LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1178, 15 May 1884, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Clearing Sale. —Messrs J. Mundell and Co., publish particulars of the sale on the farm of the late Mr J. Heney, at Scotsburn, Peel Forest, on Tuesday next. Letter Delivery *ob Geraldine.—A petition addressed to the Hon. the Post-master-General is being circulated in Geraldine for signature, asking him to grant a town delivery, which is very much needed.

Immigration to N.S.W.—Steps are being taken to reduce the immigration to the colony of Hew South Waits, The Colonial Secretary has telegraphed to the Agent-General stating that the vote has been cut down, andjinstructing him only to carry out arrangements already entered into. Entertainment. Min Carry Nelson’s Comic Operetta Company give an entertainment this evening in the Temuka Volunteer Hall. The entertainment is a most miscellaneous one and cannot fail to please, the singing of Miss Nelson being alone worth the admission charge. Speaking of the appearance of the Company in Timaru, a local paper says : * If the audience were not well satisfied with their evening’s entertainment they must have been extremely hard to please.’ To morrow evening the Company will again appear, when a different programme will be gone through. St. Saviour’s Church, Temuka. A meeting of the members of the congregation of this Church was held on Monday, the 12th inst., to take into consideration the formation of a ‘Choir Union,’ and was largely attended. The Incumbent occupied the chair. It was unanimously agreed to form a Choir Union, having for its object the ‘ cultivation of music, both sacred and secular’; and with the following conditions of membership :—(a) ‘ Choristers to bo free members —ex officio ; (b) others desirous of becoming Working Members shall be admitted to the privileges of the Union on payment of an annual subscription of five shillings ; (c) honorary members shall be subscribers of ten shillings and upwards.’ The following officers were elected : —President, Mr B. D. O’Halloran ; Vice-President, Mr J. T. M. Hayhurst); Treasurer, Mr E. Whitehead ; Secretary, Mr E, Gurr j Committee, Messre Pilbrow, Robinson, Chapman and Rowe. Meetings will be held for practice every Monday, and periodical entertainments will be given to obtain funds for the supply of books, music, etc., to be used in the Church and in connection with the ‘ Union.’ It was decided that all ] present shonld use their beat endeavors to urge their musical friends and all interested I in the Choir to join, either as working or Honorary members. The meeting was ter* minated by singing the ‘ Doxology.’

Lotti Wilmot.— Lotti Wilmot, well known throughout the colony, died at the Hutt, Wellington, on Monday. She bad been ailing for some time.

The Levels Eoad District. —At the last meeting of the above Eoad Board it was resolved that at the next meeting of the Board a rate of fd in the £ be struck, and that the Overseer take legal proceedings against all rate defaulters.

