NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2955, 14 September 1882, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The Otago Licensed Victuallers have resolved to open their meetings to the Press.

The crew of the Maclaren are safely landed on Mercury Island.

The ship Thorne has brought the machinery for the Canterbury Refrigerating Company. There will be a match at Wanganui on Monday between the local football team and the Sydney visitors. The Auckland Coffee Palace company’s shares ate not ‘taking,’ and it has been resolved to wind up.

The Wanaka left Wellington yesterday for the South, with a number of returning senators on board.

The 14th of July, the anniversary o! the fall of the Bastile, was celebrated in Paris this year with much 6olat. This year the Queen celebrated her 63rd year, having been 21 years a virgin, 21 years a wife, 21 years a widow.

Railway passes for members of Parliament used to be of cardboard, last year they were of silver, now they are to be of gold. Who pays? Judgment has been given in the Supreme Court against Massey, who called upon the Dunedin City Council to show cause why they should not pay him £3OO, salary due since hie dismissal. Costs were also given against him;

A Government land sale was held yesterday at the Crown Lands Office, New Plymouth. The land offered for sale comprised sections sold at advanced rates. Two sections in Waitara West offered at the upset price of £ls, realised £SO each, and other sections were disposed of at a considerable advance on the upset prices.' Sections in the Stratford district were not in great demand, but the bidding for sections both in Waitara Bast and Wnitara Weat was very spirited.

A meeting of tbe Literary and Debating Society take; place this evening, when Archdeacon Harper will deliver an address on “ Evolution.” One hundred and one deaths occurred in London, in 1880, from sheer starvation.-

The South Canterbury Jockey Club invite tenders for the erection of a wire fence at the Eac ecoursc. A billiard match between Victor Olaen and W. Pierce for £lO a side will take this evening at the Grosvenor room". Attention is directed to a very extensive sale of freehold property to-morrow, by Messrs R, Wilkin and Co. Mr Tabart, the Christchurch auctioneer of the firm, will wield the hammer,

It is said that tbe Auckland publicans have,'during the past few months, spent £2OOO in endeavoring to meet the requirements of the Licensing Committees.

One William Boatwright is missing from the cutter Sunderland, arrived at Auckland from Thames. He is to have fallen oetvboard. He leaves a widow.

. A little girl named Ruth Harrison of Auckland, was drowned yesterday in the river Heathcote. She was playing with other children near the water’s edge, and fell in.

Grant, for poaching in the Dunedin trout reserves has been fined for trespass in the Botanical Gardens. This was the only way of preceding against him that was open.

An adjourned meeting of the Mechanics’ Institute Committee was held, last evening to decide upon the . appointment of a librarian, Mr H. T. Read, the present incumbent, was.re-elected.

The Acting-Governor has sent £5 in aid ol the poor lad Thomas Webb, whose legs were both amputated when frost bitten, The poor little fellow, it will be remembered was lost in the Otago ranges in the snow.

Messrs Edward Pearce and John Duthie, of Wellington, have consented to act as a Board of Advice for the Mutual Fire arid Marine Insurance Company of New Zea-. land.

Dr Goldsboro has forwarded a portion of the contents of the stomach of Mrs Cleaver (who died mysteriously in Auckland, a week or two ago), to the Government analyst for minute examination.

' Two drunken men were in a dingy last night -in Auckland harbor, when the boat capsized, and they were drowned before help could be sent to them. One is wooden-legged and unknown, the other is an old identity named Jack Wood,

Sometime ago one, Timothy Hayes, of Waikato, received a long sentence for rape on a Mrs Gordon, of Auckland, but was released through- representations made to the Governor. Yesterday John Gordon, the woman’s husband, was committed for trial for brutally assaulting her.

The Wai-iti School have received 19 applications for the mastership. They recommend to the Board three in the order given, viz:—Mr Easton, Sydenham ; Mr Crockett, Green Park ; and Mr McLeod, Hokitika. Should Mr Easton prove to be unmarried, his name and Mr Crockett’s to be reversed in order.

Captain Storm .of the Main North Road } will gladly receive subscriptions in aid of the family of George Sunnaway (one of heroes of May 14), whose leg was crushed by a log recently. , There should be. no difficulty in|collecting asufficicnt sum for so eminently deserving a case. Sunnaway’s accident has been most disastrous to himself and his family. A fall of earth was observed yesterday at Red Jack's diggings, near Greymouth, after which two mates, Devery and Hill, were missed. It was feared they were buried, and a party rempved the earth with all speed. In a short time Devery’s dead body was found, and Hill’s is being still searched for.

It appears that the system in the matter of prostitution in Paris, was abolished on January Ist of this year. The Rev. J. C. Kirby, lecturing in Sydney recently, argued that the failure of this system to check the spread of disease was a strong argument against any proposal to legalise the vice in the colonies.

The Queensland Government has made arrangements with an Australian syndicate for 250 miles of railway on the land grant system, ten thousand acres to be granted for every mile of railway constructed. This will be the making of Queensland, Mr Newton King held a large sale yesterday afternoon at New Plymouth, when several properties belonging to the late Mr Wm. Halse were sold by order of the trustees. The total realised about £5000; a piece of land in Brougham street, with 30ft frontage and a depth of 40ft fetched £l4 15s a foot. A Waitara hotel and land brought £560. Mr Ealse’s house and half an acre of laud went for £355. Fifteen acres of suburban land, at Waitara West, brought £7 per acre. The Melbourne “ Argus ’’ contains the following The Chinese are in the habit of holding an annual graveyard festival, with the object, it is said, of ‘ hunting out the devil,’ Mr Brophy mentioned in the Assembly that the police have notified that nothing of the sort will be allowed at Ballarat this year. As the trustee of the cemetery, Mr Brophy objects. He is an advocate of tolerating all rites, and moreover, he regards with favor an annual effort to ‘ hunt the devil ’ out of Ballarat, no matter who makes it. The Government, it appears, have not interfered in the matter, and the local police must be acting upon their own authority,”