Local and General.
Clutha Leader, Volume VIII, Issue 430, 6 January 1882, Page 6
About this newspaper
Local and General.
. . .---■■-r£tif*i;,f:- jj- i, i_,_*-; =•.-=-> ;--H"- -■; :.■ i, 4 ,.H (i ; ; Hardest hag eommeneed in several district* of Canterbury. / . . J Fire* bav# thi* week occurred at Aucklaod,^y^Ujngton. aud Greyrown. ■: Tir&tmh* cases of smallpox .are reported from Sydney, and one death has reinlted from the duease. , „ /The i p^»St;«nthi» working r^llwvy* of ' Victoria dming th* past year, amounted to L 679,000, equal to 3| per cent, on the ? - cipitaL . ;.-./. 'r-.r ...... :" V William Short, a wood carter at Auckland, has been accidentally drowned at Mannkiu attempting to swim to a marred pl^asure-bo-it. Up:i» tH«j pressnt time it has cost the Government of New South Wales a sum of Lso,ooot<> try aad r.ampout the smallpox disease. The body of Bain, the borough messenger of Hokitika, who had bean missing for sometime, was found the other morning on the North Beach. A sad accident happened at the Bluff regatta on Tuesday. The sea being very lumpy, three out-riggers capsiz-fd^ with the. result that one man, Mr A. Robinson, was drowned. The first tunnel on the Otago Central railway i» now nearly completed, there being only 14ft of grouud to be driven through. The contractor will shortly be in a position to proceed with the driving of the second tnnneL A man named John Lawrie, while standing on the edge of the cliff to the north of Timarn the other day, was precipitated to the rooks beneath, the earth giving way. He was seriously injured, and died shortly after his arrival at the Hospital, A Waimate telegram- in the Lyttelton Times says : — " On Sunday a little girl 11 years of age, named Henrietta Ay ton, was frilled at Deep Creek, near Waimate, by the buggy in which the family were returning from church, coming into contact with a post and throwing her out." j A telegram from flokitika says : Allen i Mid Nbily, the two returning officers who have been all this time in coming overland from Jackson's Biy and Okura, allege that the Blue River, between Haast and Paringa, was so flooded that thuy could not cross, and no ferryman is stationed there. The Lyttelton Times says :— " It is Sir Arthur Gordon's intention, we understand, to take up his abode in Christchurch for a short time, to which end he has already secured a residence. This will not interfere with his visit to England, bnt the trip will he deferred to a slightly later date than was intended." A split has occurred among the Irish Fenia-i8 in America. The League at Montreal threaten to publish a list of all m-.oibers who refuse to give to the dynamite fund established by the Fenian convention recently held at Chicago, the object of which is to destroy public buildings in England and English vessels. The Australian Navigation Company's steamship Wotonga has none ashore jit Port, Macquarie, on the New S.mth Wales coast, and is expected to become a totil wreck. The passengers and crew have been landed safely. The cause of the disaster is attributable to the fog obscuring the lighthouse ay the entrance of the port. A Sparrow Club has been formed at Oanwrii. At a meeting of the Club on Saturday th« ohjiirraan reported that during the week 2970 birds' eggs, an«l 407 heads bad been col'ected, for which the sum of L 5 10s hnd been given. Mr ' Gerameli said th".t he had been authorised by Mr Dimlop to say that he would give a prize of L 5 6s to the boy who, at the end of tlse season, could show a receipt for the largest number of eggs and heads. Tiraarn will be the " sharking ground " of New Zealand soon. An exciting capture was made at the breakwater on Saturday morning. Two men, Messrs Armstrong and Toneycliffe, were standing on the ledge of the foundation blocks, fiohing with stronsj lines, when one of them hooked a shark. It proved so strong that the second fisherman had to hold on to his companion to prevent him being pulled off his perch. After a good tussle, the shark was pulled close in, and then a boat hook was stuck into him, and by means of it the brute was pulled partly into a crevice between the blocks. Two of the contractor's men gave their assistance, and desnatched the fish with an adze. It measured 7ft 6in in length, and when opened 81 young ones, some of them a foot long, were found inside it. Roman society has been startled by the action of Monsignor Enrico di Campello, Canon of St. Peter's, in publicly abjuring the Catholic faith and becoming a Methodist. The lett- r written by the convert to Cardinal Borromeo is of an extraordinary character. He states that he had often meditated such a letter in the time of Pius DC, but a sense of gratitude to one of snch great age stopped him. When Leo XIII. succeeded to the Pontificate, he thought, with others, that a better time for £ne church and country would dawn, but the hope had now be-m dispelled, and nothing was left to him but to carry our his convictions as ;a Christian and an Italian cttizsn. He could no longer consent to remain part of an institution which in secular matters barred the way of progress and liberty, and which placed its ministry iv the middle of society after the manner of nn Indian caste. ! The Norfolk Times thus records the death vnd/fiiherai of a centenarian : -We ; have to record the death of Joseph Ashtori, a linker, and an inhabitant of this parish, at the great age of 112 years, on the Bth bctober. The deceased was buried in this'quiet chnr jhyard on the 13th Oj f ., follo-src'l by his sons, da'i<rh>ers, gra^dchildHn. and ereat-sjm^dchiHr'n, and a large^nnmjter* of people fF«>m nil pnrts o f the cj-unty. The rector, the TJtv. J. SpurgiriVofßciafed;atth4 and a* h was leaving "' the churchyard., he said, Peace be to thee,' memorable old friend;'' ' Upon the coffin was the breastplate, bearing this inscription, " Joseph Athlon died Qct. 8, 1881, aged 112 years," tnd ail ipffWng of a ktftto, .ftwan. wk! a'bftwl-' Th« dec»*»sjsrl h«a travelled v J theEas*t#rS*Cdrtntie9 for a 'great rmmh* "'" of yetari; i&iftf rip t"» a few days of his dvet^ *<- Ke'Vafc 'never kno#S to' hsve had a day' f Sines* iw hntWfe/ and t". *be end he wbk lid in foil t»se of all vis mental powers. Tl»«--j jvo-r^V~»* waa'niuch. respected by ah i *fcQfco#wlfoft,
