NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2737, 29 December 1881, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Tbe opera “ La Fillede Madame Angof was repeated by Mr Towle’s Company last evening, and was given with the same spirit as on the previous evening. There was a fair house, but not so good a one as the excellence ot the performance merited. At tbe inquest on Dr Percy at Gisborne the-Jury returned a verdict that deceased met his death by accidentally taking in mistake chloroform instead of the cough mixture.

The steamer Stella recently returned to Wellington from the Sounds, brought ten tons of specimens of marble from the Caswell Sound.'quarries. The specimens are to be sent to Dunedin, Melbourne, Sydney, and London. A man named Henry Forde was brought up at the Dunedin Police Court yesterday charged with arson at Invercargill. He was remanded thither, bail being allowed, himself in £250, and two securities of £l5O each.

A Californian journal of October last, among its Australian items has—“ A woollen factory is to be established at Tunaru, New Zealand, This makes the fifth in that colony.” We presume " Tunaru” means Timaru, and are very sorry that the paragraph is not true in other respects. A match at cricket was played yesterday afternoon between twelve of the Timaru United Cricket Club, and seventeen members of the Christchurch Opera Company. The game was won in one innings by the Timaru men, who made 105, to their opponents 21 in the first, and 45 in the second innings.

The Ashburton School Committee have selected Mr Hector Dempsey, a recent arrival from Ireland, and Mr Dixon, the present master of the Hokitika State school for the appointment of head mastership of the Ashburton school, and have referred the matter to the Education Board for final selection.

A slight accident occurred to the Christ-church-Dunedin express train yesterday. Near Shag Point the water guage of the boiler burst, and the engine-driver was somewhat severely scalded on the arm. He was attended to at Palmerston, the train being detained a abort time.

At the Invercargill Police Covrt yesterday a well-known settler named C. R. Martin was charged with plural votiug at the recent Parliamentary election for Wallace. Accused was remanded till January 5, bail being allowed, himself in £3OO, and one surety of £l5O. It now appears that the New Zealand trader ashore at Dunkirk is not the Waipa from Lyttelton, but the Portland from Timaru. The Portland, 872 tons, Captain Moir, left here for Falmouth on August 12, with 10,100 sacks of wheat on board. She was reported as arrived at Falmouth on or before the 14th inst, and probably there received orders to proceed to London or it may be to Dunkirk, in doing which she met with the disaster.

A fire occurred in a four-roomed cottage in Ashburton last night, but was fortunately extinguished before any serious damage was done. The house was occupied by W. Adams, who with his wife had gone out after putting the children to bed. The eldest child got up and lighted a candle for the purpose of catching a cat under the bed, and whilst engaged in the pursuit set fire to the lining of the bedroom. The fire was put out by neighbors and passers-by.

A resident in the Ashburton district had his sheep dog killed by a neighbor and sought the aid of the law to avenge the injury. Instead, however, of charging him with killing the dog, he laid an information .against him ior stealing it, and thus the erroneous charge had to be withdrawn, the informant having to pay all costs,which amounted to £7. This is another verification of the proverb about men who would be their own lawyers.

Most Returning Officers for the Parliamentary election had Writs calling upon them to hold the election sent by post, and these Writs were to be returned to Wellington with the name of the successful candidates written upon them and endorsed by the Returning Officers. In a few cases, however, the command to hold the election was sent by telegraph, and the telegram received constituted the Writ. The Returning Officer for a southern district received his Writ by telegraph, but thinking that the mere telegram was of no value allowed it to be destroyed. There is j>y in the Government offices over this, no doubt, as another opportunity is offered for using a lot of red tape of the most decided hue.

Some amusement was created in the Wellington Court on Friday last on the case of alleged personation being called on the accused, the Hon. C. J. Pharazyn, solemnly marching into the criminal’s dock without being asked to occupy that somewhat undignified standpoint. Mr Gordon Allan, who appeared for the prosecution, at once said there was no possible objection to Mr Pharazyn occupying the floor of the Court, but the latter insisted on maintaining his position, and even after the information bad been read, and be was requested to take a seat in the body of the Court, he was deaf to all such blandishments, and played the part of bom. fide prisoner till the proceedings came to a conclusion. Why the hon. member persisted in the occupation of so undesirable a location is hard to say, unless he deemed it a preliminary portion of the punishment which, in his own statement, he declared he was so desirous of inflicting upon himself. He said he deserved a month’s imprisonmentrfr'or making the blunder he did in mistaking one polling booth for another.

The children attending the St Andrews school and their friends had a capital picnic on Monday, among the willows on the bank of the Pareora.

SirH. Parke?, Premier of New South Wales, while on his way to England will call at Washington and endeavor to induce the United States Government to reduce the import dutl s on Australian wools. The Auckland Chamber of Commerce urge the Government to send a representative to act with Sir H. Parkes in the interests of New Zealand wool growers.