The Dunstan Times. CLYDE, FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1885.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1216, 19 June 1885, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

CLYDE, FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1885.

Beneath the rule of men entirely Jusi The pen is mightier than the sword.

Last week’s late telegrams conveyed the intelligence to our readers of the defeat of the Gladstone Ministry, and that that gentleman had gone to Balmoral to place the resignation of the Ministry in the hands of the Queen. Since tiu-n a'raost daily news has been received, some to the effect that Her Majesty refused to accept of the resignation, again that the Marquis of Salisbury had been sent for, but only for a general confab on the situation. The latest news, however, is that only was the resignation accepted, but that the M-.rquis of Salisbury hid been entrusted with the formation of a new Ministry, and that that nobleman had succeeded in his task, but the names of his colleagues have not been made known-

Since the assembling of Parliament on Thursday last, when the Governor deli vered his (opening seech. beyond the address in reply by Mr Pearson, member for Ashley, and the speech in support by Mr Hislop, member f--r Oamarn, there really has been nothing done worth noticing, excepting perhaps the intimation by Major Atkinson that while accepting the address the Opposition commuted them*

selves to nothing, they reserving to themselves the right'to criticise she Government measures as they were brought ilowu, Mr Stout said the Government would be prepared with (he Financial Statement on Friday {to«day), when it would be brought down. As yet nothing bos happened to denote the tamper of ihe House ; indeed, if it even has a temper. Wecannet but think however, the present calm portends a coming storm through which the Ministry will have difficulty in 'steering the ship of state. The situationjno doubt is a critical one, hut time alone will prove whether the Ministerialists or the Opposition is the stronger.

The weather of late has been very changeable, no two hoars scarcely being alike, tho consequence being the very general prevalence of coughs and colds. A rapid rise in the river took place on We'lnesnay night last; caused bv the heavy rains up-country, and the no less boisterous winds that have raged pretty well all over the country, Mr Cuinine, authorised surveyor, who will be remembered Uy many as having held a position in the Government Survey Office here some few years back, ann maces by advertisement in another coin im his infcen» tion of privately practising his profession in the district.

At last week’s meeting of the Alexandra Mutual Improvement Society, Mr F S. Alfred read an interesting piper, the subject was “ How to write aP iper,” an 1 was .h'efly addressed to junior ra unbars. Af er a general discussi m of the whole subject, the following was propose 1 hy M'- George Rivera and seconded by Mr John Paget, two of the younger members of the society, that the cordial thanks of the sooia y be given to Vlr Aldred for his useful and instructive paper. IS ext Tuesday the subject of discussion is the novels of D ckeus, Thackery, and Lytton. To he followed on the 30th by a debate.‘on the question— Should the gold duty be abolished ? Mr McNeill taking ihe affirmative, anl Mr T. Brown the negative. Wo learn that a large portion of a moa skeleton in splendid present dion was recently found by one of Mr John Allan’s boys near Alexandra. The portion found evidently belongs to a moa of large size, and was embedded in the lacustrine deposit, cut through by the Mannherikia River at the locality, known as Solomon’s face. We believe that Mr Allan intends to send the specimen to the Dunedin museum. It is, as already stated, in good i reservation, some of the integumentary parts being still visibl ■ about the joints. Soiotaon’s face is an almost perpendicular section of clay and alluvial deposit, some hundreds of feat in depth on the banks of the river, supposed to he the stuff deposits lin the bed o; the ancient lake of the Mannherikia Valley. The Resident Surgeon of the Dmistan District Hospital informs ns that Donald Nicol, who some few weeks since had his back broken through falling off a dray load of straw in the n-igbl oaroood of Alexan- , dra, died in the Institution on Tuesday last. | Poor Donald had rcsi led in the Alexandra j District for a number of years, and his sad ■I untimely death will be regretted by a largo j circle of friends and acquaintances. By an advertisement in another Column it will be seen that a concert an I dance is announced to take place in the Town Hall, Alexandra, on Friday evening next, the 25th inst., for the purpose of defraying the expenses incurred by the lats Donald Nic d during his Illness. We have just lial the pleasure of looking at two Chinese magazines i üblished by the Chinese Religious True Society. Shanghai Both these magaz ties are printed in the Chinese character, and contain a number of illustrations. The “ Chinese Illustrated News,” of 24 pages, with 10 to 12 illustrations; and the “Child’s Paper,” of 16 pages, with 5 to 6 illustrations—which were originally issue I through other channels. The contents of those tn tnthlies are not purely reli lions, or we might look in vain ( or subscribers among the heathen. The title page of the “News” d< scribes it as “ Moral, Religions, and Scientific.” The February number of rhe “Chil l’s Paper” is just to hand, and contains :—“On playthings” (id.), “ Han’es ing by electric light” (ill ), “Nows from Africa” (id. with portrait of T.ivin,stone), “News from Corea.” “Imperial Archives” (ill.), “Life of Tyndale—Bible translator,’. “ Comm Illustrations,” •* Mouth y Bible readings," “He leadeth me”- Hymn with music, “ Short narrative of Judas Iscariot.” The Chinese name i- “ Monthly Messenger.” which seems more appropriate than “Chi d’s Paper.” The animal subscription is 2s 6d for the “ News,” md Is Gd for the “ Paper,” postage paid to any part, of New Zealand. The net proceo 1 s wi'l lie remitted to the parent society', to assist in Ua no i work among the dark millions of China. No doubt ihe perusa 1 of the-'e papers would lie both interesting and instructive to munbers of the Chinese residents in the district.

