EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27390, 16 May 1950, Page 4

EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

FROM THE FILES OF THE ©tago Sail? Urines DUNEDIN, MAY 16, 1865. The ship Berar has arrived from London after a passage of 95 days, having left the Downs on February 5. The Berar brings the first lot of immigrants under the new regulations, and in all her passengers number upwards of 200, a larger number by far than has arrived here in any one ship for a period of seven years. During the passage there were three births and four deaths, three of the latter being infants.

The telegraph wire between Invercargill and Dunedin was yesterday brought into operation, and messages passed betwen the Postmaster-general and the Southland operators. The circumstance was mentioned last evening in the Provincial Council by Major Richardson. We believe that the northern line as far as Lyttelton will be brought into working order in the course of a few days. The Southland line has not yet been thrown open to the public, but we trust that the necessary arrangements will be made to render the wire available for the transmission of the English news on the arrival of the mail at Bluff.

2 A correspondent, under the nom deplume of “Beta,” writes as follows to the editor of the Daily Times: “ While the Council are engaged in voting away supplies of money for the various necessities or supposed requirements of the province, it may not be considered out of place to suggest an object upon which a few drops of the golden shower might very profitably be bestowed. The great want in Dunedin of a good public library has no doubt been felt by many others besides myself, and I am surprised the matter has not before this attracted the attention it deserves. The Council appears to be impressed with the value of education, and have voted liberal sums for its maintenance and furtherance, but it should be borne in mind that grown-up men require education as well as boys, and that in many cases among the working classes education is only begun in young manhood, and sometimes not until middle life. It is certainly far from creditable that Dunedin should be without a decent public library.”

More than one-third of the motion picture theatres in the United States are in towns with populations of 2500 or less.