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Clutha Leader, Volume XXVI, Issue 1318, 25 July 1899, Page 3

I The Shakespeare Club will meet on Wednesday night at 7 o'clock. Messrs Wright, Stephenson and Co.'s sale at Clinton, advertised in last issue for the 27th, has been postponed until the 10th August. The lecture which was to have been delivered by Eev. W. J. Elliott in the Gymnasium on Wednesday evening has been postponed. We call attention to the announcement in our advertising columns of addresses by Mrs Harrison Lee in Balclutha and at various centres within the County of Bruce. A barque has sailed from Hobart for East London (South Africa) with 260,000 ft of railway sleepers and consignments of apples and potatoes, with which to test the South African markets. The committee of the National Dairy Association have accepted the same terms and conditions of contract with the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Co. and the N.Z. Shipping Co. as those arranged by the North Island Association for regular fortnightly shipments of dairy produce. The dredging and 1 mining boom seems to have settled down in and around Gore in real earnest. Atthe sitting of the Warden's Court there last week Mr Stratford dealt with somewhere about 30 applications for special claims. Driver Carter, who had charge of the second train on the occasion of the Eakaia accident, received notice on Wednesday of his dismissal from the railway service. He has been under suspension since the date of the accident, March 11th — rather more than four months. A London message says the Waikato has not been spoken since she touched at Teneriffe early in May. Her owners have requested the Admiralty to search the Crozet Islands. The steamer Awarua has sailed from the Bluff for the Snares to search for traces of the missing steamer. Mr William Allen, of the Postal Department, who was recently transferred from Balclutha to Queenstown, has been re-transferred to Balclutha, where he arrived yesterday afternoon. It is worthy of remark that no snow had fallen at Queenstown up to the hour he left yesterday morning. A gift auction in aid of the funds of the Stirling Athenreum was held on Saturday evening, when a miscellaneous collection of merchandise and farm produce was sold by Mr J. W. Wilson. As a result the funds of the institution will be benefitted to the extent of quite L2O. A sheep weight guessirg competition in which Mr E. J. Boyd interested himself, realised some 50s. Leon Simon, brewer, Wanganui, committed suicide on Saturday morning by shooting himself with a revolver at the rear of his residence. Three wounds were inflicted, two in the throat and one in the mouth. Deceased was an old West Coaster. The recent death of his brother and business worries are supposed to be the causes leading to the perpetration of the act. We understand the Eev. John Kilpatrick is to conduct the services at Owaka on Sabbath, July 30th, and hold a congregational meeting at Owaka on the Monday following, when it is hoped the congregation may be in a position to call a minister. At any rate the purpose of the meeting is to take whatever steps the congregation may deem desirable with a view to calling a minister. Members and adherents should make a strong effort to ba present. The monthly meeting of the Balclutha Band of Hope was held in the Wesleyan Church on Friday evening last. There was a good attendance of children, and, thanks to Miss Wood, who had gone to a great deal of I trouble over it, a capital programme. Be- j citations, dialogues, songs, and choruses were \ given by the children, and Mr Currie, who acted as chairman, gave a short address on Lord Wolseley and his testimony to the benefits of total abstinence in the army. At a meeting of delegates of the Hawera Electorate Prohibition Convention, and at a subsequent public meeting held at Manaia, the following resolution was passed : — " That the light penalties for sly-grog-selling recently imposed by Mr Stratford, S.M., are likely to encourage breaches of the licensing law in the Clutha. The convention are also of opinion that the only means by which sly-grog-selling can be stamped out is for the ad ministrators of the law to deal with that offence in such a manner that the business would cease to be remunerative." We have to acknowledge receipt of a pamphlet entitled " Auriferous Otago ; our dredges, and what they are doing," being a reporter's account of a trip through the Otago dredging fields last month, and now reprinted from the Dunedin Evening Star. The illustrations are from photos taken by Mr M'Eachen, photographer, Alexandra, formerly of Balclutha. The information given in the pamphlet is most interesting, and being entirely impartial, is opportune at the present time when dredging operations are proving so successful financially, and are attracting so much attention throughout all parts of the country

i ~ ' " *•* *~ — — — —————— — The Premier has received a cable from the I Hon. J. G. Ward, who has been spending a ■ good deal of his time with the Hon. John M'Kenzie. Mr Ward states that he had a quiet half hour's chat on Saturday with the Minister of Lands, who is progressing satisfactorily, and is now out of danger, After a few days of bitterly cold, wintery weather, and sleet showers, snow commenced to fall on Friday evening, and although the weather brightened on Saturday, on Sunday morning the ground was covered to a considerable depth, and snow fell all day. Yesterday was frosty with occasional showers of snow and indications show that there is more to follow.. At Tapanui the snow lies a foot deep.