee who unseated Sir George Grey for Christchurch feci queer when they read it“ The law officers of the Crown recently had under consideration the position in which the Eight Hon. J. G. Dobson, M.P., was placed by the decision of the election judges declaring his first election for Chester to the present Parliament void, and the possibility of his sitting in the House by virtue of his second election for the same scat. The legal opinion given is to the effect that as the Corrupt Pract'ccs Act explicitly declares that no person disqualified by reason of bribery by agents can sit for the place in which his disqualification occurred during the then existing Parliament, tic second election for Chester was also vol’, Mr Dobson not being at the time qualified as a candidate by reason of the acts which had nullified the first election. The scat being de facto vacant, it was held that no special action was necessary, and that Mr Dobson was at liberty to accept a s.eond seat without accepting the Chiitern Hundreds. In any case it was also held that the right hon gentleman might be elected for two places, and even if he we.e sti 1 ’ member for (hosier he could elect to sit for any other place to which he might be elected,” Sherwood, Mr Dan McGuinness’ handsome pure-bred, the pride of the district, is to travel this season through Pleasant Point, Temuka, and Geraldine.