The Southern Cross PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Sept. 4. General News.

Southern Cross, Volume 5, Issue 22, 4 September 1897, Page 8

The Southern Cross PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Sept. 4. General News.

Parliament meets for the despatch of business on Thursday, 23rd September. The Rev. Mr Neaye has resigned the pastorship of the Riverton Presbyterian church. The half-yearly meeting of the Invercargill District, 1.0.0.F.,M.U., will be held at Winton on Wednesday evening. The bachelors of Waikiwi hold their annual ball on 17th September ; while the Clifton bachelors give a grand ball on the 21st September. Mr O. A. Hast, who is well-known in this district, notifies in another column that he has started business in Dee street as tobacconist and stationer. Gladstone is to have the excitement next Thursday of an election of three councillors. There are four nominations —Messrs Hawke, Northcote, Spiers, and Curtis. We have to acknowledge receipt of a copy, in pamphlet form, of the address delivered before the Southland Branch of the Educational Institute by the President, Mr J. Gammell, B.A. The steamer Invercargill took twenty-one passengers on her last trip to Preservation Inlet, including a mining expert from Auckland, who has gone to the field with ‘an eye to business.’ The steamer is due at the Bluff this morning. Messrs J. Stead and J. Thomson have been re-elected without opposition to the Invercargill Borough Council, and Messrs C, S. Longuet and T.E. Smyth take the places of Messrs Blacke and Bachelor, who did not seek re-election. The following bands will take part in the contest to be held at Winton on September 22nd : Quickstep : Gore, Bluff, Riverton, Mosgiel, Queenstown, and Winton. Selection ; The same bands. For the convenience of visitors a special train will leave Invercargill at 1.30 p.m. on the day of the contest, and return from Winton at midnight, by which time the musical tournament will have been completed.

; That , important, Government Insurance Department, now possesses an organ of its own in the Recorder, the first number of which recently came to hand. It is got up in capital style, ani* the contents are in keeping. Recently Mr P. Deegan, of Limehil la, sold his farm, adjoining Mr G. Sutton’s choice property, “ The Willows,” to Mr G. Honeywood, who has been on Castle Rock for a number of years. The area is 350 acres, and ' the price obtained, £8 2s 6d per acre, is a very satisfactory one. If union is strength, then the conversazione to be held in Zealandia Hall on Thursday evening next by the Manchester Unity Oddfellows will be a brilliant success. The local branches of the Order have joined forces in the celebration of their several anniversaries, and at the rate at which tickets are going off the gathering should surpass anything of the kind locally held. If it does not it will certainly not be the fault of the committee of management.

Next Wednesday a football team from Wellington will play the Southland representatives on the Union grounds. The game should attract large numbers from various parts of the district, especially when excursion fares and delayed trains are advertised. The Wellington province holds a record in football playing, as their representatives have only been beaten once during the last twenty years on their own ground. The Invercargill Amateur Operatic Society have |fixed Tuesday, September 14th, 'as the opening night of “ Dorothy,” when we have no doubt they will be welcomed with a bumper house. The Society has gone to great expense to mount the opera on a scale never before attempted here. New scenery has been painted, and the dressing is very elaborate, special court costumes having been obtained from Wellington. The Birchwood hounds will be introduced in one of the scenes and will give realistic effect to the “ Tally-Ho ” chorus. Our. usually sensible contemporary, theTaieri Advocate, in its eagerness to belittle Pitman’s phonography, charges the late John Bright with having stated what was foolish and untrue when he declared the system to be so simple that it could be readily learned by everyone of ordinary capacity. This is bad> but worse remains—Pitman’s system, we are gravely assured, is antiquated and difficultDifficult ! Yet thousands learn it every year. Antiquated ! Then so is the telegraph, telephone, and the typewriter—and, dare we hint it, the Advocate.

