Local and General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 746, 13 October 1870, Page 2

Local and General.

\^ "°" sT" Aqitatics.— We have been informed that iio challenge has been issued by the Heath cote Club to the Lyttelton Club to row on •Stturday. The match for £25 a side is attracting considerable attention, and, from present appearances, will be a closely contested race. The G !URLays. — A large audience assembled at the Canterbury Music Hall last night. '' he programme was the same as on Tuesday, and passed off in an equally satisfactory manner. Electoral. — We 1 am that Co'onel Brett intends to offer himself as a candidate for Ihe representation of the district in iho General Assembly at the forthcoming election. Pai;k axd Domain Board. — In a Provincial Gazelle, issued yesterday, it is notified i hat his Honor 'he Superintendent has ap pointed Mr William Guise Brittan to be a miember of the Park and Domain Board. SArrwArm Creek School. — In coaa<pliance with the Education Ordinance 1864, 'the annual meeting was held in the schoolroom, for the purpose of electing a new committee. The chairman read the report of the retiring committee. The following were thc-n elected for the new committee : — Messrs Donald Cameron, John McWilliam. Edmund ITlf'telier, John Wyllie, Robert Herbertson, William Farquarson, — M'Nelly, Michael Jtfulliinny, Wa'ttr Thompson (chairman). ■bOLTHHuiDGE. — A meeting was held in the •schoolroom on Monday evening last, Mr C. J BrU ge in the chair, when it was resolved 10 form a society for promoting the interests of horticulture and dairy farming in the district A committee was appointed to prepare rules and draw up a prize list, the same 1o be presented to a general meeting on Monday, < 'ct. 24. The new society is called the Southhridge Horticultural and Rural Industrial Society, and it is proposed to hold the lir*t exhibition during the first week in January, 1870. 25 O>e • v the Heroes of Balaklava. — ' '! he following appeared yesterday in our ■ morning contemporary:— We notice that a brother of the present Muyorof Christchurch, Captain James Duncan, of the 19th Hussars, has been gazetted to be Major. Major Duncan enlisted in the 17lh Lancers, and has " via n from a private to his i resent honorable position, lie was through the Crimean war, . jmd was one of the gallant 600 in the Balaclava charge. He afterwards served iv India during ihe mutiny. Railways is the North Island. — A "Wellington contemporary of Oct. 11, says Ihat the preliminary survey of the Great Northern Rdlway has been commenced Kn lor Mr Blackett, late Provincial Engineer of Xtlson. 'Iho survey party passed over Hie Uemutuka by Captain's Smith's line on F; iday last, and was expected to reach the T.iuherenikau by S turday evening. The Ministry, says our contemporary, deserve credit for the early action they have taken in this important matter, and the general tifsire is, 'hat the work may be thoroughly iloue in order that the best route may be determined on. Lin-cols School.— -The annual examiniiion of the above school came off on Monday last. The Rev A. t\ O'Callagban, Mr (Hyde, and Mr Pannett conducted the same, aud at the conclusion of the exercises, which were goue through in a very creditable manner, the reading and spelling being particularly good, prizes were awarded to F. Townsend and J. Mullins in the first class; to Annie Dun aud Charles Wright in the second class; to Wm. Dun, E. Wright, and Mary Pannett in the third class ; and to Mary Wright, M. Giiletley, and Sarah White in the fourth class. An extra prize, consisting of a valu- • ab!e workbox, given by Mr Townsend, was awarded to Anuie Dun, as being the most advanced scholar in proportion to her age. The master, Mr Jacobson, has evidently taken great pain 9 with the children, aud has met with no small success. House of Refuge. — The cla"ms of this benevolent institution on the public sympathies aud support are but rarely brought prominently forward. It is we believe now four years ago since a general appeal was made to the generosity of the community, on which occasion Mrs FitzGerald, assisted by several amateurs, gave a very successful concert in aid of the funds of the Refuge. The proceeds realised were considerable. Some forty in number of our local amateurs, vocalists and instrumentalists, have been preparing latel.v for a similar laudable purpose. Our advertising columns announce their concert for Tuesday evening next. A choice selection we hear has been made of music that has not as yet been placed before the Christchurch public. The licensed Victuallers were to have given a performance at the Theatre Royal on the same day, but very ikindly deferred it.

