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Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2070, 23 December 1869, Page 2

Forestry. The total receipts of the late Forester’s fate were L 93 7s. The Caledonian Society gave a donation of L 5 to the fund. Theatrical. —Mr Montgomery, the celebrated tragedian, will visit Dunedin about the middle of January. Amongst the passengers by the Great Britain on her last homeward voyage w’as an old Dunedin friend, Mr John Dunn, who goes to renew his acquaintance with his transatlantic admirers. The High School. —Some twenty pounds of the proceeds of the entertainment given by the High School hoys have been expended in the purchase of Christmas gifts for the children of the Benevolent Asylum and Industrial School, and the distribution is arranged to take place to-morrow (Friday);

at the former Institution at three, and at the latter at four, oeiock in the a' temoou. It is to be hoped that those who take an interest in these Institutions will endeavor to be present Bi;n Strokes. The extreme hot weather which lias been experienced during the last throe weeks, has not been Without serious effect upon children. Wo have hoard of three instances of sun-stroke of a serious character in tin’s town, and similar events are reported to have occurred in .Southland and other districts. Wc cannot too emphatically impress upon the minds of parents the necessity for preventing chib Iren being exposed to the sun with their heads uncovered.

English News.-— -The Melbourne A yi/Ks has the following in reference to the rise in the wool market. It says : —“ The favorable intelligence received by the last mail regarding the price of one of our great staples, is fully coniirmed by the advices which have just reached us. An advance of one penny to three half-pence seems to have been well maintained, and the finer descriptions of wool were stated to lie in active demand for export to continental countries. At the latest date the market continued firm, and the sales would re-open on the 20th of October with an estimated stock of 191),000 hales.” What is of even more importance to New Zealand is an extract from a private letter to the effect that Thoriumm tonax, or New Zealand ilax, imported into England, and dressed by machinery there, lias realised LI OS per ton. N tov Publications. —Messrs Letts, Son, and Co., whose diaries arc so well known in the Colonics, desirous of extending their connection Avith them, have this year forwarded specimens of other publications which evince the variety of useful works which i;hey annually bring out. Their diaries arc issued in above a hundred different forms and sizes, at prices exceedingly low, and up to high values according to the purposes for which they are required. I hey are suited to special purposes and professions and arc particularly adapted to private, mercantile, and medical use, having tables and calendars suited to each. For artists, architects and engineers, there is a very ingenious contrivance, entitled “ sectional tracing,” and drawing paper and note books calculated to effect a groat swing in time and labor, bes'dcs tracing papers especially useful for surveyors, and extending them, if ordered to 80ft in length, without joining. The whole of their contrivances are calculated to ensure accuracy and save labor. Mr R. A. Livingston is agent in Dunedin,

Tuxedin Private Musical Society. —The first annual meeting of this society was held last night at M r Begg’s Music Saloon, Princes street, Mr Jago was in the chair. The report was read by Mr AVilliam Wate, tlie hon. Secretary, to the Society, and referred to the progress of it and the work done during the year. The balance sheet showed that a few pounds were in the hands of the Treasurer. Messrs Little, Marsden, Begg, Brown, and Bell, were elected members of the Committee. Mr Wate was re-elected Secretary, and Mr Cootc Treasurer for the ensuing year. On the motion of Mr Oooto, the late conductor, it was resolved unanimously to ask Mr May to ■ undertake the eonductorship of the Society, and we hope for the sake of the Society that he will accede to the request. Votes of thanks were presented to Miss Bell for her services as pianist, accompanied with a request that she would continue to preside at that instrument ; to Sir Coote, the late conductor, and to Mr Begg for the use of his saloon. The meeting passed off ■with the greatest good feeling, and a vote of thanks to the chairman brought it to a conclusion.

Mi; M‘Leax’s Missiox to Waikato. —From a short article which appeared in the Independent, of Saturday last, it appears that more has been made of Air M‘Lean's visit to Waikato than the facts warranted. The principal end gained has been a renewal of interviews between the chiefs of the King party and a Minister of the Government. As far as wc can learn, no concessions were asked for on our side, or offered on the other; nor any inducements held out to the Waikato Kingites to re-enter into friendly relations with Government.

The Upper Thames. —We take the following from the Thames Time* :—“Numbers of miners are daily starting for the Upper Thames, and are taking up their tools, blankets, and everything necessary for a proper prospecting of the country, and a permanent residence on it. The fact that gold exists in payable quantities up the river is a recognised fact, and there seems a determination on the part of the miners to try and got some of it. We perceive also that the p.s. Enterprise will start for Ohiucinuri on .Sunday morning, returning in the afternoon.”

Hokitika. — The West Coast Times of the Bth inst., says:—ilie heavy fresh which came down the river yesterday has had a must disastrous effect on the wharf abreast of Louisson’s. The scouring process is much heavier than has been the case for a long time previous, and it is likely, unless some means arc taken to stop it, that serious injury to the wharf will be the result.'’ The following is also from the same paper:—“ Boucliier, who caused the late duffer rush, and some of his mates, are still working up the Kanieri, on the south bank of the river, about two and a half miles above Kennedy’s store. They arc getting a little coarse gold out of the creek workings, but it is not believed that anything has been discovered likely to pay.” The Goldfields of Victoria.— Hie gold,mining interest was never in so depressed a condition as it is at present. The decrease in the exports for the present year, as compared with the last, amounts to nearly a quarter-million of ounces, or a round million in value. So serious a fallingoff in the yield can hardly bo due to stock exchange operations. It is difficult to understand why, if there are payable fields left unworked, there should be any serious obstacle to the gold being brought to light. The state of affairs is so serious ns to warrant the adoption of some means for having a searching inquiry into the cause of the depression, and inviting the suggestion of measures which might lead to a revival. Considering the length of time the fields have been prospected and worked, and the great number of colonists who have been engaged in mining, there is a strange lack of sound knowledge about our auriferous resources.—Melbourne Leader, 11th inst. A Faithless Wife.—The Wellington Ereiiimj Pod of the 20th ult. says : A sound of woman’s lamentation rising loud

