TOWN & COUNTRY.

A Departmental paper says that up to 12th December last the Government had paid, as interest on the money borrowed to purchase Pomahaka, £3163 4s Bd, and the rent received from tenants was £1951 2s. Yesterday the railway ballast train men commenced cutting away the clay bank at the old landing shed, to get a few thousand yards of material for the line diversion at Washdyke Creek. The clay is as •• dry as brick," and nearly as hard. The West Coast Times of January 6th, has the following :— Police Inspector Oullen will be removed to Christchurch vice Inspector Broham transferred to Wellington. It is expected Inspector Fender, now m Wellington, will be retired. Captain Edwin forecasted, yesterday, wind between N. and W. andb.W.atall placesduring the next li?hours,butchang. ing after that time to between N.E. and N. and W. at all places southward of Napier and New Plymouth to Timaru andQueenstown. Barometer, further rise everywhere, but falling at all places south of Napier and New Plymouth after 12 hours. Sea heavy on all western coast and between Castlepoint and Kaikoura. Westerly gales are to be expected at all places south of Napier and New Plymouth, with rain m Otago and on the west coast oi the South Island. Mr Leggott, quite an old identity of Timaru, has shown us a curiosity m the shape of copies of a newspaper, The Greyhound Chronicle, published m February, 1865. The "copy" for the paper was written on the voyage of the ship Greyhound, and each MS. day's paper carefully bound, and on arrival at Christchurch the whole was printed and distributed among the passengers. The daily record is interesting reading, the short articles dealing with the voyage, the medical officer's report, astronomy, correspondence on various matters, poetry, humourous paragraphs, etc. Mr Leggott, who was a passenger by the ship, assures us that the paper was eagerly looked for, and helped time to pass very pleasantly. The annual meeting of the Geraldine Terminating Building Society was held on Friday night, when there was a fair attendance, and the chair was occupied by Mr J. W. Pye, chairman of directors. The annual report and balance sheet showed a very satisfactory state of affairs. During the year the society had held three appropriations by sale, on which a profit of £80 10s was made, and the profit of the year after paying off a debt of the previous pear amounted to £95 12s 9d, or a gain of 13s 4d per share. Messrs J. Boughton, T. Bowkett, and T. Kingston were elected directors, and Mr W. M. Moore was appointed shareholders' auditor. A vote of thanks to the chairman and the eecretary concluded the meeting. We learn from a resident of Timaru who had occasion to go to Hilton yesterday on business that the crops there are looking well. He was quite surprised to see such fine lots of oats and wheat, the only failure among the latter being the tuscan variety. Both oats and red wheat are confidently expected to thresh out between 30 and 40 bushels to the acre. The grass seed harvest m the district named has also been very good, and will clean up splendidly. The best crops are back towards the downs, but there are some very good on the lower lands towards Temuka. Another resident who was a passenger by the expresß from the north yesterday informs us that the crops generally m South Canterbury, as seen from the railway, are very much superior to those m North Canterbury. We have received from the publishers, a Wanganui firm, a copy of No. 1 of The Jubilee,— Te Tiupiri, a small Maori newspaper, to be published weekly. It appears to be run by a committee of Maoris, who are named m an article (m English) which shows creditable aspirations together with minute knowledge of the weakness of human nature m regard to "subscriptions." A naive example of the latter is this : *• We would remind our subscribers that it is not well to read out the news of the paper to all and sundry, as that is one evil which may befall our newspaper, and which prevents others from subscribing, but let us act as the Pakeha does, whether a rangatira or otherwise, and let each man get a paper for himself for his own enlightenment," subscription, 12s 6d for twelve months. Most of the contents are m Maori, and as we cannot read it, we are prepared to believe that it would be most interesting matter if we could. The North Otago Times of yesterday says:— lt will be with extreme regret that all who were acquainted with Mr George Dennison, of Hilderthorpe, will hear of his death, which occurred at the Hospital yesterday morning. Mr Dennison was a keen fisherman, and had been out taking part m the fishing bee on Thursday last. On returning home he mounted a pony, which he always rode with a side seat, and went as far as Mr W. Harrison's with a fish. He left to return homo riding m the same way and on the way overbalanced himself and fell backwards on to the road. Mr Dennison was found about two hours afterwards lying helpless on the road. Medical advice was summoned, when it was found that his back was injured, causing paralysis of the greater part of the body. Mr Denm'son was an elderly man, and the shock to the system must have been severe. He has been a resident of Hilderthorpe for many years, and was a genial, kindly disposed man. He took a lively interest m acclimatisation, and was a member of the local Acclimatisation Society.

