SOCIAL SUMMARY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2497, 4 January 1869, Page 1 (Supplement)

SOCIAL SUMMARY.

The anniversary service of the Canterbury Sabbath School Union was held in the Drill Shed, on Deo. 27. Between 1200 and 1300 children from various schools attended.

On Christmas Day, an entertainment inconnection with the Wesleyan Church took place at Springston. Upwards of 200 persons were present, and the sum of £2O was raised towards the chapel fund. A fire took place at Oxford on December 15, by which the house of Mr Youngman was destroyed. A bush fire has also been raging in this district which has done a large, amount of damage to the timber. The annual soiree of the Presbyterians was held in the Town Hall, on Dec. 29. There was a large attendance, and the meeting was addressed by several gentlemen. In the course of the evening some appropriate music was excellently rendered. A concert was given in the Town Hall on Dec. 22, in aid of a proposed Catholic Orphanage. The programme was carefully arranged, and excellently rendered by the best local talent to be procured. The concert realised £9O. Another concert, in aid of the fund for erecting a recreative hall for patients at the Lunatic Asylum, was equally successful.

Two smart shocks of earthquake were felt in Lyttelton on Saturday, Dec. 26. The heaviest was about 3.30 a.m.; the other at 7.30 a.m. The first was felt by several persons residing in Dampier Bay. The bedsteads in the rooms were shaken, and a slight undulation of the earth was very perceptible. The second was felt by some persons at the other end of the town.

The annual meeting for celebrating the Masonic festival of St. John was held in the hall, Hereford street, on Monday, December 28. The usual ceremonies having been performed, the Right Worshipful the District Grand Master, Dr Donald, installed the following officers for the ensuing year:—Brothers G. H. Wilson, W.M ; H, Thomson, P.M.; T. B. Craig, S.W.; F. J. Smith, J.W.; J. E. Graham, S.D.; H. Sawtell, J.D.; J. C. Angus, 1.G.; F. C. Tribe, secretary; H. E. Alport, treasurer; R. D. Thomas and A. M. Bullard, stewards; and — Dorsett, tyler.

On Dec. 15 a fancy bazaar in connection with St John’s Presbyterian Church, Lyttelton, was opened.in the Colonists’Hall, the object being to raise funds for paying off the debt on the manse and church. The ladies of the congregation had been busily engaged for months in preparing for it, and the result was that a splendid assortment of goods was exhibited on the various stalls. The hall looked very pretty; flags were gracefully draped, and floral wreaths and evergreens were in profusion. The bazaar was open several days, and about £BOO was realized for the object specified. On Dec. 18, three shepherds, in the employment of Mr Donald M’Lean, South Rakaia, were engaged mustering sheep on the island, prior to shearing; and on returning home, one of their number, William Carson, slipped from his horse, which had swerved in going through a quicksand, and was drowned. The unfortunate deceased has left a wife and family to deplore his untimely end. The river rose so rapidly that only twenty minutes elapsed from the time they started till their return; and the companions of the deceased had to remain on a spit till they were rescued from their perilous situation by Mr McLean, who forded them across in safety. On Dec. 7 a tea meeting was held at Woodend Wesleyan Chapel, in celebration of its fourth anniversary. Upwards of 100 persons assembled, and after tea a public meeting was held at which several addresses were delivered. On Dee. 14 a tea meeting was held at Kaiapoi to celebrate the anniversary of the institution of the Wesleyan Sunday School. About 150 persons sat down to tea provided by various ladies. At the meeting which followed it was stated that the receipts for the past year were £3l 3s lid, and the liability £37 7s Id. The meeting had produced, together with collections, the sum of £l3 16s lOd. The attendance at the school was stated to be 150. A fatal accident occurred on December 28 to Mr M’Cormack, of Sumner. Deceased was returning on horseback from Christchurch, when on nearing home his horse bolted, and was seen by Mrs M’Cormack to gallop past the front of the house in the direction of tho gate. Shortly afterwards deceased was found lying on the ground, where he had evidently been thrown by his horse. It is supposed that the animal shied at a racing boat lying under the trees, and although there were scarcelyanyexternal marks of violence, deceased died almost instantaneously. On Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 30, an inquest was held at Sumner, before J. W. S. Coward, Esq., the coroner, and a jury. It appeared in evidence that the deceased was riding towards Sumner along the beach of the Heathcote estuary, on the evening of Dec. 28, when his horse shied at a boat and bolted. He was got under control again, but bolted a second time, and ran at full speed into the grounds of deceased. Just inside the gate, there was a racing boat, at which he again shied, and threw his rider. The deceased rose from the ground, but again fell, and almost immediately expired. There was no post-mortem examination of the body, and the jury returned a verdict of “ accidental death." Mr McCormack was one of the earliest settlers in this province, was very highly respected, and has left a wife and six children, The funeral took place on December 31, at Lyttelton, and was attended by a large number of tho inhabitants, who testified by their presence the respect they felt for the deceased. A number of troopers belonging to the C.Y.C. arrived by the 1 p.m. train, and the deceased having been a member, was buried with military honours. At half-past one tho cortege arrived from Sumner; the order of procession was then formed, the coffin, followed by deceased’s horse, with his boots reversed, the chief mourners and friends, then followed, with the firing party and tho cavalry band playing the •• Dead March in Saul,” A number of the Lyttelton Artillery were also present. The Revs. F, Knowles and Bradley read the burial service, and on leaving the Church, the order of procession was reversed, the Yeomanry taking the first position, On arriving at the cemetery a firing party was told off, and at the conclusion of the service three volleys were fired over the grave.

