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Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2256, 30 July 1870, Page 2

Supreme Court. — A sitting in bankruptcy will be held before Mr Justice Chapman on Monday. His Honor returns from .Southland to-morrow. Mayor's Court. The business transacted at this Court to-day was unimportant. Annie Hamilton, remanded on a charge of vagrancy, was discharged, and a charge of allowing a chimney to take fire, preferred against L. P. Peterson, was missed with a caution. Messrs I. N. Watt, R.M., and W, Bnmton, J.P., were the presiding magistrates. Gaol Heturn.—'The following is the state of H.M. Gaol, Dunedin, for the week ending the 30th July, 18/0 :—Await, ing trial, 5 men, 0 women ; under remand--0 men, 1 woman ; penal servitude, 1)3 men, 0 women ; hard labor, 41 men, 21 women ; in default of bail, 2 men, 0 women ; debtors, 2 men ; —total, 143 men, 22 Women. Received during the week, 2 men, 4 women ; discharged, 5 men, 4 women. Theatrical. On Friday evening next Mrs Darrell takes a complimentary benefit, tendered to her by the Garrick Club, at the Princess Thea're. The piece de rtshstnnce. will be the drama of “Lucrezia Borgia.”—Our readers will he glad to learn that ere long theatre will he permanently opened. Mr J. S. Willis has become lessee, and he expects to he able to commence a season in about a month. He proceeds to Melbourne, we behave, by first steamer, to secure the ucccssaiytalent. J ustice at the Mataura.—A curious case of failure of justice comes from the Mataura. On the 22ud instant, a man was brought before two local J.P.’s and fined L 5 for an assault, with the alternative of a month's imprisonment. The money, from inability or obstinacy, was not forthcoming when the alternative was to be enforced. But to the dismay of the Bench there were no means of carrying it out—no constable in attendance ; and, sooner than personally escort the prisoner to the nearest lock-up, the verdict was altered, and the prisoner discharged. The Fine Arts.—By tbo courtesy of Captain Kemp we have been permitted to see of his pictures now in progress of New Zealand scenery, as well as a few portraits. As tire latter were finished, we have no hesitation in saying tfiat apart from their merits as likenesses they are highly finished pictures. Many of our readers may have had the good fortune to have seen the portrait of Incut. Goldie, a painting equally valuable as a work of art, as on account of its being a truthful picture. This is charaeteristie of Captain Kemp’s portraits, 'i bis gentleman has also turned some attention to landscape-painting. In his studio are two—one of Emerald Bay, Lake Wakatin, and another a view on the Hoi yford River. The scenery in each case, though different, is magnificent; liver and lake, mountains clothed with trees and capped with snow—striking middle distances and backgrounds. As both views arc unfinished, we »fU not gay more than that they promise to he vcjy beautiful illnstiations of some of the finest landscapes in New Zealand.

Port Chalmers. —By procjawiation in the Pronnmd Government Gar.etle, sections 137 to 141, both inclusive, and 1-43, measuring 1 acre 2 roods and 17 poles, in the town of Tort Chalmers, are created a Municipal reserve. The reserve is thus described “ It is bounded towards the north-west by Constitution street fifty-four links, by Aurora Terrace one hundred and fifteen links and two hundred and five links; towards the north by section numbered 142, one hundred and forty-five Jinks ; towards the north-cast by Aurora Terrace eighty-five links, also by section num bored 142, one hundred and sixty-three links ; towards -the east by Aprora Terrace three hundred and seventy-fiv.e Jinks ; towards the south-east by Aurora Terrace one hundred and sixty-two links, by Island Terrace eighty links, also by section numbered 13(5 twenty-seven links ; and towards the south-west by section numbered 136 three hundred and twenty links, by section numbered 144 three hundred and forty links, also by section numbered 142 two hundred and six links.” A Mystery. —There is a wild white man on the Herbert River, somewhere in the Northern districts of Queensland—above Cleveland Bay. He has been seen and spoken to several times within the last four years, and is evidently as completely savage as the aboriginals with whem he herds. He has forgotten even the language of the white man ; and the only phrase which he can render comprehensible to English cars is “JBuclgeree fellow me !” which he utters

