NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2595, 15 July 1881, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Mr F. Brown was yesterday granted a temporary transfer of the license of the Masonic Hotel at St Andrews from J. J. Daily.

An inquest was held yesterday at Waimate touching the death of James Ure, who was found dead in his house on July 13. It appears that deceased was subject to epileptic fits and a verdict was returned of “ Death from Natural Causes.”

Mr C. Kelly announces in another column that he has taken into partnership Mr Fraser of Dunedin, and that the tailoring establishment henceforth, will be conducted under the style of “ Kelly and Fraser.” It is a pleasing duty to welcome any addition to the industries of this town, and we cordially wish the new firm every success in their business.

The Service of Song, “The Scottish Covenanter,” took place last evening at the Trinity Presbyterian Church, Barnard street, and was excellently attended. The incidental music was well rendered, and the descriptive reading ably given by the Eev Mr Gillies, the whole performance passing off most successfully.

The Royal Princes arrived at Sydney yesterday morning. No fresh cases of small-pox have broken out in Sydney since Tuesday. A cablegram states that New Zealand securities are firm in the London Money Market, the five per cent loan being at 105 and 105$.

Speaking on the Bill for closing pnblic houses in Wales on a Sunday, Mr Shaw, an Irish member of the House of Commons gave his experience of Sunday closing in the Emerald Isle. It was remarkable,’ he said,•“ that all parties are pleased now in Ireland. The religious people do not see the drunkenness, and the publicans sel more drink than ever.”

One of the gravest questions now pressing on the public mind is the small-pox epidemic, which is daily spreading in London and the suburbs. The evil is made more serious by a lack of proper appliances for isolating the patients. There is a well-grounded objection to small-pox hospitals on a large scale, while smaller infirmaries are few and far between. Nor has the vaccination of the children at board schools been sufficiently enforced* so that educational zeal is a powerful agent in spreading infection. Recent statistics of revaccination have placed its value as a preventive beyond all possibility of doubt.

A writer in a Melbourne paper says : The British census returns shows a growing preponderance of the fair sex. What is to be the outcome of this no one can tell. The disproportion was quite bad enough before. A striking evidence of ibis lies before me. A Melbourne manufacturer advertised in an English paper for a skilled workman to proceed to this colony, An applicant concludes thus, after describing his own qualifications as a tradesman ; —“ I am 30 years of age and unmarried, but if marriage would be anything in my favor I could manage that in a few weeks.”

The Wellington correspondent of the “ Press ” hears that the juxy in Whitelaw’s case 6 were exactly equally divided, six being for conviction while six held that he had not exceeded his powers. The neglect of the late Provincial Government in not proclaiming the Asylum when opened in 1873 is censured.

“ iEglea ” sayslt was only a Eoyal personage who could have dared to say, we kings are rum fellows.” And in the same- spirit, I suppose, a broker the other day declared that Dr Johnston had attached to the substantive “ broker ” this definition :— 41 One who acts between two persons and robs them both I”

A rabid horse seized a cow by the neck with his teeth, at Evansville, Ind, and dragged her the length of the paddock before a policeman’s bullet released her. Statutes of Bishops Lonsdale and Selwyn have been placed in front of the stair turret of the south-west tower of Lichfield Cathedral. At Bishop Lonsdale’s feet there is a representation of Eton,.while to Bishop Selwyn there clings a Melanesian boy. In all, twenty-seven figures have been placed in their respective niches.

M. Digern, nephew of M. de Lesseps, has purchased 65,000 acres, in New Caledonia and has just forwarded the plant for the working Of that estate, under the superintendence of a graduate of the Grignon Agricultural College. The following appears in a Melbourne contemporary: —Count Alphonse Sangfroid tr a veiling for health and information, was on a visit at the homestead of a fine station. At the same time the eldest scion of the family was also spending a short time there. The two drove out together, and the youngest thus unburdened himself 44 ’Scuse me, mister-; I can’t parley vow much Frangaais, but I’ll be very rich some day.” So you see there are compensations 1 Six men have been remanded at Carmarthen under the following circumstancse Late one night recently they went to a wooden tenement inhabited by a bedridden woman 80 years old, her widowed daughter, and a child. After beating the inmates, the ruffians fastened the door from the outside, and set the house on fire. The building was completely destroyed, and the occupants escaped with great difficulty, being severely bruised and burned.

Many parents labor under the impression that skin diseases are often communicated to children by vaccination. Sit William Jenner has recorded that in six years he had more than 13,000 sick adults and children under observation, and that in no c ase had he reason to believe, or even to suspect, that any constitutional taint had been conveyed from one person j to another by vaccination. Dr West’s experience of 26,000 infants and children under his care in seventeen years was to the like effect. Erasmus Wilson, also an authority on skin diseases, says, u I met frequently with parents who believe an eruption, under which their children suffers, to have originated in vaccination ; but the origin is traceable to a different source.” Hosts of medical men are of the same opinion. An “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” Company have been pelted with rotten eggs in the States. Uncle Tom is about played out there.

Mr Albert Terry being about to visit Europe, tbe West End Brewery, Mel. bourne, is to be formed into a limited liability company. The purchase will amount to about £90,000.

A New South Wales paper reports a novel police court case, heard before the blackville Bench. Dennis Smith a local preacher was summoned by Mr Bennet,schoolmaster of St. Helena school, for using abusive language towards him, by which a breach of the peace was caused. The language made use of towards Mr Bennett was—- “ You belong to the devil, or you are as close to the devil as you can get,” or words to that effect. The case was proved against Mr Smith by witnesses, P. Munro and Angus Cameron. Smith was fined £1 7s (id, and 40s for witnesses, or 14 days in gaol. Smith was also fined Is, with 4s lOd costs, for “ cruelty to animals, in having hung his horse to a fence for several hours whilst preaching. Charter’s defalcations have smashed the Sydenham Building Society. After several stormy meetings it has at last been resolved to wind up the Society. It is said that a strong effort will be made by the shareholders to make the directors personally responsible, on account of their carelessness, for the amount of the defalcations.

The 2>olice station at Switzers, together with its contents, was destroyed by fire on Wednesday morning.

A feeling is gaining ground fast amongst those engaged in the important South Sea Island traffic, that it will soon become practically impossible to engage in it, unless the natives, who have given so many proofs of their treacherous and bloodthirsty natures, are taught a few much-needed and convincing lessons. A team of female football players is announced to itinerate the country during the summer months. The party have appeared in Edinburgh, and, strange to state, the leading journal of that •' City of Sobersides" condescended to notice the affair. It is to be hoped the English public will set their faces against such contemptible exhibitions. They are wholly and unmitigatedly indecent, and will die out of sheer inanition if left a little time to themselves.

The report on general statistics submitted at the meeting of the Synod of the United Presbyterian Church at Edinburgh shows the Church membership to be 173,982—a slight decrease on last year, Within the past two years there has been a decrease in over seventeen presbyteries of the Church. The total income had been £382,001, being £46,000 more than last year.

Bankruptcy.—The enterprising firm of this town, Messrs Davies and Murphy, have not as yet joined the majority, but they have been the successful tenderers for a Bankrupt Stock recently sold in Dunedin. Having purchased it at an extremely low price, they mean to give the general public the benefit of their venture, and will offer the same over their counters on Saturday next. They desire to give Country* Visitors a word of advice, and that is to make their purchases as early on the above day as possible and thus avoid the inconvenience of their usual Saturday crush.—[Adyt.]