Page 3 Advertisements Column 3

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7072, 18 February 1893, Page 3

The South Canterbury Licensed Victuallers’ Association, h’old a special meeting at the Boyol Hotel on Monday next at 3 p,m. Conversing with some farmers to-day we were told that the gales have not done a great atnount of damage, but occasioned annoyance and fretting by hampering wo,rk, especially the mending of stacks untopped by the southerly gale. A cable paragraph on oar first page concludes as follows s—“ The Times strongly protests against the threatened freedom of the press.” The message was “short delved,” the sentence should read: "The Times strongly protests against the threatened, attack on the freedom of the press,” The Oamaru Mail sftys that grape-growing bids fair to become an important industry in Oam.ru. Already a largo quantity of this fruit is produced in and around the town, much of which is sent to other localities for sale j and they hope that the time will yet o >m® whoa grapes will be within the reach of all. An Auckland paper says there is a considerable amount of grumbling at the Hon. Richard heddon sending up from the South Island silver pine sleepers for the Rotorna railway, to the very country of the unequalled puriri, A city member sent down this message A hornet’s nsst is said to been discovered at liotorua in the-silver pine sleepers from the South Island.” To this Mr Seddon replied “ The hornet’s nest discovered in West Coast sleepers will on closer investigation turn out to bo a mare’s nest.” Within the last six or seven days some singular tide phenomena have been noticed in Auckland harbour, the movement of the tides being erratic and the range of rise and fall exceptionally small. On Friday night, the 10th inst., the water rose about 4ft Gin, when in the ordinary course it would have risen 7ft or Bft. As a consequence of this the caisson of the Calliope dock could n>t be floated, and the German warship Busaard was unable to dock that night. It has been found also that the sea has ebbed and flowed on the one tide. In an article on the earthquake of last Sunday, the Auckland Herald says : - “ New Zealand is in possession of an active volcano, in addition to many centres of thermal force, and so long os these conditions exist earth tremors will always be experienced. In all probability the exceptionally heavy rains which have fallen lately are responsible for the shocks which occurred yesterday. The extraordinary fall of water has percolated to the heated regions in the volcanic districts and caused violent explosions, and we shall probably hear of renewed activity at Ngauruhoe ” This "explanation ought to bo exploded itself. Rain has no more to do with earthquakes than dry weather has.

Mr Maogregor, of the Otago Education Beard, says that from his own objervation he had come to the conclusion that an unneces* surily large amount of the time of the children’ both in school and more particularly at home, was taken up with difficult sums in arithmetic, aud abstract, abstruse difficulties in grammar, and especially with that absurd system of the analysis of sentences - absurd, at any rate, lobe , i?en to yoan > childrenThe Auckland Eerald says there are at present close on 10,000 man on the Northern gumSelda between the river the North Capo, and that owing to the prices ruling for gum they are doing fairly well ; while skilled, sober, industrious men, are making touch more than s living at the occupation. It is not to bo wondKred, therefore, that the Austrians on the gumfielda are steadily remitting respectable sums to Germany, and inducing many of their friends and neighbours in the Old Country to come out and share their good fortune and improved prospects in life. At the Congregational Union meeting yesterday, the Press reports, the Bev. K. D. Cecil, Timarn, read tn admirable paper on Congregationalism as a factor in the national life of Now Zealand. Ho referred to the fact of the unallness of the t ongregationai body, and to the little part it had played as a factor in Now Zealand life ; at the tame pointing out the privileges of theological thought enjoyed by the Oongregationalists, and their inherited fearlessness in the inquiry after the truth in scientific and critical investigations and discussions. He maintained that that church would be the most potent factor in our Colonial life, which went into the reform of social and industrial conditions and took its side with the outlying masses of the poor and oppressed. Is was unanimously agreed that the paper be printed in the Year Book and circulated among the churches. The Press says of the new mayor of Christchurch, Mr Eden Gorge :—" The callow young man who by the strange caprice of fate was elected Mayor of Ohristohnroh at the last election, has long since managed to make himself supremely ridiculous, and wil ere long, if he does not alter his public be haviour, succeed in bringing municipal institutions in Christchurch into contempt, for a time at all events. It is the over weening and colossal vanity of this little gentleman which is causing all the trouble. We honestly believe that be means well and that bis disposition is a somewhat generous one. But he is the victim of a cruel delusion. He believes himself to be a heaven boro statesman whose mission under Providence is to regenerate mankind in general, and the inhabitants of Christchurch in particular.” It is said that very extensive improvements are in progress on some of the largest land estates in'Hawke’e Bay. The estates of Mr Purvis and of Mr Sydney Johnston (Omawharo) are referred to as j special instances. It is affirmed that theta and other large estates will be subdivided so at to exclude them from the operation of the 1 progressive land tax and bring them within the improvement and exemption clauses of the Land Tax Bill. The Government claims these facts as proofs of the efficacy of the land policy, and as being really in conformity with the intention of the Ministry which led up to the initiation and passing of the new land laws of the colony. It is also s'al-d that there is an increasing 'lemand for land in Hawke’s Bay. The establishment of dairy factories in the district, at Norgewood and | Maharahara, has contributed greatly to the ; prosperity of the district, which requires subj division of large estates into grazing blocks of ' coovecieot area?.