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Evening Star, Issue 3407, 22 January 1874, Page 2

Accidentally yerterday, in our. telegraphic summary of English news, “Monaco,” was - printed “ Minorca,” Mr R. D. I/eland, Q.C., was a passenger from Melbourne by the Albion to-day, ' ’ “After -Dark was repeated at the Princess Theatre last evening to a good attendance, and passed off to' the apparent satisfaction of all present.

At Miller s Flat, in the Queenstown district, four horses ate so freely of a bag of wheat, which had been inadvertently left in the stackyard of ’ their owner, that they died the next day. 4

The Bannockburn Association suggests that the different associations in the Province unite, and form, a Joint-stock Bank under' the Limited Liability Act, for the purpose of gold and the usual banking business. This plan, it is thought, would raise the price of gold to L 4. The plan’ would be a good one if workable.

The Canterbury papers give an obituary notice of a “mule”—cross-bred between goldfinch and canary—which died of old age on Thursday night, having lived a period of something between tiventy-five and thirty years. The bird took the prize for singing at the Great Exhibition of All Nations, held in London in 1851, and at that time was five or six years old. . After so long a period of comparative inaction, the Arrow United Gold Mining Company have commenced operations on the flat. The ‘Observer’ reports that the shaft has been sunk to a depth of about 15ft below the natural surface, which, with the logging, gives a depth of about 22ft. A pbrtidn. of the machinery has arrived from Dunedin, so that the work may .now be expected to go on uninterruptedly.

The Chief Justice, in a speech at the opening of the Onehunga railway—lt, has been remarked that I have been called upon for a short time to the' position of acting Governor. It is a position which brings but little credit on those who undertake it, and it is for them to tread in the footsteps of others, and merely not do wrong; and if in the short administration I avoided doing anything wrong, I am thankful.”

Sergeant Cassels, stationed at Cromwell, is credited with a smart capture. One morning last week a sum of L 35 in cash and a valuable gold watch were stolen from a bedroom in the Clutha Hotel, Cromwell. Suspicion fell on a man who had slept in the room; and not many afterwards the Sergeant came up to him, a little distance from Cromwell, and found the whole of the stolen property, in his possession. .

At Ardgour Station during the holidays, Mr A. M‘Lean, fearing the shearers would not turn so readily jf they went away, improvised some Caledonian sports, with beer ad. lib. and very fair prizes. A man engaged at the wool pressing, while lying in his tent, lit his pipe with a match, which he threw away, after halving, as ho thought, blown it out. The tent was soon afterwards in flames, and the unlucky owner in saving his bagpipes, loSthis “breeka,” which contained a sum of L 25 in notes in the pockets.

A lady correspondent of the Riverton paper makes a unique complaint against Good Templarisim like all thrifty housewives at present, is busily engaged in making jam for consumption, but finds a great difficulty in procuring jars wherein to bestow her conserves. Previous to the institution of the Order of Good Templars, she says, there was no such difficulty, as from the quantity of fermented and spirituous liquors consumed by the folks about there was any quantity of empty bottles obtainable. Wherefrom she argues the establishment of Good Templavism is not an unmixed blessing.

Captain Johnson, late of the ill fated ship Surat, was formally brought up at the Resident Magistrate’s Court this morning and charged with culpable negligence at the time of the wreck on the Ist inst. A remand till Saturday was asked for on behalf of the police and granted, and, in answer to an application by Mr Stout, who appeared for the captain, his bail was fixed at L6OO. Mr Stout asked the Bench to reconsider the decision, as the amount was six times as large as the, captain could be fined in even were he found guilty of the offence. The Bench agreed to abide by their decision, and refused to reduce the amount.

The Governor does not appear to have been supplied with over manageable horses in his tour through the Province. They played up on leaving town; capered at Roxburgh, and were particularly frisky at the Arrow, for on leaving the latter place the two leaders, we read in the ‘Observer,’ “did not take kindly to their task, and the occupants of tho vehicle had to dismount at the steep pinch up Wiltshire street, with the exception of Sir James. After several abortive attempts, the leaders were taken out, and with the aid of a few willing hands, his Excellency was literally pushed out of the town by main force. On reaching the level near the church, the leaders were made fast once more, and went off pretty fairly.” The Kennedys’ entertainment attracted another large attendance to the Masonic Hall last evening, all parts of the house being wellfilled. Mr Kennedy gave, by request, “Get up and bar the door,”, which was enthusiastically received, but his best effort was “Scots wha hae wi’ Wallace bled.” This was magnificently rendered, and was fairly entitled to the loud applause which followed at its close. An encore was demanded, but Mr Kennedy excused himself on the grounds that when a song

was once sung well and then given again, the repetition was not generally so well sung. He then promised them. that Mr David would, later on in the evening, give a song of the same character—“ The March of the Caraeronians” —the announcement being loudly cheered. A rich treat may .he anticipated this evening, the selection given,'by Mr Kennedy being from Rob Roy.”