The first meeting of ere H ors in the bank" rupt estate of George Murriy is fixed for tomorrow, Saturlay, the 20th iust., at 2 p.m.

Mr Matthew Burnett, the temperance lecturer, who is again making a lour of the central goldfields, will give an add mss in the Town Hall, Alexandra, on Thursday evening next, 25th inst., and at Clyde on the following evening. Pom what we can understand, dr Barn ", after leaving Clyde proceels to Coin well, tl.enee to Lakes Wanaka and Hawea, giving addresses in each pi tee, af;er which ho will visitBlacks and all the centres in that sale of the country.

We learn that the directors of the White’s Beef Company have leoi led to proceed with the erection of a hattery im nei.iutciy on the opening -d spring.

Amongst the newly-made J.P.’s w-'notice the names of Mr S. N. Brown, C ornwell ; MrJ. C. Owen (? C -wau), Bannockburn and Mr W. Quin, Tapanui.

VinomtPyke, Esq., has been elected a member of the Waite Lands Qommittee of the House of Representatives, By a most unpardonable oversight, we omitted last week to notice.a friendly renoion that to k place in the Dnnst a i Hotel on the evening of Friday, the sth inst., to bid farewell to Mr Alexander Mackay, who has held the position of District Government Surveyor here for the past 10 or 11 years. About 20 gentlemen were present, of whom W. Fraser, E»q., occupied the chair, and L. D. Macgeorge, Esq., croupier, Mr Fraser, af„er briefly refe-ring to the long residence of Mr Mackay in the district, and the yery general regret in a social sense that was expressed at his departure ; but on the other hand had to congratulate him on his preferment to a higher position in his department, an t expressed the hope of hearing of bis still farther advancement. He then, on behalf of and in the mines of a few of his friends, would ask his acceptance of a piece >£ jewellery, (a massive gold albert chain ml locket), and trusted that he might >n •be spared to wear it, Mr Mackay briefly returnel thanks, when his health was drank with musical honors. An hour or more was then spent in toast and song, after w lioh the company up, having sp“nt a most enjoyable evening. Mr Mackay, we believe, goes to Napier as head of the survey department of tuat provincial district.,.

While the Vincent County Council propose to red ice he rate for the current year to one half penny in the A on all rateable property iu the county, the Manioto o County Council, we notice, propose increasing their rate to one p°nny. There is no accounting £>r the ways of our local govdrnois.

