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Dunstan Times, Issue 909, 19 September 1879, Page 2

The Suez Mail closes at this Office, on Wednesday 24th September, ami that by San Francisco on Monday 6th October at 2. ]. a. We learn that in answer to an application from tire County Chairman, the Engineer in charge, Middle Island, has been directed to inspect and report in reference to the danger which threatens Albert town from future floods as di-vlosed in the report of the County Engineer It is probable that Mr Ussher, of the Public Works Office, will be here in a few days’ time to make this inspection, and at the ssmi time to make a flying survey of the railway rou-e irom Clyde to Wan aka, instead of Mr Blair, who is at present unable to leave Dunedin.

After the longest rue! severest winter that we have hail in this district for many years past spr ing has at last dawned, and with it the Ideating of lambs on the hdls and the bursting of all fruit and other trees into blossom in the gardens. Regarding lambing, despite the many drawbacks to be contended with in flie shape of the long winter referred to, and the scarcity of grass through the innumerable hordes of rabbits that infest the country, we are informed wi 1 be a fair average one The other indication of spring is investing the I own and district in a beautiful and pleasing garb. The pink and white blossoms of the almond, peach, and apricot trees, intermingled with the bright and varied green foliage of the forest trees hacked by green hills, make a beatr if id whole. The amount of blossom on the fiuit trees indicate a plentiful crop. We direct the attention of the electors to the announcement by Mr Vincent I’yke, that he will address them in the Town Hall, Cly-ie, on Monday evening next the 23rd instant. At a recent sitting of tho Waste Lmds Burd, Mr J. It. Kemp applied to purchase under an agricultural lease, sections 15 atm 16, block I, of tho Cairn Hill district, which was approved. —At the same sitting Mr M. E Manuel’s application to purchase hrcc acres of laud, situated between sec rim 4.1, blo.k If, Teviot district, and Mr Cargill’s pre-emptive right, was declined. A Wellington telegram says:—"The sittings at Alexandra of the District Couit of Otago Cold-fields are fixed as follows ; In the 15.M. Court-house at Alcxandia on the 7th October an 1 sih December next. The usual two-monthly meeting of the Vincent County Council will be held on Wednesday next the 24th instant. From U.c large number of Notices of Motion tabled, for a copy of which we refer our readers to another column, the meeting will be a most important one. The new House will contain thirty-three new members, but several of them have sat in.previous parliaments. Those vho enter parliament for the first time number twentyeight, exclusive of the Maoiies. “Victoria in 1880” is the title of a work which is being brought out by Mr George Roboitson, the well known pub. Usher of Melbourne, and a specimen copy ot which has been forwarded tons. We learn from the prospectus that the literary portion of the work has been entrusted to Mr Garnet Walch, and that, the illustra-

ti'>ns, which promise to tie very numerous, will be from original drawings ma o ex-pr-ssly for the book by Mr Charles Turner. .These names are of themselves a guarantee of good,and true work, and judging {mm the specimen before us “ Victoria in ISSU

will be the best book of the kind ever put. lished, 'I he descriptive matter is racily written, and the illustrations are of the first style of art. We note that the price to subscribers is three guineas, and to nonsubscribers four guineas— m either case to be pai I after delivery. Our old Victorian friends will do well to secure their names on the subscribers’ list Tenders for several County contracts must be m on Tuesday next. We have received a copy of the Hew Zealand Punch, and we are not very favourably impressed therewith. It contains some short political articles of a bitterly serious type, several items of very stale news, one or two venerable pints, and verses ot an adverse tendency. As to the wit—well it is much diluted— wit-and-water in fact—and requires a vast amount of condensation to make it perceptible. The motto under the name of this gravely funny periodical is

“The matter’s in my head, and in my Nothing could be more appropriate. That is just where “ the matter” is. And both

head and heart must te vastly- improved before the New Zealand Punch will be able to evoke the ghost of a smile on any human countenance The illustrations are ambitions failures. The cartoon is not bad in conception and the picture of 1.0. G.T. Sir William Fox on the ground is very fair, hut Sir George is mi le to look like a fighting fenian or Billy Heenan with poor Sheebran smirking in the hack groun I like a tailor out for a holiday. The smaller engravings are smudgy seeming to have been cut with a blunt chisel out of soft pine-woo l. Let us however he just—New Zealand Punch is very well printe I.

