The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1880. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 329, 16 December 1880, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1880. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The postal, telegraphic, fire brigade, police stations, and public offices are to be shortly connected by telephone. ,

Tenders are ' called for- painting and glazing the stable and auction room now iii tconrs'A'xyf erectio i for Messis Mmidell and 00., Geraldine.

Michael Kerry, a miner on Seventeen Mile Beach, was crushed to death by the giving way of a set of timber on Monday laSt. .

The second series 'bf local wool sales took place, on Monday. There y, as.a large 'attendance of buyers, and prices shoved a slight drop;op last series,>; < > We would again remind members of the Temuka and Geraldine Agricultural and P isloral Association, and others interested,* of the meeting to take place at the Star Hotel, tbrinorrow Evening, at 7.30. Wo would again remind our readers of the concert. to be given in aid of • the Temuka School Prize Fund, that takes place to-morro.v evening, in Uie Volunteer Hall,. As the object is a laudable one, we hope to see a good attendance. For particulars see advertisement.

The sitting of the Quarterly Licensing Court of Temuka was held before Nugent Wood, Esq., (Chairman), and A. Cox, juur., S. D. Barker and J. A. Garaack, Esqs., Gomraissibifers: The" police reported very' satisfactorily ~on the manner in which the hotejs had, been conducted in the district since . last, sitting,, and the Court then adjourned. Tue first monthly meeting of the County of Geraldine Permanent Building and Investment Society, for receiving subscriptions, was held at the head office, Temuka, on Tuesday evening. The following directors were present ; Alessrs Playhurst, Meudelson, Peid, and Quinn. Subscriptions on upwards of 300 shares were. paid. About 60 shares have since been applied for.

We learn from a Christchurch paper that the Engineers and City Guards fired for the District Prizes allotted to the infantry in Canterbury an [.Saturday last. We are pleased to notice that three of our local volunteers take three out of the seven prizes given. We append theamouuls and names of the prize takes, together with their scores ;

t Prize. • , Pte.. Corp, Chapman (Christ’ch.) £4 ... G2 Sub-Lieut..Francis do •.* -£3 ... 60 Lieut. Appleby , do ■ £2 ... 58 Volun'eer Guy'.(Temuka) : £2 ... 65 Drum-Major Gapes do < £1 ... 53 Corporal Hobbs do £1 ; ' 5 52 We might inehtjpn that the Ashburton Rifles are entitled to compete for the prizes, but as they have no rifle range, it is not likely they will do so ; therefore the result given above can be accepted as correct. Professor Haselmayer, the clever illusionist,'assisted by Mida'me Haselmayer, will give one of his highly entertaining performances in the Volunteer Hall, op, Tuesday evening next. The Professor comes with: ;a first class reputation ' having shown himself to be a conjuror of rare ability, and possessing all the powers to please and interest*an audience. ;ln ; every place he has visited he, appears to have been well received and to have drawn large houses, and we expect to see a good house on Tuesday' ' ' ‘ 4 special meeting of the Temuka School Committee was held on Tuesday evening. Present—Messrs Hooper (in the chair), Harrop, and'Rugsell. The business trans■acted was the drawing up of a schedule of duties for the caretaker, drawing up specifications for the erection of a petition, and other malteisappertaiuing -to the concert to be held to-morrow evening. Toe meeting then adjourned.

In our report of the exiunination of the Presbyterian Sabbath , School we regret having omitted to state that Sarah Douglas had awarded to her the special prize for diligence and attention. We should also have mentioned't-frat' Miss B!vth presided at the harmonium; and 'wp aW informed that the children have very iniproved in singing since this young lsdy took charge of the instrument. The usual monthly meeting of the Mechanics’ Institute Committee was held in the Beading : room on Friday last, Present —Dr Uayes (Chairman), Messrs Memkdson, Gray, Franks, McSheeby Gentleman, Quinn, Mason, and Elliott. The Librarian’s report for the past month \Vas read and considered. The following propositions were carried —“ That Messrs

