LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7609, 20 January 1903, Page 3

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

-♦ -- Tha Westport Coal Company's outp\it ■last week was 15,594 tons 15cwt-. The Kaiapoi Borough Council will -hold ta -special meeting on Jan. 27, to fix the weekly half-holiday. A field, trial of the Osborne reaper and binder will be held at Mr Wright's Post Office Paddock, Rakaia, at 2 p.m. tomorrow. -' The proprietor of the Bottle Lake run, at Marshland, will issue permits for rabbitshooting from March 1 to August 31, at a •fee of £2. The annual meeting of the voluntary contributors to the Samaritan Home will be held in the City Oouncil Chamber, on Thursday, at 7.30 p.m. The Rangiora High School Board of Governors, having adopted the Government's new 1 sdheoie, that school is now open, free of charge, to all children who have passed the Sixth standard, were under fourteen years of age on Dec. 31 last, and lave never attend.-! any secondary school. The Sydenham School .amp, at Governor's Bay, broke up to-day. The boys returned to Xjyttelton by Messrs Agar and Thonras 's steam launch Canterbury. They paid a visit to the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company's new liner, Ooritithic, and went to Christchurch by the 11.25 a.m. train,. The local agent of the Tourist Depart;inent has received from Mr S. C. 'Brown a letter describing n- tour recently mad© by 'him through Oxford and iSpringfield to Xake Coleridge, and 'back by way of Ashburton. He says that the roads were for fche most part very good for cycling. He has sent to the agent ten photographs taken during his tour. The Summer Technical School for Teach:*r_, which it is suggested shall be held in tht* different centres of the colony success WYtly, was opened at Auckland to-day. The object of the school is to instruct teachers in improved methods of instruction. The membership is three hundred, l'he Auckland hJducation Board is financing the gathering. The bankruptcies in Otago and Southland (during 1902 total fifty-six, the assets (excluding the amounts secj_r_d ( to creditors) £49,134, the amounts sdcured to creditors £9448, the assets realised by the Official iAssignees £41,266, debts proved £1,034,648^ •paid in dividend, (excluding preferential and secured claims) £34,599, costs of actions and solicitors' supervisors' fees -35576. At the Christchurch Magnetic Observa^ itory a". 9.30 a.m. to-day the barometer stood at .0.442/ with ap upward tendency. The •maximum and imnimum temperatures .recorded during the preceding twenty-four hours were 63.2 and 52.6 respectively. Tha--maxinium temperature in. the -sun was 138.9, end the minimum thermometer on the grass •recorded 48.8. There was no rainfall during the previous twenty-four hour*^ and the *w_d was north-east. The 'Elite Brass Bahd wijl play the following prograanine on the Sydenham lHotundft to-roorrow evening: — March, "The Reveller" (G. Southwell); waltz, j* Woodland 'Whispers" (H. Round) ; over- • ture, "Excelsior" (H. Round) ; intermezzo, "Rozane" (E. Boggetti) ; march, •"T**.r^dor" (Hen: von der Mehden) ; part i*ong, " Aniiie Laurie" (H, Round); (By West), "Ora Pro "Nobis" (M. Pi-colo-}mi); maroh, "■ (Black Prince" (J. Jubh) ; ifend "C-pdt Save the King.'' " i -Some 'figures -quoted' by Mr A. K**.ye, -hairoian of' the Lyttelton Harbour Board, \t the opening of the stevedor-es' shelter — the Coronation Hall — last night, illustrated Vi a striking -manner the increase in the "trade of the -port of Lyttelton in recent Years. The amount paid in wages _y the Stevedoring Association in 1892 was, he it-ted, £-8,000; in 1892 it was £20,000; In 1893, £16,000; in 1894, £16,000; in -J895, £15,000; in 1896, £16,000; in 1897, £18,0005 in 1898, £19,000; in 1899, #26,000; in 1900, £33,000: in 1901, $33,937 ; and last year, £32, 296. - The attention of our readers is drawn to ,«n advertisement inserted by the Anglo'N.Z. Cycle Coy. re their "Angloi.fipeci'il" a_ui "Humber" bicycles. This i firm i§ now offering -pecial induqementfi-to j cyclists during the period of their sale^ in *bat they sa» oiv-Ni the opportunity of purchasing a t-afiy f_t_t-_la_. and thoroughly ip-to-date bicyole at a. figure usually asked Mar? __ac_-__H _, 2747