Sib Julius Vogel and the Government. According to the Wellington correspondent of a contemporary, Sir Julius Vogel has engaged rooms in Thorndon for the session, intending to prosecute his claim against Government for £6250, being oneeighth per cent, commission for services in connection with the five million loan. The correspondence on the subject was published in a Parliamentary paper about the time that Sir Julius resigned the AgencyGeneral. The Champion Sculler.—Hanlan writes the following Iptter to a Wellington gentle man :—“ In reply to your letter of the 21st March, I have to say that my visit to New Zealand will depend a good deal on what pros* pects are held out in the rowing exhibitions or matches. lam quite prepared to make a match with Hearn, the New Zealand champion, oa the following terms : Stakes to be £SOO aside, and I be allowed £l5O for expenses in going to New Zealand.” Geraldine Eoad Board. A special meeting of the Board was held in the office on Tuesday afteraoon last, at 2 o’clock for the purpose of electing a Chairman for the ensuing year. All the members were'present with the exception of Mr E. H. Postlethwaite, who sent a letter of apology for absence which was accepted. Mr W. U. Slack was unanimously chosen as Chairman. There being no other business before the Board the meeting terminated. To the Point.—The poll for the election of a member to the Geraldine County Council for the. Levels riding takes place today. In concluding an address to the electors enunciating his views of the affairs of the County, and his special claims to their support, one of ihe candidates makes use of the following forcible, if not elegant, language:—“ Gentlemen—lf you return, if you elect me, I will independently do my best to forward the interests of the Town and Port of Timaru, as well as push forward agricultural progress, public plantations, water works, &c. I cannot boast of being largely endowed with the gift of the gab (comparatively few Scotohemn are), but, to use a colonial expression, I am a beggar for thinking, and I have often found a shot well aimed and fired at the proper time do more good than a whole hour’s jabbering, Do not let me be shut out by your neglecting to register your vote in my favour.” Fermented Liquor Bill.—Mr H, A. Levestam, M.H.E, (says the Press), proposes to introduce a Bill into the Legislature at the next session of Parliament, under the title of the Fermented Liquors Bill, the object of which is to compel every vendor of fermented liquors to place upon every cask, bottle or vessel containing such liquors a printed label stating the ingredients from which they have been manafactured, and in the event of the label not proving to be a correct statement of the costents, the vendor to be liable to a penalty of not less than £lO and not more than £IOO, and the whole of the liquors contained in vessels bearing a similar label to that upon which the vendor was committed to be confiscated to the Queen and to be destroyed. Accident in the Hunting Field.—At the meet of the Christchurch Hunt (says the Press) on Saturday Mr McAlpino got a severe fall. He rode at an immense gorse fence, and his horse just failed to manage it. The drop on the other side was 16ft, and horse and man came down heavily. The horse’s shoulder was broken and his counter badly smashed. He was shot with the least possible delay. Mr McAlpine was stunned for a time, but Dr Hacon, who was happily present, soon brought him round. It was feared some internal injuries bad been sustained bo Mr McAlpine but none so far have been discovered. However, several of his ribs are broken, and be will have to lie up for nine or ten days. Some idea of the jump he sent hi* horse at may be gained from the calculation that it would have taken a leap of 47ft to clear it. Promenade Concert and Girt Auction at Geraldine.—On Tuesday evening last a promenade concert and gift auction was held in the Oddfellows’ Hall, Geraldine, when the goods left over from the recent fancy bazaar in aid of the funds of St. Mary’s Church were disposed of. The Eev. J. Preston, Incumbent of the Parish, presided. The proceedings of the evening commenced with an overture on the piano by Miss Fish, after which the rev. Chairman invited those present to inspect the goods prior to the auction commencing. After a short interval Mr Lodge sang the song * Sailing.* Miss Boswell followed later on, with the song ‘Five o’clock in the morning,’ and Mrs Foster played a solo on the piano. Mr Mundell, the well-known knight of the hammer, then mounted the platform and commenced disposing of the articles, during which Mr Willoughby sang‘The four jolly smiths’; Miss Booth, ‘ The crooked bawbee’ ; solo, on the piano, by Miss Sbiers; piano duet by the Misses Fish ; song, Miss Andrews, ‘ Eobin Adair’ ; song, Miss Dunlop, ‘ For ever,’ and song by Mr Lodge * The gallants of England.’ There was a good attendance, the goods were keenly contested for and capital prices were obtained. The sum of £3 10* was taken at the doors. At the conclusion of the sale the rev. Chairman thanked the company for their attendance, and hoped they would go home well satisfied with the bargains that fell to their biddings that evening. The proceedings terminated at about 10.30 p.m. Towards the close the Geraldine Brass Band performed a few selections of music outside the hall.