Oarlyon ■ and \TiTls be asked fcu act tis

au itors.” “ Thai a special committee i meeting .be held on the set end Monday in January next, and that the public meeting .be held on the followingFrid-.y.” ‘ That the President, Vice-President, ( and MiGray form a sub committee to take- stock of the property of dhe Institute, aud repo! t at the next Committee meeting.” Mr Gray asked why the pictures presented to Hie Institute had not yet been framed' Mr Elliott promised to see to the matter as early as pos.-ible. A resolution that ■Reynold’s.newspaper be procured for the Institute.was, after an,animated discussion lost by the casting vote of the Chairman. A letter was read from the Secretary to the. Chess Club asking permission to use the Reading-room for the purpose of practice and playing games. An application from the same to admit its members to'the Institute at a lower rate, for the purpose of" playing chess, was, on being put to the meeting, lost. The suggestion book was then considered, and answered, a c ter which the meeting terminated,

The Governor’s official, description is thus given in the Government G izette : “ His Excellency the Hon. Arthm Hamilton Gordon, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Grider of St. Michael and St George, Her Majesty’s High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, Goand j u and over Her Majesty’s Colony of New Zealand and its' Dependencies,- and ’.-VlceAdmiral of the s*une,”,.

The Melbourne Herald, referring to Ihe death of Mr James Tyermau, at Sydney, says :—“He some years since created quite a sensation in the Victorian churches by his rapid conversion fnrjpw di"so:;ti g minister to a Church of'-'England parson, and then by an equally precipiiativn change to a led-hot spiritualist .With regard to his latest failh ho never changed his!opinion but died in the full belief of the doctrine that has taken so strong a hold in Ameiica He believed firmly in spiritualistic manifestations and in mediumsbip. He leaves a widow and large family.”

The..followi?jg is said to be the origin ot the adoption of jerseys by the fair sex : “ A sea fishing party in the Solent were upset by a sudden squall, or some other incident of the treacherous seas, wh ut the only lady of the company-—all of whom were saved—found’ ■ Ivrself 'hauled on board a yacht belonging to a stern bachelor, who, like the Lord of - Monkbarns, objected to the presence on his decks of ‘ womankind therefore there wore no female clotnes on board ; but to save the lady’s chest, which was weak, she was persuaded to don the jersoy of a young sailor. We need - hardly add, 1 ’for ' the benefit of the ram uifcic, that the very suitanie top-gear costume entirely vanquished the ob lurate l.eait of the yachtowner, and that they lived happily ever after.

The old joke referrng to calling a spade an agricultural implement must, says a contributor to a co'itemp ir iry, make way for another, perpetrated by one of the m • rubers of a Sports Committee. Teia gentleman rather puzzled’ bis felloW* coinmiitee m m by speaking .of i a “lunicy.cle race,” and it was not till they referred to the number of the'event upon the programme, , that they discovered that a “ unicyble ’’ (v as‘jin ordinary language, a wheelbarrow.

Mrs Hana Tamihauay the'wife>of Mr- R, S. ; Thomson, the interpreter who was lately dismissed, publishes the following advertisement in the Wanganui Herald, addressed to purenasers at the recent land sale:—“The fOOO acres' Lately sold by Govern moat bplong to flje ; -.and .no provision having been made for myself or my children, I refuse to consent to the occupation by Europeans, against whom I have never fought.” “ Finishers of the law ” h ive an eye to business^as : well as other people. T.ue hangman who executed Ah Lee at Dunedin for-she iiihrdcr of Mrs yuuhg at Kyeburn it at present iu Oamaru, says the local Times.' and has already sent in a written application to Government to be appointed Intngman to Tuhi, the Maori who has confessed to the murder of Miss Dobie at Opunake. The New Zealand Marwood is somewhat precipitate- in bis demands He recently applied to the authorities on the West Coast to be execu tioner to a man who was then being tried for wife murder, .but against whom no verdict bad been returned.

