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Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2716, 31 October 1871, Page 2

Suez Mail. —The llaugitito with the Suez Mail on board arrived in the Hokitika roadstead at two o’clock this afternoon, but advices from our Hokitika correspondent states that she will net be tendered before ten o’clock. The mail will bring detailed advices to Sept 8, and telegraphic news to Oct 2 or 3.

The Assembly.— A private letter from Wellington states : “ The session is expected to terminate about the 11th. Reid and some of his followers are only waiting to see their pet measure through the House ; the former will probably return by the first steamer leaving about the 2nd. There is no chance of the Licensing Bill passing this session.”

Retaliation.— The Government of Victoria is determined to stop the introduction of our vagrants &c, into that colony as far as it can. Messrs M'Meckan, Blackwood, and Co., have been compelled under terms of a bond entered into by them to pay for the maintenance of an imbecile person brought to Victoria by one of their steamers and who had become an inmate of Yarra Bend.

Port Chalmers.—We understand that a conceit will be given in the Masonic Hall, Port Chalmers, on the 12thproximo. The programme consisting of sacred and secular music will be rendered by ama tears, the proceeds from the entertainment to be devoted to the benefit- of the widow and children of the late Mr John Deane, stevedore, whose sudden death has left his family uprovided for. Land in Melbourne—Land about Melbourne is increasing in value enormously. At a recent auction sale lots in Hotiiam sold at an average price of L 501) per acre. The upset price was L3OO per acre, and choice lots were run up to close upon LI, 100 per acre. On Emera d Hill land that seven years ago could be bought for 10s per foot cannot be purchased for LlO a foot now.

Death of a Maori Prisoner.— Heriwctere Whakarangona, aged 53, died in the Hospital this morning, at eight o’clock, of consumption. The deceased was under a sentence of three years’ penal servitude for high treason, and has been an invalid since his arrival in gaol. He leaves two brothers, who are prisoners in the gaol. An inquest will be held at the Hospital at five o’clock this evening.

An Incident. —At the anniversary dinner of the JS’elson Fire Brigade, a few days ago, it cropped out that a gentleman who was present (Mr Duckett), and who had favored the song ‘ ‘ The red, white, and blue,” was one of the gallant “six hundred ” at Balaclava. On this becoming known the whole company rose as one man to do him honor ; and later in the evening, when his health was proposed, it was received, according to the Examiner, with the heartiest cheers that were ever heard at a public dinner in Nelson,

Robbing a Museum.—We learn from the Southern Cross that the museum in Princes street, Auckland, has lately been broken into and plundered of a number of rock specimens. It was at firs I* stated taken v'ere several of the rich specimens received from the Thames ; but the police authorities deny that portion of the rumor, and say the specimens stolen were jdeces of copper ore, maganese, &c. The entrance seems to have

been effected by cutting out a pane of glass in one of the windows, and thus undoing the fastening and securing an entrance. This robbery is the more remarkable, seeing that one of the Armed Constabulary resides on the premises.

Something Like Business. —A Sandhurst broker received a commission from Melbourne on October 14 to buy stocks to the amount of L 20,985, the largest transaction in a single line, ever done on Sandhurst. Two years ago the whole could have been bought for less than LSOO. Hailstorm in Auckland. —A heavy hailstorm was experienced in Auckland on the 3rd instant, and still more severely in some of the surrounding districts. At the Tamaki a belt of the storm broke over the district with terrific force, many of the hailstones being fully two inches in diameter. Windows in exposed situations were broken, and some growing crops destroyed, including several paddocks of potatoes. The st >rm was felt much more severely in one part of the district that in any other. On one verandah hail accumulated to a depth (f nearly two feet, but of course was an exceptional case. The hailstorm, however, raged violently over a large stretch of country, and was the most severe that has occurred near Auckland for several years.

