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Southland Times, Issue 1732, 25 April 1873, Page 2

A telegram was forwarded by His Worship the Mayor on Tuesday last to the Minister of Public Works/ with a request that an extension of time should be granted to tenderers for the WintoLi and Kingston line for 14 days, and intimating the wish of the community as to the allowing the plans to be inspected here: On the following day a reply was received from Mr Richardson, regretting that he could not comply with " the request to have copies of the plans sent to Inrercargill of. the Winton-Jtmgston railway." We are indebted to the courtesy of Mr James Galbraith for the following results of the Clutha races : — Maiden Plate — Mws Rowe, 1 ; Tom King, 2. Trotting Match— Donald, 1 ; Snip, 2. Clutha Handicap — Empress, 1 ; Catapult, 2. Flying Handicap— Empreßß,,l.; Bosina, 2. Hack Bace (heats)— Gazelle. Hurdle Kace— Longback Mare. Railway Stakes— Bosina. Handicap-i-Empress. '

After much delay the new bridge over the Waihopai, at Gladstone, is open for traffic, the approaches to the old bridge having b6en closed on Wednesday. We cannot congratulate either the engineer, the contractors, or the public, on the completed job. As far as the contractors are concerned, they have apparently made the best of a badly-designed piece of work, and have nothing to do -with the mess which has been made in the construction of the approaches, which might have been rendered far more convenient as well as less unsightly by a few additional loads of earth and metal. The completed work is a monument of professional bungling and expensive mismaaagement. * The Athenaeum Committee held its usual meeting on Wednesday evening, 23rd inst., at the rooms, six members of committee being present. The treasurer stated the groaa proceeds of Major Richardson's lecture to be something over £26, the expenses being under £5, leaving a balance of £21 in favor of the funds of the institution. The number of tickets, with the amount of cash taken at the door, showed that at least 400 persons were present at the lecture. An invoice of books just arrived is now laid out, waiting increased shelf accommodation before issue can take place. A further selection from the latest received catalogue of books was made, which will at onoe be sent for, rendering the library respectable in point of numbers and comprehensive in selecSion. Instructions were given for additional accommodation; and arrangements entered into with reference to future lectures. Sir F. Dillon Bell, on his recent visit, made a donation of £10 to the building fund of the. Athenseum; and His Honor Judge Ward forwarded a cheque for £3 3s to the general account. A perusal of the Provincial Government Gazette of the 16th April will convince owners of unoccupied properties that it is the intention of the Corporation of Invercargill to collect the whole of the rates that remain unpaid, together with interest at the rate of ten per cent, per annum. The Corporation may be fairly congratulated upon the small amount that remains unpaid for the first year of its existence, viz., 1871-72. We understand that Messrs Spence Bros., of Melbourne, have recently added to their fleet two new vessels, purchased in the home country at a cost of £10,000 each, one of which is expected to arrive at Port Chalmers shortly. A meeting of the Invercargill Road Board was held last evening, when all the members were present. The tender of Mr George Browa for roadwork at Clifton was accepted. The clerk was authorised to invite fresh tenders for the formation and gravelling of Ljwe-street, Harriaville, and the engineer was instructed to get plans and specifications prepared for roadwork in different parts of the district. At the meeting of the Municipal Council last night, there were present the Mayor and Councillors Garthwaite, Goodwillie, Lumsden, Pratt, Ross, and Tapper. An application from the contractor for the drain in Spey- street, for extension of time for completion, was refused. The sum of £1 was voted to Mr M'Robie for filling up the old Fire Brigade well, upon the footpath in Tay- street. A letter from the Athenaeum committee, requesting the erection of a lamp-post and the providing of a lamp in front of the Athenaßum building, the Committee to defray the cost of lighting and attendance, was considered, and the request granted. The clerk was directed to inform the Invercargill Road Board, in reply to a letter received " that the Council adhere to ita decision to give £45 towards the making of Menzies' Road, but denied their obligation to contribute any sum whatever." The solicitor to the Council was instructed to draft a lease of the jetty. The clerk was directed to acknowledge the receipt (with thanks) of a letter from the Government at Dunedin, intimating that 300 trees had been forwarded for