NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2710, 25 November 1881, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The Timaru Harbor Board meet next Thursday. Among the business to be dealt with will be Mr Turnbull’s motion that a wharf manager be appointed; the determination of the amount of penalties to be enforced against Messrs Jones and Peters in respect of their late contracts; and the consideration of landing and shipping rates on wool and coal carried to and from the outer anchorage.

The result of the ballot for the offices of District Deputy and Grand Lodge Representative, under the American constitution of the 1.0.G.T., is as follows District Deputy—Mr Job Brown, Temuka, 105 ; Mr James 0. Bruce, Timaru, 76; majority for Mr Job Brown, 29. For Grand Lodge Representative—-Mr Job Brown, Temuka, 67 ; Mr Robert Proctor, Timaru, 112; majority for Mr Robert Proctor 45. The elections for similar offices under the English constitution takes place at the Foresters’ Hall early in December.

A decided change in the weather was noticed to-day. For some time past it has been dull and cool; this morning the sun ehone out hot and bright, and there were signs that a nor’-wester is imminent. Last night’s weather exchange from Sydney reports that a depressson reported the day before had passed over Tasmania, S.W, winds with rain prevailing on the southern coast of Australia, On the New South Wales coast a hot wind was blowing from the N.W.

The crane sent down from Lyttelton by the railway authorities to work on the wharf here, has been set up ready for work. It is a steam crane, and will probably be sufficiently powerful to do the work for soma time, but it is a very old one, being, we are informed, the second crane used on the Lyttelton wharves. It is not at all in good order ; the travelling wheels are so badly worn that the “ cone,” which keeps the truck true on the rails, is not only completely gone, but is reversed, and a good deal of care will need to be exercised in moving the crane about, or it will be thrown off the rails. ’ The wheels might have been turned up before the thing was sent down here. It is another case, we suppose, of “ anything is good enough for a hole like Timaru

An elderly man named Drysdale fell from the Hurunui coach last week and was killed by the fall.

Messrs Henderson and Fergus, of Dunedin, are the successful tenderers for a contract on the New Plymouth Harbor works, at £15,933. There were eleven other tenders, the highest being nearly £24,000.

Some big estates in the Napier district are being out up. The high prices recently obtained for land in the district is said to be the inducement.

St. Albans, the Christchurch suburb, has been proclaimed a separate borough, and the first Mayor will be elected on December 21st, and the first council on December 22.

A man. named Elder has died in the Auckland Asylum of acute mania. He had tried several times to strangle himself.

Fred. Archer, the famous jokey, still maintains a leading position, having piloted winners to the tune of £30,738, Fordham is second with about half the amount, namely, £27,053 ; Cannon following closely with £24,944 ; and Wood being next £13,516.

One of the Melbourne sporting men institutes a comparison between consultation sweeps and betting. He shows that of £40,000 invested in Miller’s sweeps on the Cup £36.000 was returned to the public, while of £30,000 booked by Miller on bets the public got nothing back. Mr Wingfield-Digby, of Sherbone Castle, England, has made a permanent reduction of 20 per cent, in the rents of the farmers on bis estates in Dorset and West Somerset, dating from Midsummer. T 1 is remission will diminish Mr Digby’s income by £9OOO a year. With attention to economy, he will probably be able to live comfortable on the remaining 80 per cent, £36,000 a year.

A meeting of schoolmasters in the Ellesmere district was held in tbeißrookside school-house on Saturday, at which it was resolved to form an association of teachers for that district. One of the speakers, Mr Baldwin, said that the salaries of teachers in New Zealand were at present less than those in the old country, indeed they were not equivalent to the wages of a good ploughman. He thought that a great saving might be effected in the cost of education by the abolition of certa : n officers. Half the time of the present inspectors was taken up in performing police duties, and if the schoolmasters required a policeman to look after them, one could be obtained at a lower salary than that paid to inspectors; perhaps some country schoolmaster would be glad of the billet.

Ecdes’ Hotel at Naseby was burned down on Tuesday. It was insured in the Victoria office for £2OO. Two cottages at Cavorsham were burned down yesterday morning. The fire was caused by the explosion of a kerosene lamp at ten o’clock the previous night. The neighbors thought they had put the fire out, but at three the next morning the flames burst out again and spread with great rapidity, some of the inmates getting severely burned in effecting their escape. Morrison’s house, in which the fire started, was insured for £2OO, and Hobson’s, the adjoining one, for £275, in the National.

The landlord of a country hotel was charged at Oamaru the other day with allowing tw» men to remain on his premises in a state of intoxication. Mr O’Meagher urged on his behalf that the hotel was some ten or twelve miles away from police protection, that this was shearing time, and that a landlord was very much at the mercy of shearers, who were often not over particular. There was a good deal in that argument. The landlord’s mistake was surely not in allowing the men to remain on his place when in toxicated, but in allowing then; to bourne intoxicated. It might be difficult to pre? vent their becoming so, but it would be more difficult and very wrong also, to send them away, when and because, they had become so.

Two men who were recently released from Napier gaol, where they had undergone long sentences, claimed to be placed on the electoral-roll on the ground that they had been six months resident there, and the Registrar allowed the claim, although he was informed of the cirou instances. He said ho had no power to refuse, as the men were not sentenced for felony.

At the Waimate Court yesterday, before Mr Beetham, the charges of illegal selling of beer at the Waimate Working Men’s Club were gone into. In one case, where a man was supplied with drink before he became a member of the Club, further evidence was taken and decision reserved till next week, other cases were withdrawn. Two cases of assault were heard. In one a girl of twelve was charged with throwing stones boy at a of seven, and otherwise assaulting him. The girl was cautioned and dismissed. The other case was a women’s quarrel, and the evidence being flatly contradictory, the case was dismissed. A man named Garrett, charged with embezzlement, was remanded fill Monday next. One civil case was heard, Smart v. Sullivan, a judgment summons. Defendant was ordered to pay the amount of his debt, £7 15s, by monthly instalments of £1 or in default of any payment 14 days imprisonment.