TOWN & COUNTRY.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 2887, 12 December 1898, Page 2

TOWN & COUNTRY.

; The southern portion o! the inward . Vancouver mail came on by special train yesterday. Mr Stumbles was fixing up the crane ', track to the curve on Saturday. He found ■ some of the rails so badly rusted that the i crane would surely have crushed them i had it been taken on them. Some have , the plates between top and bottom completely eaten through into holes. The iron Bpikes that held the steel rails down i have rusted very little. The iaterior of some of our shops is ( beginning to wear a very Christmas . look. A great number of country people . paid a visit to Penrose's Drapery Establishment on Saturday last to have a 1 first peep at the novelties shown for l the holiday season. They have a nice > assortment of hand painted satin hand- , kerchief saches, fancy work tables, ' plaques, work boxes, photo frames, 1 dolls, mechanical toys, fire screens, t flint vases, painted pottery vases, f Christmas tree ornaments, and 1001 r other items of merit. — [Advi.] Mr JR. H. Ferguson landed a beautiful trout on Saturday evening. He was fishing the lower Opihi with live bait, [ when at 8.30 he got fast to a 16-pounder. : The fish fought stubbornly, and it was a . quarter to 10 o'clock ere it was gaffed. ' It is 29 inches long, 9 inches m depth and 20 inches m girth ; and after long experience it is m our opinion one of s the most perfect specimens ever seen . here. The fish will be on view at [ Messrs Bower and Ferguson's shop this ' morning. It is Mr Ferguson's intention ! to have it frozen and sent Home to his i partner, who is a keen fisher himself, ! and will be right glad to see the record fish so far of this season. i The first match of the season between [ the Victoria Park Tennis Club and the Timaru Terrace Club took place on Saturday. The weather was very warm, and it was noticeable that several of the , players, who had hard games to play, , felt it a good deal. The attendance of \ visitors was fair. The members of the visiting team lunched m the pavilion, and during the afternoon partook of tea i and other refreshments. Some very fine play was witnessed, both m sets m , which the ladies and the men took part, and applause was hearty throughout. ' The visitors expressed the opinion that the match was the best and most interesting that they have takeu part m since their club's inception four years ago. It will be seen by the scores that the play, with a couple of exceptions, was very even throughout, and that i players were well matched. Dptails of the scores are as follows :— (yictoria | Park named first) — Doubles — Miss McCaskill and Quinn 5, Misses Sotham and 1 Revell 4; Misses Campbell and Russell 7, Misses Tennent and Fussell 5 ; Le- ; Cren and Strong 4, Lynch and Cameron 7 ; King and McCaekill 6, Stewart and Mayne 9 ; Lee and McLeod 7, Rutherford and Reyell 5 ; Miss McCaskill and Strong 5, Miss Sothim and Lynch 7 ; Misa Quinn and LeOren 7, Miss L. , Revell and Cameron 4. Singles— Miss McCaskill 7, Misa Revell 6 ; Miss Quinn 6, Miss Sotham 7 ; Miss Campbell 7, Miss Tennent 5 ; Miss Russell 4, Miss Fußeell 7 ; LeOren 1, L.ynch 7 ; Strong 7, Cameron 4; King 7, Stewart 5; McCaskill 0, Mayne 9 ; Lee 5, Rutherford 7 ; McLeod 2, Revell 7. Totals-Park 87, Terrace 105 ; a win for the latter by 18.

