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Southland Times, Issue 1544, 1 March 1872, Page 2

We believe the net proceeds of the lafce Church of England Bazaar in aid of the organ fund were £115. A compositor named Henry M'lntosh, employed on the local Argus, waa drowned at Greymouth on the 26th ult. The San Francisco mail was due in Auckland on the 26th ult. There was no intelligence of its arrival at a late hour last night. A weather report to hand from the Bluff yesterday informs us that it had been blowing a strong gale from the W.N.W. yesterday morning. Towards midday, however, the weather moderated. The land sales in Canterbury have considerably increased lately, the effect (says the Lyttelton Times) of the public works and immigration policy of the Government, and the prosperous condition of the wool trade. We have much pleasure in directing the afcten-. tion of our Rirerton friends to an announcement which aopears in our advertising columns, to the effect that Miss M'Donell intends to open a school there on the 11th inst. It will be remembered that this lady acted for some time as assistant to the late Mrs Pettingal, during which period, we have reason to believe, she won the favorable opinion of both pupils and parents. Mr Wotton elsewhere requests ladies and gentlemen who may desire to join the luvercargill Amateur Dramatic Club to communicate with him, it being the intention of the members to give a series of dramatic and musical entertainments during the winter months in aid of benevolent objects. We should imagine that those who have any taste in this direction will heartily respond to the appeal. I We are requested to contradict a report which has been going the round of the colonial press to the effect that the Government contemplate ! resuming operations as press telegraph agents. In a letter from the general manager of the, telegraphic department, the contents of which have been communicated to us, the writer says — "The Government have no intention at present of resuming the business of press agency." The Tokomairiro races are announced to come off on the 7th and Bth inst. The following information regarding the weights and entries for twoj)f the leading events has been supplied to us by Mr G. F. Martin : — District Handicap : 81ander, lOst Ilb ; Yatterina, 9st 4lb ; Backbiter, 9st 21b } Lyndon, Bst 7lb ; Medora, Bst 131 b; Duchess, 6st 101 b j Catapult, 6st 51b. Flying Handicap : Slander, lOst 1 lb ; Lyndon, Bst 71b ; Flying Scud, 7at ; Catapult, 6at slb.

The drought in Norfolk Island appears to be even greater than in New Zealand. A letter from that island, lately received in Auckland, states that no rain had fallen for three months and a half. The Registration Officer for Wakaia and Wallace (Mr C. Rous Marten), requests us to state that, although he has been detained in the North longer than he expected, he will return from Wellington and be at his post in ample time to receive the new electoral claims, which are to be sent in as directed in his letter, published by us in the beginning of January. It ieems that Titokowaru, who has been hovering about the Patea district for some time past, has recently returned to his former retreat at Ngatimaru, about 40 miles inland of New Plymouth. Before taking his leave he stated his willingness to gire himself up for ferial on the condition that Colonel M'Donnell should be subjected to a similar ordeal. The Southern Cross learns by advices from London, that a new bank, with a large capital and an influential board of directors, has been successfully floated, and that New Zealand is to be the field of operations. It is rumored that Mr Kennedy, formerly the Auckland manager of the Bank of New Zjaland, will have the manage-.-ment in Auckland. . A late number of the Thames Ghtardia* contains the following interesting disclosures . — " Some interesting passengers have taken their departure by the Hero. Two ladies have been sent off to avoid their evidence in a divorce case pending. There is one run-away young lady { and two ladies claiming to be, or passing as, tho wives of one man, accompany him, nolens volens. In each case the shipment was effected with true woman's tact." The reduction of the subsidy roted by the Provincial Council to country municipalities has had the effect of crippling the efforts of the Oamaru municipality. That body now aska the Government to relieve its necessities (1) by assuming its debt, paying the interest on debentures, and the annual sinking fuad amount ; (2) by enabling it under the usual enactments to collect all licenses, and impose a tax of 3d per bale on wool and Id on grain, altogether yielding .an annual revenue of £1035 ; or (3) to continue fgr five years more the-, usual subsidy. A Saturday night at Reefton, the pew Quartzopolis of the colony, is thus described in the " Inangahua Herald" : — " Very little sharebroking was done; Brokers and others seemed determined to enjoy themselves. About 11 p. m., the township presented quite a lively appearance, dog fights were plentiful and amusing, and the crowd seemed all on the q'd vive. Judging from the pleasant faces which flitted behind bars, all were thoroughly satisfied, reaping an abundant harvest." At a country race meeting in Auckland a short time ago a rather amusing incident occurred. It appears that for the leading race of the day only a couple of horses came up to the starting post, and the consequence was that, as there were two prizes, the race would have fallen through for the want of a third entry. A spectator mounted on what seeme 1 but a sorry nag, was asked for the sake of sport to enter his horse, which he consented to do. The result was rather startling — the strange horse, which proved to have been an old racer of renown on the Sydney side, coming in first, and beating the regularly trained horses with whom he was entered. The superiority of the timber of this province (says a Wellington paper) has on many occasions of late been proved by the quantity exported for special purposes to all parts of the colony as well as to England, the captains of the home traders having discovered for it a reputation and a market beyond seas. For the supply of telegraph poles the Wairarapa timber stands unrivalled, and is now utilised even in portions of the colony where timber abounds. Recently the Taianaki took away 500 telegraph poles to the Bluff, the seaport of a district which consists of a dense bush on the whole line from Campbelltown to Invercargill, to say nothing of the forests adjacent to the ship- building haven of Port William, Stewart's Island. Another batch of 350 poles was sent away to the Molyneux in the Keera a day or two ago. The following is the explanation given by the Auckland agent of G-reville's Telegram Company as to the cause of a certain portion of the last telegraphic summary of intelligence via San Francisco being unintelligible : — " 1 noticed that an extraordinary error appeared in the last San Francisco telegrams. I have inquired into the mutter at the Telegraph Office here, and find it occurred in this wise. The telegraph people gave us warning that an overland messenger from the Thames to Kati K.tti would start in half an hour. Accordingly I engaged the assistance of three others who were at hand, and as the slips were compiled they were sent to the Telegraph Office to be wired to tha Thames, and thence on to Kati Kati. A boy was carrying the slipß to the Telegraph Office, when a portion of a •telegram cut from the Ifews of the World, "slipped from the sheet of paper. (Y_>u know what villainous paper the American is for sticking, or rather not sticking, where it is wanted.) The boy picked it up and put the wrong side uppermost. The telegraph operators having full steam on ' wired in' regardless of consecutiveness, and hence the jumble." The " Wellington Independent " says : — ln tribute to the services so consistently rendered to the country at a time when fealty in the native tribes was a priceless virtue, the G-eneral Government have determined on erecting a mausoleum over the spot where the remains of the venerable Te Puni are interred. The workmanship is quite in keeping with the design, and the combination has produced a work of the very highest order. The stone employed is from the Oamaru quarries. . At the base the monument is 4ft 9in square, and is carried up to a height of nine feet, a moulded .cap surmounting the whole. The middle portion of the elevation is panelled on the four sides, on rtwo of which are cut the inscription in Maori and English, .which is as follows; — "To the memory of Honiana Te Puni, a chief of Ngatiawa, who died on the 5.h December, 1870, this monument is erected by the New Zealand Government in consideration of the unbroken friendship between him and the Pakeha." It may be of some interest to those who devote their attention to sericulture (says the Sydney Mail) to know that a small package, containing 11 grain" of silk-worm eggs, has been forwarded by this mail to the Silk Supply Association in London in order to ascertain its market value. The

