SOCIAL SUMMARY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIII, Issue 5953, 25 March 1880, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOCIAL SUMMARY.

The Cathkdeal.—There are indications that the building of the Cathedral is about to be pushed on .-with unwonted vigour. The yard to the South has been enclosed with a high fence, and an unusually large number of workmen are now busy within the enclosure. Infectious Diseases.—The _ infections diseases reported during fortnight ending March 13, nuihbeh'24 typhoid and 2 diphtheria, distributed as follows:—Christchurch, 12 typhoid ; Sydenham, 5 typhoid ; Avon, 3 typhoid, 1 diphtheria; Eieoarton, 2 typhoid. The Eastee Hetib'W.—The preparations for the Easter Eevieware being systematically and actively carried out. Tne Committee have" received intimations representing the attendance of 1500 volunteers, and it is anticipated that the display .will be the finest of its kind yet seen in this Colony. Uniteesity Degeees.—A reply from the Imperial Government to the resolutions of the New Zealand University Senate and to the petition of the Canterbury College, agreed to be sent Home last .year,, on the subject of the maintenance in the University of New Zealand of the' solo power of conferring degrees in the Colony, was- read at the meeting of the Senate on March 2. Its tenor was to the effect .that -Her Majesty had not been advised to grant letters patent to 1 the University of Otago to confer degrees. leish Famine Belief Fund.—His Wor--ship the Mayor, l on March 5, forwarded by cable a second instalment of £4OO, Christchurch subscriptions," in aid of the above fund. Enclosed in the same cablegram, to save expense,' was a' second sum of £3OO subscriptions received at Waimate.' This instalment makes the Christchurch subscriptions up to the present amount tp £IOOO. His Worship purposes closing the lists at the end of the month, and sending the balance Home by draft. The Catholic churches atieeston, [Lincoln, Sonthbridge, and Ashburton have forwarded £92 4s 3d to his Lordship the Bishop of Wellington, in aid of the fund. The English Bibds ?eb Waimate.—Out of the 240 partridges shipped per Waimate only 19 have been landed,. and of the 40 English pheasants, placed on board 19 only survived the voyage. Amongst the gamebirds are also 132 Egyptian quail and 14 silver pheasants, the latter having been presented to the Society.' At a special meeting of the Acclimatisation Society, held on Friday, March 5, it was decided to liberate the partridges in one lot, and the quail in lots of 10 brace each. It was also decided to destroy, or sell to another.,Colony, the small hard-bill birds, to hand which were not included in the Society’s .list forwarded Home. . ..

Baethquaee.— -Asmartshock of earthquake was felt at Dunedin and other places early on Saturday, March’6; as "well as in Christ- : church, at , about, twenty minutes to one o’clock. 'lt has beendeaeribed by some as a rapid succession of short waves'in the direction from nortn, to south. It Is described at Rangiora as lasting /several seconds, with a •direction from east to west.- I—Our 1 —Our Timaru correspondent writes :-rrA .very heavy shock of earthquake was felt at -Timaru on Saturday morning-at about 26 minutes to 1 o’clock. Many people were'greatly alarmed at the manner in which it shook the buildings, butno damage was done. The shock lasted about six seconds. '’' ' • City Assessment. —The Valuator's assessment of the city for the present year amounted to £222,203, and i the valuations which, have been sustained amount to. £219,080, being a reduction only of £3143 on the original estimate. In 1879 the first assessment was £216,702, reduced subsequently to £204,060, being£l2,642 less than .the valuator’s estimate. The roll -for 1880, as passed by the Assessment Court, • shows an ■ increase of £15,000 over the approved assessment of that for 1879, the percontagoof reductions being as follows 1879=5.83 ; 1880=1.41. The compliment paid by the Judge of the Assessment Court yesterday to Mr J. Whitelaw, Valuator, was certainly merited; if onlv for the success with which ho has sustained the greater part of.the objections lodged ( against" his valuations. 1 ■ Attempted Inobndiaeibm at Waimatb. —A., most determined .'attempt was made about three o’clock on the.mornmgof-.MarchS to burn down' the extensive store of Messrs Manchester Bros, and Goldsmith. This atore, which is built of wood, and is not only the oldesthut the most extensive store ia the town, was in part pulled down last week, preparatory to rebuilding with Oamaru stone. The portion used As & crockery warehouse" had been taken down, leaving exposed the outer wall of the grocery store, and it was under the flooring,at this point, which ia at the extreme rear of the. premises, that the attempt was made.,, It Appears. that one of the members of Mr Bout’s household, who occupy the premises of the Union Bank of Australia opposite, « saw-the reflection of a light frdm under'the- front verandah of Messrs Manchester Bros,’ store. .’ Mr Rout dressed and jvent over ,to . the store, hut seeing nothing susbicioiri feturned home. Shortly after, upon looking across thq' roajl,, he j»w the reflection,; pf a stationary fight on the* bomdary of the store adjpinihg that of Messrs Manchester .Bros. ana Op., , and again went oven tq look At.it; [Ha. then found flames . proceeding from under the! flooring. With some trouble the; fire was ; putoufe by Mr Rout. J An-inquest'was held. ... on Maxch 8, when a verdict was returned that --.ij,. 11 the fire was wilfully caused by some person or /' persons unknown to the jury. .

