NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2718, 5 December 1881, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The Timara School Committee meet this evening.

The meeting of the Board of Education for tbs month will be held on the 19th instant.

The Timaru High School Board of Governors hold their ordinary meeting for the month to-morrow evening. Two slight shocks of earthquake were felt in Timaru this morning at twenty-four minutes to eight o’clock. The oscillations were from North-west to South-east. The shock wan also felt at Temuka. Our telegrams show that the shocks were much more violent elsewhere,

Pome heavy slips have occurred in the clay bank at the north of Caroline Bay, the heavy seas of the past few days having undermined it pretty rapidly. The southerly direction of the seas has had the effect also of cutting away the Washdyke spit at the south end a good deal, and the Waxmataitai spit has been perceptibly narrowed.

Messrs Jones and Peters had some of their men and “ Hercules ” at work this morning, shifting the Priestman crane on to the rails. They intend to make a good deal of use of this crane for light work, such as lifting boxes about, to save the bigger one, as well as to save time, the smaller crane having much more ranid lifting and traversing motions.

Attention is drawn to an advertisement of Patterson, Burke, and Co, Venetian blind makers, Dunedin and Timara, which appears in another column. This firm is noted for the excellent Venetian blinds they turn out. It may be noted that this firm supplied from their branch business in Timaru, all the blinds required for the new Mechanics’ Institute, and their work gave the most entire satisfaction.

The “ Canterbury and Otago Almanac ” for 1882, published at the “ Timaru Herald” office, maintains the character for usefulness it has earned for itself. It appears in almost the same form as last year, but contains a quantity of new useful and interesting matter—a tide table for the port of Timaru, 20 pages of Notes and sketches of the townships in South Canterbury and some of those in Otago, abstracts of laws See. It is a useful shilling’s worth.

The wharf crane was employed to-day in unloading the schooner Awaroa of her cargo of cement. The crane works all right, but the young man in charge made a few mistakes which the bystanders attributed to the crane. After a little practice the engineer got on much better, and the work went on smoothly enough. t,The south-westerly swell that has been running lately was still strong this morning, and the “ range ” round the Breakwater was considerable, the schooner getting her paint rubbed off pretty clean by friction against the rope fenders.

There is a considerable quantity of rough wood lying along the Washdyke spit, recently washed there. It consists chiefly of small white and black pine stumps, with some scrubby stumps, some ribbonwood, and a few trunks of small manuka trees The bulk of the wood resembles very much that seen in the buried forest north of St. Andrews, and exposed at the beach, except that the proportion of ribbonwood is much smaller. Supposing the drift to have come from the beach at St. Andrews, however, the comparative scarcity of ribbonwood may be accounted for by the fact that that wood is already waterlogged as it lies|buried,and would probably sink if carried into the sea. There is no doubt, however, that some of the drift is locally derived, that is, it has been washed out of the ground underlying the shingle spit as the latter has been removed. There are several good-sizad lumps of earth washed up high and dry that could not possibly have come from a distance, and these contain roots and pieces of timber similar to the drift-wood. Some of these lumps consist of three layers ; a stiff clay soil, a layer of wood and other vegetable matter, and a layer of fine mud. Th ; s order would show that a bush formerly grew on the site of the present Washdyke lagoon, on a clay soil, that it was submerged and its contents buried in mud (whether fresh water or sea mnd is a question), and that afterwards it was buried by the landward motion of the shingle spit, to be again exposed and then removed through the removal of the ohuiKle. Most of the drift wood would make good fuH, and it ought to be worth collecting fur vim purpose.

The Returning Officer notifies that the declaration of the poll for the Tinaaru district will take place at the Court House at noon on Saturday.

The Dunedin Show does not appear to have been very successful. Only 3000 people attended on the second day, and the takings for tho two days were only £196.

A farmer of Bast Taranaki is In the hospital suffering from blood poisoning, caused by scratching hia thumb with tho knife he was using to scrape the feet of his sheep for foot-rot.

Ihe steamer Lalia Rookh steamed 24 miles up the Taheka River, Hokianga, on Saturday. This is the first steamer which ever attempted it. The “ Otago Daily Times ” thinks the arrest of Te Whiti has broken the heart of Hau-hauism.

During the voyage of the barque Glad stone from London to Sydney, a man fell overboard, and was saved by seizing an albatross and holding on to it till a boat arrived.

The contractors for the extension of the George street sewer have been kept almost idle during the past few working days. The heavy seas prevent them from getting on with the driving of piles at the outer end of their work.