The Southland Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1870.

Southland Times, Issue 1352, 27 December 1870, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1870.

Yesterday was observed as a close holiday. The weather, although hot bright, was upon the whole favorable for hoh'day-makine. The Bluff Railway authorities ran two excursion trains, issuing return tickets at the. moderate charge of 2s 6d. These trips were very well patronised. . A special excursion for the conveyance of the Wesleyan Sunday School children was also run for a few miles up the northern line, which was largely taken advantage of by those for whom it was intended. The Winton races were in the minds of a good many of the townspeople, and an offer , was made to induce the running of a through-train. The request would have been complied with, but the Government engineer considered the step injudicious, seeing that the line had not been taken off the hands of the contractors. This prevented ajMumber_being,prfisent -.at. thpse. races. -Inside the. town, out-door sports suitable to the occasion •Were provided by Mr Mayo, at the rear of the Southern Cross HoteL They were well attended, and caused a good deal of. hilarity. In the evening afSte, urider the auspices of the Invercargill j Oddfellows, took place in the Theatre Royal, j which passed off with marked success. We have tp explain that the. mail arrivals prevent us from" reviewing local events at greater length in this day's issue. ' | A Coroner's inquiry took place on Saturday laßt into: the circumstances of the fire which lately occurred at- Myrosß Bush. Nothing was elicited beyond what haß been already reported. An announcement is elsewhere made that the proprietors of the London Portrait Itooms, Dunedin, intend to pay a brief business visit to La-*, vercargill. From the high reputation which thefirm; enjoys; it -is to be expected that they will j turn out: portraits in any style of the art. The gentleman who will represent the firm here may be expected to arrive by the Rangitoto. ; Under the, heading of Potato grafting- tb Sydney Mail writes : — "The art. of .the florist and gardener is curiously displayed in the production of varieties and hybrids by grafting, crossing, and selection. We now hear of potato grafting, and of the grafting of the artichoke- into the potato, "and vice versa. A true cross has been effected by Mr Simpson, of Chelmsford, between the artichoke and the potato ; but what may he its "value we know not. Potatoes grafted into artichokes .perished by frost ; the product of the ] reverse cross survived. Artichokes' grafted on the fluke produced round tubers, some being red ! and some white. These are unlike the fluke, and j do not resemble the artichoke. j A rumor is current, apparently originating in •Cromwell, that the Chinese miners are thoroughly aware of the kind attentions proposed towards them by Mr T. L. Shepherd, M.P.C., and intend, j to show their appreciation in a very practical ! manner. Some of our readers will probably recollect the case of a notorious mob orator iv Victoria, who was carried off to the Chinese camp, j and received a severe bastinading with bamboos. We hope, Bays the Tuapeka Time*, no such fate awaits our worthy representative. A South Australian farmer writes as follows to a contemporary : — I am not a New Zealander, nor was I ever there ; but i write in favor of New Zealand wheat. I. bought some and sowed a portion of it, which came up most luxuriantly. I cut the greater portion for green feed j and I have now a second crop-in fuU ear from the original sowing, five feet high, in another paddock, which I cut about a fortnight ago. Of course it was very much beaten down by the wind ahd fain, but where it was sheltered it stood six feet high, and thick in proportion, yielding full three tons per acre, and I think more. A correspondent-o£_.a..Hawke*s Bay pager writes :—" I offer the art of swimming in one lesson, gratuitously. On going into the water; breast-high, raise tbe feet off the ground gradually and lean forward, then commence paddling in quick succession with hands . and feet open . Any man, woman, or child who acts in strict ' obedience to the above accomplishes that noble art,' nbtfonly of; saying his own lifo but that of others. When.about 15 years of age I did this near the edge' of a canal. On finding my body did not sink, I felt, as everyone will, as if I had found a liirge amount- «f money. I was very eager to go into the water again, and tried the stroke swimming, and was successful ; my next ambition was to swim across a canal, which was out of my depth two yards in the middle, this I also accomplished, and never forgot how to swim since. It was quite. accidental, being only through a desire to play in the water that I found the !___

