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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2987, 21 January 1881, Page 2

We would remind our readers of the exhibition of dissolving views with the limelight at St. John's school-room this evening.

The Municipal Council meet this evening at the usual time and place. We anticipate that the appointment of a Borough Engineer will be definitely settled.

Messrs H. Monteith and Co. will sell at the Horse Bazaar to-morrow a quantity of racing and other well bred stock. The catalogue will be found in another column.

The New Zealand Clothing Factory announce tha' they have received several special lines, which they are selling at marvellously low prices. They invite inspection of the same.

A meeting of the creditors of Thomas Reynolds, of Havelock, was tohave been held to-day, but at the appointed hour there was not a sufficient number present to enter upon the business. We are, therefore unable to give a report.

We learn, from Wellington that Mr Rolleston assumes permanent charge of tho Native and Defence Department. He also retainß his other portfolios until the vaoaney in the Ministry is filled up, when he will be relieved of one of them.

Mr Lousdale mast have made money on the purchase of the right of the gates at the races, a3 we heard he had taken on the first day more than the amount ho paid, and would, therefore, have a considerable sum to the good by yesterday's attendance.

The Lydia Howarde Company will arrive in Napier to-morrow by the Ringarooma, and open at the Theatre Royal on Monday evening in Colville's musical extravaganza entitled " Robinson Crusoe." The Southern papers speak very highly of this piece and the performers.

A feature of the Racing Club's 'meeting worthy of notice was the entire absenoe of anything like rowdyism on the course, and also the marked sobriety pie vailing amongst the large concourse of people gathered on the ground. The duties of fcergeant O'Malleyand his staff of constables were thus rendered very light indeed.

To prevent any misapprehension on the subject, Mr W. Douglas desires us to state that it was not his well-known horse Harkaway which was disqualified yesterday by the racing Club. The horse that has been banned for ever on the Racing Club'b course, together with his owner and rider, ran in the Hack Flat Race, and belongs to a Mr Cant.

Mr F. M. Ollivier, of the firm of Messrs Travers and Ollivier, barristers, Wellington, has addressed a letter to tho Town Clerk on the subject of Mr N. Marchant'a appointment as borough engineer. Mr Ollivier states that he will sue, on behalf of his client, the Corporation for substantial damages, but trusts that the Counoil will render an action unnecessary.

Mr F. W. Collins, jeweller, of Emersonstreet, has lately had his shop considerably enlarged, and now announces that he has received a large consignment of the latest novelties, in jewellery, watches, clocks, etc. From a personal inspection of the enlarged premises we can confidently say that Mr Collins has a jewellery shop equal to any other in the town, and we hope that his enterprise will meet with the success it deserves.

The stewards of tbe Racing Club held a meeting last night to consider the protest entered against Mr Murtagh, who rode the winner of the Ladies' Purse, as a gentleman rider. Mr W. H. Jones, who rode Tare, and who entered the protest, has been allowed till to-morrow evening to produce his evidence in support of Mr Murtagh being a professional rider. In the event of the protest being sustained the stakes will go to Tare.

By the courtesy of T. Tanner, Esq., the inhabitants of Petane have to-day been furnished with a small supply of trout for the Petane river, than which there is no better for the purpose in Hawke's Bay. This, we are well assured, is only the first detachment, and we hope to see it well supplemented next year. But for Mr Tanners visit on his way to the goldfields at Mohaka we might have remained sometime lunger in the cold.

We hear that Mr M. Farley has purchased Mr Farrar's property at Meanee, and intends taking up his residence there. Mr Farley, we understand, has only recently arrived in the colony. He is the owner of Angler, the horse that won tbe Ladies' Purse on Wednesday ; he has purchased Mr Murtagh's racing stud, and purposes making the breeding of racehorses his business. Mr Farley will be a most desirable settler.

His Excellency the Governor held a dress levee at Auckland yesterday, which was fairly attended. We learn that a number of Maori chiefs who wished to attend were very much disappointed at their inability to do so through the absence of dress clothes. They were desirous of being presented to the new Governor and had the same clothes they appeared in before Governor Robinson, but they said they would not go to be laughed at, as they had no dress coats.

There have been so many serious accidents lately at out-door publio gatherings that the Kacing Club may be congratulated that, at their annual meeting, nothing of any consequence occurred to mar the enjoyment of the holidays. The only accident happoncd to a b-oy in the employment of Mr Heslop, who, in the saddling paddock, received a nasty kick on the back of the knee from a horse. The boy was attended by Dr Hitchings, who, as far as possible, relieved the little fellow's sufferings.

We learn that the Government reforms now contemplated will proceed on the general lines laid down in the Royal Commissioner's report on the Civil Service last year. On completing their tour of the colony, Messrs Batkin and Seed will report to the Government the result of their investigations and on such report, coupled with that of the Civil Service Commission, the full and final scheme of Civil Service reorganization promised last session by the present Ministry will in all probability be based. It may fairly be supposed that the report, when forthcoming, will show the utmost extent to which retrenchment, amalgamation generally can be carried in our Civil Service without deterioration of its usefulness.

