LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1976, 1 March 1893, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

A BOATING accident happened in Wellington harbour on Sunday by which three men lost their lives. Recently compiled statistics show that 325 violent deaths took place in the city of Melbourne during 1892. The Hon. W. Rolleston, leader of the Opposition, is to address a public meeting in Auckland on Monday evening next. An official cablegram to London announces that the damage caused by the floods in Queensland is estimated at one million sterling. The Raea Junction School Committee at their last meeting voted for Dr Hislop and Messrs Green and Mackenzie to fill the vacancies on the Education Beard. The managing committee of tha St. Patrick's day sports have added a maiden hammer-throwing competition to tho prograramp, the prizes being — Ist, £1 ; 2nd, 10j. Bread is being made in Timaru by a new process. Extract of malt v used in making the yeast instead of potatoes. The bread is said to be more digestible than that made in the ordinary way. A petition to Parliament, praying for the abolition of tbe totalisator, has been signed by over 1,000 persons in Napier, snd among the signatures is that of Mr W. Douglau tbe owner of Rosefcldf-, The "North Otago Times" says that a number of small strikes are taking place in the North Otago district , Q.wjng to the difference between tho f^rniejtsarid the mcD as to whether the amount to be paid the totter shall be 9d or lOd per hq'ur. ' . The mine manager of the Island Block Extended Gold Co. reports that everything is workiog steadily at the claim. He had to stop for 21 hours from Wednesday till Thursday last, but has been sluicing regularly since. He expects to run till Wednesday, when, unless there is rain in tbe meantime, be wui have to shut down,

Duhing tho past fourteen months, 10,000 packages of tea, weighing 300,0001 b, have been stopped is iuf erior or spurious by the Victorian Customs authorities.

Mr W. QuiN, of Tapanui, will offer for sale at auction on the 23rd instant four farms on the Spylaw estate, Crookston, comprising some of the finest wheat growing land in Otago.

A KETUKN has been prepared which shows that tho Asiatic population resident in Now South Wales at tho date of the census in Apiil, 1891, was:— Males, 1904; females, 59:) —total, 2503. It is stated that of thtse 1557 males and 518 females arc British subjects.

Witii regard to tho finding <f a 25$ z nugget of gold by a mau namnrt Allen, near Miulgcp, it appears he w^s <.uth.ro shooting at tho tim?, und on missing two hares in succession ho threw down his hat in disgust. On picking up tho hut he discoverel the nugget undernoath.

Fkedkeick HcJlPnuiß", who will bo remembered by many in this district, hiving been for some months on tha staff of the Tuapeka Times, has just been sentenced in Melbourne to two years' imprisonment, with hard labour, for forgery while iv the position of secretary of the Employers' Union, Melbourne.

