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Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1113, 12 August 1879, Page 2

The public are cautioned that the bridge known as the Old Waitoa Bridge in the . Piako district is unsafe for traffic. Me McMinn will meet the electors of Waipa in the Publio Hall, Te Awamutu on Saturday afternoon next the 16th inst. Mb Hugh Fitzgerald has been appointed collector and valuer to the i Cambridge District 'Highway Board. Applications for the office of surveyor and Engineer to the Waikato County Council will be received up to the 4th prox. Tendeees for draining 100 chains more or less are called for by Mr Sturges, of Pukerimu. The Oddpellows celebrate the Annivesary of the Loyal Diike of Cambridge Lodge with a ball this evening in the Public Hall, Cambridge. Tenders for supplying timber, tar and nails required for kerbing the footpaths from the Bank of New Zealand to Le . Quesne's corner will be received by the Town Clerk of the Borough of Hamilton up to noon of Monday next. Objections to Land Tax. — Valuations will be heard for Waipa to-day at the Ohaupo salerooms and to-morrow for Waikato and Hamilton Borough at their respective Council Chambers ; for Piako at the Waitoa schoolhouse on Friday. It. has been decided to hold the Annual Cattle Show carried out under the auspices of the Cambridge Farmers' Club on Thursday, the 23rd of October, at Cambridge. Me N. R. Cox's New Stoee. — The new brick premises being erected for Mr N. R. Cox, at the corner of Victoria and | Hood streets, are now progressing to a state that the public can have some idea of the architect's design. It will certainy be one of the most imposing stores in the province, and the facilities for showing the various classes of goods for sale, we may venture to assert, has not been surpassed or even equalled in the colonies. The corner of the two streets will form a guadranit of 16 feet 3 inches radius, in which the architect has, by a very ingenious bressummer, avoided the necessity to carry the upper part of the structure by the tisual massive brick or stone piers which are more generally in vogue, and thereby obtained an uninterrupted continuation of the glass round the quadrant. The bressummer referred to, is constructed with laminated pieces of 4 x 8 kauri, forming three cheeks each, 18 by 4, between which are placed wrought iron flitch plates, the whole boltcd.horizontally and vertically together, and supported by cast-iron columns, which are concealed by the sash-bars. The plate-glass used, amounts to nearly 700 superficial feet. The way the works are being carried out, do the greatest credit to both the Architect, Mr T. H. White, and the Contractor) Mr J. Thorp. Reduced Telegraph Charges. — Replying to Mr Swanson, in the House, on Friday, "If he will cause inquiry into the expediency of reducing the charge on telegrams for short distances, and if found to be consistent with the efficiency of the department, will he "five effect to it?" the Commissioner of Telegraphs said, he would institute an inquiry into the matter, and the request would probably be complied with. Referring to the Thames- Waikato Railway affair, the ' New Zealand Times ' of Friday, has a strong article on the subject, in which it says: — "Reverting to the evidence, it will be seen that the draughtsman employed recognised the transaction as a swindle, and will not swear that. the alteration was made prior to the 10th ; that Sir George Grey was being pressed to start this line at the very time this forged map was being prepared ; that he himself admitted that it was then unauthenticated ; that the chief engineer has reported on the best route for a mile and a-half only, instead of for the whole line, to take ; that no survey, plans, or estimates had been prepared prior to the end of last session, and only nine miles have been surveyed since; that a large excess of expenditure beyond the sum conditionally voted has been entered into, the legal conditions attached to the grant having been recklessly sot at naught. The Ministerial organs have often complained that this journal was always holding forth about certain 'jobs.' We are inclined to adopt the professional term applied to this transaction as the most likely to meet the circumstances of the case, and to call it henceforth the ' great Grahamstown swindle.' We have ' have heard it said that almost any lawyer can drive a coach- and-f our through an Act of Parliament. We doubt very much whether the combined efforts of the Premier, the Minister for Public Works, and the Under-Secretaiy will prove equal to the task of driving the Grahamstown railway through the Railway Construction Act."