The outrigger pair-oared matches of the Napier Rowing Club will be rowed tomorrow afternoon on the inner harbor, weather permitting. There were five crews entered, but owing to the indisposition, of the stroke of one only four crews will come to the post. The first heat will be rowed between Messrs Gilberd (10st 101b) and Brooking (list) and Bogle (9st 13lb) and Sheath (9st 121b), and the second heat will be between Messrs Tabuteau (list 51b) and F. Kennedy fllst 71b) and J. Begg (lOst lib) aud F. Parker (9st 101b). The winners of the first and second heats will row off, and the winner of the final heat will receive as first prize the silver sculls presented by Mr Balfour, and the other crew will take the seoond prize, a brace of medals presented by the Club. The first race will start at 3 p.m. sharp.

Monday has been appointed the F6'fling day for the Hawke s Bay Racing Club's meeting.

Paintings on hat brims is the newest freak of fashion. The Countess de Paris was the first to have the coat of arms painted on her bonnet and strings, and now some of the Velasquez shaped black felt hats are elaborately ornamented with flowers, birds, and butterflies painted by the best Parisian artists

The Otago Witness says: —" A rumour is abroad that we are shortly to be visited by Mrs Maxwell, or, as she is more generally known, Miss Braddon. This clever novelist has, owing partly to her husband's help as a publisher, made a handsome fortuno through her pen. Her first essay in the art of literature was that famous work, " Lady Audley's Secret," published in an unknown halfpenny work of fiction. The honorarium she received for this, one of t the best novels of our time, amounted to the magnificent sum of £10. It was a case similar to that of Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe and " Uncle Tom's Cabin," which, after much perseverance on the part of its authoress, originally found a publisher in tho proprietor of an insignificant American newspaper. Mrs Stowe's remuneration for a work almost as widely read as the Bible, was 15d015.,

Napier is not the only Corporation in the colony which is m debt and difficulty. The Otago Witness nays : —" The finances of the Dunedin Corporation are in a deplorable condition, apparently. The municipal account is overdrawn at the Bank of New Zealand £10,039 os 8d ; there is a deficit in the waterworks account of £1491 6s 7d (providing for £900 worth of plant ordered; and a deficit in the gas account of £2427 17s (providing for £2050 worth of plant ordered and £1000 worth of buildings intended to be erected. '1 he Council may borrow to the extent of a single year's revenue ; but, as Councillor Fish pointed out, the ordinary revenue is just about sufficient to meet the ordinary expenditure. He also quoted a clause of the Act for the information of councillors, which provides that in the event of borrowing illegally the councillors shall be personally liable for the amount of such illegal loans."

France is much agitated just now by the expulsions of those members of the religious bodies which havo omitted or refused to submit to the Government, and thus obtain the necessary authorisation. Hear what Mr Bradlaugh says respecting this matter : —" As a politician I regret these expulsions ; they are impolitic. As a Freethinker I regret the expulsions still more; they are utterly opposed to the liberty we Freethinkers claim. As a Republican I can hardly find words strong enough to condemn the expulsions. I believe the Roman Catholic Church to he the persistent and unvarying foe of all progress, social, political and religious, but my weapons against this Church are limited to the weapons whioh I think fair and just against myself. I deny the right by law to punish opinion. I deny the right to put penalties either on its utterance in press, on platform, or by any other fashion of teaching. I think the monastic and conventual institutions gave mischiefs in every State, but they are mischiefs to be cured by reason. Expulsion of ideas by force is impossible; the attempt defeats itself. Some persons may be expelled, but others of the same oreed, acting more secretly or less hone&tly, are strengthened in their propaganda."

The Duchess of Marlborough refused to marry again, accompanying her refusal with the solemn declaration that her husband occupied so much of her heart she had no room for another. The lovely daughter of Curran refused to marry after the execution of her patriotic lover, Robert Emmet, and at last, " like a lily drooping, bowed her head and died." Recently there has been a more touching instance of this womanly devotion. One morning, forty years ago, a Miss Elizabeth Cook, residing in tbe suburbs of New York, was dressed in her bridal garments ready for the uiamag'o ceremony. A disagreement arose with her lover at the last moment, and they parted, never to meet again. The lady, all those forty years, kept her pangs of sorrow secret from every ear. Kecently she died, and as she lay in her coffin, she was dressed precisely as she would have gone to the altar. There they were—the silken garments, veil, wreath, and shoes. The saddest of all was the shrivelled wreath ; but perhaps its faded fceauty best suited tbe winter of her life, and best illustrated the dead hopes of forty years ago. Every article, even the linen, had been religiously preserved. This melancholy romance of one heart is the romance of many, but the world knows nothing of them.

