NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2623, 17 August 1881, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY .

“ The Danites,” another American drama was produced by Mr Leake’s Company at the Theatre Royal last evening. The plot of the piece is a very poor one, and had it not been for the excellent acting of Mr J. J. Wallace as “ the Jcdge ” the performance would have fallen very flat. Mr Hamilton acted well, and Miss Rc-sie Vivian made the best of an uncongenial part, but it is a pity to see a really clever actress like this cast for such a character. The "other artistes who ai>pcaml do not call for special dnention. The Company open at the Theatre Royal, Christchurch, this evening.

An inquest was he’d at Waimate yesterday, touching the death of Mr George Aikenhead, farmer, who was killed recently at the Waiho in a dray accident. A verdict of accidental death was returned. Mr Jay Gould recently drew a cheque for £500,000. Mr Gould’s whole fortune when he first went to New York consisted of a patent mousetrap. The “ Southland Nows ” learns from the local agents for the New Zealand and Australian Company (National Mortgage and Agency Company) that their Charlton estate, of 8527 acres, has been now completely disposed of, the last three sections being sold on Friday last for £9 and £lO per acre. Another block of this Company’s property between Mataura Lridge and Charlton is now being surveyed, and will be pdaced in the market almost immediately on the same liberal terms. remarkable case of embezzlement has occurred at Paris. The victims are Messrs Dolfus, Mieg, and Co., wholesale print merchants in the Rue Saint Fiacre. The principal culprit is M. Emile Doerr, a na’ive of Stuttgard, who entered the firm as a clerk at the age of twenty, and rose to he chief cashier. By speculation on the Bourse he lost £BO,OOO of the firm's money.

The Wellington correspondent of the “ Morning Herald ” telegraphed yesterday that “Mr Proudfoot has sent in a little bill to the Government for £25,000 in connection with the We.-tern and Awamoko Railway. The Government will not recognise the claim, and an action is threatened.” The St Kilda baby mystery has been solved by the police. It appears the fathertaking an aversion to the child, had it placed with some relatives at Milton, -who fearing improper motives being attributed sent it home. The parents then brought it to Duucdin, and left it where it was found. The police have requested the parents to take the child back. The turf in England is becoming less and less of a closed field for English horses ; for the Derby has already been won by French, American, and Hungarian, three-year-olds, while German horses have been successful in some of the ‘greatest handicaps and even Danish thoroughbreds have secured more modest events at Newmarket. Victory has not yet smiled upon Russian sportsmen. The dentals of one of the stall of the Wairarapa Standar i” encountered a 2oz weight, in a ginger-nut. Pressmen can swallow pretty tough yarns, but a 2oz weight is too much for their digestive organs. Two sons of Mr Robert Ross, of Tarangaba station, South Australia, were accidentally shot by their tutor. One of the lads was shot in the throat and the other in the groin.

Capital punishment for criminal assaults on females has been upheld by the New South Wales Council by 12 votes, against six for t the abolition, A publican at Parramatta, New South Wales, has been fined £5 for allowing a consultation ” sweepstake to be drawn iu his house. He pleaded guilty. The Customs authorities at Adelaide seized a large quantity of jewellery, valued at £7OO, which is alleged to have been smuggled into the Colony in a case for the German court at the Exhibition. The directors of the South Australian Fishing Company entertained about 30 gentlemen at an English Fislr dinner. The salmon and soles were pronounced excellent. The efforts made by 7 the ladies of Melbourne to have spring seats provided for shopwomen Dave been crowned with a considerable measure of success. Nearly 7 all the drapery firms have undertaken to provide those humane appliances. A commercial traveller, trying to catch 0 a.m, Ballarat train, made a run for it, and succeeded in pulling himself up to the window of a compartment as the carriages were passing over the Ly 7 diard street crossing. With some difficulty he succeeded in forcing his way 7 into the compartment through the window, only to find himself in the company of two constables who were proceeding to Ararat in charge of a lunatic. The policemen at first thought that another madman had come to assist an unfortunate mate, but upon learning who he was contented themselves with summoning him. It is reported that Mr Douglas M’Lean, the sou of the late Sir Donald M’Lean, will be a Candida e for the representation of Napier at the general election. Mr M’Lean is said to be now on his way out from England. District Judge Dowling recently stated that he believed that ninety-nine out of every hundred bills of sale granted in New South Wales are robberies and shams.

At a meeting of the Cork Land League it was recommended that an appeal be made to the Irish police to quit the service rather than attack the people, and it was added that a fund was being raised to provide for such men as should leave the force. At the Adelaide Police Court recently a hairdresser named Daley was charged with trading ou Sunday. His counsel argued that shaving was an act of cleanliness, and not trading in the ordinary acceptation of the term. The Magistrate, feeling a doubt as to whether the case came under the bye-laws, dismissed the informat, on. At the Wellington Court yesterday, 11. Cohen, steward of the English barque Langstonc, was fined £IOO on a charge of smuggling a roll of silk. A section of land at the corner of Man. Chester street and Bedfor 1 road close to the business centre of Christchurch, has been sold at the rate of £34,000 an acre. This included buildings on the land.

The public are hereby informed that the Cheap Sale of Drapery, kc., at J. Strachan’s close - positively on the 23rd instant, when the premises will be closed for stocktaking, so as the business can be banded over to Messrs Park & Anderson on Sept, l.ln order to facilitate stocktaking, remnants of all kinds will be disposed of extra cheap. Those who hold receipts of purchases of less than £5 arc reminded to have them made up to that sum in order to get a ticket for the Gif' Art Union to he drawn on 22nd instant, prizes of which aic now on view. —[AL>VT.]