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Southland Times, Issue 9693, 6 December 1887, Page 2

Arbes\— Atthe R.M. Court, Dunedin. Colin McLauchlan, charged with the larceny a-i bailee of a horse fnm R. C. Lindsay, of Waianiwa, wa? remanded to Invercargill.

Distinctly Libellous. — In hi 9 latest work entitled ''Fiiend ftlnclonald," Mux O'Rell repeat the calumny that " the farthing was introduced into Scotland in order to en bie its inhabitants to be generous."

Mobe's the F ITY. — It is said that a sbop on any of the main thoroughfares of Londou can afford to cheat every customer, because the crowd of strangers passing the door will continue to furnish new victims ycac after year. A. AND P. Shows.— Two agricultural and pastoral shows take place to-d?.y. one at Riverton and the other at Goie. The entries for each are satisfactorily numerous, and both are expected to be eminently successful

Opsn Air Concert.— The Oity Bftnd gave an open air c ncert in the feo^pita' grinds yesterday evening, and doubtless pleased ihe patient* as much as they did the large number of persona who promenaded in the vicinity.

Wealth On Rails.— The called-up capital of the railway companies of the United Kingdom amounted at the end of 1881 to L 800,000,000 in round numbers. The canal stock no' owned by tbe railway companies is about L 10,000,000.

Wyndham —A ball in aid of the Widows and Orphans' Fund of the Alma Lodge, 1.0.0. F! was held in Mortimer's Hall on Thursday n ght but did not prove as successful as those in former yearn, although the committee did ali they could to mske it so. This no doubt was owing to a counter-attrac-tion, Those present, however, bad a good evening's enjoyment, keeping the danci"g going until about. 5 a.m. The Shirley Bros, provided the music and acquitted themselves in their usual style, ilefreahraents were provided during the evening by MrT. Mortime^

Disease Among Kabbits.— There has been great mortality amongst the rabbits in the western district of South Australia. A few weeks ago a Mr Tennant travelled over a large portion of tbe country and ?aw swarms of rabbits between Venus Bay and the head of Lake Newlai.d. Large numbers of these rabbits have since died by disease, and the country between Talia and Port Elliston is stated to be nearly clear of the rodents, the destroying agent being a disease which none of the residents know. The rabbits were covered with sores, and very ?oon died. Mr Tennant thinks the disease is probably indigenous.

Draw the Curtains On Tt. -The Wanganui Chronicle, which was threatened with a libol action for publishing a paragraph c n cernmg Mia Ballance extracted from ihe Hawkes Bay Herald, has apologised. The latter paper hae also apologised for inserting that portion of the paragraph which referred to the window curtains said to have beeu ordered by Mrs Ballance. In doing so the Herald states that the writer was under the impre«sion he was quoting from the Otago Daily Times, but on lookiog up the au hority it was found that no name was mentioned On the assurance of Mr Ballance that Mrs Ballance was not responsible, an apology is offered for the unwarrantable introduction of her name, and regret expressed that the Chronicle was misled by the paragraph.

Election of Trustees.— A meeting of delegates from local contributing bodies for the purpose of electing members of the various hospital trusts was held in tie Southland Hospital yesterday ev.ning, Messrs W 8 WateratOT (chairman), Challia, Bmiih, Crawley, and Findlay beirjg presect. Tbe following gentlemen were duly proposed and elected :— Arrow Hospital : Messrs D Enright, Peter Butel, and L H Preston. Frankton Hospital; Messrs F Evans, E T Win*, O C Boyes, Jameß Reid, J Turner, and H M Adair, Southland Hospital : Messrs Waterston, Findlay, Roche, and CarsweH. Mr Chai iis was appointed to represent the Wallace County Council on the Southland Hospital Trust, the Council having neglected to elect one themselves.

Nearly Fome Vacant Clerkships.-— A serious gas explosion occurred in the strong room of the Australian Mutual Provident Society's new effieef, Sydney, the other morning. It appears that a gas jet had been left burning on Saturday, and having exhausted tbe atmosphere must have gone out. On the door b-iog opened on the Monday morning the room was found to be full of gx«, the tap being full on. About ten minutes were allowed to elapse, when a clerk went ia with a lighted match to get uome boo_«. A loud explosion cnaued. He wan thrown down, and a larger! ime burst out at a row of desks opposite, at wksich several clerks were seated, singeing their hair and setting fire to the documents. Not much damage, however, was done, but three of the employes received such shocks as to render them temporarily unfit for work.