An adjourned meeting of the Clyde Atfnnaeirn and Library Trust was held in the Committee room on Saturday evening last, there being present Messrs Samuel Welsford, (in the Chair) .T. K. Stevens, A. Joss, and Geo. Fache, (Hon. Sec.) The minutes of the previous meeting were re d and confirmed. A letter was read from the Education Boar I, Dunedin, stating that L 42 odd was lying to the credit of the Clyde Library a s subsidy for 1877 8. Marked catalogues of books were checked, and the Secretary was instructed to forward them at once. The meeting then adjourned till Saturday the 20th instant, at 8 p.m.

Professor Scott, the renowned herbalist, announces through our advertising columns that he will visit the district for a short season, his consulting rooms being at Ryan's Hotel. Alexandra, and Mrs George's Dn isaan Hotel, Clyde. The medicin s sold by the Professor are purely herbal, and according to numerous testimonials wonderfully effective (See advertisemen s.)

Yesterday I was shown an interesting document (says a correspondent in the cmterbury ‘ Times ’) to wit, the first (numbered No. 1 (policy issued miner the Govern* ment system of life insurance. It was taken out at \\ estport. The sum insured for is 1.50 I, and the application was tec. iv d by the proper officer a few sec..mis after the Act came into operation. Curi >si y afterwards led me 1 1 nsk Mr Lm kie, I'omniis. sinner of Annuities, f >r tin number > f the I.st. policy issued. It is 12,50'.), and the amount that has from the first to last been assmet is L 4. 209.00 ). The gentleman who took out the first policy is' s'ili arive and hearty ; but, curiously enough, all subsequent app'ications made by him f.T insurance in other offices have be.*n refused on the ground of hereditary consumption in the family. I suppose the Govermmnt Would not have refused No. 1, even had the applicant been a centenarian.

A pe ition againstt.be Election of Mr Edward Tubman as Councillor for Janies Hiding Tnapeka County, has been lodged, on the gio.inds. that the Billort Papers woie informal The leaning will be before Mr Carew Resident Magistrate on the 26ch inst at Lawrence.

A remarkable cave has been discovered at Mount Melville, in the Diindas Range, says the Hamilton Spectator, which bore evident signs of having been the haunt of tome recluse at a pei id of 20 or 25 years ago There were scores of rusty powder canisters and empty matchboxes, a few dilapidated kangaroo skins, which may have formed a bed or carpet, an old battered tin plate, and oilier relics scattered about, besides enough hones of sheep and native animals to constitute a very respectable " kitchen midden.” I he cave is formed by a icmaikable overhanging rock, and aPhrongh considerably open to the weather might have been easily closed in with a lh.de ingenuity. The sop. position 's that this was the secret abode of the notorious Captain Melville, who at one time dwelt in these fastnesses, and from whom Mount Melville received its name. It was generally believed that Mevide had secreted a considerable amount of plunder somewhere in Pundas Range, the proceeds of some of his bnshranjng expedition ; but so far nothing of the sort hrs rewarded the search of those whohave explored the cave. Captain Melville, it will be remembered, was undergoing a sentence of 32 years’ hard labour when he headed (he fhst outbreak of convicts at Williamstown, which resulted in the death of a boatman named Owen Owens, for killing whom with a hammer Melville was sentenced to death in November 1850. Melville was respited, but before the intelligence could be communicated to him he strangled himself in the cell. A Belgian bridegroom, being about to start for Pans on his honeymoon tour, was informed by his bride that she thought of con • coaling several thousand f rancs’ worth of lace about, her, hoping by its sale to pay the cost of their journey. The bridegroom was not smitten with this frugal project, and pointed out that thine were Customhouse officers and a female searcher at Ercqnelincs who were sometimes struck an unaccountable fancy for examining passengers’ pockets. This he said, being a time 1 man and his bride, to humor him, promised to give tip her plan ; but, of course, she secreted the