The Unemployed. — Deputations from the unemployed waited on his Honor the Superintendent yesterday, with a view of ascertaining whether (he Government could give them any employment at reasonable wages. His Honor offered an increase of the wages for stonebreaking to 4s 6d per yard, to married men, increasing the gauge also to two inches. Twenty-three men subsequently called on the Immigration Officer, and agreed t > go to work at the increased rate, obtaining an order for rations in advance. Returns.— A Provincial xSazelte issued yesterday, contains the return of births, deaths, and marriages in the Christchurch district for the month ending September 30. Tiie total number of births was 95—42 males and 53 females ; of deaths, 2'J — 16 males and 13 females ; of marriages, 22. The totals for the corresponding month in 1869 were 88, 14, and 13 respectively. While on this subject, we may be permitted to enquire why the reiurns are for the Christchurch district alone. Would it not be a very easy matter to get a monthly return for the whole province ? Statistics, strange as it may appear to the official mind, have their value. Grain Export Returns. — After a good deal of trouble, including a formal motion in the Provincial Council, the Government were induced to publish in the Gazette a return, showing the quant'ty and value of the grain exported from the province month by month. The publication of this return continued with undeviating regularit--, though sometimes it was unduly delayed, up to the end of June last. But since the return for that month was published there has been a break ; that is to say, there has been no return for July, August, and September. Perhaps some member of the Provincial Council will ask the Government why the publij cation of a return s > much valued by agricul urists and others has been discontinued. Cricket.— The Christchurch Cricket Club will play their opening game of the season on the U.C.C. Club's ground on Saturday next. The sides will be chosen on behalf of the President and Vice-President from the following: —A Cox (President), Wynn Willams (Vice-President)— A Lee, E. Fowli-r, E. S. Harley, C. E. Briggs, J. H. Miles, G. Turner, E G. Griffith, J. Death, C. Odell, W. Calvert, W. J. Lovell, J. 11. Bennett, H. Cohn, R. C. Mathias, L. C. Williams, G. Bull, G. Harper, J. T. Mason, F. Burnell, — Maples, A. Ayers, C. Coombes, J. Wood, R. Wright, Taylor, Souter, W. B. Hobbs, W. W. Gray, D. Dunlop, and R. Nichols. Any other members attending will be asked to join in the game. Play to commence at 1.30 p.m. We understand the Fire Brigade 1 rieket Club purpose opening their season on Saturday next by a match amongst themselves in Cranmer Square. The Mitrailleuh Outdone. — A farmer in Victoria professes to have invented a gun which is to eclipse the mitrailleur. Mr William C on, of Windermere, near Ballarat, writes as follows to a Melbourne paper: —An ingenious farmer from Windermere has invented a gun capable of discharging 177 steel bullets, half as heavy again as the ordinary rifle bullet now in use by the English troops, '■n two seconds, or $00 within five minutes, including re-loading, and would take the enemy's lines at a distance of one mile, while the ordinary rifle would not reach that distance. The gun is placed on a four-wheeled gun-carriage, and is calculated not to exceed •25c wt complete, and to be drawn by four horses, and can be removed one mile within six minutes, carrying men and all ammunition required. A steel shield is placed at the breach to protect men and horses from the enemy's muskets. Four men and one driver can work the gun at the speed I name, and in case of retreat the gun can be removed, delivering shot as the horses gallop. The gun can be extended to fortress purposes, would then weigh about eight tons, and wou'd deliver bullets from 2oz to 4lb weight over two miles distance, at every point of the compass, in less than two minutes, and deliver 1000 shots in less than ten minutes. Payment of Jurors.— The following short Act, to amend " The Juries Act 1868," was passed during the recent Eession of the General Assembly : — Whereas it is expedient that Common Jurors should be paid and that the exemption of Volunteers from serving on Juries should be abolished. Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of New Zealand in Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same as follows : —1. The short title of this Act shall be '•The Juries Act Amendment Act 1870" and it shall come into operation on Ihe first day of November one thousand eight hundred and seventy. 2. Every person who shall be summoned to attend and shall attend at any Criminal Sitting of the Supreme Court or of any District Court as a Common Juror shall receive for every day and fraction of a day that he shall be in attendance on such Court as a ("ommou Juror and until he shall be discharged from attendance an allowance according to the scale contained in the s hedule to this Act. 3 The sum payable under the preceding clause shall be paid to every juror at the time of his being discharged from attendance by the Registrar or Clerk of the Court. 4. All sums payable under this Act shall be paid out of the Consolidated Fund. 5. So much of "The Juries Act 1868" as provides that commissioned officers of the volunteer forces not on actual service and volunteers holding a certificate of efficiency not on actual service granted as in the said Act provided shall ba freed and exempted from being summoned arid serving on juries is hereby repealed. Schedu'e : Jurors residing within the city or town in which the Court is held, 3s ; jurors residing beyond the town in which the Court is held but not beyond Beveu miles from the Court House, 4s ; jurors residing beyond seven miles and not beyond twelve miles from the Court House, 6s ; jurors residing beyond twelve miles and not beyond twenty miles from the Court House, Ba.

Benbvolent Aid Society.— The Secretary desires to acknowledge, through the Resident Magistrate, the sum of £2 9s, expenses allowed seven witnesses in the case of Bird and Bennett v. Raphael ; and 6s in another case. Compensation Claims. — The following are the claims allowed by the Resident Magistrate at the first sitting of the Court, held at Kaiapoi, for cattle which were destroyed on the Maori run, by order of the Government after the proclamation of November, 1869: — Harrison, £42; Raymond, £2 ; Stevens, £13; Gibbs, £27; Meng, £20; Milligan, £5 ; Edwards, £6 ; Hutt, £6 ; total, £121. All the parties named have received cheques for their respective awards. The Resident Magistrate held a Court at Kaiapoi, yesterday, for the purpose of hearing further claims. The claimants on this occasion were principally Maoris, and his Worship exercised a deal of patience in listening to their almost interminable yarns.