planting in the Cemetery. An application from the contractor for metalling Tay- street, for extension of time, was refused, as was also an application from the contractor for Esk-street footpaths. The following tenders were accepted : — Nith-street contract, W. Halliday, £127 18s ; Don-street path, Patrick Hogan, £39 4s 8d ; 100 yards gravel, John Lucas, £19 17s 6d ; pitching in Spey street, John Lucas, £H9 lOs. Fresh tenders were ordered to be called for fender piles for the jetty, in accordance with the specifications prepared by the surveyor. At the meeting of the Waste Land Board on Tuesday, 22nd inst., the Chief Commissioner and Mr D. M'Arihur being present, applications for land were granted in the following order :— J. R. Stuck, 98 acres, Jacob's River hundred ; J. L. Stuck, 49 acres, same hundred ; J. H Menzies, 90 acres, Oreti hundred ; J. MLeod, 91 acres, Lyndhurst handred ; J, W. Raymond, for land on runs 135, 150 B, and 154, Taringatura, in all 1200 acrea ; John M'Pherson, 103 acres, Forest Hill. The application of Mr J. E. Black, by letter, for a mill site on the bank ef the Mataura river, was held over until an enlarged plan of the lite could be obtained. The applications by letter of Messrs T. J. Thompson, Pratt, Calder, Hare, Hast, Joyce, and Harvey for 80 acres each under the mineral regulations of the " Southland Waste Lands Act, 1867," were granted, subject to certain conditions, Mr George Webster complained that he was aggrieved by a resolution of the Board, reserving certain lands on his run pending the opinion of a Judge of the Supreme Court upon the power of reservation by the Board. Mr Webster intimated his intention to appeal to the Supreme Court; but proposed that his solicitor should aofc in conjunction with the solicitor to the Board in preparing a " case" for submission. This proposal of Mr Webster's was declined by the Board. A copy of the cash book for 1872-3 of the Wardens of the Jacob's River hundred was read and ordered to be printed in the Gazette. Messrs Concher and Co., through Messra Whittingham Brother* and Instone, applied for information as to whether the charge of 5s for each pile cut within the bush would extend to piles cut upon the site held by them under license for a sawmill in the Longwood range. The Board decided that it would not so extend. Messrs Concher, by letter, with* drew their application for 300 acres of bush for a sawmill at Longwood, and intimated that they were now ready to point out to Messrs M'Donald and Co. the boundaries of their 109-acre block ; Messrs M'Donald and Co.'s application being for adjoining land. At the meeting of the Makarewa Road Board, held in the Junction Hotel on the 19th inst., the

following tenders for road work were accepted : 1 Contract No. 3, Gap Eoad, Mr James t Hamilton; contract No. 5, Q-ap Road, Mr John Bennett ; bridges, &c, on road from Winton f Creek to section 18, block 7, Winton Hundred, Messrs Thomson and Sons ; contracts Nos. 3, 4, , i and 5, on road dividing Winton tied Wallacetown subdivisions, Me^ra W. Gray and Son An offer was received from Messrs Allan and ' Given, settlers in block 10, New River Hundred, , to mate certain parts of tho road running , through said block passable for a sum not to exceed £30, the work to be approved and valued by the Engineer and paid out of next year's rates. The Board closed with the offer. The clerk was directed to write the Engineer requesting- him to draw up specifications and estimnto cost of opening up a road through the Makarewa Bush, from the railway line to the North Koad, near Button's brickyard. It was resolved that a dray bridge be made over the Otapiri, and another over the Lora, branches of the Makarewa, • ! and that the Engineer inspect and report on the I | probable cost of work. Tha Board resolved to grant £5 in aid of private subscriptions to open ! up a road through the Waikiwi Bu3h, from the North Road to tho Episcopal Church burying ground and Murdoch's sawmills, at the railway line. The following notices of motion for the next meeting, to be held on the 3rd May, were tabled : — Mr Bennett to move the desirability of borrowing £500 for the Winton subdivision of the Makarewa Road District. Mr jVl'tvor to move that it is necessary to increase the clerk's salary. Mr Trumble to move that it is necessary to proceed with the work in accordance with tha Engineer's specifications on the road-line between Messrs Cunningham and Deegan, Ryal Bush. Mr M'Lean to move that the road running north from the south-east corner oi section 29, block 3, Winton Hundred, be moved ten chains further east, as laid off by the Government surveyor. " At Castlemaine, (says a correspondent of the Australasian,) a vocalist not yet much known to fame, and who announces himself as * Southland's natural songster,' has made tho acquaintance of the public. The ' natural