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Evening Star, Issue 3502, 14 May 1874, Page 2

It is reported that a company has been formed in Auckland to start a new evening journal there. By the last mail Mr Pearson, the Immigragration Officer at Invercargill, forwarded 170 nominations, making a total sent by him alone of 2,723 since the 20th of October last. A lecture was delivered last evening in the Masonic Hall, Port Chalmers, by Dr H Peirde, M.D., P.D.W.G.C.T., on the rise and progress of Templarism. The Hall was crowded. An error occurred in our report of the case of Burns v. the Otago and Southland Investment Company, in last night’s paper. The issues were all found in favor of the defendants, and not in favor of the plaintiff, as stated. A slight accident occurred to one of the prisoners employed on the Deborah Bay road this morning. A piece of earth rolled down and struck him on the leg, but fortunately did not break it. He was conveyed to Dunedin by the 1.30 tram. The ‘Hawkes Bay Herald’ makes the important announcement that a firm, whose representative is at present in the Australian Colonies, would be willing to undertake to build the Napier breakwater on a guarantee of five per cent on its cost of construction. The question of the purchase of the Waterworks by the City Council was discussed at the meeting of the latter body yesterday evening open ? d b 7 tbe wading of a letter from Mr Cubes. At the request pf the Council we hold over our report of the whole matter. The man Colboume, who for years has been amongst the Natives at Mokau, we (‘ Taranaki Herald) learn, is fast losing his recollection of the .English language, and now speaks it in a broken manner like the Natives. The man is used as a slave by the Natives, and even the children speak to him and order him about as such. The ‘ News’ has been shown a sample of coal from a newly discovered seam at the Nightcaps —about eighteen miles from the Winton station of the northern railway. In appearance, glossiness, and density it was—although taken from within three feet of the surface—decidedly superior to the Kaitangata coal recently imported in considerable quantities for household and steam purposes. The Corporation have for a short time past been advertising for an Inspector of Works, at a salary of L 250 per annum, and at their meeting last night, Mr Jolm Barnes, who had previously resigned his post as Councillor, was appointed to the office. That gentleman’s practical experience and sound common sense will be greatly missed at the sittings of the Council, but his services will not be lost to the City. . b ® topography of the Southern Hemisphere is evidently little known to the Parisians. One telegram re tfee escaped Communists to Austral 1 llus : ~ lfc is cm ’rently rumoured that Paschall Green has escaped from the penal Colony of New Caledonia to Austria. Another telegram says The reported escape of Rochfort and Grousset i? confirmed, A Melbourne dispatch says they, with Goqd.e Bouillierre and two other convicts, had arrived at New Costersew, Newcastle is of course meant. ■A- gang of skilled prisoners, in charge of Messrs Campbell and Curtis, two of the officers of the gaol, commenced work this morning in pitching the breastwork of the extension of the Rattray street jetty facing the sea, so as to preserve the embankment from its encroachments. In a few days the jetty will be available for the increasing traffic, and be of a very great boon to the public. The whole of the work is under the superintendence of Mr Outram, one of the gaol oversjsers of labor. A short time gao Mr A, H. Jack, on behalf of the Insurance Companies doing business here, wrote to the City Council offering LSO towards presenting a testimonial to Mr Job Wain, Captain of the Fire Brigade, and the letter was referred to the Finance Committee. At last night s City Council meeting that committee recommended the purchase of a piece of plate of the value of LICK), to be presented to Captain Wain as from the Corporation and the various Insurance Companies. The Early-Closing Association held their first quarterly meeting in the large hall of the Athenaeum last Tuesday evening, when there was a large attendance of members. The report and balance-sneet were read and adopted, and a good working committee elected. The meeting also agreed that a deputation should be formed to induce the principal houses iq close at six o clock on Saturdays all this winter. The proceedings were marked by a most cordial spirit of unanimity. This bodes well for the ultimate success of the Association. As many complaints have been made of the insufficiency of the gas obtained for some nights past, we have inquired into the cause, and find that, owing to the recent accident to the new gasholder—which has happened at such ft critical time—the supply of gas will, of necessity, be short for a few nights. However active preparations are being made, night ami day, at the works, to complete new benches of retorts, in order to meet the emergency, Ihese retorts will be ready, it is believed, by Saturday next. • entertainment at tbe Princess’s last evenin 6>> b y the Siamese and Circus Companies, consisted almost wholly of the tricks by the members of the first-mentioned troupe : Young America not haying sufficiently recovered from the accident which befel him on the previous evening as to enable him to appear. The