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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3061, 19 April 1881, Page 2

Mr F. Sutton and Captain Russell propose visiting Wairoa next week for the purpose of addressing their constituents in that district.

We hear that Mr J. G. Becker has sold out of his recent purchase of the Taupo Hotel to Messrs Noble Bros, at a satisfactory advance on the price he paid for the property. Mr Becker returns to town on Saturday.

In response to some enquiry we may state that Mr George Ellis, now on a visit to Auckland, has not resigned his seat in the Municipal Council for the reason that he has not determined to abandon Napier as a place of residence.

A general meeting of the Napier Rowing Club has been called for this evening for the purpose of deciding upon the prize to be given the winners of the inter-provincial match at the late regatta. A good attendance is requested.

The editor of the Poverty Bay Herald was hung in effigy, which was shot at with blank cartridge, at the Easter encampment of the Gisborne volunteers, for that gentleman's comments upon the establishment of a canteen at the camp. The pitiful sport afforded amusement to the civilian soldiery, but, we opine, it did not spoil the appetite of Mr J. Browne, who, we trust, will give back as good as he got with interest.

Major Routledge, commanding the district, Mr J. A. Smith, hon. sec. to the Hospital, and Mr W. Miller the gaoler, visited the hospital reserve to-day with the object of pitching upon a new site for the magazines. After examining the ground it was decided to remove them from the immediate neighborhood of the Hospital to the front entrance of the barracks. Mr Miller has received permission to employ prison labor for the excavation of the ground and removal of the present buildings to the new site.

At the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, William Bond was charged with drunkenness, but the police withdrew the charge, and the prisoner was discharged. Dugald McDonald was charged with lunacy, and remanded until Saturday for medical examination. William Goodwin was charged with assaulting and resisting the police in the execution of their duty, and fined £1 and costs, or seven days imprisonment. The same prisoner was charged with a breach of the peace, and fined £ 1 and costs, or seven days incarceration. The Court then adjourned.

The diorama of the American war opened last night at the Theatre Royal. There was a very good attendance, and the entertainment was a very enjoyable one. The scenes of the diorama are remarkably well painted, and depict many of the most remarkable scenes in the very eventful struggle. During an interval in the exhibition of the diorama Lieut. Hermann gave a most interesting and effective ventriloquial entertainment. Although apparently suffering from a severe cold, Lieut. Hermann succeeded in keeping the audience in continued roars of laughter at the vagaries of his peculiar friends who assist him in the entertainment. At the close of the diorama the distribution of gifts took place, many of them being of a valuable description. Lieut. Hermann promises some new illustrations of ventriloquism to-night.

Some ruffians are in the habit of opening the gates of paddocks and enclosures about the town and allowing horses to stray oat. ■Several complaints have been made of this kind of thing lately, where the gates have been deliberately lifted off, and the horses either driven or allowed to stray out. We trust the police will promptly make an example of anyone found indulging in this kind of larrikinism.

At the pigeon match which was held at Clive yesterday there was a good attendance, and all the events appear to have gone off satisfactorily. The Champion Stakes of £1 each was the first event, and brought out fifteen competitors. There were five ties, and in shooting off J. Jeff ares took first place, S. Hoden second, and J. O. Evett third. The second prize was a game bag of the value of 50s presented by Mr McVay. In the Grand Handicap of £1 each, with a gun of the value of £12 presented by Mr H. Williams as a second prize, there were fourteen entries._ There were several ties at the first Bhooting, but the first prize was ultimately won by L. Gibbon, and the second by J. Leonard. For the last event, called the Clive Stakes, there were seven entries, and Colonel White carried off the first prize, and Mr Danvers as second saved his stakes. Mr Ruddick, of the West Clive Hotel,, catered for the shooters and their friends, and gave every satisfaction.

The the Oddfellows' and Foresters' Lodges at Waipukurau was commemorated by a tea meeting and a ball held in the Waipukurau Town Hall on Monday evening. Over two hundred sat down to tea, after which the chairman, Mr W. C. Smith, made a few remarks pointing out the advantages of the two lodges having joined together, and thus made the meeting such a great success, thereby getting a good example. Unity was, more especially in a scattered district like Waipukurau, strength, and although under different titles, both lodges were working for . the same good object, which was to benefit their members. A very effective overture was then played by Messrs. C. Harding and S. Baddley, and songs were given by Messrs. Hartley, Wilding, Tattershall, and Wilson. Mr H. Wilding, on behalf of tho Foresters, and Mr M. Oollett, for the Oddfellows, gave a description of their different orders, and pointed out the advantages to be gained by joining them, especially in providing a fund in case of sickness or death. A most enjoyable evening was spent, and the meeting broke up after singing the National Anthem. A ball took place afterwards, the Town Hall being beautifully decorated for the occasion with flags, shrubs, flowers, &c. About sixty couples were present, and the dancing was kept up till an early hour. The committee formed from both lodges to carry out the arrangements must be congratulated on their success, everything having passed off satisfactorily.

