Bluff News.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 5, 29 April 1893, Page 10

Bluff News.

The ■weather the last few days has been damp and foggy, with keen easterly winds, and colds are very prevalent. Speaking of colds reminds me that we have now a doctor, the Medical Committee having secured the services of Dr James Toirance, of Dunedin.

A painful accident happened on Monday last to a young man named George Preston, who was employed in Mr G. R. Waddel’s grain shed. The grain was being taken into the store by means of a steam hoist, and Preston, who was on top of the stack tending the fall, incautiously gripped the wire in his right hand as the sling was ascending, with the result that his fingers were drawn into the block and taken off at the second joint. Dr Torrance was promptly in attendance and found it necessary to amputate the remaining portions of three fingers at the knuckles. The sufferer was the chief support of his family, and is now rendered unfit to resume his work for some time, and the accident is therefore all the more distressing. His fellow' - employes, however, are bestirring themselves to provide for his present wants, and it is expected that their efforts wdll be liberally responded to. The grain rush is now over, and the quantities coming to hand are comparatively small. There are about 120,000 sacks stored in the various sheds.

Considerable interest was displayed in tlie election of our school committee, which took place at the school on Monday evening, a large number of householders being in attendance and recording their votes. Mr S. Nxchol addressed the meeting, giving an account of the Commissioners’ stewardship in the past and the present position of school matters, after which Messrs McDougall and ISTorris were appointed scrutineers and the balloting was proceeded with, resulting in the election of Messrs Nichol, Lee, Georgeson, Hewlett, McKenzie, Hamilton, and Ferguson. A football match between employes of the Ocean Beach Freezing Works and members of the Avarua Football Club was played on the latter’s ground on Wednesday afternoon, and resulted in a win for the Club members by two points to nil. Dixon, Haynes, Smith, and Moore played well for the Beach, as did also Waddel, ISTorris, Dixon, and Joss for the Club.

A concert in aid of the Presbyterian Organ Fund was given in the Drill Hall on Wednesday evening last and was well attended. The feature of the evening - was a lecture delivered by the Rev. Jas. Gardiner, on “Public and Private Opinion.” The subject was ably handled and proved both amusing and instructive. It was stated in these columns last week that Mr Hay, of the local freezing works, had been transferred to Mataura, and that he would have charge of the freezing chambers in the new works. The latter part of this statement is now corrected, the works at Mataura being under the control of Mr John Hamilton, who was formerly employed in the Company’s works here for some years.