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Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 85, 9 October 1878, Page 2

At the meeting of the Winchester School Committee, held last Saturday evening, Mr J. A. Young was elected Chairman, vice Mr D.’lnwood, resigned. To the many friends who are anxiously enquiring of each other, what of the Milford Harbour, we have to say all is progressing satisfactorily. Next week we trust to be able to give full particulars. An advertisement in another column announces that the Bank in Temuka will be closed on Thursday afternoon (to- morrow) on account of the race meeting. It is to be hoped that the other business houses in town will follow this example. At a recent agricultural gathering one of those itinerant spectators, who live by their wits, was demonstrating by practical illustration the uses of the telephone with a minature instrument, to an admiring circle of bucolic sons of toil, when one of the committee, who was appointed a custodian of the visitors morals for the nonce, more especially in the prosecution of all games of chance, accosted the embryo scientest with the usual, “ What have you got there 1” The reply was, “Only a telephone your worship.” “ Telephone, telephone,” gasped the irate guardian of morals, “ Uorne now, clear out, we’ll have no gambling here.”

A goodly number of players turned out on Saturday last for a game of cricket, and a good scratch match was played between two elevens. This season promises to be a more successful one than the last few seasons have been. At a committee meeting held on Monday evening it was resolved to send a challenge to the Burke’s Pass Cricket Club to play a match in Terauka on the Monday before the Timaru Show.

The Walton Troupe will re-appear in Temuka to-morrow evening, and no doubt, it being the evening of the races, will secure a full house, as their entertainment deserves. It may be true, as is urged as a reason for not patronizing this Company, that several members are not actors in any sense of the word, but we would advise our friends to overlook the too plain defects of these, and turn their attention particularly to the merits of those of the Company who are actors, and really represent the parts they undertake. Anyone attending their performance with this determination will come away well satisfied with the evening’s entertainment. It is far more pleasing, though perhaps less .easy, as it certainly is less popular, to look for, and appreciate merit in the performances of a Company of this kind than to find and grumble over demerit. There is plenty of merit to be found in the performances of this particular Company. Mr Walton’s O’Callaghan is everywhere acknowledged to be a first-rate impersonation, and as O’Callaghan is nearly always on the stage the interest in the play cannot flag, and Mr Walton is not the only good actor in the Company. Temuka has not yet attained sufficient importance to warrant a full company of first-class performers in opening even for one night. It is well if a company including but one or two good performers think it worth their while to pay a visit. The usual monthly committee meeting of the Temuka Mechanics’ Institute was held in the reading-room on Friday, the 4th instant. Present : W. Fildes, Esq., in the chair, Dr Hayes, and Messrs Gray and Wareing. The librarian’s report was read and considered. The librarian stated that lie had re-numbered the library books in accordance with the new catalogue. An account of 7s for cleaning chimneys was passed. Mr I'ildes made an offer to the Institute of the ‘ Otago Witness’ for half price, which was accepted. It was resolved that glass be substituted for w od in the upper panels of the front door if it can he clone at u cost not to exceed 30s. Proposed by Mr Gray, seconded by Mr Wareing, “That the Secretary be requested to write to the Committee of the Geraldine Mechanics Institute sending them a copy of our catalogue, and suggesting a temporary exchange of books,” Carried. A vote of thanks to the Chairman tenninatecl the meeting. Messrs Hayes and Benhamo’s Circus appeared in Temuka on Monday night. The performance as a whole was well worth seeing. The brothers Duvalli performed some exceedingly difficult and graceful feats on horizontal bars apd also on a high trapeze. Some of the riding did not go off well, the horses being apparently out of humor. Messrs Hayes and Benhamo, however, on a pair of horses, performed very gracefully. The lady with the iron jaw mouthed a common wooden chair in a most astonishing manner, lifting it by the top of the back as we would find it hard enough to do with both hands. The buffooneries of the proprietors as clowns made up a good part of the entertainment, and were very enjoyable.' They are certainly the best clowns we ever saw. There is scarcely the faintest suggestion that their funny sayings and doings are otherwise than spontaneous and natural. Most clowns cannot help showing that their “business” has been learned and rehearsed, but that was not the ease with these. There was a good attendance, every seat being filled, although a great many chose to stand. Quite a Hobson’s choice, however. A meeting of the Committee of the Pleasant Valley School was held, at the School-room on Saturda} 1, evening last, October sth. There were present Messrs Hardcastle (Chairman), D. Gregon, W. Guilford, G Gale, and A. Lysaght. After the minutes of the previous ordinary and special meetings had been read and confirmed, the report of the sub-committee of the Board of Education re salaries and staff, was read and considered. It was resolved, “That, as tin’s school is one that will be adversely affected by the pro • posed changes, if carried out. and that as the average attendance for the quarter ending September 00th had been 46.6, therefore only requiring an increased average attendance of from 3 to 4 to justly entitle the school to keep the present staff, even under the new scale, and that as during the summer months the average is most likely to increase to more than 50, the Board of Education be respectfully requested not to bring the proposed regulation into force as regards this district.” The average attendance, 42, with an average weekly roll number of 58, considered tolerably satisfactory, especially as the weather and sickness had tended in a great measure to lessen it, yet it was thought that special efforts ought to be made to increase the regularity of attendance in future. Tenders were then opened for protectiyp

