Untitled

Evening Star, Issue 3285, 30 August 1873, Page 2

There was a clean charge sheet at the City Police Court this morning. The Rev. Mr Paterson, of Napier, delivered a lecture recently on the question, “Is man responsible for his belief ?” Ihe rev. lecturer maintained the affirmative. We should like to know his views on denominational education.

We understand that a meeting of the Council of the University was held to-day, to consider certain proposals by the Colonial Government for affiliation with the New Zealand University. These proposals are said to be very favorable ; but neither their tenor nor the result of the meeting were we able to learn.

A company, consisting of M’ss Juno, Mrs Philips, Mr and Mrs Garner, Mr and Mrs Andrews, Mr Hans PhiUips, Mr and Mrs Gladstane, Mr Byrne, and others, has been formed iu Victoria to travel through the Australian Colonies and New Zealand, commencing at Geelong on August 18. It is to be styled “ The Eloise Juno Star Comedy Company,’ and it will be under the direction of the lady whose name serves for its distinguishing title. We are afraid there is little chance of the All England Eleven visiting New Zealand, unless M r Biddle’s principals consent to open their mouths less widely than they at pi’Csent appear inclined to do. For a three days’ match at Geelong Mr B.ddlc asked the Coriu club the modest sum of L 350, the club to pay all expenses. That club does not con sider itself justified in paying such a large amount, and offers Mr Biddle the free use of the ground, the local players to pay all expenses.

The office of Inspector and Secretary of Post Offices, which was held b} T the late Mr Gray in conjunction with his other offices, is bo be filled up by the appointment of a gentleman to be imported from England for the purpose. The Wellington correspondent of the Lyttelton Times says that the Hon. John Bali has been asked to make the selection after consultation with the English postal author!lies. The major portion of the assisted immigrants by the Mary Shepherd to Canterbury were engaged on the first day that they were open for employment. All the single women were engaged at good wages, namely—cooks, L3O; general servants, L 25 to L3O ; housemaids, L2O to L 2 5; nurse girls, LI 2to Lls. Farm laborers, single men, obtained LSO to L 52 per annum and found ; married couples, L6O per annum ; carpenters, 10s per day ; saddlers, 10s per day ; bootmakers, L2 to L 3 per week ; smiths, L2 2s per week. The management of the Queen’s I heatre have kept faith with the public in regard to the manner in which Gilbert’s comedy of “ The Palace of Truth ” was produced. The scenery ami dresses are “gorgeous,” the music incidental to the piece appropriate, and altogether it may be pronounced an un qualified success, reflecting the utmost credit on all concerned. As a lengthened notice will appear in our issue of Monday, wo will not enlarge at present on the merits of the performance of last evening. “ The Palace of Truth” will bo repeated to-night, c-m----eluding with “Tho Spitalficlds Weaver.” Mr M'Gillivray, in opposing the second reading of the Deceased Wife’s Sister Maariage Bill, ia reported in Hansard to have said: —“lf ever there were any extraordinary scarcity of ladies iu the community, it might be pleaded as some reason for a change in the marriage law ; but he did not believe there was any such scarcity. Judging from what one sees at places of public resort and amusement, there did not appear to be any scarcity—quite the contrary; and he saw not the shadow of an excuse for casting what he called ‘ matrimonial eyes ’ upon deceased wife’s sisters. Indeed, there was such an abundance of ladies as to leave no excuse at all for those gentlemen who were leading the life of bachelors.”

The unhappy man Joseph Eppright, who was executed at Auckland, for toe murder of Thomas Henry Garrity, third mate of the whaling barque Rainbow, said to the Rev. P. H. Uorntord, Baptist Minister, in reply to the question how it was that he was brought to that sad extremity ; “Ah, sir, the root of all evil—drink ! The blow that caused the death of my best friend was brought on through drink.” Again on the scaffold he stated In respect to Garrity, I’ve been with him five months. I never had a word with him, but have been to him like a brother. When we came on shore the row commenced, and the deed was done. Almighty God knows I never intended to murder him. The row commenced through liquor and passion.”