At the annual meeting of the Dunedin Canary and Poultry Association last evening, at the Bull and Mouth Hotel, tbe annual report and balance-sheet were brought up, read, and adopted. The balance-sheet showed a balance in favor of the Association of LlB 12s 6d_. The election of office-bearers for the ensuing year was then proceeded with, and resulted as follows Patrons, his Honor the Superintendent, his Worship the Mayor, Mr Henry Driver, M.P.C., Mr J. M. Larnnch, President, Mr Jules Lanseigne ; VicePresidents,. Messrs Coleman Burke and C. Flexman; Hon. Treasurer. Mrff. , Wood ; Hon. Secretary, MrW. Harris. The following gentlemen jvere elected members of committee :-Messrs Gr. Jacobs, Peake, Curie, Park, Peart, Baylcy, and Perrie. A very handsome wastbenpresented to tbe late Secretary, Mr William Sly. :

. During the summing up of, the Judge yesterday, in the case of Boss v. Reith and others, his Honor remarked that it was K most improper thing for the architect of a building to be a contractor in any shape or form for the supply of materials .for the construction of the ' di n S> informing the proprietors of the building at the outset that he intended to supply the materials. Such a practice 'Was, he considered, highly reprehensible, and left thb door open for great abuse.' He did not say that tins would have been the case so far as Mr Ross was concerned; but the principle was highly objectionable. It was only according to human nature that an architect supplying materials would be more likely to pass articles of an inferior quality, which he himself supplied, than if they Were supplied by another person, it was shown that in the profession such a course was seldom known, and never allowed unless there was an amicable arrangement between the architect and the proprietors of the building.

_On the occasion of taming the first sod, the Hon. the Colonial Secretary made the followmg explanation regirding tne organisation that had been introduced among the workmen upon the contract;—“ The Government, in dealing with a numper of men, is necessarily and properly in a different position from an individual dealing with a number of men, and it was thought better—and will be found, I have no doubt, very much better—that amongst the workmen to be engaged on this work there be some kind of organisation—some authority established which can only be established and maintained under the semblance of military , authority, which enrolment in the militia gives. With that view the men who are ~ these works have been enrolled in the militia; they are armed as militiamen, but their work is in no sense of a military character. They know and will prove I ain satisfied by their industry and attention to their work that they are workmen and not soldiers in any sense. It has been said that this work was got up m a manner secretly. Well, I am myself . personally responsible for whatever has been done, and all that I can say about it is that I have made no secret at all of the procedure—that every person who chose to enquire or ask a question of me was frankly informed of the whole purpose of the arrangement. There could be no possible end for concealment, find certainly there was no purpose on my part to conceal anything. The whole thing, as everyone knows connected with it was done in a very great hurry; done so much more rapidly than I expected that I am agreeably surprised that, within a week from the inception of the affair, we are in a position to commence the work here.”

In an article condemnatory of what it styles the testimonial dodge ” the Wellington Evening Post’ says“ Sham testimonials are the rule and genuine ones the exception. It is difficult, especially for those at a distance, to distinguish between the real and the false article, and as the value of real testimonials is certainly lessened by every Brummagem one got up, it behoves those who dislike shams to expose them when they can. There are now two public testimonials on the tapis. The first “ one originated in Dunedin, and as yet confined to the Southern metropolis, although a suggestion has been made, and will probably be adopted, that it should be extended to the whole Colony. It is a testimonial to Mr Vogel the Premier of the Colony, in recognition of his services. It is unmistakeably a genuine testimonial, and is promoted by men of all shades of political opinion. We have always opposed Mr Vogel as a political man. We stiil lack faith in him as such, but we willingly aceord him praise as a thoroughly able and earnest laborer for what he deems the public welfare. Whether the present time is the most appropriate to recognise his efforts in this direction by means of a testimonial may be doubted, but there is no doubt that such a recognition of his services is a genuine one on the part of the people of Otago, and one which would willingly be subscribed to by a very large proportion of the residents of the’ Colony at large, including Mr Vogel’s most consistent political opponents. The other testimonial nowbemg got up is a local one -a testimonial to Mr Joe Dransfield, ex-Mayor of this city, and purporting to be in. recognition of his services as Chairman of the Town Board and Mayor. This proposed presentation contrasts in every way unfavorably with the other one to winch we have referred. • Members of the Choral Society’s Band .are invited to rehearsal at West’s Music Gallery on i'nday evening, at nine o’clock. A meeting to elect a Library Committee will be heid m the District Hall, Mornington, on evening, at half-past seven