NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2686, 28 October 1881, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The time for receiving tenders for the next Breakwater contract has been extended to Nov 14.

The s.s. Sorata arrived at Adelaide yesterday from Plymouth in forty days. Messrs *F, Archer, T. W. Hall, M. Studholme and R. Turnbull have been appointed members of the Timaru Harbor Board. The Board meets on Thursday next.

The first general meeting of the South Canterbury Teachers Association is to be held at the Timaru Public School, at halfpast eleven to-morrow morning. Mr James Scott will deliver an inaugural address. A man named James McCarthy, an old offender, was to-day lined 10s, with the alternative of 48 hours imprisonment, for being drunk and disorderly and using obscene language. Kholer’s waxworks will bo open 'for children from ten in the morning to six in the evening to-morrow, the price of admission for each youngster to be only the ordinary church plate contribution —threepence.

The heavy rain of last night kept down the members of the audience at the Theatre Royal, but the Company went through their programme with good spirit. To-night a double bill is provided, and for to-morrow a political squib, “ The.lnvasioh of Parihaka,” is announced as one of the pieces to be giyen. This should draw. The annual general meeting of the South Canterbury Athletic Club was held yes? terday. Over thirty members attended. It was resolved to institute a class of lifememberships, the subscription for which to be ten guineas ; that competitors at the Club’s games must appear in a costume similar to worn in English Uniyersity games ; and that the Timaru Cricket Club be charged only £lO a year for the use <>£ the Club’s ground. Seven new members and the officers for the next year were then elected, Mr Clujee being re-elected secretary and treasurer.

The heavy rain which fell last night was very welcome to farmers and gardeners, and to a good many townspeople whose tanks needed replenishing. Vegetables and crops will climb when the hot weather returns.

Messrs Collins and Co. sell the ,f privileges” for the Prince of Wales’ birthday sports at two o’clock to-morrow. There are to be offered the right to erect one general license and one temperance refreshment booth, and the gates, cards, and sports fees, separately. The laying down of rails on the wharf is now being proceeded with by the railway department. It appears that it will be a tedious job, there being so many points and switches to put down, and will take two or three weeks to complete. The filling up of the beach south of the abandoned landing service is now in hand. A gang of, men, with half-a-dozen trucks and an F engine, are extending the turntable excavation southward, and using the material for the reclamation.

£22,000 worth of gold was received in Dunedin from the goldfields yesterday. Eoche’s Hotel, near Arrowtown, was burnt last night. Nothing was saved. It was insured in the Norwich Union for £SOO.

A shipment of 68 stud merinos arrived at Lyttelton yesterday from Tasmania. 17 others died on the passage between Port Chalmers and Lyttelton.

One hundred and sixteen flasks of gunpowder, manufactured at the Owake powder mills, were received in Dunedin yesterday. It is said to be killing. During the nine months ended with September last, 7060 persons arrived in the colony, and 6582 left. 1020 of the arrivals and 257 of the departures were Chinese.

A Sydneyite suggests a go-as-you-please tournament for Chinamen, with pigtails flying, and carrying a couple of baskets on a bamboo. ■ He says this would be only a shade more ridiculous than other contests of this kind are.

Messrs Joubert and Twopeny have written to Christchurch stating that exhibitors at their exhibition there will have to pay £2 10s a week for the right of selling. They propose to give gold, silver and bronze medals as rewards, and will offer £SO to be given to the person who can be shown to have done most to promote local industry. Who is to award this prize ?

There was not much business done at the VVaimate Court yesterday. A case of breach of Borough regulations, driving a cart across a footway was dismissed, defendant being cautioned. Two civil cases went by default—Hunt Bros. v. Gaudin, claim £.4 10s ; and Boyce v. McGuinness, claim, 7s 3d. Two judgment summonses were heard —Adams v. Noonan, £8 11s 7d, and Hunt v. Eogers, £5 16s lid, the defendant in each case being ordered to pay 10s per week, or in default of payment to undergo a month’s imprisonment.