The management of Norwegian coasting steamers ha\e arranged that husband and wife shall travel nt a fare and ahalf. This is a distinct encouragement to husbands not to leave their wives at home ou account of doublo expense, and it might, perhaps, be adopted in railway matters nearer home with advantage. THE third son of Mr Edward Roughan, Wethcratoues Flat, sustained a compound fracture of the left arm on Saturday evening last. He was sent out to catch a horsp, and while riding home he was thrown by the animal, with the result meuiioned. Dr Withers set the injured limb, and the little fellow is getting along uicely. Tills gold returns of tho following mining companies are to hand : — Dunedin Dredging Co., 20.)z for six days' work; Golden Hun Dredging C0.,400z B Jw ts 22jrr for w eek's work ; Et trick Dredging Co., 20 z for week's work ; Roxburgh Drciiging Co., lljoz for week's work ; Jutland Flat Dredging Co., 330z 2 Iwt for 144 hours' wages time; Upper Waipori Co's No. 1 dredge, 270z lodwtl^gr fur 5 duys i 8 hours' dredging. The annual meeting of the United O'ago District Ancient Order of Foresters was held in Duuedin last Fridjy afternoon. None of I tho local courts wore represented by delegates. Tlio report of the District Etcoutive showed tnat the n amber of members in good standing I at the end of 1 lie year was 1,G1'2, being a gain of 03 for the year. The total value of tho various court j in the district was £22.147 Is 91, being a gain for the year of £1,143 &■* 81. A WJRIT, issued at the instance of Mr J. F. M. Frascr, on behalf of Mr T. E. Williams-, has been seivcd on the Chairman of the Tunpcka County > Council, chiming £'200 damages for injuries sustained by Mr Williams' team of working bullocks, etc., caused, it is alleged, by the collapse of a I ortion of the roidway loading to the Black C!eugh sawmill.", Tuipcka West, a few weeks :igo. Mr Crooko has been retained for tlv; 1 efence. The case conies ou for hearing at the next civil sittings of the Supremo Court, Dunedin, to be held about the 20th instant. A new Yankee newspaper thus cindidly announces its mission : — Our aim : Tell the truth though the heavens take a tumble. O.ir paper: Of the people, for the people, to be paid for by the people. Our religion : Oithodox, with a firm i-eliof in a hell for delinquent subscribers. Our motto: Take ell in sigut and rustle for mrre. Our policy : To love our friends and brimstone our enemies. If thine enemy smile thee on one cheek, s.vipe him with haste and dexterity at tho butt end of his most ".ouveuient ear. Whit we advocate: One country, one flag, and one wife at a time. Our object : To live in pomp nnd oriental splendour. A DISCOVEUY has been made which is rather disconcerting to the foreign traveller. This is ih it certain U teikeepers on the Continent luve a secret method of making confidences to one another concerning their customers, much as the tramp hands on his knowledge by mystic symbols to his professional brother. The hoteikcepcr does not employ chalk : he simply varies the color of his label with which he adorns your box when you leave. Thus a green border may mean stingy and unprofitable, while a blue border implies liberal and wealthy. But the secret i cuue out tbe other d.iy through the revelations of a discharged waiter, and an irate traveller who was labelled stiugy has communicated it to all the newspapers. TnE heavy amount of income tix which the various mining companies at Rtefton are called upon to pi<y has given gcncrjl dissatisfaction there. For instat cc, the Big River Company is taxel to the amount, of £tSO ; Globe, £360; No. 2 Dark, i 210; and Fiery Cros*, £290. The tax will be resisted upon two gronnds—viz., that the former year's work, included in this year, has been already paid, and on account of the tax being calculated from dividends paid, not taking into consideration the calls which have been made, which, in many instances, amount to move than the dividends. The companies are already heavily taxed by Ml 3 rent claimed on the leases, the bulk of them paying calls from year to year without a shilling in return. WE learn from the "Palmerston Times" that the output of coal from the Allandale colliery {Shag Point) for the year ending January 31st last is 12,000 tons 14jwt lqr, which shows an increase over and above ttie year previous of 1781 tons o«wt lqr. the output for that year being 10,219 tons Bowt 0q", which included a contract of 4030 tons to the New Zealand railways, and taking into oousidoretion that tho company had no contracts this lust year, tbe actual inoreaae locally is 5,718 tons 6cwt lqr, which speaks well for this favourite coal. The company hive expended several thousands of pounds this last year in devoloping their field of coal, putting up new machinery, coal soreeus, etc., and a branch railway to Bushey, to connect with the main line, and being now in a position to supply all demands they hope to still further increase their output this year.

This Eirl of Meath, in an article in the "Nineteenth Century," on the Australasian colonies, states that the workiug man is despotic in l^ew Zetland, where capital is weakest .chiefly owing to absentee bondholders, aud that the ouly poor moo arc runholders, clergymen, and clerks. In the Australian colonies, on the other hand, he declares that capital has been victorious after a hard struggle. He states that he has never heard of good work being done in any cslony possessing manhood suffrage, but there were frequent complaints that legislators were of an inferior type as compared with those of the early days. The Earl adds that a clergyman in New Zealand informed him that ho had to submit to most foul language from members of the vestry who held the purse strings. In concluding, he says that largo classes of colonists are dfectionale'y loyal to tho mother country, and only need the occasion to astonish the world.

