Local and General.

Clutha Leader, Volume IV, Issue 283, 31 January 1879, Page 6

Local and General.

The Californian salmon in Victorian waters are protected from capture until 1882. The schooner Conflict has arrived at . Sydney with 13 unsuccessful New Guinea explorers. Building sites in Wellington are now being sold at a great reduction in prices recently ruling. South Australian Lands to the amount of 1,175,100 acres have been sold in Loudon for L1,036,242. deaths, all children, occurred in Timaru from typhoid fever on Saturday ; and diphtheria is also very general. R.ust is very general in South Australia, and the wheat average will be reduced from nine to seven bushels per acre. T. M'Comas and Co.'s Melbourne liabilities are small, but their European liabilities will probably amount to L150,000. Lady Bowen has been presented with the bullet with which she scored a bullseye when opening the Williamstown butts. It was elegantly mounted.

A shock of earthquake was felt near Timaru on Thursday. A portion of the Wellington new hospital has been completed. The Wellington Club has invited the Governor to a farewell dinner. The Canterbury land sales on Monday amounted to the enormous sum of L4. A ballet girl was recently burned to death at the "Academy of Music Melbourne. The South Canterbury Jockey Club meeting has been fixed for the llth and 12th March. David. Andrews, custodian of the Wellington Waterworks reservoir dropped down dead on Thursday. It has been decided to connect Portobello with Port Chalmers by telephone, instead of telegraph. It is stated that Sir George Grey will not sanction Mr Luckie's appointment as Commissioner of Annuities. Tlie Rev. Mr Eggleson, a leading Wesleyan minister of many years' standing in Australia, died last week. A new college is to be built in Auckland. It is to be two storeys, and to accommodate 40 boarders. Tlie cost is L7700. Jeremiah Ryaii, the eldest son of Martin Ryan, of Waitahuna, fell from his horse and broke his leg, on Thursday. A splendid seam of coal has been discovered on the property of a settler named Anderson, residing between Whangamarino and Rangariri. Lady Normanby was suddenly taken ill on Sunday night. Two medical men were with her. all night. She was reported better on Monday. One of the Napier Volunteers distinguished himself on Saturday afternoon by mistaking the drill instructor for the target and shooting him through the leg. The Governor will visit Christchurch on the 12th inst., and leave on the 13th. Prior to his departure he will be presented with an address by the City Council. The debate between Mr Green and Mr Bright, on <v The Divine Origin of Christianity " was concluded in the Queen's Theatre, Dunedin, on Saturday evening. The directors of the Wellington Gas Company have recommended a second dividend for the year, which will raise the total to 15 per cent, for the year, and add LIOOO to the Reserve Fund. Turi, the late chief of the D'Urville Island Maoris, died on the 17th inst. He leaves a large family of sons and daughters, and is much lamented by his people, by whom he was greatly loved and esteemed. An Intercolonial telegram, received on Saturday from Victoria, states that Isaac Wright and 13 other confederates of the Kelly gang were remanded for a week at Beechworth Police Court, the witnesses being absent after the Kellys. Among the arrivals by the ship Taranaki, from Glasgow the other day, is the Rev. R. R. M. Sutherland, a licentiate of the Free Presbytery of Edinburgh. Mr Sutherland has a. commission to the Presbyterian Church of Otago .and Southland. Great complaints are raised of the want of sufficient school accommodation in Wellington. Hundreds have had to be refused admission, there being no room. It is estimated that there are at least 700 in the city for whom no provision is made. The present month has been the worst ever known in aud around Christchurch for sickness and death. Up to the present time over 90 deaths have been registered. The average mortality is 50, and it is known that several deaths have not yet j been registered. I Three incendiary fir^s occurred in the ' Auckland district on Saturday morning. j A large quantity of grain and stacks wore burned. Henry Sheldon, alias Thos. Fidgett,was arrested at Otahuhu on the charge of the incendiarism. He was formerly a ; lieutenant in the r 'oyal Navy, and was ; acquitted at the late criminal sessions from ' a charge of placing obstructions on the Waikato Railway. Two boys named Berthold Rosanoski and William Warrick, who absconded last Saturday from the Christchurch Industrial School, have been re-captured. They had built a whare in some thick gorse, off the north of the Town Belt, where they kept close during the day. coming out at night to obtain food. The police had great difficulty in effecting their capture, as they had contrived numerous hiding places. At the Christchurch Police Court on Mondav, a man named Walter Bullivant, alias Weston, alias Hedge, alias Joyce, alias Edge, was brought up on ten separate charges of forging and uttering cheques. Thev were all for small amounts, ranging from L4 to L7 ss, and mostly on well-known tradesmen. All the banks had a turn. Bullivant, who declined to : make any defence, was committed for ! trial. It is said Joyce was recently in a Bank in Balclutha. A beautiful Hebe, who had turned the j heads of half the swell customers in a | leading hotel in Wellington, was a few i weeks ago wooed and Avon bv a stranger ; who was reputed to be as rich as a Jew. She married him after an acquaintance of only two clays. The young bride soon discovered she had wedded a bankrupt, ahd to complete the revenge of her numerous jilted admirers her husband has just been arrested for forgery. The Marquis of Normanby 's movements have been somewhat altered. His Excel- j leney's commission as Governor of Victoria by some error was not forwarded by the San Francisco mail, and will not, therefore, arrive here till next month. His Excellency has, therefore, determined that he will not go to Melbourne in the Arawata, but will leave her at Christchruch, remaining in the Canterbury and Otago districts, travelling overland to the Bluff, and there embarking on board the Ringarooma on the 20th of February. The foundation-stone of the Dunedin new Roman Catholic Cathedral, the site of which adjoins St. Joseph's Church, was laid on Sunday afternoon by the Rev. the Roman Catholic Bishop of Dunedin (Dr Moran), in the presence of about 6000 people. The ceremony, (says the Daily Times), Jwas commenced by a procession numbering nearly 1500. was very imposing. The Bishops of Dunedin and Wellington (the Rev. F. Redwood) delivered short speeches, and at the end of the ceremony, as well as at the evening services, at which the Rev. Father o ( Malley, S. J., preached, subscriptions were invited. The amount realised in cash and promises wasL23oo.

