LOCAL & GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2229, 18 July 1891, Page 2

LOCAL & GENERAL.

Wesleyan Church, Temuka.— The services for to-morrow will be found in our advertising columns. Accident. —We regret to learn that Mr Eli Mitchell, of Waitohi, had had his leg broken through a horse he was riding shying and throwing him. Ashburton Tragedy.—Moss, the chief actor in the Ashburton tragedy, is now out of danger, and will, it is said, be able to leave the hospital shoitly. His wife has recovered, and is getting on well. The Law Practitioners Bill.—All things come to him who waits, says the Wellington correspondent of the Lyttelton Times. Sir George Grey has been rewarded for his long waiting. The Law Practitioners Bill passed the second reading on the voices. Mr Rhodes entered hi 3 annual formal protest, and then the chorus of ayes settled 5 the question. One more victory in sight for the veteran of a hundred fights. Timaru Show.—The special prize list for the forthcoming Timaru Agricultural and Pastoral Show is now being compiled, and anyone desirous of giving a special prize is requested to communicate with the Secretary of the Association, Mr F. W. Stubbs, as soon as possible. This year the Association give cups, of the value of £lO and £5, as first and second prizes for the most points in the iigricultural produce classes. Football.—A football match will be played in the Temuka Park to-day between the players who contested the match with North Otago on Thursday last and a team of all comers. The following are requested to be on the ground : Storey, Velvin, McLeod (2), Opie (2), Armitage, Anderson, Hall, Duncan, Orr, Stewart, Brosnahan, Fitzgerald, Lavery, McCallum, Brinkman, Turnbull, T. Hart, McKinley, Gardner, Collins, Hobbs, and Goldstone. Serious Question. —Notice has been given by Mr Rees to ask Government—(l) Whether any defalcations or peculations have at any time been discovered in the Government Life Inserunce Department; if so, will he state the amount of any such cases, and when discovered, and how discovered. (2) Whether the Audit Department was aware of any defalcations having occured, and if so, did the Auditor-General report the same to the Government or to Parliament. The Case op Peter Birrell.—Peter Birrell will be remembered as clerk to the Deputy Official in Bankruptcy in Timaru. He embezzled money and was sentenced to imprisonment. He has now served his time, and his wife applied to the Supreme Court to iestrain him from coming to her house. She makes her living by keeping a boarding-house, and she alleges her boarders will leave if he is allowed to come to the house. Judge Dennistoun said the Court could not interfere and the injunction was refused. Stock Driving Bill.—The Hon. L. Walker, in moving the second reading of the Stock Driving Bill in the Legislative Council remarked that a bill similar to the present one had been passed by the Council some sessions ago but was thrown out by the House. He had regretted this exceedingly, as from north to South there was a vast amout of sheep stealing in which the present laws -were utterly powerless to prevent, but which the bill he firmly believed, would at any rate reduce. If the Council saw fit to pass the second reading he proposed to refer the bill to the Stock Committee. Remarkable" q, m, Thomson, in the course of a paper delieverod by him before the Otago [nstitute drew attention to the remarkible change which had come over the water supply of Dunedin with the gradual progess of clearing and settlement, and pointed out that whereas in the early jays a hole dug in the ground would ilinost always give a supply of water at 10 great depth, most of the wells have now dried up. Those wells, he added, which still held and supplied water—at my'rate within the limits of Dunedin i!id iti inlineiliate suburbs—had become :,s a rule too impure to be used for ■lousehold purpose.*. In Roslyn, he said, lie surfa.ee dr,:.iun?e into the wells make ■lie iue of water dSawu frqin thain really langjron.-s, and ho attributed the prc.'abiicu of illueris in lt:>3lyu and othei ■•ubur'n to the practice of using watei from Avails for houeluld purpose..'.

Wicked Dunedin. —The wives of two well-known men in Dunedin are said to have." sloped" lately, one of them with her husband's groom. " Good Drinkers. —The Bernhardt Co. drank £6OO worth of liquor on their voyage from 'Frisco to Sydney. They carried 192. tons of freight which cost them about £376. Geraldine Rifles. The Geraldine Rifles mustered 19, all told, on Thursday evening last, under Captain R. H. Pearpoint, for parade and aiming and position drill.

