A SEVEN-ASIDE TOURNAMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2516, 4 June 1902, Page 54

A SEVEN-ASIDE TOURNAMENT.

A football tournament, promoted in aid of the School of Mines Library, was Held at the Caledonian ground on Wednesday afternoon. The attendance was limited, and unless, tickets were disposed of otherwise than at the gates the pecuniary gain must have been, small. Nine teams entered for the tournament, eeven of them being composed of students representing the several faculties at the University, and the eighth was a High School team. The "Medicals" were sufficiently strong to enter four teams, the "Miners" two, and "Arts" two. After some warmly-contested play, the " Arts " team proved victorious, and the " Medicals " A team weie limners-up. The ground was very heavy, as the result of the recent rains, and a strong wind blew from the S.W. Messrs H. Harris, A. Restieaux, T. M'Neill, and W. Wilkinson controlled tho play in turn.

As an interlude between the semi-final and final a fancy costume mateb was played, and a number of students grotesquely attired caused a great deal of fun by their buffoonery. Tlie majority of them appeared in something approaching female dress, in some casas with abbreviated skirts and in others with the reverse. One who had the temerity to attempt to score was " shot " by an opponent and removed from the field. Evidently the "corpse" found the ground too damp to lie on, for he quickly rejoined the others. The scores went uncounted, as it seemed immaterial on which side the contestants were playing.

The oyster beds at Nelson, formerly situsited in the vicinity of the wharves, have been removed to the Boulder Rock, as a precaution against possible affection from refuse matter at and about the wharves. Is marriage a failure, or no?

To answer is nobody's place. Only time and experience will show In each individual case. What's worse than a very bad cold?

Nothing, we feel pretty sure — The best thing to take we are told Is Woods' Gbeat Parraamsx Cube.

" Mr E. H. Carew, S.M., held a sitting of > the court on. the 27th to hear applications for the old-age pension, and granted one at £18 and one at £4. He also granted three renewals at £18, aud one at £7.

The jury panel summoned for the present i criminal sittings of the Supreme- Court were discharged on Saturday morning, when Mr Justice^Williams thanked them, on behalf of the colony, for their prolonged attendance. The business of the criminal calender has all been disposed of now with the exception of one case — namely, that against Hugh ' Sweeney, who is charged with the murder,

at Allanton, on the 26th. March, of a , woman named Annie Sinnott, a widow. A

fresh jury ha 3 been summoned to hear the evidence in tins case, which wilL probably 1 occupy two days. On Saturday the Walker brothers, for stealing paint from the Union Steam Ship Company, were each sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. Edward Myer Myers, for" false pretences, was sent to gaol , for two years ; and Andrew Howard, who 1 was found guilty of stealing a sum of money , from Mrs Carroll 1 , of the Nbrmanby Hotel, > was similarly treated.

The registrar- supplies the following vital statistics for the month of May for the Dunedin district: — Births, 11D;, deaths, 58 j i marriages, 38. For the corresponding. > month of last year, the numbers- were: — Births, 105? deaths> 40; marriages 41.

Referring, to the proposal of the Government to place a laxge steamer on Lake Wakatipu, capable of carrying- 1000 passengers, Mr E. G. Allen, M:.H.R. for Waikouaiti, has been in communication with Sir Joseph Ward with, a view to local engineering firms being given the opportunity of tendering for the construction of the vessel. On Saturday Mr Allen received the following telegram from the Acting-Pre-mier: — "Your wire re steamer for Lake Wakatipu. I have been: giving the matter attention for some time, with a view to I having local tenders invited." <**A rather unusual thing in these days of Native Councils took place at the Ohinemirtu pa last week, that of a- tribe seeking damages for the lo^s of one of the wivea of their chief, who had been taken to wife by a man of another tribe. It seems (says the Rotorua Chronicle) that the errant wife, being childless, had advised her husband to take unto himself a handmaiden. Acting on this advice, a family resulted, and domestic matters became uncomfortable for wife number one, who departed and took unto herself another husband. This hußband and his relatives were called upon to pay damages for the dishonour inflicted on the tribe of his newly-acquired wife. The proceedings were opened before sunrise by the tribe attacking the- house of the offending coxiple and demanding compensation that would have taxedT the resources of the Bank of New Zealand. Eventually tlie- demand was settled by the payment of about half a mile of calico prints, skirts, jackete, greenstone, horses, cattle, aud land.

Some time ago we recorded the death of a< shepherd in the Wakatipu district, who had passed his later days under circumstances that presented so striking a resemblance to an incident described by lan Maclaren in " The Barbarians," that Mr Ralph Ewing, of this city, was led to send to the reverend and distinguished novelist the cutting from our columns that related to tho matter. In forwarding the extract, Mr Ewing mentioned the rumour that lan Maclaren was likely shortly to visit Australia, and expressed the hope that the visit would be extended to New Zealand. He has now received the following letter from lan Maclaren:—"l7 Croxteth road, Liverpool, 9th April, 1902. Dear Sir,— lt gives me much pleasure to receive so friendly a letter ai yours, and to know that 'The Barbarians' have found a. home in New Zealand. The cutting which you send is excellent, and I ' have laid it past among my papers. With. . regard to my rumoured visit to the other feide of the world, it is true that I have been asked, but I am afraid my professional duties in charge of a very important church will prevent me, and indeed I say must prevent me, accepting. Perhaps in years to come, when my time is more at my own disposal, I may be able to carry out a long-cherished desire and visit the far East and the colonies ; meantime, I hear with interest everything about those brave young; nations which have rallied so nobly round the Mother Country in her hour of trouble. Believe me, yours faithftilly. (Signed) Jons Watson."

On the day of the Guatemala eruption (corresponding to our 19th April), the seismograph directed by Mr Hogben in WeL« lington showed tlie most protracted disturbances recorded since it was set up, the tremors lasting two and a- half hours.

The daily average number of New Zealand messages which passed over the Pacifio cable last week was 340, as against 142 for the Eastern Extension Company's line.

The Government is in negotiation for the site for the first sanatorium for the treatment of consumptives in the Waikato district.

In a letter to an officer of the Touriafe Department, Dr Heim, Professor of Geology at Zurich, who recently travelled through the Mount Cook region, gives some interesting impressions of his visit. " The first thing that strikes tha European mountaineer," he says, "is the ease with which he can approach and mount the glaciers oa their inferior parts. Once having reach&d the ice the phenomena are similar to that in Switzerland, Norway, and the Caucasus. The chief difference is the great extent of the moraina matter thai covmi &*