Untitled

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 21, 3 December 1874, Page 4

At a meeting of the committee for pro--motiog tbe Tradesmen's Races to be held* at Balclutha on New Year's Day, the programme was partially adopted, and will r we understand be published in our next' issue. A special meeting of the Municipal Council was held on the evening of Monday, at which the draft of a code of bye--laws was submitted, revised and adopted. They were ordered to be printed and will appear in a future issue. A lad named Kirkpatrick, sustained rather a severe accident at the grounds of r the Agricultural Show on Friday. In passing the entire horse . Baron, it lacked "" out, striking tbe lad with one of his hindfeet displacing or breaking some of thesmall bones of the boy's leg. Although? not dangeronsly hurt the damage will takesome considerable to heal. i he ungainly-looking pile of buildings* adjoining the Grown Hotel, ami which has been long occupied as a stable in connec- 1 tion with that establishment has now been removed; The vacant site is centrally situated and commands an extensive irontage to the main street; in fact it afford* one of the most valuable building sites in the place, and there is no doubt but that before long it will be turned to good account in that respect. > The total number of entries received for the recent Agricultural Society's Show aft Oamaru was 478, as follows :— Horses, 150 ; cattle, 102; sheep, 134; pigs, 2; poultry, 11; dairy produce, 32, cured pork, 4*r iroplejaent*, $0 • breri, 13.

A match will be fired at the butts of the 2 Clutha Rifle Volunteers, between five of that, and five of tho No. I Inch Clutba Company; ranges, 200, 4/66, •and 500 yards'; five shots at each range. Messrs. Ray and M'KeriEte bave completed thtlr contract for the formation of tbe main line of road through the township ■of Kaitangata. In consequence of some misarrangement on the part of the Commissioners appointed for this district under the Licensing Act, the meeting fixed ior Tuesday last did not take place. We have been requested to remind the members ol *• Lodge Hope of Balclutha," '1.0.G.T., tbat the uexr meeting takes place 'on Friday evening at t i<*ht o'clock. A lull attendance i* requested. We understand there are a goodly nunber of candidates of "both f>exes, to be inuiated which looks well for tbe success ot this \ nun^ Lodge, aud 'Good Tt-mfJarism in Balcutha. The 'folio* ing busiiust was transacted at the quarterly Licencing meeting held at Tukuin -iriro on Tuesday : — General licenses were granted to Mr William Watf, Railway Hotel, North Clutba ; Mr W. Rae, 'Sioney Creek ; Mr James Black, Waipahi Hotel, Waipkhi ; Mr Duncan, Shamrock Hotel, Tokomfd iro, and Mr Charles Hilgtn O'ff, Waihota. A buttle license was 'granted to Mr Bell lor a new store at Inch Clutha. Applications for licenses made by Messrs David Sullivan and Alexander Dalgety were r» fused. A Correpondent make the following sng;ge*tion for tbe eradication of that noxious •and rapidly spreading weed, the sorrel : — "If peas are sown thickly' on tbe sorrel 'land and allowed to mat well together, they will completely choke tbe sorrel ; and when the peas are gathered off, there wiil not be a particle df sorrel regaining. Whereas, if aown with clover, the land ■could be used for little less than pasture land, as it is found to be difficult to extin•gui h'ckrver once planted on tbe land. The transactions of the Money Order and Post Office Savings' Bank departments : for the quarter ending September 30th, were as follows :— Number issued, 16,585 — value, L68,176 10* 6d ; number paid, '11,540— value, L47.209 17s Id. The transactions in the Savings' Banks were :— Accounts opened, 2882 ; closed, 1433 ; number of deposits, 14,085; Number ot ■withdrawals 7996; amount of deposits, LlB2 263 2s Id; amount of withdrawals, L153 244 5s 3d ; excess of deposits over withdrawals, L29,018 16s lOd. The Native Minister made the following statement at Napier lately with regard to the indebtedness ot the colony : — " Much 'misapprehension existed as to finance, tbe real facts being^that previously to 1869 the -colonial and provincial debt was over L7,000,000, and tbat at the end of September last tbe total indebtedness was >L 12,409,546. In addition to this, be stated that there was authorised, but not jet raised, a sum ot L5,750,800, and in hand at that time. Although the total 'indebtedness would come to L'lß,-1 60,340, there were yet L6.036,968 unraised and unexpended. When the Whole was raised, the total annual charge would be L92 1,447. We are indebted to his Honor the Superintendent, for a perusal of the following communication Tectivt*d by bim from the Colonial Secr< tary, relative to tbe diversion of the line of railway to Clinton via Four-cre»-k. The communication which i" dated Wellin-jton, November 20th, proceeds as follows : — "1 have the honor to acknowledge receipt of y<mr letter dated : 29th S ptember, in which you represent, onbelalfof a deputation of settlers, the desirability of cirrjing the line between Balclutha aod Clinton on the oriuiml sur 'vey insttad of via the Four- Mile reek as now proposed, and in Tt<ply, to inform your Honor that the matter has sgain been referred to tbe Engineer- in- Chief, and he points out so msny reasons why the line 'should goby tbe latter route, that the Government regret tbey cannot comply witb the request which your Honor has been pleased to make. I may add that the difference in the cost between the two routes would go far towards constructing a 'branch line, and the difference in tbeir working expenses would more than cover expense of working it. The Government having received a memorial on the same subject, from several settlers in the districts interested, I will be obliged by your Honor making public the decision now arrived at." A correspondent sends us the following : —"The -Tuapeka Times' of 21st ult., furnishes what purports to be the deocriptjon ofa chain-pump, said to be capable of raising with one horse, 478 gallons to a height of 13 feet of perpendicular or 252 gallons to a height of 52 feet with two- . 'horse power. Now if we multiply 478, gallons by 13, the number of feet sb to be raised, and then by 10 lbs per gallon, we get 6*2,140 foot-lbs, nearly two-horse power. Then 252 gallons raised 52 feet, each gal- ' lon 80 lbs, gives 131,000 foot-lbs, equal to >3 10-11 horse power, out of t^e horses. I would feel obliged if your contemporary or anyone else could shew bow the fore ; going can be done as if horse power can be doubled in that way, it will prove a very great boon to the community at large. If, on the other hand, it cannot be done your ■calling attention to tbe fact may be the means of serving some unfortunate from' serious disappointment. Late reports to hand from Auckland state — There is some talk of Sir George Grey coming out for City East at the next election. This -is tbe seat at present filled • by Mr Vogel, but, says the * Daily Times ' Auckland correspondent, there would be no doubt of Sir George's return. In fact it is extremely doubtful rf Mr Vogel will, under any circumstances, get in again for tbe same constituency. Tbey are too much displeased witb the tone taken by bim at tbe • last meeting, and the assumption of superiority with which he met them. The rumor of Sir George Grey's intention to stand is very general, but I have it on good authority that he is not likely to do so. His chief interest is in the Constitutional question, and he is of the opinion shared by most men here, that it stands no chance of being considered on its own merits while the great Loan is going on. His desire is to see it put off until that is over, and he will then, I believe, be ready to devote himself heartily to the work of settling the Constitution on a firm basis, and bringing it into accord with the will "and wishes of the people after those wishes have been maturely formed and clearly expressed.

