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Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2405, 16 December 1870, Page 2

Political.—The names of Mr Geo. Bailey and (.’apt. Baldwin are mentioned as likely candidates for the representation of Waikaia in the General Assembly. The Supeuintkndenuy.—The Tual>eka Times understands that a requisition is in course of signature inviting Mr Donald Reid to stand for the Superintendency, and that the “ liberal ’’ members of the Council intend to give him every support. Something Pleasing.—lt will be seen that during Mr G. R. West’s passage from Home, on hoard the ship Otago, he and his fellow-passengers had Dunedin’s institutions in their minds. For the first time, as far as we recollect, the leisure time of a voyage wa; employed by getting up materials for a bJP.aar, the proceeds of which (fifteen pounds) have been handed by Mr West to the committee of the Benevolent Institute.

Princess Theatre. —lt was quite refreshing to see an increased attendance at the theatre last evening, when the play of “Camille” was presented. The part of Camille was excellently played by Mrs Steele, and the subsidiary characters were well cast. Mr Steele was very successful as Armond. To-night the sterling comedy of “ School for Scandal” is to be given The cast is unusually strong, and the piece should have the effect of drawing a really good house.

Cricket. —A match between the married and single members of the Dunedin Club will be played to-mot row., The following are tho players ; —Married —Turtou, Beal, Butterworth, Anderson, W. D. Munson, J. Murison, Rattray, Macdonnell, Muir, Allen, and Hendlcy. Single—Cairns, Collinson, Reade, J. C. Fulton, Kettle, Holmes, Smith, Brown, Morrison, Smyth, M'Farlan. The second eleven of the Albion will also play the second eleven of the Citizens on the ground of the former. The Colonial Prize Firing. —The competition by tho second Otago district for representatives at the forthcoming Colonial contest, took place at the Anderson’s Bay Butts this morning. The weather was most unfavorable for shooting, a very strong wind blowing all the time. Corporal Adam, of the Bruce Rifles, was the only competitor who succeeded in making 40 points—tho number entitling a Volunteer to a place. The fact of the tiring having taken place under unfavorable circumstances was communicated by telegraph to the Defence Minister, who gave instructions that the other competitors should lire again this afternoon. 'Die results were not known when we went to press. Rifle Match. —The return match between the Dunedin Artillery Company and the Greymouth Rifles, was tired by the Greymouth team on the 6th. The conditions were five shots at 400, 500, and GOO yards, any position, with Government rifles. The Dunedin men fire next week. The following arc the scores :

A Subtle Argument.—An application was made to the Melbourne Supreme Court a few days since for a new trial in the case of Humphry v. Kelly. Tho action, it will he remembered, was for a breach of promise of marriage, the jury giving a LIOOO damages. It was contended for the defendant that the damages were excessive, that the plaintiff was not entitled to compensation on the basis of defendant’s property, because he was not a single man when he promised to marry her, and he, consequently, could not make her his wife; and as she could never have shared his property, she was not entitled to any compensation for not getting what she could not have got. The argument was so subtle that the Court took time to think it over before giving a decision. The Permissive Bill.-—The supporters of temperance have canvassed a portion of tho City of Auckland, with a view to ascertaining the views of the inhabitants with respect to the Permissive Bill. A schedule, with two columns marked respectively “for” and “against,” headed thus, “ What is the permissive Bill ?—lt is to give two-thirds of the residents or householders in any district the right and power to stop the public sale of intoxicating a rinks,” was left with the householders to be lillcd-up by tlieh], and returned to the canvassers. The following arc the results up to the present time, the returns being incomplete :—Five hundred and ninety males, and two hundred and ninety eight females have signed in favor of the bill, while thirty-one males and thirteen females only have signed against it, and one hundred and eighty-two have declared themselves neutrai: the total number in favor of the bill is thus eight hundred and ninety-live, and forty-four against, or, in

other words, the proportion in favor of the bill is upwards of twenty to one.—Communicated.