the same without telling him about it. As the train approached the Fench frontier the husband reflected that if his wife were not searched, bis fears would be mucked at as

groundless, and he would start on his marriage career with prestige impaired. This was not desirable—the rather was it essential that lie should from the very outset assert his infallibility. So, when the train stooped at Frcquelines and the passengers n'i.dire , *he Pel-dan bridegroom left his Vi ride’s arm, and sidling up to a donanier, whispered, ‘I think that if you search that lady yonder, you may find some lace.’ The dnuanier winked, and the happy bride was accosted with an invitation to walk into the female searcher’s room. She turned pale and tottered, but was led away, and five minutes later dismal sounds of hysterics Were neared. Then the donanier reappeared, and said to the horrified husband ‘ Thank you, sir ; it’s a good capture. The lady will bo taken to prison, and half the fine will go to you.’ The testimonial humbug has been well illustrated in Melbourne very recently. On the oceasion of his farewell benefit, “ handsome’’ George Rignold was presented with a locket by a number of his admirers, in recognition of his efforts to raise the standard of the drama in Victoria. In making the presentatio i, MrCnppin referred in glowing terms to Mr RignoM’s attainments, and intimated that on his return to Europe he would not, like many other propessional visitors, run down the colony. Now comes the sequel. Mr Rignold left by steamer on the following Tuesday, but as he was on the point of sailing he was interviewed on behalf of a well-known theatrical manager, and requested to pay £l4, his share of the mat of the locket presented to him. Mr Rignold tore the ornament off his chain, dashed it from him, and, in true melodramatic action, decline Ito contribute towards its cost. So much for the spontaneous offerings of friends and well-wishers.

Colonel Sir Louis Cavagnaii, our Resident at the court of Yakoob Khan, who it is feared is one of the victims of the Cabul insurrection, was of foreign extraction, his father having been a Genoese who came to settle in London, from the north of Italy, after the overthrow of the French Empire ; but the subject of this in tice is an Englishman by birth and e'ucation. He was at the Charterhouse School in his boyhood, but entered the military service of the East India Company in April, 1858. He was then posted to the first European Bengal Fusiliers, served with that corps during the Oude campaign, and received Indian Mutiny medal. He joined the Bengal Staff Corps and was appointed an assistant-coramis-s'uuer in the Punjaub in July, 1861. He has serve ! on the North-western Frontier uninterruptedly since April, 1862 principally as deputy commissioner of Kohat, of which important district he held charge for nearly twelve years. For his services on the frontier, and especially for those in connection with the surorise and c.iptur: of the Bizit.i, village of Gara in February, 1869, he was recommended by Lord Mayo for a companionship in the Order of the Star of India, which decoration was conferred on him on January 1, 1877. Major Cavagnari served as politic il officer with General [I iss’s force during the Jmvaki campaign, and also, in the same capacity during the Sapri, Skakote, and Utman-khel expeditions during the spring of 1877 He was last vi-ar appointed second member of Sir Neville Chamberlain’s mission to Cabul, and after war was declared he became principal political agent, in which capacity he performed most onerous duties in a manner that won for him general praise. It will be remembered that Colonel, then Major, Cavagnari was the other who, he foie hj istifi ics commenced, was the bearer of jthn Viceroy’s ultimatum to the Shere Ali, and was repulsed by tho commandant of the frontier fort of Ali Musjid, and it was the per»nal friendship of the latter that prevented his assassination on that occasion. For his services in connection with the treaty negotiations with Yakoob Khan Major Cavagna.i was promoted to a colonelcy and received the K. S J.