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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2981, 14 January 1881, Page 2

We remind members of the Napier Rowing Club of their general meeting this evening at the Criterion Hotel for the purpose of electing a match committee. The adjourned meeting of the Municipal Council to consider Cr. McKay's motion re rescinding Mr Marchant's appointment, takes place in the Council Chamber at 8 o'clock this evening.

The Registrar of Dogs (Sergeant Mahon) has taken out summonses against eightyone persons for a breach of the Dog Registration Act, 1880, that is for not having registered their dogs.

We learn that Court Robin Hood, A.O:F.,have given instructions to Mr Selig to manufacture a medal. We have to-day inspected it in its unfinished state, and can prophecy that it will be an excellent piece of workmanship.

It will be seen by our telegrams that the San Francisco mail will have arrived at Auckland this afternoon, as the Rotomahana has been detained for the southern portion of the mails, we may expect our English letters and papers here on Sunday afternoon.

Mr Gordon, who was at one time accountant in tbe Napier branch of the Colonial Bank, and who for a considerable time was manager of the Oamaru branch, is about to proceed to Christchurch, where he will take charge, and Mr Milne, from Dunedin, will succeed Mr Gordon in Oamaru.

The Artillery Band will perform the following programme in front of the Fire Brigade station this evening at 8 o'clock: — Quick step, " Tell me Ma*y; " Lancers, " Les Voltigeurs de la 32eme ; " Waltz, "TIBacio;" Pchottische, "Right round about; " Galop, " Royal Squadron ; " " God save the Queen. " The members of the band meet at 7.45 p.m.

In the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, before Mr Batham, J.P., William Henry Young and Patrick Wheelan, convicted of drunkenness, were fined 5s each, or 48 hours impriconement. John Henry Scott, charged with the same offence, did not appear when called upon, and his bail of £1 was ordered to be estreated. This was all the business before the Court.

We were shown to-day some excellent seed peas at Mr Miles' greengrocer's shop, Hastings-street, that were arrown from imported seed by Mr J. Goddard, nurseryman, in his garden at Havelock. Mr Goddard has established a name for good and true seed, and in buying from his agents, Mr Miles in town, and Mr Gillett in Waipawa, purchasers may make pretty certain of growing what they sow.

We learn that the first block of land yet offered in the Parihaka district proper will be placed in the market in the course of a few days. The block to be offered for sale is situated nearly opposite the Parihaka native settlement, and extends from Cape Egmont northwards to the Wairau river. It iB on the sea coast, lying seaward of the constabularly main road, and contains about 5000 acres. The block is one of those recently surveyed in tho Parihaka territory according to the advice of the West Coast Royal Commission.

A dreadful calamity has been averted by the election of Mr Wall to a seat in the Muncipal Council. We were solemnly assured by Cr. McKay yesterday that, in the event of Mr Ashton being elected, he himself would resign, together with Cr. de Lisle and His Worship the Mayor. This would indeed have been a fearful misfortune ; but, had we thought it would have occurred, we should have worked veiy hard to have brought it about. Few things would have caused us more satisfactic n than the selection of three ratepayers to thka the places of Messrs Vautier, de Lisle, and McKay, in the Corporation.

The bazaar at Wairoa in aid of funds to build a Roman Catholic Church is a great success. Over £100 is expected to bo realized. One of the great features in Professor Haselmayer's entertainment is the performance of his astonishingly trained canaries, of which the Press say*:— "The brisrht, chirruping little birds walked, ran, flew, slept, sat, oV-dient to the word of command from their tender owner. They sat on sofas, shammed being dead, were shot from pistols on to the points of swords, and disappeared from recesses in the stage to appear instantaneously in the cage suspended in the centre of the hall; and then the white performing mice—how the children roared and almost ? -creamed with delight as the tiny quadrupeds ran up poles to pull down flag.«, walked tight rope, and drew and rode in carriages." The children of Havelock and Clive met together yesterday in a paddock at Havelock for their annual treat. The morning was wet and showery, and threatened to spoil the anticipated holiday, and accounted for the small attendance of thoße living at a distance; but, fortunately, the weather cleared about noon, and nearly two hundred children, with their parents and friends, assembled to enjoy the feast of good things provided for them. There was also a sale of articles of needlework made, and contributed by some of the ladies in the district, and some valuable water-colour drawings, the kind gift of a visitor in the parish. The proceeds of the sale of the various contributions are for the enlargement of S. Luke's Church, Havelock. The children entered heartily into the usual amusements, and did not separate until past seven.

