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Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 52, 8 May 1863, Page 2

The election of office-bearers in the Chamber of Commerce took place on Wednesday, with the following result :— W. H. Calder, Esq., president; John Macdonald, Esq., vice do. ; H. W. Whitton, Esq., treasurer; A. Jamieson and W. Stuart, Esqrs., auditors. Tlie following were appointed members of Committee : — Messrs Homer, Bonar, Gilles, John Ross, J. Mitchell, Hollenstein, Button, P. L. Francis, and Beaven. A Committee meeting was held at the offices of Messrs Dalgety, Rattray and Co., lasfc j night, afc which the following resolutions j were agreed to:— 1. " That the draft rules revised be again submitted to the Committee for adoption on Monday afternoon, the 11th currfc., at three o'clock, and tbat at that meeting the appointment of secretary be proceeded with." 2. " That the banking account of the Chamber be kept at the Bank of New South Wales, in the name of tbe tieasurer." 3. "That all circulars calling meetings be by printed forms.' ' The usual weekly meeting of the Town Board was held on Wednesday, at which a communication from the Town Engineer was read, recommending the payment of .€SOO to the contractors for Tay-street, Messrs Campbell' and Robertson, which was agreed to, coupled with an admonition that the work s be proceeded with without any further delay. In answer to a question, the engineer stated that 5,000 yards of gravel were still required for the completion of Tay-street, which would cost about L 7,500 ; and that the probable quantity required to complete the

works in -contemplation by the.TßbardT^as: 50,000 tons/ at an expense of about £30,000 1 A discussion -then ensued on the state jOfv Tay-streety after which it decided 7t6r offer the Chamber of Commerce the lease for twenty-one years of a section in Tay-street, with a right-of-way of twelve feet, for the. yearly rental of £5. The Board then adjourned to Thursday .morning, when a special meeting was held for the purpose of consir, dering what was to be done to make Taystreet passable. On the motion of Mr M' Arthur it was agreed " that the engineer be empowered to order such additional works to be executed by the contractors as were necessary to the speedy completion of Taystreet, the question of who is responsible for the payment thereof being deferred till thei r conclusion, in order to prevent any further delay." By the Airedale we have papers to the Ist May. Our dates are— Auckland, April 25; Wellington, April 30; Taranaki, April 27; Nelson, April 28; Marlborough, April 25 ; Canterbury, May 1. By reference to our police report, it will be seen that steps have at last been taken to test th 8 question, as to whether an eight-horse team or a timber- waggon is to be considered an " obstruction " on a side-walk or not. It appears the police ordinance speaks pretty plainly on the subject, and the Besident Magistrate is prepared to carry oufc its provisions. We commend the following extracts from two clauses of the Ordinance referred to to the attention of " those whom it may concern" : — "Every person who shall leave upon a public thoroughfare any waggon, cart, carriage' truck, wheel-barrow, or other vehicle, or any packing case, crate, casket, cask, or barrel, or package." "Every person who shall encumbor or obstruct any public thoroughfare in any way not hereinbefore especially described." Persons doing any of these things will discover the penalty when brought bfore the Resident Magistrate. No. I, Vol. 1., printed on the front page of a newspaper, is not, generally speaking, a strong recommendation to the reading public, and fche Editor himself would probably prefer having each of tho units supplemented by a few ciphers. The No.l, Vol. I. ofthe Wakatip Mail, which we have just received, is, however, a most creditable production, more especially when we take into consideration the difficulty of transit from Dunedin and Invercargill to the Lake. The establishment of a newspaper seems to give a certain amount of stability to an up-country town, and Queenstown ought, we think, to consider itself highly honored. Dr. M'Clure, coroner, held an inquest, on th c ground, to ascertain the cause of the fire which destroyed Inverinate, the dwelling of C. N. Campbell, Esq. A number of witnesses were examined, and although no positive evidence was given on the subject, it seems pretty certain that the fire originated from the defective manner in which a portion of the houso waa built— a part of the woodwork abutting on one of the chimneys not being sufficiently protected by brickwork from the heat proceeding from the fireplace. The verdict returned was as follows : — " The jury are of opinion that the fire which destroyed Inverinate was accidental, having been probably caused uy fche faulty construction- g£ the chimney in the- diningroom." We have received the Ist and 2nd numbers of the Southern Monthly, Magazine, published by Creighton & Scales, Auckland. Our space wil). not at present permit us to take further notice of this tribute to New Zealand literature. The Otago. Daily Times of the 4th May, says— •"' The bodies of the men drowned: by the late accident afc the Heads have not yefc been &und." Dunedin seems rather quiet — tho news is of an uninteresting character. Tho Nelson Colonist has the following- :—" By the'meteorolog ical table we observe that on the loth (April) the wind was so, ■violent as to reach a pressure of 9.8 lbs to tbe square inch." We believe this to bo the highest that has yet been recorded. We have on various occasions heard that there were such animals as singing mice ; the following paragraph, from the Wellington Independent, would appear to put the matter beyoud a doubt : i« StNG-ING Mouse. — Lately one of these curious littlo animals was caught on the premises of Mr^ Poulson, Lambton Quay, and daily— or rather nightly— delights those who visit it by its canarywarblings. Having for some time past heard what appeared to be a bird singing afc most extraordinary hours, and thinking the sounds might proceed from a sining mouse, Mr. Poulson sot a trap aboufc a fortnight since, and after a few nights succeeded in catching ifc. Apparently wise enongh to know that it is to its vocal capabilities thafc it owes its having escaped the way of all flesh, and captive mouseflesh in particular, and fearing thafc not only supper, but even life itself might be lost if ifc failed to carol, the little animal commences to warble every evening about eight o'clock and often continues far into the night . There is nothing outwardly to distinguish the mouse from others ; it keeps itself shufc up all day, and sings only in the evening. About sixteen years since, a singing mouse was exhibited by a Frenchman, afc the Polytechnic in London. That was generally put down asa ventriloqual deception; but we have evidence enough in the instance now before us to prove that such a thing as a bona fide singing mouse is another of the many strange things, which, although nofc dreamt of in mosfc people's philosophy, is nevertheless perfectly natural." Our readers will find in another column Maori intelligence of more than common interest.