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Evening Star, Issue 3221, 17 June 1873, Page 2

To-morrow the poll is to be taken for the election of Superintendent, and each elector has a duty to perform which he cannot neglect, without in some degree compromising what he believes to be the interest of the Province. We de not think it at all necessary to point to this, to rouse the opponents of Mr Macandrew to a sense of the position in which their candidate stands. They know he needs help to the utmost; and that unless those who coincide with Mr Macandrew neglect to vote, under the idea that so universal is the feeling in his favor that his return is certain, whether they vote or not, Mr Gillies stands no chance of election. Having this well-founded impression, Mr Gillies’s friends will vote to a man. It behoves Mr Macandrew’s supporters, therefore, to act as if he were also in a doubtful plight, for there is nothing so likely to end in defeat, as an idea that victory is so certain that effort to obtain it is not necessary. More battles and election contests have been lost through the snpineness induced by certainty of victory, than by absolute inability to win. Not only on this ground, therefore, do we recommend Mr Macandrew’s supporters to make it a point of conscience to record their votes, but because it is desirable that a death-blow should be given to that factious course of conduct, which for so long a time has acted detrimentally to the beat interests of Otago. We believe the present election to be a question of “progress or no progress ; ” and e very elector, in voting for Mr Macandrew, is expressing approval of those measures which require completion, in order to insure the continuance of that prosperity that has resulted from their initiation. To allow Mr Gillies to be returned would be to condemn the efforts that have been made to foster industry and give effect to social and commercial advancement ; and should such a result take place through even one voter neglecting to record his vote, he would not forgive himself for having sacrificed the cause he has at heart to some comparatively trifling engagement. Our recommendation to every voter is—- “ Conscientiously record your vote.” We have to apologise to the readers of the Evening Star for the non-delivery of the greater portion of last night’s issue, which was owing to the unwan anted action of some of the runners. Steps have been taken which, we hope, will prevent a recurrence of similar conduct. The hairless horse Caoutchouc was on exhibition in Port Chalmers yesterday, and mat with a fair amount of patronage. A new industry has been started in Timaru, namely, the manufacture of tooth and hair brushes. The Picton paper warns earthquakes that “to be regarded with proper awe,” they “ must not come so frequently as they have lately.” Two gentlemen in Greymonth recently collected L2OO on behalf of the local fire brigade in a few hours. The fire engines and plant are now worth close upon L 1,500. “ Tahite,” the well-known dramatic critic of the Australasian, has coined a new word to express a certain kind of theatrical display—“ leggism.” The proposal of Messrs O’Neill, Thomas, and Co., to lay down street-tramways in Christchurch, has been declined by the City Council. The Primitive Methodists are displaying great energy in Canterbury. Their new church in Christchurch is nearly finished, and two other churches are to be erected in country districts. Miss Stephenson and Mr Burford are now fulfilling an engagement at Wellington, after which they proceed to Christchurch, Mr Burford having leased the Theatre Royal there for two months. Mr Hoskins and Miss Colville may be expected in Dunedin in a few days. The Warden reports to the Marlborough Government of the Wakamarina diggings for the year ended March last:—About 2,000 ounces of gold were obtained in the Wakamarina during the year, and as I have averaged the population at' 90, the average wages would be about 30s per week. By special request, “ The Lancashire Lass ” was repeated at the Princess Theatre last evening to a good