At a .speoiai meeting of tho Rangiora ! School Committee held yesterday, Master B. Hickman, of Balcairn, was appointed a pupil-teacher, subject to the approval of ! the Board of Education. A telegram from Mangaweka states that Victor Carter, who pleaded guilty to forg. ing the name of Mr Seaton, of Taihape, to a cheque for £5, and cashing the same, was committed for trial. Other charges were adjourned, as one of the presiding justices was interested, and Nit is doubtful if the ____ can be gone on with. • A sitting of the Lyttelton Police Court was held this morning, before the Mayor, Mb J. Grubb. Hugh M'llroy, charged with forging and uttering a cheque for £4 14s on the National (Bank, Christchurch, was remanded till Friday. Oharles A. A. Kruse, a seaman from the barque County of Ayr, admitted having been absent without leave, and was sentenced to seven days' imprisonment*, and ordered to be put on board when the vessel sails. At the opening of the new Shelter for tho Lyttelton stevedores, who have styled it the Coronation Hall, /high tributes were paid by the speakers to the -memory of the late 'Mr E. G. Wright, who, as chairman of the Har_our Board, was largely instrumental in having that commodious and handsome building erected. The Mayor of Lyttelton, iMr J. -Grubb, suggested that a portrait of Mr Wright should be placed in the hall, and it is likely that the suggestion will be adopted. The annual retreat of the Roman Catholi_ clergy of the diocese closed on Monday morning, when a Synod was held at ten o'clock, and a conference followed in the afternoon at three. There were about forty priests in -retreat, who in the course of the week will return to their several stations lin the diocese. The retreat of the Marist 1 Brothers closed on Sunday at Wellington, and' eeveral of the southern Brothers went south by the express this morning to resume their ordinary duties. The Lyttelton Homing ..Society held a pi-reon race from Amberley, for young birds, on Sunday. ' Twelve . birds were liberated at 9.30 a.m., the weather being calm, with drizzling rain. The first bird was Mr J. (F. F ornian' s Chance at 10.39 a.m., a yelocity of B!6;!6y_*s per minute. The second was Mr F. Hem's Havelock, wifh a velocity of 805ydB per minute. The remainder of 'the birds homed within the limit, lhr 40min. The members of the Society wish to thank the Railway Stationmaster, at Amberley for having liberated tho birds.. The trawler Napier came in at midnight, after an even more successful trip than that of the preceding day- Though she was only out for seventeen hours, as against twentyfour on the former occasion, and though the weather was much less favourable, she obtained practically . the same quantity of fish. The take was similar in composition to that of the previous day, but included a larf-er proportion of better fish, especially tarakihi. The -Napier, remained in -port this morning, as the weather was not favourable. * A new trawl was fitted to the vessel. The captain considers the fishing grounds off Banks Peninsula exceedingly good. The precincts of the Magistrate's Court this morning echoed with the quaint sounds of Chinese conversation, two Celestials stauding charged with having>in their possession smuggled opium. The interpreter, a brisk, intelligent young Clnnaman, gave every satisfaction; and several times when ho translated into English, it .was seen that his countrymen were following him with a more intelligent .understanding than they had given themselves credit for. The oath administered differed but/ slightly from the English one, being taken before a lighted match as follows: — "The evidence I shall give in tliis case shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me Joss." The lighted match, smilingly explained the interpreter, represented j the Joss. . In regard to the towing path reserve! along the banks of the Heathcote-; .it appears that from Colombo Street to Cashmere, the Halswell Road Board La. control of the north 'bank and the Spreydon Road' Board of the south. Mr Comer, clerk to the former Board, and a member of the latter, states that the Boards still retain aU their rights in connection with the re- j serves. Landowners have been permitted j to include the towing paths in their pro- ] perty simply because that hats been done j for the last forty years without anyone ob^ jesting. The Boards could at anytime use the reserves if they thought fit, and MiComer said that he thought that the public could not be legally excluded by land, owners. The Selwyn County Council has a planting reserve of about eighty acres on the spur above Cashmere. Some interesting statistics were furnished by the parties in an affiliation suit heard ao the Magistrate's Court this morning. The defendant was a ploughman, and earned 25s a week, jf with the privilege of living in a cottage rent free. He had a wife and five children to support, and now it was Bought' to get an order for the support ot the child of the complainant. This lady h&d previously had one illegitimate child, which the Charitable Aid Board had assumed charge of for some time, but they had intimated that they could no longer do so. She was in service earning 10s a week, and could support one of the children, but not both. If she was to give up one of them, -she would prefer to keep the latest arrival. His Worship said both parties should be thoroughly ashamed of then* .elves. It was clear that the defendant could not contribute anything towards the child's support, and tlie best thing to do, be thought, 'would be for the police to takeproceedings with a view to getting one of ibe children committed to a home. The action of a. Bench of Justices in adjourning the hearing) of a- charge agaanst a _d_sbable for a-*ault in the face of his protest that he would lose his witnesses by the delay was the theme of a complaint ( made by Mr Byrne, solicitor, to Mr Beetham, S.M., this morning. The witnesses, he said, had gone grass-seeding, and could not be expected to leave their work and attend for third time. Mr Ree^am took counsel promptly to task for bringing up the matter, and said it was no part of his duty to sit on tbe Bench and criticise or hear criticisms on tlie'adnuniltratian of the Court business by Ju-tices of the IW With regard to the missing witness he ieminded Mr Byrne that he oould order him Job? arrested by the police and- forcibly brought before the Court He did not want to do this, but he could not allow the business of the Court to be earned on in th* lax manner. -The^nterestH^ of justice must not be defeated, and counsel had b?tter intimate to hie witness that it would be wise for him to an-swer to has subpoena, otherwise the consequences might be unpleasant. The case would be further adjourned. 1 There has recently died in Canada in abject poverty Samuel Hawkins Napi«r, the man who discovered the largest nugget of gold the world has ever seen. It was found in an Australian claim 36ft square, and measured 2ft 4in long, lOin wide and from lim io 3in thick. So great was the excitement over the discovery that Qu.sn Victoria commanded Napier to Buckingham, Palace, where the nuggeb was exhibited to her and the Prince Consort. For some time it was on view at the Crystal Palace, the owner being paid £50 a week for the loan of the precious lump. A cast of the nugget was afterwards taken, and may now bs seen in the British Museum. There is a holly tree 600 years old near Pisa, in Italy. At one bf the suburban tea-gaTden*s a waiter, laden with a tray containing tea and -muffins for twelve, observing a customer making a bolt before^ the bill was paid, roared out to his brother attendant : '■•Run run, Bob 1 there's two teas and a glass of brandy aad water escaping oyer tn* paling* Catch (him 1" In Santa Clara, California, -here is a chnrch cpnstruct-d from tjie- wood of a -single oajc tree. The building is 30ft wide and 70{t deep, yet when, its constructiQii f»com.T dieted 1200 ft of \\m^^vum^ uaa-sed, 1