Untitled

Southland Times, Issue 3299, 16 January 1879, Page 2

Campbelltown.— At the R.M.s Court, Campbelltown, yesterday, before H. McCulloch, Esq., in the case Searle v. Hare, claim .of 12s for board and lodging, judgment was given for the plaintiff for £4, with 15s costs. Racing-. — Those interested are reminded that Mr Herbert Bentley, of this town, has a " consultation "on this event. The tickets, which are fixed at £1 each, are going off rapidly, and there is every prospect of the affair being a success. This is the first event of the kind of any magnitude that has taken place here. The San Francisco Mail. — As is reported in our shipping columns, the San Francisco mail steamer arrived at Auckland half an hour after midnight this morning, too late for the transmission of any news beyond her arrival and a brief report of her passage. We hope to publish a full and interesting budget of mail news to-morrow. Almanac. — The North British and Mercantile Insurance Company's Almanac, though a little late in the field, yields nothing to its competitors as a specimen of the lithographic art, or an adjunct to the office. By an ingenious arrangement the month, date and day, are plainly indicated by invocable words and figures. Tbe local agents for the company are Messrs Murray, Dalgleish and Company. Cricket. — So many new playing members have joined the Invercargill Club during the past year that they propose to select and elect an eleven to challenge the old members to play a match against them next Saturday afternoon. The following have been given as the names of the new members' team : — Bennet, Birch, Bishop, Davies, Eliott, Dall, Morton, Miller, Dundas, Roope, and West — emergency men : Popplewell, Keith, and Greig. This evening the old members' team will probably be selected, and other business disposed of by the committee. The Circus. — Notwithstanding its very large capacity,. Burton's. Circus was again filled to repletion last night. A programe similar to that of Tuesday evening was executed, and the acrobatic, equestrian, and other feats were again ably executed, and elicited, as on that occasion, frequent applause, while the humorous passages were greeted with roars of laughter. In the afternoon a special performance was given, at which there was a fair audience, composed chiefly of juveniles, who displayed a hearty interest in the entertainment. As the company wiJl only appear to-night and the two following evenings all desirous of witnessing a really first-class circus should not allow the opportunity to escape them. The Charity Bazaar. — Yesterday afternoon the joint committees of tbe Benevolent Institution and the Hospital met the ladies desirous of promoting and assisting the bazaar proposed to be held in aid of these institution at Easter. There were present about a dozen ladies and the following gentlemen : — Mr Turnbull, J.P., Mr Eliott, secretary, Mr Hall representing the Hospital, and Mr J. T. Martin representing the Benevolent Institution. Mr Turnbull was appointed to preside, and in a few appropriate remarks alluded to the importance of those institutions, for the assistance of which, they psoposed to hold a bazaar. During the thirtythree years he had been in the colonies he had never found the community backward in aiding every good and laudable cause, and he felt assured that this effort to assist suffering humanity would prove no exception to the rule. It was then agreed on the motion of Mrs Pearson seconded by Mrs Gillies — " That the ladies present should form themselves into a committee to make articles for, and procure contributions both of work and money towards, the bazaar, the corrmittee to have power to add to their number.*' A vote of thanks having been proposed to" the ladies for their attendance, the gentlemen retired, and it was left to the committee to take such further steps as they might deem advisable to further the object in view. Discovery of an . Enormous Cave, — Nature says : — Quite recently, a most re : markablc new cave has been discovered in the United States, near Glasgow Junction, Kentucky. It has been investigated to a distance of no less than twenty-three miles in one direction, and sixteen'in another. Most of its passages are very broad, and ife is stated that a carriage, with a pair of horses, has room to drive some eleven miles in the interior. It contains several very deep rivers one of which has been traced to a distance of fourteen miles ; further, progress was then arrested, the cave narrowing too much to allow a boat to. pass. The. cave is described to be " most wonderful " by an American contemporary, and is said to surpass in grandeur all other caves hitherto known, the Mammoth Cave not excepted. Some human remains, resejnbljng Egyptian mummies, were also found in the cave. They were contained in stone sarcophagi of rough structure. The floor of the cave is extremely uneven, full, of fissures and irregularities, so that it seems as if violent volcanic phenomena had v token place here. The new cave tfos been" baptised with; tile wore or less

appropriate name, Grand Crystal Cave. Our readers are doubtless aware . that the Mammoth Cave is also situated in the vicinity of Glasgow Junction, Kentucky. Monsters of the Past.— Writing from Colorado Springs, a correspondent of the Chicago Tribune says : — "The latest discovery, and one of the most important, perhaps, in the lines of extinct monsters which are supposed to have lorded it over whales and other small fish, is the one just made by Professor ■J, H. Kerr, of the Faculty of the Colorado College located at the Colorado Springs. The " find " took place in the Garden of the Gods, near the famous gateway, while the Professor i was prosecuting his systematic study of the rocks in that locality. The formation evidently is lower cretaceous, hence the fossil remains of the animal — or. more properly, serpent or lizard — are of great antiquity. Professor Kerr has had several wagon loads of parts of the fossil brought to town, but sevei'al days of hard labor will be required to get the remainder of the huge monster above ground. Careful measurement cannot as yet be effected, but by certain calculations best known to scientific men, it is concluded that the reptile in the days of its life attained the startling proportions of 117 feet in length and, when reared upon its legs, not less than 30 feet in height. The .opening of , the mouth was nearly 20 feet, and several casts of teeth over 2 feet long have been taken out. " There were giants in those days "—among the fishes. ;\ Apparently " embedded in the ; monster's stomach were smaller reptiles and. fishes, among them , a petrificatiOn that appears to have been the well known, offensive and defensive weapon of the swbrdfish'. The; discoverer thinks that this sword may have caused the death of his lizardship." Mr Bartlett, requests that all accounts due by him be sent in to the Farmers' Arms Hotel by the 25th January. _ The Engineer Cadets, will muster in future on Friday evemrige at 7 stiarp for drill instruction. A reward is offered for the recovery of a bay colt lost the other day from a paddock at Eastbourne, Mint's Bush. Tenders are called for alterations and additions to a cottage in Teviot street, and for painting a house now in course of erection for Mr Waterston. Messrs Cars well, White and Co. advertise for tenders for the lease of Pine Bush Earm, Wyndham, for a term of five years. Mr David Strang, of the Southland Steam Coffee and Spice Mills, publishes a business announcement in our advertising columns. Our " wanted " column has been augmented by a number of additions.