house. “The Cor' sican Brothers ” will be played this evening, with a capital cast—Mr Rayner sustaining the dual character, and Mr Douglas appearing as Chateau Renaud. The Canterbury Provincial Government consider the question of immigration of such importance that they intend to send a member of the Government to Wellington to confer with the General Government on the subject, believing that the business can be better transacted by a personal interview than by telegraphic despatches. The chief Rewi was most unfortunate with the gold watch given to him by Mr Mackay. On the very next day after the interview, whilst passing over a creek, his horse stumbled, &ud the wfttch fell out of Rewi s pocket into the water. Attempts have been made at Alexandra to have the watch cleaned. Mr Joseph Mackay, the lieutenant of Mr Gillies, has announced himself, in the columns of the Bruce Herald , as a candidate for the representation of Milton, he being confident that to-morrow will see Mr Gillies k.upenntendent, and, as a natural consequence, the representation of Milton vacant, ho doubt the wish is father to be thought. .The following are the tenders received for the construction of the Awamoko Railway. (The cost of sleepers is included in the amounts) George Proudfoot, L 7.231 15s ; Smyth and Lazarus, L 7,633 16a; Kirkwood and Co. L 8.401 19s; George Pratt, L 10,387 19s 4d ; Grave and MTntosb, L15,02910s 6d. A new alarm is raised by a Mr John Blair, L.R.C t S. In a paper read before the Victorian Medical Society he declares that the disease known as Hydatids is extraordinarily prevalent in Victoria ; and he attributes the spread of the disease to the dog, just as small-pox is said to have come from the camel. The Dunedin Colored Opera Troupe gave one of their amusing entertainments in Crickmore’s Assembly Rooms, Port Chalmers, last night, to a well filled house. The different choruses were well rendered by the Company, whilst Messrs Norton and Weston kept the audience in roars of laughter by their local jokes and conundrums., The entertainment was brought to a close by the troupe’s local burlesque, which created much merriment. In the Court of Appeal on the sth instant, the case of Drury v, Roberts was heard ex

parte. This was the noted libel case from Wanganui, in which a verdict had been ,dven for the plaintiff, this verdict the defendant appealed. Mr Travers stated the case on behalf of the appellant, but the Court, without calling upon the respondent, dismissed the appeal with costs. An amusing instance of the bigotry and tyranny of that most illogical and tyrannical community, the Sabbatarians, occurred at the Hutt a week since. One of the cases on which Mr Crawford, R M., was called upon to adjudicate was an information laid against a settler there under the old Sunday Trading Act of Charles 11. for infringing the Lord’s Day by driving out his horse and cart on Sunday to fetch home his wife. A technical irregularity enabled the magistrate to dismiss this preposterous charge. The No. 1 Loyal Pioneer Lodge of New Zealand Protestant Alliance Friendly Benefit Society of Victoria held their usual fortnightly meeting last evening, at the Athenaeum Hall, when seven members were initiated, and twelve members proposed. The warrant for opening the lodge was received by last mail from Ballarat, and by the Claud Hamilton the necessary regalia and books are expected to arrive. The lodge now numbers seventy members, and ere long it is expected that branch lodges will be opened, not only throughout the Province of Otago, but throughout the whole of New Zealand. A rich farmer, named William May, in Stratton, England, became heir to a large property, inherited from an uncle, paying legacy duty as a nephew, and not as a stranger in blood. Soon afterwards he refused to support his mother, who was an inmate of a workhouse ; and he grounded his refusal on the fact ot his being illegitimate. The Treasury heard this, and, instead of being content with 3 per cent, legacy duty, charged him 10 per cent, on his uncle’s bequest, and all the people say, “ Served him right.”