YITAP STATISTICS.—The church And ] the surrounding district during February ‘‘were 149; marriages, 40; and deaths, 104. The figures for the same month 29 days is the highest number ever registered intho district.— —inr-T-V 'A’BawAst Boat Sukk.—On March i one of Messrs Cameron Brps. , lighters, the'William, sank in the a vessel’s length astern of Monarch. The lighter was taking m ballast from the Western Monarch, and must have been overloaded. As soon as she got broadside on to the wind she took the water in, filled and went down. The two men working aboard of her got away in time. . A Large Betok Kxmr.—Messrs Austin, Kirk and Co. (Limited), completed on March IS, at their brick and pottery works, St,.Martin’s, an immense circular kiln, with chambers, each chamber when full to.contain 25,000 bricks. The shaft connection with this kiln is also circular, andresesto ft height of 130 ft, with a diameter of 7ft at its base. This is said to be the largest brick kiln in the Southern hemisphere, and the highest shaft in this Island. A full account of the works, from the pen of our Special Reporter, will be found in' another part of —About 200 men attended at the Public Works Office on Saturday March 13, and placed their names on the listof applicants for employment at the Waikam extension. As the Government had only forwarded a limited' number of passes, the Engineer was hot enabled to issue more than 80, but the-necessary number will bo re-, oeived at the beginning of this week. An opportunity will he given the men to erect wharea for their fammes, and temporary work will he provided until the return of the Government Engineer from Dunedin, whither he proceeds to arrange a scale of wages for those employed on public works, which shall bo uniform throughout the Colony. Receipts toe Wages’ Exempt peom Stamp Duty.— The question of the necessity , of stamping receipts for wages was decided at the Resident Magistrate’s Court on March 1, upon the hearing of two informations against Joseph Farro for having given two receipts for wages without duly stamping them. * O. B. Salter appeared for the defendant, and contended that .by virtue of section 11 of the “ Stamp Act Amendment Act, 1876,” which', exempts from duty all instruments relating’, to the services of apprentices, clerks, Andservants, the receipts in • question were" not liable to the stamp duty. Mr Spackman argued contra. The Bench, after consideration, decided that the point raißea < by Mr Salter was good, and dismissed the informations. .',V . ChEISTS* COEEEGE GeAMMAB hCHOOIi, 1 — At a meeting of the governing body, held.on Feb 27, the two Sons of the Clergy Scholarships were adjudged to C. Torlesse and A. Penny,' the candidates who stood first in' the late examination, and had passed satisfactorily. It was decided that in the case of the two Junior Scholarships, one for boys under 13/ and the other for boys Under 12, none of ■ the candidates had shown sufficient proficiency to obtain a scholarship. The two Junior Somes Scholarship® will be again offered for competition; the examination will be held at the beginning of next. term. They, are tenable" for three years, and are of the value of :£33 to boys resident at any of the.’ recognised boarding houses, and £ls in the case of boys non-resident. . - '

