Local Intelligence.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 302, 8 November 1873, Page 2

Local Intelligence.

A circuit court sitting of the Supreme Court, for the despatch of criminal and civil business, will he held at Lawrence ou the &th December. Monday, the 10th inst., will be observed as a general holiday in Lawrence, to celebrate the Prince of Wales' birthday. At the present time there are 5 sluioing claims at work in Wetherstonas. A few parties are tunnelling in the spurs, A large party of Chinamen ha.ye set in on the flat, opposite the Waipori road, but with what result is only ki 0 vn to themselves. We' are infpnned that the mason work of the Beaumont bridge will be finished in about a month from the present date. As yet, none of the timber for the bridge is on the ground. Messes. O'N,eiii, of Tuapeka flat, washed-up recently, and obtained results which exceeded their expectations. Water with them is plentiful, and they are enabled to put through a large quantity of stuff* The " Tmthaeeker," No. 1., we have received. It is published in Dunedin, and is printed with . good type and on good paper. It contains about six original articles and nvany quoted contributions. Its object ia tbe dissemination of the opinions of every scot, and of persons who haire no sect at all. The conductor believes that truth must result from the collision of many opinions on many subjects. This addition to New Zealand periodical literature is : evidently one of the rationalistic signs of the times, To destroy religious, fabrics already built, but to supply no substitute, is one of the most marked signs of these latter days of free thought, so called. Two-thirds of the residents of Lawrence, under Mr. Fox's Permissive Bill, if thay ohoose, when the legal opportunity, offers, can shut up the house of any publioan on whom they might wish to to poor the viakof their wrath. Qi course, & large number of preliminary blunders will be committed in carrying oat this new measure, and we will not attempt to criticise its effect in advance. T&E roof of the new Independent Church is up, and the walls are assuming higher proportions daily. Oamaru boasts of three wellrepresented sects, Tacher^aa Lawrence has five separate churches, and thhs classification refers to the congregations, not merely to buildings, Thb "Guardian" styles Mr. Hislop "late Inspector of Schools.*' Wo neyet heard of Ml-.M 1 -. Hisloji'a forirtHJL resignation, of the office of Sohool Inspector. Much, of the financial . sucoess of Mr. Armstrong's second lecture was caused by the winning, energies of two ladies resident in Lawrence. We nbtioe in the Provincial Government " Gazette" that tendeis are invited for pitching and gravelling 73. chains of road from Lawrence to Evans Flat. We are informed that Mr, Thomas Elliot sold his share in Livingston, and party's claim yesterday for the large sum of £600. Mr. Jenkin Evans was the purchaser. A CONCKEi; and ball is announced to take place on the 14th maiaot. at Waitahuna, in aid of che Tuapeka Hospital and Otago Benevolent Asylum-. The All Nations Lodge of Good Templars, Port Chalmers, held their quarterly meeting on Wednesday evening last. There was a good attendant of member*. The Secretory'! report wiu very satisfactory. It stated the Lodge was opened on the 27th of last August; with lg mem- ■ bers, and hqs faeld four meetings since. It now nftmherß 33 r and has a good, sum of money in hand. The installation waa conducted by Bro* ther Adams, L.D.. and. Brother Alexander, G.W.M. We have been informed that Mr' Adams (to whom allusion is made in the foregoing paragraph) is the gentleman who will probably visit Lawrence on Monday next, for the purpcae of opening the first T»»pek* Di*> triflt liOdgdfff Qood TproplftTH,, j

TfiEahowery weather of latefe making grain and other crops flourish, amazingly, notwithstanding the comparatively late season. Ko doubt, growing crops will make up for lost time ; grass is very plentiful, and stook of all descriptions are looking the better for it MSBSB& Codtts & Eostiok have completed another contract of 121 feet at the Walahs Gully tunnel, making the total length driven 571 feet from the mouth of the drire. The ground is hard, and very fall of qa»rtz veins. Mb. Alex. Cormaok is the successful ten* derer for the Blue Spur School— the amount of tenJer being £178 10s. We understand that the achcol will be shut up during the alterations ; and that the teachers and children contemplate, at least, a month's holiday, instead of at Christmas. It is expected the contractor will be ready to pull down the old building by next Monday fortnight, at which time the teachers and children will have to v clear out." Messrs Sutherland, Bussell, and party are proceeding rapidly with their sub-contract for the construction of the Lawrence end of the railway, -they are at present employed cutting throvigii a. spur adjacent to the YYetUeratoaes road. At Qur local brewery, Messrs Bastings and Kofoed have n.ow on hand for the summer trade a large stock of the now famous Black Horse beer , also, bottled beer and porter equal to any sent out oi Dunedin. These gentlemen