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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3665, 13 April 1883, Page 2

There was a clean charge-sheet presented in the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning. Professor Hugo gave a lecture on Physiognomy at Taradale last night, and was favored with a good house. To-night he lectures in the district school-house, Spit. The Loyal Hastings Lodge of Oddfellows has voted £2 to tho Hospital building fund "iv recognition of the kindness and attention shown to members of that lodge by Dr Menzies." Dr. Hector is expected in town to-night from Taupo. Mr E. H. Bold, inspector of telegraphs for the East Coast district, :'» also returning by the mail coach this evening from Taupo. The appointment of the following postmasters in this district is gazetted:—Mataniiiu, A. Birnie ; Onga Onga, I. G. Macfarlane; Ormondville, J. W. Douglas; Rissington, AA r . AVilliams; Taupo, C. J. Norton. The new waterworks engine has now been got into good working order, and regular pumping was begun yesterday, when by the evening fourteen inches depth of water was reported in tho high-level reservoir. Cr. Margoliouth has given notice to move at the next meeting of the Municipal Council, "That the Town Clerk be instructed to sue for all rates unpaid ou the first day of May next, without respect of persons." The amount of general rates unpaid to the Corporation of Napier is as follows: — On the year ending April 21, 1881, £79 ; April, 1882, £350; April, 1883, £1407, but this last rate does not end till the 24th instant. Total general rates outstanding, £1820; special rates, £913; grand total, £2739. In the election of a member to fill the seat at the Education Board rendered vacant by the resignation of Mr G. E. Lee, tho School Committees have two candidates already in the field. Mr D. Guy lias pronounced himself strongly as an advocate for the maintenance of the present educational system, and Mr Thomas Tanner is equally pronounced in favor of the Bible in schools. Tli ere was a good attendance of members and visitors present at the weekly meeting of the Napier Mutual Improvement Association last evening, when a debate took place on the question, " Has the modem stage a moral tendency." The subject having been, opened a spirited discussion ensued, and on a vote being taken the affirmative side of the question was carried by a majority of one. AA r e tire authorised to state that for the future all information relative to the movements of the Union Company's steamer can be obtained only at the Company's offices in Napier and Port Ahuriri, and that tho notice boards will be discontinued that have hitherto been placed at various places of business in town. This course is taken to avoid any cause of complaint in respect to correct inform;ttion. The adjourned meeting of the AVaipawa County Council, which was to have been held yesterday, was again adjourned for want of ti quorum. Only three councillors put in an apperance, a telegram being received from a fourth stating that he was too unwell to attend the sitting of the Council. No doubt the inclemency of the weather has prevented the councillors from attending. The only business done by the councillors present was to instruct the clerk to invite applications for the position of a road overseer to the Council, Mr Mackay having served his connection with the Council. The shark caught on AVednesday afternoon by the crew of the Sir Donald attracted a large number of visitors yesterday at its place of exhibition, an outbuilding of the Occidental Hotel. The monster measured twelve feet in length, and is of the species Lamnu. Glance, or Tiger shark, called by the Maoris Ma ho. It has two rows of thirteen teeth on each side, large, fiat, erect, and serrated. It is from this shark the natives obtain tho teeth with which they decorate their cars. The species is common at the Cape of Good Hope and Japan, but rather rare in New Zealand. It was dissected last night, the only thing found in its stomach being a small mullet. Mr Gillott has had it stuffed, and it will be on view for it few days longer. A valedictory meeting was held in the Port Presbyterian Church hist evening on the occasion of the departure from the district of Mr David D. Rodger, who for some two years past has conducted the services of the Meanee and Port churches. There was a large attendance of Mr Rodger's friends and well-wishers present, the Roy. D. Sidey occupying the chair. The chairman paid a graceful tribute to the zeal and usefulness "of Mr Rodger, who he said had done good work in the district. Addresses were also