News in Brief.

Otago Witness, Issue 1559, 24 September 1881, Page 21

News in Brief.

Tbe erection of a Presbyterian. Church at Waikaia is contemplated.

About 200 persons attended the Chatton bachelors' ball h eld last week.

The Duutroon people offer a bonus of £200 a year to a medical man willing to settle in their township.

A rabbit shooting matoh is among the events of some sports to be held at Mandeville ■ next week.

Subscriptions are being canvassed for at Wray's Bush for the erection of a Roman Catholic Chapel.

A 200-light gasoline machine is being obtained for the Kaiapoi Woollen Factory, in order to allow nightwork to be more extensively prosecuted.

According to the Mail a resident in Oamaru is about to establish a weekly market for prrain and all classes of farm products— that is, if sufficient encouragement is given to the projeot.

Mr E. Herbert, of Lawrenoe, ia, with the permission of the Borough Council, planting one of the streets of that town for a distance of three quarters of a mile with trees.

The accepted tender for the new Presbyterian church at Waiwera is that of Mr Watson Rhodes, the amount being, £509. The church will be seated for 180 persons

There are 160 names on the roll of the Queenstown Main School. Daring the past month the highest attendance was 121, the lowest 45, The previous month's average was 115.

TheTaieri Advocate states that some toys who were rabbic hunting among the ranges close to Outram captured a specimen of the kiwi.

According to t he Wakatip Mail the pastoral tenants in the Lake County are using every exertion to get their men— shepherds, &o. — registered in view of the forthcoming general election.

Nothing has been learned aa to the origin of the fire at Edendale, whereby Mrs Muir's Railway Hotel was burnt. Scarcely anything was saved beyond a few articles of clothing and about £5 worth of furniture.

In addition to the fastest steam yacht afloat, Mr Lorillard owns a wonderful team of trotters, the wheelers 16 and the leaders 17 hands high, whioh do tbe mile in three minutes with a loaded coach behind them.

The Dunstan Times is reliably informed that the late severe weather has played sad havoc with the lambing. On one extensive station io the Dunstan district the average is not expeoted to be above 30 per oent., instead of the customary 70 or 80.

The following ia a vaccination joke from a Home paper :—" A certain medical gentleman, on leaving the police-station lately, was accosted by a friend thus : ' Have you been vaccinatingthe police doctor ?'— ' Certainly not j they neve? catch anything.' "

According to the Western Star Mr J. O. Ellis' platform for the Wallace electoral district is Btated to be "an independent man, with no axe to grind, opposition to payment of members, no offioe hunter, and justice to River ton harbour."

The Wray's Buah correspondent of the Western Star states that Messrs Rowley and Hamilton, of Avondale, have had for several months no fewer than 12 men on poisoningCaptain Stevens and others are also doing good work in that line.

The Hyde correspondent of the Mount Ida Chronicle regrets that pheasants and partridges do not increase in his district so rapidly as they might do, and explains that the Maori-hen is the chief cause of this, as when the pheasant leaves the nest that good-for-nothing biped takes charge and destroys the eggs.

Messrs Gregg and Co., at Inch Clutba, hare determined to proteot their property at the top of the island against the inroads the river hap been making on the banks of late, by means of fascines of sorub attaohed with galvanised wire to huge blocks of conorete anchored firmly in the river. Some 12 chains of the banks are to be done in this manner.

At Wellington, the other day, one Roderick M'Donald was couvijti-d of stealing a set of bagpipes from Anguß M'Lellan. The two were in a hotel when Roderick, after performing the " March of the Cameron Men," wound up with "The Rogue's March," and cleared off with the fascinating instrument. He got two months, and was not allowed even tae solace of the pipes ia priaon. <

At tbe anniversary of the Star of Otepopo Lodge, held at Herbert, and at which 200 persons were present, the Roy. Mr Christie is reported to have remarked that tho advocvea of total abstinance wer<3 usually men of genius and iv advmce of their age, and therefore not appreciated. The Roy. Mr Ryley also spoke, advocating tomperauco principles as being scriptural nnd right.

The building and plant of the propoßed Oamaru Woollen Factory ava estimated to oost upwards of £14,000, and with those it is stated that every description of tweeds, blankets, flannels, plwiin, &c , could be manufactured in a style capable of oompetiug with the world. It will be necessary to import 10 skilled handa from Homo, A stock of 600 balas of wool would be ample to keep the factory going for a year. The North Oiago Times states that the local Atiheuseum committee have disposed of their Wyndham endowment. Tho prioe obtained is £3 5i per aero This was about the value placed upon it by Messrs Cunnell and Skrimski, the gentlemen who undertook to vi^ifc the endowment for tho purpose of ascertaining how it could be most profitably utilised. The ures; of the reserve biung 370 acres, the total sum realised from the sale will thus b* £1202 10i.

Tho Ouuanru Mail exjilaiaathat what tbe pro posed F.tiiuu, Company intends to manufacture is fariua, an avtiole largely imported by England from vaiious parts of tho Oontiuent, aud used for food and manufacturing purposes, chiefly for dressing cotton and facing paper. Thougu the machinory proposed to bo obtained ia capable of making the fiueab description of starch, the manufacture of that arfcicle will ba a secondary conoidiuutLoiJ, and will depend upon circumstances,

Roy. I), llojsontho Future of LakoWakatip : Before scvou years have pusf-od away wo snail see ft dozen boats busily engaged on this lake, yielding employmeut to a hundred bauds or more in the various bmnohos of this industry. Besides the men who will bo occupied in fishinar, thore will be some ongagef^ in growing the willow, seine ia basket making, somo ia tin making, aome in connection wick the ice preparation, aud somo in boat building.

Every acrfc o? water is capab'o of yioldin,<? a t-nof tish, ■■:. -cording to fcho ospsrionoo oi <mc Amorican cousin*. Now, in. Like W.ikatipu aloiifl them aro 77,000. Thiti, aeoordingr to the estiaiato of tho Americaus, would give 77,000 tors of fish. J3ut, suppose we eeUmaU'd i', &': t'iii fourth, we li<-ve «wn *Kou over 19,0d0 tons .mr.tiaUy cnuduciM. . tid to this i.ho 17 Ihicoj huiiaerod over «,^-- cU. lAcit, jud how oh^i'ihousj tho yield, ex essivo t-1.0 omploymout, «,ud b'lw vast the revenut! — liov. i). .Ross, on "The Future of Queenatowiii"