A publican at christohurch, named James Meagher, of the 1 Sptinj<bton Hotel, has been tiiittd 40s for allowing gambling in hi* bouse. It is rumoured in ; Wellington circulars that our present Governor will shortly be succeeded by Sir Arthur Kennedy now Governor of Queensland. Major Te VVheoro, M.H.8.. for the "Western Maori electorate, entertained 500 of hiß constituents at dinner at 1-tangariri, the other day when the wants of the Natives were discussed. Mr Gordon, one of the defeated candidates for Franklyn North, was summoned at Auckland for neglecting to supply a Hat of the scrutineers employed by him during the election. The Court reserved judgment. The romantic marriage between a young Jewess and a bank clerk at Sydney, which followed an elopement, had a most unhappy termination. The bridegroom died four days after the elopement from heart* disease, making the unfortunate lady a wife and widow the same week. Mr Stone, a gentleman of large experience in valuing diamonds on the- South African goldfields, is now in Auckland, and offers information and advice to miners seeking for precious stones here, believing that the volcanic areas are probably diamond-bearing. H« leaves for the Lakes and the South shortly. At the Police Court Auckland the other day, Donald Watson, a brewer, was fined L2O and costs (L 23 in all) for neglecting to date beer-duty stamps. Several publicans were 1 fined 20* and costs for neglecting to efface beer duty stamps.' Two or three of the prosecutions fell through and the Customs' solicitor gave notice of appeal. The new channel from Port Chalmers to Onnedih was formally opened on Fri* day. Thes.s. Penguin with a large party on board, steamed up the channel, only slightly touching on one side during the passage. On arrival at Dnnedin, the channel was named the "Victoria" by Mrs' Keith Ramsay, who performed the ceremony by breaking a bottle of cham» pagne over the bow of the Penguin. Mr G. L. Mellish, R.M. Christchurch died on Tuesday morning. He had been ill for a long time. Mr Mellish was a native of Guernsey, and an Oxford man As a lieutenant in the army ho saw service in the Crimea, and he also fought in the Waika'o War soon after his arrival in New Z aland. For some time he was settled in Canterbury, and in 1865 he became Resident Magistrate at Picton, whenc •he removed to Kaiupoi. He became Resident Magistrate of Christchurch on December 15th, 1874. He last sat on the Bench on December 19th, and was then s i much exhausted thit he had to be helped home. He was 47 years of age. Mrs Mellish is also very ill. A young man named David Barclay, aged about. 18, a resident of Dnnedin, and a bootmaker by trade, lost his life by drowning at Silverstream on Tue3diy morning. Along with a few others he had been on a rabbit-shooting excursion, and the party camped out all night. Barclay left th« caray about 9.30 a.m. to have a bath in the Silverstream, and, a.3 he did not return, a companion named Henry Wilson went to look for him. Wilson found the body of his friend in the Silverstream ahout a mile above M'Gregor's. Constable Lyons, of Mosgiel, was at. once communicated with, and proceeded to the spot and had the body conveyed to Mosgiel. The deceased's father is a labourer, and we (Daily Timas) believe he resides near the Panama Hotel, in Stuart street. After describing the main features and surroundings of the new township of Rotorna (the World's Bethesda), at the Hot Springs, the N. Z. Herald says: — " With all these natural beauties and wondets, with the luxurious baths, the gardens and the park-like expanses of the reserves, the forest covered hills, the spreading lake with its sweet islet in the centre, and with the township under strict, regulation, Rotorna ought to be the nearest approach we have in this world to Paradiss. It should be for all the purposes of health, for beauty, and for all the am: nities of situation, a unique city. The climate of th« district is delightful, the air clear and bracing throughout the year. Hill and plain, forest and open country diversify the surface, while a short ride brings the traveller in view of the volcano of Tongariro and the snowy-summit of Ruapehu." A correspondent writes as follows to the New Zealand Herald :— " It cannot be too strongly impressed upon officers and Volunteers that they are now liaWe to a very heavy penalty for that which in the past has been done with impunity. For instance, certain members of a corps meet, we will say, for company drill ; being but a few, they decide not to have a drill. The officer or non-commissioned officer takes down the names of those present, and gives them credit in a return for a company drill, unaware of the fact that he is liable to a fine of LIOO for so doinsr — as vide clause 47, ' Volunteer Act, 1881,' The reason why he is liable is this : The Volunteer regulations very properly stipulate that a drill to count as such shall last for a certain time (about an hour) from commencement to finish. A word to the wise is enough so Volunteers b »ware. As the clause in the Act will affect Volunteers in many cases besides such a3 that mentioned above, would it not be well if it were posted in drillsheds and on rifle ranges, so that no one could plead ignorance, which plea, by the way, would not save them V