works.—From D. Gregan, L 32-; G. W. J Wiiliy, L3l 10s ; A. Best, L2B 10s. It was resolved that A. Best’s tender be sent to the Board of Education for their approval. After signing cheques for salaries, the meeting adjourned. The South Canterbury Board of Education will hold an examination of candidates for third-class certificates on Tuesday, Oct. 17, and following days. Candidates must send in their names to the Secretary before Saturday next.

Mr Binley, cordial and aerated water manufacturer, has recently obtained and fitted up a new bottling machine, which will be of material assistance to him in his business. There is very little of it, but he informs us that it cost about L6O. t is constructed for filling patent stopperbottles which common machines will not do. The use of these stoppers, and such a machine, enables one man to do twice as much filling as three could, working on the old plan. There is no handling of corks, glass stoppers within the bottle taking their place. No wiring is necessary, and the machine itself puts into each bottle the proper quantity of syrrup. These three things must be done by hand in using the old machines, so that it is plain a considerable saving of labour is effected by the use of the new machine. The bottles used are cylindrical in shape, but with rounded bottoms. In the neck of each is an india-rubber ring, again st which presses from within, when the bottle is filled, a conical glass stopper. The bottle is placed upside down to be filled, and when full the stopper falls by its own gravity into the neck, and the pressure of the imprisoned gas holds itj in its place, the rubber ring making a tight joint. It Is wonderful how quickly bottles can be filled with this machine. It is probably known to but few that lemonade is bottled with gas at a pressure of 80 pounds, and soda-water at 120 *.to 130 pounds per square inch, very high pressures in ordinary steam engines.

There has crone from amongst us a good man, full of years, Mr James Hayhnrst, one of .the oldest settlers in the district, having come to this colony some twentytwo years ago, twenty of which he has spent in Temuka district. He died on Saturday last at his residence, Temuka. Good, just, and upright, he has left not an enemy to say he ever did them an ill turn. The late Mr Hayhurst belonged to the Wesleyan Church, to whom he did honor as a member. Quiet and unobtru sive, he yet did more by an upright walk and conversation to the truth of the religion that he believed in than many who made a greater show. The departed veteran had reached the age of 73 years. For a good many years past he has enjoyed fair health, excepting on one occasion when attacked with severe illness, when his death for a time was looked for. He leaves a widow only a few months younger than himself, marvelously healthy and active for one of her years. The deceased was buried yesterday in the Temuka cemetery, leaving behind him, besides his widow, his son, Mr Hayhurst, of Greenhays, also another son, and four daughters, ’ residents in Temuka, to mourn his meath. The funeral cortege, which was large and respectable, after a special service in the Wesleyan Church by the Rev Mr Harper, walked to the cemetery, the procession being joined by a number of the inhabitants of Terauka on foot.

