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Southland Times, Issue 1680, 24 December 1872, Page 2

The public cannot complain that there is any want of provision for their enjoyment during the holidays. As Boxing Day is the legitimate commencement of the " festive season," the different attractions on that day are s) numerous that it will be necessary to detail them. First of all we have to notice the sports to be held in the Agricultural and Pastoral Association's grounds, under the management of Austin, the celebrated long-distance runner, who undertakes to travel ten miles under one hour. Sundry other races are announced, which make up a programme that will be certain to ensure a good attendance. The Winton race meeting commences on Boxing Day, and an excursion train will be run on the railway, return tickets being issued at 2s. A trip to the Bluff, under the auspices of the Oddfellows, will also come off, and judging by the success which attended the excursion last year, rational amusement and enjoyment may be^guaranteed to those who patronise it. Tha Storm Bird is laid on to take excursionists from the Bluff to Huapuke, at the very moderate return fare of 5a ; and lastly, Mr D. Campbell, the proprietor of the Riverton mail coach, announces that he will convey those who are desirous of attending the Riverton Caledonian Games there and back for 7s 61. With so much recreation and amusement in prospect, our readers cannot fail to enjoy, what we heartily wish them, A Mbbbt Chbistkas. The s.s Phoebe, with the San Francisco mail, arrived at Port Chalmers yesterday afternoon. As she had not sailed for the Bluff at a late hour last night, we suppose the Southland portion of the mail will not reach here till Wednesday. The Phoebe will bring another batch of immigrants for Messrs Brogden & Sons. With regard to Austin's ten-mile race under one hour, which comes off on the Show Ground on Boxing Day, we believe that he has success fully uooomplwhei ttaia feat 44 times out of the 57 occasions on which he has attempted it. The race will be run in the Sydney Albert costume, a very correct one, in which there is nothing that can offend the most fastidious taste. A great difficulty which the runner will have to contend with, is the small circular course on which the exploit has to be performed. It will require to be travelled over twelve tiaes to score one mile and with an allowance of fire yards for turnings, a total of 12) circuits will be necessary to accomplish the task. The sports will commence at 2 p.m. The Education Committee met last evening at the Government Buildings, to consider the applications for the second mastership to the Invercargill Grammar School. Eight members of committee were present. Seven applications for appointment were received, and the decision was deferred until Thursday evening. ■; A man named Kenneth M'Gregor, employed at the Meat Company's Works at Woodlands, met with an accident on Sunday last while returning home from Invercargill t The horse he was riding fell with him, near to the Bridge Inn, throwing the rider with great 'violence. He was attended by Dr M'Clure, and subsequently brought into the Hospital, where he now lies, coacussion of the brain having been probably caused by the fall. Several of our Southland stockbreeders will be competitors at the exhibition of the Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Association, which is to be held in Dunedin on Thursday first. Messrs Sutton Brothers and B. Hamilton have entered long-woolled sheep, and M* Grieve, of Branx* holme, New River, sends up the shorthorn bull which took the first prize in his class at the Southland show on the 12th inst. The props in the districts of Wallacttown, Waianiwa, and Flint's Bush are looking remarkably well, being more dr less advanced, according to shelter. Those on the exposed lands are, however, looking healthy, and the present appear* ance indicates a general harvest in February. In the Jacob's River district the crops in the river fiats are very fine, and promise to be abundant, but on the terrace land and ridges, having been apparently too far advanced before the coming of rain, ther are not looking as well M might be wished, and will probably be thin and poor. The Treasurer to the Provincial Hospital requests us to acknowledge his receipt of £23 16s id from Messrs Brogden and Sons, being amount raised among their employe's in the district, and intended as a fund to ensure medical attendance on tht sick and in case of accident. The blundering of the compilers of the Provincial Government Gazette has long been proverbial. Some doubt was created s> short time ago when it wss notified that Mr W. A. Lyon had ben appointed to take charge of^a pound in the neighboxhood of Invercargill. In the last number of the Gazette to hand it is announced that this pound is situated in th« Jacob's River Hundred, and is to be known as the " Isla Bank Pound." The Waste Land Board held their usual meeting on Friday, with Messrs Baker (in the chair), M' Arthur, and Dundas present. George M'Leod applied lor 40 acres in the Forest Hill Hundred, the application covering a portion of