tricks by the Japanese did not seem to lose their attraction by being so frequently done, and in each instance the performer was loudly applauded. The ponies w.ent through some difficult performances, showing the vast’amount of training to which they had been subjected ; and an anrasmg force brought the entertainment to a close. From Mr Mercer’s address to the electors, which appears in another column, it will be w 18 U u bis . n intoilt ion to again oontest the Mayoralty. The reasons put forth are hat there are already two deserving councillors n the field, and he would therefore bo placing those gentlemen at a disadvantage in again coming forward; and that he still adheres to the opinion given at the last election that the Mayoralty office should be a rolling one. Such mpnlwi I Mercer ’ s part is to be commended, aqd ifc imgji t well be followed by other politicians. Mr Mercer’s services to the Connentirely lost, as he promises to stand for Councillor for High Ward. ln^ C n C l°«i lng to^ r I f ecfco , r ’ a abstract of meteoroid™ 1 observations for the month of February, the temperature throughout was about the Wnn g fii but th « rain / ab was considerably less, the exception of the severe south-east and inf 7f'n aSt foil wblcb occurred in Auckland on the 7th and Bth, the winds had been moderate. Earthquakes were reported on the Ist, at Dunedin and Queenstown, slight; also on the 4th, sboclu a t Dunedin, and on the 2nd, sligh v shocks at Riverton and Bluff, at night; on the Bth, rather a severe shock at Riverton ; on the 28th, at 3 a.m., a severe shock was felt at Lyttelton and Taraunga. ‘ Bejl’s Life in London ’ of January 10 has an article on the “ Australian Victory,” in connection with the visit of the English cricketers, the result of the first two or three matches hav-, mg reached home previous to the departure ofi • . I^ell . > S<*es ou to say :—“ The elfect; of the decisive victory gained by the Victorian.

Eighteen will be to make cricket between England and Australia now and henceforth really interesting. Indeed, the time may soon come when a team picked from the whole Colony will be able to meet an English eleven on equal terms with a fair chance of success. Perhaps we shall have an annual match with Australia. " ® eventually see an Australian eleven—not blacks’—doing battle at Lord’s.” A man named Morris O’Connell, alias Alex. Gmqn, was received into the gaol yesterday evening from Oamaru in charge of Police Constable Jones, committed for trial at the ensuing sessions of the Supreme Court, charged with having, on or about the 12th March ultimo, feloniously, with intent to defraud, forged an endorsement on a bank draft for the payment or LIO and disposed of the same. Prisoner is identical with Robert Gillon, who was sentenced STut e x lsth Se P te mber, 1868, by Mr Strode, one month’s imprisonment with hard labor for stealing two fowls, the property of John Lewis, George street, Dunedin, Prisoner was apprehended in Blenhein, in the Province of Marlborough, where ho uttered the forged cheque. The Southland district is very far from having people enough to supply its labor requirements, and testimonies to the truth of this assertion are visible to all who look around the town and country. On Friday last (the ‘Times’ tells us), the keeper of a labor registry office at Invercargill had fifteen applications from farmers in the Western District for ploughmen but not even one ploughman could be got in the place. The ‘ Times’s ’ informant, who has considerable experience in matters relating to the labor market, considered that the class of men brought by the William Davie was scarcely that most in demand here, for, although many of them were styled farm laborers, few of them were willing to undertake real ploughman’s work; but men who could do general farm work, and likewise hold the plough, were in almost unlimited demand. This fact should not be lost sight of by the Immigration authorities. Most of our readers (says the * Argus ’) will recollect the sudden and mysterious death of Mrs Gallogly, at the Civil Service Hotel, Collins street, about two years ago. At the time, considerable suspicion attached to her husband as being guilty of her murder; and even after all proceedings against him had ceased, many people still entertained the belief that he was the cause of his wife’s death. Mr Gallogly was well aware of the feeling, and the knowledge that he was believed to be a murderer preyed greatly on his mind. t or some time past Gallogly has been in very bad health, and on the 14th inst. he died. A short time before he died he expressed a wish to have an interview with an acquaintance named Graham, a messenger at the Crown Law offices. He spoke to Graham on the subject of his wife’s death, and seemed unwilling that his memory should be tainted with so foul a crime. He then, in the most solemn manner, and with the full knowledge that he was dying, assured Graham that he was entirely innocent of his wife’s death, and was quite ignorant of the cause of it. The Upper Taieri correspondent of the ‘ Waikouaiti Herald ’ writes “ It is refreshing in these dull times of mining enterprise to be able to report that a splendid nucrget of gold was unearthed in a small gully in the neighborhood of the Sutton a short time ago. The lucky tinder was an old digger, resident in that locality for a number of years. He at once proceeded