THE Otago Daily Times. “Inveniam viam aut faciam.” [Established November 15, 1861.] DUNEDIN, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1866.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23107, 5 February 1937, Page 5

THE Otago Daily Times. “Inveniam viam aut faciam.” [Established November 15, 1861.] DUNEDIN, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1866.

SEVENTY-ONE YEARS AGO

There was a meeting at Port Chalmers on Saturday evening, at which several gentlemen were proposed and seconded as being fit and proper persons for the representation of the Port in the General Assembly. The meeting was not a very orderly one, nor were those present unanimous in the choice of a candidate. No fewer than eight persons were proposed. All of them were local men, and the majority were the most unlikely persons that could have been selected. The meeting was apparently more in the humour of being amused than of seriously considering the question of the proper representation of the interests of the district, and the proceedings came to no practical conclusion. At the same meeting it was decided to memorialise his Honor the Superintendent to extend to the Port the Otago Municipal Ordinance, and a memorial to that effect was drawn up, read, and unanimously signed. Two emus and a pair of black swans have been introduced into the Oamaru district under the auspices of the District Acclimatisation Society. They were brought from Melbourne per the s.s. Tararua last week, and were conveyed from Port Chalmers to Oamaru per the Geelong on her last trip to the North. The “ Times ” reports:— “ Both emus and swans arrived in apparently good health, and it is to be hoped they will do well with us. As the small lagoon at the mouth of the Oamaru Creek has been considered a desirable habitat for the swans, Mr Waddell, one of the members of the Society here, and who takes a very lively interest in the subject, has constructed a house for them on the island in the centre of the lagoon. There not being a suitable place for keeping the emus about Oamaru. we understand that Mr Hassell has consented to remove them to Cave Valley for the present, where they will doubtless receive every attention. By the Tararua, the Victorian Society also forwarded about 150 tadpoles, but, we regret to say. these all perished on the passage.” An adjourned extraordinary general meeting of the Otago Fire and Marine Insurance Company was held on Saturday, at the offices of the Company, in Stafford street, in anticipation of advices from Melbourne affecting the proposed amalgamation of the Company’s business with the English. Australian, and New Zealand Insurance Company. The meeting was further adjourned for a fortnight.

The Oamaru Volunteers have now received their long-expected supply of rifles. The Geelong on her last trip took a consignment of thirty stand of Lancashire rifles and accoutrements from Dunedin, and they will shortly be distributed. The Directors of the Dunedin Waterworks Company have issued to the shareholders their annual report and balance-sheet.

The telegraph is erected as far as the Pelorus, but the completion of the line to Nelson is not to be looked for until the end of March. The ‘‘Nelson Examiner" states that Mr Green, the engineer engaged on (he work, regards the difficulties between Nelson and Pelorus as considerable, but is of opinion that the work will be completed by the time mentioned. It is proposed to connect Hokitika and the Grey by a tramway of a cheap kind. It is intended that wooden rails shall be used ; and as abundance of timber in every way suitable for the purpose can bo procured along the whole line, and as. moreover, a dead level can also be obtained, the expense of construction would be, comparatively speaking, trifling. . . .