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South Canterbury Times, Issue 6260, 5 July 1890, Page 3

The Eifles hold a parade on Monday evening at 7.30. Attention is directed (o Mr Pearson’s new advertisement in the wanted column.

Mr James Granger notifies that he has several valuable town and suburban properties for sale.

A rain guage at Te Akatarewa, near Kurow, recorded only 1£ inches of rain during the first six months of this year.

The present session of Parliament, it was slated, was to be brief and uneventful, and only really necessary business was to be doneAlready there are over 40 bills on the table and more are coming.

The Wellington Press thinks the time opportune for the formation of a Knloinal Liberal and Patriotic Party of overpowering strength, with Sir R. Stout at the head and Mr Ballance in charge of the lands. The rough seas that have been running for the past two or three weeks have hastened a good deal the silting up of Caroline Bay. At dead low water with a calm sea one can walk on sand almost from the old baths to the south end of Bonvenue cliff. The same seas have shifted the Waimataiti spit from 20 to 30ft landward at the south end and for the greater part of its length. The showers of the past few days have made the roads muddier than they have been for a long time. It is fortunate for the country ratepayers that the grain carting was practically over before the rain came. Having dry and hard roads for that heavy traffic must have saved each road district hundreds of pounds. The steamers Jubilee and Tekapo, which arrived early this morning from Sydney, according to all accounts had rather an exciting race across. The two vessels left within a few hours of one another, and wo believe that the result is that the Tekapo beat the Jubilee by as nearly as possible five hours t For about five hundred miles, a passenger informs us, (he vessels kept almost side by side, the Jubilee going ahead when the sea got Up, and the Tekapo being a trifle the faster boat in smooth water.— (Post)

A petition has been presented to the House from a Mr George Fisher, until recently assistant-cashier of the New Zealand railways at Christchurch, who alleges that in November and December, 1889, when in discharge of bis duties as paymaster at Dunedin, he left certain moneys to be banked by the late G. H. Ashcroft; that that officer later on committed suicide, when it was found that ho had appropriated those sums; and that the petitioner was called upon to make them good, and then was dismissed from the service. The petitioner prays for an enquiry, as he is suffering an unjust sentence, and lies under the stigma of being parti ceps cr minis in Ashcroft’s misdeeds.

The Chief postmaster requires an owner for a puree loft on the Post Office counter.

Mr Moss Jonas will sell at his rooms, on Monday, July 21st, valuable hotel properties ia Timaru and Pleasant Point#

The tenth annual show of the South Canterbury Poultry Society will bo held on July 25 and 26. Entries close on Saturday next at 10 p.m.

A football match was played this afternoon at 12.30 on the 5.0.A.A.0.’s grounds between the Waitaki High School and tho Timaru High School, and was won by the latter by 16 points to nil.

The Bruce Heralds&ye that Major Steward’s School Committees Election Bill is good enough as far as it goes, but if it went a little further and conformed the method of election to that of all other bodies, doing away with the unnecessary meetings altogether, it would be much bettor.

A North Island contemporary says : There is a law against vagrancy, which is applied with more or less severity to the class known as spielers. If OJampett, or Sullivan, or whatever the blackguard’s name may be, is not a * spieler ’ of tho very worst stamp, then the common acceptation of the term as signifying swindler, enemy to society, and common rogue, is altogether wrong. A month for vagrancy should be Olampelt’s lot wnen ho arrives in Christchurch.

It is satisfactory to learn that tho temperance cause is meeting with so much success that it is decided to open a now Good Templar lodge, notice of which is given in our advertising columns. It is confidently expected by the promoters that it will prove a great success and that from its effects the cause of temperance will' a fresh impetus. All wishing to become members of the lodge are cordially invited.

We all know (says a Wellington exchange) that the Union Steam Ship Company christen their boats by the Maori names of our lakes, but they have been beguiled into a peculiar complication with regard to the nomenclature of their last steamer. When Mr McKerrowj now Railway Commissioner, was in charge of the surveys of the Lake district, many lake ß had no names, and he gave them fanciful Maori appellations till he got to the end of his sentimental tether. The next lake to hand had but one river flowing into it ; ‘ wai ’ is Maori for water or river, ‘ mono ’ is Greek for one ; ho therefore called the lake ' Monowai, ’ ‘ one river, ’ and so the imperishable language of Homor is blended with that of Titokowaru in the name of a New Zealand lake and steamer.

One table in the report of the Property Tax Commissioner gives an account of some personal property not included by owners in their statements. “From this,’’says the report, “it would appear that the cash returned, including cash deposited with banks, &c , is £6,718.000 less than the total deposited in the banks added to the note circulation. This shows a serious loss of revenue, and it does seem unjust to other taxpayers that those who have their property [in cash should so largely escape taxation. At present the department is powerless in the matter, there being no authority given by law to obtain any information from the banks ; and in fact there are grave difficulties [in the way of securing evidence even when proceedings have been taken against defaulters, it being necessary to get the order of a judge of the Supreme Court to inspect a defaulter’s account, and to enable the bank officers to give evidence. The knowledge that it is almost impossible to detect fraud has the effect of tempting many people to omit from their statement money deposited with banks and companies. This short return of cash is a grave scandal.” Commenting on a suit for damages against a Wellington schoolmaster for injuring a boy’s thumb with the cane, the Times says : Mr Cole having got a verdict in the Supreme Court, may be said to have escaped with more or less of a fright. Mr Cole’s superiors ought, nevertheless, to consider very carefully the question of punishment in the schools which has been raised. Any medical man will tell them that there are two tbings a schoolmaster ought not to do. He ought not to "beat children on the hands, and he ought not on any account to box their ears. Both customs are time-honoured, but nevertheless bad. Of course there is no question of boxing ears as far as Mr Cole is concerned. We only mention the matter, as ears have been boxed and may be boxed again by other people. You may box the ears of hundreds of boys before you do irreparable injury to one. And you may cane many hands before depriving a child of his thumb and his livelihood, killing two poor birds, as it wore, with one stone. But no one has any right to run risks, however remote, when the consequences are of such terrible possibility. We do not, for one moment, say that the jury was wrong in Mr Cole’s case. But we do say that every schoolmaster who canes on the hand is as wrong as he who boxes the ears of his pupils. The Board of Education ought to regulate these things bettor.