We were glad to see that Mr Perrier’s services, in connection with the diorama, which has for some time past been exhibited at the Masonic Hall, have been appreciated ; for, on the occasion of his benefit last evening, he was greeted with a full house. The diorama and lectures were as successful as ever ; but as much cannot be said of the novelty in the comic-singing line. The amateur who attempted to sing “ Abyssinian gold ” was not only inaudible, but had the impudence to attempt to thrust himself on the audience, who, after bearing with him good-humoredly at first. snowed its opinion of his efforts by deliberately hissing him. Thirty guineas a day is a very fair fee for a professional man. In Melbourne a few days ago an action was brought to recover LIBO medical fees. The plaintiff, Dr Barker, had been engaged in the year 1867 to attend Mr Edward La Trobe Bateman, who had sustained injuries about that time while travelling. The plaintiff had been summoned by Mr Moffatt to the Hopkins Hill station, on the Murray, to attend Mr Bateman, who had sustained serious injuries by being thrown from a buggy, and had been absent from Melbourne six days. His charge was at the rate of thirty guineas a day. The defendants, executors of the will of the late John Moffatt, pleaded nonindebtedness. A verdict was given for the plaintiff for the full amount claimed. The West Coast Times records a somewhat remarkable case of sudden death which occurred a few days ago at Woodstock. The report brought in states that the deceased, who was named Thomas Edmond Hughes, had been-chopping some wood, and was observed by a miner named James Irwin to be leaning against the garden fence Irwin went on, and findingon returning that Hughes was still in the same position, called to him, exclaiming, “You are taking a long look at your cabbages I” Getting no answer, Irwin went over to deceased and found that his head was between two of the palings of the fence. On lifting up the head deceased fell down, and then Irwin perceived that he was dead, of which he was unaware previously. At the Caversham nomination, Mr Stout, in following out his usual line of readyreckoning, borrowed as an apt illustration the exhibition of “twelve little black niggers.” Alluding to this part of his address, Mr Leary said he would not allow himself to become one of the niggers. The Daily Times , in its report of the proceedings, makes Mr Leary say that he would be one if the twelve, a circumstance we have been asked to contradict. Seeing the mistake is rather a grievous one, our contemporary should be asked to make substantial reparation. A donation of 40s, devoted to a charitable purpose, would not be out of the question. It would be compensation not exceeding one shilling a-head for each of the “little black niggers,” and LI 8s for the mistake. A meeting of the committee of the Port Chalmers Seamen’s Mission, was held in the Harbor office, on Tuesday the Bth inat., the Rev. Mr Maxwell in the chair. The preliminary business having been disposed of, Mr Gilbert, the missionary, gave in his resignation, which was accepted, and the following resolution agreed to:—“ That the committee, in accepting Mr Gilbert’s resignation, deem it due to him to say that, in their opinion, he has, amid many discouragements, labored very faithfully, perseveringly, and zealously, in the difficult field of the Bethel Mission at Port Chalmers : and further, the committee express the hope that the Lord will speedily open to Mr Gilbert another doer of usefulness, and that an abundant blessing may rest upon his labors.” When some dramatic professionals were leaving Westport somewhat suddenly last week, they omitted to pay the bellman for crying their performances during the nights they were playing. The bellman was indignant. and during the time of the starting of the steamer Kennedy, and for a good half hour before, he stood on the wharf, bell in band, which was freely handled at frequent intervals, exclaiming, “ Here’s a lot,of wagabonds by Act of Parliament has been and done me out of ten days of my lungs, and they are going away and robbing me out of my rights. One of them’s the gentleman with the white bat a standing near the wheel, and the other’s a gentleman with a blue wail over his face which don’t hide it a bit, and there’s another gentleman with no soles to his boots, &c., &c.” And so the bellman continued identifying the renegade professionals, and announcing that he had been done out of two pound ten’s worth of

lung power. On the subject of police and their duties, as not only detective but also and chiefly preventive of crime, the Bishop of London, in an address to the London police force, lately made the following excellent suggestion, which ought to be framed and hung up in every police station : —“ He understood there was a temptation placed in the way of policemen to acquire a reputation for sagacity, by leading on offenders into a trap, as he might say. He did not mean to say that any of bis hearers had yielded to the temptation to |do anything of the kind ; but he asked policemen to try to prevent, instead of merely detecting, crime. They must see many young lads and lasses of 14, 15, or 16 years of age, who were going to thebad ; and was it not worth while policemen for to say a word, or do something in a friendly manner, to hinder these lads and lasses from following their evil course? If a policeman managed to rescue a boy or a girl from crime —and he, the Bishop, was sure the police sometimes had chances of doingso—he would have done something that ought to give him satisfaction for the whole of his life, and something much more blessed than the apprehension of a confirmed criminal.” A meeting of shareholders of the Albion Coal Company was held yesterday afternoon in the Provincial Hotel. Mr Main presided. Upwards of a dozen members were present. Mr Turnbull read a communication notifying a general meeting of shareholders, to be held at Nelson, on the 25th instant, and advising that a delegate should be appointed to represent Otago, He (Mr Turnbull) added that,

