TOWN AND COUNTRY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1430, 13 July 1865, Page 2

TOWN AND COUNTRY.

City Council.—No business was done last night, us there were not sufficient members to form u quorum. The Resident Magistracy op Akaroa.— Rumour, that many-tongued and busy individual, states that Mr. Watson, the Resident Magistrate of Akaroa, will shortly resign the office held by him. Assembly Ball.—Last night the fourth and last for this season of Assembly Balls was held at the New Assembly Rooms, London street, Lyttelton. The attendance was very select, and those present seemed to enjoy themselves. The Brothers Kohler supplied the music during the evening. Harbour Women.—The hard labour gang have already commenced to blast the rocks near to Officer's Point, and a few days will show considerable progress with the mole. A quantity of working plant for con-

structingthe jetty extension and sea wall waff the Intelligence that the Rev. W. J. C, Bluett, having accepted an incumbency in the diocese of Ohrlstchurch, and being, therefore, about to resign the curacy of Stibbard, a very hand: aome piece of plate has been presented to him and to Mrs. Biuett, as an expression of the grateful regard entertained for them by the patron, the rector, and the inhabitants of the Pbincess' Theatre.—On Wednesday evening the "Deal Boatman " was repeated here, with nearly the same cast of characters as on the previous occasions. The price of admission to the pit was lowered to one shilling, and the attendance was in consequence better than usual in that portion of the house. During the evening, Little Laura executed a dance in very pleasing style, receiving a welldeserved encore. The " Morning Call and the "Duel in the Dark" terminated the entertainments. The Djrill Shed.—Another gift of the Provincial Government to the Volunteers is now being profited by largely. The fine drill shed built during the past year in Christchurch serves capitally for the winter work, and ought to enable the companies to turn out with a good show in the spring. This is the time of year for recruits to join, and we see that the honourable No. 1 Company caljs for those who wish to send in their names at once. The shed was most effectively lighted with gas for the first time on Tuesday.

