CANTERBURY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2604, 10 February 1904, Page 30

CANTERBURY.

The- new Post Office clock at Arhburton ■was started on Thursday by the Mayoress The clock has chiming bolls, and cost £820, about half of which was subscribed by citizens and tho balance by Government subsidy. The threshing-mill owneis mot represented at the conference of owners and hands at Ashburton refuce to subscribe- to theagreement entered into. Thpy piefer to -make their own term* with the men as they require them. The poll for a £50,000 loan for providing a high-pressure v. ater supply wa a lost by 1292 votes to 650. The polling was very small.

At Waimate Philip Richards was sentenced to three months' hard labour by Major Kaddell, S M., on Friday for obscene language in a public hall. Accused had been prohibited a few days previously, and, feeling aggrieved, announced that- he would give a lecture on the police and prohibition orders. It was while ho was lecturing, holding the police and local justices up to ridicule, that he used the. obscene language for which ho was sent to gaoi.

As a result of the new regulations governing secondary education, 55 new pupils have joined the Timaru High School this A severe ' hailstorm passed over the district west of Geraldine on Saturday, doing considerable damage. Hailstones the size of hens' eggs fell, and penetrated galvanised iron roofs, cut the heads of grain off, and destroyed fruit. Cattle, terrified, rushed ■wildly* about the paddocks. The windows «}f houses were broken, and a man, struck on the head by a big hailstone, was rendered unconscious.