The Evening Star MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1873

Evening Star, Issue 3376, 15 December 1873, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1873

Thirty-nine red grouse were sent out to Auckland by the Chile by Mr Larkworthy, of London, but all died, with the exception of one brace, which was safely lauded, and liberated at Matamata.

It having been intimated that the Deutschcr Verein intended joining in with the Oddfellows picnic on Boxing day, we have been requested to state that the former association will hold ft picnic of its own at Woodhaugh on that day. The Southland Tints is enabled to state, on "ood authority, that the General Government has arranged with the Provincial Government that henceforth the latter should undertake the management of immigration affairs within the Province.

The petroleum springs at Poverty Bay will shortly be put to a practical test. By the barque Lady Anne, now daily expected at this port from New York, will arrive an experienced driller, a man competent to build rigs, superintend drilling, &c., and a complete set of boring tools with the latest improvements, and all the necessary gearing for sinking the wells. His Worship the Mayor and several of the leading citizens waited upon the Hon. Julius Vot'd this afternoon, to invite him to a public banquet at an early day. _ Mr Vogel accepted the invitation, and we believe that it is arranged to take place after his Honor the Superintendent’s return from tho \V aitaki, whither he will go to meet his Excellency the Governor. We believe it is intended to make the baiujuet as popular as possible. The lower parts of ths house were well patronised on Saturday evening, when the Hibei> nian drama “ Kory O’More” formed the chief attraction. Mr O’Brien appeared as Rory, and Miss Raymond as Kathleen. “J ho Man about Town,” with Mr Hydes as Skirts, formed a very agreeable afterpiece. Mr South’s benefit will take place this evening, “ The Ticket-of-Icave Man” and “Tom Cribb’s Parlor’ being the pieces announced, Wc hear that the Honorable the Premier, in order to facilitate the delivery and receipt of letters and telegraphic messages, has arranged for the establishment of an office for the North-East Valley, at wdiich all business conducted at the central office may be transacted. This additional facility for postal leouirements will prove a great boon to the rapidly increasing population of that town district, and will tend to relieve the pressure upon the central office. From the Hokanui district we leam that the results of the lambing season have been found to be very satisfactory, an average varying from 65 to 80 per cent, having been obtained. Ihe pasturage is reported to be exceedingly abundant, sufficient in some places to carry three sheep to the acre. Shearing operations are now being carried on at Eyre Creek, the Dome, Wairoea Plains, Otapiri and Castle Rock, but the work is progressing slowly, as shearers are very scarce. The rate generally paid is 2d per sheep. The Even in {/ Star speaks as follows of the want of enterprise of Auckland merchants. “ With that lackadaisiacal spirit for which our Auckland merchants are distinguished in the commercial world of New Zealand, the trade of Poverty Bay, as well as that of Napier, is drifting away to Wellington. Our merchants Bee this, ami admit it, and they bow as unto the decrees of fate. Wc observe that Mr M‘Millan brought the matter up in our local Chamber of Commerce, and received something very nearly akin to a snubbing foi his pains. There was a large attendance at the Queen’s Theatre on Saturday evening, tho programme being equal to any presented by the Carandini (kmipany on former occasions, A very good entertainment will lie presented to-night, including selections from “ Lurline.”- -The Misses Rosina and Fanny Carandini, assisted by Messrs Gordon, Hherwin, and Towsey, attended cloven o’clock mass at the C atholic Church yesterday, “ Quando Corpus,” from “ Stabat Mater,” unaccompanied, was given in splendid style, and the Hallelujah Chorus, from the “Messiah,” was sung by the full choir at the close of the service.

A Californian journal brags that the manifests of four American vessels which sailed for Australasia and New Zealand showed over 70 varieties of goods. “ But, after all, ’ says this aspiring newspaper, “our trade with Australia ;uul New Zealand is nothing to what it should be Its (Australia’s) foreign commerce amounts to more than 325 million dollars annually, and much as we have progressed lately, we have but little over ten per cent of it, while England (impudent England!) has the other ninety - this in spite of the fact that Sau irancisco is so many thousand miles nearer than Liverpool. Which says something for British enterprise, There were twenty-two candidates for the four cadetships in the Otago Survey Department. About one half had testimonials ot a lii'di order. The qualifications on which the selection was based were evidence of mathematical training and taste for mapping, the aucccaaful candidates H. Wiuiiut, M<ucolm M'Nicol, A. J. Bark, and John Langjiuiir. They urc 3-II High School boys, und Wilmot and Langmuir have each had a two years course at the University. _ M ISicol holds a Provincial scholarship, and in drawing has had four sessions’ training-under Mr Hutton. Ihe Chief Surveyor, in forwarding these names for the approval of the Government, said;—ln