The “ Otago Daily Times ” asks —" Does anyone know what the confounded Maoris have cost us from beginning to end 2” and then figures out from Parliamentary returns that in wars and otherwise they have cost six and three-quarter millions, and adds to that another million spent uselessly in pmchasc of Native lands. “Thus the burdens of the past and the burdens of the present represent something like £600,000 per annum on account of the irrepressible Maori.”

A sad case of distress and destitution was revealed at the police Court, Sydney, on the 12th inst. Three boys, brothers, were sent by the magistrate on board the training-hulk Vernon, and their sister to the Benevolent Asylum. The father was found lying sick on a bundle of rags, and the mother was in custody for being drunk and disorderly.

We hear occasionally of extortionate charges being made by lawyers. Some arbitrators can charge pretty well too. A Victorian official sued the Government for £IOOO, deductions made from certain monies without his consent. The arbitrators handed in a sealed award, to be handed over to either party on, payment of costs, £640. The official and the Government had sufficient sense left to leave the award alone.

The Bank returns for the September quarter do not show the colony to be in a too prosperous condition. The general public had about millions deposited, and held bank notes and bills to the amount of nearly one million, but on the other hand the banks held discounted bills to the amount of over four millions, and had good debts due to them of nearly eight millions, so that the public were about millions in debt to the banks.

The necessity for some means of communication between passengers and drivers of trains was again instanced on a Melbourne line this month. During the journey of an overcrowded excursion train the floor of an American car was found to be on fire. The greatest consternation prevailed, and the train was only stepped by a railway employee clambering on the roof of the car and running to the engine over the top of the other carriages. When the train was brought to a standstill, it was evident that the overweight in the carriage had pressed the body of the car on to the wheels, and the friction caused the wood to ignite. The fire was speedily extinguished, and about 60 excursionists were removed from the carriage and left behind to wait for the next special, which was not so crowded,

The Customs revenue collected during the September quarter was £388,013, about £73,000 more than in t’ e same period last year, Timaru’s contribution was £5,523; Dunedin’s, £121,040; Auckland’s, £76,224; Lyttelton’s, £59,467. Dr Hector is of opinion that the fissures near West Wanganui, referred to in press telegrams a few days ago, and which were ascribed by those who Jiaye seep them to volcanic action, that they will probably prove to be due to landslips. He does not think that any eruption of ayolcanic nature has taken place, but that the disturbance is due to the generation of combustible gases in the deposits qf bituminous shale and iron pyrites, which are kuowq tq be extensive in the locality, and which bare taken fire spontaneously.. Further purticulars of the in-cresting occurrence will no doubt come to hind.

Some Maoris have been committed for trial at Auckland for breaking into an up-country store.

Messrs, Hailey and Kerr the American Novelty exhibitors, have left Timaru, but their Dunedin establishment will be kept open till March next. [Advt.]

J. Herman’s Consultation is rapidly filling. Will positively close on the 28th of this month.— [Advt.] A Demon— “ls it worth knowing 1” Mr G. E. Stacy, Electro-biologist and Chiropodist, has just arrived from Victoria on a professional visit. Mr S. has been called a Demon because he cures the worst case of corns in a few minutes, by a new process, (without pain), and can promise immediate, entire, and positive relief. Numbers of testimonials from leading people of the colonies—See hand bills. Mr_ Stacy is making a specialitie of the Skin, and the Skin’s appendages(the Hair and Nails),and may be consulted between 9 and 11 a.m., at his private rooms, side door, Hallam’s Baths, Beach Road, or will attend anyone at their own residence during the afternoon on communication. Fees—Corns, from 2s 6d to ss; Bunions, 5s ; lugrowing Nails, ss;Loss of Hair and all Marks of the cuticle, 10s 6d. Mr Stacv is the inventor of the Almanac of One Hundred Years, New Discoveries in Electricity, &c., &c. — [Advt.]