NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2445, 19 January 1881, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Taranaki-has'disgorged an il Licit -still. : The “ Greymouth Star ” has been sold by Mrlvcss to Mr Petrie. Mr Bryce finally handed over the Native Department to Mr : Rplleston yesterday. The days of the Armed Constabulary are numbered.

Harvesters in Southland are offered 25s per week and found. Last year their wages was 30s per week and there was no property tax. The roadstead appears to be swarming with sharks. This morning a six footer' was hooked from the breakwater but broke away before he could be landed; Mr A. K. Smith, M.L A.. of Victoria, whose death has been telegraphed, was one of the founders of the iron industry in the Australian colonics. In the early days he turned out some excellent workmanship from his foundry in. Melbourne, supplying many of the quartz’miners with crushing machinery and plant. He was for years a prominent member of the Melbourne City Council, and was at one time Mayor of that city. A telegram from Sir W, Fox stales that it is his intention to begin his new duties by a thorough and exhaustive settlement of the Native claims in regard to land on the south side of the Waingongoro River, with a view to establishing confidence with the Natives, and settling each matter completely as he goes. He does not intend to return to Wellington before the session. On the subject of snuffing a curious calculation has been left on record by Lord Stanhope. “Every professed, inveterate and incurable snuff-taker,” says his lordship, “at a moderate computation takes one pinch in ten minutes. _ Every pinch, with the agreeable ceremony of blowing and wiping the nose and other incidental circumstances, consumes one minute and a half. One minute and a half out of every ten, allowing sixteen hours for a snufftaking day, amounts to two hours and twenty-four minutes out of every natural day, or one day out of ten. One daj out of every ten amounts to thirty six days and a half in a year. • Hence, if we suppose the practice to he persisted in forty years, two entire years of the snuff-taker’s life will be dedicated to tickling his nose, and two more to blowing it!”

Considerable indignation has been ex-pressed-'at the somewhat arbitrary: conduct ofjvthe mariager.of-’the New,, . Zealand Laifd •- atjdl! Mercantile Acency’Cqmpanyign disg missing; one of the' best surfracnvirt their, employment, for--; an apparently very, trivial offence, if.offence it. can be called. At thcTa'st meeting of the Harbor Board ri letter was read from Mr LcCren, manager of the company, offuiing one of the boats belonging to their Landing Service. . Some, lisctission ensued, in- tlic course of which the value of the boat under offer was freely debated. Mr Beswick jiappcned to remark that in reply to a question Clarkson, one of the surf men,had expressed the opinion that the boat was unsafe and would probably be drowned. The discussion was reported in our columns, and the result is that ;John Clarkson, who has been in the service of the N.Z.L. and M.A. Company for three years, and who was considered a most trustworthy, sober, and reliable boatman, has been rewarded for his long and faithful services by being suddenly discharged. We are glad, however, to state that the intended victim, whose offence has been that of giving a straightforward and candid answer to a straightforward question is not likely to suffer.' Clarkson's base has been taken in hand by some of our leading merchants as well ias the members of the Harbor Board, and -the indignation expressed on every side is likely to assume a practical form by employment being found for him in the Government Landing Service.

Mr Justice Gillies has brought from America the appliances for the game of base ball, so popular in the United States, and he intends presenting them to the College and Grammar School of Auckland for the intellectual amusement of the wooden-heads.

The total amount of Customs duties collected at the Port of Timaru during the year 1880 was £10.330 13s -id, as compared with £10,720 10' 5d in 1879. Other duties collected by H.M, Customs—beer duty, publicans’ licenses, light dues, Merchant Shipping and Arms Act foes, etc. amounted in 1879 to £lOl7 14s 7d and in 1880 to £55 98 17s 7d.

Duncan Stewart was charged before the Waimate Bench yesterday with the larceny of a dray valued at £ls the property of A. Chisholm, residing near Waimate. The aecused was remanded, bail being allowed, accused in £4O and two su.eties of £2O each.

The latest American novelty is a phongraphic piano. The instrument will play any tune in a purely mechanical manner, somewhat on the principle of the wonderful phonograph, and a child_can play it as well »s an adult. It docs not get out of tune,and it will furnish music for dancing or an accompaniment for singing. Paper strips may be perforated for any new music and readily applied to the instrument. The manufacturers of the piano are the Massachusetts Organ Co.. Boston, Mass.