The extent to which a mother-in-law may interfere in a man’s domestic affairs is well known, if not always appreciate I. a father-in-law’s position is not so well defined, but there was given in the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Greymouth, last week, an illustration of some of his privileges, A person who described hxmsolf as the father-in-law of another who was accused of an offence, was asked by Mr Perkins—“Has he been temperate lately ?” Father-in-law replied- - “ He has been anything but temperate. I have had to check him several times. In fact, only a day or two ago, had to knock him down.” Wicked counsel suggested, sollo voce, that the same was certainly an emphatic way of checking a man in evil courses, and of promoting the cause of temperance. . The usual meeting of the Roslyn and Kaxkorai Institute was held last Tuesday evening ; Mr A. H. Ross in the chair. Mr Robert Chisholm read an essay on “(Spiritualism." At the outset the essayist stated that he did not agree with the opinions expressed by Messrs Peebles, Dunn, Watt, and Copland in the lectures delivered by those gentlemen on tho subjeit. He considered the evidence in support of tho reality of a large percentage of the phenomena sufficient, while that in support of tho cause assigned by Spiritualists was insufficient ; the chief testimony upon which their conclusions is based being the evidence of intelligence itself, which he (the essayist) said, from his own experience and also from the works of JR, D, Uwen, was bo conflicting and contra-