Embezzlement.—At the Wellington E.M. Court on Tuesday, Wm. C. McDermott received six months’ imprisonment for embezzling moneys of the Government Insurance Department. The accused had been in the employment of the Department for 7 or 8 years, and had performed hie duties so faithfully and well that he had risen to the poeition of chief clerk. Oil on Troubled Waters at New < - Plymouth. A strong North Bait wind blowing yeeterday caused a very rough sea, and as the steamer Hawea kept well out, boatmen had difficulty in tendering her. On returning with the passengers, a small strerm of oil was allowed to flow from a can, which prevented the sea from breaking over the boat, and it came ashore in almost calm water. This is the first time oil has been tried in subduing the sea in New Plymouth. Important Decision.—At the District Court, Hokitika, on Monday, before Honor Judge Broad, the Borough of Hokitika sued the Westland County for the amount paid for an auctioneer’s license, which the County Council claimed on the ground that the license enabled the licensee to sell over the whole County. His Honor gave judgment for the Borough, and said there could be no doubt as to the meaning of the Act. A man’s usual place of business was where he carried on the supreme management or administration of his business ‘as a whole, and could not he any place in which he might be transacting some special portion of his business, ao matter how considerable that portion. Here the books were kept and the contracts were made at the office in Hokitika. A Low Eate. —At the last meeting of the Timaru Borough Council it was unanimously agreed that the annual rate for the ensuing year be 4d in the £. In proposing the resolution, Councillor Sutter said —“they had heard it said that it was cheaper to live outside the Borough than inside. He wanted, by reducing the rates, to show people that it would be cheaper now for them to come inside the boundary. He believed the rate proposed (4d.in the £) was the lowest, with the single exception of the Mount Peel district, of any that was struck in South Canterbury, and that most of the Boroughs in New Zealand would be only too glad to be in position similar to that occupied by Timaru.” The annual rateable value of properties on the valuation roll-for 1834 is £42,688, being a decrease of £IOO3 on last year’s valuation. The number of ratepayers in the Borough is 503 ; of shops and dwellings, 696; and of offices, stores and other buildings, 192. As Othisb See TJa. The Timaru correspondent of the Lyttelton Times says:—• “ The sorties of the Salvation Army upon Temuka have not bad much effect upon the garrison which Diabolus keeps there. Temuka it a lively little town, and boasts a couple of constables, about a dozen pubs (more or less), churches, schools, a newspaper, an augmentative chimney sweep, and various other institutions of civilization. And while its tradesmen are the honestest of men, its youths are the larrikinest of youths. Mr Postlethwaite had very little idea, before he ascended the platform to address the free and independent the other night, of the reception he was about to get. The meeting was disgracefully rowdy, and I think the Temuka men deserve the severest censure for thu suffering the dominion of the roughs. The police were of course not within cooey, and the vivacious youths had it all their own way.” It is not very pleasant for Temuka people to be thus referred to. We trust the people who have got Temuka’s name up, will see the error of their ways and abstain from such conduct in future. Eunning Away with a Vessel.—The Atlantic, owned by Messrs Donald and Edinborough, of Auckland was to have sailed from Auckland for Mangaai, in Coek’s Group, on Saturday, under the charge of Captain Cleaverley. A man named Captain Simpson had embarked as a passenger. On Saturday afternoon, Captain Cleaverley, finding that there was not enough wind to start, went ashore, and on going down the wharf on Sunday he found the vessel had’ disappeared. The pilot schooner passed the Atlantic about 11 o’clock on Saturday night near Tiri-tiri, As she was burning flare-up lights the pilot schooner went alongside and asked what they wanted, when Captain Simpson (the passenger) said they wanted nothing. All hands it is said, appeared to be the worse tor liquor. On Monday morning Captain Cleaverley also learned that his clothes and the ship’s papers had been sent on shore at Devonport and left at the Flagstaff Hotel, where ho received them later in the day. Simpson wrote a note to the owners before leaving, in which ho states that as Cleaverley was not on board, he was going to take the vessel to sea himself. This, however, was not opened until after she had cleared out, which the writer probably intended should be the case. Simpson has a French master’s certificate, but would not have been allowed to take the vessel away by the Customs, and were he to return to Auckland he would undoubtedly be severely punished. It is supposed he will take the vessel to Mangaai, where she was bound, but there remains a doubt as to whether he will ever reach there. At Mangaai be cannot bo punished, as there is no British Consul there.