NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3159, 18 May 1883, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

A 6ft Bin Irishman is among the immigrants of the s.s. British QuSen. Thomas Dobson, a laborer, has been drowned at Huia Bay, Auckland. The 0 Battery, N.Z. Artillery, will on the 24th inst., fire a royal salute of 21 guns.

The Bail way Department will issue at all stations single fare return tickets on the 23rd and 24tb, available up to and including the 28th inst. His Honor Judge Harvey yesterday morning,on leaving the Bench remarked that this was the “ coldest Court he had ever sat in.” Whereat every bystander smiled with respectful approval,

The annual sports, under the auspices of the Oddfellows’ Society will be held at Geraldine on the Queen’s Birthday, in one of Mr Postlethwaite’s paddocks, opposite Kennedy’s blacksmith shop. A dance will also be held in the Oddfellows’ Hall in the evening. .

G. H. Shepperson has been arrested at Auckland on a charge of bigamy. f It is said that Mr Eedmond wC not arrive in Auckland for two months.

The meeting of the Industrial Association will be held to-night at the Borough Council Chambers.

Two South African experts have testified that four of Jacobsen’s diamonds are genuine.

At the Christchurch Hospital the cornea of a rabbit has been transferred to a man’s eye to improve his sight. The official trial of lighting up Lyttelton Harbor by electricity will be made tomorrow night. Ellen Finnigan charged this morning, before E. G. Stericker, Esq fined 10s, in default 48 hours’ imprisonment, The s.s. Hinemoa yesterday took His Excellency Ihe Governor to Kawan, where he was entertained by Sir George Grey. The Hot Springs Hotel at Te Aroha has been burned down, the boarders barely escaping. The loss is £2OOO, The insurances are £7OO in the Victoria, and £4OO in the South British.

The N. O. Agrioultural and Pastoral Association have resolved to take steps to prevent the introduction of cattle disease into the country.

In Chambers this morning His Honor Judge Harvey heard an application by Mr Tosswill for probate in the will of William Burrough, deceased. His Honor made the order as prayed. The Melbourne “ Argus ’’ in closing a long review of the career of Sir John O’Shannassy says very truthfully :— *' Eecalling these long and arduous services, it must be said that death has removed the striking figure of one of the strongest men who built up Victoria. A Baptist Tabernacle is to be erected in Auckland. Young Mr Spurgeon is treading in the footsteps of his distinguished ■father. £3,500 have already been collected and a site purchased. The building will cost £BOOO, £BOO was promised last night at a soirea, s John Gibbon, a man employed on the Eiverhead Wharf, Auckland, yesterday got his' foot in the bight of a rope, while fastening the steamer Lily. It was crushed against the pile and literally torn off at the ankle.

The first annual meeting of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in Christchurch, was held in the Provincial Council Chamber, last night. The receipts for the year were shown to he ,£llO and the expenditure £lO4. The young people’s branch numbers 900. There were 84 essay prizes.

The North Canterbury Education Board are advised that a decision of theirs as to the compulsory clause, of the Education. Act was wrong, and the St. Albans Committee are recommended to institute new proceedings against one defendant. The Board granted the usb of the Normal School class rooms for religious teaching from 11.30 to 12.

According to the Capetown papers murder may be committed with impunity in many parts of South Africa. Three cases of murdor are cited by way of example :—A faithful colored man was tending his msister’s sheep at Kraaifontein. A stock thief wanted to steal; the herdsman was true to his trust and died in defence of hia master’s property. The murderer is at large. A Kaffir laborer was found horribly murdered on the railway works near Bluebush Poorfc. No tidings of the murderer. At Ditvlugt, in the Hantam, a Hottentot was found with, hia hands and feet tied together and his throat out from ear to ear. Murderer not found.

