LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Southland Times, Issue 1537, 13 February 1872, Page 3

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr S. Deck, of Invereargill, preached iv the Woodlands sohoolhouse on Sunday* the 3rd inst s and intimated that he would again preach in the same place that day month. A Long Bush correspondent informs U9 that it will be a fortnight or three weeks yet before harvesting will commence in that district. The recent rains have exercised a beneficial influence on the appearance of the crops. Instructions have been received by the engineer for the Mataura line regarding the completion of the working planß, which leaves no doubt but that Mr Brogden is expected to reach Invereargill on or about the Bth prox. The promoters of the forthcoming race meeting will be pleased to learn that the following amongst other horses from the eastern aide of the Mataura are to be in attendance: — Slander, Tattering, Lyndon, Maniototo, and Don Pedro, j The Educational Committee met last evening I & the Government Bufldingf, when it waß reBolvect to extend Atie time for the reception of tenders for tlie erection of the building until the 28th intf., and meanwhile to forward the plans and specifications to Dunedin. In the rifle match between ten of the Invercargill, and the same number of the Balclutha and Tokomairiro volunteers respectively, referred to in last issue, the Balclutha men scored 596 and the Tokomairiro team 496, so that the Invereargill representatives by their score of 522 lost and gained a match. We are informed that the local branch of the Sons of Temperance will celebrate their anniver- j sary earlj in March. The entertainment will be of the usual character, comprising the preliminary tea, vocal and instrumental music, and the delivery of addresses. The use of the Volunteer drill-shed has been obtained, and the Invereargill Brass Band will be in attendance. From the east bant of the Mataura we learn that harvest work is well advanced. The crops, both of wheat and oats, are said to be first-class, proving beyond a doubt the adaptability of this part of the country for agricultural operations. With the early prospect of railway communication, a considerably extended area will no doubt be brought into cultivation next year. The programme of the readings to be given by MrsNugentWood at the entertainment announced to take place in the Theatre Royal to-morrow night, will be found in our advertising columns. We understand that the services of the Brass Band have been offered and accepted for the occasion, and as the object to be attained, namely, supplementing the funds of the Invereargill Atheheeum, is a laudable one, the public will no doubt make a hearty response. At the meeting of the General Road Board, held in Dunedin on the Bth inst., the levy of a rate of 4d per acre in the West Waikiwi district was sanctioned. A letter from the ratepayers at New Biver, relative to the expenditure of rates, was referred to the distrist Board for explanation. A petition was received as to a tollbar in the Winton district. It was resolved to inform the local Board that unless the proceeds of the toll bar were expended exclusively upon the road in question, the toll would be abolished. At a meeting of the Otago Waste Land Board, held on the 7th inst., a letter was read from Messrs Smith and Anderson, enquiring whether the Board was prepared to instruct the Provincial Solicitor to draw up, or peruse, or settle, on behalf of the Board, a ca3e for an appeal from the decision of the Board respecting Mr Clarke's application. It was resolved that the Provincial Solicitor be requested to confer with Messrs Smith and Anderson, with the view of preparing a joint case to be submitted to the Board. Messrs Smith and Anderson also wrote to the effect that they were authorised to state, without prejudice, that Mr Clarke was willing to acq uiesce in the late decision, on the understanding that the 1900 acres taken from the area applied for should be put up to auction within a reasonable time. The application was declined. On the evening of Saturday, a mark of respect was paid to a very old Southland resident — Mr Donald Cameron, of the late firm of Matheson and Cameron — on the occasion of his departure on a visit to Scotland. A valuable field glass .and some articles of jewellery were presented to him- The company, which consisted of Mr Cameron's more intimate friends, spent the evening pleasantly, during which the earlier reminiscences of the place were retailed with great gusto, j Mr Cameron's residence in Invereargill dates from an early period of its history. Those who can recall the time when Dee-street was nothing more than a bush track struggling through a forest of flax and fern, will remember his premises as one of the very first tenements erected on the east side of that now closely-built t loroughfare. He proceeds to Scotland by way of San Francisco. An inquest was held at Long Bush on Saturday, touching the death of a man named Thomas Robinson, a bushman aged 64 years. It appeared by the evidence adduced that deceased, who lived all alone, was last seen on the evening of Thursday, the Bth inst., at 10 p.m. Not having turned out as usual on Friday, a neighbor named Mrs Dashlar, went to his house, and on gaining access found deceased lying on his face on the floor quite dead. From the position of the body, coupled with surrounding circumstances, it was evident that he was taken ill during the night, and on attempting to get out of bed, he fell down and expired. The medical evidence attributed death to the