For. the last three years there his been a striking diminution in the totalisator investments at the autumn moetiugsof the Dunedin Jockey Club. In 1890 the amount put through the machine at Forbury was about £35,009; in the following year this had fallen closj on £7000 ; and at last veek>V meeting there was a shrinkage of £4,213 on the investments of the previous year. This is a declension with a vengeance; it is too largo to be regarded as the outcome of accident ; nor, it. is to be feared, does it denote an awakening of the public conscience to higher ideals of morality in the everlasting and seductive but mostly delusive practice of backing the favorjfe: nor docs it imply that the popularity of tho •• tote " is a waning or vanishing quantity. The correct solution of the question will most probably be found in the fagt that the public purse is not quite as plethoric as it iysg wont to bo ; that there is less of the ready circulating craong the sports ; but no doubt they will find some consolation in tho fact that the shriukage ip £he investments for last year is ■not as large by almost half as that of 1893, and that the outlook is bright enough to promise a return to the good old times that all genuine sports must thirst for, to say nothing of the heterogeneous mags of nondescripts and unmentionables that make up the sum of a vwt'QWm aesembUge,

A GENTLEMAN living in Wellington is making a mixture and supp'ii'g it grit is which he claims is au absoluto cure for oiphtheria. Tho difficulty in treating for tbi< terrible scourge is in petiing the children to garble their throat-*, liy this new remedy the difficulty is avoided, ths medicine beiug swallowed.

AT a meeting of the directors of tho Golden Run Dredging Co., Imld .it Island Block yes terday, the chairman (Mr B. Hirt) iutirnatnd that itliail been decided to declare a dividend of 3i per share, payable on Friday firir. The gold returns for tho month tot.illed 208'>z, of which 4'Joz lOJwt hid bern obtained during the last three working days. The directors have decided to add 123 to the reserve fund.

Taksx with the tales of flood and drought reported bycible, the- following clipping from a Sydney papnr should s-ilufy farmers in this colony that they h=»vo something to be thankful for: "The noit'i cobsb districts have ncntly stiff Ted fro.ll severe thunderstorms, the orchardists, vigncrons, iralee growers having alike sustained heavy losses through ruin and hail, in many places tho crops have been levellei to the ground. Crickets and citirpilljis are infesting orchards and vineyar.ls at Caiupden and Pfnrith, and quantities of fruit and grapes have been dcatro;, cd.

The Benevolent Trustees of Wellington fir.d much difficulty i:i making their now home for the poor .-tccpptuble to those unfortunate persons for whose greater eomfost it was to bo provided. The oM people who have been on their book? for relief beg to be excused from enteiing it. The more sensitive of the poor and needy look upon it as a workhouse, and the sturdy beggar looks upon it as a peril to his freedom. Mr Colenrw Philips proposes that the city should bo divided into: — ,1) The deserving poor; (2) the desert e 1 poor ; (3) the idle poor ; .4) the drunken poor ; (5) the dissolute poor. AM but the two first to he brought under the notice of the police authorities'.

BEPOHE the opening of th* R.M. Court, L- wrence, on Mondiy, Mr W. 11. Revel, who was prcseuf, formally took bis leave of the bench, and announced that he felt himself compelled through illness to letireintopnvite life Mr li-'vcll was evidently suffering from thoiffects of his protracted iliuesi, and his remarks wcro in censr quciicescaree'y audible. Mr Finlayson, on behilf of the local bar, evpressed regret nt tho circusnst-nces that, compelled Mr Revell's retirement, and referred to the courtesy and kindness that had always distimnisheiJ Mr Revcll in their interconrsu wi'h him while he presided over the C»nrt, nnd hoprd that his well-earned rest would have tho effect of again completely e*toriug him to his former state of health.

Gales of exceptional violence have bce - i experienced within the la&t week in Marlborongh and as far north from tint proviuce as Aucklanilv At Hakurjngi damage amounting to £2000 was done to the railway works, while large numbers of houses were uurooferl and over one hundred head of cattle swept away. At tho Thames hcivy wind and rain were experienced, and portions of the town were flooded from 10 to 12 inches. Considerable damage was also done to the crops in that district, brge numbers of cattle were lost, and all the batteries brought to n standstill. In M:irlborough Urge panes of glass in shop windows were blown out bodily mid trees were torn up by the roots. Captaiu Elwin thinks the galo was part of the same atorm that caused the second big flx>d in Queensland.

ENGINEERS on tho New Zealand railwiys appear to have a fine time of it. Mr Liw has, wo are informed, returneel after a tour of inspection of the railways of Gie^t Britain, the Continent, and Arac'rica, and Mr Roiherliam has gone to America to study the railway system there. It is only thr<>eor four years sinoe Mr Maxwell also visited Europe and America to study their railway systems, and he is now going to Australia for the si me purpose. Meantime what have we gained by this? We have to piy these gentlemen while gallivanting over tho face of the globe like this, but we fiud no difference in the railway manngemont on their return. It is alleged that Mr Mjxwell is going to Australia to look out for another billet, and if so we have not the slighest objection topsvy bissalary while doing so. We shall be very glad to get rid of him, but meantime we sty that it 13 outrageous that the c.'iintry shouM pay these gcntlcmau while travelling the world ou the pretence of studying railway management — Exchange.