commending these lads, I cannot but express my great satisfaction at the prospect of obtaining their services for the department. A few years ago it would have been simply impossible to have had such a choice in Otago.” The Temperance Demonstration Committee held a meeting on Saturday evening, when Mr C, De L. Graham was elected grand marshal. The foundation stone of the New Temperance Hall will be laid on Boxing Day ; and the committee propose a demonstration which shall parade the principal streets of the City, witness the laying of the foundation stone, and then proceed to Mornington, where the fete is to be held. Truly we must go from home for news. The “New Zealand Herald” the other day gravely informed its readers that for some time past the good people of Dunedin have been greatly exercised anent Sunday running of railway trains between the port and the City. At a meeting of the Presbytery, convened special!;i to take the subject into consideration, it was decided that a memorial should lie drawn up, signed, and presented, addressed to the Provincial Government, to prevent the continuation of so great a desecration of the .Sabbath-day. But in opposition to this memorial a very numerously and influentially signed counter-petition has been got up, asking the Government to allow the lino to remain open. Peeling runs very strong in the matter, but from what we are able to learn, the strict Sabbatarians are likely to la; outvoted by those who have signed the petition for Sunday travelling between the ('ity and the port. John Plummer, the Loudon special correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, thus refers to an important subject._ He says “ that recent Parliamentary discussions on the solvency of friendly societies have not been without effect. The Foresters have certainly taken a step in the right direction by adopting a rule discouraging the investment of lodge funds in loan or building societies. The great dispute between the late Mr Tidd Pratt and the various friendly associations arose on the subject of lodge funds. Mr Pratt very properly maintained that moneys subscribed for certain purposes—say assistance during sickness—should be applied to no other. Ho was not against members of friendly societies investing in loan or building associations, or purchasing banners or regalia, but he would not permit the money required to be taken out of funds formed for other purposes. Experience is teaching the Foresters and Oddfellows that Mr Tidd Pratt was right. At the same time it is curious to note that the establishment of the Post Office Savings’ Bank has had a very depressing influence on the smaller class of friendly societies. Should it ever he made possible for workmen to invest their savings in Government securities, a great impulse will be given to popular thrift. Working-class extravagance and recklessness are often less the results of natural improvidence than the deficiency of secure ami easy modes of investment.”

