NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2688, 31 October 1881, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The South Canterbury Board of Education meet on Wednesday next for the transaction of general business. The weekly meeting of the English Lodge Victory, No 42, 1.0.G.T., will be held this evening at the Forester’s Hall, when the election of officers takes place.

A Maori sentenced at Wanganui a day or two ago for stealing a watch, had £IOO 11s in cash about him when arrested.

Ten and a half chains of the first tunnel on the Otago Central Railway have been excavated, leaving two chains more to be burrowed through. Captain Sutter having resigned the agency of the South British Fire and Company at Timaru, Mr C. Bourn, the local manager for Messrs Wilkin and Co., will in future conduct the business of the Company here. Mr Moss Jonas invites competitive plans to be sent in by Dec., 1 for alterations and additions to the Theatre, such as will make it more suitable to its requirements. A premium of £25 is offered for the best plan.

The contractors for the extension of the Bank gully sewer through the beach have had a slice of bad luck, the rough seas of Saturday and Sunday haying tilled up about half a chain of the trench they had made with much labor through the shingle. The worst of it is they had got down the frames for tho planking, so they cannot now fcoop*the shingle out with horses as before,

Some exciting trout fishing has been had in the Cluthariver,Balclutha. Theheaviest basket taken was one of two small fish, but another gentleman is reported by the local journal to have got “two splendid nibbles.”

On Saturday, a New Zealand-bred horse, Darebin, one of the well-known mare Lurline’s progeny, by the Peer, won the Victoria Derby in a field of twelve. Darebin now belongs to a Tasmanian. Somnus, the New Zealander, was looked upon as likely to get a place, and he showed well till he reached the distance post, when he caved in.

At the Oams.ru Harbor Board’s meeting on Friday, some sharp remarks were made on the conduct of their engineer, who, it appears, has neither attended the Board’s meetings nor sent in reports very regularly of late. One member said he had treated the Board very cavalierly, and it was time he was made aware of it. It was stated that 50 feet had been added to the mole during the past month.

Measles is reported to be very prevalent at Wanganui. A “ weather exchange ” of Saturday stat es that the weather was fine all over Australia with easterly winds in New South Wales, and westerly on the south Coast. Messrs Johnstone and Green notify that they will from to-morrow reduce the price of meat booked £d per lb. Kohler’s Waxworks were transported by rail lo Temuka to-day, where they will be shown a few days. The Messrs Kholer did a fair business in Timaru, and on Saturday a large number of youngsters took advantage of the reduced price of admission. The Riverton paper understands that a fund amounting to £3OOO, has been raised by the Chinese for the purpose of exhuming the bodies or bones of deceased Chinamen in New Zealand and conveying them to China, where they are supposed to find a more sacred place of jepulture. A ship is to be chartered for the purpose.

The “ Illustrated New Zealand Herald ” for this week is a very creditable number. The engravings comprise one of the Bank of New Zealand’s premises at Invercargill, showing it to be a massive looking, but not large, building of one storey ; a view of the island of Opara in the South Pacific, which seems to consist mainly of sharply conical mountains ; the destruction of the Swanspit lighthouse by the Omeo ; several views of flumes of the Rtawell waterworks, and some rough sketches of the Jolimont railway accident, The full page pictures are a moderately well - executed engraving of quoits, or rather shovel-board,on board ship and a well-executed suggestive etching of a suicide, “Anywhere, anywhere out of the World.” As a set-off to the sadness of this last a series of “ station sketches” is given showing some of the ludicrous troubles of a back-country dairyman. The Victorian Commissioner of Railways is advertising in New Zealand papers for tenders to supply 60,000 tons of coal for the Victorian railways next year, so that the mine owners here are invited to compete with Austi alian?. Tenders are also invitQd for the carriage of that quantity of “ black diamonds ” from whichever point the tenders for coal supply arc accepted from. A pamphlet writer (in a contemporary) does not lack sentiment. In writing of a ball, he—or she,perhaps, as ladies young and old, particularly old, sometimes write for the papers—speaks of the Volunteer Hall as “ the old hall,” and then adds “ wc use the word ‘ old 1 as a term of endearment,” What a heart I Then a piper is described as a “ votary of the pibroch,” and he strikes up “a lively Highlahd morceau.” A good supper is spoken of in the same paragraph— verbum, sap. Last Friday a serious accident took place at Eakaia, where a gang of men are employed renewing the piles of the railway bridge. The pile-driving machinery got out of gear, and one of the men, named Henry O’Reilly, received a blow on the head, inflicting a painful scalp wound. He was brought to tbs Christchurch Hospital, where his injuries were promptly attended to. Another man was wounded in the hand, but his injuries were not sufficiently serious to need hospital treatment.

The Auckland Board of Education being solicited to allow the children of the public schools to take round contribution cards to raise funds for a hospital mission, very properly refused to sanction it. This collecting of money by children is a very disagreeable feature of school life in New Zealand, and one of which school managers should be ashamed.

There will be a transit of Mercury on November S. The planet will traverse the centre of the sun’s disc from right to left, commencing at 9,46 a.m. and ending at 3.7 p.m. A sharp eye will detect the planet in clear weather, and any telescope will show it very plainly. The prospectus of the “New Zealand Woollen Factory Company” has been published in Wellington ; capital, £IOO,OOO, in £5 shares. It is proposed to erect the factory near the City of Wellington. It is necessary to state this, as from the name of the company one might suppose it would be built all over the colony. There has been some fence destroying by natives at Port Molyneux, but there is no danger of the Volunteers being needed to “demonstrate” down there. The wrongdoers will be summoned before the Civil Court.

It is said to be the special perogative of the Americans to tell a huge story, but the Germans are not far behind in this important matter. One of them lately stated that he had seen in Berlin a bass viol so large that it took two horses to draw the bow across it, and the strings continued to vibrate for six weeks.

Mr Hislop, grocer, Woolcombe street, is selling fresh butter at sixpence per lb. (Advt.)

A Demon—“ Is it worth knowing 1” Mr G. B. 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 loading people of the colonics—See hand bills. Mr Stacy is making a specialitie of the Skin, and the Skin’s appenclages(the Hair and Nails),and may be consulted between !) and 11 a.m., at his private rooms, side door, Hallam’s Baths, Beach Hoad, or will attend anyone at their own residence during the afternoon on communication. Fees—Corns, from 2s (5d to 5s ; Bunions, 5s ; Ingrowing Nails, ss; Loss of Hair and all Marks of the cuticle, 10s (Id. Mr Stacy is the inveutor of the Almanac of One Hundred Years, New Discoveries ia Electricity, ice., Sec. — [Advx.]