songster,' it seems, was formerly a letter-carrier in New Zealand, but as he suffered much from rheumatism, and the Government of that oolony would not giv« him the advantage of performing hi 3 duties in the North, where rheumatism is less easily contracted, he abandoned the service and took to rocalism and the advocacy of temperance principles." All the leading medical men in Wellington have addressed a letter to the Evening Post, stating that that city is now visited by an epidemic of low fever of a typhoid type, owing to the want of drainage, and the contaminated state of the water. They recommend the use of Condy's disinfecting fluid. It is reported that Mr Charles Elliott, of the Nelson Examiner, is a candidate for the vacant seat for Nelson Suburbs in the House of Representatives. Messrs Kelling and A. J. Richmond are also mentioned as probable candidates. A feat which a few years ago would have been considered Utopian, and which even twelve months since would have been impossible, has been performed by the proprietors of the London Daily Telegraph. On Christmas Day they published 36 telegrams, from all parts of the habitable globe, conveying Christmas greetings to the people of England from the capitals of Europe, from the cities that form the chain of communication with the Eastern Empire, from China and Japan, from the Australian Colonies, and from San Francisco on the Pacific shore, and St. John's on the Atlantic shore of the American Continent. A correspondent of the Wanganui Chronicle says that one publican at TToxton took £1 800 at the last sittings of the Native Land Court there. The West Coast Times is informed that Mr Warden Price made his first appearance as a mining advocate, in tho Warden's Court, Stafford, the other day. " Lucky Canterbury I" says an Auckland paper. " The land sales for the month of M arch amounted to £38,171. When it ia considered that the settlers of Canterbury are turning the public estate into money at this rate, a very serious reflection arises. Can the public debt ba paid without taxation t Oar deliberate opinio* is that it is the duty of the Gavernment, if they mean to steer clear of public repudiation, to prevent the further sale of Crown lands except for Colonial purposes. Whatever may be the exigencies of party, Colonial obligations should be primarily considered." The Provincial Government of Wellington has circulated copies of a Bill intended to be introduced into the Assembly, to authorise the raising of a loan of £210,003 for the construction of certain works of public utility in the Province. It proposes that the Province should give the Colony security in land for the amount, and specifies the proposed objects of expenditure. Actions for libel are pending against the two Wanganui papers. The Commissioner of Customs, by proclamation in tha Gazette, directs that the ports of Napier, Nelson, Westport, Greymouth, Hokitika, and Invercargill shall be ports in which goods cleared for drawback or from the warehouse shall be carried or waterborne to be put on board ships for exportation ; and also goods carried or waterborne from any importing ship to or to be landed at any wharf, quay, or other place, shall bo so carried or waterborne only by persons authorised for that purpose by license of the Commissioner. It is stated by a contemporary that no less than twenty-three commersial travellers were recently assembled in Nelson. The somnolency which is generally understood to characterise that city must have been entirely dissipated on the occasion referred to. A Wanganui solicitor has offered to conduct all legal matters connected with the Wanganui and Waitotara Highway Board, including the drawing of agreements, &c, for the sum of £25 a year. He made this low offer " because he believed the affairs of the Board would be properly conducted, and because he believed the Wanganui and Waitotara Board would not follow the example of the Matarawa Board, which -was purely a law manufactory." At a meeting of the Otago Education Board, held in Dunedin on the ' 18th inst., a memorial for the establishment of a school at Clifton was read. The consideration of the matter was postponed. An application from the Waikiwi Committee for £127 ss, was declined, pending the action of the Provincial Council. The Secretary to the Invercargill Grammar School wrote asking the *

Board to sanction the appointment of a second issisfcant master, at a salary of £200 per annum. The Bnard sanctioned the appointment, and re«olved to give £50 per annum towards the salary. The appointment of Mr Donald M'Killop. h"nporarily, pending his examination by tho Inspector, whs eanctio:ic-d. There are 400 lepers at Honolulu. Dp Trousseau, late of the Thames, has been appointed to the Board of Health, and lately made a visit to the leper settlement at Molokai. The lepers appear contented.