NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2470, 17 February 1881, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

A proclamation in the “ Gazette” further prorogues Parliament till April 19.

Thu Harbor Board meet on Tuesday, February 22nd, for the transaction of important business.

A small shipment of cheese is being sent home by the Otaki as an experiment. If it is profitable regular shipments will follow.

The recent difficulty between the Auckland Board of Education and the City School Committee has been amicably arranged, the Board having caved in before the popular body.

The WVst Coast Railway share lists arc filling up rapidly. The promoters have sent a surveyor and party out from Reefton to check the levels, k c., of Thornton and Browne's survey.

A magnificent groner between CO and 70 pounds in weight was taken yesterday morning by one of the boatmen. The big fish was captured by means of a night-line stretching from the wharf to the barque Wentworth.

The following eleven will represent Canterbury against Otago next week:—Messrs Ashby, Cotterill, C. Frith, W. Frith,Fuller, E. Fowler (captain), Fowko, Godby, Hartland, Redmayne and Watson. Ollivier, Secretan, Corfc and Leach are prevented from playing through business engagements.

After a severe drought accompanied by a warm, almost tropical, temperature, the weather has undergone a refreshing change. During the past day or two some slight showers have fallen, but the rain only moistened the surface, and did not extend far beyond the limits of the borough. Last evening after sundown a steady shower set in increasing in quantity for some hours, and lasting until midnight. The elfoct has been salutary on the gardens and tanks about town, anti no harm has been done to the country.

An Orepuki miner, who recently visited Melbourne, has made a statement that perhaps may give a clue to the perpetrator of the Taiaroa gold’robbery. On the day that the steamer came in he visited a room in a hoarding house occupied by one of her passengers, and found the way impeded by a carpet bag, which he tried to move with his foot, but found it so heavy that he had to put his hand to it. The owner, a gentlemanly looking fellow, left in an outgoing steamer soon after the Tararua’s arrival taking the carpet bag with him.

The “ Now Zealand Times,” referring to a recent police prosecution of two hotelkeepers under a Wellington Licensing Ordinance, says : —“• What is really wanted is an act of the General Assembly, dealing with the licensing question of the whole colony. Il is absurd that there should be one Licensing Act in Auckland, another in Taranaki, a third in Hawke’s Bay, a fourth in Wellington, a fifth in Nelson, a sixth in Canterbury, asevtnfh in Otago, and so on in other provincial districts. The, question is one in which one law should apply to ever> provincial distiiet throughout the colony. Already in Wellington the Sunday police crusade against the hotels has resulted in some of these sly-grog shops being established, and more of them will follow. There are f--w greater evils in a community than that of ‘sly-grog shops.’ Those who carry on such a nefarious traffic pay no license tees. Their stock can be bought on a Saturday night for a very few pounds ; they have no extensive premises or furniture, and as they conduct the trade with the greatest secrecy, their detection bj r the police is a work of almost insuperable difficulty.” There are three female barbers doing business in San Francisco. On this subject, “Silverpen,” the chatty correspondent of the “ Auckland Herald ” says :—ln an interview I had some time ago with the first feminine shaver who ever set up in the town, she informed me tnat East the business is a regular one among the fair sex, and a profitable one. I believe she is a first-rate hand herself, but she says the trouble is women won’t “ stick to their trade.” They shave until they fall in love with some one, and then they throw it up. However, I don’t see why it should not be encouraged, as there are too many girls unemployed, and it would at any rate keep them out of mischief, if anything has such a power over feeble woman. The Superintendant of Telegraphs replied to a suggestion of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, that the price of telephones should be reduced from £l7 10s to £lO 10s to the effect that “ After careful consideration of the expense and labor which the establishment and maintenance of a telephone exchange will entail, the subscription has been fixed at the lowest sum which will afford remuneration to the department. The Commissioner regrets therefore that he is unable to make the reduction suggested, and as the number of subscribers in Melbourne, where the charge is £2O, is very large, he trusts the sum of £l7 10s will not be found prohibitory.” The Coinj>fair (VJ'ncomptr do Pori*, known throughout India»and China as the French Bank, has opened a branch in Melbourne, its object being to facilitate the establishment of direct commercial relations with France and the Continent, and to obviate the transaction of such business through London, as at present. The capital and reserve of the Bank amount to £1,000,000 fully paid up, and its £2O fully paid up shares were last quoted at £3!) 15s. The Bank was founded in Paris in 1848, as the National Discount Bank of Paris, and afterwards became a public company. The “ Press” gives the following account of a novel experiment The steam-tug Lyttelton was engaged during yesterday in connection with the operation for taking up one of the moorings immediately oil the screw-pile jetty. The process adopted for clearing the head of the screw, which is said to be some 25ft to !50ft down, was that of washing away the mud covering it by means of the tug’s fire-engine and hose. Mr S. Derbidge went down in his diving costume aud superintended the submarine working of the hose, with the satisfactory result that a hole of considerable diameter was made alongside the chain attached to the screw 18ft down. An additional hose will be used to-day, when even better headway than was yesterday made is looked for. The work of washing down a submarine pile of mud by means of a water hose is a novel one, but it appears to be effective.

