DUNEDIN NOTES.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 170, 11 February 1873, Page 5

DUNEDIN NOTES.

By 0. P. Q. The Rev. J. M. Peebles, assisted by his travelling companion, Dr Dunn, has been lecturing at intervals since his arrival to large audiences. On Sunday last the Queen’s Theatre was crowded in every part, and his sermon or lecture was listened to with great attention. Mr Peebles is certainly undeserving in the slightest degree of the accusations of illiteracy and ignorance which were heaped upon him by a portion of the Melbourne press when he arrived in that city. He is a very fluent speaker, and his utterances certainly indicate that he is a well-educated and well-read man. Beyond a slight Yankee accent, in fact, and a quaint mode of expressing his ideas sometimes, also savouring of our American cousins, there is nothing whatever to strike the refined ear as being peculiar in his address. While granting that he speaks well, however, it must be said that there is very little in his lectures to throw any further light on this mystery of the age. Those who have attended Mr Peebles’ lectures under the impression that they would hear anything new have been disappointed. He has in a great measure gone over the same ground that his predecessor Mr Smith did, and it is not likely that there will be many converts to Spiritualism through anything he has said as yet in Dunedin. Certainly he has the advantage of having a said-to-be magnetic healer in company with him as an additional attraction ; but Dr Dunn will have to demonstrate his powers by effecting some miraculous cures before the general public becomes less sceptical. This gentle man assists at the lectures of Mr Peebles by reading a poem—generally an “ inspired” one—before the lecture commences. A long inspirational effusion was inflicted on the audience last Sunday evening in which the word “ wounds” occurred rather frequently, and whenever the reader came to the word lie gave it the rather extraordinary pronunciation of “ wownds,” evidently to the no small amusement of the audience. I understand that after a stay of a few weeks in Dunedin Mr Peebles and his clairvoyant travelling companion intend to take their departure for China.

The second season of the Opera Company has not been a very great success. Whether it is that the Dunedin public do. not appreciate the beauties of operatic music, or whether they hold the opinion that it is against their interest to patronise a class of performers who take large sums of money absolutely from the public circulation of the city iii whose prosperity they are most interested, I do not know. Probably both reasons weigh with them. Yet the latter seems to bo refuted by the crowded audiences which assemble to witness the performances of Madame Cora, the “female magician” who is performing at the Masonic Hall, and who is of course no more a permanent fixture in the community than the Opera Company. At the Queen’s to-morrow night Signor Cagli’s artistes give a concert of miscellaneous pieces, concluding with one of the acts of Lcs Huguenots. One of the features in the concert is a song by Signor Doudi in English—the “ Bay of Biscay.” On Saturday the company appear for the last time in Dunedin, the operas announced being, “Norma” and “The Barber of Seville.” There certainly ought to be a crowded house, for in their different styles these two operas are among the most enjoyable productions the operatic stage can give to its patrons. Following closely on the lamented death of the Rev. Mr Williams, the ranks of our ministry have suffered another loss in the decease of the Rev. Mr Alves, who until some few months since was minister of the Presbyterian congregation at Kaikorai. Failing health obliged him to give up his charge, and a few days ago he succumbed to the ravages of that most insidious disease, pulmonary consumption. Although but a comparatively short period among them, Mr Alves was much respected by his congregation, and the Synod showed their appreciation of his labours and of himself, b; } continuing him on the Sustcutatioa Fund during the period of his illness.

Handsome premises for the Union Bank are shortly to he erected on the vacant piece of land adjoining Messrs Arthur Briscoe and Co.’s fine warehouse. This will fill up tne onlv vacant niece of ground in Princes-stmt. and the new Bank will he another fine addition to the many excellent buildings which the main street of the city now contains, Messrs Driver, Stewart, and Co.’s wool store, a massive bluestone building near the Rat-trary-strect jetty, is being pushed on with. It is of immense size, and viewed from the bay will be quite a feature among the buildings of the city. There is rather a novel cricket match announced for Saturday afternoon, the players being members of the Opera troupe against a chosen eleven of the Princess Theatre dramatic company, the latter playing in theatrical dresses—Mr Hoskins as Ammadab Sleek, for example—while other well-known dramatic characters have their representatives. There will no doubt be a large number of spectators on the ground + o witness the match.