SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2167, 5 September 1895, Page 28

SOUTHLAND NEWS NOTES.

(Prom Oun Own Correspondent. ) Invrrcaiujjll, September 3.

The fin« weather did not continue without interruptioD, and Mr Paulin's prophecies aftar all came to pass. Sunday and yesterday were cold, Bqually, and wet, but to-day is fine, and a green tinge is very noticeable in the pusturea as one travels through tbe country now. The hawthorn .hedges and other shrubs are showing that spring ia not gome to be so very late wiih us after all. The Hon J. G. Ward pays us a flying visit at the end of this week. He Is expected to arrive liy express tnin on Friday afternoon, and will no doubt receive, though perhaps informally, a v«ry hearty reception by the publicat the rail way station. Oa Saturday he will, a* chairman of directors •of the J. Q. Ward Farmers' Association, preside at that company's annual meeting, and on the evening of same day from 7 to 9 o'clock bp will give a political addte3B at the Theatre Royal, afwr which he is to be banqueted at th« Commercial Club in the Cres-ent. On Monday he is to be ffifed at the Bluff, and will be present at tbe cititens' ball to be held there that evening iv uonwir of him and Mrs Ward as a welcome hotne after the round-the-world trip. It i« «|K>rt~d tbat the Bluffiteß on this ocoatlon will have the privilege of being the first New Zealandew to have a view of the court drea« in which Mn Ward was prewntrd to her Maie»ty Queen Victoria. There are many other fcttlvities the public would like to introduce (nto the programme during the hoa gtntleman'a short visit, but he has begged to be ■spared some of them. " . The time for our municipal elections is near at hand once more, and candidates for several of the Invercargill wards are announced Th<j borough council hold a Bp-cial meeting on Thursday evening to discuss the Local Government Bill now before Parliament. The majority of the members will. 1 think, upon the whole view it favourably, •some of them liking the bill be tor than the Government who are tbe authors of it. h» .me of the sradler borough councils in this district have already declared against the hill, but this is of course ea?y to uudentond. The committee appointed by the Gore Borouch .Council are collecting a lot of information regardW th« best system of fire prevention for their "town. Men are busy at work clearing away the dehrits from the site of the late fir.-, and several advenisem<ntn are now appearing in the Invercargill and local papers for the erection of new buildings in brick and stone. The New Zealand Insurance Company donated £5 to the funds of the Goie Fire B igade in recognition of their cervices at the late fire. A rumour was current the other day that John Keown, charged with the murder at Balfour of Hugh St-iwart had gone out of his mind, but there ecems to bo no ground whatever for the assertion, which is generally regarded aB a pure Mr T Hewitt, of Gore, has leased the Criterion Hotel for the r« mainderof Mr J. Knight's term (two years and ahalf). Mr Hewitt is to take possession at oice, and Mr Knight i tends devoting his time to gold-raining in connection with the Mataura Eiver GoM-tnioiag Company - The Inveivargill Amateur Op 'ratio Society had a very successful four uiijhtV season last week, when they produced " Rip Van Winkle "for the firhttime inlnvtvcargill. The scenery and dresses were exceptionally good, and the (tiugmg and acting all round was excellent, while the orchestra, •under MrSiddall, was all tbat could be de-ir»d —and much is expected when this geutletnan -wields the baton. As Rip Mr Grenfell w»i decidedly good. Meßers Kierm*u, Woodword, ■Vickers, and Smith filled their respective chara«tcr# well. Miss G-ddee as Gretchen and Miss •Morrison as Katrina were exceedingly well up in their parts, tbe former singing very nicjly, and the latter infusing a great amount of lif« into feet »art.