and long might have been heard on the end of the wharf this forenoon prior to the sailing of the Tararua. A crowd collected to ascertain the cause, which, as far as could be learned, appeared to be something like the following;—A family, consisting of a mother advanced in years, a married daughter, her husband, and some younger olive branches, were about to take their departure for Melbourne, to join the elder lady’s husband. The married daughter, however, objected to being expatriated from the lovely land of Wellington, having so far forgotten her conjugal oldigations as to cast her affections on a youth who drives a van. This gay Lothario watched an opportunity, and smuggled off the llcklefair one, who was consequently missing when the boat was to start. Efforts to find her proved fruitless, and the maternal ancestor, after indulging her grief in the loudest of tones for a considerable period, dried her eyes and went on board, the injured husband remaining to recover his lost treasure, and inflict summary chastisement on the robber.

PR O VIN C I A LIN STIT U T I O NS. The iV. Z . Ih'vahl (Auckland) has the fallowing : —The late Superintendency election has made apparent a great fact. It has shown clearly and unmistakeably the feelings of the electors as regards the great principles of Provincialism and Centralism ; and has demonstrated clearly enough their adhesion to the former. When it was first sought to bring out an opposing candidate to Mr Williamson, a gentleman of known centralising principles and a member of the late Ministry was brought forward; but it soon became clear that on the issue between Centralism and Provincialism, it would be utterly impossible to unseat Mr Williamson. Mr Gillies was then brought forward, and claimed the suffrages of the electors, as much upon the fact of his being a thorough-going Proviucial'st as on any other grounds. The fact that in the .Supcrintendcncy contest 5,010 electors recorded their votes, is direct evidence of the feeling- of the people generally in the matter. This alone affords unmistakcable evidence of pub'ic opinion as regards the value of Provincial institutions, but in the provincial elections now pending we have still more conclusive evidence of the strong feeling in favor of Provincial institutions which prevails. Scats in the Provincial Council are no longer at a discount—no longer left to be taken up by any ambitious or interested adventurer who may choose to thrust him;elf forward. It is no longer now thought the thing to encourage unfit and improper persons to aspire to seats in the Provincial Council, in order that, through their vagaries and misconduct, Provincial institutions may be brought into contempt, and the downfall of Provincialism be hastened.”

A Romance in Real Life— Our Sydney telegram contains the last act of a drama’ in the commercial world that is, happily, of rare occurrence in these colonies. Messrs MTvinlay Brothers were wholesale grocers in a large way of business, and passed as most rcsjjee table members of society. One of tbe brothers was on the eve of being married to an heiress whose fortune might hive placed the firm bcjmnd the commercial difficulties that were beginning to surround them. Bills were becoming due rather faster than they could be met in the ordinary course of trade, and to meet them expedients of a fraudulent nature were resorted to. Large quantities of goods were obtained on credit, and a vessel called the Snowbird loaded and cleared for the northern ports in Queensland, herself and cargo fully insured. So far the credit of the firm remained nnimpaired. In a short time, however, one of the merchants from whom the goods had been obtained happened, on a visit to Melbourne, to recognise several cases entered in an auction-room for sale. This led to inquiry, and suspicions being aroused, pressure for payment resulted in the firm of MTvinlay Brothers seeking the protection of the Insolvent Court, with liabilities of between £39,000 and £40,000. Circumstances seemed to warrant the arrest of the senior partner on the charge of fraud, and this was speedily followed by the arrival of Captain Shaw at a northern pore in his ship’s boat, with bis shipwrecked crew, and the melancholy intelligence that the Snowbird had been burned, and they had escaped with their lives, having lost everything but what was on their backs. The tale might have been credited had everything gone well with M'Kiulay, but Capt. Shaw speedily found himself in gaol, along with his principal, whose brother was arrested about the same time. It was then discovered that the goods had been taken out of the Snowbird, and brought on to Melbourne, under the care of Rogers and O’Brien, and sold by auction. The five conspirators have been found guilty, and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.— A r/jus.

The quarterly meeting of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce will be held in the Atbemeum to-morrow, at 3 p.m., when the postal questions, and the recent proclamation of the Provincial Government in regard to jetty dues will bo considered.

The sixth annual meeting of the New Zealand Building and Mutual Investment Society will be held at the offices, Exchange Chambers, Princess street, this evening, at 8 o’clock.

A meeting of the directors of the Caledonian Society of Otago will be held at Wain’s Ho'.cl to-morrow (Friday) evening, at 8 o’clock.

It is announced that the Vauxhall Gardens will he open on Boxing Day, when a variety of sports will take place. The proceeds of tho entertainment are, we understand, to lie devoted to the District Relief Fund of the Odd Fellows and the Otago Benevolent Institution. We hope, therefore, to see this beautiful place of amusement receive on this occasion a fair share of public support.