Mr Moss, the British resident at Inrotonga, sent a month or two back, amples of the various rums m bond at larotonga to Auckland to be analysed. 5y the last trip of the Upolu the result g ( ras received, and it is not at all favourble to the liquors, some of which are r ery inferior. The Mechanics' Institute invite enders for reversion of all the Home n nd foreign papers m the newsroom for his year. Tenders must be addressed c: o the librarian, and fall due at 7 o'clock his evening. The list of papers to be lold can be eeen on applying at the ibrary. We are requested to draw the Borough . Council's attention to the fact that some J1 )f the streets contain ruts so deep that when a wet day comes they will be as ivater-races ; and to suggest that there c s any amount of loose material lying ibout on the same streets, to fill up l ;hose ruts, big as they are, The cylinders for the Government Railway bridge over the Rangitikei r river, which are being made by Messrs ( Luke and Son's foundry, at Wellington, c ire massive, weighing filteen tons when a all the parts are bolted together. Fully 9ix tons of metal are cast every day, a which, a8 may be imagined, gives em- j ployment to a large number of artisans, ( the workshops presenting a very busy i appearance. The sooner the Harbour Board has a bit of shingle strewn over the clay filling on their reclamation and the new street the less discomfort will be caused to * people going about there. Yesterday the ( clay was blowing off m thick streams of ( dust across the wharf. A rain would set the surface, but the good rain does not come, and the shingle will have to be put on m any case. On Saturday a match was played between a team from the Waitohi Tennis Club and the B team of the Waitohi Terrace Club on the courts of the latter, and resulted m an easy victory for the Terrace Club by 136 games to 84. Refreshments were kindly provided by Mrs Orr during the afternoon. The winners were superior all through, winning every set but three, the scoring being-singles 76 to 48, doubles 35 to 24, combined 25 to 12, A well known stock agent accompanied by an equally well known dealer, went out from Wai mate on Saturday last to buy lambs, and on returning home at night the horse became restive and commenced kicking. The result was that the gig was capsized and its occupants thrown out. The horse arrived at the stables bringing part of a shaft with him. The agent and dealer came later on, luckily, beyond a shaking, being none the worse for the mishap. The dry weather is bringing m the harvest at Waimate much earlier this year than usual. A general commencement will be made m ten days or a fortnight. During the last two or three weeks the crops have improved wonderfully, and some excellent ones are to be seen at the Hook, Blueclifls, and Otaio, towards the Hunter Hills, and m the immediate vicinity of Waimate, around Studholme, and at the Waimate Station. The crops most affected by the drought are on the Waitaki and Waihao Plains, at Redcliff, Waihaorunga, and Hakateramea. Among the few directions m which 1 South Canterbury people could reasonably ask to have their railway arrangements improved, is the time of arrival of the morning train from the south. It is timed to reach here at 10.50 a.m. Eleven is the hour at which it is customary for most local bodies to meet, and members of such bodies coming from the south by train, must either be late at meeting, or, aB m two cases here, the local bodies must adopt a later hour for meeting. The Courts of justice open at 11 a.m. and parties from the south are often waited for at the Magistrate's Court, and those required at the Supreme Court— including jurors— mustoften come to Timaru the evening before, or risk a wigging or a fine from the Bench. The arrival of the train 10 or 15 minutes earlier would surely not upset other arrangements of the Department, and it would be a great convenience to the persons we have alluded to.