CHRISTCHURCH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3863, 4 July 1874, Page 5

CHRISTCHURCH.

(fkom^oub own correspondent.) June 26th. Surveyors here appear to be pretty veil • rpiid. Tnanswer to a question asked in the Provincial Council the other day—-in what manner the contracts for surveys are let—the Provincial Secretary stated that the terms were £2 a mile for general traverse, £4 each for ' trig stations, calculating sides, and furnishing diagrams ; .Is 6d per acre for freehold -sections to the extent of 100 acres, and Is per acre for the balance in any section in excess of that quantity. ~ A statement was made the other day that ••as many as 200 young women were employed '"in Christchurch in factories and millinery ' -establishments, and that many are kept at "work very unreasonable hours, and in badly ventilated rooms, and a Councillor moved a resolution to the effect that that a sum . -should be placed on the Supplementary Esti- : -mates to carry out the provisions of the Employment of Females Act, passed last year. . The motion was withdrawn, on the under- - standing that the Police would see that the law was complied with, and that the expenditure contracted would be paid out of contingencies. The authority necessary for the Jockey Club to charge gate-money at the race-meefc--ings has been conferred upon that body. It was suggested, as an alternative, that Government should make a grant of £100 a : year to the Club, in consideration of the ■ -«xtra amount derived from the traffic on the railways ; .but the former proposition appeared to find more general favour at a recent meeting of the Club—in anticipation, I presume, of an increased amount of clerical . "work consequent upon the augmentation of their funds from the above-named source—it was decided to have a paid Secretary, and Mr P. H. Digby has been appointed to the -office. This gentleman has been connected through the Press with the sporting worid in New Zealand for a great many years, and has won for .himself universal respect. He is, -furthermore, agent here for the New Zealand Stud Book, and as a sporting writer it would lie hard to find his equal. Ycu may have .read some of his papers under the soubriquet ofSinbad. . I told you in a former communication that :an agitation was on foot by which the Municipalities might have the control of the funds •arisiug from the local publicans' and auctioneers' licenses, and from the dog tax. This agitation resolved itself into the intro--duction of a Bill into the Provincial Council by which these funds might be handed over -as aforesaid, but it was thrown out on the -second reading, the country members especially being decidedly adverse to the proposition. This is the more to be regretted, as •Just now the streets are in a most execrable state of mud, arid a few thousands spent in the laying down of broken metal would be judiciously expended An amusing incident occurred in one of our churches the other Sunday, on the occa .sion of the afternoon christening and churching services. It appeared that after the former service was concluded, the mothers walked up the aisle in the usual way to be -churched. But one couple, who were apparently not, quite up to the method in which the business was conducted, remained behind—both of them. But after a time ■ the male representative of the homo sapiens species,-under the.impression that the stampede was for the purpose of- registering the births, enquired of his neighbour whether it was necessary lor both father and mother to -sign. On being answered ii» the negative, _he starts for the destination of the matrons, which he finds is the cushion round the communion rails.. He kneels down among the others perfectly unconcerned, and the eluuchong is about to commence. The clergyman, however, ascertains the fact of this little «rror in the matter of sex, informs the man that he had better adjourn, and he hides his diminished head in the vestry, and the service concludes, not without a considerable amount of tittering amongst the male portion of the community whom he had left at the other end of the church. My informant •did not tell me vi^at became of the wife, but J presume that she^>as ultimately directed to her proper position. . . Ohj^the sublime f .rce of the present phase of the Volunteer movement for purposes of national defence ! I heard a good jok^ anent this the other day. The Mayor of Christchurch was interviewing the Superintendent on the subject of accommodation for immigrants,, and he made the remark that it was high time we left off playing at soldiers, and that if this was done the drill shed might be fitted up and made to answer the purpose admirably. The on':y chance of success that Volunteering ia, the Middle Island stands will, in my opinion, be when the main trunk •of railway is open, and when tho forces can be concentrated quickly, by which will not only members increase very materially, but the standard of efficiency will also be proportionately raised. .. As a rule Christchnrch affords as much work for the inspector of nuisancts as any well •:regulated town of its size in the Southern Hemispheric BvA I tame across an instance the other day in which I thought one of these indefatigable officers was rather ■exceeding the bounds of his commission. He called upon a shopkeeper and told him that the amount of orange peels upon the footpath and road opposite his establishment was really disgraceful. If he sold so many oranges and the vendors flung the peelings about in such a reckless manner, really he must remove them, or the consequences might be very serious, resulting in broken limbs and so forth, and for all of which damages he would be held responsible. Such lamentable cases as the following are fortunately, in the interests of humanity, few and far between. I happened to be walking one afternoon about four o'clock along one of our streets during a bitter frost. I saw a family of nine little children huddled together on the pavement, the eldest about twelve years of age, and the youngest, in the arms of one of the others, about eleven months. They were moaning bitterly, very thinly clad, and half of them with coughs such as I should not care to hear often. The eldest —a girl—told me that they were immigrants recently landed, that their father had gone many miles up-country to work for a railway contractor, and that their mother had left home that day soon after dinner to pay a visit to a married sister of hers in another part of the town, and had locked them out. As it got dark, a neighbour took compassion on this poor little, helpless regiment, took them in, put them, before a good fire, and supplied them with