A sad accident occurred yesterday at Clive, by which William Caldwell, who had been for some time in the employment of Mr Lascelles, engaged in filling up some swamp, came by his death. It appears that he was missing longer than usual on one of his journeys to the swamp, and search was made for him by Constable Motley and a fellow-workman of the unfortunate man's. The body of Caldwell was found in a ditch, underneath his horse and cait, and quite dead. It is supposed that the horse had got bogged in a portion of the swamp, and in its efforts to extricate itself had rolled over into the ditch, falling upon Caldwell. The deceased leaves a widow and nine children, and an adopted child. His life was not insured in any way. The inquest takes place this afternoon at 4 o'clock at Clive, and the funeral will leave deceased's late residence at West Clive at 1 o'clock p.m. to-morrow for the Napier cemetery.

If the requirements of advertisers go on varying at their present rate, races of beings now unknown will have to be sought for to meet them. For instance, one gentleman, evidently in search of a novelty, recently advertised for a " circular sawyer." Another desired to secure " marble polisher," while yet another was anxious to secure " a galvanized iron-worker." Whether they obtained what they required has not transpired. It is only a few days ago, too, that a reward was offered for " a silver dog's collar" that was lost. And very frequently one sees the words, "If this should meet the eve." Just as if the person advertised for had only one eye. This class of advertisement reminds one of a man in London who announced himself as " John Williams, gasholder and boilermaker."

A very unusual case (says the Maitland Mercury) occurred at the Court of Quarter Sessions last week. One of the prisoners arraigned was a man who was deaf and dumb. In addition to the above affliction he was a foreigner, and could not hold any communication with anybody save by signs. He was committed at Muswellbrook, and an educated mute was procured to communicate with him, but was unable to do so. The prisoner had been taken into the employ of J- H. Keys, of Bengalla, as a matter of charity, and requited the act by appropriating some of his employer's valuables—at least that Is what he was charged with doing. It was explained that the prisoner knew that he had done wrong, and knew what he was in custody for, but it was also acknowledged that he could not hear nor understand the case against him. Under these circumstances the jury were separately sworn to determine three questions, which they answered as follows :— That prisoner was mute by visitation of God ; that he was not able to plead to the indictment; he had not sufficient intellect to comprehend the course of proceedings at the trial, so as to make a proper defence. Those answers having been given, the prisoner was ordered to be detained in custody at the pleasure of his Excellency the Governor. That was the course laid down by the law books.

The extent to which carelessness can go (writes the author of " Passing Notes " in the Otago Withess) is illustrated by two stories, both well-known elsewhere, but I think not as yet in circulation here. A certain M.H.H. was away from home, and his father noticed a blight upon the figtrees. Off he goes asking for white arsenic. Enter to him the station cook with much white powder in a flour dredger. In course of time the M.H.R. returns, eats many figs, and tells his father that they were dusty, and had a curious taste. Will anyone paint the scene of distress that followed ? First the victim swallowed the whites of ten eggs, then a quart of milk ; finally he was persuaded to swallow the end of a welloiled indiarubber tube. Into the other end of this a funnel enabled them to pour pint after pint of warm water, and so most effectually remove all the suspected poison. Pile up the agony, dear reader! It was only baking powder after all, which the cook had supplied by mistake for arsenic ; Here is story number two. A jovial divine' had been poisoning sparrows with strychnine, which he carried loose (!) in one of his bulgiug waistcoat pockets. Turning into a wayside inn, he was requested to preside at dinner. He said grace, and began to carve. When he had helped ten men he saw white specks in the grayy —he also observed his waistcoat pocket gaping and bulging. " Gentlemen," he began, " I have done what admits of no apology, still less of any delay. Mustard!" In a trice those who had eaten were engaged in swallowing a mixture that soon relieved them of the superfluous matter, and—what is worse— their dinner. These true stories need no moral.