to Dunedin and sold it to the Bank of New South Wales, who paid the highest price per ounce at present ruling for it. The nugget weighed llozs 2dwts, and the price paid was L 3 15s 6d per oz. It is not often now-a-days that we hear of nuggets of that description being fomul in Otago. Great excitement was caused in this neighborhood on the receipt of the news. I had a conversation with the owner, and he told me that previous to finding the nugget he dropped upon a patch of ground that melded L 7 worth of gold. I passed through the Sowburn diggings the other day, and was surprised to notice such extensive operations being carried on. Terraces were bemg prospected, and shafts sunk for the purpose of ascertaining the auriferous nature of the so “* Drays were busily employed carting washdirt to the water-races, reminding one of the good old days in Australia on the Bendigo goldfields. On the whole there was a manifest feeling of contentment and prosperity in that locality;?’ At the meeting of the City Council, last night, the following letter from the Secretary to the Dunedin Waterworks Co. was read:— “I have the honor, by instructions of my Directors, to acknowledge receipt of your letter of April 21, regarding the analysis made by Dr Black of the water supplied to the citizens of Dunedin. _ In reply, I am instructed to inform you that with the view of supplying the best quality of water to the City, my Directors are prepared to adopt the suggestions made by Dr Black as being all that is necessary for this purpose, viz., deepening the upper reservoir, making a filtering bed, and taking measures to keep cattle from the neighborhood of the stream, as soon as they obtain funds to enable them to carry out these measures. They desire at the same time to point out that Dr Black, when he_ analysed the water in June last, did not consider filtration necessary, and that the necessity has only arisen since that time.” Crs. Prosser and Walter were dissatisfied with the Company’s being so inexplicit; and, on the motion of the former, it was decided to ask the directors how long they would be getting funds to carry out the work as proposed. Cr. Reeves thought, at the same time, as the water has become contaminated, the immediate erection of filtering beds should be impressed upon the Company. The reporter who “ did” the last fire for the Auckland fire must be a gushing creature Here is his description of the fire when he arrived on the'scene;—“And now Symonds street is gained, and liere a beautiful yet dreadful spectacle greets the eye. Only every now and again a higher shoot of flame than usual shows tho forked tongues above the roof, but away up the street the effect is grand. Every house on the left stands out in bold'relief with its frpnt ffhe burnished gbld. At nearly every window are peering faces, and as we look now and again a door opens and forth rush men and even women to swell with us the crowd of excited spectators. Bright as‘the moon is, and brighter still the burning pile, the iUumination extends itself wholly aloft. The surface of the earth is dark, ipul the glare upon our eyes renders objects close to us nearly invisible. For a few minutes it is uncertain in what street the frontage of the burning building faces. On either side are a number of wooden buildings while a. number of miserable tenements stand trembling in tho rear, looking as if they did so nvish they were brick. If they didn’t their unusured owners did, at any rate. All these it was obvious must go. But now let us get round tiueen street and look at the aspect of things in front. _ Before we move from our commanding position we cannot help giving another look at the wonderful glow which rests'upon evervthujg around. To the south, east, and west the land rises, and the houses are seen towering above the flames, which as they alternately sink and rise, impart a fainter or richer depth of coloring to their emblazoned fronts. The sight is inexpressibly grand.” Tbo inspection of the Naval, Brigade is postponed till Monday evening. A meeting of subscribers to the Mornington library will be held in the district hall, tomorrow (Friday) evening, at 7.30. Mr Peter Gibson is a candidate for the seat m the City Council for Leith Ward, rendered vacant by the resignation of Mr Barnes. Mr A J. Burns, who is about to visit the Old Country, will be entertained at a dinner in the Shamrock Hotel, to-morrow (Friday) evening. The chair will be taken by his Honor the Superintendent at seven o’clock punctually. A meeting of subscribers to Dr Sorley’s testimonial will be held in the lower hall of the Athemeum on Monday afternoon next. The testimonial, which takes the form of a silver service and salver, is on view at the shop of Mr Tofield, jeweller, Princes street. Referring to an advertisement of the Dunedin Land, Building, and Investment Company, which is to be found In our columns, we see that forma of application for shares in this company can be procured from the Interim Secretary, Jetty street. We understand the shares are being freely applied for. We notice that the Queen’s Theatre will be opened to-morrow evening by Mr W. A. Chapman, who is described as an anti-spiritualist,

and Misa Ida Bonifon, a lady whose speciality is second sight. We refrain from expressing any opinion on the merits of the above artists until we have had an opportunity of judging for ourselves.