NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2507, 2 April 1881, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

A newjjhotel at Kauro, Whangarei, has opened with a blaze the owner loosing everything.

During the year the fees received at the Supreme Court, Christchurch, amounted to £2524, sufficient to pay the whole cost of the offices and the Judge’s salary as well.

The only business at the R.M. Court today was the fining of an inebriate 10s. We understand that Bishop Redwood, of Wellington, will take charge of Bishop Moran’s diocese during the latter’s visit to the old country.

The following are the Timaru Hospital returns for month of March :—patients under treatment at date of last return : males 28 ; females 8 ; total 36. Admitted during the month—males 22; females, 2; total 24. Totals treated—males, 50; females, 10; total 60. Discharged during the month—cured : males, 14; females 4; relieved ; males 8; females, 1; incurable : males, 2. Deadnil. Totals discharged—males, 24; females, 5 ; total 29. Remaining under treatment—males, 26; females, 5; total 31. Outpatients relieved 19.

A (gentleman who was a passenger to Chris tchurch from Timaru by the express train the other afternoon informs us that he noticed numberless straw stacks burning i ilong the line from the time he left here until he reached his destination. As the evening approached these burning stai iks quite lit up the route. On making enquiry as to the cause of so much straw being destroyed, he was told that it was sin iply to get rid of it. This appears very short sighted policy on the part of the farmers, who if unable to utilise the straw as litter for stables and cow-houses could surely turn it to profitable account as manure.

After several weeks of dry weather a wholesome change took place last evening. Between 6 and 7 o'clock the town was made invisible by a dust storm,, the wind blowing from South-east for about an hour with gradually increasing violence. Later on it calmed down, rain began tq fall, and the triturated shingle kindly provided by the Borough Council resolved itself from dust to mud. To-day the rain has been falling steadily for the benefit of water tanks and kitchen gardens, but there is a danger of the large stacks of grain nbw lying exposed and waiting shipment realising considerable damage.

Upwards of a year ago A. P. Greig, who held the position of secretary to the Footscray Gas Company and cashier to Mr J. Paterson, coal merchant and shipowner, of Melbourne, levanted from Victoria in order to escape arrest under a warrant charging him with embezzlement. With the assistance of his wife, he eluded the vigilance of the police and escaped to New Zealand, and eventually proceeded to Utah as a Mormon Convert under Elder Pearee. When Mrs Greig and her daughter, a girl of 10 years of age, rejoined him at Ogden, she soon learnt that her husband was living with a woman named Anna Belle Reder. The discovery apparently broke her heart, for she died shortly afterwards. Since then according to the “ Salt Lake Tribune" of Jan, 21, A. P. Greig, has been proceeded against, before Commissioner Sprague for living in polygamy with Anna Belle Reder while his wife,.was ..still alive . The case was not concluded when the last San Francisco mail left; The' Greigs resided in Dunedin for some time, the husband having been elerk in a leading mercantile house.

The competition amongst fire insurance companies at the present time is very great; so much so' that It is hard to understand how dividends ean be obtained. As an instance of the anxiety of some „o{ them to do business, the Dunedin •* Star ’’ understands that one of the local offices took a large sum (£10,000). on a flour mill in the country at 12s 6d per eent., and the agent is now running all over Dunedin trying to re-insdre a part of it at 20s percent,,, but, he ©annot get it done at any price.