Sweeps to the value of L9OOO are advertised in the Chrisbchurch papers. ' There is much sickness in Timaru in consequence of the weather, and owing to . the want of water. J. Oman, late cook of the steam *r Antrim, Lake Wakatip, poisoned himself with strychnine the other day. A small cottage in Oamaru occupied by a man named M' Galium, was burned to the ground on Saturday night. A fund is being raised in Melbourne f n the relief of the impoverished shareholders of the City of Glasgow Baijk., State school saving banks are to be established in Victoria and so also are model workshps as soon as possible. George H. Richardson, Collector of/ Customs, Belfast, Australia, has been auf rested ou a charge of embezzlement. -„ -K ,pThe suspension of George Martin' tf* [-.-■ Co., merchants, Melbourne, .was caiitflyi." through stoppage of their London liouse. It is stated that over L2OOO has been "' cleared in one year by the Telegraph Dipartmentfrom " urgent" telegrams alon^. A farewell soiree was to begiven to Mr Charles Bright, at the Temperance Hall, last night. The Hon. Robert Stout will preside. A very strong feeling exists in Timaru regarding the death of the man who die l on Saturday night through his being put in a strait-jacket. A portrait of Shakespeare, on a panel dated 1611, has been found in Sydney. A similar painting, dated 1610, ' has a,W> been found in Melbourne. Three children named Blake were burned to death at Collingwood on tho 19th. The mother escaped from the i house with four of her children. Negotiations have been opened by the. Victorian Government with the New South Wales Government for the abolition of the border duties on the Murray. An elderly woman named Mrs Beckingham was violently assaulted by two men ! near Timaru on Saturday night. The culprits have not yet been discovered. The Queenslander exploring expedition report a great drought in the interior of the continent. Two large lakes and one lagoon were the only permanent water met Avith. A special race meeting at Randwick on the 18th inst., intended as a complimentary farewell to Sir Hercules Robinson, was attended by about 17,000 persons. The Native chief Paul, of Orakei, is at present in Auckland, making arrangements with Tawhiao for a meeting between the Natives and the Government in March. The New Caledonia insurrection has been suppressed. Hundreds of the rebels were killed, or died of their wounds or starvation. Horrible cannibalism was committed by both hostile and friendly natives. A well 370 feet deep has been sunk in the hitherto Avaterless country south of Lake Frome, South Australia, and a supply of 10,000 gallons of water a day obtained. The carrying capabilities of the country are thereby immensely increased. The Victorian Anti-Chinese League Association define their aims to be the restriction, and, if necessary, complete prohibition of Chinese immigration, absolute discontinuance of trade with Chinese already here, and agitation for effective legislation on the Chinese question. -~ According to the Timaru Herald, a very destructive potato pest has made its ap^ pearance in that district. Tt is a small white worm, half an inch long, and eats into the tubers, causing them to rot. In one field alone some two or three acres of potatoes have been destroyed in this way. The New South Wales International Exhibition will be opened on September 1. It is proposed that Captain Cook's statute should be placed in the building to mark permanently the site of the first Australian Exhibition. 250,000 feet of _T space has been applied for by European exhibitors. The estimated cost of the building is LIOO,OOO. For the supply and delivery of telegraph poles for the line Kaitangata to Nuggets v and Catlins River, the tender of Mr Geo. Fraser, at 27s 6d per post, has been ac- .: cepted by the Telegraph Department.; "',* and that of Trapper Brothers, also fqr ■ poles, for the line Lowther to Kingston, at 25s per pole. The erection of both T lines is to be proceeded with at once, and the department hope to have them in. working order by the beginning of winter. There was some trouble at Oamaru oil Sunday in getting some of the immigrants 7 per Taranaki to the barracks. Many of _, them were drunk, and fighting and. general scrimmages took place. The barracks -, manager sent for Sergeant Beatty. One of the most conspicuous of the combatants was next morning sentenced to one month's ' imprisonment for his riotous conduct. Another was finedLs for disorderly conduct and obstructing the police. If Sir Julius cannot procure abetter class of immigrants he should retire in favour of some one else. A.nxious inquiries have been, made during the past few days (says the Lake Wakatip Mail) as to the whereabouts of Mr Geo. Walker, late clerk to Mr Wesley Turton, solicitor, of this town, and "who obtained a week's leave of absence nearly three weeks ago, with the ostensible purpose of paying a visit to Invercargill. Walker held offices of trust in the Volunteer Corps, the Good Templar and Foresters' Lodges here, and owing to his non-return and no tidings pf him- since ho left, suspicions arose, when upon examinftj*., tion of books, we understand deficien§#«b.£ were discovered. Some tradesmen Y~'"-W also reason to remember Mr Walker,'**^, t the total amount of defalcations is no-i large. It is stated that warrants have been issued for the arrest of the alleged absconder.