NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2771, 9 February 1882, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The Kingito Natives have commenced preparations for their March meeting, A telegraph cable is about to be laid across Auckland harbor. Farmers in Northern Queensland are in distress owing to the failure of their crops Diptheria in a bad form is reported to prevail in some parts of Victoria. Hot springs have been found close to one of the great glaciers in southern Westland.

During the late hot spell in Australia a number of deaths occurred from sunstroke in the several colonies. / '

Anew dock is to be built at Auckland, 500 feet long, 90 feet wide, and 30 feet deep.;'- , ; t ■ Mr Bryce, Native Minister, leaves Wellington to-day for Auckland. He will probably pay a visit to Tawhiao. Edwards, steward of the ship Waitara, now lying at Wellington, has been fined £IOO for smuggling four boxes of cigars.

Shares in the Thames Rotorua railway to the amount of £125,000 were taken up by the end of last month. The total gross valuation of property of the city of Auckland for this year is £IBI,BBB. For the previous year it was £167,660.

Write the. Premier was in Auckland -last week he received a telegram from his farm manager in Canterbury stating that one clay’s nor’wester had dona about £BOO worth of damage to his wheat crops alone. The New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Association, Christchurch, which was incorporated in October last, has now 700 shareholders on the list. The Association will erect stores and offices in Cashel street.

. Among the passengers by the Te Anau arrived at the Bluff yesterday from Melbourne, were Sir J. O’Shanassy, the wellknown Victorian politician, and the party of Alpine tourists. The tourists attack Mount Cook first.

The morning papers to-day contain a telegram from Melbourne to the effect that applications had been invited there for 42.000 shares in the Keast and McCarthy Brewery Co, The word " invited ” should have been “ received,” for 40,000 out of the 50.000 shares proposed,, we are informed by the local broker Mr-W, E. Whitcombe, have already been sol^i American shipping items state that the Campsie Glen sailed from New York from Timaru on December 12 with 1000 cases, kerosene, 52,789 feet white pine, 117,850 feet pitch pine, 630 coils fencingwire. Some 10.000 cases of kerosene are on the way to the colony in other vessels. ‘ Scarlet fever of a malignant type is prevalent around Auckland and at the Thames. Several deaths have occurred.

A poor wretch named Shelky, a chemist by trade, was arrested near Wellington the other day as a vagrant. He had only been in the colony a few weeks, having come from Sydney. He was in a most deplorable condition, being almost denuded of clothing, and nearly starving. Drink would appear to be the primary cause of his distress, which is itensified by his limbs and speech being paralysed. Messrs J. Anderson and Sons, Christchurch, are constructing a 50-h.p. boiler for the Lyttelton Harbor Board’s dredge. It is Bft long and 10ft in diameter, and has 148 3-inch tubes. The whole is being put together with a hydraulic rivetter. They are also building two Cornish boilers of 24-h.p. each, for the Kaiapoi Woollen Company. These are 18ft long arid sft in diameter, with 3fb flues. The Union , Sash and Door Company, Auckland, have a strong faith in the power and a high opinion of the value, of capital as compared with labor. They recently refused to pay extra wages to their hands for extra work, and the men consequently struck. The very same day the company held their half-yearly meeting and declared a dividend for the half-year at the rate of 17£ per cent per annum, and carried to the reserve fund and carried forward other sums equal to an additional 11§ per cent. A petition has been sent in to the Mount Cook Road Board, asking the Board to enlarge the ferryman's house at the Pukaki ferry, to enable the holder to .obtain an accommodation house licensees aocomrriodation is much required there by tourists and travellers.

At a special meeting of the Waimate School Committee this week, it was resolved to vote for Mr Belfield, arid Drs Chilton and Foster .as members of the Board of Education. Five applications for the post of fourth teacher were considered, and Mr Bannerman was chosen to be recommended for appointment, A Wanganui farmer fell under a loaded dray, and the wheel passing over his head, broke his jaw and inflicted o;her injuries. Despite the pain he drove on till he met assistance. It is feared that his injuries will terminatejfatally. Mr Hamilton, a bandmaster at Christchurch, has written an “ Exhibition ” march. In consequence of the large numbers of reapers and binders entered to be shown at the Exhibition, the promoters have determined upon setting aside a special Court for them, and to show them in motion for two hours each afternoon.

Dr Wilkins, oculist to the Christchurch Hospital, has performed a very curious operation. He has succeeded in grafting the front portion of a rabbit’s eye on to another animal’s eye, and getting it to grow there without any serious inconvenience to either. The doctor hopes that the time will come when the operation can he extended to human eyes. A smart thunderstorm passed over North Canterbury yesterday afternoon, and then a steady rain set in. Heavy and cold rains also fell about Dunedin. The “ Dunstan Times ” states that rabbits are represented as being positively in millions on the upper portions of the Dunst n commonage, and along the spurs and ranges thence to Cromwell. It is stated on good authority (says the “‘Ellesmere Guardian ”) that the Hon W. Robinson, well-known as Ready-money Robinson, intends next season to sow 16,000 acres of land with wheat. The last stone at the Lyttelton Graving Dock was laid on Saturday, and thexonCrete work was also brought to an end. In about a fortnight the engine-house will be completed, which will conclude -the work until the caisson is ready. Another excavation accident,—A man named Williams, while getting clay at the Opawa brick works, Christchurch, on Monday, was buried by a fall of earth, and had his right hip dislocated and his right arm broken. The Auckland “ Herald ” says Taking into consideration the rapidly-diminishing quantity of available timber in the colony, and the increasing demand for it by our rapidly-increasing population, we think the time has come to discourage to : the utmost the export of baulk unmanufactured timber. We have here artisans to fashion these logs into the articles that neighboring colonies require, and the value of our timber export would be largely enhanced were our exports to consist of manufactured articles instead of unmanufactured timber.