land which had been left vacant under a survey of section 72, applied for and granted to Mr L. Campbell. Mr M.Leod's application was granted. Sections 3, 4, 5, % 8, 9, 10, 11, in Block 43, town of Invercargill, were recommended to bo reserved from sale to allow tho street (Tyae street) to be increased in width. In noticing the timber court at the Christchurch exhibition, the Lytteltoa Times says : — In^all, there mu«t be some six or seven hundred I spejiimeha,; representing every known species of ! i.tiiE.b'jr indigenous to the colony. Canterbury is thojarg'est contribufc<si7^>ufc Gfcago and the North Island are also well represented. Amongst tha exhibits are a large number from the latter province, which have been selected to be tested at the Colonial Museum, and also a number of Canterbury specimens to be similarly dealt with in our local museum. Specimens of the ioliago of each kind of timber in the court, is placed over or upon the specimens, some of which it may be remarked have been polished on the surface, with a view to more fully showing the ornamental character of the grain. The annual meetings throughout the Province for tho election of education committees take place on the 13th January. Among the projected contributions to the Vienna exhibition is, says the Press, a piece of statuary by a Christchurch local artist of acknowledged acquirements. According to the local paper a parcel dfTims.ru ' wheat — some .175 quarters — has reoently been sold in London at 665. The eleventh annual show of the Taiari Agricultural Society came off on the ;ißth inst. The show of horses is said to have been excellent. Cattle, however, showed a marked falling off, as : ' compared with former years, both in number and quality. Sheep were well represented in the long-woolled classes, but merino 3 were altogether unrepresented. The poultry was not anything to boast of. The pigs were fair specimens, but the implements were not represented as strongly as. they ought to be in such a district. Debrett gives the following account of our n«xt Governor : — " The Bight Hon. Sir James Fergusaon, of Kilkerran, Ayrshire, is a Privy Councillor, and the 6th Baronet, the creation dating from 1703. He was bora in 1832 ; educated at Rugby, and at University College > Oxford; entered the Grenadier Guards 1851, be- * .ctine Lieutenant and Captain 185 S, and retired JBBS j- served in the Crimea, and was wounded at ' Inkermann ; has the Crimean Medal and thrt e clasps, &c. ; has been Lieut-Colonel of the Prince Regent's Regiment of Ayr and Wigton Militia since 1853, and is a Deputy-Lieutenant and a Magistrate for Ayrshire, for which County he sat in Parliament (Conservative) 1851-7, and 1859-68 ; was TJnder-3ecretsiry of State for India, 186Q-7, and Under- Secretary at the Home Office 1867, till appointed Governor of South Australia in 1868. Married, 1859, Lady Edith Christian Ramsay— who died in 1871— daughter of the first and last Marquis of Dalhousie. S r James has four children living — two daughters, born IS6O and 1862; and two sons, born 1865 and 1871." The tender of Mr Francis Steindu («ays the Otago Daily Tim&9) fj* the erection of the Immigration Barracks at Port William, Stewart's Island, has been accepted. The buildings are to be ready for the reception of immigrants, and are to be delivered up in eight weeks from the 19th. »The .architect has arranged that the kitchen and .the : nvmied people's and single women's quarters should be proceeded with in all haste, if required, so that those parts of the building might be ready in three or four weeks. With respect to the harvest in Canterbury, a correspondent of the Press says : — ' The opinion of the farmers themselves is that, take tbe Province through, the average will not be over twelve bushels per acre — whole paddocks on the higher lands having dried up through excessive drought, and become utterly worthless." The Superintendent of Auckland prorogued the Provincial Council on the 17th in a speech delivered without previous consultation with the Executive. He thanked tbe Council for passing the Education Bill. The adoption of the resolution declining to increase the vote for police, will, he said, prevent him from complying with the wish of the Council that the Province should resume the management of the force. He felt bound to express his conviction that he was in errortii accepting the system called Responsible .Government, which, he considered, is incompatible with an elective Superintendent, anl only tends to create delay, expense, and divided responsibility. The Otago Waste Land Board has sanctioned tho sale of 11,000 acres of land, known as " Logan's Hill," to the lessee, Mr Logan. It is situated near Tapanui and Spritzers. Mr Pollock, of Green Island, near Dunedin, has struck coal at a depth of 160 feet. It is said there is a workable seam in the vicinity of this new shaft 120 acres in extent. At the Otago Agricultural and Pa»tor«l~ Societj'i show, to be held in Dunedin on Thursday, a special prize of £5 sj, or a silk dress of that value, is to be awarded to the neatest and tidiest dairymaid, dressed as such. A second prize of £3 3s, or a dress of thai; value, is also to be given. There must b« three competitors or no pnse will be awarded. The Birch Hill estate and stock, in th» province of Nelson, have been sold for £20,000. Twenty-fire tons of Taranaki iron sand, consigned to a smelting house in Sheffield, were shipped from Auckland to London tbe other day. The wool clip in the Waitaki district (Otago) this season is reported to be the largest ever known there.