The bulletins of the Academy of Soience at Munich contain a report of a discovery which has the highest interest for believers in the theory of evolution, and will, perhaps, be also lof practical value. Hans Buchner, well known as a skilful experimenter, has succeeded in transforming a microscopical kind of fungi, which is a dangerous agent of disease, into another kind of fungi which is perfectly harmless. He reached this result by a continuous treatment of the fungi for the space of six months, and by producing 1500 generations. In this manner he was able to transform those bacteria that cause " milzbrand" (the dreaded inflammation of the spleen), into the socalled " heupilze " (fungi of hay), which are harmless, and vice versa. And, even more, he produced an organism that forms a connecting link between the abovenamed fungi, and which was hitherto unknown. To give a detailed description of the experiment would take too long. We only mention two facts, which will show with what organisms the experiment was made. The hay fungi, such as can be produced in an infusion of hay, have such an enormous vitality that their life cannot be destroyed even by boiling th 6 liquid which contains them for hours, and each of these little beings is able to propagate itself and to produce ten generations per day.

The Times of Natal contains a very touching account, obtained from native sources by Mr OBborn, the British Resident in Zululand, of the memorable disaster at Isandula. Several new facta of great interest are mentioned, notably the discovery on the battle-field, of Lord Chelmford's written orders to Colonel Pulleine. The description of the stand made by ,( the last man" is full of pathos. "He struggled on and on, retreating higher and higher up the hill, till he reached a small cave or recesß in the rocks, into which he crept, and with his gun kept off the enemy. The ground in front of the little cave (which was pointed out to me) falls steeply down, and the Zulus, taking advantage of the rocks an_._stoneß scattered about, en-

deavoured, two or three at a time to approach and shoot him. The soldier, however, was very cool and wary, and invariably shot every Zulu as he appeared ; he did not blaze away hurriedly, but loaded quietly, took deliberate aim, and ' killed a man with every shot,' till at last the Zulus, being now very tired, a number of men, good shots, were brought up with guns, who fired simultaneously at the unfortunate man, and so killed him. This lasted far into the afternoon,' and the shadows were long on the hills' (probably about five p.m.) before this man, who, my informant said, was the last to die, met his fate."

[ It is a commonplace to say that a man's fame oftentimes comes too late for him to benefit by it, and a striking example of this truth may be seen in the present popularity of Berlioz s music. Eleven years after his death, Hector Berlioz, who earned far more money during his lifetime as a feuilletonist than as a musician, has come to be recognised as a genius. His " Damnation of Faust" created a tremendous furore last year, not only in England but in America, and his "Infancy of Christ," recently played in Manchester under the direction of Mr Charles Halle, is likely to create as great a sensation. An amusing story concerning Berlioz is told by Mr Dutton Cook in a recent number of Time. From this we learn that on the first production of Weber's " Der Freischutz " in Paris, a grocer had the temerity to hiss, and the composer's friends, among whom was Berlioz, removed the discontended man by main force. Some little time afterwards this same man was brought into a Parisian hospital, where he was recognised by a doctor who was present on the occosion of his being turned out of the theatre. The grocer died, and the doctor secured the body and carefully prepared the skeleton, articulating every bone. Years after a reaction took place in favor of Weber's music and " Der Freischutz " was produced on a scale of great magnificence, Berlioz being engaged to conduct the opera. A skeleton was needed for the incantation scene, and Berlioz hit upon the happy thought of borrowing the one in the doctor's possession, and thus by the grim irony of fate, all that was left of the man who had hissed the opera at its first _ production assisted to lend effect to the revival.

The building of a stable for twenty horses on the top of a private mansion, access to which is obtained by means of a lift, is calculated to awaken a feeling of astonishment even in these days of marvels. Yet this is the case on a house just erected in Belgrave Square, London, by Mr Sassoon. Ground is very valuable in that fashionable part of London.

The phrase, "It takes nine tailors to make a man," though used in contempt has an origin that does honour to the knights of the goose. In 1642 a homeless orphan lad applied for assistance at a fashionable London tailor's where nine journeymen were employed. The hoy's condition stirred the benevolence of the nine, who each gave him one shilling. With tMs slender capital the youth started in a flint business, and in time became very rich, and retired from trade. Then, instead of having a coat-of-arms, he emblazoned upon his spoons and panels, the grateful motto, " Nine tailors made me a man."

