Balclutha Town Council.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 32, 18 February 1875, Page 5

Balclutha Town Council.

* The usual meeting of the Council was held on the evening of Tuesday laafc. Present: the Mayor and Councillors Dunne, Kilgour, Mason, and Stewart. The mioutuea were confirmed'; accounts passed for payment, after which the draft bye-laws were produced and revised, and a tender by the local paper for printing and publishing the same was accepted. POLICE CAMP. Councillor Dunne moved that notice be given to the Provincial Government that : the court-house, as also the aid ferry -house, presently occupied as the police camp, is situated on and occupies a portion of the municipal property, and that the same will "be required for occupation by the Corporation. The motion was seconded, discussed, and passed. THE BRIDGE. On the motion of Councillor Dunne, it was agreed that the Government should be applied to hand over the custody.' and control of the bridge to the Corporation* in terms of the; Municipal Corporation Act. The motion,' which was discussed at con-; siderable length, was eventually put and carried.'^ . '- : - v . ".'•'-'':"' ■ i ■-'■'. ; A statement of the Corporation asconhts for the past year was flubmitted, and ordered to be published in the terms of tlie act; . '/

Wp have received a communication, signed, as near as we can make .put,! 'Bon we' l.7 .The writer has neglected, to, furnisU his real name and address; . and ' for that reason the contribution is declined. [ The^ first lot of this season's grain i tb ; a-rive in Timaru was taken into the Government Landing Service store on the 2ad ir fit.The lot consisted of 100 bags of oats, the purchaser being Mr Henry, Green. A Home paper to hand lately reports that the present value' of wheat is the lowest within the memory of any living farmer. Lately, at the" local corn markets in Surrey, good samples of wheat were sold at the unprecedentedly low price of Ll per sack. A proclamation in the provincial Government 'Gazette' defines seals as "native game " wkhin the meaning of the "Protection to Animals Act, 1873/' and limits the period wfcen they "shall be taken, hunted, shot, or killed in any part of the province of Otago " to the months of June, July, August, and September. Our Inch Clutha correspondent writes :— Harvest operations are rapidly progressing, and, with the continuation of fine weather, the crops will soon yield to the reapers. Mr M'Donald has a field of oats in the stack, a very superior crop. The immersion of hides for how s in a two per cent solution of carbonic acid, and then simply drying them ha", says the * Scientific American,' been recently substituted for the tedious and expensive process of salting them for transportation Irons South America and Australia, and with most satisfactory results. Bones have been similarly treated for transportation. Messrs J. 0. Strangman and Jop. D«noghue requested the Waste Land Boa-d ; t a late meeting that the form of section. 46 block 1., Wyndham district, should be altered so as to have the district road as a southern, boundary, and that the balarcj of the purchase money might be refunded* The appliaation was referred to the Chief Surveyor for his report. The following letters received at the post-office, Balclutha, remain unclaimed : — Boag . Robert, Cuthbertson R., Christie Hugh, Christie Alexr., Ferguson John, Haynes Michael, Murphy Richard, Revershaw Mr (2), South James, Seager Mrs, Telford Jonothan, and Wilkie Mr. Last night Mr and Mrs St, Vincent gave one of their select entertainments in Biir's Hall, and, as usual, succeeded admirably ia entertaining their audience. We observe by a notification ia our advertising columns that they will perform to-night in the I School-house, Kaitangata. It is almost unnecessary to add that our ifaitangata friends will have an evening's entertainment provided, of which we have no doubt they will be only too glad to show their thorough appreciation. We understand that a number of alterations and additions are in contemplation at the Newmarke- Hotel. 1h s r ables ac in course of being enla-ged, and an additional wing is about to be added to the main building. j The proportions of persons to the square mile in the several Australasian colonies is shown by recent statistics to be as follows : —Victoria, 8 968 ; Tasmania, 3 975 : New Zealand, 2 819 ; Ne<v South Wales, 1 732 ; South Australia, .217 ; Queensland, 216 t and Western Australia, .026 The proportion of females to males in Tasmania is 88 23; over the whole of Continental Australia, 82 90 In New Zealand it is 73.67. The ' Hobart Town Mercury,' commenting on these figures, remarks :— lC Another population delusion is knocked on the head. Tasmania is spoken of as having ■ Eush an excessive preponderance of female p>pulatioa that it is but a mitritac - nial nursery to the other colonies, Ta3manian beauties having no prospect of getting | married unless the gentlemen from Couti' nental Australia come across the Straits, and in pity take the pick of a few of them. The Continental ladies have not the ball at their toot so much as is generally believed." The returns of the number of the inquests and the verdicts throughout the Colony of New Zealand during the year 1873, compiled by the Registrar -General show that there were 461 inquests held, 'and the verdicts returned give the startling number of deaths caused by drowning to be 114— viz., accidental drowned, 72 males and 9 females; and drowned where there was no evidence to show how, 22 males and 8 females. There were 30 cases of heart disease, 23 from natural causes, 21 from apoplexy, and the others (the greater part) were from, accidents of various descriptions. An emergency meeting of the Masonic Lodge was held in the hall on the evening of Monday, at which both the passing and rising degrees were woked. The peculiarity of the meeting was that instrumental music was introduced as part of the ritual for the first time. Bro. Reunert presided at the instrument (a harmonium) with his usual good taste and efficiency. The musical selections were the openlrg and closing hymns, Nos.ll and 96, of ihe Ancient and Modern series. ■ The pieces introduced into the "raising " Were "Dead March in SauV " Miserero "(prayer only) from Trovator. 4 r the fiast and concluding verses of the 375 hymn, and the two first stanzas of the 100 psalm. 4 .'.. ■ * The annual pic-nic of, the children attending the Balclutha Wesleyan Sabbath School took place on Thursday last, 11th hist., on the property of Mr Anderson, Inch Clutha, kindly lent by that gentleman for the purpose. The children met at 10 | o'clock m the morning, at the church, and, after singing a hymn, proceeded with their teachers and friends to the banks of the river, when* they were conveyed across by Mr Allan in his punt. On arriving at the rear; of Mr Anderson's; home, a halt was made, and amusements of various kinds were entered into with great spirit by the: youngsters.; During; the, afternoon a large . number of the townspeople visited the ground, and entered into th© games with great zeal. Tea, cakes, and other refreshmerite were provided by^he ladies of the cpngregation^for which they deserved the thanks, oral I present. Mr Anderson also gave the party full permission to. make use ofhia Torchara*] To^asdrisk^tKejßevi Mr Williams called for i^ee <ihjgßg3ar Mr Anderson, the kdies who^p^raedthe refreshments, ahd MEr A^len > who c* kindly T xonveyedrthein; ,;a^p6| ; :>he^rtvCT. ;. : , '.Afjef; singing the' r pp^l<^^}^^cQ^^f iJ Tt»i turned, and having re-crossing the rivem for eafetv, they dkperied; much pleaaed with the day's proceedings; " v ' ■''"' ""