The “ Dunedin Morning Herald” says that Mr Petci Oxfeld, of Filluel street, claims to have invented a contrivance by which water can be kept in a perpetual rotary motion, The machine consists of a barrel about the size of an ordinary beer barrcll, and a small tub, both filled with water. Near the bottom of the barrel is inserted a tap, and at the top an iron pipe which connects with the tub. The water is allowed to run through the tap into the tub, and the pressure of the atmosphere forces it up the iron pipe into the barrel, which must be kept airtight. By this means the same water is constantly flowing out of and into the barrel.

Urgent instructions have been sent to the police authorities in the North to use every possible effort fur the discovery and apprehension of the Te Aroha murderer, and the services of the most skilful detectives available will be brought into requisition.

With reference to Win Rowe, formerly member for the Thames, but who it will be remembered “ ratted, ’’ and who nas sunk so low in the social scale as to have received a sentence of imprisonment for robbing a publican's till, it may bo mentioned that he made his fortune at one time in mining speculations. He was the largest shareholder of the Caledonian Gold Mining Company, t he shares in which were atone time worth £2OO each. At Wellington he lived like the Shall of I’ersia keeping up a large retinue of servants. For some time past he has in lulged in habits of dissipation, and his career lias been a rapidly downward one, A correspondent referring to his latest escalade says : —‘ In the prisoners’ dork he seemed to feel his position keenly; indeed, with his own lips he alraittcd his humiliation. lie trembled like an aspen leaf, evidently from the effects of intoxication, and occasionally had much difficulty in making himself heard, owing to his violent shaking.

The woman who, under the name of De Lacy Evans, some time ago gained a short notoriety throughout the colonies, and who exhibited herself in Melbourne as the “man-woman,” recently attended at the Police Court in that city and applied for relief. The applicant, who presented the appearance of being a well-conditioned woman of middle age, stated that she had recently arrived from a neighboring colony, where she had been the victim of a speculating showman, who had at length left her to her own resources. Evans, or by whatever xouhriqurt she is known, added that, being heartily sick of the show life sh; had recently led, she had managed to obtain a passage back to Melbourne. She stated that she was suffering from a physical infirmity which incapacitated her from severe labour, and her desire was that she might be admitted to the Benevolent Asylum Mr Pan tun gave (be woman a letter of introduction to a member of the Corara'ttee of management of the Benevolent Asylum.

The numerous dairy-men and farmers of South Canterbury will be delighted to learn that butter for exportation is likely to come into active request and that recent experiments will probably soon bear fruit by regulating the market in a way advantageous to the seller. Mr Laby of Victoria, who is now on a visit to New Zealand has stated in reference to the shipment of frozen meat and butter by the Protos, that a large cargo of meat was placed in the cool air chamber, and 200 tons of butter in the water tanks underneath it. The result was that both were landed perfectly fresh in London for Is per lb. and as the freight cost was only 3j a lb, it would be seen that a very large profit could be relied on. Care was necessary, however, that no bad butter was shipped, as it might have the effect of spoiling the whole lot. It was salted and packed in wattle casks, and stowed away in packages of about lOOlbs each. The effect of this successful experiment was, to Ins mind, proof that, before long, Australia and New Zealand would have ships trading to and fro, specially fitted by owners for carrying prepared provisions to England, and this must result in a great benefit to these Colonies.

In an account of the new tea-blending industry at Christchurch, the “ Lyttelton Times ” says.—Messrs Nelson, Moate and Co. have in their possession a wonderfully instructive little museum of teas, evidently the outcome of careful, patient collection. In' this museum there are samples of most of the teas of commerce. There are the small, tender, light green leaves of first gatherings of the season—such tea, in fact, as would be used —even in Ch na—only by Mandarins. There is the “ downy ” Pekoe, the comparatively scarce true Souchong, and the product of the Bui hills. So also there are examples of the stronger teas of British India, and of the peculiarly localised varieties from the warm, moist valleys of the Himalayas, It remains however to be said—as the result of some tests of which Messrs Nelson, Moate and Co certainly have not been aware—that some of these new blends give highly satisfactory results ; and there need be little hesitation in asserting that one of the samples obtained, No 5, called the “ Imperial ” blend, will grow rapidly in the estimation of the public. The mixing up the various teas used by Messrs Nelson, Moate and Co. is effected by the aid of a specially imported machine, the action of which seems to be perfect. Subsequently, according to grade, more or less of the tea “ dust ” is removed by sifting.