All of the recent Presidents of the United States, are said to have saved money. Mr Lincoln is spoken of as having laid by over 50,000d015. Johnson saved 60,000dob>. The salary in their time was only 25,000d01e, while it is now 50,000d015. Grant is generally supposed to have saved about 100,000 dols. He only had the increased salary for a small part of his term. Mr Haves is sup- w ._ posed to have lived on 10,000dols a year,, _• which will make his savings 160,000 at the~' close of his term.

Mr Grant, of Granton, recently threshed the produce of a field consisting of seven acres, sown with barley, which yielded about 560 bushels, or at the rate of Bfl to the acre. The yield of wheat was also large t being at the rate of 70 bushels. Tlu oat crop yielded 60 bushels, but a plant o£ wild mustard species largely interfered with the growth. This plant, which is called skilliack in the Home country, has been introduced into the Colony among imported grain, and should be carefully exterminated by farmers before seeding otherwise it ia certain to become a very troublesome weed.

In Paris, children's parties are pretention, affairs. The decorations and toilets are made as prominent features and as elaborate as among older society followers. At one of the children's balls was a ohild of eleven decked in hundred? of pounds' worth of diamonds, and a toilet of lace worth a hundred pounds, with a gossamer fan mounted in turquoise and pearls. vVhere all should be joy, life and light in this youthful crowd, there are the same rivalries, heart-burnings and envious feelings that embitter and spoil the pleasure of older hearts.

It has always been the fashion to regard r Lord Beaconsfield as the impersonification of philosophical calm, in respect to his indifference to attacks, whereas his works and speeches offer abundant evidence that there have been few men more spiteful; he " nourishes his wrath to keep it warm." The ill-natured hit at Thackeray in the chaiacter of St. Barbe, is not only altogether unworthy of Lord Beaconsfield, and. in every way discreditable and reprehensible, but it gives a most unfair and misleading idea of the great novelist. This is the " illustrious author's" method of replying, after near forty years, to " Codlingsby," Thackeray's inimitable skit of " Coningsby," in which Sidonia's pompous absurdities were so mercilessly satirised.

It is satisfactory to know that the pest of the farmers—green and grey linnets—can be successfully exterminated without muoh trouble. For a series of yearß Mr Jaffray, of Saddle Hill, has been greatly tormented by clouds of these birds descending upon his newly-sown fields, uprooting the young plants. When the corn was ripening, thousands descended and attacked the ears, leaving the stalk as if threshed by the windr The remedy is this:—Dissolve a lady's thimble full of strychnine in a small portion, of spirits of Baits, mix with 101b of wheat and oats, and sprinkle over the fields. By these means Mr Jaffray has reduced nooks of thousands to a few straggling birds, bo that farmers troubled with these birds may depend upon the remedy being effectual.

A notice which appeared in the police orders a few days ago mentions the grantT of a gratuity of £2 to Constable Maguire, 90 H, for special gallantry in saving life from a burning house in Whiteohapel. When Maguire arrived on the pcene the fire was carrying all before it; but, hearing there was someone on the first floor, he rushed through thesmoke and flame and rescued a "woman and carried her in his arms down to the street. The fresh air revived her, and she then told her preserver that her husband was lying on a bed in the room they had just quitted. Maguire thereupon returned to the blazing building, forced his way through thicker flames and smoke than he had faced before, and brought the man down in safety. It was just barely accomplished in time, for the gallant constable was almost suffocated by the smoke, and badly scorched. This case is to be recommended to the Royal Humane Society.

The diorama of the American war and distribution of gifts to-night at the Theatre Royal at 8.

Special meeting of the Te Mata ratepayers to-morrow at 3 p.m. Special meeting of Napier Rowing Club to-night at Criterion Hotel at 8. , Messrs Banner and Liddle will sell to* morrow oranges, &c., at noon. Mr E. Lyndon will sell to-morrow land dn township of Thurston, Fiji, at 2 p.m. Messrs Kennedy and Gttllman will sell to* morrow sections in Hastings, at noon.

Tenders for Waipawa library close at 4 p.m. to-morrow. Tenders for gymnasium at Te Aute close i to-morrow.

Mr G. Faulknor has for sale a trap mare.

Dividend warrants of the South British Insurance Company on application to Mr E. Lyndon. Mr E. Lyndon will sell, on Thursday, hosiery, &c. Mr W. Routledge will sell, on Thursday, limestone.

Messrs H. Monteith and Co. have draught horses, &c, for private sale. Additions to our " Wanted " column will be found.