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South Canterbury Times, Issue 6244, 17 June 1890, Page 3

A correspondent sends Truth the following highly interesting fact ’ The other morning the manager of a well-known Scottish Eire Insurance Society found on his table a small packet, which on being opened proved to be a set of false teeth, burnt almost beyond recognition. The letter accompanying the interesting articles stated that the owner, an old lady, had put them aside previous to dining, when the/ had been consigned to the kitchen fire with a number of rabbit bones. She claimed compensation for the damage by!, fire. The directors sat in conclave to decide the important question whether the claim came und6r the bead of ' household furniture ’ or ‘ wearing apparel.’ The difficulty, however, could not be decided, so (be demand was settled ex gratia, whateverjtbat may be in insurance parlance.l Doubtless the monetary equivalent for her loss was, at any rate, received by the toothless claimant mm gratia.

The Post Office at Bluocliffs has been closed. The immigrants during May numbered 990, (ho emigrants 1850. A tender at £625 has just been accepted for the erection of a stamp printing office at Wellington. On account of the groat success of Mr J. B. Bennett’s sale, he is determined to make still further reductions in order to reduce his stock. Messrs J. Bullantyne and Co., have purchased a splendid stock of ladies’ cloth jackets which they will offer for sale on Saturday next at less than one-third the usual price. An unfortunate telegraphist at Auckland has been suspended because he had to file his papers in bankruptcy. Ho had to file through backing bills for his step-father for £9O odd. An Order-in-Oounoil brings into force a new regulation requiring the attention of school teachers. The quarterly returns henceforth are to show the ages of the children, year by year. A nice warm nor’wester was blowing this morning, giving us anything but a winter temperature. It was a quite enjoyable change> but we shall probably get it rough from the south’ard soon to make the score even.

Anderson and Morrison’s (Dunedin) tender at 30s each has been accepted by the Railway Commissioners for 50 kerosene carriage roof lamps and reflectors. For that money an improvement on the make-darkness-visible colza lamp ought to be got. Among recent applications for New Zealand patents, Mr W. Q. Campbell of Timaru makes one, for a “ double wire concave ” for threshing machines. Other applications are for a new fastener for stirrups, a rut filler and loose stone gatherer, an “ easy-riding stirrup,” and a scraping machine for dressing New Zealand flax, the last by Robert Orr of Wellington, law clerk. A fine pair of double furnace Cornish boilers arrived by train to-day from J. Anderson’s Canterbury foundry, Christchurch, for tho Freezing Works. They are about 30ft long and 6ft in diameter, and look fine specimens of boiler making. The engines they are to supply steam for are coming in the Elderslie, and will not be here for some time yet. The Oamaru Middle School Committee on a complaint that some one had taken the lock off a gate in the school fence, and cattle strayed into tho grounds, decided that all the cattle found on the ground should be impounded, as they had not means to provide a new lock. The Mail recommends that the committee should do their own pounding, and in a short time the driving fees would pay for a new lock.

The cry of the unemployed has been raised jn Dunedin. Last week a number of men, most of them married, some with large families asked the mayor for work. The mayor sent them to the chairman of the Benevolent Trustees, who saw Mr Fergus about and Mr Fergus offered them piece work at Gatlin’s river at rates which would enable them to make 4s a day. The majority of the men “ jumped at the chance.”

One would think that the New Zealand war was by this time completely over—save for the payment of interest on the war loans. This is not the case however, for Now Zealand war medals are still being issued. Thirteen new claims for the medal have recently been “ investigated and admitted.” One of the claims is that of a reverend gentleman who was a chaplain to the volunteers at the time.

i The following team will represent the Colonial Football Club in their match against the second fifteen of the Timaru Club, to be played on the S.O.A.A’s grounds on Thursday afternoon next :—Full back—Hooper ; three-quarters—Thompson, Mackay, and S. A. Boys ; halves—Bilton and Jones ; forwards—Burd, Boys, Mackenzie, West, Wade, Wake, Coy, Macdonald, and Clarke ; emergencies—A. Werry and J. Eentoul, Considerable interest is taken in this match, and the above-mentioned being the best picked team of the Colonials a very fast game is expected. A rather curious thing happened in the course of laying water pipes from the Waimataiti, over the hill behind Mr Hobbs’ house, to Mrs Luxmoore’s. The pipes, 2fc inch, were laid in the trench to the top, and the water turned on to help in the filling, as by filling into water the clay settles down at once. The workmen turned the water on at the bottom of the hill and waited there for the water to run down the trench to where they were, they of course beginning the filling at the bottom of the hill. They waited a considerable time and the water not coming down as it ought to have done, they went up the hill and found that the full flow from the 2£ inch pipe, after running down the trench a little way, disappeared down a small hole in the bottom of the trench. The ground otherwise appeared quite hard and solid there.

A Wellington correspondent writes :—“ It is said that the number of absentees living in London or on the Continent of Europe or “ elsewhere,” who draw annually large sums from estates*in this colony, is larger than most people have an adequate notion of. It is said that a return of the names and estates will be probably laid before Parliament during the coming session as part of a return incidental to real estate held in the colony. I am not sure that this information does not point to the assessment of the properties for the purposes of taxation, the owners of which are never seen in the colony, who spend the whole of the wealth derivable from the colony abroad, and leave the land unproductive until some chance bidder may take it up, to his own risk and the general discredit of New Zealand as a field for investment.”

An eclipse of the sun is booked for this date Juno 17th, but it is the 17th of the other side of tbe world, whose people will bo smudging (heir lingers with smoked glasses while we are silting round tbe late evening fire or going to bed. The eclipse will be seen as an “annular” one along a line from the northwest of Africa, from the mouth of the Gambria to Tripoli, thence across (he Medi* terranean, to Oandla and Asia minor, and passing over tbe south end of the Caspian sea. An “ annular” eclipse, we may remind our old schoolfellows, is one in which the moon is so shrunken by distance as to be unable to hide the whole of the sun, so that at the nearest approach to totality an annulus or ring of sunlight Is seen round the dark disc of the moon. The eclipse will be seen as a partial one in Great Britain and Ireland, the sun rising with about ono*tbird of his face bitten off. The almanacs tell our friends at Home to be sure and see this, for they will not have another chance to see an eclipse of the total or partial, till 1900.

On account of increasing business at the North Street Cash Store, Mr John King announces in our advertising columns that ho has taken Mr G. Tyrrell into partnership, and j that in future the name of the firm will be Tyrrell, King and Co. We wish the new firm every success. Bishop Julius wants to know how the church people can expect their young clergymen to be fitted for the work of saving souls, when from the first moment of their ordination they are sent out to fight church vestries for a stipend to keep body and soul together. They could not expect to train a shoemaker like that.

A gruesome story comes from Otorohanga, where the show caves of tho North Island are. To We Hini, a brother of Wahanui, died the week before last. He was placed in his coffin next day, and it was nailed down. The natives are considerably excited by a report that throe hard knocks or blows were heard on the lid of the coffin from the inside, and that the nails were started in the coffin lid from tho force of them. Some think ho was not dead ; others ascribe the sounds to spiritual manifestations.

A Gazette of the 12lh inst notifies that the bulk of Station Peak run, Hakateramea, is to be offered for settlement on the small grazing run system in eight lots, tho lots ranging in size from 1000 to 3860 acres. Another notice shows that three sections of 50,70 and 450 acres on this run, and three larger ones on Olarkesville run, 168, 434, and 1042 acres, are to be offered for sale as sections on the ordinary terms. Most of these sections are described as poor property. Of ourse they are, or they would have been bought long ago.