Captain Edwin on Saturday forecasted northerly and easterly weather m the north and moderate westerly wind south of Lyttelton. A spell of northerly seas has driven the shingle back along the breakwater till the bank now crosses the parapet shelf 70 or 80ft landward of the end of the wharf. In reply to the Auckland Board's enquiry, the Weßt,port Harbour Board stated the first cost of their dredge and stf.-am barges was £32,000, and the monthly cost of working is £350. We have to acknowledge receipt from the Government Printer of a bundle of Parliamentary Papers, including the appropriations for thecurrentyear, from the Consolidated and Public Works fund respectively. We are advised by the Chief Postmaster that the London Post Office will deppatch a mail for New Zealand via Naples, by a steamer leaving London the week following the outward despatch via San Francisco. Presuming that a prompt connection is made at Melbourne with a boat for New Zealand, correspondence sent by this route should arrive m the colony a few days ahead of the monthly Vancouver mail. Under this arrangement an Knglish mail via Naples will be due shortly after the New Year. Constables Crawford and Dal ton deserve credit for the way they ran to earth an ofFender against the decencies of Caroline Bay. They bad but a very imperfect description of the man's appearance—a guess at his age, that he had light whiskers, grey clothes and a hard hat — yet they found out that the man they wanted came from Temuka and returned there by express on Wednesday, and was camped about a mile outside of Temuka. Constable Bradley, stationed at Temuka, was able to indicate just where he was camped, and the whole train of connection was so well worked out that one of the witnesses was taken to Temuka and the camp to supply the last link of identification. Mr D. D. Hyde, Government Poultry Expert, gave a lecture on the subject of practical poultry keeping, at the Library Hall, Waimate, on Thursday evening. Mr R.Nicol presided. There was a fair attendance, and all present paid the greatest attention to the lecturer's remarks, which were on the same lines as his previous lectures. At the close of the meeting a vote of thanks, proposed by Mr Nicol and seconded by Mr W. J. Black, was passed to the lecturer. Messrs J. B. Milson, W. Petit, and E. Nicol, -7.P.8, were on the Bench at the Magistrates Court, Waimate, on Thursday, when .Donald Grant Watt, ranger for Pareora-Riding, Waimate County, Bued Alexander Hastie for allowing cattle to graze on the road at St. Andrews. Mr Hamilton appeared for the informant; and Mr Clement for defendant. After hearing the evidence the Bench inflicted a fine of 2s per head of 10 cattle, solicitor's fee £1 Is, Court costs 7s, and on 6 witness 10s 7d. The Bench complimented the ranger on the way the case had been brought into Court. Patrick Flaherty, charged with assaulting William Blake, pleaded guilty and was iin£d 10s and costs 11s 6d. The Parliamentary return of the number of sheep m the'colony at the end of April last gives th«4number as 19,673,725, almost exactly Half \in each island. Of the total these were m Canterbury— Kaikoura d;3tt"ict, 4,910,385; m Napier, 4,525,348; m Wellington. 4,441,082; m Otago, 3,961,459; m \ Marlborough and Nelson, 936,936, and inyAuckland, 897,515. The whole belonged to'i 18,722 owners, of whom 15,594 had less than 1000 sheep, and 8176 less than 200. \ 375 owners had over 10,000 sheep each\ and 144 over 20,000; 120 of these over 10,000 and 20,000 flocks are m the Napier district, and 116 m Canterbury-Kaikoura-\43 of them m Bouth Canterbury. Therte are more owners of sheep m the youth Island than m the north, as 9870 W 8852. and many more small owners (undver 1000) as, 8499't0 7095. I Some further experiments \with the firing of dynamite have been clpnducted by Mr Arniboldi at Auckland, aVjd again the utter futility of attempting^ to do anything with castiron guns was very^ forcibly demonstrated.as the gun l9ew to' pieces at the first shot, theinventor\with his usual lack escaping without a scratch. When the smoke caused by the explosion passed away it was seen that the gun hVI burst, and pieces of it had been throv&n. about 150 yards into the air, falling \ft quarter of a mile ont m the water of the\ bay. The shell had gone about two feet\ higher than it was aimed, and had struck I a bsnk of soft clay. It penetrated I abo&t 18in into this bank, then describ- \ ing a circuit, came out on the same side ] as it went m," tearing out about a barro'wfu! of clay, and fell close to the gun without exploding, the reason for which was that, owing to the impetus lost by the gun .bursting, it did riot strike with sufficient force into the clay to cause the dynamite to go off. ' Kaiapoi had a half-holiday on Thursday to witness the christening of an " auxiliary" schooner and ketch, the Joseph dims and Emma Sims, which have been built to trade between Lyttelton and other ports and Kaiapoi. They belong to Mr Joseph Sims, and m speaking of him the chairman said he arrived m the colony some forty-two years ago. He had done a lot of hard work, and of late years had devoted his energy to working up the shipping trade of Kaiapoi. It was regrettable that he had not aU ways been successful. He had lost one vessel on the bar, another had turned turtle, another (the Huon Belle) had been lost; and he had also lost a small steamer called the Enterprise. Nevertheless, he had stuck to the trade and had prospered, as the recent addition to his fleet proved. A correspondent, who does not want his name published supplies the following :—The Timaru Herald, reporting a meeting ©f the Timaru Presbytery, held on Tuesday last, makes it appear that the Waitaki people at congregational meetings recently held, presided over by the Key. JR. Mackie, interim moderator, resolved " unanimously to ask the Rev. G. K. Stowell to supply* for a year, from the end of October, it being deemed inexpedient to enter into a temporary arrangement for so long as two years." What was resolved at congregational meetings held at Glenavy, Waihao, and Waitaki settle* ment, waß that Mr Stowell, who had been m charge of the Waitaki district for eighteen months, should be asked to supply for two years from the Ist November last. The people's wishes, however, were ignored by the Waimate session, which body, without m any way ad* vising with the people interested, passed a resolution to ask Mr Stoweil to supply for one year, as it was thought inexpedient to enter into a temporary arrangement for two years. None of the gentlempn on the Waimate Presbyterian Session are m any way connected with the Waitaki district, and not a single penny ia contributed by that body, or the charge with which that body is connected, towaids the maintenance of the ordinances of religion m the Waitaki district; yet they put aside resolutions passed by the people of the Waitaki charge at congregational meetings, called for the express purpose of ascertaining the mind of the people. The voice of the people has been ignored. It is time such high-handed procedure was stopped, and the Waitaki charge under a session bearing its own name and m touch with the district.