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Clutha Leader, Volume XXV, Issue 1274, 16 December 1898, Page 5

Leading matter and correspondence now in type unavoidably held over. We callattention to Mr Woodward's lectures on Sunday and Monday evenings inM'Kenzie's hall. Mr T, E. Taylor, M.H.8.., is inclined to prophesy that prohibition will become an accomplished fact after the next general election. The Tuapeka second annual show will be held at Lawrence on Wednesday next, 21st inst.^ The railway arrangements in connection therewith are advertised in this issue. There was a very large attendants at the school concert last evening. The programme submitted was a good one and everything went off satisfactory. The Devenporfc Licensing Committee granted 11 o'clock licences to hotels despite the opposition of the police, the mayor of the borough, and the clergy. A sale of woi-k will be held in the Roman apa hall on the evenings of the 23rd and 24th insfc. The proceeds are to be devoted to the fund for clearing the debt off the Mission hall. Many in the district will regret to learn that Mr W. S. Pillans, at present residing in Edinburgh, has recently been seriously ill ; so ill, indeed, that for some time his life was despaired of. Latest accounts, however, report that a favourable change had taken place and that he was recovering as rapidly as could be expected. We are informed this report is confirmed by a cablegram received by Miss Pillans, The Myres, a few days ago. We understand that Mr J. H. Yerex has received an offer to manage a photographic studio in one of the larger towns in the north, and having accepted the offer, will leave Bnlclutha about the middle of next month. Those therefore who wish to have pictures taken should attend to the matter at once before Mr Yerex leaves the township. It may be sometime before another photogragher of equal ability visits the district. The Clutha Mounted Rifles held a "Government daylight parade " on Saturday aiternoon. There were present one captain, two lieutenant?, and 45 rank and file. The corps went through a series of manoeuvres both in company and division drill and in field work very creditably. After the parade the men received the half-crown each authorised by the Government to be paid. A number of officers and members of the Loyal Milton Lodge of Oddfellows paid an official visit to the meeting of the local lodge on Tuesday eveuing. After the business had been transacted, the lodge went into harmony, and a number of songs and recitations were rendered by members of both lodges. A light supper was supplied by the members of the local lodge. — Next Tuesday the half-yearly summoned meeting of the Dalton Lodge will be held. Some months ago a little girl of about seven years of age, the daughter of Mr W. Waugh, of Coromandel, through the upsetting of° a candle, sustained serious burns on the arm, and was taken te the hospital. The arm was rendered painfully useless, and would have remained so in a chronic state but for skingrafting. In order to preform this operation, Dr S. A. Bull sacrificed the skiu from one of his own arms, the result being entirely satisfactory. The child can now use its arm freely. ■ The sale of work conducted by the Kaitangata Presbyterian Church Ladies' Guild was brought to a close on Friday evening last. The results were exceedingly gratify" ing to all concerned. The ladies hope to hand over to the church committee something over LSO as the outcome of their labours. At the close of the sale, the llev. Pi. Fairmaid, on behalf of the committee of management, thanked the many friends who had given such substantial assistance in connection with the matter. He mentioned that friends outside the congregation had been exceedingly kind and helpful while friends within the congregation had done their part most worthily. He also expressed the thanks of the congregation to those who had during the evenings of the sale entertained them with vocal and instrumental music. Altogether everything passed oil most successfully. The attendance at Harmston's circus on Monday evening was not so large as we are usually accustomed to see at circuses in these parts. This we attribute partly to two reasons —the want of sufficient advertising and no train from Owaka. But there was another factor : A circus that was here some time ago advertised a menagerie, but the greater part of the menagerie never left the railway trucks. Harmston's people did the sameadvertised a menagerie and left in on the trucks. A considerable, portion of the public noticed this, and, as was natural, went home. The excuse made by the management was that there was no crane. But what has been done before can be done again, so that the absence of a crane was not considered a valid reason. The circus itself was, however, all : thai it was reported to be and all that was claimed to be. The horses were well trained and in the pink of condition, the clowning was above the average, so was the horsemanship, particularly the High school riding by G. 0, Stewart on the Arab horse Raja. This horse went through several different steps and movements to music, eliciting hearty applause. The double jocky act by F. Harmston and Gilbert Eldred was another display of superior horsemanship. It is a common thing for one rider to jump from the ground on to the back of a horse cantering round the ring, but it generally takes one or two attempts to succeed. On Monday evening the riders named did the act both together several times cleanly and cleverly. A slide wire act was another conspicuously good item. A wire attached at one end on a level with the ring anil at the other to the tent pole 2-5 or 30 feet up was v/alkcd up by Hashinto, a Jap. After walking up he slid down to the bottom on his feet. He did the'act backwards, sitting, ftnd almost every other way This was one of best items of the evening and was entirely new. The Piisley act by Hakata and his boy Kota was also superior. Mr P. 11 . Montgomery, an old favourite, did some popular work with arab stallions and trick ponies. An American donkey brought into the ring at the close of the performance was more than a match for several of our rough-riders who tried to ride him. These were the principal items in what was otherwise a quite-up-to-the-average bill of fare.

The concert in aid of the Warepa School prize fund will be held on Thursday evening. In addressing the Bruce Bifles last week Colonel Webb said it was perfectly certain the militia would be called out next year to be drilled. The railway arrangements in connection with the. Chvismas holidays will be found in our advertising columns. The date of the extensive clearing sale at Hunts Road on account of Messrs Latta Bros, has been altered from to-day till Wednesday next, the 21st. At a meeting of last year's members of the Bruce Tennis Club, on Friday night, it was resolved, owing to the lack of interest shown by tennis players, that the Bruce Tennis Club be wound up and that a call of 10s be made on all last year's members to pay off a liability of L 7 incurred by the club last year. Mr Boderick M'Kenzie, of the Oban Hotel Dunedin, and proprietor of the Farmers' Arms Hotel property here, has just returned to the colony after an eight months' visit to the Old Country. He was in Balclufcha on Tuesday and Wednesday and seems to have bad a splendid trip. Mr M'Kenzie spent the most of his time in the Highlands of Scotland, his native place, which he left to come to this colony some 17 years ago. In London Mr M'Kenzie saw Mr T. Mackenzie and Mr H. C Cameron, who both seemed to be getting on well and were full of enquiries about old friends and acquaintances in the Clutha. Mr M'Kenzie also paid a flying visit to Ireland and to Paris. While he enjoyed his trip thoroughly he says he saw no place he liked better than New Zealand, or to fine it down, Balclutha. At the Police Court Wanganui on Friday Robert Parker, of Christchurch, private defective, was charged, on the information of George Campbell, clerk to Byans, the well-known bookmakers, with perjury, said to have been committed at Wanganui in March last in a ease against Conway for using obsence language. Parker then swore he never received money from bookmakers to be permitted to remain on racecourses. The evidence now i given by Campbell, Downey, and Byan was to the effect that they had bribsd Parker. It was elicited that bookmakers in various parts of the colony had guaranteed the expenses of the prosecution of Parker, who was said to be a - bit of a nuisance to the " bookies." Parker adhered to the evidence previously given. Magistrate Kettle dismissed the information, remarking that the evidence was wholly and absolutely unreliable. It flowed from a polu'td source.