Te Whiti's address at the Parihaka meeting yesler ay abounded in metaphor. It did not directly touch on the present position, Some of the prisoners released were present at the meeting. The natives have full confidence, should the Governor go to Parihaka, in finally settling the difficulty, They ridiculed our laws, owing to the release of the two-years’ men, and boast of having made Government break them. Hiroki officiated as caterer. Tula's father looked downcast. The meeting was well attended, and the natives appear more attached to their leader since the release of the prisoners.

The weather for the past week, has been unsettled and in every way unfavourable for the harvest. Warm moist drizzling rain, alternated with sunshine and a close stifling atmosphere, have all combined to occasion a good deal ot anxiety respecting the crops. A good deal of grain is dead ripe or nearly so, and it is feared that if better harvesting weather does not set in' the heads will betrin to sprout and the grain will be ruined. What renders the kind of weather we are just row experiencing the most extraordinary is that the barometer for many days has been indicating a fine dry atmosphere. On Monday and during the greater part of yesterday, there was a steady downpour, but this afternoon has shown signs of taking up.

Concerning the proposed Federal Council for the whole of the Australasian Colonies, the “ Argus ” remarks Our local legislatures might sink still lower into parish vestryisra, and our local policies, might become more and more provincial and petty, but a feeling of pride, of rivalry, and of self-interest would impel each community to select none but statesmen for seats in the Federal Parliament, and these would discuss large questions in a broad spirit, and with suitable ability, because their deliberations would be conducted in view of the whole of Australasia, and would engage a degree of attention outside of its boundaries commensurate with their importance, and with the magnitude of the interests confided to such a legislature. Indeed, the opposition to federation mainly springs from those politicians who feel that they would have no chance of figuring on the wider arena of public life which would then be open to men of conspicuous talent, and who view with unconcealed apprehension the probable extinction of their profitable calling, and their own probable lapse into insignificance and oblivion.

At Ashburton on Saturday a man named George Wilson was committed for trial

for stealing £l7, from the person of a laborer named Frederick Neill. Neill had been drinking on Jan. 13 at several of the hotels, and, having exhibited his money, was followed about by Wilson, a wandering vagrant. Falling asleep on a sofa in the commercial room of the Ashburton Hotel, he awoke to find that the whole of his money was gone. At a late hour of the same evening the police were called by a woman named Annie Hill, who stated that she had been robbed by a man in an oyster saloon. Wilson was thereupon arrested, and on being stripped at the, watch-house a ten pound and five pound note were found in his left boot corresponding with the money that Neill had lost.

The Auckland ‘‘. SJal'-” says that the Hon Thomas Diesis an active Baptist, and that h&- attended' the serVjcfcs of . that body regularlyswhilc in Auckland. .»•' ;A good'deal of welt meaning nonsense is uttercdffom time to timeabout the necessity foX': erecting costly armaments and defence - works in New' Zealand. Victoria’s sufferings from defence schemes should teach this colony a practical lesson. It is; calculated, that, during the last 25 years'the sum of £2,,-115,000—a vast, amount —has been wasted on the defences of that colony. ' The “ Age” adds that the land forces have always been a sham. The method of swindling adopted by the man Gilligan who has lately lately been making a tour of Otago was to represent himself as a partner in the firm of Gilligan and Co., Kensington Clothing Factory, Dundas street, where be had 70 men employed. On the strength of these representations he induced people to order suits of clothes'at low prices, receiving sums ranging from 2s Gd to 10s as deposit, and agreeing to forward the clothes from

Dunedin, and let the balance remain for four months. Gilligan was brought up at the Arrow Resident Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, and remanded to Queenstown, where, on the following day, he was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment.

The Horsham Times (Victoria) records the occurence of a singular accident at Kewell, by which a boy, nine years of age, son of Mr Wallis, lost his life. The parents having occasion to leave the premises for some time, locked the door, and following a very common custom, put the key on the inner window sill. The little boy coming home opened the window, but knocked the key down. He endeavoured to get it, and while so engaged the window sash fell on his neck completely pinning him down, his strength being unequal to the task of raising the window, and he could.not aid himself by means of his hands. The consequence was that the weight of the sash strangled him and he was found quite dead.

