Local Intelligence.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 379, 5 August 1874, Page 2

Local Intelligence.

A VERY interesting and instructive lecture was delivered at Olarks Flat School ou the evening of Friday last by the Rev. Mr. Skinner, M.A., of AVaitahuna, on the "Life of Kitto." There was a large attendance, the Rev, Mr. Cameron in the chair. The reverend lecturer placed the suggestive life of the great Biblical critic in so entertaining a form before his audience as to rivet their attention throughout. The depicting of' the painful, joyous, and humorous sceres in Kitto's life w rt s skilfully handled, and seemed much appreciated by all present. In the course of the lecture, attention was called to recent editions of Kitto"s works, which were strongly reconimeued for perusal. At its close, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to the lecturer for his able lecture. In acknowledging a vote of thanks which was cordially given to him as Chairman, nnd which was proposed by Mr. Bryrlie, the Eev. Mr, Cameron expressed the opinion that he consideied lectures like the one they had listened to that night, admirably adapted for elevating the tastes of the people —young and old, and decidedly preferable to the somewhat sensational programmes that are too often offered at social gatherings in the Colonies. The Rev. Mr. Menzies is expected to deliver the next lecture, which will be accompanied by magic lantern illustrations. Ouß Tap.inui correspondent sends us the following paragraph :— On Fiiday evening last the Old Identities held a ball and supper in the Tapanui Town Hall, to which many of the New Identities had been invited. 4.11 passed of well as we understand that eatables were in good demand, drinkables moved off easily, soles were buoyant, partners much asked for, bows (beaux) active, smiles bright" and spirits light. Well done, Old Identities ! Fat Cattle are very scarce throughout thi s part of the Province owing no doubt to the runholders clearing off their stock to make way for sheep. The, scarcity promises to raise the price considerably. Some of the butchers in this locality intend raising the price of beef from 6d to 8d per pound. A Waitahuna correspondent furnishes us the following communication : — The meeting advertised in the Tuapbka Times of Ist inst«, to be held this evening at Havelock, for the parpose of forming an 1.0. G.T. Society, has, at the request of several persons who are interesting themselves in the movement, been postpoued. as a public meeting wilL be held in the schoolhouse, Waitahuna, to make a selection of the 3000 acres of land, reserved by resolution of Provincial Council, for permanent commonage for the Township of Havelock. The meeting is likeiy to be a stormy one, as opinions are al« ready divided as to whether the land will be for the sole use of those resident at the township, or wh.eth.er it wiU be open to. all whQ have

stock grazing in tli<s district. Tlie pablic lniud is greatly disturbed at present, owing to tlie large number of applications that have been sent into the Waste Land Board, to purchase land on the Wuituhuna district, as ie is the opinion of some here, *ell able to judge, that many of the sections applied for inolude much known auriferous land— the effect of selling which, will be to cause a number of persons to leave the district as soon as their present claims are worked out. One individual who has a claim situated within on.fi of the sections applied for, reckons his earnings for the last twenty months something like twelve hundred pounds. He has I learn furnished a statement of his receipts to the Waste Land Board, to see if it will have the effect of causing them to consider the result of the ruinous policy of selling the auriferous land on the goldfields ; but from the reports of the meetings which appear in your Dunedin contemporaries the miners have little to expect from them, as some of the members I noticed, at a late meeting of the Board, expressed themselves in favor of selling all the land on the goldtields. A CORRESPONDENT of a contemporary, writing from Welling ton, says : "Mr. Holloway is here at present, and evidently is being earwigged by the runholding party and capitalists; I hope the poor man will have penetration to see through their aims, but I have my doubts, it is painful to hear men professing liberality of sentiment to their poorer brothers in representation of the English laboring class , and then as soon as his back is turned the whole thing is turned into ridicule. Ouly fancy, he was taken to the meeting of the Philosophical Institute at the Museum on Saturday night, and formally introduced with a scientific man— Mr. Berrgren, shown as a specimen, as I heard some remark, We (" Guardian ") have been favored with the results of a parcel of gold sent from this Province to the Royal Mint, Melbourne, for coinage. The results are given as follows: — Rough description, before melting, 72'300z. ; after melting, 69'880z ; assay report of gold, "9405; report of silver," "050, standard gold, 71.697 ; fine silver allowed. 