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Southland Times, Issue 1584, 28 May 1872, Page 2

We understand that the Nebraska, with the . San Francisco mails, "arrived at Lyttelton yesterday morning, and was expected to reach Port Chalmers last night. It is probable therefore that the letter portion of the mails may be delivered in Invercargill by the coach due on Wednesday evening. The disgraceful state of the roads from Dunedin is such as to render the transmission of the newspaper boxes by the overland route an impossibility, and we will have, therefore, to wait for them till the arrival of the next steamer, probably the Kangitoto, expected at the Bluff on the 4th June. So much for our Provincial Government's care of the main road 3 ! We have been requested to stat3 that Mr Calder's meeting at the Theatre last night was postponed to Monday next, in consequence of the inclemency of the weather, and' the effects of a severe cold under which, we regret to learn, Mr Calder is suffering. • We have been requested to intimate that new shares in the Building Society can be taken up on Wednesday evening, and every subsequent subscription night. On the last evening when the share list was open, 104 new shares were subscribed for. A fire broke out in the store occupied by Messrs Cross and M'William, at Winton, at halfpast 2 o'clock on Sunday morning, and in two hours the building, with all its contents, was reduced to ashes. Mr Cross, who was sleeping on the premises, was awakened at the hour above-mentioned by the flames, which appeared to be making way between the weatherboards and the lining of the building, and blazing out upon the roof, at a place 15 or 20 feet distant from the chimney. Mr Cross at once gave the alarm, and set himself to work with a bucket and what water was available to stop the spread of . the fire, but with little effect. It was about a quarter of an hour before much assistance could be obtained, and by that time the flames had' got beyond control. Little or nothing was saved, and in less than two hours the building was a mass of smoking ruins. The value of .the property' destroyed is estimated at about £1300, of which £750 were covered by a policy in / the .Royal Insurance Company.

Our readers will be pleased to learn that Professor Haselmayer, " Prince of Prestidigitators, Magician, Necromancer, Musician, and Educator of Birds," will give a series of entertainments in the Theatre Royal during the week. Mr Haselmayer has made a tour through the colony, and has been highly spoken of wherever he has appeared. From a short biographical sketch which has been placed before us, we learn that the Professor is a native of Vienna, and from his earliest years his mind ha 3 been bent on studying mechanical illusions and magical apparatus, with the result, aa it is said, of making him the foremost expositor of the " science " at. the . present -day.- - His " stylocarfe'*- must- fee a wonderful-instrument,-being composed exclusively of watod and india-rubber, capable, under the Professor's manipulation, of discoursing the sweetest music. ' The performance of the educated birds and mice will be' a treat rarely witnessed in "these colonies. It seems that on his passage to New Zealand the Professor had 5 the misfortune to lose his troupe of performing white mice, but having been pre- • sen ted with afresh brood, he has succeeded in > instructing them to go through some very amusing i feats. Performances will be given on the evenings of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with a grand matinee for schools and families at mid-day on Saturday. Professor Haselmayer has done well to secure the services of Mr J. Small as his agent, a 9 that gentleman's intimate acquaintance with the colonies cannot fail to be highly beneficial to his employer.it (V..» n-~J\ioiif arijgiSErate'B dumb v* Muudi^, I- the case of Oaulfield v. Boyle occupied • the j Bench' for nearly, two hours.- The .claim was 'for £25, for trespass on the plaintiff's land at Roslin Bush, damage to a fern tree whare, and cutting ! sonic : scrub 5 lo'make a dray ; track about a chain long by the side_QiLa_JfJence. The trespass and the cutting of a small quantity of scrub .were admitted, and the sum of Is paid into court in satisfaction of the damage. The damage to the whare was not proved to have been the act of | defendant. It was" 'stated that the plaintiff's land was open on two aides, and continually resorted to by numbers of cattle, and the injury to the property from the cutting of the scrab was shown to be at most nominal. His Worship, however, gave judgment for plaintiff for £1, and costs £4 178, remarking that the defendant had no right to interfere in any way with the property of another, and that the actual amount of damage done was not the only consideration which should determine the amount of the award* . Kavanagh. v. : Kilkelly was -adjourned to Wednesday, to admit of the examination , by plaintiff of a counter claim. , We are pleased to learn that the Rev. 'o. S^, Ross has received a unanimous call from tne ' Presbyterians in Rivertoa, Flint's Buah, and Gummie's Bush, and that there is every probability of the call being accepted. The ' church in Riverlon will no doubt attain its wonted attractiveness under the able ministration of Mr Ross. A number of gentleman in Christchurch are contributing £10 each towards the expense of another large shipment of birds from England. According to a Victorian paper, bullock drays 18ft long, and capable of carrying eight tons, are now the fashion for up-country wool-carriers. Drays of this size are being made at Pleasant Creek. The Waste Lands Board of the County of Westland have reserved the land, which will be required for the Mikonui Water Race, and have instructed, the Chief Surveyor to go over tb,e. -eround and furnish a schedule, of- the works required. . „ ■ ■ ■ The Rev. James Cree, now officiating in the Selwyn district, has. been called to the Presbyterian church at Hokitika; By the last home mail, the Secularists of Nelson sent Mr Bradlaugh, the atheist editor of the National Reformer, a complimentary letter, accompanied by a considerable sum to be used at his discretion, for the purpose of disseminating the principles of the Society. There were close upon fifty contributors to the fund. At the weekly meeting of the Dunedin Waste Land Board on Wednesday last, protection was granted to Mr Blacklock for six months, to enable him to prospect for half a mile on each bank of Poison River, near Milford Haven, for gold and minerals. ■ ■ . , ■ The tradesmen of Oamaru have agreed to stop work at 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoons, the arrangement to come into operation 1 on the first Saturday in June. The ' Governor- in addressing the Tauranga Volunteers the other day, said " he was pleased to be able to inform them that hereafter the Colonial forces would take rank with the Imperial." A raid has been made on the bakers, by the luspector of Weights and Measures, at Greymouth, under clause 10 of the " Bakers and Millers Act," which enjoins that " all bread shall be sold by the several bakers or sellers of bread by weight and not otherwise, and may be made of such weight or size as the said bakers or sellers shall think fit, and in no case any baker or seller of bread shall sell or, cause to be sold bread in any other manner than by weight, then and in such case, every such baker or seller of bread Bhall for every such offence forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding forty shillings." Some of the delinquents have been fined 20s and costs, and similar, penalties have been alsb inflicted on coal dealers, for selling by measure and jiot by weight. ; ■ _, The following appears in the advertising columns of the Taranaki News', " Horse for sale. A young mare that will carry a lady very quiet and easy to catch. Apply to — — " The great number of marriageable young ladies at New Plymouth, and the greater dearth of eligible bachelors (says a contemporary) may account for the young ladies being very quiet and easy to catch. The Grey River Argus records as follows a singular accident that lately occurred to a miner in that district : — " The man was cutting a sapling in the bush, when the root end of it flew up and struck him under the chin, causing hia teeth to close on his tongue, nearly severing it in two parts. One of the blood-vessels was so injured that he nearly bled to death before he reached Ahaura. Dr Phillips, however, > succeeded in stopping the hemorrhage and sewing up the wound." ■ \ The following is from an Auckland paper :— A most affecting scene might have been witnessed on the Queen street-wharf about four o'clock on Friday afternoon, when the good ship Bella Mary cast off her mooringi, previous to taking her final