deserve support. They have not spared expense or trouble in their endeavour to turn out a first" class article. A large number of people availed themselves of the luxury of a bath this week. The dam constructed for the purpose was- finished last Saturday by the contractor, Mr. Watson, who has made an excellent job of it. There is nine feet of water on the face, gradually tapering off to a depth of 12 inches, thus making it perfectly safe for boys who have not learned the useful art of swimming. From, an advertisement, it will be seen that the promoters intend offering prizes for swimming during the summer. We are requested to notify that though Mr. 4. H. Burton fof Burton Brothers, photographers) has found it necessary to go down to Dunedin to-.day, he will return to Lawrence on Saturday next, the lath instant. In a conversation which we lately had with the Government Chinese Interpreter, we drew the inference that many of the roots of Chinese words bear a. remarkable similarity to Greek, but, in any one example, we failed to discern that the language of the Celestials had even the slightest analogy to th.c Irish, French, or Latin languages. In a Chinese case, heard this week in' the Lawrence Warden's court, the Chinese Interpreter, Mr. Blewitt, spoke at considerable length ou the negligence of two .Chinese. He also remarked that ho impcrrilled to a great extent his life, whilst searching for miners' rights among a hamlet of half -civilized men, as he went amongst them single-handed, and did not know the moment they might turn round on him and assault him. The Dunedin Orange men have been making fools of themselves by celebrating Guy Fawkes Day. It is difficult to realise the fact that such arrant two-legged donkeys could exist anywhere within the limits of civilization. What have colonists of a new country to do with Guy Fawkes and a plot concocted man) years ago in a very differently-circumstanced purt of the world, and ttt a tiro,e when education was confined to a few privileged classes ? The Wetherstones readings were held on Thursday night ; there was a good attendance, and a fair progtarnine. Ttttc Birmingham- Nonconformists cLo nob want sectarianism to be diffused through a, school like " sugar in a teapot,'" as the Rev. Mr. Beaumont stated. No ; they have provided a par* tition between the secular and the sectarian, system of instruction, by allocating certain hours to Christian teaching. Here is a hint for the Dunedin Episcopalian Synod. Eveky person knows the great legal knowledge as well as the sensitive standard of justice possessed by His Honor Judge Gray, whose early restoration to perfeot health will convey a feeling of unfeigned delight from the utmost limit of New Zealand civilisation to the extreme outposts of population in the Australias. But the absorbing character of everyday business may have preventel many people from noticing the very beautiful, because strictly appropriate, figures of speech used by His Honor, parenthetically, in the course of a trial. Ky a felicitous, rhetorical image, he frequently condenses a perfect world of beautiful and yet highly logical thought Men like His Honor are exceptional men, the mere memory of whom is. better than the- actual presence of inferior people. There are some very beautiful samples of North Island flax at the Athenauin. This collection of p?iormivm tcno& has been washed and scraped by a Maori woman of OtakL It is not a new addition to the Atbenieum, b»fc it will be new to strangers ; and- in view of the fact that, ere long, wo will probably wear shirts, and read newspapers, and sleep on sheets made of New Zealand flax, too much stress oannot be laid on this splendid raw material. We are informed that ladies' wigs are made of this literally beautiful material, and, as barristers in New Zealand are getting very plentiful, we things -that it frould be botU j«aioioua »ntl judioial, if our limbs of the law would encourage the manufacture of wigs made of New Zealand flax. Thb Heart of Oak crashing at Cromwel yielded 109 ozs. , nearly 1 oz. to the ten. At the sitting of th« Waste Lands Board held last week, Mr. James Smith's application to purchase part of block L. Waitahnna West, was favourably conaidei&l, and the Board resolved that a atrip of land should be sold to Mr. Smith, as giving the best boundary, at £1 pe r per acre, Sonje little time ago this application was before the Board, and if we mistake not refused, owing to a. petition, against it from the settlers and mineia residing on the Tuapeka River. At all events,- we. know- for a certainty that a promise was made, to the petitioners that the application would not be granted until they were consulted in the matter. Bat notwithstanding this, the land is granted to Mr. Smith, and the petition of a large number of persons interested in the fond in question set at nonght. It has always Beeroed to us a very strange thing that mnholders nave so very little difficulty in taking advantage of the clause* permitting the Waste Lands Board to sell land on the goldfields, while the man of small means oannot, -without the greatest difficulty, not even with the