Football. —In the match North Otago v. South Canterbury played last Thursday in Timaru resulted in a victory for the latter team by 4 points to 3 points. The game was excellently played. To-day the team which beat North Otago will play all comers in Temuka. The Exodus. —The arrivals in the colony during June totalled 559 while the departures amounted to 1374. Of the latter 603 were to New South Wales, 273 to Victoria, and 204 to Queensland. We have therefore lost 812 persons during the month of June.

A New Idea. —An enterprising Australian insurance agent has struck a new idea in advertising. He engages a lot of pretty girls and has them driven through the town on an open waggon with the legend above them," The men we marry must insure in the > company." Arthur Clampett.—Arthur Clampett sang at a concert got up by a Miss Price, in Christclmrch, last Thursday. About 100 persons were present. Some small pebbles were thrown at tne windows from the outside, and one window was broken by a large stone or brick-bat; othenvije the proceedings were orderly.

Destitution. —The amount of destitution in the city of Wellington lias increased so alarmingly lately that one of the members of the benevolent board was led to express the opinion that they would shortly require to establish a workhouse.

Licensing Proposals.—The Masterton licensing election has been declared void on the ground that the words " elector" and " candidate " were omitted from the nomination forms after the names of the proposer and seconder. The Bureau of Industries report that at Tologa Bay 150 bushmen and several road-making hands are required Masterton wants 40 bushmen; Wanganui 50; and Raglan 20. On the Dargaville and Hokianga gumfields men make from £2 to £4 per week working long hours.

Railway Accident.—On last Wednesday in some unaccountable way a goods train which was being shunted at Burnyide, Dunediri, ran down an incline towards a passenger train which was standing still. The driver of the latter noticing the mishap backed his engine, but a collision took took place resulting in a van being damaged and the buffer of the engine being broken. Blundering.—This is from the spicy columns of the Wellington Herald : —A well-known Lord Bishop was visifing at the house of a Wairarapa squire when the ' Buttons,' or valet, was directed to pay particular attention to his Lordship, and when he rang in the morning for ' hot water,' the boy was to knock at the door and say : ' The boy, my, Lord.' The lad got so confused and frightened that when the Bishop asked : ' Who's there V the boy answered : ' The Lord, my boy.'

Legislative Council Reform.—The lattest suggestion as to the reform of the Legislative Council ;which has been mooted in the lobbie3 is that in future the council should be elective, and that all Legislative Councillors should be elected exclusively by the female franchise. The lion, member who has given birth to this brilliant idea contends that he can claim the support of Sir John Hall and of all the " female franchisers" for such a reform. He says this is no joke. Possibly he means this to apply to his proposed reform.

The Public Trust Office.—The Public accounts Committee met to consider the report of the commission appointed to inquire in to the working of the Public Trust Office. Sir Robert and Mr Skerret appeared on behalf of Mr R. C. Hamerton, who was also present.' Sir Robert Stout addressed the committee for two hours, traversing the whole report, and the meeting then adjouned. Sir Robert opposed entirely the views of the commissioners as to the bookkeeping office, and maintains that that the system observed was as perfect of that of any public company.

Property Tax.—The Oamaru Mail gives a telling instance of the effect oi

the Property Tax on industry. The Oamaru woollen factory has been established ten years, and in all that time the shareholders have never received any dividend, yet property-tax had to be paid regularly. It says that £5 of every original paid-up share and £3 of the newer shares have already been swallowed

up by the tax, and in all £SOO of its capital have gone in taxation. Mr Hislop, when a Minister, proposed that they should reduce the capital value of the company, so as to avoid paying so much in taxation. Now the company will only have to pay taxation on the profits it make 3, and yet, says the Mail, there are people who say the change will drive capital away.

Free Railway Carriage. —Mr O'Connor has given notice to the following motion—" That in order to give an impetous and permanently foster land culture and other industries in the colony all New Zealand products should be crried free of charge upon the railways of the colony, and that a commercial marine service be organised to connect with the railways ; also that the revenue required to provide interest and maintenance short of that derived from other sources in- this service be made up from a special land tax." He is understood to be prepared to go further, and to prove by clear demonstration that there is not more reason for charging the people for travelling on their railweiys than there is for charging them for walking or riding or driving on their public roads. He would only have one class of carriage on his free trains, but would have a superior class of carriage and express train, by which people could travel for payment at rate? which would recoup the cost of such j trains. He holds that a system free | conveyance by rail would tend largely to promote the settlement; of the country, and to check the present tendency to concentration of population in large towns .iiul cities. An interesting debate may be expected Avhen this motion shall bo reached on the order paper.