" grain " alluded to was raised at Wagonga, by ' Mrs Hobbs, from worms known as " French Buffs," acclimatised in the colony for the last four years, and sent bj Mrs Hobbs] to the Agricultural Society for transmission to England. It may not be generally known that owing to the various diseases which have of late attacked the silkworms in Europe, a large demand now exists for " grain" from countries where the worms are still in a | healthy state. In order to supply the demand, the P. and O. Company hare been running some of their fastest steamers from Japan to England. The value of the freight may be readily understood when it is stated that " grain " sent from Japan is quoted at three pounds sterling per ounce ! With care and attention this valuable article of export will readily find its way from New South Wales, provided others will follow the example set before them by Mrs Hobbs. The following is an extract from a letter dated 25th Dec, 1871, and sent by a gentleman at one of the South Sea Islands to a friend in Sydney : — " • Doba'— that island has a bad name. They will chase a vessel, if it is calm, and fight her. In fact, all the islands are getting bad, for the treatment inflicted by labor vessels is truly frightful. One-man told me himself that he had landed and tried to burn down a village j it would not burn (it was after rain), so he went on board, got soma kerosene, then burnt and plundered v. I He brought here some kind of idol with human heads upon it. Another captain of a vessel also told me he assisted to burn the village. Every ship can tell tales of braggart villany, which, if true, ought to hang some one. Canoes are run down, and the people taken from them. A cutter of 15 or. 18 tons, now here, with bulwarks only ten inches high, has forty-two natives on board, about thirty-five of them for sale — children, boye and girls, six years, eight and nine years old, up to grown men and women I It i& horrible, and should be stopped. I hope a man-of-war will soon be here to see about it." In the year 1861, or thereabouts, our raconteur (aays the Dubbo Dispatch) was working near Bathurst at his trade as a stone-cutter. One day while carelessly plying the chisel and mall he etruok his thumb. Lock-jaw was the result. He was four months suffering, and it was only by the most careful and skilful medical treatment that he recovered. Just as he was becoming convalescent, the coach in which he travelled from the City of the Plains upset, and our hero had his collar-bone broken, his leg fearfully bruised, and all the teeth of his lower jaw knocked out. For a long time he waa confined to his bed, and neither of his medical attendants could put his shoulder in, ani therefore it ha I to remain dislocated. The next scene in this strange story reveals our unfortunate on the Bathurst racecourse. He was still weak and only partially recovered from the terrible accidents he had met with. He was fated again, for on the last day of the sports he attempted to stop a runaway horse, and one of his arms was broken ! Thinking there was something in the locality which induced this continuity of accidents, the stone-cutter departed from the spot and went to Forbes. He was not long there, however, before he fell down a hole, or something of that eort^ and waa laid up for month* with a bad leg. Three or four minor accidents — breaking no bones, certainly, but preventing him from work — occurred to him while on the Lichlan. The Fates and Cobb's coach brought him to Dubbo, where he has resided for some time ; and last Christmas day he mounted a horse near the bridge, and the animal busking sent the subject of this paragraph flying to mother earth. The fall put in the shoulder that was put out ten years before. He also about the same time received news from England of the death of a relative, and his bs'mg left a large amount of property in one of the most prosperous of the manufacturing districts. He leaves the colony in February by the Sobraon to claim hia in heritance ; and we wish him a pleasant voyage, and hope the next ten years of his life will be less marked by accidents than the last.