NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2678, 19 October 1881, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The Timaru portion of the Pan Francisco mail should arrive to-morrow morn-

The Timaru Gas Company believe in Grey mouth Coal. Tenders for further supplies are invited. The contractors for extending the George street sewer through the accumulated shingle are busy at work. They undertook a troublesome and risky work, as they had a lot of shingle to move, and there is a danger of a heavy sea filling up the trench again.

A promenade concert and fruit service in connection with the Trinity Presbyterian Church will be held in Mr Jonas’ auction room? to-morrow evening.

The Gaming and Lotteries Bill is acting. It comes into force on Nov. 1, and Mr A. A. Cameron announces that his sweep on the Melbourne Cup must close and be drawn the day before. The work of excavating the site for the warehouses of the Farmers’ Co-opera-tive Association, near the Belford Mills, is almost completed. The rebuilding of Bruce’s mill is progressing steadily. The walls are now up to the top of the second storey windows, The building promises to have a much better and more substantial appearance than even the former one.

The railway authorities are now laying down a siding for the conveyance of clay from the neighborhood of the turntable to the front of the railway station, to complete the reclamation commenced by the sea.

A “ Gazette ” of October 13 notifies the vesting of the “ Market Reserve” in the Corporation of Timaru. The transfer is made in. snen a way as to exclude Brown and King streets where they cross the reserve, so that the reserve is vested in three separate portions. Allotments Nos. 1 to 24 of block 3, and Nos. 1 to 6 of block 7 of the township of Fairlie Creek will be offered for sale at Albury on Nov. 10, the upset price being £5 per allotment. Plans can be seen at the Albury, Timaru, and Temuka railway stations.

R. Hudson & Co., biscuit manufacturers and confectioners, Dunedin, are the sort of people wanted to push native industries in the colony, They are not content with satisfying a mere local demand, but push their wares in distant markets in the colony. Some of their specialties are advertised in our columns this evening. A race meeting is to be held at Makikihi on December 16, when about £IOO will be given in prize money.

One thousand young trout were placed in the Upper Pareora river last week, a thousand in Gray’s Creek, and a thousand in Lake Alexandria, Mackenzie Country. She had evidently “ been at a fire.” The Christchurch police want an owner for a tire shovel, a pair of tongs, and a vase, which were found in the possession of Mary McGilpin, butwhich did not belong to her.

Mr Mellish, E.M. at Christchurch has determined to send all convicted larrikins to gaol without the option of a fine. He commenced this week with a gate-lifter, giving him four days.

Mr Augustus Kyndon was drowned while crossing the Waitara river, Taranaki, yesterday morning. His horse and saddle were found. He is supposed to have fallen oft’ his horse while fording the river. The Wellington police are being wonderfully strict with the publicans nowadays, and have been summoning them right arc! left for one reason or another. Yesterday the proprietor of the Panama Hotel was fined £2 for allowing a barmaid to remain m his bar after eleven o'clock at night.

Messrs Bent and Bachelder's Minstrel Company appeared again at the Theatre Royal last evening to a good house. The singing in the first part of the entertainment was quite up to the average of the two previous nights, and the audience frequently testified their appreciation of the songs and choruses by loud applause and encores. Miss Amy Rowe sang “ Alice, where art Thou,” in an excellent manner, and the encore song she gave astonished a good many of those present on account of the change in the lady’s voice. The quartette singing in the second part was a musical treat, and the afterpiece was the most amusing one the company have yet given in Timaru. They appear again to-night in an entire change of programme. The season concludes to-morrow night. At a meeting of the creditors of Wilkins and Davidson, cordial manufacturers, Dunedin, yesterday, some peculiar facts came out. Among the plant of the factory were steel dies and other things required for forging the labels of other firms. The chairman of the meeting said this precious plant was the backbone of the business. Mr Jago, a creditor, moved that the dies be presented to the Otago Museum as an illustration of how cordials were manufactured in Dunedin, but the motion failed to find a seconder.

If there be any truth in what is asserted by a writer to the “ Dunstaa Times,” some inquiry is demanded as to the conduct of the public school at Bendigo. He states that “ at a meeting of the School Committee a member ’said his children were in such dread of the corporal punishment administered by the teacher that when he sent them to school they often took to the ranges, and stayed there until school was out.”

The people about Makikihi seem to have some idea of what local government means. They do not rest satisfied with complaining and wonderin'* why Government don’t do things for them that they want doing; they hold. meetings, consider what they do really want, and straightway draw up petitions to the proper authorities, local or otherwise, asking that these things be done. They have recently appointed a committee to prepare a petition asking the General Government to erect a ladies’ waiting room at the railway station, to erect cattle yards, and to establish a money order and savings bank in the township ; and another asking the County Council to put a footbridge over the river, to make footpaths, and im. prove the roads in the township.

There was some fun with a witness at a recent coroner's inquest in the Wairarapa. The witness was asked by the Coroner to express his opinion concerning the mental condition of the deceased, and he made the extraordinary reply that “he (deceased) had lost his tommy.” Being asked to explain, he said, “ Well, the man was off his pony.” The levity elicited by tfc® witness caused the Coroner to call him to order, with a request that he would not speak nonsense, but in such, a way as people could understand. Whereupon witness, in a tone of indignannt astonishment, exclaimed “ Aint I giving you the straight tip ? I should have thought the man was off his chump.”

The decision of the Government on the Breakwater extension question being favorable, the Harbor Board are calling for tenders for a 300 ft length, in the same line as the present mole. Plans, &c., will be ready for tenderers by Monday next, and tenders arranged to be sent in by the next ordinary Board day—the first Thursday in November. Some time ago the Committee of the Industrial Association at Christchurch, agreed to assist Messrs Joubert and Twopenny to hold an Exhibition next. A special general meeting of the Association was held on Monday to consider the matter, and a warm discussion of the Committee’s action was held. Resolutions were passed condemning the action of the Committee as hasty and injudicious, and affirming that the objects of the Association being to encouraee native industries j they could not assist or support any exhibition of foreign products. One of the speakers characterised Messrs Joubert and Twopeny’s Exhibition at Adelaide as a “ twopenny-half-penny show, and a huge fancy bazaar,” and another said they were only travellers for a number of houses at Home, whose business was to sell as much as possible. If their object was fulfilled, it would take bread out of the mouths of our own people. Messrs J, and T. are said to have cleared £GOOO by their Adelaide Exhibition.

The Secretary of the Post Office and Telegraph Department has address-d a circular to all the Chief Postmasters of the colony, for the purpose of regulating the hours for opening and closing private box lobbies on Sundays and holidays. The circular is as follows “ From and after the 2nd proximo, the private letter boxes at your office must remain open, and be accessible to the public, on Sundays and holidays, between the hours of 10 a.m, and 5.30 p.ra. As this circular is issued for the purpose of establishing uniformity of hours throughout the colony, Chief Postmasters must adhere to the closing time specified ; but during delivery of a British mail they may extend the hours if thought desirable. Chief Postmasters will please notify the public and the Postmasters of their district to whom these instructions may apply."