The following remarkable example of the use of telegraphy in the capture of criminals is worthy of passing notice : A man was “ wanted in Norway on a criminal charge- The"Norweginn authorities, after careful inquiry, "had ascertained .that the fugitive had left for Scotland, with the intention of taking passage by the first steamer sailing from Glasgow for Ameiica. The criminal had a start of two or three,days, and not a moment was to Btelost. lAt seven minutes before 7 o’clock p.m. a telegram describing the man. in about 40 words, was. put on to the Noi> wegiaii end of-the North Sea cable, which enters Scotland at Peterhead- There is a

slight difference between tire timeout the one end of,the cable and the other. At four minutes before 7 o’clock the message had passed through Peterhe id to Aberdeen whence, after translation* it was forwarded to Glasgow The detectives of St. Mungo received the message a few minutes past 7 o'clock, and the next trans-atla,ntic liner

was to have sailed at 15 uimutes past 7 with the wanted loan on board. Before the posted sailing time, however, the Norwegian was in custody, having' 'been arrested on the steamer by the Glasgow detectives, It is a significant fact that within 30 mimi<lgs of the time of , the dispatch of the Norwegian telegram to .this country, a rgjjirn message was oil its way from Glasgow to Norway announcing the capture afid'safe custody of the criminal.

“If this should meet the eye ” of any represantati-. e of dead and gone soldiers, they miy bo interested in learning that the “Army List” contains the names of some hundreds of officers who have left large sums of money with the Horse Guards whkh have not been claimed. Somebody may, perhaps, realise a small fortune.

A ! 1 visitors agree in stating that fha New Zealand Court is the worst arranged in the Melbourne Exhibition. There is no free entrance through it. A block of exhibits faces the front' entrance,' and another-similar block at the exit. Visitors have thus to exemte a kind of zigzag movement to examine this narrow Court. Half the exhibits arc stowed away and have to be.sought for. y

A correspondent of flic Auckland Star, writing from Te Aroha, after mentioning ti.p sulphur baths in that place and their efficacy in curing rheumatism, proceeds to describe the following curious phenomenon : — 11 A short distance from the sulphur baths a Utile muddy spring hubbies up on the hillside among the tangled fern. This

is the celebrated soda spring, which to the taste is quiteas good as some soda that I have tasted in Auckland, and" only needs aerating t-> be ot the best quality. One peculiarity is the fact that when the tide is out at Graharnstown the mud at the bottom of the spring, which is sind’owj falls'VioWn, and . the hole is deeper, When the tide at Graharnstown rises, the bottom rises. • It is snd that the Natives, when about to start in their 'canoes for the Thames, used always to time their departure by the deptii of the spring, thus knowing- the Hume of high water in, the Hauraki Gulf.”

A GralrVmstowh tfelfe'giHm says :— *• One hundred weight.of picked specimens and 35cvvt, quartz from the leader in the pro sjlectors claim, Te Aroha,' yielded l9£oz gold. There are a number of ruihdra that other claims are getting gold, but none have - ; shown, ,any groat quantity of golden stone The prospectors are putting in a drive to cut the leader at a lower depth, and intend sinking a winze on the specimen''.;leader. Many business places-have been erected’,! but comparatively little mining work is done on the fi- Id as yet. The Warden’s opinion on the goldfield is that it extends,.over a large aiea, even in blocks included in Patel ere. Several claims have been formed into limited companies and sciip issued.

Mr. J . L. Lundon, hde pricsf in Canterbury, on a Mormon mission, who left Auckland with Elder Pearce for Utah has sent a letter to Auckland, iu which he says that having learned there is to be another exodus of deluded Mormpn yictims from New Zealand to Utah,. he considers it his duty before God and man to warn all intending immigra its. 'He s iys that the Mormon priesthood, as a rule, consist of liars, debauchers, and murderers ; ‘and instances John Taylor, who had four wives living while teaching in Francs that p.urality of wives was not taught by .Mormon doctrines. Toe letter gives instances of seduction of many .women. He concludes by saying Monnonism is nothing but a well organised system of disloyalty, deception,, luring thousands to poverty every year. If some of the Monnou Elders had their deserts they would be in gaol while in New Zealand for indecent assault or something worse. He could tell a long story ofjheit actions while in New Zealand.