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Evening Star, Issue 3536, 23 June 1874, Page 2

The Oamarn people are complaining of a dearth of coal. 8 The tender of Mr John Campbell for the supply of 100 high-sided waggons has been accepted. The contract price is L 2.462 10s The Superintendent and Mr Reid will leave town probably on Friday, to turn the first sod of the Waireka Valley and Southland light lines of railway. The Secretary of the Tokomairiro Cricket Club has received a challenge from Dunedin to kick a match at football, and suggesting that by an union with the Taieri a team of fifteen might be raised. ■* The Council of the Otago University, which meets to-night, will consider amongst other matters the report of the Reference Library Committee, and a report from the examiners on the candidature of Mr Williamson, of Wanganui, fora B. A. degree. Mr ■Viliiamson held a scholarship for one year for general proficiency, in 1872, Thj child of Mr Martin, of Tinkers, who has been missing for some time, was found at Devonshires - a distance of four miles from his home. 'Jhe little fellow, who is only two and a-half years old, had travelled in a straight line to Devonshires, and was out exposed to very inclement weather, all the night of the 9ch instant. At a meeting of the committee of the Canary and Poultry Association last evening a tender was accepted for the construction of pens and it was reported that the comr . on had ° btained special prizes to the value of Ll3O. Mr Peake was elected honerarv treasurer, in the room of Mr Wood, resigned, and Mr H. Logan a member of committee in Mr Peake’s place. During the hearing of a charge against an hotel keeper at the Resident Magistrate’s Court-this morning, Mr Bathgate desired sub-Inspector Mallard to request the police t» make a special report on the conduct of such publicans as may refuse to open their doors when requested by a member of the force, or may m any manner put the slightest obstruction in his way. The Victorian Superintendent of Police has transmitted to the Wellington Provincial Government the L 75 reward offered by the Police Department of that Colony for the capture of Drummond, the absconding bank manager This amount will be paid over to the members of the force concerned in the capture, bill it has yet to be supplemented by a per-centage on the L4OO found in Drummond’s possession at the time of the arrest. Woollen manufactories appear to prosper m Victoria. The Melbourne Company under the management of Mr Roberts a Yorkshire cloth manufacturer, only commenced operations in February, 1873 since which time the factory has been in constant work, turning out about 16,000 pieces of 40 to 45 yards each, of the kind,known as tweeds, meltons, and woollen moleskins. The wages earned in the mill vary from 20s to 30s a week of sixty hours, according to the work done. ® One of the most successful of Dr Carr’s entertainments was given at the Masonic Mail last night to a very numerous audience The subject of the lecture was “ Love. Courtship and Matrimony,” and as handled created plenty ot amusement. Some wellknown citizens had their bumps felt, and by the frequent applause it would appear that the lecturer hit off the characters of some of his subjects very happily. The entertainment concluded with the usual experiments m mesmerism To-night the lecture will be on ‘ ‘ Man and the Gorilla. ” We have much pleasure in recording the fact that Mr G. F. Reid, who was a heavy sufferer by the late fire in Stafford street, has forwarded a cheque for L2O to the Secretaryof the Fire Brigade, in recognition of the valuable services that body rendered on that occasion. In addition to this handsome donation, Mr Heid has invited the officers and members of the Brigade to supper on Friday evening, at Wain’s Hotel. The example set by Mr Keid is one worthy of imitation ; and it must bo all the more g’ atifying to our volunteer firemen, as showing that their exertions have been estimated at their right value. The committee of the North Dunedin Rifle Company seem determined to give a new im petus to the volunteer movement so far as they are concerned. We observe from an advertisement that they offer prizes for the best drilled members of the corps, and also a ttend the greatest number of drills. This ought to be au inducement to good men to join, and we have authority for

stating none other will be admitted, Members and intending members are requested to meet at the Company’s Drill-shed to-morrow evening, to receive orders for new uniforms which are to be like that worn by the 60th Royal Hides. During a late debate in the Canterbury Provincial Council on increased estimates for the police department in that Province one of the members, Mr Jollie, remarked that the increased amount asked for was required, from “the fact that a large number of persons had been attracted by the prosperity of the Province, who required the attention of members of the force” This .-tatement, which, says the Canterbury ‘ Pres* ’ was “delicately put,” created loud laughter. Mention has been made of another escaped Communist- prisoner having arrived at Sydney, from Noumea, in the steamer rOgmo it. His name is Coutiiet. It is said that while the vessel was lying alongside the wharf he stowed himself away in the after hold, and remained there until the vessel had been about six hours at sea, when he came on deck. Before the vessel left it was searched, according to the usual custom, by the lieutenant of the port and his officers, who were ail armed with long iron spikes, with which they prodded the bales of cotton and other cargo in the fore hold ; they, however, neglected t© go into the after hold. An approximate estimate of a publican’s profits was given in the course of an examination in the Bankruptcy Court yesterday. The witness, a well known City brewer, and an equally well known wholesale wine merchant had sot up in business the bankrupt, who was now applying for his final discharge. The brewer was asked what profit might reasonably be expected from the retailing of a publican’s stock which had cost L6OO, and he replied 100 per cent would be a good average to cover expenses and pay the publican. The profit on beer alone was of course larger-—the witness calculating that wlxat the publican sold for sixpence cost him about l^d. It has been resolved by the Canterbury Provincial Council that a respectful address be presented to his Honor the -'Superintendent, requesting him to appoint a akiilea person as local analyst, to prevent the adulteration of articles of food or drink. Air Toawell, while calling attention in the Council to the necessity of immediate action being taken to prevent the adulteration of food, made the announcement that he was assured t>y a mtdical gentleman iu Christchurch, that only five per cent of what was sold in that city for pepper was really pepper.

