NEWS OF THE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3327, 30 November 1883, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The s.s. Eotomahana will sail for Melbourne on Tuesday. Captain Thomson, formery Harbormaster, has been appointed dockmaster. The Sunday-school Union Industrial Exhibition at Auckland has been largely attended. Cheviot, Vanguard and Gilderoy have been scratched for the Auckland Cup, and Strathearn for the Steeplechase. Mr and Mrs Baxter, of Dunedin, celebrated their golden wedding on Wednesday. They are aged 72 and 70 respectively. Mr D. McGuinness is the successful tenderer for the lease of the railway refreshment rooms for the ensuing two years. A earbine match will shortly be held at Saltwater Creek, between a picked team of artillery men, and another of civilians. The Hon. Mr Mitchelson wilt be invited to a conference with the Chamber of Commerce about public works in the Otago Provincial District, Competitive designs for a free public library at Auckland have been received from Napier, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. A quarrel among the bakers has resulted in the old price Gd per 41b loaf being adhered to. The public are clearly the

gainers. Great satisfaction is felt at the initiation f a weekly service between Auckland and Sydney by the Union Company, theßingarooma commencing running permanently from 6th December.

Welcome Jack, Envious, Clarence, Ugly Buck, and Barbery left Lyttelton yesterday for Auckland by the s.s. Tarawera, to fulfil engagements at the Auckland Summer meeting. The usual meeting of the Rocket Brigade was held last evening, Captain Webster in the Chair. After drill, the following appointments were made : —Mr Shirtcliffe to be Senior Petty Officer ; Mr Turnbull, Second ; and Mr Haylock, Junior,

A fatal accident occurred yesterday at Lyttelton, at the excavation works in connection with the new road to the Ocean steamers’ wharf. A solid lump of earth, weighing a ton, struck Benjamin Gregory, and H. Ryder, who were working with pickaxes below it. The former was killed instantaneously, and the latter’s leg was broken, The deceased is said to bo married and to have three children, who reside in Christchurch,

A correspondent informs the “ World” that the Clark who has succeeded to some of the duties of the late John Brown is a nephew of that person, Brown’s sister it appears, married a certain Clark, and the pair kept a little rural shop near Balmoral. The whole entourage of servants at Balmoral who do not happen to be Browns are Clarks, and there is a firm offensive and defensive ring-fence of relationship. A correspondent sends us a very voluminous letter on the subject of the Woollen Factory. His letter is far too long for publication, but it is briefly to the following effect: —He advises the selection of a good site with an unfailing stream of water, the purchase of machinery from Messrs Brothers and Co., of Lancashire, England ; the appointment of a highly qualified manager; the raising of money by loan from the Harbor Board or a friendly society; and he concludes by expressing his willingness to take up shares in the concern if these suggestions are carried out,

We have received a copy of the “Australian Graphic,” a new illustrated periodical published by Swire and Co„ of Sydney. The engravings are the outcome of a new process invented by Mr Crocker, of Sydney. Fluoric acid and glass are the substances used. The picture is drawn on glass and the acid applied, and when the picture is completed the glass, mounted “ type high,” is passed through the printing machine, and sheet after sheet taken off. The first issue of the new publication contains very fair engravings, and reflects credit upon the inventors of the process and the proprietors.

In reporting a Presbyterian soiree the other day, a northern contemporary reported one of the speakers as having said ; —“Asa Church, they had a grand history behind them, extending back to the time when the Jews finding that their periodical trips—three times a year, to Babylon, were not sufficient, instituted local Presbyteries," We always credited the Presbyterians with considerable antiquity, in more senses than one, but did not think their history was quite so ancient. We certainly never credited them with periodical journeys to Babylon, either in former times or in modern days. Unless the reporter was befogged, the speaker must have been somewhat hazy.