The " Dunstan Times " accuses na of engaging in a conspiracy to slop the further progioss of tho (Kago Central railway. And all this because we published some statements of a correspondent a few weeks ago on the condition of the Blacks district ! The editor of tho "Dunstan Times" denies the accuracy of th )S3 statements, because, he says, he wes "informed by a number of people in a position to know " — which means that he picked up his information second-hand from the man in the street; whereas our correspondent, in wlviae statements we may say we have c\ory confidence, was through the entire district towards the end of last mouth, and saw with his own eyes what he described in our columns. The claims of Central Oiago must surely bi> of a very slender character if tho remarks complained of are likely to rob it of its railway. We regret the terrible disaster we have almost been the innocent authors of, and, in view of the fearful consequences, we are determined, when anything else from the Blacks district about plums and stunted grass caraes our way to exjuniue it with a careful eye The cackle of a goose — or a "gosling" was it?— is said to have saved Rime oucp, and may not Central Oiago be saved by tho same harmless aget.o3 ?

A BURNS' commemoration without whisky is surely a new thing in the earth. Suel 1 , however, we are assured, was tho character of tha recent celebration of the Burns 1 Anniversary in Dunedio, It was actually found possible for a number of Scotchmen to mcot together, and by ek.q-ient speech and tuneful song, to do honour to the memory of thdir favourite nattoml bard without indulging in what is commouly regtrded as their national bfiverage. Surely the millennium dawns J Let us liodg th it the good example set in Dunodin will be followed in othor places, wherever it is thought desirable to meet together to render homage to the life and genius of Robert Burns. Whisky played such havoc with the gifted poet himself that it may very well be conspicuous by its absence at the commemoration gatherings that are held in his name. Two things have bee.i marvelled at by many who are by no means unappreciative of Burns' poetic power — tho extent that l.is birthday celebration hjs been accompauiel by tho me of the drink that was the curse of of the poet's life, and the defence offered for the inclusion in his published works of poems that are a rank offonoo to eyery pure-mindod reader, The whisky, we arc gl-id to thiuk, is disappearing; let us now have an expurgated oditiou of his works such as shall he fit to be pnt into the hands of a modest maiden, and the prospects of the Burn';* commemoration will everywhere brighten.— ♦' Methodist."

Tub remark pnt into tho mouth of one of hiacreitions by Dickens that "tho law is ■» hass" is as irue to-jay as it was then, ond probably will remain so till the end of the lcg-U chapter is arrived at. The latest illustration in this respect comes from Napier. At tho Supremo Court at that place Ihe other day a man was charged with stealing achcqnc for £20, to which he ploaded guilty. At the trial it was stated tlut immediately after stealing and cashing tho cheque, the prisoner, with a close eye to after consequences, weiit to a lawyer's office and left ten pounds with fche plerlfj the lawyer being out, explaining that it was' in payment for bis defence after his arrest, which fie was expecting gfc aDy moment. On the lawyer returning to his oflico and learning the circumstances, he decided not to act for the philosophical thief. During tho trial, application was made on behalf of the person from whom the cheque was stclcn for this ten pouudsand also for the balance of the cash found on the prisoner. To this tho Chief Justice demurred, saying that if the cheque bad not boon cashed ho would have made an order for its return, but it jj'as now questionable a3 to whom the money properly belonged. Jf this is really law, which to plain' men must seem exceedingly doubtful, all we can say is the sooner it is fashioned into something approaching nearer in appearanco to what sane and sober law ought to bo £he better for honest men and, indeed, the better for the law itself. As this particular part of it stands now, it Is all on the side of the thief and dea.d ugajnst the honest

When sparrows wne fir.sfc introduced to tbe colonies, it was said they were not granivorons, but thi'y hove developed a decided taste forprain, ns lh> farmers know to theircost. Now.the stailingisacquiringatasto for grain. This bird was supposed to to purely insectivorous but during thn present harvest in this district it Jus been seen industriously tuning away at the grain in the sheaves, tjking Us lesson no doubt from tho sparrows.