NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2772, 10 February 1882, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The Auckland Lunatic Asylum is now lighted with gasoline. > The Wellington Cricket Association have resolved to obtain “ a coach ” for next season. An elderly man named John Burke has been arrested at Masterton on a charge of indecently assaulting a girl of ten. The National Mortgage and Agency Co., has declared a dividend of 5 per cent, for the half-year. His Excellency the Governor is coming down to Christchurch this week, intending to stay till the opening of Parliament. The men employed at the Union Sash and Company’s forests at Aratapn have passed a resolution sympathising with the men on strike in Auckland.

The 'steward of the ship Euterpe, which arrived at Wellington from London this week, has been sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for broaching cargo. Amotion to close the reading roonfof the Temuka Institute on Sundays was discussed at a general meeting on Tuesday evening and negatived by 13 votes to 9, after a long and animated debate.

An outbreak of typhoid fever has occurred at Pukekohi., Several deaths have taken place and several cases are in the Auckland Hospital.

The Auckland Justices recommend the, Government to reward 'Sergeant Pardy for his clever capture of Plummer, the burglar and threatening letter writer.

John Elder, for burglary at a watchmakers’ premises at Port Chalmers,, was committed for trial. For assaulting the constable who arrested him he was sentenced to two months. ;

The weather was very rough down South yesterday, a heavy sou’-wester with rain squalls blowing all day. • The crops in the Clutha and Tokomairiro districts are badly beaten down.

A man named Smith, a settler at Tuapeka West, has been committing for trial for stabbing a fellow settler named Wild. They were proceeding home from a a meeting when they quarrelled, and during the struggle Smith .stabbed the other with a pocket-knife in the neck and thigh. The shipping trade at Port Chalmers last month exceeded that of any month for the last twenty-one years. In 1861, the year of the great gold rush to Otago, there was a somewhat larger tonnage in port, but those figures had never since been reached. The shipping returns for the December quarter shows a total of 210 vessels entered inwards and 191 outwards, with gross tonnages of 108,786 and 96,331, respectively, about the same as in the previous year.

The list of entries and acceptances for the Dunedin Autumn meeting on the 23rd 24th, and 25th inst. shows eleven competitors for the Champagne Stakes, five for the Selling Race, eleven for the Maiden, fifteen for the Tramway Plate, and nine for the Mandeville Plate.

The estimated value of imports to the Colony during the December amounted to £2,031,174 ; for the same period of the previous year they were £1,688,000. Dunedin is accredited ; with nearly one’third of the whole ; Lyttelton with one-fifth; i'imaru with with £18,377, or over £II,OOO less than in the last quarter of 1880. The total exports were £1,677,994, as against £1,739,073 in the corresponding period of 1880. Timaru is credited with £9,891 worth. Two sailors belonging to the bacquentine Louise were yesterday charged at Oamaru with deserting from the vessel. G. H. Amos, an hotelkeeper, was charged with conniving at their desertion by giving them a letter to a friend at Duntroon, asking him to give the men work. He was fined £3.

The sculler who rowed against White at Auckland r.r.der the name of Carter arrived at Welling Lon yesterday morning. His boat was placed in the Star Boating Club’s shed, but during the day it was hinted to the Club that Carter and Messenger were one and the same person. The Club immediately asked Messenger to satisfactorily explain his reason for travelling under an assumed name, failing which his boat would be removed from the shed. No explanation was forthcoming, and in consequence Messenger was ordered to take his boat out of the shed,

Two cases of sly-grog selling were brought before the Bench at Oamaru—the home of that kind, of trade—yesterday. One case was dismissed, three witnesses for the defence swearing point blank against two for the prosecution. In the other case a fine of £2 was imposed, the defendant being a young girl. Captain Sutter informs us that at the Harbor Board meeting yesterday he did hot advocate the construction of a temporary wooden wall to prevent the range from getting in behind the Breakwater. The plan he proposes is a wharf 300 fact long, to be run out at right angles with the present mole, and to have one side ot the wharf sheet piled so as to prevent the range getting into the harbor. Vessels of deep draught could be brought up alongside the proposed wharf, and there would be nothing to prevent their being loaded and discharged in the roughest weather when the seas are breaking over the mole. The idea seems a good one.

At a meeting of the Temuka Board of Health on Tuesday the state of the Vine street drain, an old source of complaint, was again brought to the fore. The Inspector of nuisances reported that its present’ bad condition was caused by drainage from the Temuka Hotel, and the proprietor of those premises was warned to abate.the nuisance, the Board resolving “■that up&l steps are taken by the townspeople to provide public drains, the Board cannot allow the said Vine street or any other drain to be used for the purpose of emptying sewage into.” in the meantime, is the landlord to do? Dr Hayes, the Health Officer, reported that he had had two cases of typhoid fever, but the patients were now convalescent,, The Licensing Victuallers and Good Templars of Auckland are conferring as to a common ticket for Licensing Commissioners, containing names of men of moderate views. A similar step has been taken at Christchurch, where the Good Templars and Licensed Victuallers have conjointly agreed to nominate the following five members for the Christchurch Licensing bench The Ven. Archdeacon Harris and Messrs Harman, J. G. Parker, R. A. Westenra, and P. Cunninghan. The nomination of candidates for the Licensing district of Dunedin South took place yesterday. Nine candidates were nominated, three of whom are understood to be nominated for the Licensed Victuallers, and five for the temperance organisations.