NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2705, 19 November 1881, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

A meeting of the South Canterbury Caledonian Society will be held at the Grosvenor Hotel, on Monday evening, at eight o’clock. The Building Committee of St. Mary’s Church have sent to Aberdeen for ten granite columns for the interior of the new Church.

The anniversary tea meeting and concert of the Loyal Timanx Lodge of Oddfellows will be held in the Barnard street Hall on the 23rd inst.

Messrs A. Hayes and M. Sherwin were yesterday nominated for the Mayoralty of Waimate. The polling takes place on the 30th inst.

Mr Nugent Wood, by his transfer to Lawrence, gets an addition of £2OO to his salary. A returned volunteer informs the “Manawatu Times” that the uniforms supplied to the men on the Plains were fearfully and wonderfully made, and that the material was so bad that most of them were soon in tatters.

A shocking occurrence is reported from Adelaide. At the police barracks in that city on the afternoon of November 5 James Wall and Richard James were struggling in sport for the possession of a revolver, which was supnosed to be unloaded. While the revolver was in the hands of Janies it exploded, and shot Wall through the head. He died immediately. Great sympathy is felt for James, as the occurrence is believed to be purely accidental.

A storekeeper at Barrytown, Westland, named Mcllroy, while shooting a bullock yesterday had his left hand blown off by the gun bursting. Two children are reported as having died at Wanaka through eating unripe fruit.

A man named Lcnniway is supposed to have been drowned in Gatlin’s River. He was sailing in a flat-bottomed boat with a companion, when it filled. Lenniway swam for the shore, and has not since been heard of. His mate was picked up very exhausted.

A man named Lee was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment with hard labor at Waimate yesterday, for indecency in the presence of little girls.

The export of grain and wool from Lyttelton for the year ending Oct. 31 last, was equal to that of the whole of the rest of the Colony. The registered tonnage from Lyttelton was 64,914, and the total from all the other ports was 63,700. At the E.M. Court this morning William Henry Harris, who had been in the employ of F.C. Watson, express proprietor, Washdyke, was charged with embezzling the sum of ss, received by him on account of his employer. The accused was remanded to the 23rd, bail being allowed, himself in a bond of £ls, and two sureties of the same amount each.

Two legal gentlemen, members of the Victorian Parliament, are engaged in preparing a Bill to suppress the organising of sweepstakes on Cup day races, and to make it a misdemeanor to publish any such mysterious announcements-as those under which the drawing is usually concealed.

“ Humming Bee,” in describing for the “Australasian” some of the dresses worn on the Cup Day, writes i —“ After a time people separate a little, the stand fills to see the next race, but a lady who wears a sage green silk trimmed with satin, still promenades upon the lawn, and gives me the opportunity I desire.” That is a passable sentence as it stands, but instead of , “ Humming Bee ” has :—“ same shade gatherings round skirt, two draperies on one side, the. under one plain edged with cream Spanish lace, top one gathered, satin scarves folded over high gathering finished in front, back drapery forming a large bow and ends, jacket body of silk, gathered puffings of satin with lace coming from under caught together with bows.” That is a good “ hum,” and no mistake. A tailor named Joseph Burns has been committed for trial at Adelaide on the information of the Bank of New South Wales for issuing promissory notes in imitation of the Bank’s notes.

Mr A. Spalding’s store at Burke’s Pass was destroyed by fire about 4 o’clock yesterday morning. Everything was apparently left safe at 7 o’clock the previous evening. The fire had got a good hold before it was observed, and nothing was saved but some of the books. The insurances were £250 on the building and £1650 on the stock, over and above which Mr Spalding estimates his loss at £350.

