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Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2030, 6 November 1869, Page 2

City Police Court. —At this Court this morning, before A. C. Strode, Esq., B.M., —Hector M'Kinnon, Hi chard Lees, David Tapper, and Michael Finuigan, were each lined 10s. Mary H •milton, and David Lock, were each fined 20s, and Mary White, 40s.

The Maori Prisoners.—The Rangatirn, with the Maori prisoners, may be expected, to come up with this afternoon s tide, and will berth alongside the Rattray street whai f between five and six o’clock, 't hey will be landed there, and will be conveyed to the gaol under a strong guard of the police, who will also line the approaches to the wharf.

Gaol Return. The following is the state of Her Majesty’s gaol, Dunedin, for the week ending Nov. 6 ; —Awaiting trial, 5 men, 0 women; under remand, 0 men, 0 women ; penal servitude, 26 men, 0 women ; hard labor, 56 men, 17 women ; imprisonment, 2 men, 0 women ; in default of bail, 1 men, 0 women ; debtors, 4 men, 0 women ; total, 94 men, 17 women. Received during the -week, 16 men, 8 women ; discharged, 12 men, 4 women. Fatal Accident. — A fatal accident occurred at the North East Valley yesterday morning. At about half-past nine o’clock, Mrs Lamocust, the wife of a settler there, having occasion to leave her house for tlu purpose of attending to some calves in an adjoining paddock, left her baby, aged 15 months old, in the charge of her adopted daughter, W. M. Christina Paddicker, aged five years. She had been absent hardly a quarter of an hour when she heard loud screams. On returning to the house she found the baby lying on the ground, and her stepdaughter lying on the verandah of the house, groaning loudly. The latter on being taken rip complained of severe pains in her stomach. She was immediately put to bed, but before medical assistance could be rendered, expired. She was in the habit of climbing a fence attached to the verandah, and it is supposed that in attempting to climb it yesterday she fell, and sustained the injuries which have caused her death. An inquest will probably be held to-day.

Fatal Accident at the Taieri.— A melancholy and fatal accident happened on Tuesday afternoon, at the farm of Mr James Stevenson, North Taieri. The youngest child of Mr Stevenson, only about two years old, was in a field with him where he was planting mangel seed, and was playing about. On finishing a row and preparing to go home he missed the child, and on looking for him he found the poor little fellow lying under the plough stilts, strangled. He had pulled the plough over upon his neck. Every possible means of recovery was tried, but of no avail, and when Dr IngHs, who was at once sent for, arrived, he pronounced that the child had been instantaneously killed. —Bruce Standard. The Harvest in America.—Respecting the unprecedentedly large harvest which has just been gathered in America, we find the following in a leading article of the New York Herald of the 30th June - “ The last monthly report of the Agricultural Bureau at Washington gives us an encouraging exhibit of the crops of the present year; north and south, and from various other sources, we have the same cheering reports. The wheat crop of the whole country will be a magnificent one—much the largest, we expect, ever raised in the United States. The great valley of Virginia reports 5.000,000 bushels, a splendid yield; hut California, with her fifty or sixty bushels to the acre, beats it all hollow. Of rye, barley, and oats, an ample general crop'is fixed in the harvested or ripening fields.”

How TO CURE A BAD HABIT. —Understand clearly the reasons, and all the reason ■, why the habit is injurious. Study the subject till there is no lingering doubt in your mind. Avoid the p'aces, the persons, the thoughts, that lead to the temptation. Frequent the places, associate with the persons, indulge the thoughts, that lead away from the temptation. Keep busy, idleness is the strength of bad habits. I)o not give up the struggle when you have broken your resolution once, twice, ten times, a thousand times. That only shows how much need for you to strive. When you have broken your resolution, just think the matter over, and endeavor to understand why it

was you failed; so that you may be upon your guard against a recurrence of the same circumstances. Do not think it a little or an easy thing that you have undertaken. It is a folly to expect to break up a habit in a day which may have been gathering strength in you for years. —Herald of Progress, January 17, 1800,

Of course Shakespeare knew that velocipedes would come into vogue, and he lias referred to them in his text, as clearly as he has alluded to many other things which the present generation may suppose only known to themselves. If the reader turns to the tragedy of “King Lear,” he will observe that the Fool concludes the first part of his prophecy with—- “ Then comes the time, who lives to see’t, 'that going shall he used with feet.” The votaries of the velocipede mania will doubtless learn with satisfaction of the introduction of a novel description of machine. The new vehicle is constructed with three wheels, two being placed in front and one hehiml. It is worked by the feet and hauls simultaneously, or by either at will. The apparatus is so cleverly constructed, and so perfectly under control that the velocipodist can move with great ease in every direction and stop instantly. It is by no means fatiguing to work. The rider is provided with a saddle or little seat, and is not embarrassed with the task of preserving his equilibrium, as on a bicycle.

Hokitika Past and Present. — A facetious correspondent of the Greymouth Star gives the following description of Hokitika as it is ;—“ There is no one with me in the room, and the landlord has turned down two out of the three burners which are intended to illuminate the bottles and decanters, and to show customers their way into the door and up to the counter. 1 look out of the window. Opposite there are three shops to let and one soiling off. I flatten my nose against a pane of glass and look as far to the right and left of me as my sight will extend, hut there is not a living soul to see. I feel melancholy and depressed, and I say, Oh ! Kevell street, how has thy former glory departed from thee ? Where now is the busy throng which crowded thy footpaths, and usurped the roadway ? Where, now, thy crowded hotels and shops and stores well lined with customers ? Even the hell of the bellman is silent, and the sound of a billiard b ,11 is no more to he heaid in the saloons, Tiiy Theatre, Oh, Hokitika? is closed—Thy dance rooms no more resound with the strains of piano and fiddle, or are alive with the tripping of light fantastic toes ! The girls have departed and the light of other days has faded !—But, what is that I hear ? It is the sound of a footstep in the bar —a man has entered, and called for brandy—he helps himself out of a decanter, drinks, then calmly and with subdued voice tells the landlord to put it down on the slate. He has departed, and the house is again solitary. I feel like unto what must be the feelings of the last man, or the ‘ last rose of summer, 1 or the last forlorn and deserted anything else.”

The Central Pacific Railway.— Some interesting particulars with respect to ihe Central Pacific Pailway are given by the special correspondent of the Acw 3 ork Tribune.. It is 690 miles in length, and is virtually owned by six capitalists—Mr Leland Stanford (late Governor of the State of California, and brother of Mr Stanford, of Burke street east), and Messrs Huntingdon, Hopkins, and C. and E. B. Crocker, all of Sacramento. These gentlemen persevered in the face of enormous difficulties and discouragements. They staked upon the enterprise every dollar they possessed, and there were times when they hardly knew where to look for L2O. Now their surplus on construction may be moderately estimated at 15,000,000 dollars. In addition to this stupendous accumulation, they own the land grant, which possesses considerable value, and nearly all of the stock of the company, amounting to 10,000,000 dollars or 11,000,000 dollars already subscribed, and susceptible of increase, under the law, to 100,000,000 dollars. If the line becomes remunerative it will make them six of the richest men in America.