One of tbe most brilliant soldiers of the day has just passed away in the person of General Yon Goeben. His career was a singularly adventurous one; in fact, he might in some respects be termed a soldier of Fortune. In was in "piping times of peace " that Yon Goeben got his first commission. His ambitious spirit longed for c more btirring field of action than the barrack room or the parade-ground, and hence, in 1836, he offered his sword to Don Carlos, and fought in Spain till, in 1840, the master be served became the representative of a " lost cause." The perils he had undergone, the daring adventures he had met with, might have furnished him with abundant material for a picturesque history of the Carlist War. _ The youthful officer, however, wrote a painstaking, scientific account of Lis experiences, and when his work attracted the attention of the Government he was appointed to the Prussian General Staff. After that his rise was steady, till in 1858 he became Chief of the Staff at Coblentz. In 186>, oddly enough, he fought in the Army of the_ Main against his own brother, then in the service of Hanover, now an Infantry Brigadier in the Prussian army. In the FrancoPrussian war he became a popular hero with the soldiery on account of his daring attack on the French position at Saarbruck; and at Gravelctte he fought with remarkable pentinacity and dogged pluck. But the great achievement of his career was his exploit in the North of France, where he was sent to dispose of the Republican Engineer, General Faidherhe. The latter can fairly claim that, considering the poor material of which his raw levies were composed, he proved himself to be an antagonist so formidable that with fewer odds against him he would most likely have beaten the oelebrated German commmander.

Yon Goeben, however, by sheer force of numbers, shattered Fraidherbe's forces at St. Quentin, thus rendering the relief of Paris from the north hopeless. Yon Goeben was one of the cleverest of the new school of German strategists. He was an excellent specimen of the scientific Boldier. He was 64 yeara of age.

The expulsion of the monks of Grande Chartreuse from France must be considered as nothing less than a financial disaster The poor of the district in which they have hitherto carried on the manufacture of their famous liqueur will, by their departure, not only lose some hundreds of thousands of francs, but the revenues of the country will be prejudiced to the extent of over 1,200,000 fraiics, which have hitherto been drawn every year in taxes from the monastery. The fathers are said to have bought a property in Switzerland, and to be about to establish in the Helvetian Republic all the plant and other requisites for carrying on the distillery of the famous liqueur. Whether the herbs of which, it has hitherto been made will be found with equal ease in the new domain is perhaps a little uncertain. But it is probable that the monks havo chosen with the skill of their race a spot in which these products of the soil are suitable for their purpose, and will enable them still to work out their invaluable recipe.

An incident of a startling character occurred on the trip of the Czar's yacht Liviadia from the Clyde to Brest. A man engaged as a stoker was asked on the second night out to hold an electric lamp that was being swung for lighting the stokehole. Ho incautiously touched the wire with one of his hands, and with the other oompleted the current by grasping the brass rod surrounding the lamp. The force of the current struck him down dead. All efforts to revive him were unavailing, and the disintegration of the tissues of the body was found next day to he so great that it was felt necessary to bury him at sea. The ornate ritual of the Greek Church that added to the striking character of a ceremony, could not fail to be unusually impressive. The service was couducted by the ships chaplain in black robes, and the refrains were chanted by the dead man's shipmates. Admiral Popoff and the officers joined in carrying the bier to the main deck, and the chanting was continued till the body was committed to the sea.

The remark has been made frequently that great wealth does not always confer happiness; and how truly does it apply in the case of Baroness Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, who has wealth enough to stagger the imigination of the maker of an Eastern romance. Sixty-six years of age, this lady appears to have decided to add one drop more to what to many would appear a full cup of happiness by marrying a young Anglo-American member of Parliament. All the eloquence in the world would be wasted in the attempt to show that he was not desirious of marrying for money; nor can it be satisfactorily shown that she was not the victim of an old maid's foolish fancy, which popularly Las been supposed to rest on cats and canaries. The Baroness, it is almost needless to say, besides being what, looking at from a marital point of view, may be called full of years, is full of honor. In her way, she has been an empress. She founded and endowed three colonial bishoprics; schools and establishments, the name of which is legion, were created by her; and her charities were simply unbounded. It is a matter for regret that the shade of so useful a life should have been clouded by this rumour of marriage, which, one will be pleased to hear, is not to take place.