George William Robinson alias Telia t, a prisoner on remand from New Zea’and, appeared before the Sydney Bench on Jan. (!th, charged wiih stealing from a

dwelling. Detective Brown of the New Zealand police proved having received a watch and brooch from the accused while Robinson was in custody in this Cohny on another charge. Elizabeth Stewart, a widow stated that she kept the Cooper’s Arras, Pyrmont in Sept. 1878. On the 20th of that month prisoner visited the place late in the evening and changed a £5 note. Shortly afterwards on going to her bedroom she missed a hand-bag containing £IOO and a quantity of jewellery, including the wrntch and brooch produced Robinson was committed for trial.

The terrible earthquake shocks at Agram, in Austria, by which a great part of that town has been demolished, have led to the development of a theory by which, it is alleged, earthquakes can be accurately foretold long before their occurrence. The author of the theory is Herr Falb, the Government astronomer and metcoroligist. He declares that the shock which took place at Agram, on Nov. 12, confirms his theories. Its centre w'as Agram, where the. shocks took a circular range. He thinks it possible that another shock may be felt on the December 15 or 81, when the moon’s attraction upon the subterranean lava is greatest. He predicted the Chili earthquake, and was driven off by the inhabitants in consequence. The “ Agram Zeituhg” continues to appear daily, and is useful in tranquilising the public. It has published an account of the various earthquakes which have occurred at Agram during the last four centuries. In March, 17)02, most of the buildings were damaged, and the church tower fell in.

A terrible death occurred in a Bolton train recently, and more shocking evidence has not often been given at an inquest than that of Mr Wildblood, a strangely named theological student,, who declared that he entered the train which left Victoria station at twenty minutes past six o’clock on Saturday evening. After he entered the carriage a man and two women entered, one of them being the deceased. He thought the three were all the Worse for drink. The deceased behaved herself rather noisily ; she sat on the other female’s knee, rose up and looked out of the window, and being remonstrated with she sat down again and began losing in rather a rowdy manner, “ Pay thy morning sacrifice.” Shortly afterwards she put her head out of the window again, and almost immediately there was a sound like a fog signal going off and deceased’s body rolled on to the carriage floor. Her head was split open, and her brains were scattered about.

The Hampshire Post reports a strange incident, which, it states, has occurred olf Cowes. While the Royal yacht, Osborne, was moored ofl; the island, the Prince of Wales and an officer on board the yacht resolved to plunge into the water and swim round the yacht with their clothes on. It was no sooner resolved upon than the Prince and the officer were seen struggling in the sea, hampered with their clothes. The tide was running strong at the time, and the swimmers were, in spite of themselves, swept past the stern. Possibly the result might have been serious had not Admiral Sir Henry Keppel, who had heard the conversation, succeeded in launching a boat and rowing to the rescue.

The “Engineer” gives an account of Reese's fusing disc, by means of which a bar of steel is cut in two by a current of air. The disc is 42 inches in diameter, of

2- inch of soft steel, and has a peripheral velocity of 2300 feet per minute. 'lhe round (it must be round, it seems) bar of steel is also caused to revolve in the same direction at a rate of 200 revolutions per minute ; thus the opposing faces travel in opposite directions, and if the disc touched the steel it would no doubt cut it, as steel rails are sawn by a soft iron saw. But it is demonstrated that the disc does not touch the bar, and it is clear that the latter is burned through by the air set in motion b> the disc. The latter which is 3- thick, “ cuts” a groove 5-l Gin, thick and has J-inch clear in front of the edge. The machine is actually at work in the United States.

It is slated 'that Mr J. F. Fitzgerald, ..is preparing a very lengthy and exhaustive report on’ the systeras'bf audit in;the various. Australian colonies recently visited, by him during his official tour.

Mr E. Smith, of the Maori Hill Boarding House," delightfully situated next Lewis’ gardens, has an announcement in our columns that deserves the perusal of boarders generally.