The general opinion appears to be averse to the establishment of local .Boards in connection with the Government Life Insurance Association.

The annual return of the coat of collecting the customs revenue at each port in New ZealaU'l shows that the average was L2 lls 7 I par LIUO, Uune'lin being the lowest at L2 Us 3 toe higtust being at Hokianga at L 53 7s lil.

The propriitor of the Mercantile and Bankruptcy Gizitte of New Zealand, (Mr B. T. Wneeier, of Dunedin), announces by advertis iment in another column that from the Ist of July next the price will be reduced to one guinea per annum. In mercantile circles the value of 'he Gazette is so well known that any remarks f.om us is unnecessary. Mr G. Pache is appointed agent, and will be pleased to attend to all orders. The a rests for the Horsham Bank rob« bery were of Hugh Milne S mth, aged twenty-seven years, and William Drysdale Russ, age 1 thirty-one years. They letl the service d the London Chartere I Bank soon after the robbery.and went to the Wimmera district, where they engage I in wheat transactions. About four we-ks ago they came to Melbourne, and then travelled by stages to Bon i ke, when-, on information sent from the Melbourne Detective Office, they were arrested. Detective Nixon found about Lso' m their possession. The Southland Times, in a recent issue, thus refe-s to the member for the Uuustan : “.So member of the House can make a ! b ittcr speech than Mr Vincent Pyke. He ; is not so polishel and rhetorical as Sir 1 Geo -.e Grey, nor so statesmanlike as Sir ! Julius Vogd, nor so sublimely speculative as Mr VI .ea-drew, nor so Herbert SpenCcrish as Mr Stout, nor so poutingly Oicer. onian as Mr Wakefield, but for shrewd common sense, mother wit, and genial selfassertion (a rare quality in a speaker) he is not sur aa-edbyanyof our Pailiamentary sponters. And an address which he deliveied to his constituents on Priday evening last is quite up to the high stan lard of his political utterances. The member fur Dunstan, in lee .carries his years well, both physically and intellectually. It is something to have beaten all the rhymers in the Colony, as he e u-tainiy did during tie recent war fever, aid we are half disposed, after all, to agree with Mr Alfre I Saunders, a gentleman whom the fortunes of politics have uufurtunvely excluded from the House of Representatives, that he might have been Premier of New Zealand had he only been true to his ambition. We have most unquestionably had more than one Premier whose natural abilities were very inferior to Mr Pyke's.

Concerning Archdeacon Harris, whose doitli was reported by cable on Monday, the Lytttetin Times says that “ he went Home a month or two ago desperately ill, and almost under sentence of death from the doctors here, who disagreed as to the exact nature of ais ailment. For nearly a year past he hj id been gradually growing worse and worse, and many thought that he would never reach the shores of England. He did reach them only to succumb six weeks after his arrival. The news of hi decease, although anticipated, will come home to the oleigy here with a painful shock, as it will tommy an old pupil of Christ's College, where he was for some years head master. Under his rule the progress made by the school was constant and solid ; indeed it is hardly too much to say that in great measure owing to the reputation same 1 by it between 1866 and 1871, Christ’s College has attained its present nnriva'lnd position amongst the scholastic institutions of the Colony—‘the Eton of New Zealand,’ as it has been termed by a recent writer.”

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The Princess Louise has accepted the presidency of a society which is being formed in England for the purpose of increasing the efficiency of home teaching by supplying, in a short course, instruction iu the art of giving simple and interesting lessons to children, fir those who have not been abe logo through a • egular course of training in the science and ar; of teaching.

- A good story is told of an experience of a coroner and jury in Otago in the early days. After examining the body of the deceased person in one room they repaired to another to take the evidence,but they were suddenly startled in their deliberations by a fearful crash from the first mentioned apartment. The Only conclusion they could arrive at was that the -nan had come to life again, and some time elapsed before the party plucked up sufficient courage to face the A. returned spirit. On going into the '• room, however, they found that the bed on which the corpse was laid had simply given way.