It is not often there is an election for councillors in Averial, but this year there are no less than seven nominations for the three vacant seats. The retiring councillors, who have served the ratepayers well, and have been instrumental this year in reducing the rates lower than those of any [other borough in New Zealand, are seeking re-election, and will give the citizens a chance to say whether they appreciate their action, while Avenal’s first Mayor (Mr A. Dunlop) and Messrs Cleave, Adcock and Mayhew, hare also entered the lists. The poll takes place on Thursday. , At the last meeting of the Avenal council it was decided to procure two trucks of Oporo gravel for the North Eoad. It appears that metal cannot be obtained, and when obtained the difficulty is to get it broken. Deferring to this a correspondent asks —“ Why not get it lightered up to the jetty in large quantities, and have it broken by prison labour, and give the two or three old men who are at present breaking it, the work the prisoners are doing now, i.e., keeping the Post office grounds, etc., in order? It is done elsewhere—why not here ? Then, and not till then, will we have a constant supply of road material* superior to the gravel. The trial of James Eeid, for shooting at his mate, ended in the Supreme Court, Dunedin, on Wednesday, when the jury found that he fired the revolver with intent to kill.—Mr Haggitt said the prisoner was a native of New Zealand, aged 22, by occupation a rabbiter. He had never been convicted of any offence, but bore a bad character.—His Honor, in passing sentence, said : The crime, prisoner, of which you are convicted, was a cruel and treacherous one. Fortunately for you the prosecutor survived. The sentence of the court is that you be Imprisoned for the term of 15 years and kept to hard labour.

So well (observes a contemporary) are the funds of the Mutual Life of Australasia invested that the outstandingiateresttaken credit for in the latest balance sheet amounted only to £874. The interest received was sufficient

not only to pay tho total coßtofmanageinenfe j of the Association for the year, the entire expenses ineurred in obtaining £677,150 of new business, the cost of establishing a new branch at Perth, and the outgo for taxes and license fees, but it also provided the sum of £10,530 written off sundry properties, and left more than £2,000 to be included in the £48,000 added to the funds, and making them up to close on £1,140,000.

..Premier Seddon found time for business as well as pleasure while at home. He appointed ex-Inspeotor Tunbridge, of Scotland “Yard, to the office of Chief Commissioner of Police for New Zealand, and also secured the services of two first-class detectives. The London correspondent of the Otago Daily Times says that during the many years he was attached to Scotland Yard, in exposing frauds and bringing to justice desperate criminals, Mr Tunbridge had few, if any, equals. Since he retired from the metropolitan police on a full pension about two years ago he has been engaged principally in building operations at Hythe, where he has capital invested.

The members of the Murihiku, Aorangi, and Lily of the South Eechabite Tents hare been celebrating their joint anniversaries this week. .On Sunday evening they attended St. Paul’s Wesleyan church in strong force, and were treated to a sermon by the Rev. W. C. Oliver v hich bad special reference to the beneficent work done by means of co-operation. On Thursday evening the annual social was held in the Temperance Hall, Bro. Cooper presiding. Bro. C. W. Brown made a very satisfactory report regarding the Murihiku Tent; Sister A. Findlay submitted a cheerful statement as to the position of the women’s tent; and Bro. Nicholas was also in the happy position of being able to report favourably as to the juvenile Tent. The following contributed to the programme ; —Mesdames Cusworth, T. E. Anderson, and Ibbotsoh, Misses Trew and Organ, Messrs Godfrey, Gould, Ekeasteen, J. J. Wesney, Undrill, and Ashton. It is hardly necessary to remind our readers that the Railway Rowing Club’s comedy entitled “ The Deacon” will be staged on the '7th and Bth of this month. The members of the club have worked hard and advertised extensively, the tickets having passed off with a rapidity hitherto unequalled in Invercargill. The rehearsals this week have been very gosd. and we predict bumper houses next week, when the public will be treated to one of the finest comedies ever produced in Southland. “ The Deacon ”is full of fine scenes, which give scope for powerful acting, ©n Tuesday the Wellington representative football team will be present, and the City Guards Band have generously offered to play selections from the balcony of the Theatre before the play begins. On Wednesday the the Garrison Band have also been kind enough to offer their services, and doubtless their ability to give good music will be the means of bringing many along to witness the final performance of “ The Deacon.”