The Kiwi Flour Mills. — Messrs Riddler and Diilton havo leased the above mills, now known as the Excelsior Flour Mills, from Captain Beere and are prepared to execute orders and to purchase wheat. Mr Dalfcou has had large experience in Auckland as a miller and the flour which he is now producing from the Exelsior Mill is pronounced by those who havo given it a trial to be equal to tho best brands imported into the district. If Messrs Eidler and Diilton can ensure this, they deserve, as they will doubtless receive, a large measuro of local support. At ,the "Waste Lands Board meeting on Thursday, a petition was received from a mfcnbor of "Waixato settlers applying for land near the Whangape block, under the deferred payme&it system, and praying that the road to the limestone country might be opened as speedily as possibly.— It was agreed that the Minister of Lands should hand the land over to the Waste Lands Board, so that the lands may bo offered for sale and selection, and that a copy of the petition be forwarded to the Government. The application from Mr Gr. V. StewaYt for land, for a special settlement, near Whangape lake, was refused. It was stated that the Minister of Lands would at once place tho Ngaruawahia suburban lands in th« hands of the Board, so that they could be dealt with'. TnE Waipa Constituency. — Mr James Cunnningham'B announcement of his intended candidature for the Waipa constituency has been quickly followed by that of another ".up-country settler, Mr Hungerford Roche. Mr Roche will address the electors at' the Public Hall, Te Awamutu on Saturday, next and at Ohaupo on the following Mondciy. Members of tho Hamilton Infantry Volunteers will do well to visit Mr Martin's Store and get measured for their uniforms before the 15th mst. as on that date the measures will be forwarded to England wherejthe uniforms will be made. Those not getting measured will havo to take chance fits and the consequence may be that their saits will cost them as much to be made a fit as their original price. The Concert and Dramatic Performance held on Friday night last in Le Quesne's Hall in aid of the funds of the Hamilton Ladies' Benevolent Society was one of the most successful affairs of the kind which has' been got up for a long time. Although.but very short notice was given to the public and the performers — so short that the latter had scarce opportunity to arrange a couple of practises —the singing was excellent and the acting decidedly good. The first part opened with an overture from Romeo and Juliet, pianoforte and flute, and was followed by a glee, Li which six ladies and gentlemen took part, "The Morning Dawn." The voices went well together, and the gleo was rendered with very good effeot, but with not nearly so much so as was the second glee towards the end of the first part by the same performers, "In That Softened Hour Of Splendour" which was beautifully sang and brought down the house. A solo, the " Last Rase of Summer" was sung by a lady amateur with cultivated taste and exquisite feeling, and "The Mountebank" an operatic selection, we believe, from Belphegor, by a lady whose rich contralto voice is always enlisted to with pleasure, produced an encore which could not be denied, and the second song "Wings" was almost more vociferously applauded than the first. Mr H. Steele acquitted himself well in a capital song and was also encored. The first part of the entertainment concluded with an overture "The Magic l Flute." Altogether the concert was very successful and much of this success was due no doubt to the excellence of the accompanyist Mr T, Bell. There is an art in accompanying which is very seldom met with andwhich indeed can only be looked for from a thorough musician and a master of the instrument, and this Mr Bell showed that he possessed in an eminent degree, making the instrument subservient, and at the same time an auxiliary to the voice. Too many accompanyists sacrifice the voice to the instrument, but it was not so on Friday evening, and on more than one occasion we noticed the singer helped over a weak note as a good rider lifts his horse at" a fence. At the second part the curtain rose to -the farce of "Taming a Tiger," the part of the irascible old Indian Nabob. being taken by Mr Peter Walker, that of his servant by Mr Henry Steele, and Beeswing by Mr Field. The make up was excellent, and the acting really good. All there were as well up in their several parts as though the piece had had a hundred nights run and the curtain fell amidst the hearty applause of an appreciative audience. The proceeds amount to some :£ls, the expenses to £i. r The latter have been considerably curtailed by the liberality of Mr Le Quesne, the 1 proprietor of the hall, who made a remission of £1 in the charge for the hall, and who gave the sum of £1 to the funds of the Society on hehalf of Mrs Le Quesne. Mr Ruge, too, who assisted in the get-up of the performers in the farce, also gave hisservices gratuitously.