NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2788, 1 March 1882, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The s.s. Ringarooma left Melbourne for the Bluff yesterday afternoon. Mr Joseph Ivcss has seized the plant of the “ Cambridge Mail.” Mr R. J. S. Harman has been elected Chairman of the Lyttelton Harbor Board In the room of the Hon. E. Richardson. A Nelson butcher announces that he is ■prepared to supply the public with venison in any quantity. Payable quartz reefs have lately been •discovered at the head of the Mauruia river, a branch of the Buffer, on the line •of the West Coast railway, and a rush is ■.expected to set in.

A t-on of the Rev Mr Glover, of Uamaru, aged 20 months, fell into a water-closet yesterday and was suffocated. The Customs revenue collected at Dunedin for February is £38,235. For January it was £38,114, and for February last year it was £29,636. Subscriptions are being raised in Auckland to send to Miss Parnell, in aid of evicted Irish tenants. •Dr Hector, being interviewed by miners, agreed that it would be wise to test the Thames district with the diamond drill, The Native Minister has ordered 200 West Coast Constabulary to be taken up to Auckland and put on the construction of the Cambridge-Eotorua road. There is nothing for them to do now on the West Coast, and so they are to be employed in opening up a road to the “ colonial sanatorium.”

The anniversary entertainment under the auspices of the English Lodge Victory 1.0.G.T., takes place to-morrow evening at the Foresters’ Hall, It will be seen on referring to the programme in our advertising columns [that a good bill of fare has been provided, and from the number of tickets issued no doubt a bumper house will follow.

The report re garroting at Christchurch, is now said to be exaggerated if not unfounded. It evidently originated from several persons being assaulted separately while going home on Saturday night. One man was brutally ill-used, and is now confined to his bed. The cause of the assaults is unknown.

The Department of Justice is in future to be attached to the Colonial Secretary’s Department, and Mr Fountain, Undersecretary for the abolished Department, retired yesterday.

Alfred Simpson and James Wyvil of Christchurch have been committed for trial on a charge of conspiracy to defraud the creditors of the latter of the sum of £2OO. Scarlet fever is still very prevalent in the suburbs of Auckland, and some of the cases are very severe. One lad had to be buried a few hours after his death. In some instances adults are suffering. It is thought that if the disease continues some measures will have to be adopted to isolate all patients.

A correspondent of the “ Cromwell Argus,” writing from Lake Wakatipu aays:—For some days past a “ cranky" Chinaman has been perambulating amongst qp. On Wednesday last he paid a visit to the police camp, and informed the police that another Chinaman had stabbed his mate and killed him. The dead man was supposed to be just below the police camp, and off marched our Chinese friend and protector to see the body. After travelling one, two, three, and four miles, and scouring the scrub, rocks, &c., it was discovered that our heathen friend was mad. On his arrival in town be was placed in safe keeping. A case of affiliation was heard at the Christchurch Court on Monday, in which the question of payment was involved. The mother of the child it appeared had lately married, and her counsel submitted that the stepfather was liable, as the goods of a woman as soon as she was married became the property of her husband. His Worship said the case was a difficult one, but he was fully convinced that the defendant was able to contribute towards the baby’s maintenance. He suggested that she should appeal to her husband and impress upon him, as a newly-made wife ought to be able to do, that unless he extended a benevolent hand eto the offspring he would lose his wife. Four young women, one a girl of fourteen, were recently charged together at Auckland under the Vagrant Act. Senior Sergeant Pardy, in stating the charges and the cause for the police prosecuting the prisoners, said the number of young girls in the city who were leading immoral lives was very large. The prisoners were allowed to go on promising to leave the City.

The Christchurch Chamber of Commerce has passed a resolution in favor of amending the bankruptcy laws, so that a debtor shall not be allowed his discharge till he has paid a dividend of not less than 10s in the £, stive in exceptional cases, where a majority of creditors in number and value should be empowered to secure a discharge* Speaking of the numerous bankruptcies the Chairman said :—“ Having analysed the declarations of insolvency throughout the colony for the last six months, I find that 25 per cent of the number are by people not in trade, and who consist chiefly of persons described as laborers. It might also be remarked that the colony would perhaps not greatly miss a certain class of legal practitioners, whose special vocation would seem to be to pave the way through the Bankruptcy Court for persons for whom its protection could hardly have been intended.”