with tbe view of consulting the convenience of parties residing iu Dunedin, he had telegraphed back again, asking that the meeting might be adjourned one month later, to moe: in Wellington. He explained his reason for having done so was that the Assembly would be in session, and they would be enabled to secure the attendance of a delegate from Dunedin without incurring the serious personal inconvenience of a journey to Nelson, for the express purpose of being present at the meeting. The meeting approved of the step taken, and adjourned till this morning, to give time for a reply being received. It was also elicited that two tons of coal from the mine had been received in Dunedin, and that the same was about to be tested at the gasworks. All the shares had been allocated with the exception of 1,000 forwarded to Wellington, as to which advices had not yet been received. One thousand shares had been allotted to Dunedin, all of which bad been taken up. In addition, other 800 had been appropriated, making a total of 1,800 shares held in Dunedin. The mine at the present time was being wrought on a small scale by the original proprietors. Mr Fairclough appeared as Othello at the Queen’s Theatre last evening ; and although it must be admitted that he displayed a proper conception of the character, the poor support he received from the other members of the company detracted from the merits of his performance. Mr Aveling’s lago was not sufficiently villainous ; and Mr Glover, as Cassio, had a part utterly unsuited to him. Mdlle. Legrand’s Desdemona, as far as looks wera concerned, was a success ; and that is all that can be said of it. Miss Anstcad appeared as Emilia, and it is doing this lady scant justice to say she acquitted herself well. Mr South’s Brabantio was a decided success : this gentleman improves on acquaintance, and he must bo commended for the conscientious manner in which he played last evening. Mr Hydes was not in his element as Roderigo. But the Montano of the piece was a gross absurdity ; an alteration might be effected with advantage in respect to the representation of this character. Tonight ‘ ‘ Othello ” will be repeated, when Mr Fairclough will appear as lago ; and we are of opinion this gentlemen will be better suited in this character than in that of Othello. Anthony Trollope spent a night in a cor-rugated-iron hotel on the road from Queenstown to Clyde, when he was en route to Dunedin fifteen months ago ; and in his recently published work tells an anecdote which forcibly illustrates a drawback to which such buildings are subject. He says: “The rooms, of course, are small; and every word uttered in the house can be heard throughout it, as through a shed put up without divisions. And yet tbe owners and frequenters of these iron domiciles seem never to be aware of the fact. As I lay in bed iu one of these metal inns on the road, I was constrained to hear the private conversation of my host and hostess who had retired for the night. ‘ So this is Mr Anthony Trollope,’ said the host. The hostess assented, but I could gather clearly from her voice that she was thinking much more of her back hair than of her visitor. ‘Well,’ said the host, ‘ he must be a fool to come travelling in this country in such weather as this.’ Perhaps, after all, the host was aware of tbe peculiarity of his house, and thought it well that I should know his opinion. He could not have spoken any words with which at that moment I should have been more prone to agree.” On Wednesday, the 11th inst., the Church of St. Barnabas, at Blueskin, was consecrated by the Very Rev. Dr Neville, Bishop of Dunedin. The church stands on an area of about two acres and a-half of ground, which is enclosed as a cemetery, and was consecrated at the same time. His Lordship arrived at noon, accompanied by the V’en. Archdeacon Edwards and the Rev. E. G. Penny. They were received at the entrance to the ground by the Rev. T. L. Stanley, the Church Committee, and a large congregation, including a number of visitors from Dunedin. The petition for consecration was presented by the church trustees, Messrs Pitt, Smith, and [Grant, and a procession being formed, the boundaries of the cemetery were traversed ; his Lordship, tbe clergy, and congregation reciting the appointed ritual. The ceremony of consecrating the church for public worship according to the form prescribed by the Church of England was next proceeded wi th. The services were read by Bishop Neville, assisted by the clergy present, and his Lordship preached an eloquent sermon