•departure for TTobart Town. Standing at the gangway, and bathed in tears, which fell in hot scalding drops into the briny deep, was a lone old woman, taking a last farewell of " her own, her native land," and from which she appeared to have a natural disinclination to be separated. Tndeed so strong was her inclination to return to these sunny shores, that it was considered necessary by the authorities to provide her with a guard of honor in. the shape of two stalwart policemen, who had. received strict instructions to eep that her affection for the prisons of Auckland did not lead her to " make tracks" ashore ' again.' Mrs Hargreaves — for .that is the lady's - na'me^-was one "of" 'the mostr ■persistent and indefatigable thieves in Auckland, and her son, deeply sensible of the many kindnesses which his mother had received at Mount Eden from the gaol authorities, offered to pay her passage to Tasmania if the authorities would let her go, and to give the good people of that beautiful country n. chance < to test her abilities. What they will cay we know j not, but it .appears to be an extraordinary means I lof getting rid of our criminal population. We i I should not be greatly surprised if the Hobart Townites, after having experienced a few specimens of her picking and stealing propensities, were to pack her back again to us. Nor could we greatly blame them for so doing, even although, we understand, the industrious old lady sprang from Hobart Town. The New Zealand Herald adds another missing . link in the chain of evidence in the .Tichborne | oaao, siekl oays tl;o throo-masfced schooner (American) Osprey, which appears to have been treated as a myth on the trial, was in these seas at the time stated by the claimant. The year ( previous to the date mentioned by De Castro, or Tichborne, she loaded at Auckland with potatoes and general produce for California, where gold had been discovered ; and so careful were those on board not to betray the secret, that a considerable sum was refused by them for a newspaper or commercial items, until they had completed lading. They then supplied the local press with the first intelligence of the discovery of gold in California and the " rush " there. It would appear by the evidence of De Castro, that he was picked up by the same vessel, and carried to Port Phillip (now Melbourne), on her following voyage. The probability is all in favor of the truth of this part of the claimant's statement.