Archbishop Moran leaves Melbourne for Rome on the 12th inst. The Archbishop wishes for no ceremony of any kind, bat several of the laity in his diocese met and considered the matter, and decided it was a fitting opportunity to present the Archbishop with an address on the eve of his departure.

One of the greatest astronomical works of

the century h;s just left the printers—namely. Dr Gould’s voluminous catalogue 1 dealing with 73,000 -to* a in the Southern Hemisphere. The catalogue has taken Dr Gould, with the help of five assistants, just fourteen years to compile.

The Berlin correspondent of the Standard telegraphs I have reason to Oe.ievo that Germany is preparing several new and great c denial surprises for the world. There is a great f nicy here for Zinziliar; stall events, we are told that the relations between Germany an 1 Z inzibar continue to be in a state of considerable tension. The corvette Gneisei.au recently landed troops and burned the town of Looma, whose inhabitants had plundered a German merchant steamer. Private informa ion has reached me that the German flag has been hoisted on one or two points o f the East Coast of Africa. Advices from Zanzibar state that the German flag has not been hoisted, but only shown on the Somah coast.”

A paragraph recently went the rounds concerning a fortune estimated at some four millions left by one John Taylor, who died in the Old Country in 1851, anil willed that the properly should be held in Chancery untill 1881, all the rents and incomings derive 1 in the interim to be applied in pay. ing off the incumbrances, so that the property would descend free from any charge to the heirs or assigns. John Seddon, the nephew, died in a workhouse some few years back,leaving behind him nine brothers and sisters, who now divide his share or L 2.000,000 between them. The ncice has turned up in Invercargill. The correspond dent of the Matanra paper says that “ she is a widow, and the mother of one daughter, who married a sho: maker, and with her husband has been for some years a resident lof Invercargill. Steps are being taken by the mother in-law to substantiate her claim, and no great difficulties appear to he in the way. The local information I have obtained from a trustworthy source, supported by documentary evidence to prove its correctness, and the facts as stated are plain and unvarnished.”

ft is impossible to remain long sink or out of health where American Co.’s Hup Bitters are used. See another

At the Christchurch Police Court on the 9th June, William McGregor, a laborer, was committed for trial for indecently assaulting a girl eleven years of age. John Christophers Cuff, a halfcaste Australian Native, was charged with uttering a forged note at Invercargill in 1881. He was only just fit to leave the Hospital, where he has been for some months in consequence of injuries he received from exposure when he escaped from custody at the Waian some months ago. Ho has lost an arm, bloodpoisoning havini rendered amputation necessary, and at one time there were little hopes of his life, The prosecutor and the police did not call any evidence, as the man had been punished enough by h<s sufferings, and the Bench allowed the charge to bo withdrawn. The United States Government, in view of the industrial depression which has prevailed for some time past in America, have appointed special agents to institute a searching investigation into the causes. With this object American officials are to visit Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow, Ed nburgh, and other industrial centres in Great Britain.

From a recent number of the Austnlian Sportsman we notice that Captain Barry has added yet another to his many and varied experiences. This time he is figuring in the pugilistic arena in connection with a series of boxing tournaments at Chiarini’s Circus iu Sydney. We read : ■“ The windup was between two veterans, both 65 years of age, Captain W. Bairy and old Bill Sparks. Their doings in the ring created much amusement—the former hopping about like a cat on hot bricks—though they showed that they had not yet forgotten either the science or the love of a sport picked up many long years ago, it being exactly half a century since they first faced each other wi f h the mittens aeon after their rrival in New South Wales.” In another part of the same paper, the Captain issues the following challenge “I, Captain W Jackson Barry, alias Nobby,6s years of age, will run 100 yar Is, ride over flights of hurdles, or box under the Marquis of Queen berry’s rules any man of my own age from LIOO up to LSOO. Man and money ready at lack Thompson’s, 91 King-street, Sydney.

