LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1098, 28 April 1883, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Whale Ashore.—A whale measuring 75ft in length was driven, ashore in the Thames river, North Island, last Thursday. Wesleyan Church, Teuuka,—Mr Maslin will conduct the morning services in the above Church to-morrow. The Kev P. Wills will officiate in the evening, Mount Peel Eoad District, The annual meeting of ratepayers in the Mount Peel Eoad District will be held on Tuesday next, iu the Road Board office, at 12 o’clock noon.

Bourr’s Panorama. —This panorama was exhibited at Timaru last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights to moderate houses. Mr F. Henry was lecturer. All present appeared satisfied with the amusement afforded them.

Tan Eyas Case—At the Supreme Court, Christchurch, on Wednesday last, the case to show cause why Patrick Eyan should not have leave to appeal from an order of the District Court, Timaru, adjudging him a bankrupt, was further adjourned, by consent, to tb» 2nd May.

Yesey Stewabt’s Mission.— Mr Yesey Stewart, on the fve of his departure for

England, was presented with a handsome testimonial by the residents o! Tauranga. He goes Hometo float the Tauranga-Rotorua Hot Lake Railway Company, with a capital of £250,000, and a frozen meat company with a eapi'al of £30,000. The properties that have been entrusted to him for sale represent 60,000 acres.

The Wai^Casb. —After two investigations which have lasted nearly a fortnight, Wain and his wife wgre committed for trial last Thmvday in Dunjdin, on a charge of man slaughter. It will be remembered that Mrs Wain treated her stepson so cruelly that he died in the hospital, and hence the investigation which has led to her and her husband » committal.

Thk Saltation Akmy.—Mr Julian Thomas (‘ The Vagabond ”) lectured last Wednesday evening, at Invercargill, to a largo audience. In the course of his remarks he denounced he Salvation Army as an unclean thing. His statements were received with general applause and one loud hiss. Mr Thomas added that he had studied the working of the movement in Adelaide, where no good had been done; on the contrary, the barracks were converted into a place of assignation by members and others, and the tactics of the ■msic hall and tree-and easy were introduced into what they cal'ed religion. Chess. —We Colonials are by no means tardy in adapting to our own requirements any novelty that has had a successful introduction in the Old Country. Not long since “ Ye Old English Fayres” were all the rage both at Home and in the Colonies, where they met with well-merited patronage ; and now that chess tournaments played with living pieces have been successfully undertaken in one or two places in England, we believe it is the intention of the Dunedinites to try a similar experiment on the Queen* birthday in aid of the funds, of a suburban church, in which we wish them every success,

Educational.— At the Anglican Synod which has just concluded it* sittings at Napier, the Rev A. R. Fitchett, of Dunedin, enunciated a scheme which introduces us to a new phase of denominationalism in the matter of State education. According to Mr Fitchett, the State had no right to undertake the education of the people, but should con tent itself with exercising a sort of paternal supervision by providing competent teachers and disbursing an adequate amount of money in the form of scholarships in the primary and secondary school- 1 , and to compel the attendance of pupils; while, at the same time, it should forfeit all control over the primary schools and hand them over to the churchesWhether the present system of education be a mistake or not can only be ascertained after it lias had a fair trial, but the absurdity of Mr Filchett’s proposal is too patent to require any test.

More Defalcations.— At Borough Council meeting last Wednesday night, the auditors leportcd a deficiency of £lO4 in the accounts past year. A report on the special'(audit of accounts from 1 v 3 showed thaUnqst of the dog tax, rate books and niunydroy^. touchers are missing and that ho had been kepi since July 1874 Act came into force, not inure of the Touchers had been stamped, urn frequently been paid' were signed. There had •very year in auditing the -accounts,...font jin tlie absence of 'thC'bopks it was utterly impossible, to find? out all the defi ciencies. There was a sum af#£2o<Kposted in the cash-book to general account, but there was no entry in the bank pass-book,' and the cashier at the bank coiTld not lay what had become of it. The report was referred back to the auditors for further information.

A Knowing Pi?br —The following story is told in Tanity Fair;—The late Duke of A was dining at a Highland anniversary dinner in full kilt dress, with his piper behind him. At dessert a very handsome and valu able snuffbox belonging to one of the guests was handed around. When the time came to return it to its owner this snuffbox could nowhere be discovered. A search was made for it, bat it could not be found. The Duke was especially anxious about it, but with no result. On the anniversary he again donned the kil 1 , which he had not worn in the mean time, for the annual dinner. As lie was dressing he happened to put his hand into his sporran, and there, to his astonishment, found the box which had been lost at the last year’s dinner. He turned to his piper and said ( “ "Why, this is the snuffbox wo were looking for ; did you not see me put it away in my sporran ?” “ Yes, your Grace,” replied the piper, “ I did ; but I. thocht ye wushed to keep it.”

Returning Compliments. —One of (be evils (says an American paper) resulting from the increased facilities for intercourse between remote parts of the earth is'seen in the interchange of insect, animal and vegetable pests, and contagious diseases. The English sparrow is one of the latest inflictions brought upon us, and vra have sent (o Eng’and swine plague, or hog-eholera, in exchange. Scot land sent to Australia the thistle, and some idiot took to that country the rabbit; the result is that thousands of pound* sterling have been spent in trying vainly to conquer the plagues. Australia has her revenge, for the Australian fungus attacked the grasses in Kent and Sussex something more than two years, and as it is described as being poisonous enough to cause the death of animals feeding upon grasses affected, it will probably do much injury. In time traffic between Australia and America may bring to us this new pest. It is impossible to say which country is most liberal in furnishing the-o nuisances, or which suffers most from such exchange of curses; nor can anyone say how soon wc may hope that a bettex* knowledge will enable us to prevent their introduction to the new fields, and possibly even stamp them out where they have gained a footing.

