South Canterbury Times, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1881. NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2735, 27 December 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1881. NEWS OF THE DAY.

The steamer Wakatipu nailed from Sydney for Wellington on Saturday.

Intending competitors are reminded that entries for the South Canterbury Caledonian Society's sports close to-morrow night.

The prize-takers at the Friendly Societies’ sports are requested to attend at the Foresters’ Hall to-morrow, at 8.30 p.m. Messrs Maclean and Stewart on Saturday sold the privileges in connection with the Caledonian sports, the whole realising £223.

A youth named Clarke has been committed for trial at Auckland for robbing a bushman of £ll in a house of ill lame. A lad named Mckenzio, of Wangarei, was gored to death by a cow while taking a call away from her. A backyard thief and burglar named Zone has been arrested at Auckland. Two oartioads of linen stolen from clothes lines and £4O worth of boots, shoes, and shoemakers’ tools were found in his boose.

The “ Illustrated New Zealand Herald ” for this week is a more than usually well Illustrated number. Perhaps there are rather too many engravings of scenes witnessed on the Melbourne “ Cup day," but the excellence of one of them makes ample amends. There is a spirited sketch of a phase of a stockman’s life that has fortunately been unknown here, where the stockmen are trying to restrain cattle wild with thirst from rushing to water which they have scented, —which, if permitted, would result in the weaker being trampled to death. & series of views of the Mount Bischoff tin mines, in Tasmania, show that this industry has reached a high stage of development in that colony. A wellexecuted colored supplement accompanies the number, representing an Australian Lake or Creek scene, —in the wilds, as the presence of a dock of black swans plainly indicates, This picture, though not above criticism, is a very good one indeed of its kind.

Trout have been liberated in the reservoir of the Oamaru waterworks, and they are said to be thriving. The proceeding is, however, a questionable one, for a few days ago a fish estimated to have been two pounds in weight was picked up in fragments, having been chopped to pieces in a turbine wheel supplied from the mains. This incident suggests unpleasant ideas of fish jammed to death in the small service pipes, to the certain detriment of the water, and possible danger to the health of the users.

An exciting capture of a shark was made at the Breakwater on Saturday morning. Two men, Messrs Armstrong and Toneycliffe, were standing on the ledge of the fonndation blocks fishing with strong lines, and one of them booked a big shark. He proved so strong that the second fisherman had to hold on to his brother, to prevent being pulled off his perch. After a good tussle the shark was pulled close in, and a boat hook was stuck into him, and by means of it the brute was pulled partly into a crevice between the blocks. Two of the contractors’ men gave their assistance and despatched the fish with an adze. It measured 7ft Gin in length, and when opened thirty-one young ones, some of them a foot long, were found inside It.

The Christmas excursion trains have been well patronised. Dunedin is a sort of centre station, long lines arriving in different directions from and through it, and the passenger traffic was very considerable there. On Saturday about 2000 people arrived at Dunedin from the North and South, of whom about half had tickets for long excursions, some for Christchurch and others for Lake Wakatipu, We don’t know exactly what amount of accommodation for travellers the townships of Kingston and Queensland, or the Lake, contain, but it can scarcely be sufficient for so large a number of excursionists as have gone up. We expect they will hare to “ shake down ” and probably rough it otherwise.

Spain has 28 per cent of its cultivated land under wheat which in estimated by Hr Abela, a Spanish agricultural engineer, to produee on an average about 20 million quarters. The same authority states that with the introduction of machinery, much of the fertile land at present uncultivated could be utilised, and they could then easily compete with America, producing wheat of the finest quality at from 28s to 37s per quarter.