School Concert.—There was a capital attendance at the Temuka school concert, held last night-in the Volunteer Hall, Temuka. Owing to the lateness of the hour at which it was over our report is held over till our next issue.

Alleged Child Murder.—Mary Jane Amos, charged with child murder at Christclmrch, is still unable to appear at the R.M. Court, and the case was further remanded till the 24th. The inquest was also adjourned. The woman is still in the hospital. The Knights of Labour.—The Wellington Knights of Labour are dissatisfied with the Government's financial proposals, and have passed a resolution to bo forwarded to all the Liberal and labor members, objecting to the penny postage, to taxing improvements, to any exemptions at all in the land tax, to a graduated scale instead of a simple uniform rate, and to the proposals under the Land for Settlement Bill. They are of opinion that the Government's proposals bring about little change in the incidence of taxation except in name. Donald Dinnie's Relatives.—The mother of Donald Dinnie, the eelebrated athlete (says the Scottish correspondent of the Otago Daily Times), died on April 11, at Aboyne, aged 81. She seems to have been a remarkable person, but her husband, who survives her, is more wonderful still. He has been a sufferer from dropsy for seven years, and during the past three years of that period no less than 700 gallons of water were drawn from him by tapping. No wonder it is stated that " his case is regarded as one of the most wonderful in the annals of medical practice." He is the only man now living who knew " Old Dhubrach," the last survivor of the rebels who were "out" in 1745. Donald, the athlete, is the eldest of a family consisting of eight sons and two daughters—all distinguished by their physique.

Sir Charles Dilke. Sir Charles Dilke has written a letter to the Lyttelton Times denying that he was convicted by a jury. He says: Crawford v. Crawford aud Dilke my name was struck out with costs, and the Judge said there was nothing for me to meet. The newspapers differed, and by hard work I induced the Queen's Proctor to intervene. In the case Crawford v. Crawford, the Queen's Proctor intervening, the Jury were directed that if they had a doubt the Queen's Proctor's intervention must be dismissed. It was dismissed, with no expression of opinion by the Jury on the point, or as to me. I had been refused leave to be a party to the case, both by the Divisional Court and by the Court of Appeal, i.e., I had tried to be put back as co-respondent into a position in which a verdict could have been found for or against me, and had failed on technical grounds."

Trouble In Samoa.—News comes from Samoa of the defection of Mataafa, who was recognised by the Malietoa natives as king during the absence of the sovereign. Malietoa commanded him to come to Apia, but he refused, saying he would either be sent away in the German warship or hanged. A Consular meeting has been held at Apia and preparations made for any emergency. The disaffected natives are assembling at Mataafa's place, and are urging others to join the rebellion. The representatives of the three Great Powers have issued a proclamation, saying no king will be recognised but Malietoa, and anyone rebelling will be punished. The alarmist reports are discounted to some extent by the news that Mataafa himself paid the taxes.

SYNOPSIS OP ADVERTISEMENTS.

Wesleyan Church, Temuka—Services for to-morrow.

Box 10, Geraldine—Single man wanted as gardener, etc.

A. E. Cox—Geraldine live stock sale on Wednesday next. J. MundeU & Co.—Geraldine live stock sale on Wednesday next. Primitive Methodist Church—Sunday services Geraldine and Temuka.

H. B. Webster & Co.— Advertise entries for Geraldine Stock Sale. A. W. Gaze, Agent, Temuka—Notice to farmers re expert of Buckeye Company. _ Davies & Murphy, Drapers and Clothiers, Timaru—Notice re great stocktaking sale and special price for dressmaking. Christchurch Surplus Drapery Company, Storey’s Buildings, Temuka—Are selling goods at “ clearing-out ” prices during last few days of sale. James Craigie, S.C. Glass, Paints, and Paperhangings Warehouse, Timaru —ls selling paperhangings at reduced prices to make room for expected arrivals.