There would seem to be an end of Sullivan of Maungatapu notoriety. A telegram from Wagga .Wagga anounces that he died in the hospital there. The world is well rid of such a monster. Referring to the matter the “ Ovens, Advertiser ” writes “By a private letter received in Beech worth on Saturday, we ( learn that Sullivan, who rendered himself, notorious by being connected with the murderous outrages in New.. Zealand some years since, met with his death by accident at Hanging Bock in the early part of last week, and his mortal remains were interred in the Wagga Wagga cemetery on Wednesday.” A mysterious disappearance from Waimate is announced of a promising member of the (public-house) bar there, who was unequalled at serving out nips of square, and long beers. This young fellow was rash enough to get married bat a few short' months ago, but tiring, apparently, of the golden fetters of wedlock, he hit upon a rather queer method of ridding himself of them. The other night he gave a ball, and while the fun waxed fast and furious, and the wife was busily engaged in dancing, he slipped away, and jumping into an express waggon which he had previously engaged, drove to Oamaru, and nothing has been heard of him since. When the sad news was broken to his wife she was naturally rather upset, and her grief became more poignant when she discovered that her faithless lord 'had 'soil his house and “ realised ” on all his possessions ere clearing out for the South'/ Several parties in Waimate are anxiously awaiting tidings of the missing one. The Canterbury Farmers’ Co-operative Society are experiencing some of the good effects of association. They bare arranged with the Albion Shipping Company to fill up half-cargoes at Timaru, and the Wellington is now shipping 1,000 . tons at 555, and will be followed by other ships. Large purchasers of best double screened Newcastle have been made at a figure that showed a saving of fully 10s a ton to the shareholders. Mr Watkins, the secretary, writes to the Oamaru Association :—" This Association, judging from present appearance, will be a great success. We have upwards of 11,000 sacks of wheat already under our care in store, and are receiving large quantities daily, 4 . . I tried to charter independently, but found that I could work quite as cheap with the Albion or Shaw Saville, and hare the security of first-class iron ships; besides it divides the shipments and reduces risk of damage, I expect we will hare close on 25,000 sacks to ship this season (not bad to begin With). I have made several advances already, from 3s per bushel down to 2s (the latter is all that the owners required.) I have already ordered upwards of £2,300 worth of clover and grass seeds for spring sowing, and will cable an order end of this week for about as much more, say in all £4,500 worth, It is also in contemplation to supply the subscribers with tea, sugar, etc., at wholesale prices,’ Wild stories, borrowed from an American source and acclimatised in New Zealand, have lately been current about railway trains being stuck up by oatterpillars, but the passengers by the train from Timaru to Oamaru on Wednesday evening had a genuine adventure, for the engine was blocked near. St, Andrews by a mob of sheep. The extent of the carnage could hardly be seen, but it proved considerable, for forty sheep were killed outright and twenty others were so badly damaged that they had to be slaughtered. On the following day, near the same spot, almost opposite the Pareora river, out of seven head of trespassing cattle four were run down and had their legs smashed so that they had to be killed. The driver whistled, but passengers by the train say that he did not pull up, otherwise £2O worth of stock, belonging to a struggling cockatoo, might have been saved. The neighborhood of St. Andrews is at present like a slaughter-yard. There is a prevailing opinion that if the Government had to pay for the damage these accidents would be of far less frequent occurrence.

The Dunedin whaler, Splendid, has captured seven whales, which have yielded between 70 and 80 tons of oil since November last.

. • The want of vessels to ship home grain is very much felt this season at Lyttelton. The grain continues-to arrive from the country districts daily in enormous quantities, and the railway authorities at the port are at their wits end to know how to provide' temporary storage accommodation for it. The supply of tarpaulins, large as it is, is quite exhausted, and the ■trucks of grain arriving at night are now shunted into the tunnel to protect the sacks from getting wet in case of rain. The “ Lyttelton Times.” proprietary has been converted into a limited liability company. Mr Joseph Ivess who is the pioneer of half the journals in the Colony, is about to start a new morning paper in Wellington. Half of the proposed capital, £SOOO, has already been subscribed. The “New Zealand Times,” is said to have become very unpopular, and the field for an opponent is thoroughly ripe. The Wellington " Evening Post,” is paying a handsome dividend. The “ New Zealand Herald” .is stated to have cleared £25,000 during the past year. A painful accident is reported by the “ Rangitikei Advocate.” A boy named : Plummer was, with a companion, fishing in the-Makino stream. The other boy, in pulling his line out of the water, caught the hook in one of Plummer’s eyes. The poor lad was taken home, and Dr Johnston, of Fielding, was called in. The doctor found that it was impossible to remove the barbed hook without lancing the eyeball, which was accor lingly dona. Of course the eyesight will be lost.

Special Announcement. —New Winter Drapery—Wood and Smith beg to announce that they have opened a splendid assortment of Autumn and Winter Drapery, comprisingan immense lot of Maids’, Ladies’, and Children's Jackets and Ulsters, at exceptionally low prices. New Millinery. —Shepherd’s Buildings, Main South Boad, Timaru. — [Adtt.] Messrs Wilkin’s and Co., Strathallan Street, are large buyers of grass seed. The firm has taken the chief awards for grasses at the Melbourne Exhibition, and the purchase and sale of rye grass, clover, lucerne is one of their specialities.

Attention is directed to the announcement of Mr F. B. Greenup, manager of the Timaru Branch of Messrs Guthrie and Larnaoh’s N. Z. Timber and Woodware Factories Company (limited.)