given by Revs. J. J. Lewis, E. 0. Perry, and S. Douglas. At intervals the choir rendered several anthems in a creditable manner, and solos were given by Miss Kennedy, Miss Donholm, and Mr Reel ward. Not the least pleasing part of the evening's programme was the presentation to Mr Rodger of a handsome marble clock, also a solid silver butter-dish accompanied with a £5 note, the former being from the Port and the latter from the Meaneo congregation. Mr Rodger suitably acknowledged the gifts, and expressed regret at parting from so many kind friends. The proceedings concluded with the usual votes of thanks. AYe lcam that Mr Rodger's successor will be the Rev. Mr Dick, who is expected to commence his duties here on the last Sunday iv this month. Mr Rodger proceeds to the lintt, where he will be employed under the supervision of the AVcllington Presbytery. A telegram from AVelliugton informs us that Miss Jennie Lee's dramatic company have just concluded a most successful "run" there with "Jo" and "The Grasshopper," and were to leave for Napier to-day per Rotomahana As the steamer from the South will arrive here early tomorrow forenoon the company Avill bo enabled to open at the Theatre Royal the same evening. The season, as already announced, will commence with the production of Mr Burnett's adaptation of Dickens' novel Bleak House, entitled "Jo." Tho following is a brief outline of the play:— Taking the street Arab, Jo, for the central iigurc, the interest of the piece is confined to the episode of Lady Dedlock and the results of her unhappy love. The characters of Sir Leicester Dedlock, Lady Dedlock, Mr Tulkinghorn, Mr Guppy, Mr Snagsby, Hortense, and Mr Chadband forming the subordinate figures in tho incidents produced, while the character of Inspector Bucket lends additional interest to them. The first scene is the inquest on tho lawwriter, the second is the reception of Esther by Guppy, the third Lady Dedlock at home when she hears from the lawyer of tho death of the unknown, the fourth her ladyship disguised, seeking for Jo to show her certain places connected with the deceased, and tho Jifth her arrival at the said places, cud her parting with, tho Arab. 'Sim last

scene, with Jo at the gate of the graveyard, finishes the first act. In th 3 second division of the play we find the family lawyer raking up evidence against the wife of his client, y the opening scene being lightened by the introduction of Mr and Mrs Snagsby and Mr Chadband. Soon _ poor " Jo " has painful experience of moving on. This act ends with the confession of Lady Dedlock to Esther, and the murder of. Tulkinghorn by the French lady's-maid. The third act contains the revelation of truth to Sir Leicester by Bucket, the arrest of the lady's-maid, and the delivery of the news ofLadyDedloek's death. The rest of the piece i> devoted to the progress of "Jo," earring him towards the end of his troubles, and ending in a most pathetic death-scene in the neighborhood of "Tom Allalone's." The enthusiastic reception Miss Lee has always received for the wonderful creation of this character cannot be summed up in a few words, and the most remarkable proof of its success is the fact that she has played this character over 3000 times. The Maoris (says the Auckland Herald) are rapidly advancing in the arts of civilisation. One of the latest instances in point is that of a Maori gentleman who stands near the South British Insurance buildings and waylays the passers-by, with a request to speak to them, and pulls out of his pocket a subscription list for a new church. Some endeavor to lead him off with a statement that they have no money on them, but he quickly produces a pencil and asks them to put their names down ou the list. In exhibiting the subscription list he adroitly calls the subscribers' attention to th.3 first column, where there are donations from five guineas downwards, but folds back the second column on which are subscriptions of from 5s downwards. This may be merely native simplicity, but there is a savour of the Heathen Chinee in it. A Christchurch paper says : —The captain of a barque that has recently arrived in Lvttelton has brought with him rather an "uncanny" bit of cargo in the shape of a woman's skull, surrounded with a. mass of dark-brown hair, plaited in lengths of 2-lin, and in beautiful preservation. This specimen was found by tho captain in a disused graveyard at Pisagua, Peru, in 18S1, where he was told no bodies had been buried for up-. wards of 400 years. Searchers for treasurers occasionally explore this cemetery and it was in tho course of a similar expedition that the skull and hair