food. The Police were called in to witness this agreeable spectacle, and stated that they were powerless to act in the matter, but that they must remain in their present quarters Their mother came home about nine o'clock at night, told some cock-and-bull story in her endeavour to account for her detention, and gave the eldest girl a sound rating for not taking better care of her little brothers and sisters, while all the time the door of the house was locked this bitter cold night, and the key in the mother's pocket, who, apparently, was doing nothing in the world but gossiping. The Sheep Importation Committee, which I have already told you had been appointed by the Provincial Council, have given in their report, in which they recommend that all imported sheep'should be dipped to the satisfaction of the Inspector within fortj--eight hours of'their arrival, either on board ship or in pott. They further consider that after the first dipping, the sheep should be conveyed to some secure paddock and there dipped by the Inspector within one week of their arrival in the paddock, and that they should not be allowed to leave the paddock until the expiration of thirty days after the second dipping ; and thereupon a certificate by the Inspector should be issued, that the sheep could be removed without any danger of infection. It appears that the Hod. W. Robinson had some sheep from Home last January and February in the ships Pleiades and Crusader. They were taken to a paddock and dipped, but early in May they were found to be scabby. It is conjectured that the sheep were infected while on the paddock from what remained of a previous mob that had been depasturing there before, and that came from Victoria, consigned to the same gentleman, in October, 1873, and were landed in a very impoverished condition, and remained some time before they were in a fit suite for dipping. A most disgraceful scene occurred here the other day in the Government Domain, and I am very glad to observe that one of our morning papers has thought fit to inflict upon the authorities a severe castigation. It appears that the enclosure apportioned off for the deer was required by the Board for the purpose of planting, and that orders were issued that the deer the n selves should be captured. The first attempt resulted in one of the deer breaking its neck against a wire fence. An expert at the lasso was subsequently found who was to do the business in an artistic manner. But he failed signally, aud' at last it was determined to run the animals down. About sixty started in pursuit, and the first was captured by a number of College boys. However, its legs being seciu*ed, it was thrown carelessly over the fence and killed. The old buck, after wounding one of the does, got its antlers fastened in the wire-fence, aud strangled himself. Another capture was made, but the poor beast died soon after from exhaustion. Another fell down while being pursued, and died also ; and another escaped. And thus our splendid herd has been brutally sacrificed. The ingredients to procure a terrible accident were found the other day in the form of a long row of large stones placed upon the railway. They were put there by a child six years of age—an East Indian—son of a man in the employ of Sir Cracroft Wilson ;"and when questioned, he said he was playing, and wanted to see a smash. On a train nearing the spot the stones were observed, and the train slackened in time. The father stated that he had severly chastised the boy, and pro i.ised to enter into a bond of £20 that the thing would not occur again, and, to use his own words, "If he does, I am your victim." The Provincial Council has been called some hard names because it has thought fit to pass a resolution by which members of the Council might travel free npon the Canterbury railways all the year round, in order, as the mover of the motion said, that they might be enabled to visit and inspect the various public works in course of construction. However, they have one oppori unity of redeeming their character. It has been elicited that the amount to defray the expenses of these free passes is to be placed upon the Supplementary Estimates; and it lis to be hoped that the item will be thrown out. Fancy public works inspected by a horde of Provincial Councillors. Canterbury intends spending money enough, in all conscience, the various items upon the Estimates for nine months reaching an enormous amount, equal to £1,534,550f0r the year. Pome of your nautical readers may be interested in knowing that the sum of £1000 is placed upon the Estimates for the purpose of erecting a harbour light at the entrance of Akaroa harbour. The Secretary.for Public Works stated while the motion was passing that the General Government would place a sea light upon what is known as Flat Point, which would throw its rays right across the harbour, but that the leadbuj light to the harbour should be furnished by the Provincial Government. As an indication of the popularity of the Colonial Bank project, I may mention that a great many instances have come under my notice where bona fide working men have invested their little savings in a few shares, such faith have they in the success of the undertaking. A^ Conference of Chairmen of Road Boards has seen recently held, and it was considered that the present Ordinance was defective in maoy particulars, and that further legislation was necessary to define the powers of the Boards; and a Committee was consequently appointed to consider the nature of the alterations. - As a kind of supplementary paragraph, 1 have to add that though, as stated above, the Provincial Council would not grant to the municipalities control over the revenue arising from publicans' and auctioneers' licenses and the dog tax, yet they passed a special grant to them last night of £5500— £3000 to Christchurch, £1000 to Lyttelton, £1000 to Timaru, and £500 to Kaiapoi. Notices of forthcoming ploughing matches are already published to come off in most of the agricultural districts in the Province, and the energy displayed by the pi-omoters in these matters is a healthy sign of the times.