High School. —Tho presentation of prizes to pupils at .any school is an interesting event, but it is particularly so in Otago where education is so highly valued and earnestly pursued. We therefore expect there will be a large attendance at the Masonic Hall to-morrow, when the High School prizes will he distributed. Not only arc the immediate friends of the successful competitors likely to ho there, hut those hj} r whose efforts tho system of education has been adopted. It will be seen by the announcement that there are guests invited who have a partnership in these honors, although they have been taught in other schools ; tor “ hoys from the District Schools who gained certificates of merit at the Provincial Scholarship competitions of 1860 and 1870, are asked to attend. The advantages of this unity of purpose through our whole educational system, will he discovered when the transfers are ma le from the Schools to the University. In the afternoon, at three o’clock, the High School hoys will engage in athletic sports in the Caledonian Society’s ground, when the ladies’ prize will he run for. We hope the weather will be fine, that there may be no interruption to their enjoyment. The Dunedin Jockey Club. —lt is a matter for surprise, and even regret, that the Jockey Club, which, at tho lirst meeting held to consider the propriety of holding races under its auspices this year, showed such signs of healthiness and vigor, should soon afterwards exhibit itself in such a state of despondency as the resolution published in the Canterbury papers betokens. We find that at a meeting of the Club, held at the Km pi re Hotel on the 7th inst., it was resolved “That seeing that many gentlemen of Otago, who have hitherto taken an ac'ive interest in racing matters, have withheld their support and countenance from the Dunedin Jockey Club, in their efforts to get up a race meeting for the ensuing year, that all business hitherto done by the said Club he abandoned ; and that a copy of this resolution he inserted in the Otago, Canterbury, and Nelson papers, by way of explana'ion.” Wo understand that notwithstanding the decision of the Jockey Club, there is some probability of a meeting being held in Dunedin. A number of sporting gentlemen, including many Canterbury gentlemen, are about to take steps towards raising subscriptions for the purpose. Lost in the Bush. —At Invercargill, last week, a married woman, residing within about three miles of the town, with two children (one in her arms, and the other hut just able to walk), was found to be mysteriously missing. The search whi hj was immediately instituted in the neighborhood of the woman’s residence, on the discovery of her absence with her children, being ineffectual, the conclusion was arrived at that they had wandered into the hush and had lost their way. This turned out to be the case, and information being brought to Invercargill, .about noon on Wednesday some twenty or thirty persons proceeded to the bush, furnished with an alarm hell, and commenced a thorough search, which was prosecuted until nightfall without success. On the next morning the party was largely increased, and efforts were resumed and continued until noon of that day, when they were relieved by information that the woman had succeeded in making bur own way out of the bush, and that she and the children wero safe. After an exposure of nearly forty-eight hours in the bush, it is rather a matter of surprise that children so young should not have suffered more than they appeared to have done. The occurrence has furnished ns with a splendid test of the kindly feeling of the townspeople, and of their sympathy with misfortune. All classes turned out in the search.

Curious, if True. —The New York Herald relates that at St. Lawrence, Massachusettea. an elderly lady died in a bouse on Broadway. The day after the funeral a lady, who happened to be visiting one of the tenants of the same house, accidentally turned her eyes upwards, and distinctly saw the figure of the deceased lady at the attic window. In great consternation she communicated the circumstance to the other occupants of toe building, and in a short time the entire neighborhood were made acquainted with the interesting fact, and with their own eyes witnessed the phenomenon. Various means were tried to expunge the photograph of the ghost from the glass, but all in vain ; and at last, owing to the crowds that assembled, it was found necessary to remove the sash. Dr William D. Lamb, an eminent physician, subsequently obtained permission to remove the sash to his office in Essex street, where it has been examined by “intelligent and scientific men,” some of wham are of opinion that the departed must have been photographed upon the windowpane by the action of lightning when sitting in the room before her death. It is a most uncomfortable story, and it is to be hoped that the intelligent and scientific men w li not leave the window sash alone until they have thorougly sifted the mystery. One Law for the Rich, and Another for the Poor.— The following is taken from the Greymouth Star; —As many of our readers are aware, a man hitherto holding a most respectable position was the other day sentenced by Mr Fitzgerald, Resident Magistrate of Hokitika, to two months’ imprisonment, with hard labor, for borrowing the sum of three shillings under false pretences from Mr Osborne, landlord of the Cafe do Paris Hotel. It is well known that the man would have repaid the three shillings, and also that Mr Osborne would have lent the offender three times three shillings on his hare word to repay it. Nevertheless, ho was sent to gaol for two months, and is ruined in character and prospects for life. Reviewing this harsh judgment, a writer gives the following ; —“ I have been trying a rulc-of-threc sum, hut it won’t come right —‘ As three shillings are to two months’ hard labor, so arc two thousand pounds to the answer required.’ If you can find anyone that will work that sum I shall he glad. It may ho had taste to refer to the ‘ irregularity ’ (of tho late County Treasurer) which cost the Cmmty so large a sum, but I can’t help doing it. When I see a poor devil sent to hard • labor for getting a paltry three shillings from a sinner of a publican, I can’t help making comparisons. Tho kind consideration shown to tho ‘ irregularity ’ criminal ! How his feelings were spared ! The dock at the Magistrate’s C .urt ! No, certainly not ! Only too s rry to have to rt quire his attendance in so disreputable a place. Kept out of sight of the public, and only brought in for a moment when there was no help for it. So we deal with the

