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Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2118, 18 February 1870, Page 2

Provsncial Scholarships. The examination commenced to-day, and the examiners’ award, we believe, is to bo made to-morrow. The Martin’s Bav Settlement,— Many people have been much puzzled to know what the wooden structure now in course of framing in the corridor adjoining the Magistrate's Court is intended for. It has been gradually assuming the form of a bouse, lacking the rafters and covering, and every day’s work adds something to its elegance. Jbe fact Is, it is intended for a survey office for the Martin’s Bay Settlement, and is being framed and fitted in Dunedin so that it may be put together without trouble on its arrival there.

Thatcher’s Concerts.—There was no apparent diminution in the number of visitors at the Masonic Hall last evening. The locals and the comic songs were as usual received with immen o applause This evening we understand there is to be an almost entire change of programme, and two new locals, entitled “The Smash in the Arcade,” and “ The Undertaker and the Cigar Divan,” will be given by Mr Thatcher. Mayor’s Court —At this Court today, Margaret White, for drunkenness, was fined 40s, or, in default, seven days’ imprisonment ; Charles Darlington, for driving ahorse across the footpath was fined 10s; John Holmes, for allowing a hors; to wander, 2a fid, and costs ; Michael Gorman and Samuel M ‘Mullen, for furious driving, 5s and costs ; Jam* M'Lcumui, for allowing cows to wander, 5s and costs. Cohen v. M'Lcan, a charge of assault, was dismissed. T. Birch, Esq., R.M., and E. M‘Chadian, Esq., J. I'., were the presiding magistrates. Overland Route to the West Coast —ln last evming’s issue we gave Mr M'Kerrow’s report to the Survey dc artment of the result of Ins journey to the West Coast via Lake Wakatip, and, from the information which reached us, were led to observe that the track said to have been discovered by Mr M Tvcrrow was originally discovered by Mr Caplea The information that has since, been conveyed to us establishes the fact that in no instance has Mr M'Kerrow churned fo bo the discoverer of the track in question. The track was followed by Caplcsin his early explorations, and in his researches he was aided by Mr M'Kerrow ; but to the latter gentleman, we believe, belongs tlxo honor of having discovered the llouteburn. The instructions given to Mr M'Kerrow were to follow up Caples’s track, and this ho did with the results already published. Waterworks Company. —The annual meeting of this company was held in the lower room of the Athenaeum this afternoon ; Mr B. Gillies in the chair. There was a large attendance. The following report was read and adopted : “Your Directors,; in submitting their second annual report since the works we e in actual operation,'are happy to be able to state that there is in all respects a gradual improvement in the affairs of the Company. The outlay for repairs has, during the last year, been much less than it was in the previous year ; and the main pipes are now so fully tested that we anticipate even fewer accidents than formerly. Your Directors have been enabled, since their last report, to lay upwards of six miles of new pipes whoreby the revenue of the Company will be considerably augmented ; but as most of these pipes were only laid at the close of the year, the increase of revenue from that source does not appear in the accounts for 1869. The accounts now submitted show an increase of revenue on last year of L 750 15s 4d, independent of that received from the new pipes. Among the assets appear three items amounting to LSSo, which will fall to bo paid by the Corporation. Your Directors regret that they have still to apply to the Government for a portion of the eight per cent, payable to shareholders ; but it is expected that the revenue derived from the extension of mains will considerably reduce tho amount to bo obtained this vear. During the year Mr Bathgate resigned his position as director, and Mr W, J. M. l.arnach was elected in his stead ; Messrs Martin and Whfttingham have also resigned, and their p'aces at the t oml have not been filled up. In terms of the Act three directors, Messrs Martin, Wilde, and Lnrnach, retire by rotation, ami Messrs Wilkie and l.arnach offer themselves for re-election. Your directors c- nsidor itadvi able to reduce the number of directors from nine to six, and to resume paying a small fee for attendance. Should this recommendation meet with approval, one director only will have to be elected. Mr Street proposed that the number of directors be seven. An amendment proposed by Mr Jas. Smith, that the number he five, was lost; and the original motion was carried. Temperance. —The Temperance Committee appointed some time ago at a public meeting in Christchurch, have published an interim report, in which they recommend as follows -“Principally the formation of a Temperance Society, upon a basis sufficiently broad to include all trm- friends of temperance, and at the same time with aims so precise and definite as to enable it to exercise an immediate and unmistakeable influence upon the community. It will not be expected that the draft of any complete legislative enactment should be submitted for consideration until such time as the information which the committee has been endeavoring to obtain concerning the working of the various laws adopted in other countries for tho regulation of the Liquor Traffic sha I have been collected. But the committee is prepared to indicate certain general principles, and specific objects worthy of immediate recognition. These aro as follows : —l. That it is expedient that legislative measures he passed, under which it shall be lawful for two-thiids of tho ratepayers of any district, defined for that purpose, to secure the prohibition of any licenses for tho retail of alcoholic liquors within such district. 2. That the power of granting, withholding, or withdrawing all licenses for tho sale of alcoholic liquors should bo invested in the Bench of Magistrates, subject to the provision be'oro named. 3. That in any case where a fresh license or a renewal of an exist ng license or a transfer of license is applied for, the Bench should take evidence for the purpose of ascertaining whether or no tho house proposed to be licensed is necessary for the accommodation of tho public, and if such house shall not appear necessary, shall not grant such license. 4, That it is desirable to obtain tho admission of light Australian wines into this co’ony, free of duty. 5. That as the evils consequent upon the use of intoxicating liquors have been greatly increased bv the abundant use of deleterious drugs in dulterating wine, ale. and spirits, S[ eoial attention ought to bo paid to tho detection and punishment of persons having or using any such materials, by a vigilant enforcement of the existing laws. The Committee has also directed its attention to the introduction of measures by which a share of the punishment usually inflicted upon those who are found overcome by liquor might bo made to fall upon those by whom the liquor has been supplied ; but it appears that ample provision is made for effecting this object in existing statutes, and that all that is required is to have these strictly enforced, 'i he same thing has been found to bo the case in regard to the reclamation of persons of notoriously intemperate habits by placing them under restraint for a time. But it wifi be necessary, in order that