were found. Pisagua is in the midst of the saltpetre district, and probably this would account for the absolute preservation of the hair for so long a period. The specimen is tit present on view at the shop of Mr A. AA 7 ". Parsons, chemist, Lyttelton. Not long ago, we believe, a human body, in a perfect state of preservation, was found in a shipload of nitrate of soda at Liverpool, from the same district. The liquidation of the City of Glasgow Bank has cost £194,000, or H per cent on the amount which has passed through the hands of the liquidators. The total is made up of £30,000 for salaries and expenses, £103,000 for legal charges, and £61,000 for remuneration of liquidators. There were 1,300 shareholders when the bank stopped ; of these 300 were women ; and there were 174 persons who merely held as trustees or executors. Tho first call of £500 per £100 shares produced half the nominal amount, and entirely ruined one-third of the shareholders. The next call was for £2,250 per share, and after it was paid only 175 contributors were left solvent. Tho accounts of the bank had been falsified for years, and to such tin extent had liabilities been underestimated and assets over estimated (to say nothing of the total loss of the reserve fund and original capital) that there was a deficiency of £-3,200,000, which enormous sum had been principally lost through four accounts on winch £5,790,000 had been lent iv return for securities worth £1,521,000. It would be difficult, says Truth, to find a parallel for tho combined roguery and imbecility which ruined the concern. The probable cost of a Channel tunnel (observes a London paper) has always been a very obscure question, and Sir Edward Watkiu lias hitherto been very silent about it. Recently he felt himself in a position in uivc some figures on this particularly important point. He is making a tunnel, somewhere or other, through one of the hardest stratified rocks he knew. This costs £38 a yard, and that means roughly £65,000 a mile. The Channel tunnel would be about 24 miles. Instead, however, of taking the cost at £05,000 a mile, let them assume that it would bo £100,000 a mile, and that would represent a cost of £2,400,000 for the tunnel under the sea. That is his estimate of the cost of the actual tunnel. Next, he believed the estimate of £350,000 for the tunnel to connect the Chatham and Dover and the South-Eastern railways would not be exceeded. The entire "cost of the work, therefore, came to only £3,000,000. With an original outlay of this modest kind, Sir Edward was, no doubt, justified in describing the project as likely to be one of tho most profitable ever luidertaken—if profitableness were the only thing to be considered. But then in this estimate nothing is included for tho cost of fortifications at the English end of the tunnel. Despite recent untoward accident (says the Home News) this last year lias been one of great activity and prosperity in the ocean trading between England and the New AVorld. " The profits returned by the great fast steamers on the various North Atlantic lines have been immense. Each ship has often cleared twenty thousand pounds in a voyage. Such returns tire, however, necessary, considering the enormous first outlay on these big ships. The case of the ill-fated City of Brussels may be instanced, Avhich has just been sunk after a collision, and for which the owners claim an idemnity of one hundred and sixty thousand pounds. Indeed the price is so high that private firms can no longer afford to own such colossal steamers, ami they belong generally to a syndicate of wealthy men, bankers, brokers, and members of lai"""e houses. The amount of capital sunk is not more than that which is always forthcoming. The talk of the present season is the building of a new steamer for ocean work, which is to be of extraordinary size and speed, and which will rival the Alaska as the fastest ship afloat. This is the Oregon, which is being built for the Guion line. Her horse-power is to be thirteen thousand, and her furnaces something tremendous. Her daily consumption of coal is estimated at three hundred tons. Tho task of stoking up will be a great one, seeing that the Oregon will burn three hundred tons a day, but it will be overcome. Talking over with a friend (says /Egles in the Australasian) some of the consequences, actual and problematic, of the Franco-Prussian Avar, we evolved this: That a strange fatality seems to have subsequently attended the leaders ou the French side, whilst an extraordinary immunity from mortality distinguishes the prominent Germans, beginning with the Emperor AA 7 ilhelm, Bismarck, and