Mining Hews. — Fi’om Conroys we learn that a fortnight’s crushing gave 104 ounces from about 100 tons of stone, of mixed quality. Excellent accounts are given of the Phoenix claim, Shotover, on which Messrs Butement hare expended L 15,000. Recent prospecting by the Cornish Company has led to the discovery of five new and distinct veins of quartz in the same locality. The most prominent features of alluvial mining in the Shotover district are the increasing number of tunnels, some of which are yielding handsome returns —in some instances as high as LSO a week per man. The reports from Clark's diggings (Naseby district) are equally satisfactory. The population comprises fifty Emopeans and an equal number of Chinese, aud all are said bo be doing well.

(Jo-operation,— Angles, in his “ Talk on Change,” in the Australasian, gives the following illustration of “premonitory symptoms ” of a healthy clerical movement in Victoria :—“ A reverend Oxonian, whoso acquaintance I lately made, was applied to by some Church of England residents of a place soma score miles from his church for one Sunday service per week. Being an earnest and ■ ractical man, hj- told them that they were too few, but that if they, conjointly with the Presbyterians, would provile a room, that he and the Presbyterian minister would come week about and hold a service, each according to the forms of his own church. The suggestion was adopted, and there has been no interruption of this harmonious and catholic arrangement. If no jealous sectarianism should interpose, a really useful and practical reform may be accomplished.

The Volunteers. —In Canterbury, Napier, and Auckland, and in answer to applications to form companies at Tuapoka, Mount Ida, Queenstown, Portobello, &c., letters b ave been received from the inspector of Militia and Volunteers, Colonel Harington, conveying the intimation that the services of new companies would not in the future be accepted, and that even the Strength of existing companies should not be exceeded. The letters are important, as showing the policy that will be carried out respecting the volunteers of the colony, at least for some time to come, An Auckland contemporary, referring to the matter, says : —We have no doubt that it will excite considerable interest among our volunteers, and probably some annoyance, but we do not hesitate to say that in the end it will prove beneficial to the cause of volunteering in New Zealand. There has been no inconsiderable zeal shown latterly respecting volunteering, but it is to be regretted that this zeal has manifested itself rather in enrolling members, iu the subdivision of companies, and in the formation of new companies, than iu increasing the efficiency of the members. Peripatetic Parliaments. Very few people in the South thought when Mr Reader Wood tabled bis motion iu favor of the jjext sessipp of Parliament beipg held iu Dunedin that it would be carried. The Wellington correspondent of one of the Auckland papers explains the causes which have ledhou. members to desire Parliament to sit occasionally at some place other than Wellington ; He says : —Everybody is heartily sick and tired of this place. It is certainly quite unfit for a seat of government or place of meeting for the legislature of the country. It is unhealthy to begin with. Many members either are or have been exceedingly ill, some of them seriously so, T think the seat of government must eventually be removed .to some place of importance iu the Coleny, Members will not consent year after year to be shut up within the ranges that coniine the city of Wellington, where nothing can be done and nothing can be seen, and whore even it is impossible, unless you have the activity of a chamois hunter, to obtain that amount of exercise required for the maintenance of health. A Curious Circumstance. The juryman summoned to give their attendance at the Auckland District Court, on Monday morning, the 25 ult., consisted of twelve gentlemen, the whole of whom answered to the name of Brown. One Brown was remitted from attendance, as it was a day held sacred by the followers of his religious faith. Another Brown claimed exemption upon the ground that he was deaf. Of the Browns there were four Johns, which caused some little difficulty, because each John was uncertain whether he was the particular John wanted. Then again there were Browns who added the “e’final to their names, and there were Browns who did not, but, the pronunciation of the patronymic being the same, some little further difficulty was created. The twelve Browns, it was ascertained by a more particular inspection of the jury list, followed twelve different callings, no two being engaged in the same occupation; and it was by their distinctive trades or professions, in connection with their baptismal names, that the four Browns wanted were at last obtained, and the remaining eight Browns were excused from further attendance.