The sensational story from Teviot has turned out a false alarm. The police have received the following telegram from the constable stationed in the district '•Found bones of a human being in a gully twent-nine miles from Roxburgh on ranges. They are all disconnected and decayedThere is no appearance of foul play. It looks as if the bod y had been there for the last eight or ten years and that the deceased person biad been lost in the snow. There is no chant je of identification;

The Rev. Mr T 'ucker, of Christ Church, Melbourne, holds* broad views on the subject of Sabbatar ianism. “ There should,” urges the rev. g entleman, "be no restriction as to the i nanner of observing Sunday. People should be permitted to do as they like providing they do not interfere with others, nor disturb the peace and quiet of the community. If they desired to go into the country, or to visit the libraries or museums, or other befitting resorts they should be permitted to do so, while the Chu;rch, on her part, should seek to show them something better, and to meet and beat tho world in the fair open field.”

Sometime ago a well-known native of Bombay offered to give a new clock and chimes to the University of Bombay, and deposited a large sum of mouey with the authorities to carry out his generous intention. The gift/has been manufactured in London, and is about to be shipped to Bombay, Doubtless it is such a timepiece as India never' saw. The dials, of oval glass, are thirteen feet in diameter; it is fitted with an apparatus enabling it to telegraph its time daily to the observatory) and correct all the other clocks in the city, Mnd connected with it is a chime of sixteen bells which can | day automatically, sixteen tunes and 150 ob anges.

With regard '.to the Chinese camp at Lawrence, “ By>e-witness” writes to the “ Tuapeka Timer” I wish to call your attention to some of the social evils that exist in the Chinese camp. Lately it has become a hot-bed of vice and disease. Fortunately the associations of this camp were confined to Chinese storekeepers, pig-butchers, frequenters of gambling hells, &c., and *a stray European perhaps ; but recently the scenes in this place beggar description. There are a few industrious families of Europeans living in the neighbourhood, with girls growing up to womanhood, and 1 hold that they ought to be protected from such scenes.”

Every pariah; in London seems nowadays to have its exhibition, whether of flowers or rough art work. The perfection to which outline, drawing has been carried in some of the schools is remarkable. At the Vauxhallj exhibition recently, a boy of fourteen Jye are, son of a cabman, whose drawing of “A Meadow in Surrey” was highly commended, was immediately adopted fc »r artistic education by one of the first Eng fish- landscape) painters, who declares th at he will make a Claude Lorraine of him, go exquisitely graduated are the lines of, the drawing, an id so well do they indicate the shadows seen by the noonday sun, although expressed by nothing more than simple strokes of blo iok and white.

A recent inquest at Sydney revealed an almost incredible degree of barbarity prac- j Used by the wife of a cabman named Hamilton towards her newly born child, j The evidence given by the mid-wife shocked all present. The mother was ■ drunk, and another woman, also drunk, i was with her, and in consequence of their brutal and disgusting conduct rolling oyer the child, which fell out of bed, and giving it no nourishment—the infant died. The details of the fathers conduct also produced a sensation of horror in Court,

The method of teaching grammar in schools from text books has of late met with a great deal of hostile criticism in the United States. It is contended that grammar as commonly taught is a laborious study ; that it takes up much time; that it is distasteful to children generally; and that it does not produce good practical remits. Those persons, the critics say, who speak and write the English language correctly have acquired the habit from reading well-written books, and from bearing good speakers, and not from the lessons they have learned by rote in the school. They assert that the school children do not speak grammatically, and that very few grown up persons who have had no other literary education than that which they received in school either speak or write with even tolerable correctness.

American journals report that paper employed already for caf wheels, can be utilised for the manufacture of rails in the place of steel, which has almost displaced iron. It is said in favor of the material that the cost per mile will be less by onethird than that of steel, and it will last much longer, being almost indestructible. There is no expansion or contraction, from heat and cold, consequently no loose or open joints, and being so much lighter than steel or iron, the rails can be made longer and connections perfectly solid making the road as smooth as one continuous rail. The adhesion of the drivers of the engine to this material will be greater than that of steel, consequently the same weight engine will haul a larger load, There. will be a great saving of fuel, and the smoothness of the rails will lessen the wear and tear of rolling stock. The rails are made wholly and entirely of paper, and so. solid that the sharpest spike cannot be driven into them. With reference to the use of this material for car wheels, it is announced that the Northern Pacific Eoad has made a contract with the Allen Paper Oar Wheel Company for paper car wheels necessary for the passenger, diningpostal, sleeping, baggage and pay cars, as well as the engine and tender trucks.. This contract calls for 4000 wheels.