from Psalm 26, v. 8. Mr A. J. Towsey, of Dunedin, conducted the musical arrangements, and accompanied the psalms and hymns on the harmonium with his accustomed taste and skill, the congregation, almost without exception, joining heartily in the singing. On several .occasions we have had pleasure in drawing attention to tbe energy and zeal with which the building of St. Barnabas Church has been prosecuted. The result must be gratifying to everyone who has given assistance towards Its completion; for we understand it is the only church in the Province that has been begun, completed for service, and consecrated within fourteen months. We need not say, being consecrated, that it is handed over to the trustees free from debt. Pursuant to advertisement, a meeting of the electors of Bell Ward was held last night in the Oddfellows’ Hall. The attendance was very large. Mr Chapman was voted to the chair. The subjects brought up for consideration were clauses 3 and 9 of the proposed alterations in the Municipal Act. By clause 3 it is proposed—“ That the Mayor should be annually elected by the Council and from the Council,” and by clause 9—• “ That plurality of votes be provided for to the extent that one person may have one or three votes, not more, in any one ward, according to the amount for which he may be rated in the ward. A ratepayer assessed at LSO or under, one vote; ditto between LSO and LIOO, two votes ; ditto over LIOO, three votes.” The first resolution on the subject was moved by Mr Butterfield, and seconded by Mr Carroll—“That this meeting views with regret the proposal by the Corporation to get a Bill passed through the General Assembly at the forthcoming session to deprive the citizens of their rights, and this meeting appoints a committee consisting of Messrs Harrop, Carrick, Carroll, Munro, Hherwin sen., Haig, and the mover, to draw up a petition against the obnoxious clauses, and obtain the signatures of ratepayers thereto with the view of strengthening the hands of members opposed to their adoption.” Cr. Neale spoke in favor of the proposal to leave the election of Mayor in the hands of the Council. With respect to the proposed plurality of votes, however, he expressed himself not very clear on the question.—Cr. Thoneman also spoke in favor of the election of Mayor by the Council. He argued that as the Chief Magistrate presided at the Mayor’s Court, his judgment was liable to be influenced by tbe fact that his election as Mayor was opposed by persons who might happen to appear before him in his judicial capacity. In Victoria the Mayor was elected from the Council by the Councillors. He explained that the recommendation had been simply adopted with the view of affording the ratepayers an opportunity of discussing the point, and he (Or. Theneman) advised them to make it a test question at the approaching election. With regard to the plurality of votes, he thought that that was also a question upon which the ratepayers should give some decided expression of opinion. A great deal might be urged upon both sides of the question. In other societies for instance, the Waterworks Company—a man having fifty shares had more to say in the management of affairs than one having only one share. It was, however, a point he would leave the ratepayers to decide by their elections. In answer te a question put by Mr Sherwin, senr., he said that it was not proposed to bring in a new Municipal Bill, but simply to adopt a few more clauses of the Act under which they wrought at present.—Cr. Barnes spoke in condemnation of the proposed alterations. He insisted that

although these proposals simply emanated from a committee of tne Council, still, as that committee con sis ted of the whole of the motr> hers of the Council, it was virtually a recommendation made by a majority in the Council. The motion was eventually put and carried. —Mr Sherwin, tear., moved the second resolution : ‘ * That this meeting pledges itself to use all lawful means to prevent the Mayor being elected by the Councillors, as it would be tbe means of preventing the ratepayers having a voice in the said election, and would lead to corruption. ” The motion was seconded by Mr Harrop, and carried.—Mr Carrick n' xt moved, and Mr Munro seconded, “ That this meeting pledges itself t» do all in its power to prevent the passing of that obnoxious clause giving plurality of votes.”—Cr. Walter explained that the proposals were made simply with the view of inviting discussion on the subjects. He expressed himself strongly opposed to the system of plurality of votes, which he designated one of the most iniquitous proposals that oould be made. The other point about the election of Mayor was one for tbe ratepayers to decide upon.—Cr. Mercer also spoke to tbe same effect; after which the motion was pat and carried. A fourth resolution was then passed, conveying the thanks of the meeting to those Councillors who had offered the suggestions. The meeting, which was rather a boisterous one, then broke up. In the description we gave of the consecration of St. Barnabis Church at Blueskin, an accidental error in the correction of a proof rendered one portion of it unintelligible. As we know several subscribers desire to send copies of the paper, giving a notice of it, to friends, we therefore republish it corrected.