Moltke, all old men and not yet among the missing. But just look at the death-roll of distinguished Frenchmen, Imperial, military, diplomatic ! The Emperor Napoleon 111. and the gallant young Prince who in the war received his baptism of fire ;'' Thiers, who negotiated the terms of peace ; Ganibetta, who in a balloon left beleaguered Paris, and whose career has since been so prominent; Chanzy, who commanded tho army of the Loire ; Viuoy, who marched from Sedan to Paris with 30,000 men; Ducros, who had command iv Paris, aud who before a sally pledged himself to return -uecessful or not at all; Faidherbe, the gallant leader of the army of the North ; f'ourbet, painter, and patriot, whose politics barred recognition of his genius until (alas) a national purchase of some of his works could not benefit him. I do not suppose that the list of dead and distin•ntished Frenchmen is exhausted, and no reason can be advanced for what is, however, a fatality especially strange when contrasted with a German immunity almost, if not quite, complete. The increase of perjury iv English law courts suggests to the Spectator a capital story of the'way in which a Danish colonial magistrate, for whose exceptional character and ability it vouches, once suppressed perjury in his court: "He said nothing of his method ; but an English friend seated beside him on the bench noticed that whenever a witness told a palpable lie he jumped. He asked the reason, and the magistrate, sifter a caution, revealed his secret: ' My orderly stands behind the witness, aud whenever I put my left hand to my car, that indicates that the evidence is false, and he runs a pin into Mm.' The 'sting of conscience' in this material form proved effectual, aud the magistrate, who died honoured throughout Denmark, in three years turned an Alsatia into one of the most orderly of communities. He could always get tbe truth."

The " Hallelujah Lasses," or female members of the Salvation Army Corps at Paterson, New Jersey, have brought au action for slander against the Rev. Charles Pelletrcau, rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church in that city. Each of the plaintiffs claim 5,000d015. as damages. The cause of the offending was a sermon denouncing the Salvation Army as " a bold, shameless religious rowdyism," and the members as '' a lot of hungry cormorants let loose upon a community to destroy till the real good that faithful God-fearing men are laboring to accomplish." The workmen on tho Denver and New Orleans railway, while within from twenty to twenty-five'miles of Denver, Col., between Cherry and Running creeks, encountered a somewhat remarkable obstruction to their further progress, consisting of a burid forest. The trees are all petrified and agatised, of various sizes, and are buiied tit depths of from ten to twenty feet, as deep as the men found it necessary to go. These trees aro met in half a, dozen localities, are very perfect, and if proper machinery were used could be unearthed nearly or quite whole. An American writer passes sonic amusing, if rather severe, comments upon the "practice of actrosses, as regards the " flower business." "As a rule," he remarks, "an actress knows to a bud just what she is going to receive, and 3-et. she simulates a little start of surprise. She makes round ewes of astonishment at the display ; she makes her mouth go as if in doubt, ' For me I-' and then she wriggles a little to express 'Plow good,' and smiles a little ' How kind,' and then it deprecatory ' How could you ■"' Adelaide Neilson was the greatest adept at this flower business. She used to order her own flowers by the hundred dollars' worth. She would stop at the florist's on her way to the theatre at 7, haggle a little about his exorbitant prices, order—say an immense horseshoe of flowers, insist upon a few more camelia.i, and then, two hours later, she would sink back against the proscenium, perfectly thunderstruck at its appearance over the footlights. ' So unexpected,' you know !" Country residents requiring patent or proprietary medicines, toilet requisites, fancy goods of any description, stationery, ke., will best consult their own interests by calling jit Professor Moore's establishment, AVaipaAva, Avhere there is a large and avcll assorted stock to choose from. On hand Coutts' acetic acid, the noted cure for rheumatism, lieur.-iliria, and till nervous complaints; an unfailing remedy requiring outward application only.—[Adat.] The achievment that gave to the world AVolfe's Schnapps, Avill live in the history of curative science as long as the human frame is subject to natural diseases. — [Advt.]