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Evening Star, Issue 2940, 22 July 1872, Page 2

Tee Mail News. The telegraph, with the uncertainty characteristic of it on all important occasions, worked so badly on Saturday that our messages of mail news occupied in their transmission nearly three times the length of time they ordinarily take. When the slips came to hand they proved to contain such little news that we did not feel warranted in publising an “extra.” The telegrams will be found in onr fourth pages. Meat Preserving in Southland. — It is expected that the works of tho Southland Meat Preserving Company, at Winton, will be closed for the season in about three weeks from this date. Up to the 13th inst. the company had disposed of 15,643 sheep, and 249 head of cattle.

Scholastic. — Mr G. F, Abram, the Englsh master of the High School, is a passenger by the Nebraska. Mr J. H. Pope who, during that gentleman’s absence, has been fulfilling his duties in addition to his own, has been granted six months leave of absence, owing to ill-health. Princess Theatre.—“ Masaniello” was played on Saturday evening to a moderate house. To night “ Asinodeus” and a farce will be produced. On Tuesday Mr Musgrave takes a benefit. So excellent and conscientious an actor deserves to have his merits substantially recognised ; and we hope to see a crowded house on the occasion.

Dunedin Athenaeum. —The usual parcel of magazines and reviews have been received by the above Institute, and the following books :—“The Rose Garden,” by the author of “Unawares; “The Story of the Plebiscite, ” from the French of MM. Erckman Chatrean, authors of the “Conscript,” “Waterloo,” &c. ; “ Middlemarcb,” book I it., “ Waiting for Death.” A Difference. —Under the heading “An Interval of Twenty Years,” the Nelson Examiner writes on the occasion of receiving the first direct telegrams A correspondent refers us to the Examiner of July, 1852, which announced the arrival in Nelson of the ship Persia from London, after a passage of 155 days, “ with latest English dates.” In onr columns to day will be found the first through telegram from England, giving English dates only nineteen days old.

Who should be Legislators I— ln the lecture delivered to the Young Men’s Christian Association of Auckland by Mr Gillies upon “Our Laws and how they are made,” occur the following pertinent remarks “ This brings me to my moral that if you want better laws and better made, you must select your legislators better. You must select men who know the wants and requirements of the community—men who, knowing these, have no wants and requirements of their own of greater personal importance—and, if you can, get them men of trained cultivated minds, who can, even if they cannot apeak, put laws in such a shape that even lawyers cannot pick holes in them ”

The Dunstan. —The winter (remarks the Times) has at last come to an end, succeeded by a downright good earnest thaw with rain in galore, thus rendering everything as uncomfortable as could well be desired, and the roads in that state called execrable. By this timely change the miners, and in fact the entire people of the district, are quite elated, and all look forward to better times. The past twelve months in the Dunstan district proper, that is, including Black’s, Drybreacl, and the diggings under the Dunstan Range, has been, for gold producing, the worst ever experienced : the summer and autumn being exceptionally dry, not above a third of the water as usual available, followed by the most severe of winters, locking ground and water up entirely in its iron grip.

A Simple Invention.—Attention is directed by a correspondent of the Nelson papers to a “simple safety lamp” recently invented at Home. He considers it may be of service to miners, and desciibcs it thus:— “ Take a phial bottle of the whitest glass you can find. Insert a piece of phosphorus of the size of a pea, Pom* upon the phosphorus as much boiling oil as will fill onethird of the phial. Cork the phial so as to exclude all air. This is the safety lamp. When it is required, open the phial to admit the atmospheric air, immediately re-corking it. The lamp is alight, and will give at least as much light as an ordinary miner’s lantern. When the lamp becomes dim, merely open the phial for an instant, caresully re-stopping it, and repeat the operation when required, It is said that these safety lamps last for six months without further ‘ trimming.’” Important to Benefit Societies.— A case of importance to members

of Friendly Societies has been brought before the llesident Magistrate at Charleston. The plaintiff was Dr. Henry, and the defendant Patrick Morris r ey. The action was brought by the Slain tiff to determine whether he, as meical officer for the Hibernian Society, Charleston, was entitled to charge the members thereof for vaccination performed on their children. The agreement between the lodge was pub in, and defendant relied for his case upon certain exemptions contained therein, amongst which vaccination was not mentioned. His Worship having read the agreement through, said that according to its contents the medical officer was only bound to attend the members of the lodge and their families in oases of “hurt, accident, or illness,” with exceptions arising out of these; that vaccination was nob an illness, but only a precautionary measure adopted against a certain disease, and was not necessary to be put under the list of exceptions. Judgment must therefore be for the plaintiff for the amount claimed with costs. A Just Rebuke.—A civil servant wrote to Mr Luckie, M.H.R. for Nelson City, asking that gentleman to use his “ influence with the members of the Ministry” in obtaining an advance of salary for the applicant, to which Mr Luckie replied ;—“ I should be glad legitimately to assist deserving public officers ; but I already find myself receiving so many applications of this kind, all based on an imaginary ‘ influence ’ of mine with the Ministry, that I am compelled to decline all such action as that you desire. _ You will not fail to perceive that (even did this fancied influence really exist) for cither myself to exert, or the Ministry to be moved by it, or to act in the direction indicated, unless on the basis of service and abilities, irrespective of applications fruin any member of the Legislature, such a course would, in my opinion, be an improper exercise of a member’s influence, and of the powers of the Administration. It is presumed that the officers having the management of departments are both just in their dealings with, and recommendations of the officers under them, and that they take the necessary trouble to ascertain their deserts and capabilities, according to the rules of the public service. In cases where injustice is done, there is always a power of representation and appeal. But to my mind, unless such cases are made out, and just appeals neglected, it is no part of a representative’s duty to exercise influence, real or imaginary, with members of the Ministry in the manner you propose. A representative has other work to perform than, on the strength of his personal acquaintance with any < fficer like yourself, to recommend additions to the civil expenditure, while ignorant, as almost always he must be, of the real business merits of the case.”

A Lecture under the auspices of the Dunedin Mutual Improvement Society, on Spiritualism, will be delivered by the Rev. Michael Watt, in the lower hall, Athenaeum, to-morrow (Tuesday) evening, at 8 o’clock. Messrs Booth and Glover, assisted by Miss Raymond and Mr Thorpe, will give an entertainment at Crickmore’s Assembly Rooms, Port Chalmers, to-morrow (Tuesday) evening.