Police Court. — At this C; urt yesterday morning before H. McCulloch, Esq., R.M., Kobert Kmnaird was charged with having failed to comply with an order of the Court for the payment of 7s 6d per week towards the support of Elizabeth Martin's illegitimate child, be bnng the father. The defendant said be would willingly take charge of the child acd pay the ins'alments due, but he could not find sureties for future payment. — Mr Macalister, who appeared for the complainant, intimated that Fhe would not give up the child, and said tbat if the defendant were uot compelled to find sureties he would probably ' clear oof."—Hisu f ."— His Worship ordered the defendant to find two sureties of L2O each for future payments ; three months' imprisonment in default.

A Sad Pbedicajient.— A correspondent of the Star (Dunedin) says :— lt is often urged by Prohibitionists that the suppression of the liquor traffic always leads to satisfactory economic results. What will they cay to tfce following, as showing the difficulties in which Prohibition in lowa hai placed the prieon authorities in that State :—" Recruits are wanted," says a writer in the McGregor (Iowa) News. " at the Fort Madison Penitentiary, to fill the State's contract for prison labour. The quota of convictß hired out to contractors cannot be fiiled, as the number of compulsory visitors at the State etoneyards is growing less each year. A petition has b°en sent to the Governor, in which the contractors complain that the State's prison is not furnishing the requisite number in striped tuits. ' "Itis a deplorable condition of affairs." the writer goes on to say, '• that a great State with nearly two millions of people cannot supply a few hundred of criminals. But there is no help for it so long &8 Prohibition drives and keeps 500 saloon keepers over the border. Let them returu and open ' business,' and our peniteßtiariM wM fill up quickly enough,"

Milton Potteby.-— The local agent, Mr H. Hawson, has on view aud in stock a large and varied assortment of the various articles which arc now tu'iied out at ths Milton pottery. Aa examination of these shows that under the new management a decided improvement has taken place in tbe quality of the goods pro! uced, some of the vase* and fancy ware beiug particularly creditable to colonial industry. The new firm is Me.- Brs Graham and Winter and through their training and knowledge of tb^ business they are able to sell at rates considerably lower than those charced for the imported articles. Jugs, teapots, vases, spittoons, flower pots, spirit jara, butter aud cb' cue dishes, aud all other kinds of pottery are now turned out at Milton in a manner that must earn for them a favourable reception in the market.

A Wonderful Idiot.- Dr Samuel J Fort gives an account of a c»se of abnormal m mory in the person of a congenital imbecile aged 43 year.", now in his private institution. The memory ie the only rem&rfcable trait in this otherwise ordinary imbecile. He could compile a complete directory of those whom he has met during 40 years of his life. He is very apt in remembering location and direction. Once pajsiug over a road suffices to indelibly impress upon his memory the snrroundiDgf. What he reads is apparently fixed forever. Mention but the title of a book he has read, and he will repeat the entire contents. Mention an incident of a tale and he will give the title and the rest of the tale. He has no power to clasify or gener alise the things he remembers.— Baltimore Hun.

Something in it.— Towards the end of September iai-t a remarkable story was published in these columns relative to the finding of sn albatross dead at Frer_an^le, W.A bearing round its neck a tin plate with a message pricked upon it in French, aicnifying— *• Thirteen shipwrecked mariners h*ve taken refuge in the Croztt Isles. August 4, 1887."— Intelligence of the disaster repor'.ed in this singular manner was at once sent by cable to Kngland, and the French authorities having inquired into the matte, came to the conclusion that the wreck must be tbat of the Tamaris, a three-master belonging to Bordeaux, which sailed for Noumea on 13th December last, and not having bern heard of sine, was thought to hftve perished with all on board. TQe crew of tbat vessel consisted of 13 persons. Toe French Admiralty deteriui:>ed to send out a despatch boat from the Madagascar sta ion to the C.iozet Isles. Svery hope is still entertained of rescuing the shipwrecked crew, forthe Ciozet laUs are Btated to abound in game and fi?h, and the fact of tne word? quoted haviug been written on tin plate makes it appear probable that, come of tbe tinned provis'ons lhat were on bjard the Tamaris have been saved.

