NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2714, 30 November 1881, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

A billiard match will take place at the Ship Hotel this evening.

Captain Sutter addresses the electors of Gladstone at the Kerrytown school, and Dr Fisher at Washdyke this evening.

Mr M. Studholme was elected Chairman to the new Waimatc County Council at their first meeting this week.

Madame Lottie Wilmot had only a small attendance at the Theatre Royal last night to hear her lecture on “ Courtship and Marriage.” The lecturcss spoke for about an hour, and her delivery being very rapid she said a good deal in that time, giving her hearers some sensible advice on the subjects dealt with. The lecture was interspersed with anecdotes, new and old, and the audience were evidently interested and amused from the beginning to the end. Some of the foibles of colonial young men were severely and clearly criticised and condemned, and a good many must have felt now and then that the cap fitted. Madame Wilmot announces that she will lecture this evening on “Forbidden Fruits, ’

Mr G. Butler, chairman to the Pleasant Point School Committee, has been nominated by that committee for the vacant seat on the Education Board. The racehorses Sir Modred, Somnus, Idalium, and Hilarious returned to Dunedin in the Te Anau, yesterday. The [special train that passed through .Timaru last night with visitors to the Dunedin races consisted of nine carriages. A considerable number of people went from Timaru by the train, which was fairly filled,

Messrs Anderson and Morrison, of Dunedin, are at present manufacturing for a Timaru firm a large copper boiler for brewing purposes, of a capacity of 700 gallons.

The Court of Appeal at Wellington was occupied yesterday in the totalisator Franck v. Canterbury Jockey Club, and Franck v. Hobbs and Goodwin. Mr P. A. Cutten won a Ten Mile Handicap Bicycle race at Dunedin on Saturday in 38 mins. 51J secs. A member of the Thames Contingent has been arrested for stealing £4 10s from a comrade on the passage home from the front.

The Wesleyan district meeting at Auckland recommend the Conferenee to send Home for a supply of efficient young men to meet the present demand for Ministers. Why is this necessary ? Is it because the brain-power of the colony is not sufficient to supply its requirements, or is it that young colonists do not find the life of a minister an attractive one ? Coffee prepared from date stones is the newest thing in breakfast table drinks in Christchurch. The beverage is popular at Home. It is described as possessing the fragrance, flavor, and all the other good qualities of coffee, but none of the bad ones;

A young man named Oswald S. Brodie, a Wanganui settler, who was recently at the front with the Alexandra Cavalry, shot himself with a revolver yesterday afternoon. He is badly injured, but it is hoped it will not prove fatal. Private troubles are supposed to be the reason of the rashact.

Other than English capitalists are glancing at New Zealand as a field for the investment of surplus stocks of cash. At the Auckland Harbor Board’s meeting yesterday, a letter was read from a gentleman at Napier, who wrote as the agent of a Polish financial firm, offering to lend the Board any sum from £6OOOO upwards for the prosecution of harbor works. Competition is the soul of trade, and the saw that cuts as well in the trade in money as in firewood, and our own Harbor Board may find it profitable to go to the Continent, when, year after next, they want to raise a Joan to complete our own harbor works. A matter of a novel character was brought before the Taieri County Council last week by Mr Cairns, of Walker street, Dunedin, who has introduced what he calls “tram dray ways,” which he claims will be a means of providing efficient access to places where good roads cannot be formed, where bad roads exist, or where traffic is at all impeded. The plan in the main consists of a system of rails adapted to suit vehicles of a guage of 4ft lOin between the wheels, and Mr Cairns states that £7OO of £BOO per mile will meet the outlay.

The Oamaru “ Mail ” must have bean in a bad humor about something or other at the time of the Premier’s visit to that town on Monday. It says the Hon. John Hall '• condescended ” to remain there a few hours. "He went to the gaol—the whole of the Ministry should have gone there long ago. Some people say that there is an intimate connection between the Premier’s visit hither and the impending election. We think it not improbable. These Conservatives would blacken a fellow’s boots for a vote—they certainly would blacken his character.” What a naughty temper for a newspaper to get into I

A large deputation waited on the Premier yesterday from the Dunedin Harbor Board, Chamber of Commerce, and City Council, to urge the completion «f the railway station, the Otago Central Railway, and other matters. The Premier promised that Government would take stock and see what money could be prudently borrowed and what works were required, and would meet Parliament with a defined scheme.

One of the pupil teachers in a Wellington private school, named Diver, holds a Sub-lieutenant’s commission in the Wellington Naval Brigade, and he went with his corps for service at the front. On his return to his scholastic duties, the headmaster, in the presence of the entire school, addressed some well-chosen words to the young suh-lieutenant, complimenting him on the pluck and spirit he had displayed in volunteering for active service, and congratulating him on his safe return. A half holiday was then granted to the school in honor of the occasion. It is needless to say that Sub-liautenant Diver was heartily cheered by his schoolfellows.