CANTERBURY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2528, 27 August 1902, Page 29

CANTERBURY.

The Timaru Borough Council having decided to erect public abattoirs, have called for competitive designs, and fiv e "have been received 1 , four coming from within the colony and one from Sydney. Tlie council have not yet made a final selection. The , cost of the work is to be about £5000, which has been borrowed from the Government at 3£ per cent., inoluding sinking fund. About nine months ago the Sumner Post Office was broken into and the ca^h box with £25, two cheques, and an old-age pension voucher, was abstracted. £22 of the c?sh was afterwards returned, but the perpetrator was never discovered. On Satur- ! <lay tlie eashbox was found in some scrub • t vitft the cheques and the voucher. I With the object of improving the conciitipns of labour, the journeymen carpenters J cf Timaru have formed a union. They a=k a -minimum wage of £3 per week and the Saturday half-holiday. A Xo-license Vigilance Association has ibeen formed in the Avon e-lectorate to resist an anticipated attempt to introduce a,. licensed house into Linwood Borough, which | ds in Avon, and in which there are no j hotels. Bishop Julius, speaking at the, first meeting of the a«sociation this evening, said that he wanted to vote for State control, but was not allowed to do that, and so i ■would vote no-license. He would rather die. than vote continuance. Though the party j (held different views with regard to prohibi- I tion, it was at one in voting no-license at , the coming election. ! Copies of a petition arc being circulated j throughout the South Island asking Parha j ment to extend the railway from Culverden , to Upper Waiau Ferry on the road to Haniner, to facilitate access to the sanatorium. The petition sets out that the development of Hanmer Springs as a tourist and health j resort is seriously impeded by w.mt of suitable railway faoilitiep. Mr G. T. Booth, president of the Canterbury Employers' Association, at the annual meeting on the 19th inst. spoke strongly in favour of further combination on the part of employers, and urged co-operation on a large scale. He said industrial efficiency would have te be increased, and that was the best way of doing it. The Timaru Hospital is at present taxed to its utmost capacity. So great has been ♦.he demand" for accommodation that some of the nurses have voluntarily given up their quarters, and are now being accommodated in. tents. There i* no epidemic, the cases under treatment being of a mii-cenaneou-; , nature. The board let a ecotract ou the 19th j for additions and alterations to the nurses' quarters and fever wards at a cost of about £SSOO.

A large new building, recently erected for the Ashburton Old Men's Home, was formally opened in the proence of a large number of the ptiblic and member? of the Charitable Aid Board. Mrs Board, wife «.f the chairman of the Charitable Aid Board, performed the ceremony, naming the Home " Taurangi,"' and was presented with a golden key as a memento. The building •was thrown open for public inspection, and » large number availed themselves of the opportunity to look over the rooms and the general appointments of the Homo. The Council of the- South Canterbmy 'Acclimatisation Society unanimously dwapprove of the clause in the Fisheries Ce>nfcervation Bill giving licensed anglers ft right of entry to private landt. A cable from Durban advises the death there (the cause not stated) of W. Mendeleon, solicitor, Temuka, formerly well known as a New Zealand athlete, and also at Cambridge University. He went to South 'Africa a few months ago. Mr Mendelson •was well known in Dunedin. He graduated at the Otago University, and then proceeded to Cambridge. He competed at the last championship amateur athletic •sports held in Dunedin in the long jump and somo other events. Lady Ranfurly is ftill confined to her rcom, having caught a fresh chill.