man who filches thousands. Tho Crown Prosecutor is so distressed to have to discharge his duty, that every now and again he adjourns for consolation end refreshment —to the Post Office. Only when the culprit corae« before the judge is he stripped of the maudlin sentiment with which hj s crime up to then had been surrounded. Look on the other picture ! Convicted of beguiling a publican of three shillings, the culprit is put into the dock, and, with short shrift, sentenced to hard labor for two months, and borne handcuffed through the streets to the gaol! ” Siege or Paris—A Melbourne contemporary, in commenting on the probability of Paris not being in a position to maintain a lengthened siege from the enormous daily consumption of food by its beleaguered inhabitants—says The population of Paris, even as reduced by the elimination of foreigners, of wealthy fugitives, and of the thieves, mendicants, and harlots, who have been expelled, cannot number much less than that of Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia put together, or, in round numbers, 1.500,000. The average weekly cor sumption of bread by each person in Paris is 6jlb; so that upwards of 2.250,000 quartern loaves would be required for each week’s supply of the staff of life. The averave daily consumption of meat per head in that city is half a pound ; which would give 5,250,0001h. as the total of the week’s supply. In the year 1868—the Inst of whi -h we have any account —the number of animals slaughtered in Paris for food was 289,654 oxen, 179,276 calves, 193,166 pigs, and 1,514,285 sheep, besides a considerable number of horses, asses, and mules. More than half the sheep were imported from Germany, Hungary, and the Tyrol; and the d peudence of France upon foreign countries for a supply of butcher’s meat was daily on the increase. Dscarding veal and pork, and assuming th.e consumption of beef and mutton to be equal to what it was in 1868, 5.570 oxen ,<iul 29,121) sheep would have to be slaughtered every week to supply the Parisian population with these articles of food. In Loudon, with more than double the population, the weekly average, in round numbers, is 9,000 cattle, and 41,000 sheep. But, in spite of the enforced frugality which would have to he practised by the inhabitants of Paris, their consumption of bread and meat would he greater during the siege than at ordinary times, since they would bo cut off from supplies of fish, game, poultry, vegetables, and fruit.”

Royal Nurses.—Englishmen and Englishwomen in this part of the world will learn with a feeling of pride that the Crown Princess of Prussia and her sister, the Princess Alice, are actively fulfilling a mission of mercy as hospital nurses. The former devotes no inconsiderable portion of her time to the making of bandages, compresses, charpie, &c., and has made herself mistress of a sufficient knowledge of medicine and the surgical art to qualify her hr the efficient performance of the, duties she has voluntarily undertaken. The FTincess Alice has the special charge of an hospital for the wounded at Darmadadt. It is an ex-conservatory, standing in the midst of flowerbeds, shrubberies, and fountains, and is described as being one of the brightest, airiest, and most cheerful structures that could possibly be designed for such a purpose. A correspondent of the Pail Mall Gazette, who has recently visited Darmsdadt, thus describes the Princess and her labors : “ She ought to be mistress of the inward sentiments of the patients, for they all seem to take her into their inmost confidence. It was worth a journey from England alone to see the faces of the sufferers lighten up as they reflected the sisterly smiles on her. As she passed along, and stopped and spoke to each, the invalid laid himself back on his pillow with an expression of absolute hien Hre, .and for the moment seemed to find something more than an anodyne for his pain. Her passing along tho wards applied the most infallible of teats to the cases. If her presence did not smooth the pain wrinkles out of a man’s face, or bring something like tranquility to his drawn mouth, and cause a flash of light to his eye, you were quite sure that he was in an extremely bad way. Nor was it with the wounded alone she se: med the animating spirit of the place. Nurses and doctors and convalescents walking about, all addressed her with the same cordial familiarity, only tempered by their evident reverence and love. The truth is—and one sees it everywhere else as in Darmstadt—this war has not merely made Germany a nation, hut a family, and a thorough family feeling pervades north and south, high and low alike. Nothing seems regarded as a sacrifice, and the humblest work that can serve the great national cause is regarded as a pleasure and honor. —A ustralasian.

The Commanding Officer’s parade and half-yearly meeting of tho No. 1 Company, City Guards, will take place at the Drill Shed on Monday evening, at 7.30.

OKEV.MOUTU. 400 500 000 Tl, Col. f-'crgt. Chamberlain ... 10 17 10—49 Volunteer Simmons 15 15 18-48 Volunteer Johnston 19 10 13-48 As. Surgeon Morico 19 10 13—48 Volunteer J. Smith 10 18 10—47 Volunteer W. S. Smith ... 10 10 12—38 Volunteer Revell 10 13 7-30 Volunteer Broadbcut 15 3 17—35 Volunteer Thomas 15 4 13—32 Corporal Moss 10 0 9-31 412