A bushman of Grabamstown, named Thomas Scrimgeour, has been lost in the bush for a fortnight. Search parties went out in vain. Ttie Secretary of tiie Otago Education Board lately drew the attention of the Board that there were several country schools going a begging for teachers. The salaries range from Ll3O to Ll5O per annum, and for many of them not a single application had been received. The Board propose to advertise throughout New Zealand for teachers. An inquest was held in Dunedin last week re the death of Thomas White, who was killed at Messrs Guthrie and Larnach’s factory. According to the evidence one end of a piece of scantling 16ft long, was caught by the teeth of a eircular saw, and the timber flew a distance of 46ft, striking the deceased on the head, killing him instantaneously. A woolen factory company, with a capital of L 50,000, in LI shares, is proposed to be established in Oamaru. A number of the shares are already floated. The chief William Barton has determined to go to Wellington to aid Sir George Grey in respect to Native matters. He has used his influence with his tribe to secure the capture of the murderer Hiroki if he should return to the vicinity. A man named Wm. M‘Donald, a bushman, was injured by a tree he had fellen, and remained without medical aid or food for five days. A doctor from Grahamstow' rode 130 miles to assist him, the Bounty Council paying L 5 expenses. The man is suffering from concussion of the brain, and is in a comatose state, but may recover with careful treatment. One of the Native search parties saw Hiroki on Saturday, but failed to secure him. He was again seen on Sunday on the bank of the Mawhitiwhiti river. The search party got within 300 yards, and fired three shots, but Hiroki eluded capture by hiding in a gully. He has a dog with him, by which his whereabouts were found out. He ia believed to be m iking for Panihaka. An inquest was held at Waimate on Monday on the body of Mrs Charles Stirling, of Waimate Bush, who died suddenly, under suspicious circumstances, on Friday last. After hearing evidence, the jury unanimously brought in a verdict of njanslaughter against her husband.

The Rev Mr Fitchett lately delivered a highly interesting and entertaining lecture on “ Domestic arid the Higher Education of Women, " under the auspices of the Otago Institute. He argued that no system of female education w*s complete unless it took into account the vocation of marriage. Education in aesthetics would mean the cultivation of the imagination, the training of the artist nature, which was, to a greater or less extent, a specific endowment in every woman. Such education would be a prime element of success in the career to which women were called. The wife was to be the wsthetic element in her husband’s life. He selected her upon aesthetic principles. He probably thought her beautiful ; he certainly thought her refined ; there was music for him in her voice, there was grace in her form, a nameless charm in her pretty feminine tastes and occupations, a sanctity—an “awfulness” even—in the mysteries of her dress and her hair. Why, he asked, should this influence be lost 1 Without specific training thousands of wives were at the present hour making brightness and poetry of their several households, and why should they not be helped to do it better ] What required to be cultivated were— literature, music, dress, and the arts of society, and when Utopia arrived, four such chairs would be founded in the women’s university of that period. —‘Saturday Advertiser.’ Mr Rees, M.H.R., has been lecturing in Wellington on “ The identity of the British people with the lost tribes of Israel,” a subject which has caused much discussion, and has lately attracted a considerable amount of attention. Mr Rees called attention to the dispersion of the Ten Tribes, and showed how they were scattered and lost sight of, and argued with much force that the history of the Bible, of Josephus and other historians, and the prophecies of Scripture, pointed to the Anglo-Saxon race as the descendants of the lost tribes. The present position of England and her colonies, and of the United States, indicated that ere long one great English-speaking race would control the .destinies of the world, and finally establish true religion, true liberty, and a reign of law, order, and peace throughout the world. The regulations for higher education in Otago prescribe that on and after the 24th of September last the fee shall be ten shillings a quarter for one subject, or for any number of subjects in the district high schools established or to be established under the Otago Education Board. A correspondent of the ‘ Pall Mall Budget 7 writes : —According to Mr Gender, in his recently published “ Tent Work in Palestine,” the world is in danger of losing one of its wonders. The six remaining columns of the great Temple of the Sun at Baalbec are nodding to their fall. The Turks have already sapped them in seeking for the metal cores run into the joints ; every frost adds something to the progress of destruction, and any winter may bring the destruction of three out of the six. These columns, seventy-five feet high, are among the noblest architectural works in the world, and the method of their erection is still unexplained. The gigantic, but simple monoliths of Egypt offer no such difficulties as the building up of these enormous blocks, surmounted by a cornice with a weight of nearly four tons to the square foot. If, however, it would have been beyond the power of modern science to construct these wonderful works, it should be fully within its power to preserve them. Information respecting the present state of the case and the best method of procedure could he readily furnished by the British Consul at Damascus. It may be added that no excavations have ever been made at Baalbec, and that treasures of plastic art probably lie hidden beneath its mounds of rubbish.