the law may bo.’'carried into effect, to provide for tho erection of a reformatory or ward specially devoted to the purpose. Among the useful projects which the society miuht indirectly encourage may be named tho formation of local clubs for outdoor exorcises in the districts tadjoiniug our public squares and other suitable places, and tho establishment of a weekly h.'.lf-holiday. A Chignon Tragi-Comedy,—A great noise was heard tho other morning in one of tho most elegant bouses of the Hue deßivoli, and soon after the people thus attracted before the doorway saw a well-drc-sed man rushing down stairs with an indefinable bundle of things in one hand, and a bottle in the other. Ho threw down the bundle in the middle of the court-yard, and poured upon it the contents of the bottle, to which be set fire, causing the whole to blaze furiously. Several women were then heard crying an-" 1 sobbing upstairs m the most pitiful manner. It turned out afterwards that tho gentleman has a wife and three daughters, who evince an inexhaustible and immoderate love for false chignons. _ They possessed, already, 20 of these artificial ornaments, and were gmug to purchase four more—larger and thicker, in accordance with the very last fashion —when the angry husband and father, tired of being continually called upon to satisfy such an extraordinary taste for chignons, seized the whole stock, got a litre of petroleum, and sot tho false hair blazing in the court, to the great amusement of all present. — Paris Letter. Madame Rachel Superseded. —The Daily Telegraph (Oct. 13) r—Wo have delightful news to proclaim ; wo have happy tidings to announce. We aro all getting beautiful and more beautiful day by day. Horace’s line, “ Of a beauteous mother! Thou still more beauteous daughter!” expressed not a particular but a common fact ; every daughter surpasses her mother, and every son is handsomer than bis father. In short, the human race is very rapidly approaching towards ultimate perfection. This intelligence does not rest on our authority, but on that of Mr Darwin, one of the greatest naturalists of our day, if not the very greatest. Wc all know’ his former discoveries ; how a boar “lost at sea,” like the Adclphi hero, becomes in time—only you must give him a million or two of years—a very rudimentary whale ; how pigs grow so tall that their nosea develop into trunks, and then they are called elephants ; and how giraffes are simply longnecked deer, which survived and multiplied where their shorter-necked brothers died for want of food. Not content with tracing the genealogy of giraffes, Mr Darwin has advanced to nearer ground. Ho now applies his theory to man. He Braces the natural history of men and women, and ho is about to print a book proving that tho same laws of development influenced by circumstances and natural selection, apply to the hnman race. “ The evidence will be mainly drawn from a comparison of the structure of man with that of the lower animals”—most horrible ! our old enemy the ancestral monkey, again ! The Yicar of Wakefield got rid of a poor relation by lending him L 5, or an old horse. Could we not get our poor and offensive relation, the ape, out of tho way by some similar process ! Would a cargo of nut—would anything—tempt to remove him out of Mr Darwin’s ken, and never trouble us any more ? We always knew that he was haunting our hearth, that he “claimed kindr d there and now, it appears, he has “his claim allowed.”