2"09. Standard gold at £3 17s 10^3 per ounce, £279 3s 5d , fine silver at ss. pei 1 ounce, 10s. 5d ; total, £279 13s lOd. Deduct Mint charges, at s>l per ounce, £1 9s lOd ; Mint value, £278 4s. Charges : Discount, 7 per cent, on 11 days, lls 9d ; bank exchange, half per cent, £1 7s 7d ; duty £7 4s ; freight, 16s 6J ; insurance, stamps, and charges, £1 Is 6d • net proceeds. £267 8s Bd., at the rate of about £3 14s 3d per ounce. On a question being put by Mr. Luckie in the Assembly, the Premier explained that the Government were much indebted to Mr. Lemon for his valuable services in regard to the duplex telegraphs, and had signified the same by a vote |of thanks from the Cabinet. He suggested to Mr. Lemon the advisability of taking out a patent, but as he was not actuated by pecuniary gain, he" "allowed the Government to have any benefit derivable therefrom. The invention, he explained., was not new, as it is in work in several places, but the details of working it out, he believed, were entirely Mr. Lemon's invention. No other special recognition of Mr. Lemon's services had been made. The arrival of the Peter Denny and Mairi Bahn (writes the *' Guardian ") has intensified the difficulty of procuring accommodation for the large numbers of new arrivals. At present the Barracks are pretty well filled, and are therefore incapable of receiving any more The Quaratine Island is in the same shite, as all the available accommodittion there is engrossed by the immigrants who camo by the Ca.rr.sbum. It will be thus seen that there is. no public building available for those who arrived on Sunday last. We hear that it is contemplated to fit up the Headquarters Diill-shed in a temporary manner for the purpose of providing for some of the new-comers. It is estimated that the Drill-shed will hold about 250 persons. The two sections of land in the township of Roxburgh which were advertised in the " Gazette'" for sale on Monday last, were not put up in consequence of the Government having granted the application of the inhabitants for them to be reserved as a site for an Athenaeum There were no cases in the Resident Magistrates Court, Roxburgh, on Tuesday last. A correspondent writes:— A sale of town sections took place at Ettrick on Monday last j thirty-seven of which were bought by Mr. Clarke's agent,. Mr. Kitching. The prices ranged from the upset price to £35 per senfcion, One was puichased by Mr. K. M'Leod, aud the remaining two were bought, we understand, as a s ite for the Roman Catholic chapel. Those who have already invested in sections here and and have been striving to make a home for themselves in the expectation of the place becoming a flourishing township, naturally feel very much disgusted, on their hopes been dashed to the ground in consequence of the action taken by such a prominent member of the squatoeracy, who, apparently, not satisfied with grabbing all the agricultural and pastoral land he can .lay his hands on, must needs buy up town sections for his sheep and cattle to graze on, or perhaps for another reason, viz., to drive everyone he can away from the place. And yet these aie they who call out for more immigrants The Milleiy Flat punt from the TVviot road is now completed and in working order. The punt is capable of crossing eight tons at one time and will no doubt be a great boon to settlers on the East bank of the river. The Alexandra punt is now fitted with gates at both ends. This is setting a good example to proprietors of ferry's on the rivers of the Colony,, as fatal accidents have occured through persons walking over the end of the staging into the water. Mr. Hazlett's well known Racehorse Atlas is running in a paddock on tlie Dunstau FlatThough he has not quite recovered from the the accident he met with at the Cromwell meet, ing, be will no doubt be fit to run before the end of the coming season. The Clyde Brass Band have now attained a good state of efficency. A Ball for their benifit takes place to-day aud we have no doubt the money thus realised will be an incentive to the members to attain even a greater state of efficency. We hope the Lawrence band will follow in the steps of the gentlemen who compose the Clyde band. Thkke is every ])i obability of a bridge being bmlt over the Molyneanx at Clyde at no distant date. A site has been selected by the corporation who intend borrowing money for the work. Mr, J. R. Kkmp has now completed his large hotel, on Bald Hill Flat. The building, which has taken some eighteen months to construct, is the largest roadside hotel between Dunedin and Queenstown. We trust the proprietor will meet with the patronage from the travelling public which his enterprise deserves. From advertisement it will be observed that Mr. Rlichelsen, Colporteur for the Otago Bible, Book, and Tract Society, has arrived in Lawrence, where he has opened a. depot next to Mr, Crow's, Ross Place, for the sale of the books, &c, of the Society. The Society's ohcular states that as the object of the promoters of the Institution is one entirely of a Christian and ber.evoleut character, it will be their aim to make the scale of prices as low as possible.