A strange case of poisoning, resulting in the death of a girl fifteen months old, occurred at Brisbane.’ Clark’s (chemist) shop. Queen street, was recently burnt down, and it appears a little boy picked up a bottle of opium pills among the debris, took the bottle home, and gave It to his little sister to plav with. She managed to get the pills out of the bottle, and swallowed several of them. Medical aid was promptly called in, but it was unavailing, and the child died iu a few hours.

The story of a miser who faced death by burning ratber than tear himself from his hoardings comes from New York A fire broke out recently in one of the streets of that city, and soon a whole block of buildings was burning. The lives of most of the inmates of the bona- had been saved by the firemen, who, in the discharge of their duty, went up to the top floors ; and he it was that they encountered the unusual spectacle of a man in danger of a horrible death who obstinately refused from it. This singular person' was a collector of curiosities, old books, and pamphlets, which with accumulated wealth of years, he hoarded up in his room. While the fire was blazing fiercely around and below him he remained unmoved and when a rescue was attempted by ala lder raised to the window the fireman who leaped into the chamber discovered him in the midst of smoke and flames sitting on the floor, with his treasures collected around him. He positively refused to move.

A newspaper correspondent at Port Augusta writes “ A young Russian military student has been in Augusta f<»r some weeks past. He belongs to the Military Colle eat 0 ess a, but is now on leave and travelling in the British ship Arethusa. His anxiety about the prospects of war has been described by the captain as something intense, an I with good reason if what the young fellow says be 'orreot—viz , that in the event of war being declared before be reaches home his property will be confiscated, his parents’ property also seized, leaving them homeless, and he himself either shot on arrival as a deserter or sent to the mi.ies in Siberia. The Arethusa left here this week for the United Kingdom with grain, and the mental torture of the young Russian until he reaches shore must be ery unenviable.”

The special correspondent of the Argus, writing from Handoub on April 21, says : ■“The Australian contingent had scarcely found themselves among the rocks and gullies of the hilly lands around Suakin when their instincts told them the meaning •of splendid quarts veins which were found among the rocks. On close examination the quartz proved exceedingly promising! and some fine re ef - have been distinguished, but the best indication is the precious metal itself, am! several of the Australians have picked out specimens with gold showing freely. I have also seen a bealiful piece of •cop per ore, and one of our infantry officer 8 told me the other day he had found traces of silver. Piec sof likely quartz are found all over the rooky country, and their is a strong temptation to throw over campaigning altogether which our British comrades seem to have no suspicion of. I do not an ricipate that payable gold will be found in the level country, although gold dust may be scatteied over the widespread sands of the khors. It is in the mountains that the best prosp- cts are to be obtained. There is « line field here for Australians. They are trained to a similar climate, and their pecu'iar energies would find ample scope in the trade and ventures of the Soudan. A great deal depends on the railway, but with ■or without it mining would eventually civilize the country ”

The Melbourne. Daily Telegraph makes the following suggestion concerning the New South Wales contingent The troops have not heou despatched and maintained for a ‘ mere song.’ In all probability the expenlilnie which the New South Wales Government will have to meet will be a pretty heavy one. The question we have to put this morning is whether the people of Victoria and the other Colonies should not regard the coat of the contingent as a fed- ral debt to be paid by the whole of the Colonies. We view the matter in this light The presence of the New South Wales troops in the Soudan evoked the warmest friendship to all Australia. The contingent was always referred to in the London and Continental Press as the Australian contingent. It seems, therefore, to be taking praise and profit under false pr fences to allow New South Wales to bear all the expenses of a movement which, not federal in inception, has at least Jed to fed-ral and national developements. The favour in which Australia is held just now through the action of Mr Dailey has, we feel sure, been one of the causes of success of the Victorian and Queensland loans ; and no more straightforward course could be taken by these Colonies than to gratefully recognise the good done through the despatch of the troops to assist in an Imperial war by offering to contribute a share of the expenditure entailed upon New South Wale ß If we desire federation of the Colonies, we must establish goodwill and friendship, and we know of no better method of establishing friendship with the sister Colony than by an offer to hear a sha-e of her burdens, since

we have reaped some of the benefits accru ing from her bold, spirited action. "