dictoiy that, to allow it to have any weight ataalt' t apart from its reasonableness or otherwise, when submitted to the intelligence of man. w.vi simply ridiculous. The essay, which was a lengthy one, was listened to with much attention throughout, and at its close the members unanimously complimented the essayist upon the manner in which he handled the subject. On Tuesday next, Mr -piers will read an es-ay on the “ Ruling Passion.” The animal meeting of the Dunedin Bowling and Quuiliug Club, wliicli now musters ninety live members, was held at the Club Hotel last evening. The following office-bearers were elected for the ensuing year:—Mr J 11. Harris, president; Mr .lamas Rattray, vice-president ; Mr James Whitelaw, treasurer. Members of committee, Messrs William Hodgkins, Thos. Callender, Goo. Young, and Wm. Park ; Mr D. S. Currie, hon. secretary. The chairman (Mr Callender) suggested that they should provide a pair of champion bowls, to be competed for by members of the club, and it would no doubt create a gr at amount of int' rest among them. Three new members were proposed at the meeting. The opening day was left for the committee to decide. Mr George Young has promised a pair of bowls for competition during the enuring season The editor of the Poverty Bay Standard is great iu “ notices to correspondents.” The following is a rather unique specimen of his style : Bay t i ighway Board.’ Your letter addressed 1 To the Ratepayers of the Poverty Bay Highway District couched iu terms of the choicest Billingsgate scurrility, in reference to this journal, shall have our attention as soon as we have decided what course to pursue with respect to it. Looking, however, upon the language used as a capital specimen of the ‘ Field Lane ’ vocabulary, such as ‘ Bill Sykes ’ or ‘ Charley Bates ’ ra-ght use —we may possibly publish it. Letters not addressed‘to the Editor ’ are u-ually paid for as advertisements ; and if ‘ J, B. Poynter, Chairman Poverty Bay Highway Board,’ is in a burry to consign himself to a still lower depth of humiliation, wet shall have much pleasure in handing him down to it in our next issue, at the rate of 2s au inch.” We have at last a satisfactory explanation of the arrest of Dr Morton, the bigamist, to which we have made one or two references lately. Palmerston was the name of the place where he set up ; but it Lapp;ns to he, as we surmised, in the Province of Wellington. The circumstance of the arrest is rather amusing, and is worth telling. According to the Independent, when Detective Lambert went to find his man, he put himself under the guidance of the local constable, who promised to “bring the doctor” to him. The detective went into a neighboring “pub,” threw himself upon a sofa, and engaged iu conversation with those around him. It was not long before the doctor made his appearance to attend a patient. The constable pointed to the recumbentfigure upoa the sofa, saying — “There’s a patient who stands much in need of you, doctor.” The bystanders were not unnaturally mystified to see the doctor brought to a man with whom they had been conversing the moment before in the full enjoyment of good health ; but the serious countenance of the constable and the professional look of the doctor impressed them with the gravity of the case, and they at puce withdrew from the room to give the doctor an opportunity to make his diagnosis. The patient, however, soon showed what was the matter by jumping up and reading the arrest warrant. I'he two at once changed places, and the medical man then became “patient.” Our Christchurch telegrams, the other day, indicated that the irrepressible “Jock” Graham had fallen foul of a very worthy priest named Chataignier, whose cure extends to a little place in South Canterbury known as Temuka. TJiither Graham repaired, and set up as a patron of learning, and an exponder of Spiritualism and cognate “ isms and he appears to have so made a convert of the schoolmaster as to obtain from him the use of his schoolroom for his lectures, which wore delivered during school hours. Such at least is the inference to be drawn from the remonstrance, which is mildly and at the same time amusingly written, which Father Chataignior addressed to the anterbury Education Board : -“On Saturday” (August 24), says the rev. gentleman, “ I met one Mr Graham, the editor of Graham's Review (Dunedin), going about giving lectures on Spiritism, inspiration of Scriptures, prophecies, phrenology, and on what to him is the truth iu religion. In my opinion he talks a good deal of truth, with here and there not a few disfigured religious truths. That people should go and give their shillings for the purpose is no business for me that I may interfere with, but Mr Graham is admitted in national schools, and there, even at school hours, addresses the children, and gives them seances in table-rapping and phrenologyate. And he gives prizes for good behaviour. iNow, thatman is a preacher in fiis way, and carries about his Review, which ha? some very offensive articles on my religion.’’’ The worthy pastor asks the Board the pertinent question -are national schoolmasters allowed to open their schools to such teachers and waste the time of the pupils on perhaps worse than nonsense ? and in reply, he was informed, that such things were not tolerated for a moment by the Board, who would demand au explanation from the local school committees. It is refreshing to find that Father (Jhataignier ultimately regarded Graham as a nuisance ; but his mistake of supposing the greatest mountebank in the Colony to be “a good preacher” is rather amusing. Despatches presented to Parliament a couple of days ago bring the official correspondence between the Governor and the Secretary for State and Earl Kimberley down to April 10 ; but most of the matter# touched upon were brought under public notice at the time of their occurrence, the despatches therefore possess little interest. On Sept. 20, Sir George Bowen informed Earl Kimberley of the defeat of the FoxYogcl Ministry, and ef bis having intrusted Mr .Stafford with the task of forming a new Cabinet. His Excellency takes occasion to express his opinion of the balance of power then held by the Native members. He says —“ In the present nearly equally balanced state of parties in the House of Representatives, the four Maori members appear to be practically almost masters of the political situation, as the Irish members who followed the late Mr O'Connell were formerly said to be in the Imperial Parliament.” He admits, however, that upon this occasion they, “ according to their usual practice in questions of a purely party nature, not directly affecting the interests of their own race, divided equally, two for Mr Fox and two for Mr Stafford.” On Oct. 26, Sir George Bowen had to communicate the fact that Mr Stafford had in his turn been defeated, and that consequent upon this Mr Stafford had advised his Excellency to dissolve the House of Representatives. The reasons why he declined to grant a dissolution are detailed, but as they were published and discussed last session we shall not further refer to them. On March 6, his Excellency reports that Mr Waterhouse “unexpectedly caused a brief Ministerial crisis,” and narrates what took place iipon that event, with the facts of which our readers are familiar. Sir George Bowen exhibits his good taste by making no reference in bis despatch t<? the stoppage of the Luna, which precipitated' matters, and contents himself by saying that as Mr Waterhouse declined to withdraw his resig-

nation, he had no alternative but to relieve him from office. The only correspondence be appears to have enclosed was the memorandum to Mr Waterhouse, signed by his colleagues, then in Wellington. In his despatch of the 15th March, Sir George Bowen aivis a short but graphic account of his visit to Ngaruawahia, and refers to the probability of a general amnesty being proclaimed at no distant date, and hopes that his successor may find himself in a position to inaugurate bis administration “by the performance of this act of grace.”

A meeting of the journeyman shoemakers will bo held on Monday evening, at eight o’clock.

A special meeting of the New Zealand Building and Mutual Investment Society will be held on Monday evening, at eight o’clock. The usual fortnightly meeting of the Commercial Building and Mutual Investment Society will be held at the Society's office, Princes street, next Monday evening, from six to eight o’clock.