A STREET ROW.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 4911, 21 January 1889, Page 3

A STREET ROW.

James Hefforuan and Michael J. Rooney, two young men, were charged before the Resident Magistrate this morning with conducting themselves in a manner calculated

to cause a breach of the peace by fighting in Beswick Street on Saturday afternoon. Both men had been arrested, but were bailed out at once. Constable Daly stated he saw the men fighting, and arrested them; he did not know how the row started nor who was the aggressor. Wm, Coe, draper, did not see the commencement of the affair, but saw Rooney strike Heffernan half a dozen times before the latter retaliated, except to take his assailant by the shoulders and put him down. After that Heffernan struck Rooney once, and the policeman then appearing Rooney cleared out.

T. Burn heard Rooney attack Heffernan verbally in a very abusive manner about some blinkers,, challenging him to fight, and the father too. Heffernan behaved very well. This was at the Clarendon corner. They then went on to Beswick Street, and ho saw Rooney “ tackle” Heffernan there. Defendant Heffernan told a story on the same lines. H e only struck in self defence. Booney, a very excitable little fellow, told a long story about the blinkers, and said Heffernan struck him first, while he had his hands in his pockets, and before he could them out as "they were swejled with vexation ” Heffernan struck him again. The policeman then came up and that was all, and was all as true as he stood there. In the course of his description of the dispute about the bridle he was interrupted by His Worship saying “ Dont shake your fist at me !” “Noyour Worship ” he said “ I was only showing you exactly what I said and did. I said if you dont bring back the winkers I’ll make you. I didn’t mean by fighting. I don't get my living by fighting.” His Worship decided according to the weight of evidence and dismissed the charge against Heffernan, and find Rooney 20s or seven days. The prisoner said he would “ take it out before he’d pay.”

The shipping of wool goes on very slowly. Three vessels are taking in, or pretending to What a howl the owners would raise if. steamers were kept in port so long as the Bangitiki has been here. The Taniwha is at work deeaening the berth at the eastern side of the Moody wharf. The grab gets through the marine silt and into the original yellow gravel bottom some times. The dredging at that wharf has been difficult, boulders big and little preventing a good mouthful being got, and the gravel beneath is very dense. The Loweswater is being given a coat of paint and promises to leave the port in smart order. By the way what a neat ornament she has over her name on the counter, a piece of hawser curved over it, with the ends frayed and whipped. It is much more appropriate than the meaningless fretwork one usually sees.

A first offender, arrested for being drunk at the railway station on Saturday, was dealt with this morning. He had over £ll in his pockets ; a change from the usual return “ effects nil,"

The sea has been calm for many days now, end judging from the number of men and youngsters plying rod and line along .the breakwater all day, the fish must bo taking advantage of it to fossick among the weeds on the concrete.

A cable from San Francisco regarding the doings of Germans at Samoa no doubt refers to news carried by the Alameda, which arrived at San Francisco on Saturday, with later Samoan dates than ours by the last mail steamer. These were about December 22nd, and the Alameda left Auckland on the • 31st. A field trial of the Brantford Binder was given on Saturday at Wm. Barry’s farm near Saltwater Creek. .The crop was a high one of greenish oats, on a hill side, and the quiet> easy and excellent; way the machine did such work showed that the new system of drive chain and relief spring with which it is furnished is an admirable one. Mr H. S. Austin, the solicitor who had a tiff with Judge Ward last week, writes to the papers saying the Judge had been sitting on him on four days before that, and this last demand for a witness’s expenses in open court was only the climax to what had taken place before. The appointment of Mr Blackett as Inspecting Engineer at Hone opens the door to troubles about the appointment of his successor. Mr W. N. Blair has been Assistant-Engineer-in-Chief for a long time and naturally should have the promotion. But then there is Mr 0. Y. O’Connor, undersecretary to the Public Works Department, which is now being abolished, —what is to be done for him ? It is suggested that Mr Blair ought to have it, and that Mr O’Connor should be made head of the Marine Department, or chief Engineer of the Government harbours on the West Coast.

Mr W. L. Bees' Company for immigrating Crofters to occupy lands on the East Coast that no one else will touch on the terms, has got so far as the appointment of a deputy chairman—a “guinea-pig" doubtless. As for the Crofters, a Christchurch man makes what seems to be a sensible suggestion, namely, that a good many Crofter families could be settled comfortably ou the Chatham Islands. He says they would there bo ou their natural peat country, with any amount of fishing grounds. The Ireland.