The negotiations for running an exceptionally fast train, a so-called “ Blitzzug’’ (lightning train), from Paris over Mainz and Berlin to St. Potersburgh.arc said by “Iron” to be so far advanced as lo convert the project into a reality. The carriages of the train will be supplied with adjustable wheels, which will enable them to travel on various gauges. From Paris to the Russian frontier the same gauge is used but there it changes, and at the frontier stations, Eydtkuhnen and Wirballen, the wheels will have to be adjusted. Travellers will thus be able to go the whole distance without the inconvenience of having to ebagne carriages. The speed of the trains will be one, we believe, not hitherto attempted on the Continent. It is to be 90 kilometres, or 56 miles (without stoppage) an hour. The trains are to be on the American pattcrn,including kitchen, dining saloon, reading and drawing rooms, and all other comfortable arrangements so essential to modern travelling.

The Wellington City Council last night appointed Mr T. F. Martin, of Timaru, Town Clerk, and Mr Loughrey, of Melbourne, City Engineer. Mr Wm Davidson informs ns that the Burns’ concert project has now assumed a definite shape, and the entertainment will be given early in December, in the Theatre P.oyal. At the Otago Harbor Board, yesterday, it was definitely decided, by 7 votes to 6, not to accept any tender for wharf extension at Dunedin, but in the meantime to obtain a report from officials as to the necessity for such extension. The following advertisement appeared in the “ Australasian ” of a recent date; — “ Toosey.— On the 9th inst„ (by cablegram) at Christchurch, New Zealand, the wife of O. H.Toosey, Esq., of a daughter,” Moat people know to their cost that babies come often enough in the natural way, but if they begin to arrive by cablegram the colony will soon be overpopulated. How will this affect the price of bread ? The public meeting at Dunedin in regard to the stopping of works on the unemployed section of the Otago central line was attended last night by about 300 people. Resolutions were carried urging the prosecution of the works, and appointing a Vigilance Committee to look after this and other matters. The principal speakers were Messrs Bathgate, Bracken, Pyke» Fergus, Fish, M, W. Green and R. Wilson,

The Oamaru Amateur Opera Company have,through their officers,conferred with a gentleman in this town on the subject of their proposed visit to Timaru, and steps are now being taken to arrange for a performance next week in the Theatre Royal of the ” Pirates of Penzance,” in aid of a local charity. His Worship the Mayor has been interviewed officially, and the Hospital Board will be asked to allow the performance to be given in aid of the funds of that institution. A Committee will probably be formed this evening, and full particulars immediately advertised, Our Otago friends are said to mount and play this famous opera in splendid style, and a crowded house may be confidently looked for.

A curious complication has arisen over the election of the new Grey Board of Education. It appears that the Chairman of the present Education Board, after taking legal advice, telegraphed to the Government a long string of reasons to show that under the Westland Education District Subdivision Act, the proposed new elections could not be proceeded with in consequence of the Subdivision Act and Education Act of 1877 not reading together. The Government was asked for advice and assistance in the matter, but they repudiated acting in the capacity of legal adviser to such a body, Some members of the Board were for going on with the el ection on the ground that Government must validate their acts if they erred, but others refused. After a good deal of discussion the following is the substance of a resolution to come That Government having declined to advise or to assist, and the opinion of the Board’s solicitor being that the election of the new Board cannot be gone on with, the Board declines to incur the resposibility of proceeding with elections under the Westland Education District Subdivision Act.

Mr Buskin, writing in his most characteristic style of London life says -The tendency of the entire national energy is to approximate more and more to the state of a squirrel in a cage, or a turnspit in a wheel, fed by foreign masters with nuts and dog’s meat. And, indeed, when we rightly conceive the relation of London to the country, the sight of it becomes more fantastic and wonderful than any dream. Hyde Park, in the season, is the great rotatory form of the vast squirrel cage; round and round it go the idle company, in their reversed streams, urging themselves to the necessary exercise. They cannot, with safety, even eat their nuts without so much revolution as shall “comply with the demands of hygiene,” Then they retire into their boxes, with due quantity of straw, the Belgravian and Piccadillian streets outside the railings being, when one sees clearly, nothing but the squirrel’s box at the outside of his wires. And then think of all the rest of the metropolis at the creation and ordinance of these squirrels, that they may squeak and whirl to their satisfaction, and yet be fed.