The Nation (New York) says the present agitation in Ireland, horrible as some of its features are has not been in vain. The Irish land question has in consequence of it received through the English Press a more thorough discussion than ever before. This discussion will not be as useful to the Ministry in Parliament when they attempt to deal with the land question next year as it would have been if there had been no outrages ; but on the other hand, there is mnch reason to fear that without the outrages the discussion would not have been so thorough. The Irishman has had such abundant experience of the failure of his eloquenceito bring Englishmen tojanadequate sense of his wrongs, that he is under a constant temptation to supplement the speeches with crime, and unfortunately this does undoubtedly impress the English public. They are not moved by the hypberboles and picturesque similes in which Irish grievances are usually dressed up, but murder and arson they understand and are aroused by. O'Connell sternly repressed "outrages" and denounced all violence during the repeal agitation, but he accomplished nothing-. Turbulence and violence have led to the righting of some Irish wrongs; nothing else has done so. Such is the lesson with which the history of the country for the last century has furnished the Irish peasant, and it is not surprising that he acts on it.

The Pall Mall Gazette says :— " The Scotch divines are at present discussing a very fine point, namely, the amount of insincerity that is legitimate in subscribing assent to their confession of faith. It ap-. pears that on assuming their offices they declare publicly that they ' sincerely own and believe' the ' whole doctrine ' of the confession, and ' renounce all doctrines, tenets, and opinions whatsoever contrary to or inconsistent with the said doctrine.' It might be thought that this formed a wall high enough and thick enough to keep out the boldest heretic, but several of the Edinburgh divinity professors seem to have got a whole procession of coaches-and-six through it the other day with perfect ease. Acoording to these gentlemen the ' whole doctrine merely means a good deal of tho doctrine, the remainder, in short, after deducting what they call the ' non-essentials.' Asked what are the " non-essentials,' they tell us that they are those doctrines which do not form a necessary part of the 'system.' Asked what the ' system ' is, they inform us that it is what each subscriber regards in his own mind as the system ; aud if one thinks the system to be one thing, and the other thinks it to he something entirely different, the divinity professor assures us that it is of no consequence, for ' Who is authoritatively to judge between those two men, and say to the one " Ycu are right, and to the other, "You are wrong P After this it was scarcely necessary to express a disbelief 'that every minister who was not ultra orthodox was going about with a conscience burdened and troubled with a sense of a broken vow. Why should he, if his vow means whatever and however little he chooses to regard it as meaning P Only we should advise the divinity professors not to interpret any other of their contracts in this way, as the other party might not always be satisfied to accept their view."

The Tablet has the following from its Roman correspondent regarding the views expressed by the Pope to the Irish prelates on their visit to Rome regarding the state of affairs in Ireland:—" Ireland, they said, was at no period of history more loyal than

at present to Rome, nor were the Irish eve. more attentive in the discharge of their religious and ehristian'duties. Leo XIII then asked concerning the land agitation in Ireland, and expressed his hope that no crimes would be committed by the people. The prelates remarked that very few crimes had been committed in Ireland, and that most of the crimes which had been perpetrated were not traceable to agarian causes. Agitation was the usual method employed under the British Constitution to obtain redress of grievances. By agitation the great measures of Catholic emancipation, the abolition of tithes, the Reform Bill, the corn laws, &c. had been effected, and they earnestly hoped by agitation to obtain from the British Parliament in its next session the passing of a land bill which would give security in their holdings to Irish tenants, and also give satisfaction to all parties interested in the settlement of the land question. To these • declarations of the bishops his Holiness listened attentively, and, after asking information in detail on several points, said, with much solemnity : " There are two things which, in regard to this agitation in Ireland, weigh upon my • mind as all important. The first is the conservation of the Catholic faith in Ireland, but on this point I confess I feel the less anxiety when I reflect on the marvellous way in whioh the Catholic faith has hitherto been maintained in your country." The past is a pledge for the future, and I am convinced that the Irish, faith will never ialter. The second is the union between the priests and the people, so as to exclude all revolutionary principles. As long as the Catholic priests and bishops continue to lead the people, I have no fear that socialistic or communistic notions will take root in Ireland, and I therefore charge upon you to do your utmost to keep out principles which lead to violence and evil, and to preserve union among yourselves as prelates, and harmony between the people and the priests." The bishops replied that there was at present no question of revolution in Ireland, and that they sought for nothing save what could be obtained by legal and constitutional means. They wished to force on the British Government the necessity of making a substantial change in the relations between landlords and tenants, relations whioh have been for centuries productive of disasters and discontent. The priests and the people were acting together in full accord, and were determined by constitutional agitation to obtain redress of their wrongs. The Pope expressed his full approval of the sentiments of the bishops, and his desire to see them again before they left Rome.