rupture of a tumor in the lungs. The jury, of which Mr Robert Brown was chosen foreman, returned a verdict of "Death by the visitation of God." Deceased, who bore a first-rate character, is reported to be a native of Ber wick on Tweed, . Scotland, and has resided in the neighborhood of Long Bush for the last five years. Mr C. R. Thatcher, known throughout New Zealand as " The Inimitable," is at present in London. He writes a long letter to the " Southern Cross," mostly in reference to theatrical subjects. He asks that journal to contradict the report that he is about to bring out a panorama to the colonies. He remarks, however, "I hope to return some time or other to the colonies, as I see no country in the world equal to New Zsaland for its climate, or the cordiality of its people. In London you may hang, shoot, or drown, and it is of not the least consequence to anyone but yourself. When poor Montgomery suicided, the general remark was a grunt, and the gruff exclamation, • Poor dcvil — shouldn't have got married or played Shakespeare in London.' "

Harvest laborers in Canterbury are getting from 6s to 7s per acre for tying. In some districts in Canterbury the potatoes are said to be as small as marbles. Only one of the Auckland Volunteers has qnal fied for the Colonial prize firing. The p 3. Samson only returned to Dunedin on the Bth inst., having been detained for a week in the Toi Tois by adverse weather. The coal mine at the Bay of Islands has been flooded, caused, it is supposed, by a stream from the swamp at the back having been tapped. The Wellington Independent hears that the Governor proposes in March to ride from Wellington to Auckland, by Hawke's Biy, Lake Taupo, and the Waika'o. The Dunedin Corporation cattle sale yards were formally opened on the 7th in9t., when there was a very good attendance. About 70 head of cattle i were disposed of. Amongst the exports of the p. s. Nebraska for Honolulu was 169 kegs of butter, which, we learn, had been purchased at Wairarapa, in the province of Wellington, at 4^d per lb. It is reported that since he was remanded on the 2nd insfc., Cyrus Haley's hair has turned I quite grey. This is the man charged with attempting to'shoot Mr Thomas Russell, of Auckland. In the Queenstown district there are 701 European and 700 Chinese alluvial miners, besides 40 European quartz miners. In the ! Arrow district there are 500 European and 529 | Chinese alluvial miners. The number of square miles worked upon in the two districts is 96, and the yield of gold during the quarter ended the 31st December last was 11,509 ors 3 dwts. Information has been received from a private source that the University of Tubingen has conferred on Mr Walter L. Buller, R.M., of Wanganui, the honorary degree of Ph. D., in recognition of his labors in New Zaaland zoology. As our readers are aware, Dr Buller, who is at present in England on leave, is engaged in the publication of an illustrated work on the birds of this country. In an article on the various conflicting land laws of the New Zealand provinces, the " Taranaki Herald " says : — " It is evident that when the colony is about to put forth its strength to construct public works, and attract additional population to her virgin soil, that one of the first requirements is to make one land law for the whole colony, and not perplex new comers, and render them fit inmates for a lunatic asylum by the vain attempt to comprehend such an abßurd system. The Cagli and Pompei Royal Italian Opera Company closed a very successful season of eighteen nights in Dunedin on the Bth inst., during which they produced thirteen operas, viz., Verdi's "II Trovatore," "Un Ballo in Maschera," and "Traviata;" Rossini's "II Barbiere ;" Pacini's " Sappho," Ferrari's . " Pipele ;" Bellini's " Norma " and " Sonnambula ;" Donizetti's " Luerezia Borgia," " Lucia," and " Don Pasquale ;" JTlotow's " Martha," and Gounod's •' Faußt," with repetitions. The Thames Advertiser states that the erection of the telegraph is proceeding most satisfactorily, and without interruption, at the Tauranga end of the line. The construction has been completed to seventeen miles on this siie of Tauranga, and we believe that in a day or two a station will ba opened there and messages Bent to the south. At the Thames cad the line is also being rapi ily extended, and we should think that in a week or two it will have reached to Hikutaia, near to which place it turns off to cross the peninsula. The preparations for the production of an illustrated work on " The Fishes of Our Seas," by the ofllcers of the Colonial Museum, are progressing favorably. Tho Wellington Post Bays that the lithographs of the fish, executed by Mr Buchanan, are clear and faithful outlines that will be most useful to a beginner in the study of ichthyology, and will enable him to discover the names of any specimens that may come before him. There will be twelve plates, giving outlines of fifty fish, all of which, with one or two exceptions, are available as food. A lively discussion on the education question has been carried on in the Dunedin papers for some time past, more particularly as regards the position of Roman Catholics under the Provincial Ordinance. In his last letter on the subject, Dr Mor&n, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Dunedin, says : — " As we cannot rest satisfied with the present state of the Otago system of education, and have not confidence in the arrangements made for the future, I venture to propose a plan which, whilst doing us justice so far, has the merit of doing justice also to the most sensitive Protestant conscience. Ist. Let the schools of the country be supported out of a school rate, with or without fees, as may be determined on. 2. Let all who object to the public Bchool system and send their children to other schools, be exempted from the payment of the school rate. 3. Let the Government have the right of inspection in reference to all matters appertaining to these other schools, religious matters being excepted, provided the Government enforces the payment to these other schools, of the school rate assessed on the parents or guardians of children attending these other schools. 