NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2826, 15 April 1882, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The Old English fancy fair in Dunedin continues .to be a groat success.

Some Vandal stole a picture from an Auckland artist, which was going to the Exhibition.

An Aucklander won the third prize in Ada Mantua’s consultation’ on the Christchurch Cup,

The Mayor’s ball at' Christchurch was a grand .success,,,being attended, by 750 persons, and the hospitality being of a princely character, , - , .

Sergeant Kidd has been discharged from the police force, and he intends petitioning Parliament against it. Poor Kidd !

The enterprising Messrs 0. Bourn and Co., have purchased the Landing Service boats.

The Cavalry and Artillery arc once more in their peaceful homes. They have won golden opinions in Christchurch.

A man. suffering from ddir'niM. tmnrns has drowned himself in a creek at the Bay of Islands.

Yesterday the local option poll in the Epuni district, Wellington province gave a majority in favor of increasing publicans’, wine, accommodation, and bottle licenses. The poor fellow who, in falling from a house in Auckland some days ago, dislocated his spine, died yesterday, leaving a wife and four children.

There was to have been a trial of a Hornsby and Sons’ hedge cutting machine yesterday, but it could not be got out of the Exhibition building, asffhc doors were too narrow. There was a fair attendance wailing to sec (ho trial.

The | oiling for the Christchurch South licensing district resulted in favor of all licenses being increased if necessary. 125 ratepayers out of GB-1 polled their votes, and there was a good majority in each instance.

A contemporary reproduces a paragraph from an American paper on typographical blunders, and in his reproduction he makes no lower than two blunders of the same kind 1 He has compoysitor for compositor and funerel for funeral. Those who live in glass houses &c., you know dear brother journalist I At the Police Court, Auckland, John Maxwell, was charged with unlawfully supplying drink to one John Wayraouth, junr.. in violation of the Magistrate’s order prohibiting anyone supplying Waymouth with liquor for 12 months. Defendant’s solicitor, Mr McKcrchino, pleaded the 03th clause of the Act did not include localitiesbeyond those mentioned, and the offence had been committed between Ilolcnsvillc and Dargaville. Judgment was reserved.

A fijst offender was brought up before His Worship the Mayor this morning, ; charged with drunkenness and dismissed with a caution.

The “Australasian. Sketcher” for this month is got up in the usual excellent style. Mr-M. B. Miller’s-sale of the Rissington estate, Napier, yesterday resulted in a total of nearly £50,000 being realised, but the' bulk of the property was passed in. The average price was just over £3 10s an aoie, ‘the lowest realised here for a long time past. Since the sale several of the lots patsed in have been sold, and others are under negotiation.

There was some astounding perjury at Plymouth recently in the course of an examination before the Registrar of an alleged fraudulent transfer made by Jacob Finch, farmer, of Kingsbridgc. The' debtor stated that on the eve of filing his petition he sold 60 sheep to Mr John Baker, a neighboring farmer and miller, and that Baker had paid him £llß. Subsequently, however, the. confessed . that no money had ever passed, and that Baker and himself had entered into a compact to relate a concocted story. Baker was, then called in, and he swore ; repeatedly that he actually counted 118 sovereigns into hands of the debtor at the time of sale. The Registrar warned Baker to be careful, and again ha swore to the truth of bis previous evidence. The registrar then read the confession of conspiracy ; “ the witness turned livid, _ and in a most hysterical manner exclaimed that the debtor:; had entrapped him.” The Registrar observed that he had never witnessed such outrageous perjury in his experience," and the solicitor to the trustee intimated that' he should appeal to the Treasury to institute a prosecution.

In reviewing a work by Professor Shairp the “ Australasian ”, gives a quotation from his remarks on poetry, which is full of suggestiveness “In the younger poets of the day, as far as I know them, I have not' yet perceived the same original prophetic power which has distinguished many of “ the dead kings of melody.’ If it exists, and I have failed to discern it, no one will welcome it more gladly than I. But what seems to me more characteristic in the poetry of the time is elaborately ornate diction and luscious music, expended on themes not weighty in themselves' Prophet souls, burning with great and new truth, can afford to be severe, plain, evert bare in diction. Charged witb : the utterance of large and massive thoughts, they can seldom give their strength to studied ornamentations. We wait for the day of more substance in our poetry. Shall we have to wait till the plough-share of revolution has been again driven through the field of European society, and has brought to the surface some subsoil of original and substantive truth, which lies, as yet, undiscovered ?"