with propitiatory views when encountered ( by persons of what was once his colour. He can hardly be called a white man now, for the hue of his skin assimilates very closely to the blackness of his companions. He has rather light-colored hair ; is in all respects a perfect savage, and evades capture. How this man got among the blacks is of course a mystery ; but he must have spent the greater part of his life with them. His appearance and his disinclination to return to the haunts of civilisation prove that. If he could be captured, his knowledge of the country might be turned to good account; and his rescue from a state of terrible degradation is surely worth attempting. After all, this poor white savage may be happier in his barbarism than he would have been in a civilised state of exis'euce. He may be a monarch in a small way, and have a crowd of obedient vassals who regard him with veneration. If the incidents of his life could be known, wliat a narrative they would make !—but wo should require Hail Defoe’s ghost to reappear on earth and tell it. —Sydney Mail, Tub San Francisco Mail Service,—The Xehott Examiner, of the 20th, referring to this subject, says - As a means of shortening communication between N T cw Zealand and England, the result, so far as ascertained, is sadly disappointing. The mail, via Suez, made up in London on the 20th of Mav, reached the Blufl on the morning of the 13th Julv ; the mail, via Sail Francisco, male up on the 21st o' reached Auckland on the morning of the 1 5th July, wh'ch gave a day in favor of the Suez route. But allowing tiro days for the loss of time incurred by the steamer fr un Honolulu having to nut into the Bay of Islands for coal, the savi .'gin timeby the American route is one day, wFich falls far short of the saving promised The contract time for conveying the mails between Auckland and San 1* raucisco, both ways, for the first six months, is twentyfive days, and after the first six voyages twenty-four days ; whereas the time from San Francisco on the last trip was thirty-live davs, and allowing for the loss of time caused by having to call at the Bay of islands f.r fuel, eight days, or fully one-fourth more than the time in which the service was engaged to be performed. It is clear from this that a totally different class of steamers will have to bo used to bring the pissage within Mr Hall’s contract time of twentyfive days, and we doubt whether it can be reduced to the shorter period of twenty-four days—the stipulated time after the first six passages. Neither the City of Melbourne, nor the Wonga Wonga, can carry sufficient coal for the voyage between Auckland and Honolulu; and Mr Hall, in a letter to Mi Vogel, written after his return to Auckland last month in the City of Melbourne, complains that he had been misled as to the capabilities of the two Australian boats. “You are aware,” he says, “ that those^ were represented to consume twenty tons of coal per day on ten-knots speed ; whereas the consumption is nearer thirty-five tons to get that speed.” No wonder after this that the Won "a Wonga, on experiencing head winds and gales after leaving Honolulu, should run out of fuel before she reached Aucland. To make the passage in the contract time will require screw streamers no way inferior to the best of the late Panama Company’s vessels, and it is doubtful whether vessels like these can be chartered. We have said nothing concerning the vexed question of the port of call in New Zealand for the mail steamers. Undoubtedly, tbc convenience of the Colony as a whole should be considered, and Wellington is the natural centre from -which mails could bo best distributed. But other considerations may have to be W( ighed, and we should not sacrifice the service that Otago and ('anterhnry may got their letters two days earlier.

The Rev. R. Scrimgeour will preach at St. Andrew’s Church, Melville sttoet, tomorrow, at the usual hours.

A Meeting of the Dunedin Mutual Improvement Society will lie held in the room helow theAthemuum on Tuesday evening An essay vriU be read by Mr Beaver on Poland, past and present. Through our outside pages having been printed off before receipt of the advertisement stating that this vessel would sail on Tuesday, we were unable to correct the first advertisement. It will be seen that it is arranged that she shall sail for Oamaru on Tuestfay, at 0 a.m.