On Dec. 18, a youth named William Barnard, aged 14, son of Mr Barnard of the Hurunui, was sent out to catch a horse, and getting entangled in the tether rope, the horse took fright and dragged him along the river bed, smashing his skull. When found, life was extinct.

Two fatal accidents are reported to have occurred at Bryan’s Ferry, near the gorge of the river Riikaia. Mr Malcolm Macfarlane attempted to tord it on horseback on the evening of Christmas Day, but was carried away by the stream and has not since been heard of. On the following morning William Dobie, one of the ferrymen, whilst endeavouring to cross a mob of sheep belonging to Mr George met a similar fate.

A scheme for reclaiming land subject to the overflow from Lake Ellesmere, has been projected by Messrs Moorhouse and White. The object is proposed to be accomplished by cutting through a shingle bank, and by tunnelling through a portion of an intervening rocky headland, and thus making an outlet for the surplus waters of the lake into the sea. The project has excited some attention, and the Government has reserved the land within the highest flood line of the lake pending the consideration of the scheme. In almost all the agricultural districts south north and of Christchurch, the continued drought and high winds are seriously affecting the crops. Many of the late sown fields of oats and barley will in all probability be hardly worth the cutting, and the wheat on the light soils is becoming very much injured with the blight. Early crops on good land still, hold their own, but these are unfortunately in the minority. The pastures are suffering severely, and fat stock are not likely to be very plentiful if the present state of things continues. The ceremony of installing Br. F. M. Thiel, P.M., as Worshipful Master of the Canterbury Lodge, took place on December 30, at their Lodge-room, Lichfield street. The District Grand Master, Br. W. Donald, performed the ceremony in a very impressive manner; and then invested the following brethren as officers for the ensuing year:—Br. J. Baylee, S.W.; Br. A. A. Dobbs, P.M., J.W.; Br. F. W. Thiel, P.M., treasurer; Br, W. J. Lovell, hon. sec.; Br. R. H. S. Murray, S.D.; Br. J. W. Oram, J.D.; Br. J. Hicks, LG.; Br. J. Elvines, Tyler. To celebrate the event the brethren adjourned to the Criterion Hotel, where a banquet of a most sumptuous kind was provided by Br. J. W. Oram. An inquiry has been instituted by the Coroner touching the death of a single woman named Maria Hackett, which took place under suspicious circumstances. It appears from the facts brought out at the inquest that the deceased had been living with Thomas Yates, a shoemaker, in Christchurch, as housekeeper. From his statement before the Coroner, it seems that the deceased, finding herself pregnant by the prisoner, induced him to obtain drugs for her to procure abortion. The prisoner obtained the drugs, and they were administered, from which the medical evidence proved the woman lost her life. The jury returned a verdict that the woman died from the effects of abortion, caused by certain noxious drugs wilfully and feloniously procured and administered by the prisoner, who was committed for trial,