'J he following is a list of unclaimed letters at tbe Balclutha Poßt Office for the month August, 1874:— J. Brown, John Christie (2) John Davidson, George Groves, Robert Kirkwood, James Robertson, J. J. G. Scott, John Sinclair. Reporta to hand from the northern districts of the province state that Cereals generally look well, but the grass crops are not so good as they were last year, owing to tbe long continuance of frost in the spring and the recent drought. A bazaar in aid of the funds of the Wesleyan Church, Balclutha, was held on Friday last in Barr's Hall, at which a large assortment of ornamental and useful articles were disposed of. The ladies, who were mainly instrumental in promoting the movement, presided as follows :— At the refreshment stalls — Mesdames Hope and Provan. Miscellaneous Stalls — Mrs Bruce, Missis Bruce (2), Low, Battrick, Rayner, Churnside, Hope and Smith. The arrangement of the wares both as regards taste and display, was most effective. A large number of articles were sold, in fact the entire stock would have been disposed of, | could the proceedings have been protracted for a few hours longer than they were. The articles remaining on hand were disposed of by auction on Tuesday evening. The proceeds realised by the bazaar and auction sale amounted to close upon £190. Of that sum, it is anticipated that £120 will be cleared for the purposes of the church. Altogether, the bazaar has proved a decided success. We are requested by the Church Committee to express thanks to the ladies and gentlemen to whose exertions they are indebted for this handsome contribution to their available funds. The use of the hall in which the bazaar was held, was given gratuitously by Mr Barr, and the auctioneer (Mr Robert Grigor) officiated on similar terms. Tbe following information relative to the transit of Venus which takes place on Wednesday first will be read with interest: — Shortly after one o'clock in the day telescopic observers will see a slight indentation on the Sun's disc at a point just below that part of the Sun which will then be furthest to the right. About half an hour afterwards the whole of tbe planet will be seen fairly on the disc, but clinging, so to speak, to its edge. It will then gradually pass over the disc in a slanting direction till tbe time of egress, when it will leave the Sun nearly at that point which is nearest the horizon — i.e., at the bottom of the Sun. At about a quarter to six the whole thing will be over. Those who have astronomical telescopes hardly require to be reminded that the first external contact will take place on the left side of tbe Sun's reverted image. A good binocular, armed with a shade of colored glass, will give a fair view of the greater part of tbe transit. It should be remembered that it is extremely dangerous to look at the Sun with any kind of telescope unless it is properly protected. As a pis alter a piece of smoked glass may he used by those who have no other means of viewing the transit. The planet will be visible on tbe Sun's face as a black dot, even with this pimple appliance, when once it is fairly on the disc, the apparent diameter ol the planet at the time being about one-thirtieth part of that of the Sun. As the transit advances, however, the Sun, so to speak, gets canted over, and thus the appear id ces described above are produced. The following are the approximate times of the phenomena of the transit : — First external contact — lhr. I2min p.m. First internal contact — lhr. 41 min p.m. Last internal contact — shrslsminp.m. Last exeernal contact — shrs 45min p.m. The times here given are local mean time. All those who have telescopes should use them on this occasion, and tbey should carefully record, at the time, everything that strikes them as being worthy of notice. There is no saying when or how some fact worthy of attention may be brought to light. It is not uufrequently the case that a phenomenon escapes the notice of hundreds of observers, and yet is seen by one or two. At all events, no possible barm can result from keeping a record of facts observed, even should these turn out to be unimportant.