Tongabibo. —Tongariro is in violent eruption, not equalled for thirteen years past. The volcano fires could, in 1870, be seen from Napier, but cannot this time owing to cloudy dull weather.

The Ohau Twins— A telegram from Palmerston North slates that the Ohau Twins are dead. The small sickly one died about an hour before the other one. They , - ailing from the lime of their return fri?Bj Wellington.

Accident. —An accident occurred yesterday afternoon. A man was carting clay near Mr Storey’s shop, and somehow h* backed the cart too far in, resulting in it rushing down the decl’vity with- greet rapidity. On reaching the bottom it rose up on end, and the horse was completely raised off the ground to a height of several feet, and hung in the shafts. After some time it was released from this position, without having sustained any injury.

Suppkession or Intempeeancb, —Under the auspices of the Union Total Abstinence Society, Timaru, the Rev Mr Green, M.H R., delivered an address on “The Demon Drink* and How to Fight it.” Though it is almost next to impossible on a subject such as the above for a lecturer to do more than give a rechauffe of the well worn platitudes with which most people are tolerably conversant, nevertheless, Mr Green succeeded not only in interesting his audience by the entertaining manner in which he handled the subject, but he also propounded a scheme by which drunkenness would, in a measure, be temporarily subjugated if not ultimately eradicated. He proposed to reduce the number of licensed bouses in towns to one to every 1500 people, and in the country no house should be nearer to another than ten miles. The existing houses should all be bought by the loci I ’. bodies at fair values, and those not wan o i disposed of for other purposes The licensed houses retained should be placed in charge of men who should have no interest m the profits, and the serving of an intoxicated person and being the last to serve ft person found intoxicated should be cause* of instant dismissal. Although we fear thi* scheme would not entirely do away with drunkenness, it would, nevertheless, very materially reduce it, and as the introduction of any measure calculated to suppress intemperance deserves the hearty co-operation of all right-thinking people, we trust Mr Green will receive every encouragement and assistance in the furtherance of his philanthropic and laudable project.

The Late Frill in Temujca.—Notwithstanding that the closest examination has been made of the region in which the fire was first observed to break out in Mr Frjnks’ brewery, by Mr Wills, the local agent of the Insurance Company, and Mr Franks himself, no satisfactory conclusion can be come to as to its origin. Owing to a post being burned down into the malt, which was heaped up on malt loft, it was conjectured that it was a ' case of spontaneous combustion, but subsequent inquiry proved this to be a fallacious theory, as only about a foot of the post was charred, while three feet of the underpaid of it remained untouched. Of course, it could be seen from this that the fire had burned downwards, and that if it was a case of spontaneous combustion it would have originated at the bottom of the post and burned upwards. Another supposition is that there must have been some fissures in the chimney through which the fire went out to the woodwork, but there is nothing definite discovered to uphold this theory. The origin of the fire therefore is so far absolutely a mystery. In the hurried report we gave of the occurrence in our last issue, there were some inaccuracies. In some places the building was four storeys high, but the main portion of it is only two It was insured in ihe South British for £2OO, and it is supposed that it will take over £3OO to put it in the state it was in when destroyed. Mr Franks’ plant was insured for £IOO only, and the malt, beer, barrels and other odds and ends for £SOO, all in the same office. There were 2000 bushels of barley in it, and the v-lue of this is set down at £750. Of course a good deal will be saved, but even then the insurance, it is supposed, will not cover the loss. The fire-bell was first rung by one of Mr Franks’ sons, but before the alarm was properly sounded the rope broke, aad consequently a great many firemen, including the officers, never heard anything about, the fire until they road of it in the next morning's paper. Still, those of the firemen who were present worked admirably, as well as v- Inufeers who joined them on the spur of the ■. ment. Conspicuous amongst those who i■. i good service and went into the thick of ihe Ih e were Messrs P. Thomson, Binley, Gfuy, W. Niohol, W. Weir, A. W. Surndge and J. Walt. They desevre great praise as well as many others whose names we quite forget now. Dr Hayes, Mr Aspinall and Mr Kneeshaw (acting stationmastcr at Temuka) were also conspicuous by their activity in removing things. Messrs Thomson, Niohol, Binley and Guy had a narrow escape from being hurl, if not killed. They were woiking with the hose underneath the large rat which was up in the top of the building, when they noticed that it was coming away, and had barely time to escape. Mr Delumain, the owner of the brewery, and Mr Mucpherson, the general manager of the Insurance Com-

panv, arrived here yesterday, and visited the scene of the fire. It is not yet known what steps will be taken in the way of re erecting the building.

Mr W. C. Andrews, Geraldine, notifies the impounding of a red roan horse. Air John Lawson, poundkeeper, Temuka, notifies the impounding of a bay hack gelding. Mr J. Y. Ward, agent, Geraldine, has 72 acres of bush aud cleared land to Ist on lease, for five years. Messrs Maclean and Stewart will hold their weekly sale of horses, etc., at their Bazaar, Timaru, to day. Messrs J. M. Ollivier and Co will hold a sale of horses, cattle, furniture, tinware, fruit trees, etc, at their yards and rooms, Temuka, to-day.