- The minor characters and choruses »ere %/e\\ filWd. The Hcenery, specially painted by Mr H. G. JaggTs, is well worthy of a word of praise. Miss Forrester, as the " Rhine Fay,' danced her way into the hearts of the •u-iience-There is a probability that the company will visit nhortly some *f the smaller towns of Southland, of which no doubt due notice! will be given. Such vieits may confidently be looked forward to •with the pleasantest anticipation. In reference to advances to dairy factory oomtames by the Government, Mr J. W. Lyttle, of littleboume, Gore, has been in communication with the GoMarnment. The Minister for Agricultur» states that a bill is now in courts ef preparation dealing with tbe advances to dairy factory companies, but until it is p»s*ed through Parliament the Government is un»ble to grant required assistance. The annual meeting of the Gore Standard Company was held on Tuesday last, but the meeting proved informal, as although the requi- ad number of «h e reholder« wore present (15) they aid not represent the requisite number of wuuee— viz., 200. Meisn Beat tie nnd Brewer, retiring diiectore, were re-elected, and Messrs Forb«6 »a«i M'GHI were elected directors iv place of Mcß«y 'Wallace and Macandrtw, ret-igned. The balance •sheet showed a loss of £33 odd on the year, and in addition to this £'20 bad debtt were written off. tog-tber with £33 for depreciation of plant. The aspets of the company, including hook debts, 4>lant, etc., is £19'K1 odd. and the liabilities £1014. "She afistts are £ZX\ less than thoee of the previous year. The Chairman (Mr Beattie) ur^«d lhat new shares should be taken up to provide new plant, but no action was taken. A very enjoyable run with the Otago punt Club's hounds took place on Mr G. M. Bell's property at Wantw«od on the 28th ult. The hounds started from Wantwood about 3 p ni., and the run wm ov*r the country, The fences were jowl stiff posts und rails. There were two rune, tke former being good, but the latter better. At tbe luet big double moit of the horses refused, only being prevailed upon to go when Miae Bell, oa Bob, had Riven them the l«»d. The fallowing consisted of Miss Bell, MeFgr6 G. \L. Bell, H. Simßon, Sullivan, Maihiesoa, A. Bell, and Jopp, with others. About 50 spectators gatlit-red to ■watch the sport. Mr G. M. Bell very hospitably enterUined those present, and all went away thoroughly pleased with their outing. At the invitation of Mr Bell, the hounds will meet again at Wantwood to-morrow at 2.30 p.m. It is reported that a well-known settler in tbe 3?ortroße district has made a successful draw of one of the Tatt«rsall'« consultation sweep", and that the value of his prize runs into four figures. With reference to the co-onerative system of public woikß in Southland, Mr G. W. Williams, ohief surveyor and commissioner of Crown laads for Southland, reports to the Governmeat that the prinripal road works in the district continue to be carried out under the cooperative system, and although there had b»en a certain amount of friction, as on former ocsasiond, with regard to prices jjs.id and wages earned, yet it might be fairlj inferred from th- results that the average wages earned had been fair in amount, and such as to comply as closely as possible with the general instruction to frame the rates so that average men might earn 6s a day. The invariable experience in Southland bad been that whenever new woi ks were staitcd attempts were made to obtain higher prices than those fixed by the local officers in charge, for which more or less plausible reasons were given ; but the real reasons w«w because, while the majority of men were disposed to give the thing a fair trial, there were always one or tv> o of the agitating class whom nothing would content, and wno deliberately laid themselves out to stir tip discontent ; because maxiy of the man undertook such work for the rirst time in their lives, and were therefore phvbically unfit for it, and could not therefore hold theh own, nor make fairly good wage* until they g t broken into it; nud aUo because vv r r> often woil; vv^ heftini in the very won-t ?cib m so tiiat the itioi' jot <Uicouraged by 10-iog to much time in >vi-uhcr and shor. days. Again, they sot j-oniutimi^ ineu who were considerably past the piime of life, and if price* were arranged fo as to enable these, and tbe iuexperier ced before referred to, to earn a minimum of 6s, there would be young, ablebodied men makiDg £\. He had had before him • an application from an elderly man who had thrown up employment at a sawmill in order that he might be taken on road work, on the plea that hu> work was too hard for him ! Notwithstanding the agitation for inoreascd rates, it was within Mr Willlamfs