Naeeow Escape f&om Deownikg.—Two boys named Frederick Oldham and: Arthur Mathews respectively, who were bathing-an the Waimakariri .on Friday, Feb. 27, by. some means got into .deep water. Herbert Johnston, under 13 .years of age, a son of the Kaiapoi Postmaster, immediately .ran to wards the boys, and while running, called out for assistance to some men who were • preparing to bathe. Plunging in he made for ; the boy farthest from him, Arthur Mathews, and upon reaching-the spot where he was ' last , seen! he had a gam gone. down. Johnston dived after him and brought him to the surface. While swimming towards the shore with Mathews he overtook ; a young man named Eichard Hayman, who was rescuing Oldham, but the former missed .his hold of the boy’s arm, allowing Oldham to go under again. Johnston then seized hold- of Oldham’s hair, and held both boys up, till Hayman again came to the rescue! Neither of the rescued ; Goeed by a Bullock, —A boy named William Henry Miller, aged, seven years, son of W. H. Miller, builder, residinjg in Stark’s, road, Spreydon district, was badly gored by a bullock on Sunday, Feb. 29. The matter was reported- to Constable Brookes, stationed at Sydenham, by Eohert Dunn, horsedealer, re l siding in the Windmill road. On making inquiry it was ascertained that the bullock, winch is Dunn’s property, was in a securely fenced, paddock, but that through the slip rails boys could readily get in; “and that lads in the neighbourhood , have been in the habit of irritating the animal by throwing stones at' it. It is thought that- the lad in question may have gone into the paddock for the purpose of teasing the bullock, which then rushed him, inflicting a jagged wpiqid on his, neck about four inches long, “and hreakrhg“Ms, Collar bone. The boy was taken to his home by Mr Calvert, And the assistance .of Dr Wilkin having been obtained the injuries were attended to.—A man named Frederick Cars,, whilst oh horseback driving a cow to Eangiora for sale, was rushed at by the animal, which fore his left leg very severely. Cars was on Tuesday, March 9, brought to the Hospital, where his injuries were attended to, but it is believed that they will prove very troublesome to him for sonue-time. : ; .

Accidents. — A serious case was received into the Hospital' oh‘Monday, March 8, the sufferer being a little girl named Elizabeth M'Gilpin,' aged fii years. Her parents are labouring people 1 at Burnham, and they were. returning from Christchurch with the child. In getting put of the carriage the poor little, thing fell between the platform and the train, and at that moment the train moved on. It was at once seen that the phild had been most seriously injured, though to what extent was not known until she had been brought into the hospital. There it was found that her left arm had'been smashed- to such, an extent as to render amputation necessary immediately below the shoulder. Besides this, it was discovered that there was a compound fracture of the left foot. It need scarcely be said that every possible attention was given to .the case, but the child gradually sank, and died, on March 23. —A man named Thomas Ellis, in the employ of Mr _ Hogg, Bingsland, wee admitted into the accident ward L the same day. Ellis was engaged in slaughtering, when the knife he .was using slipped, 'and penetrated “his thigh, inflicting a severe wound.— A lad named George Buster, IS. years old, was admitted into Akaroa Hospital on Friday, March 5, suffering from a severe wound in the head, caused by the kick of a horse. The lad was busy the day previous at Pigeon Bay, packing grass seed from * the farm of Mr Budua, when, from some unexplained cause, the horse he was driving kicked him on the forehead, tearing away the scalp, and fracturing the skull. Dr Guthrie, happening to be in the Bay, the case was at once attended to, and hopes are entertained of a favourable recovery. ,