The Honolulu. Gasette reports that a monthly,] steam service, for the conveyance of sugar from j . Honolulu* to, Auckland: and; Sydney .is tto" be! •stafcted early.; *•• •• ■'> ■■■'■'■■ '■'- '-■ y' - , "," ,Oni and after the Ist proximo, .the rates of, com- j mission .Charged for money .orders: on- the United j Kingdom will be at the following reduced scale :' -i4-Ndt erxceeding £2,1/; £$, 2? 64 } ; £I, 3s' 6d ,-; | '£lb!iaA l l "" ' ' '"" i .."-.':\ ■'.'".- :| i• . -A few idays ago we suggested the propriety of a road steamer, being^placed -on the line "of road between Winton and' Kingston. We are happy; to say. that .the .suggestion, has been warmly , received by' the Lakes people, and' that arrange- i ments have been made for giving it effect, as will; fee seen by the folio wing_ paragraph, extracted; from, the Lakes correspondence, 'of .the i Dunstan'. Times. — "The annexation of Southland to Otago! has turned the' attention .of Javercargill people! in .the direction of the Wakatip." '. Most of ; the^ goods come from Dunedin by ;that route, and as ; soon as the railway, is thoroughly ..opened! tor Winton, Meßsrs J". W. Robettson and B&tlen-; stein, of. Queenstown, who are agents for • the J Southland Railway, propose placing . one of; Thomson's Boad Steamers between that place; and Jftngston." * ,i

We have been requested to state that boats competing at the forthcoming Regatta will be conveyed by the Eailway authorities to and from the Bluff, free of charge. The following communication from Mr Yogel, addressed to the editor of the Daily Times, is published in the Evening Star. It is accompanied by a letter to the last-named journal, In which Mr Yogel states that it has been refused insertion in the DaUy Times, with the further explanation that the writer had forwarded a copy to the directors of that paper, requesting that they would investigate the circumstances concerning, the alleged inaccuracies that appeared in the report referred to :— -See,— The comments in to-day's Times, upon what passed at the meeting which I addressed on Tuesday evening last, give me the right to tell you that the report which you published of my speech on that occasion was exceedingly inaccurate. I should not have complained perhaps of mere inaccuracies, because I know that the reporters had to take notes -under very great difficulties; but the portion of the report which appeared in the Times of Wednesday was so extremely inaccurate and incomplete — so directly calculated to create a false impression-r-that I cannot believe it was printed as it* was handed ih by the reporters. I challenge you to declare to your readers whether such was the case ; and I ask you to inform them whether you think you had any right to comment upon my remarks respectit}g-*the Daily Times— as you have done in your paper of to oav — when yo» had not the fairness or the courage to include those remarks in the pretended report of my speech. I enclose a correct report, of what I said at the meeting, and I request that you will publish it in the Times.— l am, &c. Julius Yogel. In a letter to the Daily Timet contradicting certain statements made by Mr Eeid in his speech, Mr Yogel says :— Mr Reid is mistaken about the nature ofthe proposal in respect to the Southland debts. Eirst, as to- amount to be paid. Of the £50,000 -a very .considerable portion iB to be retained by the General Government for debtß due to itrby the late province of Southland. " The balance* about £28,000, the Provincial. Government desired should be paid over to them for the purpose of paying accounts found to be due. Obviously, it was objectionable that so large an amount should, be. paid over as an advance, without the vouchers representing it^being in the hanaVof the Treasury. It was therefore -'that's sum of from to £10,000 ! shojilcl be advanced in the first,instance ; and that as fast as payments could he made the vouchers for them should'be handed to- the -Treasury^ 'and fresh advances obtained! 11l Was not intehded'that the vouchers should be sent to Wellington, but that tiie Paymiaster'at* Invercargili Should pay cash to •'. the Provincial * Government as soon as the vouchers were' j presented, leaving the Provincial Government* still in funds, to the amount of first advance, until the whole amount • was ' expended. I was : very anxious that the payments should be . made at Invercargill, 'seeing the great hardship it would be to compel people resident in that district .to obtain payment in Dunedin. Itis not true that the advances were to be made by. instalments extending over a period of time ; on the contrary; the Provincial Government were urged to make the payments as fast as possible.- .-.-,;■• ■• * ■■-.'.['■