The ratepayers of Christchurch were called upon yesterday to record their votes for or against the Chy Council incurring an expense of £13,000 to provide a high pressure water supply for fire extinction and other purposes, over the central portions of the city. The proposal was to lay mains through the streets and fill them with water pumped from the Avon, near Lane’s mill. Mr E. Dobson, C. 8., wrote warmly in favor of the scheme, and suggested that the supply might be used for domestic purposes if a large artesian well were sunk to supply water to the pumping station. The work of supplying the whole town might, he says, be extended over ten years, but they should lay the principal mains and fill them without delay, or they may some day have a big fire that will cost more than the whole reticulation of the town. The voting resulted in the rejection of the proposal by 832 to 4(13. A.candidatc having made in quiries from the railway headquarters at Wellington whether members of the late Parliament are entitled to use their free passes on the railway for prosecuting their candidatures in the coming election, has received the important reply that the passes expired with the dissolution of Parliament. It is to be hoped the railway authorities will see that this is given effect to, so that old members will not possess a privilege which fresh aspirants to a scat in the House are not entitled to, and so give a fair field and no favor to all.

The “Press ” says a letter was received at the meeting,of the Lyttelton Harbor Board the other day, which contained the word “Olyuntru.” This puzzled the Board for a while, but the secretary made it out to mean “wholly untrue,” the “ Press ” adds : “ the writer having spelt it euphoniclly.” Now will someone kindly explain what euphonic spelling is ?

W. J. Garrard, the labor agitator, addressed the electors of Auckland City North last night. Major Burns, of the Zealand Regiment of Artillery, assumed the chair, but during the course of the meeting, amidst uproar, was superseded, and George Staines, the people’s champion was installed. Garrard said he was opposed to distraint for rent or enforcing mortgages where a poor man could not pay arrears of rent, or mortgage interest or principal; he would make it a state debt. He was opposed to Chinese or assisted immigration. On the native question he believed both races were wrong, but would fight for the white man. He would support Sir George Grey. A vote of want of confidence was rejected, and one of confidence carried almost unanimously amidst yells of laughter.

A narrow escape from a fatal accident occurred at the Opunake Hotel last night. A person under the influence of drink entered a room where three or four gentlemen were asleep. Seeing a rifle lying in the corner he took it up and while examining it it exploded, Mr Armit, formerly of Wellington but now of the Hawera “ Star.’ was asleep close to where the discharge took place and a quantity of grains of powder entered his face, but fortunately the bullet struck the iron at the head of the bed which turned its course otherwise Mr Skcet and Mr Hadfield (native interpreter) would have been seriously injured if not killed.

Shares in the Te Aroha gold mines are still in favor up north, large quantities of auriferous stone being found. The area of pastoral country selected in the Northern Territory of South Australia up to the end of July last was 245,000 square miles. Between that time and the end of October, 236,338 square miles additional were taken up, and applications had been made for 74,361 miles more. James Shaw, keeper of the Waimate Working Men’s Club, was charged before Mr Beetham on Thursday with illegally selling beer and porter to two non-members of the Club. The evidence of the two men went to show that they went one day to the Club about ten in the morning and had some drmks. A cheque was offered in payment by one of them, but Shaw had not change. In the afternoon they went back, had more drinks, and the man who had the cheque signed the book of membership and paid for the drinks they had been served with. Both men were more or less the worse for liquor at the Club. The case was not completed, being, with three other similar charges, adjourned to the 24th.

Robert Ingersoll in nominating Mr Blaine, the present United States Chief Secretary, for the Presidency in 1876 said “Republicans demand a man who will sacredly preserve the financial honor of the United States; one who knows enough to know that the National Debt must be paid through the prosperity of this people; one who knows enough to know that all the financial theories in the world cannot redeem a single dollar; one who knows enough to know that all the money must be made, not by law, but by labor; one who knows enough to know that the people of the United States have the industry to make the money and the honor to pay it over just as soon as they can” Colonel Ingersoll evidently knows where money comes from and that Financial Statements will not relieve a commercial depression.

Liberty amounts to no more than this— That we have the liberty to act when we have the power. Is the willing to do a certain action the result of any previous circumstance'/ If so, the circumstance governs the will. Splendid variety of white Oxford and regatta shirts, cheap, at J. Strachan’s. —(Advt.)