A retired gold digger residing in Auckland is a canary fancier, and is in the habit of buying, along with his bird seed, small quantities of sand for the use of his pets. A few days ago, when he got his accustomed quota of sand, his practised eye discovered “colors ” of gold in it, and he was able to pick out one or two specks of the precious metal. He is now worrying how ho is to ascertain where that sand was got, without rising the suspicions of the salesman and causing a “ rush” to the alluvial field that seems to exist somewhere in the vicinity. Immigration to Auckland will probably bo stimulated by this authentic news that the canaries of the district are wont to roll in golden sand.

A return was asked for last session of the amount expended on each ministerial residence from the Ist January to the 10th May, 1888. This has bson published, and the total amount was £ls 18s 3d. Another return required was of the “ amounts expended for furniture, fittings,&c.,” for the residences. No period was named which this return was was to cover, but the compilers made it out for the period from October 6th, 1887, tn May 10th, 18S8. The total was £37 16s 9d. Each item is specified, and among the “furniture and fittings”—or perhaps the the “ etc,” we find “ taking up or relaying carpets £4 10s ; soap, soda and blacklead 5s ; piano hired, £3 18s; gas £ll2a 4d, 18s sd, and 17s 9d ; coal 5s 4d ; carriage of piano 6s; galvanized iron tub 4s; repairing mangle 4s 6d.” Save the tub, these all look like " otes.” A question is ought the country- to pay for such things as these for ministers’ use ? The Cossacks in the Red Son, turn out, as we surmised, to bo a mission to Abyssinia. The Russian Government, however, it is stated, deny that the mission has their approval. This can scarcely make much difference. The Government must “protect” its subjects if they run into danger.

Mr O. E. Hugo will deliver a lecture this evening on “ Mouth and Lips.” Lieutenant Jowsey, commanding the Timaru Rifles, calls the company for a Government parade for Wednesday at 7.30. He adds an invitation to those desirous of joining the corps to come in at once. The Wellington city valuer reckons the rateable value of the city has increased by £22,000, and the Times that this represents an addition of £3OOO to the rates on their present scale. During the past year 431 new buildings were erected. Painters ai e at work on the railway goods shod, giving it a coat of rioh'brown hematite, with dark drab facings. Whether the passenger station need painting for preservation or not, it certainly does now for consistency.

A better specimen of a " bull” could not be wished for than that afforded by the verdict of a Dunedin jury —“That the infant was found drowned, but whether it was born alive or dead there is no evidence to show.” It doesn’t seem to have struck the jurors that a child bom dead couldn’t by any possibility be drowned. > A discovery of auriferous mineral (says the New Zealand Times Westport correspondent) has been made on the plateau near Burnett’s place, Denniston. The mineral is said to be not exactly quartz, but though not showing gold to (lie naked eye, averages at the rate of 16oz to the ton when crushed. The mineral is described as something like the produce of the famous Mount Morgan mine in Queensland. There is prospecting all over the scene of the discovery. Alluding to the recent defeat of the Christchurch Wanderers at Nelson, the Wellington Press says : —There is something certainly odd about those Nelson wickets. No one who is not a Nelsonian and “ to the manner born,” can bat on them, but the somnolent resident can bat on them, and bat well too, as Wellingtonians have found to their cost many a time.

Parroquets have made a descent on North Canterbury. About twelve years ago there was a plague of them ih South Canterbury. It was then said the cause was a deficiency of berries in the West Coast bushes. In the absence of information we may surmise that the cold spring and late summer have not been propitious to the peaky little red-caps, and so they have come over again after our garden fruits.

The art of examination, says an exchange, has now become a science, and has in duo course produced Jtho examiner, the scientific “crammer” and the scientific “ crammed.” The first ;sets questions, and looks them over and marks them; the second, if he be ingenious, guesses about 75 per cent of the former and duly and daily administers portions of them to the third, who, if receptive, writes them out by rote and accounts himself a happy man if, by the light of nature or some other occult talent, he can make a fair “ bid ” at the odd 25 per cent, whereupon he 'shakes off the dust of the examination room and returns to the lecture room to show the paper, quote his answers, and bo duly staggered at hearing how wide of the mark his shots have been. To call such a system “ education ” is an enormity of which no sane man could be guilty. It is a mere contest of cunning, where the examiner tries to outwit the crammer, aud the crammer to leave no gap in the “ crammeo’s” defensive armour, who, between the two, is like the litigant between two lawyers.