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Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1518, 5 February 1886, Page 2

Report nf meeting of the Borough Council is un avoidably held over till next issue. A very compact aud useful little manual, forwarded us by the Postal Department, contains time-tables of all the mails between the Home country and this colony. Messrs Sutherland and party, whom the County Council have promised to assist in their prospecting of the West Coast, were tendered further aid last Monday, at Diuiediu, by the Minister of Mines, who agreed to supply the party uitli provisions for three months, conditionally on their sending in regular reports of tlieir proceedings, with an intimation that the supply might be extended if sutticieut cause were sliowu. We hear that preparations are being made for a concert, about a fortnight hence, in aid of the Crass Band tuuds. We learn from various quarters that Professor Black's tour of the district has l«en very successful. His lectures were well attended at the various outlying places, and great interest was taken in them —esjiecially at the test classes. A seafaring man named James Wilson was brought np at the Magistrate's Court last Thursday, before Messrs Boyes and Warren, .I.P.'s, on charges of drunkenness and usinn obscene language. when lie was let otf with a caution for th-- tir.it offence, aud sentenced to 14 da\s' imprisonment for the latter. We notice on the Queenstown w liarf an unusually large boiler intended for the Wakatipu brewery, owing to increase of business. It is reported that Mr Warden Hickson has leased for two years .he prettily situated residence of Mrs Branson (late Worthington). Mrs Branson, we hear, intends removing to Blenheim. We are informed that shires arc being freely taken up in the pro|H»sed IMnenix Extended and Maori Point Cold-miuing Companies. The recent glowing repor's from the I'liu-nix Co.'a mine add very materially to the favorable prospects of the first-named company. I'he KinlfK.li School Committee have nominated Messrs T. M MacdoiuM and W. S. Moir for vacant seat* on the Southland Education Board.

A correspondent informs us that Mr (>. Cockburn, a settler, had an accident at < Jlenorehy jetty one day last week. Whilst backing his dray otf, the horse sweived to one side, and both horse and dray went over into the water, but fortunately, no serious damage was done. Our correspondent asserts that the jetty tliould uiust certainly be the same width all the way. A final meeting of t'ie Easter Volunteer Demonstration Committee was held at Eichaidf's Hotel oil Tuesday evening—the Mayor (Mr J. Iteid) and six or seven committeemen being present. It was resolved to make a present t » the Jockey Club of the post and wire fencing erected by t-ieCommittee On the fieecourse, Frankton. A few small accounts were passed for payment, and it was decided to purchase with the balance left (at»out £4 10s.) some article for presentation to Mr S. Dewar. the hon. secretary, as a small moinento in recognition of the valuable services rendered by him on the occasion.

The Railway Department has notified its intention of runnin.' excursion train*, at cheap rate", on Friday and Saturday next week, for the convenience of those wishing to be present at the opening of St. Joseph's Cathe lral, Dunedin, on Sunday week. As his Eminence, Cardinal Moran, wo is about to, visit the Lakes district, will prol>a>.ly have Kingston again this day week for Dunedin, we are informed that, if sufficient inducement offers, the Mountaineer steamer will leave Queenstown the same morning (instead of previous day), ill time to catch the train that day.