money in hiß hand, get his hind purchased after he has occupied it three yearn. In justice to. Mr. Bastings, we should say that he dissented from the decision of the other members of the Board. At the-last meeting of the Waitahuna Board of Wardens, it ttaa stated that the Beceiter of Revenue, Lawrence, had been requested to forward all applications in time for the meeting of the Board, . and that the applications had not been forwarded* Out report should" have read, ''The applications had not been received," and the causto of their non-receipt is not attributable, we are informed, to tbs Receiver of Revenue at Lawrence, as he dispatched the Applications on the 3lßt ult., and they were received by the postmaster at Havelock on the following morning, as the waybill shows. In justice to Mr. Abel we qiake the foregoing explanation*

Mb. J. 0. Bbowk lately attracted oar attention to the new crest adopted by the Lawrence Athensßdra Committee. Its outline consists cf ft buckle arranged in oval shape, and, in superficial si2e, of the dimensions of a pallet's first egg. At the top, within the buoile, is a figura of the sun, evidently setting in the west in a perfeot halo of light. Beneath the sun is » shield, emblaeoned by five bright particular stars, and tbe beautiful motto fidt Imdb, in a ribbon, floats beneath the shield. From advertisement it will be seen that appeals will he heard against the Municipal as* Sessment on Friday, 14th inst,, before the Resident Magistnate. The Right Rev. Bishop Moron conducted a special service in the Lawrence Roman Oatholio Church, on Wednesday evening? There was a large and attentive congregation, amongst whom were several ladies and gentlemen, who were not connected with the Church. The rev. gentleman delivered an appropriate and impressive address, in which he directed the minds of his hearers to those troths Which wete calculated to prepare their minds for the solemn ceremony in which they were to join with him— namely, the consecrating and setting up of the different stations in the progress of the Holy Cross. The necessity for prayer in the religions life was specially emphasised, and he referred to its power when viewed as meditative and supplicatory. The meditative branch of prayer necessitates the adoption of supplicatory prayer, and both were essential for all who desired with gcod effect to follow him through the different stations of the Holy Cross, which he would consecrate and set up. By devoutly applying their minds to this work, they would thereby receive the benefits and indulgences which wero provided for the faithful by the Holy Church. His reverence evidently created a very deep impression on the minds of his listeners. The special object of his visit was the location in the Church of a series of beautiful illustrations of all the incidents of the ' ' Cross and Passion " of our Saviour. The service received additional attraotion from the music which was introduced. The vocal efforts of a choir of juveniles is worthy of special and honorable mentirtii. Bishop Mornn conveys the impression of being a prelate who has a mind richly cultivated. His eloquence is judiciously condensed, and be is well endowed with the power of" sc curing and keeping the individual attention of old and young. He is. we leain, now engag^^b in consecrating a church at the Arrow. Cobb & Co.'B coach was delayed one houy yesterday evening by one of the thorough braces breaking, arriving in Lawrence at 5. 30. Mb. J. P. Armstrong desires us to intimate that his stay in Lawrence will not extend over the early part of next week. A Weathehstones correspondent asks us the following question :—": — " What have tho Weatheretonos Progress Committee done with the money collected for the footpath between Weatherstones and Lawrence t" Have thdy lent it out On interest ? Mb. WniTTET is the successful tenderer' for the Lawrence Gaol. The price £549. Some of the material is already on the ground and "work is commenced. Mr, John Armstrong delivered a Becond lecture, composed of fresh materials, before a highly respectable audience, at the Lawrence AtheusHim hall, yesterday evening. On. account of the lecture having terminated at a late hour on the evening preceding our day of issue, we are" compelled to postpone the publication 'of our report, which will appear in our next issuei Thk Gabriels Gully Quartz Co. have commenced preparations" for work at their lower level. The inclined tramway has been taken up and the treble work removed, and the liae from the Clarks Hill tunnel" etecied out to the hopper. Next Monday, the Company will recommence sinking the winze, now down 6S feet, to. meet the rise to be put up from tho tuunel, and expect to be "able to make a start at crushing in two or three we'efes time. The Clarks Hill Conipany is. now in about the line of the reef 5 and, early next week, Mr. Adams will take a survey of the tunnel to ascertain tho exact relative positions of* the vriuzis and thd tunnel. At a. meeting of the directqra, held last Thursday, it was* resolved td continue the driving, but to addpt a smaller size of tunnel, so as to secure diminished extjenditure.