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Evening Star, Issue 2881, 14 May 1872, Page 2

Education. —Mr Macassey’s motion respecting education, comes on at seven o’clock this evening.

Common Schools. —On the motion of Mr M'Dcrmid, an additional grant of 500,000 acres of land were to-day requested t) be set aside as a further endowment for common schools.

The Anderson’s Bay Accident.— Inquiries made by us this afternoon as to the state of Young, the young man who was shot at the Ocean Beach on Thursday, resulted in the information that ho remains much in the same condition as he was a few days ago ; so that the doctors are unable to express any opinion as to his case.

Princess Theatre. “Arrah-na-Pogue,” which has been laid on the manager’s shelf since Mr Allen, the American actor, was here, was re-produced last evening to a fair house, but by no means commensurate with the merits of the piece, for it is well put on the stage and carefully acted. The scenic and mechanical effects were not as evenly brought out as they will be on future representations, but for all that the audience were able to see that Mr Willis has succeeded in turning out some good things. The principal characters are sustained by Miss Anstead and Mr O’Brien ; the latter, as Shawn the Post, was surprisingly good-

Mr Smith’s Lectures. —Mr Beveridge, vice-president of the Mutual Improvement Society, to-day received the following communication from Mr Smith: —“ Will you allow me to convey to you privately my warm acknowledgments of the handsome testimonial presented to me by your Society on Monday evening, coupled with the sincere conviction that the value of that testimonial is out of all proportion to the trifling services you have been good enough to consider I have rendered your Society. In order the more impressively to testify my sense of the kindness I have experienced in Dunedin, will your Society permit me to offer them another lecture on Thursday evening—subject: ‘ The Life and Times of Marie Antoinette ’ ? It is a sad story, but I regard the lecture as one of the best I have written, because the epoch of the French Devolution is one which I have made the subject of my special study in years gone by. I should like to be allowed to devote any surplus funds, after paying expenses, to some benevolent object, but this is a point upon which I have no right to do more than express a wish.” The Society at once accepted Mr Smith’s offer, and the lecture will take place on Thursday evening, in the Masonic Hall, the surplus funds to go to the Benevolent Institution.

Invercargill Gaol. A Council Paper was recently laid on the table of the Provincial Council, purporting to be a “Report on the Gaol, Invercargill, for the years 1871-72.” It is in substance a simple statement, to the effect that the prisoners have behaved well, enjoyed good health, and been moderately industrious during the year ; and that the gaoler is underpaid. Having recorded these important items of information, the writer of the “ report ” seems to have been pumped dry by the “responsibility and anxiety ” of his office ; and so he winds up with stating that he is “not aware of any other matter calling for special remark relative to the department, ” It never seems to have occurred to this responsible and anxiety-oppressed official—who by the way calls himself “gaoler” in the report itself, and “governor” after his signature—that any information respecting the number of prisoners who had come in or gone out of the Gaol during the year ; their ages, sex, nationality ; nature of the offences for which committed; duration of term of imprisonment, &c., could possess the slightest amount of interest for those for whose special benefit this unique report was prepared. It seems to us perfectly unaccountable how those who have the control of such matters should think it worth while to waste the public funds by minting such useless official trash. It should certainly either have been sent back for insertion of some of the items of real interest, or consigned to the waste-paper basket. Had the former course been taken, it might as well have been accompanied with a gentle hint that the first clause of the report might be susceptible of some improvement; as seeing it is professedly written under date “ 31st March, 1872,” it is not very clear—at least to most readers in this part of the “ united Province ” —how it can possibly have been accompanied with an approximate estimate of expenditure, &c., “for the financial year commencing April, 1871, and ending March, 1872”? or, rather, of what possible use such an “estimate” could bo to the head of a department, where the actual expenditure itself of the year referred to is recorded and kept ? Presentation. —The social gathering tendered to Mr James Smith by the Mutual Improvement Society and his spiritualistic admirers was held in the M asonic Hall last evening, and was a most decided success. After ample justice bad been done to the

tea and other good things provided by Mr Shand, the business of the evening was commenced, Mr Millar, F.S.A., occupying the chair. Mr Beveridge, the vice-president of the society, in the course of the remarks made by him, referred to the rumors that had been going about to the effect that Mr Smith had delivered his lectures for mercenary purposes, and gave a flat denial to those reports, stating, that up to the present moment Mr Smith had not received a single penny from the Society on account of the lectures. Addresses on spiritualism were afterwards delivered by Messrs Stout, Garrick, and Redmayne, and Mrs John Logan presented Mr Smith with a purse of 50 sovereigns, as a token of the esteem in which he was held by tbe citizens. Mr Smith, in replying, said the services he had rendered to the Society or to the cause of Spiritualism, had been offered from a sense of duty. He would have been false to the guidance of Ms teachers, and ungrateful for the invaluable knowledge they had graciously bestowed on him if he had neglected to endeavor, to the best of his limited abilities, to amuse the public with such lectures as he had written on secular subjects ; or to strive to instruct them by the delivery of those of which ho was only the mouthpiece and which related to the most important event which could engage their attention as intelligent and immortal beings. .Noticing the strictures made upon him by Hr Copland and referring to his own initiatibn into the mysteries of spiritualism he observed that it had been cleverly remarked that spiritualism had to pass through five stages. 1. The manifestations did not take place. 2. Spiritualism was a great imposture. 3. It was a delusion. 4. It was the work of the devil. 5. It was a great blessing, and people always said so. ” Just now, he continued, its opponents were in the fourth stage, and spiritualists took comfort from the assurance that the fifth was not far off. In the meantime he asked believers to show by their lives the influence which the belief bad upon their character and conduct. In conclusion, he reiterated the expression of his sincere and heartfelt thanks for the handsome mark of their favor which ho had received, and assured them that he would always cherish agreeable recollections of his visit to Dunedin, and hoped to renew at some future day an acquaintance so pleasantly commenced. The room was afterwards cleared for dancing, which was kept up with spirit till an early hour this morning ; the dancing being interspersed with songs, the Misses Jngo and two other ladies and Mr Marsden being the principal vocalists. Messrs Peters and Lucas gave gratuitously their services as a band ; and Mr Murray was, it need hardly be remarked, an efficient M. C,

Mr J. G. S. Grant will deliver a lecture on “Spiritualism,” to-morrow (Wednesday) evening, in the lower hall of the Athenaeum, at 8 o’clock. The usual concei’t in connection with the Dunedin Abstainers Union, will take place to-morrow evening* in the Odd Fellows’ Hall, at 8 o’clock.