>ll- CJ. F. Bulled, owner of the Pluenix mine, is

/expected in Queensto.vn per Mountaineer to-night, and will proceed hence to the mine to-morrow or Monday to witness the trial of the electric m-tchi-nery. The formal opening of the winks, however, will not probably take place for another few weeks, as the works will not be taken over until the contractors have worked the lottery for three weeks. A trial was made on Wednesday night of the electric-apparatus for lighting Eicliardt'a Hotel, and so far as it went it was successful, but the completion of arrangements is delated in consequence of the non-arrival of a quantity of wire, which has been detained somew here in transmission from Dunedin. The dynamo is cipab'e of lighting 20 Swan lamps of 16 caudle-power each, and the faesent experiment made ty our enterprising lostess, Mrs Eichardt, will only serve to light a portion of the hot< 1. Our Kinlocb correspondent states that on Monday Sergt. M'Leod, accompanied by the father and uncle of Mr W. Robertson, who was drowned last week near the Sawmills, went up with grappling irons, After about two hours' search nothing could be found of the remains of deceased, so they gave up further efforts. Mr Robeitson was fatisfied every thing had been doiie in the matter and returned home, leaving his son where a great many are. Messrs Brown, Ewing & Co., dress warehouse, Dunedin, have issued a novel sheet calendar, which contains as a centre piece a colored lithograph of the ship Denmark, the second largest merchant sailing vessel in the world —in full sail, every bit of bunting being faced w ilh some business announcement of the firm. The picture will I»e very attractive to Ikij's, as there is a key attached, giving the names of the respective sails, 45 iu number. The following business of local interest was transacted at the Otago Waste lands Board on Wednesday last: —W. S. D. Trotter's application for reduction of rent on Run 323, or permission to surrender it mith valuations, was refi rred to Government.— It was resolved that runs, the leases of which expire on Ist March, should be offered as follows : No. 172 a, Waiau, 14,796 acres, five years, upset reutal, £100; 172b, Waiau, 5500 acres, five years, npset, £SO ; 240 a, Wanaka, 5343 a'-res, ten years, £145 ; 466, West Coast, 7000 acres, 21 years, £lO ; 467, West Coast, 3000 acres, ten years, £3O (subject to reserve for mining of half a mile along the coast. —W. H. Whitaker's application for gold-miniug lea#a of section 7r block 1., Nokomai, was granted.

The Hon. Mr Larnach took the opportunity aliout a week ago—when being interviewed with respect to purchase of the Waimea Railway—of singling out Mr Fergus as one of the chief opponents of such a transaction. It would have been more straightforward we think, if Mr Larnach —instead of indulging in vague qualities of the kind—had given us definite grounds for his belief. Notwithstanding above charge, this is what onr member is reported by the Dunedin Star to have said at an interview last Friday night of Waimea Plains settlers with the Premier:—"Mr Fergus explained that he attended in respouse to a telegram from the Mayor of Queenstown, and he had to speak on behalf of a district as large as that represented by the other gentlemen present. The particular aspect of the case, so far as he was concerned, was this: the differential rate of the Waimea Plains Railway as compared with the Government line was such that goods from the Wakatipu district could be sent cheaper by way of Invercargill than if sent through Gore and Waimea. This roundabout journey of course E -evented the people from sending their produce to unedin, and they felt very severely that this interferred with trade and commerce. Another reason he would urge was this : there was the anomaly of this privtte railway being the connection of two main lines. He censured the previous Government for having started the RhersdaleSwitzers line l>efore the Waimea Plains Railway had Itecoine Government property. For these reasons he submitted that it was the duty of the Government to take every reasonable means for acquiring this railway. Mr Stout would recollect that last year he gave no assistance to the Government in their wish to purchase the line under the District Railways Purchasing Bill ; but now that they had acquired all the other district railways, he thought they might reasonably be asked to sacrifice a little in order to give some relief to the settlers of the Waimea Plains." We have been requested by the owners to state that the p.s. Theodore, running oil Lake Wanaka, will, when required, run from Pembroke to the Head of the Lake on any day of the week, returning the same evening, if an advance telegram l»e forwarded to the owners at Pembroke intimating the wish of the charterers. As Messrs Craig & Co.'s coai-h leaves Queenstown for Pembroke every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings, returning the following days, the above an-angement should prove a great convenience to parties of excursionists to the Wanaka. Capital has evidently been attempted to be made out of the occasional rumors—we may say canards — which have, during the past year or so, found their way in public print al>out the probability of the member for this district, Mr Fergus, taking up his aliode in Tasmania, and representing a constituency in the Parliament of that colony. In fact, only a few weeks ago au extract was published from a Hohartow n paper, in which it was positively asserted th.it Mr Fergus had consented to stand for a Tasmania!) constituency at the next general election. Statements so persistently made have naturally had some weight with the Lakes constituency, but we have reasons for believing that they emanated from some quarter nearer home than the "tight little island * across the water. One thing is pretty certain, namely, that there is no truth in them. We saw a private letter lately, in which Mr Fergus, when referring to the matter, says " I was asked to stand for a seat in Tasmania, but distinctly declined, aud have no intention of deserting New Zealand or my constituents in the Lake district. I promised my friends and supporters that, when I did think alwut retiring, I would first give them notice, and I fancy they might give me credit for the intention to keep mv word. I will give them the fullest intimation when I wish to retire, and hope they will do the same to me when they wish me to retire." So much for that. Mr Fergus will l>e in the district shortly aud meet his constituents personally. In one of the galleries of the Oscar goldmine, on