b Accident. —Yesterday afternoon, about ' three o'clock, a large boulder was dislodged , from the hill side, overhanging Salt's Gully, in Lyttelton. The stone, on reaching 5 the gully, struck the house eccupied by Mr. t Littlecott, breaking a large hole through the 3 weather-boards, and smashing several of the L fore-boards. A little girl received a severe bruise on the head, and was greatly alarmed. ' The other persons in the house escaped with- ' out injury. Some persons consider the dislodgment of the boulder to be caused by a road party employed blasting rock on the bridle path for the repair of the road. The Post-Office.—We have received a complaint from Mr. John Wildermoth, of the ' Selwyn, against the Post-office. He states i that he observed, by advertisement, that a I letter was waiting for him in Christchurch, , which had been returned from Weeden. At great inconvenience to himself, he came up a distance of ninety miles to get the letter. ' After paying the postage, the letter was i handed to him, directed quite distinctly, • " Springfield, Selwyn," which address would have found him. To add to his trouble, the | envelope contained only a little bill 1 This should make post-office clerks more careful. At the same time, the applicant need not have come personally, for a written application would have done as well. The English Mail.—The -mail for Christ- ' church from England and other- places contained 6,144 letters. They were date-stamped by the machine invented by Mr. Wright in . one hour. To stamp this number of English letters by hand would have taken two date- , stampers from two hours and a half to three ' hours. The consequence of using the 1 machine proves to be that the whole mail is , expedited in delivery by about two hours; and the impression made by the hand- ; stampers bears no comparison with that performed by the machine for sharpness and ' regularity. Indeed, after having taken some notice of the date-stamps of our letters , arriving from different parts of the world, we have arrived at the conclusion that the Christchurch date stamp is the best and clearest we have seen among them all. Lancaster Rifles.—The handsome present of 250 stand of arms to the Canterbury Rifle Volunteers by the Provincial Government deserves special record just now, because the actual arming of the force has commenced and is in progress. Hitherto the rifles supplied have been the Regulation or Tower Enfield, a long and clumsy, though serviceable weapon. . These have been furnished by the General Government. Last year, among other considerate provisions for the force, the Provini cial Government of Canterbury ordered 250 stand of Lancaster rifles, with the fitting accoutrements. After some delay, the arms arrived at last by a recent ship from England, 1 and have been handed over to the Major Commanding, who is now engaged in directing their issue. The number at present in store will not suffice to equip the whole force in Canterbury, and the course has been therefore taken, to arm first that company, No. 7, which has been without any weapon ; and after that the other companies in order of seniority. Accordingly, the men of No. 7 received their arms on Monday last, and Nos. I and 2 Companies attended yesterday to exchange the Enfield piece and buff accoutrements for the Lancaster rifles and brown belts. Those members of the two companies who did not make the exchange yesterday can do so to-day. It will be found greatly in favour of the appearance of the corps, and we hope will lead to a general feeling in favour of uniformity of clothing among those companies which are similarly armed. Christchurch Mutual Ratepayers' Protection Society.—A meeting of the members of this association was held on Wednesday evening, at 7 p.m., at the Lyttelton Hotel, Mr. George Allen in the chair. The only business before the meeting was the adoption of a petition to the City Council, of which the following is an outline. The petitioners consider that the salary of the Town Clerk is far in excess of what it ought to be—£2oo per annum being, in their opinion, amply sufficient for the work required to be performed. They suggest that the English precedent should be adopted, namely, that of appointing/as Town Clerk a solicitor, with a salary of, say £500 per annum, who should, in addition to his duties as Town Clerk perform the legal business of the Council. They consider that a great saving would be effected by means of this arrangement. They recommend the Council to do all in their power to keep down the expenditure, which is very heavy at present. They also object to the great waste of funds, now occurring through the system of contracts ; in their opinion the public works of the city might be far more efficiently carried on than they are under the present plan. Mr. Wynn Williams, the honorary secretary, read the report, which was signed by the Chairman and by the members of the committee. Some new members were enrolled. The committee undertook to use their utmost efforts to increase the numbers of the association, and it was decided that each member should canvass for additional members. Mr. Williams mentioned that lie had sent a copy of the petition to the General Assembly, adopted at the last meeting, to Mr. Weld, with a request that he would submit.it to the Attorney-General, for his approval. The meeting adjourned at about 8.30 p.m. The Permissive Bill.—A correspondent, for whose letter we canncft make room to-day, desires us to remind visitors who were present at the last discussion of the Literary Society, that the Permissive Bill will be argued over again this evening, at the same time and place. The Bill provides that, on application of any district, the votes of the 1 ratepayers shall be taken as to the proprietv ' of adopting the provisions of the Act; and 1 that a majority of at least two-thirds of the j votes taken shall be necessary, in order to de- j cide that question in the affirmative. If the Act be so adopted, then no license i whatever is to be granted or renewed i for the /Biile of alcoholic liquors within < the district; and any one selling such is to ' be dealt with as selling without a license. 1 But licenses already issued are not to be ] affected during the term of their currency ; ! and metthylated spirits used in the arts and ! manufactures nre excepted. We may bo per- ( mitted to add that scarcely any subject could c be chosen more fit for discussion by a De- t bating Society than this. It is of general c interest, and yet sufficiently abstract in form; t the facts are numerous and accessible to ] study and observation, and arguments which 0 may be used are to be found suited to G every brain, ranging from (lie highest to the 1 lowest of the intellectual powers. Further, 0 the general public will take an interest in the discussion, a significant result may be obtained in the voting, and real good be done to the whole community. This is a step in - advance from the stereotyped Cromwell and Charles head-cutting-off questions, which bear the same affinity to a real "debate as j nonsense Latin verses do to the works of the poets; the young scholar must get rid of

them oi quickly as possible. It it a task for the society to find more good aubjecti when liquor legislation is disposed of. We hope they will be successful, for there is good to be done by the discussions, if only a high standard of topio is adopted and maintained.