The Civil Service,—The Superintendent of Nelson (Mr Curtis), in a recent debate on retrenchment, informed tbo House of Representatives that he had been frequently consulted by men who thought of putting their sons into the Civil Service, and who desired his assistance. In these cases he always asked, “ Is he good for anything !” The reply might be, “Well, no,

he is not very bright.” To such an answer Mr Curtis rejoined—“ If he is not very bright, perhaps that is the best thing you can do with him ; but if there is anything in him I would strongly advise you to do nothing of the kind.” And he gave an instance which came under his own observation to show the difficulty there is in obtaining good men for the Civil Service : —“ When the Land Transfer Act was brought into operation at Nelson, 1 was asked if I knew any professional man competent and willing to accept the office of District Registrar. I advised the gentle man who spoke to me to offer the position to a young lawyt r who had just been called to the English bar, who bad lately arrived in the colony. Well, it was offered to him at L6OO a-year. and after some consideration, he came to me and asked me if I would advise him to take it, as L6OO compared with what a lawyer of his abilities generally makes at his profession, did not afford sufficient inducement.” What, we ask, is the consequence when we apply this instance to the service generally? Precisely what Mr Curtis stated to be —appointments have often to be given to those who may not have all the qualification absolutely necessary to discharge the duties efficiently. Monster Musical Festival. —They do things on a large scale in America ; no puny warbling of half-a-dozen voices satisfies them. We admire their spirit—perhaps if we could be present at the World’s Peace Jubilee on the I7th June, 1872, we might enjoy the music. We cannot, however, admire their sensational advertisements, abounding as they do as much in hyperbole as the bulletins of the first Napoleon. No modest announcement will suit their views. Even if what is said be true, it must have put on it the garb of bumptiousness. We have before us an American paper with an announcement in large type, spread over two inches of space, as follows :—“ World’s Peace Jubilee—A gigantic Musical Festival: One hundred thousand in the audience twenty thousand in the chorus, and two thousand in the orchestra.” The projector of this gigantic scheme is a Mr P S. Gilmore, who managed the first great Boston jubilee. As a specimen of the style in which the literary notice is written, we give the first few lines, not only on account of its being an amusing specimen of penny-a-lining, but because it tells of the extraordinary character of the musical instruments employed—cannon, bells, anvils, Ac.: — “Two years ago the Boston Peace Jubilee held the nation spell bound by the sublimity of its music. That great volume of song swept through the land like a flood of melody, filling every Christian heart with ‘go d tidings of great joy.’ It came like a sunburst upon the musical world, shoding light where all had been darkness before aad revealing a new sphere of harmony, a fairer land of promise, and triumphantly realizing greater achievements, in the divine art than were hitherto thpught possible. It will ever be a memorable epoc iin the history of music. Never before had musical enthusiasm pnn so high in our own land; never had there been such an occasion to call it forth. It was a grand outburst of sacred song, an overwhelming outpouring of the people, a universal expression of joy and thankfulness that p ace, blessed peace, had settled down on the land once more. It was a glorious event, aud thousands upon thousands are happier to-day for that one week of heavenly music. Tire boom of the ;canuon, the stroke of the bells, the clang of the anvils, the peal of the organ, the harmony of the thousand instruments, the melody of the ten thousand voices, the inspired works of the great masters, the, gong of the “ Star Spangled Banner,” the cheers of the multitude, the splendor of the spectacle, the general excitement and interest of the evert —all this is the rich possession of many a memory, and will ever be recalled as among the happiest experience of a lifetime. It was Indeed a glo;ions triumph for all interested—a triumph for the individual participant, a triumph for the nation, a triumph for the muiical world. Is there on 3 of the thousands who were there who would not wish to see, to hear, to take part in another such feast of music—nay, in a festival of double the magnitude, double the magnificence, double the interest and importance in every respect.” The project is intended to foster a desire for peace throughout the world. It is intended to gather together musicians from all nations : poets, composers, artists, and conductors, will be asked to contribute their efforts to its success ; and Governments will be invited to send representatives. The festival is to last fourteen days; and music of all nations is to sound the glad tidings of peace on earth and good will towards men. Wc sincerely trust that this, the professed result, will follow,

The members of the Jockey Club and others interested in racing matters, are requested to meet in the Empire Hotel to-morrow (Wednesday) evening, at eight o’clock.

The annual public meeting of the Dunedin branch of the Wesleyan Missionary Society will be held in Trinity Church, Stuart street, to-morrow (Wednesday) evening. Chair to be taken bj' Mr Thomas Dick at 7-SO.