Boimnel Island, ou the west coast of Norway, a Mock of auriferous quartz was recently broken out, the value of which is estimated at £70,000. The ili'|>osit there has now l»een worked for about a year and a-lialf, and the working has, according to the reports of the owner, already returned the sum invested. The work is pushed on with all despatch, and it has lieen found that the quartz iucreasea iu gold downwards. A Taieri farmer is of opinion that the drought, of which so many complaints are heard, is the very thing that is going to put New Zealand farmers square auain. He thiuks increased price for stock in the winter and a rise iu grain will much more than compensate for the dry season. We hope his deductions are sound.

It has been suggested (says the Bruce Herald) by a gentleman who baa ha<i considerable experience in s'leh matters that in the event of the turnip crop fteiiiL' a failure, as there is tvery probability it will be, farmers might sow cow-cabbage, or vetches, to enable them to tide over the winter. He also considers that should it he considered a<l\isaiile to resow turnips, it would be advantageous to sow them, as is universally done in England, on the flat surface of the ground, instead of on drills. They would thus stand a better chance of getting at all the moisture to l>e had.

Perhaps the Itoldest project ever devised is that set Itefore the readers of a late number of tne Scientific American. Its object is to improve the climate of the Eastern Stat 8 of the American Union by diverting the cold oceanic currents from the Arctic regions at the Strait of Belleisle '•y the formation of a bieastwork across the Strait. The cost of the scheme is estimated at foitv million dollars.

- A streak of what is popularly termed , good luck* befel a totalisator investor on a hack race st Napier on Monday. For the sum of l'l he received a dividend of £306, there being only one iiivestor on the winuer of the race.

' A coord i Uk' to a Sydney telegram in the Age, Dr T. tiuthrie Oarr, the well-known phrenologist and electro-biologist, died at ftlen Inueson the 18th ult. from an overdose of morphia It is supposed to be a case of suicide.

lir J. E. Taylor, F.L S., F.G.®., in the Auxtra/axian, says: —"It may ease the niiad of Australian readers to know that the antiquated notion alnint iron or metals attracting lightning is not tiue, for if it were the vast number of Australian houses roofed with corrugated iron would be iu danger. Tlia question has been discussed at the French Academy, when M. Calladoit, a distinguishhed savant, said there was absolutely no truth tn the popular notion that a house with a metil roof was more liable to lightniug stroke than those without, it."

The Pope's letter on the subject of religious instruction contends that the very foundations of the State are ruined by the destructive error of those who would have children brought up without reli-ions education, and lie warmly applauds the zeal and liberality of private individuals, who have established in France, Belgium, America, and in the colonies of the British Kmpire voluntary schools in which the Catholic faith can be preserved whole and entire.

A new method of getting rid of rabbits has been brought under the notice of the Government by MiCharles Ross, of Coimadi, in the Bacchus March district, Victoria. Mr Ross place* gas tar just inside the mouth of all burrows, and places it where rabbits are likely to come in contact with it. He puts the tar npon chaff, old leaves, or auything which will stick to the rabl|t's fur. He finds that as rabbits are very clean aliinals they endeavor to lick the tar off, with the relult that their tongues In come clogged with it, and they eveutually die. The addition of a little |>oison to the tar would (the Bruce Herald, thinks) would make death easier to the rabbit. Fi.okilink.—For thk Tef.th and Brkath.—A few drops of the liquid Floriline sprinkled on a wet tooth-brush, produces a pleasant lather, which thoroughly cleanses the teeth from all parasites or impurities, hardens the gums, pre v ents tartar, stopß decay, gives to the teeth a peculiar pearly whiteness, and a delightful fragrance to the breath. It removes all unpleasant odour arising from decayed teeth or tobacco smoke. The Fragrant Floriline being composed in part of honey and sweet herbs is delicious to the taste, and the greatest toilet discovery of the age. Price 2s 6d, of all Chemists and Perfumers. Wholesale depot removed to 33, Far* rihgdon Road, London.