LATEST TELEGRAMS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 2786, 8 March 1877, Page 2

LATEST TELEGRAMS.

[Fbom thb Pbess Agency.] Wellington, March 8. A special meeting of the Harbour Board was held yesterday afternoon, to consider a letter from the Harbour Master, stating that tho " oe& had broken through the south spit, within a mile from the Headß, and a channel can be seeen about a chain wide, with a depth of five feet at high water spring tide, the force of tbe surf having made through it a long sand spit out in the river about five chains, whioh has caused the river to silt up below tho, last- mentioned spot, and set the current in another direction." Mr Rees, the Resident Engineer, stated that the cost of stopping the channel would be £1735. The Board resolved to apply to Government for the best engineering advice, to report on the means to be adopted to prevent furtn.r injury occurring to the river arising from the divergence from ite ordinary channel. •: Dunedin, March 8. The Waste Lands Board had under consideration yesterday, the question of how to deal with four runs, the leases of which ,wUI expire early next year. The Chief Surveyor reported that the country comprised in the runs was very rough, unfit for agricultural settlement, and proposed that the four runs should be cut up into five for the purpose of re-leaßing. Mr Green dissented from this view, pointing out fchat the land being very close to the Coast settlement, and some of it within a few miles of Dunedinj was certain to be in good demand, and would realise more than £1 an acre. Ho admitted tbat a great deal of it was rough country, but yet there were also many fertile valleys. The matter was adjourned for a week. DROWNED WHILE BATHING. A woman named Mrs Young, a dressmaker, in dark street, was drowned while bathing at the Ocean Beach, Anderson's Bay, yesterday evening. Two other women, named Oeoilia Phillips and' Emily Gardiner, and the cabman who drove the . party out were present, but were unable to save deceased.