personal knowledge that the moderate and steady workers took uo part In it, and were quite satisfled with their lot. He was daily receiving applications from men to be taken on the very works alleged to be so badly paid for. In visiting some of these works Mr Williams was impressed with what he terms the waste of energy in «ome wayo — for instance, where embankments of considerable height were being filled with barrows worked from & dittance. This oould be remedied by bavine a few hundred feet of tram rails and using pit trollies. Again, in another place, he found men laboriously prising away very heavy lo*s and stumps with levors cut from springy saplings, and he immediately remedied this by purchasing and Bending up a couple of lifting or screw jack*. By attention to auch matters he is convinced that the men could make better wages and take more interest in their work. Tbe Invercargill correspondent of the Waimea Plains Review cays :— "I have information on the labour question suggestive of terious considerations quoad the unemployed difficulty. Within ihe last few weeks the latter made its appearance in Invercargill, and a number of well-intentioned personage* orthwith rushed to the rescue. No sooner did tbe fact become generally kuown than thot nondescript class who find employment amougiit country 6ottler<j at small rotes of wa*es per week, including board and lodging, struck work and rushed to the town. One farmer at Forest Hill tells me he had two such men in his employ for a length of tim«, to whom he paid 15s per week, besides board and lodging. No sooner did they hear of the unemployed resource than they threw up their billets and are now engaged on relit f works No one objects to a man shifting about so as to better his position, but when the im provement is wrought by means of a species of pauper aid it is about time to recou-ider tae soundness of our charitable enterprise. Viewed in the light of th?se facts, there is too much reason to couclude that instead of a temporary expedient these relief works hava a fair chance of beooming a permauent provision. " „_,„, ,„ , A meeting of the Invercargtll High School Board was held yesterday afternoon. It was decide! that applications be received up to December 31 next for jthe yearly fve% echoarships offered by the board to pupils attending the primary schools. Pupils must have passed the Sixth Standard by Dfcember 31, 1895, and be under the age of 13 years and a-half on December 1 of the same year. The not Customs duties collected at Invercargill during August, 1891. amounted to £4021 6b ?d ; for the in >nth just pi«.t, £3999 4s sd -decrease £22 4s 21. Thrt brer duty for August 1894 w<w £151 190 41 : for lust month, £145 153 91—decroos- £li 3 - 7d. At » ru-<-ti«K of the guarantors of the Southland Fri'iwn Meat Company on Saturday afternoon the following 13 gentlemen were nominated le form a committee of «even to manage the affairs of the company :— Messrs John K'Queen, Arthur GerrnrJ, lhomas Fleming, A. R. Hay, G. G. Fyfo, R Coupland. G. W. Nichol, G. Crosbie, It. M'Callnm, P. A. Vyner, R. Allison, James BUkie, and W. Hullidny. The ballot will take place on Saturday, tue 14th mst. A very pretty marriage wh eh caused more than UMial ex'itement took place in St. John's Church on Tuesday, August ?o— that of Mr John F. Hawks, eldest eon of Mr William Hawke, to Mists Alice Bridg* (two very old families in the district). The c&remony was performed by the Yen. Archdeacon Stocker. The bride, who was given away by her father, looked very neat in a dress of eleatiic blue, with a pretty cream bat with ostrich tips and poppies. The brideemaida (Mhsqs Nellie Bridge, sister of the bride, and Miss Ado Hawke, si«t«r of the bridegroom) were both in very pretty dresses of heliotrope trimmed with cream silk, and cream leghorn hats trimmed with poppies to m«tch. The bride and bridesmaid* each carried a larfc"* bouquet of camellias and snowdrops. Mr K. J. Hawke acted as best man. After the ceremoDy, about 40 fiends oni relations Bat down to an excellent breakfast iv the dining room of the PriuceßS Hotel, the tables being tastefully decorated wtth (umellias, crocuses, and snowdrops. After justice had b«m done to the many good thine* provided, and the vreual toasts honoured, the happy couple left for the north amid showers of rice and cheers, carrying with them tbe (jood wwbee of all. In the evening Mr and Mrs Budge entertained about 40 yuunn people to a d*nce, which was very much enjoyed oy b>11 ; the company disparting about 5 ft.m after sineing " Auld lang syne " I shall not attempt to describe th« dress ts worn either in the afternoon or evening — auffi«c it to say they were both pretty and handsome. I must not forget to mention that the bride received a very handsome lot of costly presents. It w«s the finest collection I have ever seen. The newly-married couple will settle down at Balfour, where Mr Hawke is in business. Tbe following i« a list of the preaents :— Two beautiful clocks(one a very handsomemarble one), ahandsome duchesse dressing table and washttHnd, two biscuit birrcls (oak and china), one pair of oak salt cellars and spoons, two handsome ctuets, one handsome oak tea tray, one Japanese tray, one silver «gg cruet, two handsome sets of carvers, hand«oine lamp, bwket chair, painted coal hcuttle, pair hand-painted plaques and stool cheque, two silver butter coolers, handsome pair vases, handsome book (title, " The M*«ic City"), morocco bound album, marmalade jar. cheque, handsome travelling ru«, handbag, silver jVlly dish, and others too numerous to mention.

The stipendiary m»«ißfcrafce, Mr Poynton, gtve hit decision on the 23rd alt. iatheotee in which the InTero&tgill G-ufifon Band aaed Uie trostees for the Bret prise of £100 in lswt year's oont*«t. The Protest Committee had disqualified the band on the {rround that two of the players were not bo** jW< members. With regard to the pkmtiffs' objection that the Protest Committee were interested parttaa, the m»gistrfl<e pointed oat that it tm ioipo««ible under the rules to eelect a committee of members who 'were not interested, and that, in the absence of owrruption <*r CMllution, decitiooe of iptciat and peculiar tribunals of this sort w«re not interfered with by court* of law, eyen though tbe meubers were more or lees interested. With reference to the contention that tbe list sent bo the lecreUry of the Brass BmboV Association three months before the ooutest must be token an sufficient evMeaee of the rifht of a playrr to take part in a oonbeat, his Worship ruled th»t regulation 20 w*a not intended to bar any challenge; of a competitor's qualifications on protest. Counsel for plaintiffs elected to take a nonsuit with a view toother proceedings.