LIGHTHOUSK ON THE AUCKLANDS — Mr J, Macpherson, chairman of tun InvercargiU Chamber of Commerce, his received a reply from the Sydney Chamber to the efiect that they concur with the local Chamber in their sujge'dion that a lighthouse shouln be erected and mainla ; ned on the Auckland Inlands at the joint cost of the colonies, and have asked their Colonia! Secretary to favourably ccsi'der tbe matter and commuuicate with tbe otber colonies interested. Tbe local Ch*mber in their circular pointed out that five vessels — the Grafton, Miniiva, Invercauld, General Grant, ami Derry dstle were known to have been wTtcked on these islands during the last twenty odd years. JNo lives were lost from the two first named, but of IH7 souls on board the others only 21 were ultimately rescued. Kightlv-nioe perie-hed at the time of the wrpckc, four were afterwards drowned in attempting to reach the maiubu-!, and saddest of all, seventeen died of starvation. Apart altogether from the deplorable lo«s of life, the Chamber pointed ont that the value of the vessels lest haa probably exceeded the cost of building and maintaining a light on the islands ; while there is every probability that other vessels which have disappeared on voyages from the colonies have been wrecked on these frowning cliff* and all on board lost.-

Smklls A BAT,— The Wellington correspondent of the Otago Daily Times wired as follows :— 1 interviewed Hir George Grey this (Saturday) forenoon -ith the object of eliciting his reasons for taking up such a determined attitude in opposition to the Midland railway coniract. Sir George informed tne tbat the Marlborough and Nelson runs, which were not mentioned in the return luid on the table at his request, but were referred to iv a subsequent return, will in all probability fall into the hands of tbe present lessees for a mere song iv a short time. Sir George bases his calculations on the fact that the holders of the principal runs are deeply interes'ed in tbe railway contract, some of them occupying seats on the directorate. Thi^ looks to hini like a deep-laid scheme on the part of Bail runholderfl to acquire sume teca of thoueam a of acres of tbe best land in the provinces named iv fee simple for 10s an acre, He reiterates tbe opinion that the whole business ia oae of the mo^t nefarious tran-actious that has ever taken place in a British colony. He informed me that a deputatiou from the neighbourhood of Kaikoura waited on him to po nt out tbe injustice which was perpetrated on bona fide settlers in the Marlborough province through the runs in question being locked up iv a few hands Sir George thinks that the matter will be further ventilated in the Cou cil. He also expresses the opin ou that if the worki- g men of the colony were aware of the fact thbt the Mid land Railway contract will ba the means of depriving th-'m and their children of hundreds of thousands of acres which should be occupied by them, thrfy would refuse to work on the lice about to be constructed.

This Week — Opened further shipment of gojds for the Christmas trade. J adies' new ribbon co'lars, the latest novelty ; Gladstone bus, portmanteaus, school big?, and carpet ba. s. Morley's ho3ery ; the newest in Ch-jnide table covers, ni _cv dress trimmings.—Thomson _ Beattiw.

' o Hawke s —For sale, a complete hawknrV plant tra;>, horse, and harness, in first-class uider! Liberal t'-rms given to a pushing man. Apply American carriage factory, Prince of Wales' Yards. Two Oruan.s. — Regulate first the stomach second the liver; especially the rirst, sj as to perform their functions perfectly, and you will remove at lea-t niaete*n-twentietli3 of all the ills that mankind is heir to, in this or any other climate. Dr Soule's American Hop Bitters is the only thing that will give perfectly healthy natural action to these two organs. "Maine Farmer."

Importations. — McLeod Brothers are opening out shipments bought for cash direct from the manufacturers in the Unitad Kingdom. New Prints, from Vkd ; New Dress Goods, from 4|d ; Cashmcrea, from 1 ' id. To wells, Calicoes, Linen Tabling, Window Curtaius, _c. All departments largely supplemented. We give the bo>-t value. Clotbing— We give one Man's Suit, any size, one Hat, one pair Socks, for 20d. Call and see them. A Sou" - D Crhhd.— We believe well selected g-jods, bought from the best sources at the lowest prices, and marked at cash rates of profit and sold for cash, wili infallibly built up a sure and lasting trade. We have the courage of our opinions as we have relinquished a credit trade tha result of 17 years work and have started to build anew on a cash foundation. The new structure progresses well. Our buyer ably assists us. New goods almost every wee_, Now opening gooda in great variety for the Christmas trade,— Thomson and Beattie.