South Canterbury Times. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1881. NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2693, 5 November 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1881. NEWS OF THE DAY.

The Timaru Floral and Horticultural Society met last evening to frame arrangements for the annual show, on December 16, Canvassing and managing committees were appointed, a list of gentlemen to be asked to aci as judges drawn up, and other early arrangements made.

The Coutcil of the Auckland Institute has declined to accede to the request for opening the Museum on Sundays.

A brisk nor-wester began to blow early this morning and continued throughout the day. The streets were rendered very disagreeable by the dust blowing about. The wind was not powerful enough to sweep them clean, so every little gust and passing vehicle raised its own little cloud, and a good portion of each sought the footpaths, as if on purpose to annoy pedestrians and spoil shop goods.

We are informed that the Oddfellows and Foresters Friendly Societies intend uniting in a festival on Boxing Day, preparations are being vigorously made, It is intended to hold sports in the day and a ball in the evening. A joint committee of the two orders has been appointed to carry out the details, and we have every reason to expect that the affair will be successful, as such gatherings almost invariably are.

Anew lunatic asylum is about to be erected at Sea Cliff, near Dunedin, at a cost of £70,000.

Some persons used a totalisator in Dunedin on Thursday in connection with the Melbourne races. They are to be proceeded against,

Attention is drawn to Gabites]and Plante's announcement in our advertising columns.

The quarterly meeting of the English Lodge Victory, I.O'G.T. takes place on Monday evening at the Foresters’ Hall. A son Captain Oolbeok is reported seriously ill of scarlet fever at Wellington College. He has been removed from the college. The Colonial Secretary, Mr Dick, has promised a £ for £ subsidy from the first of April last, to the Wellington Borough Council, for Hospital and Charitable Aid purposes. One of the Ashburton Volunteers telegraphed from Opunake: “ Just arrived at Opunake, Leave for front to-day. Bnj eying ourselves, you bet 1"

Bravo Campbeltown ! At a meeting of the Bluff contingent of the K Battery, held on Monday evening last,five men, including the lieutenant in charge, volunteered to go the front.

The Southern Cross Oil Company at Gisborne have got a bore down 120 ft, and have struck a stream of oil gas. They can get oil with the pump. Will fortunes ever be made at Poverty Bay with the same abominable ease that they were in Pennsylvania? The name is not very inspiriting. An intercolonial weather exchange dated Sydney, this morning, states that light winds and rain prevail in Western Australia, north west winds on the South Coast, a strong southerly wind at Hobart, and a light north-east wind in New South Wales. There is a depression east of Tasmania.

An agricultural leaseholder on the banks of the Totara river, Westland, applied to Judge Richmond in the Supreme Court for an injunction to restrain a party of diggers from sluicing tailings into the stream as their doing so polluted the water and caused injury to the banks, washing away his land. He also claimed £SOO for damages already suffered. The injunction was refused ; the question of damages will be tried at a future date.

A ■well-known “• congultationist ” is going to try conclusions with the framers of the Gaming and Lotteries Act, Those who desire to evade the law with him will be invited to send the usual contribution by letter to “ Lord Mayor ” or “Flapjack” “care of ” Mr So-and-So, the consnltationist. He apparently supposes he will not be breaking any law by only taking charge of letters, and he will leave “ Lord Mayor” or the other fellow to take care of himself.

Several changes in the location of Resident Magistrates are spoken of. Mr N. Wood, R.M. for Temuka and Ashburton, it is reported goes to Lawrence, whence Mr Carew goes to Dunedin. We hear that Mr Beetham, the Resident Magistrate here, was offered the position at Dunedin, and declined it, Mr Beetham has won golden opinions from the public of Timaru, and all will be glad that he decided not to accept the offer.

The Beach Arms, an old Hotel on the road from Christchurch to Little River, at the north end of Lake Ellesmere, was burned down yesterday morning. Had it not been for the sagacity of a dog, it is probable that one or more liyes would have been lost. The landlord was awakened by his dog bursting open his door and dragging his clothes off the bed. One man saved himself by jumping from a window, and another was only awawened with difficulty, and dragged downstairs, unconscious of what it was all about till he was outside. The inmates ha'd not time to save anything ; they had to escape just as they arose from their beds. Luckily, two hawkers had put up at the hotel the previous night, and from them the others were enabled to obtain clothes. A portion of the hawkers’ stock had been left in the bar, and was destroyed; but, fortunately for themselves and the other inmates, the major part of their goods had not been removed from the waggon. The place was insured, but not to any great extent.

The Grey River Argus comments in this fashion on one of the candidates for a Wellington constituency : “Mr Thomas Dwan, an old West Coaster, but now an auctioneer at Wellington, purposes contesting one of the seats for that city in the next Parliament, We are sorry for Dwan. Ha is not a bad sort—always ready to give or take a drink ; will do a good turn for an old friend, or indeed for any worthy object; is a jokist of the first water, and makes fun for the Jmillion. If he had only a red herring to sell his sale room would be crowded ; and if that red herring had no points or pedigree, Dwan would immortalise it, and prove to demonstration that there had never been such a herring before —and that the man who purchased it was to be envied. But politics 1 Oh, Tom,they are not in your line—and you ought to know it by this time. Besides, who could we give the cap and bells to ? Tom, dear! don’t.”

Mr Jones, of Oamaru, wrote to the Government lately regarding the nominations of certain persons for assisted immigration by their friends in the neighborhood of Oamaru, and received a reply, the following portions of which have a general application ; “ I have now the honor to inform you that the Government has decided upon instructing the AgentGeneral to provide passages for a small number of carefully selected immigrants within the limit of the vote of last session for immigration. The order in which the applications for passages will be considered will be as follows :—lst, Cases where wives and families are separated from their husbands and fathars. 2nd, Oases where blood relations, such as brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, &c., wish to have passages provided, 3rd. Cases where persons who have succeeded in the colony wish to have passages provided for their acquaintances who are specially qualified, in their opinion, for colonial life. In all cases it must be distinctly understood that passages will only be granted on the Agent-General being satisfied that the persons are physically, and in other respects, qualified for colonial life. Of course, the regulation requiring payment of £5 for each statute male adult will have to be complied with before the nomination is sent to the AgentGeneral,”

The South Canterbury Acclimatisation Society have resolved to purchase 7000 young trout from the Christchurch Society at 10s per hundred, and to distribute them as follows, —Gray’s Hill Creek, 2000 ; Opnha Gorge, 1000 ; Clayton Creek, 1000.; Orari Gorge, 1000 ; Caunington Gorge, 1000 and Lower Pareora 1000.

A volunteer was “ shut up ” at Mr Hayhurst’s meeting, at Temuka, last night. When Mr Hayhurst was replying to a question about local option, the young man in uniform asked when he was going to open his new hotel. An answer came smartly from some one in the hall—“As soon as you have gone to the front.”