4. In the event of the Government declining to enforce said payment, this inspection shall not be allowed." A wonderful change has come over the Taupo district. Instead of it being a theatre of war, it was during tho Christmas and New Year festivities a scene of hearty amusement. Cricket matches were played, and a rope-walker essayed his skill on a wire stretched from some place " below the redoubt " across a ravine. A coach now runs regularly to this once sealei-up spot, and "is now," says the correspondent of a Napier paper, "looked for, twice a week, just as if we had been accustomed all our lives to seeing vehicles of all descriptions come and go. It is only a very little while ago that a bullock dray was a wonderful thing to behold in this district. We hope to see plenty of visitors, and now that the travelling is so easy, people could in a week or ten days see all the wonders and beauties of Taupo, its mountains, lakes, and last, though not least, its far-famed hot Bprings, and be back in Napier within the time above-mentioned. All the outposts have been withdrawn, and everything has resumed its everyday aspect. Captains Preece and Mair, however, are again in the Uriwera country after Te Kooti, whose whereabouts (it is said) was divulged by Kereopa a few minutes bef re his death,"

The Government Life Assurance scheme appears to have been very popular throughout Westland, where, we understand, upwards of two hundred insurances were obtained during the five weeks Captain Baldwin stayed there. At G-rey-mouth, we see, the Government obtained three times more business than did the Australian Mutual Provident. At Hokitika a novel expedient in the history of Life Assurance was resorted to in the shape of Religious Revivals, whether successfully or not we have not hoard. Some very clever skits, entitled the " Apostle of Life Assurance," and " A Short Story," appeared in the local papers, ridiculing the transition of an Insurance Agent from the platform to the pulpit. The Lyttelton Times of the 7th inst. says : — On Monday, several members of the committee of the Flax Association, paid a visit to Mr Stony er's mill, near Kaiapoi, for the purpose of observing the new machine noticed a few day3 ago, at work. Briefly explained, the machine comprises two sets of rollers, over which there is a constant flow of water. The first pair scrapes the flax leaves on one side, and the second pair on the reverse side. The partially prepared fibre then falls into a sluice of water which carries it along to a given point, when it is taken out, suspended in a running stream for two hours, and then hung up to dry. This comprises the whole operation for the rough fibre, further improvements being effected by hackling. About % cwt was put through in the presence of the gentlemen named, and the expressions of approval at the result were general. It is computed that 12 cwt can be put through one machine in a day, the number of hands required being one man to serve the machine and two boys to split the leaves. The flax operated upon in the presence of the members of committee is to be further experimented upon, and the final opinion formed therefrom will doubtless be made known. In the meantime, it may be safely asserted that the machine is a great improvement upon those previously in use. James Fisk — or "Colonel" Fisk, as he was popularly termed in America — whose asaasaination is reported in the mail telegrams, was the greatest speculator of modern times, and is reported to have been the richest man in the United States. His name will be remembered in connection with the Erie Railway affair, which caused some excitement in England about three years ago, and the New York gold panic in 1869, when he and Vanderbilt commanded the resources of Wall Street, and for hours held the financial credit of the United States at their will. At the present moment, the following extract from the "Sydney Morning Herald" will be read with interest : — " Fisk's last hobby is to have the finest band in the world ; and he has succeeded in securing, among others, the celebrated Levy (brother of the leader in Cagli'* orchestra), the cornet player, as one of its members. Three men in it receive 10,000 dollars (£2500) a year each, and six others 5000 dollars. Well, Fisk and hisregU mental band having turned out among the rest to act as guard of honor to Duke Alexis, and having serenaded Mr Sothern, retired for a few hours' rest, when he again took the field with his band and ' tooted ' under the windows of the Prince until Alexis sent for him, and personally thanked him for his beautiful music. Fisk's reply was characteristic. Utterly unabashed, he said, 'Well, Prince, this is nothing to what I'll do for you. I now give you the freedom of everything I own on this continent during your stay in America.' This means free entrance to the Opera House, two theatres, the right to travel free on half-a-dozen lines of railway, in steamboats innumerable, tho co nmand of the finest horses and drags iv these parts, &c."