Surgeons of immigrant ships have onerous and responsible duties to perform, and it not unfrcqueutly happens that they get accused, wrongfully, by discontented passengers, of being guilty of unkindness and neglect. The “New Zealand Herald” refers to a case of the kind Two charges were brought against Dr Coughtrey, the surgeon-superintendent of the Chile. One was for ordering a sluggard to be pulled out of bod, because he persisted in lying there after the regulation hour. This case having been patiently listened to by the Immigration Commissioners, was disposed of by the Board reprimanding the second officer for the ill-advised act of pulling the clothes off the man’s bed (and that of his wife), and they recommended a milder form of procedure, in the shape of a dousing from a bucket of water. The second case was more serious. An immigrant, whose wife had died on the passage out through a complication of complaints, brought a charge against the doctox- of refusing her proper nourishment. The complainant signally failed to produce one tittle of evidence in support of his grave though unfounded charge. As an instance of this man’s character, it may be mentioned that when the woman was asking from her bed for assistance, he refused with foul expressions. He admitted having often knocked her about, but justified himself by saying that it was only with his open hand. And ere her lifeless body had sunk in its ocean grave, lie was, according to the evidence given, engaged in chaffing with his fellow passengers about her wearing apparel, and offering to sell his dead wife’s “pads” to the highest bidder. The only criminal case brought before Judge Ward at the recent sitting of the District (Joint at Invercargill was Regina v. David Waddel, who was charged with having indecently assaulted one Teresa Shields, a female servant residing at Flemington, near Woodlands. The prosecutrix, in her evidence, said the prisoner accompanied her on her return from her brother-in-law’s, where she met him, to her master’s house, and when they had gone about a quarter-of-a-mile of the distance ho asked for a kiss, which s)je refused, whereupon he caught her and threw her to the ground. And she continued her evidence I struggled hard to resist him, hut he overpowered me. I screamed, but ho put his hand on my mouth, telling me not to scream. Hamell (the brother-in-law) came up then, and released me from Waddel. I was molested no further. There was no house within sight or hearing of the place .where the assault was committed. There was no joking going on about kissing me on my way home. Waddel made no improper proposal to mo, nor did he say anything which a modest woman should not hear.” His Honor in charging the jury is reported to have said : —The prisoner is indicted under clause 2 of the Offences against the Person Act, 18(58, The result of this legislation is seen by the following example: “ Suppose some ruffian attempts to abuse a girl above ten and under twelve, aud succeeds, being wholly inaccessible to any feeling except that which first prompted him, the law punishes him by three years’ penal servitude. But if, through failure of strength, through remorse, or pity, he desists before completing his crime, then he is liable to seven years’ penal servitude. So far as I am aware, this is the only instance of an attempt to commit a crime being punished by double the penalty which can be indicted fop the crime itself. Why the Houses pf Assembly should have deemed it fitting to place, as jt were, a premium on thp supcess of attempts of this description, or at all events to impose a penalty on failure, is a mystery of Colonial legislation which must remain to be elucidated by some future historian 1” The jury found the prisoner guilty, and he was sentenced to thpoe months’ imprisonment with hard labor. A paper “ On sonic common faults in the construction of timber buildings in New Zealand,” by the Rev. J. C. Halcombc, was read at the Nelson Exhibition. The author discussed at length the perishableness of our wooden buildings —which fact he attributes to the faulty manner of using Colonial timbers, “There are woods,” he says, “in New Zealand, e.f/ yellow pine, totara, matai or ml pine, kauri, black birch aud roil birch, which, from careful European observation and Maori testimony of long experience, arc apparently as durable, though not so tough and strong, as English oak and chesnut. But they are commonly subjected to such treatment as causes the best grown English oak to perish in a very few years. That or any other timber, if felled when the sap is in active motion, js destroyed almost immediately by dry rot, even without the aid of external moisture. Accordingly throughout Europe, all timber is felled only in the depth of winter, and in this country ought only to be felled during a season of about six weeks in the months of May and June, As jt is, it is felled at all seasons of the year, the sawyers preferring it full of sap as being in that state easier to cut; and any one may have seen, what I have often observed myself, sawn timber being used in buildings with the sap visibly oozing out under every blow of a hummer upon the nails. And then people bhune the timber so treated for not lasting. This, tho main fault _ of all, arises chiefly from the ignorance and indifference of sawyers and saw-mill owners, nor is it likely to bo remedied by them until and builders, and especially their employers, insist upon all timber being felled only in May and June. Again, another important fault is the neglect of seasoning before using. H is well known that all timber ought to remain in balk for a twelve mouth before beingsawn up, aud further remain for a certain period, longer or shorter according to thickness, before being fit for use. Timber merchants might d« lnU( ; il remedy this fault, though they are not likely to do it until the final paymasters, the owners of buildings, insist upon its being done, and are

ready to pay proportionally to the increased value of the material. We have in the Native timbers of this country a material generally superior in beauty of grain and color to those of Europe ; a material more capable than any other of being made available to the permanent internal decoration of our dwellings : a moterial which, by judicious use, would enable the artistic workman to render our buildings externally and internally ‘things of beauty and a joy for ever ’ to the eyes of the builders and their remote posterity. It might be that our chemists could aid towards the prescrvance of our timber buildings. I would venture to suggest to them whether it would not be possible to invent some siliceous preparation applicable to wood, as a species of glaze, which should both increase its durability and lessen inflammability. ” Murray’s Great World Circus Company were passengers from the .North per Taranaki. They will shortly appear in Dunedin. Mr Batchclder will exhibit his pantascope, 1 for the first time in Dunedin, at the Masonic Hall this evening. Mr Dent will explain the I views as they are presented, and Mes>rs Illingworth and .Saunders claim a little attention for their performances on the harp and trombone respectively.