We regret that \va cannot find space in the present issue, owing to the lateness of the hour, for our report of the adjourned quarterly meeting of subscribers to the funds of our local Hospital, which was held last evening in the Commercial Assembly Room. The large attendance present, showed the great interest evinced in the subject which it was expected would be discussed, and which, has been the topic of conversation amongst subscribers for months past, viz., the excessive consumption of alcoholic and other drinks in the institution. IS. H. Carew, Esq., President of the institution, occupied the chairIt was not thought necessary to read the Visiting Committee's report, as full publicity had been given to it ; but the Chairman read the recommendations of the Committee, which the meeting could approve of or otherwise. Before entering ujjon the discussion of these recommendations, the Rev. Mr. Menzies, on behalf of the subscribers, moved that a hearty vote of thanks be accorded to the Visiting Committee for their report. Mr. M'Coy seconded the motion, which was carried. The Rev. Mr. Menzies, after a short speech, in which he disclaimed being actuated by auy but the purest motive, namely, a sense of his duty as a subscriber to the Hospital moved that all paid officers of the Institution be called upon to resign. The motion was seconded by Mr. W. H. Cox pro forma to elicit discussion. Mr. Fraer questioned whether the subscribers had the power to elect office-bearers. An ordinance had been passed by the Provincial Council at its last session investing that power in the hands of the Committee, but he was not aware whether it had received the Governor's assent. At this stage of the proceedings the question was raised as to who had power to vote at tbe meeting. The rules and ordinances were referred to, after which the chairman ruled that none but contributors, these being persons who had paid their subscriptions since the first of January of the current year had the right to vote at the meeting. This ruling placed the meeting and the committee in a very peculiar position, as only one gentleman present, Mr. Jamison, had paid j his subscription during the current year, thus leaving the meeting powerless to do anything. If the ruling is correct we question whether the members of committee have any business to occupy the position they do. The most of them qualified themselves to act this year by paying one guinea in December last, so that unless they paid an additional subscription during the current year they, according to the President's ruling, are not qualified to act as members of committee, and their actions during the current year must therefore be illegal. There being apparently ,no way out of the difficulty, the President vacated the chair, which brought a very unsatisfactory meeting to a close. We shall give a full report of the meeting in our next issue, and point out the course we think should be adopted. A correspondent writes ;— A meeting of tbe Waitahuna District School Committee whs held in the Schoolhouse, on Monday, August 3rd. The members present were Messrs. Ferris, Browne, Bushe, Cairns, M'Taggart, and Moggnth (Secretary). Minutes of previous meeting -were rear! and connimed. A letber was read fiom J. Hislop, Esq., on the subjucfc of building a new school at Havelock, in which the writer stated that the plans and specifications would he prepared at once with the view of culling for tenders and proceeding with its erection. An application from Mrs. Boult to have four of her children admitted as free scholars was received, and on the motion of fllv. Cairns it was resolved to comply with the request — the Secretary to intimate the same to il/rs. Boulfc ana the teaclier. The transaction of some other unimportant business brought the meeting to a close.* There will be a circuit! sil-ting of the Supreme Court, for the disposal of criminal nnd civil business at Lawrence, on Tuesday, the 15th September. At present there are only two cases on the criminal list. There is the charge against John Cowan of maliciously wounding a cow, on which charge he was committed for trial at Lawrence on the 24th March last. Youck Lowe is accused of stealing a cheque and certain articles of wearing apparel from the stables of Messrs. Chaplin and Co., at liound Hill, Waitahuna. The accused was committed for trial at Lawrence on 29th May last.