At a literary entertainment in the Athenseum Hall, Aapier, Mr Justice Johnston read extracts from Mr Domett’s poem | Ranolf and Amohia.’ His Honor, says the Herald, stated, before commencing hia reading, that his principal reason for choosing it was that Mr Uomett had been mainly instrumental in naming ,the streets and roads of the town of Napier after the most eminent poets and writers, and also remarked that some of the greatest literary men of the present day had predicted that tue (Mr Domett) name would be handed down to posterity with those of Shakespeare, Milton, and other poets. A humorous writer, “ Atticus, ”’ in the Melbourne ‘Under’ of the 30th May, remarks : “ Last week a mortgage was effected on a first-class Collins street property for half its value at the rate of 7 per cent. This week I was startled at hearing of a loan of some l 800 being arrranged for on personal security at 3| per cent for seven years, and was informed that more could be got at the same rate. I expressed m> willingness to take every penny of it, LIO.OOO it necessary—on those terms, bnt was disgusted at finding that it is only available for i-he erection o; churches and parsonages for the .Episcopalians. I look upon a transaction of this kind (as immoral. It is calcutated to make men swear who have to pay the higher rates.” * J At the Princess’s Theatre last evening the “ Courier of Lyons ’ was pro iuced to a large attendance. Mrs Hill appeared as Jeanne, and wag well supported by Mr Keogh in the <lual character of Lesurques- and Dubose, a ® d i us o rave a a Lesurques Fibre. At >he close of the second act, where the father ienouncess his son as a hypocrite and a murderer, the acting of both gentlemen was excellent, and fairly entitled them to the nearly call before the curtain which they recewed Mr Steele did what little he had to do as Choppard in his usually careful raanner' . Th ,® Mterpiece was “ The Good for the othing, m which Miss May appeared to great advantage as Nan, and, with Messrs ■vlusgrave and Keogh, caused no little amusement, “ Leah” will be played to-night. The usual fortnightly meeting of the Mornington Mutual Improvement Society was held in the District Hall last evening. There was a good attendance of members, Ihe president. Mr Russell, read an article on ihe injurious effects of tobacco on the heart; alter which a short discussion ensued in .which all the members present engaged* _t the next meeting, which takes place oh the 6th July, the discussion will be continued on the following motion—“ That in the opinion of this meeting, the use of* tohacco is not productive of any good effect on the human system. ” The following notice of motion was also given for next meeting— That,- in the opinion of this .Society, females who have the necessary qualification should be allowed to exercise the right of having a voice in the legislation of the

The superstition of the Maoris is as surprising as their cool contempt for the law f rom the ‘Poverty Bay Standard ’ we learn that a report has reached Gisborne of the murder of an old .Native at Tuparoa near W aiapu. It seems a young fellow named Pehiwa3 taken ill and died, his death being attribute* to the witchcraft of an old man named Poihipj. Two men went to where the old man was living, a d found him sitting ThS ( -l° hl d on ,J“ knee - one of them then shot the poor old fellow through the breast. but, as he did not fall, the other fired and killed him. At a rununga held afterwards, 150 were for condoning the murder and fifty tor giving the murderers up to justice, but m the meantime the affair has been hushed SLrnfl b ° dy 7 as buried in the wha ™ where the murder was committed. The murderers are said to be well-known. Oculists appear to do well in Victoria where they can make some Ll5O a week fins fact came out in a case in the County Court, Melbourne, the other day, where Dr ray sued a patient—who, by the way—lost an eye, as well as his money—for balance of an account for professional services. Mr , ian ’.1, barrister, in cross-examining the plaintiff lor the defence, inquired as to the value given for the amount claimed (some L 24 altogether, with set-off payments), which dated from the 2nd to the 28th of February last ‘ . Tbe oealut, gating rather angry at Mr imns searching questions as to what he was able to {make, replied, “I make L 24 a day, and sometimes more. I make more than you do, at any rate.” This was too much for the learned counsel, who, after an unsuccessful attempt to strike off the fee charged for a day before the patient had communicated with the oceuliat, subsided, and Judge Cope gave a verdict for the amount claimed.

A. system of inspecting licensed houses has been suggested m the Canterbury Provincial Council. When the police estimates were under consideration, says the ‘ Lyttelton limes, Mr Potts advocated the appointment of a thoroughly qualified and well-paid in-

specter of licensed houses. He believed that such an appointment would result in the prevention of a great deal of misery, and in Che saving of a large amount of expenditure which would otherwise be incurred in the maintenance of hospitals and asylums. The hon. member expressed a hope that the Government would take action in the matter. The Hon. vir Buckley concurred with the remarks of the hon. member for Port Victoria, and stated that he knew of instances where men became lunatics through drinking adulterated liquor. Mr Jollie stated that the suggestions made by the hon member for Victoria would receive the earnest cons.deration of the Government, Hon. Major Richardson delivered a lecture on “ Central Asia : its Past, Present and Future,” iu the Mvs -nio Hall, Port Chalmers, last evening, on behalf of the Church of England building. The Rev. W. N, Leeson was in the chair. The hali was well tilled, and the lecture, which occupied «n hour and a-half, was listened to with marked attention, and frequently was loudly applauded. The lecturer dealt with the manners of the people, dwelling upon their barbarity, and said that their victims needed not to pass beyoud the confines of this life to find demons of as reined cruelty as the infernal spirits themselves. He spoke of the progress which Russia was making, and would make in bringing these maurauding tribes into subjection to her rule by the force of arras, and the medium of railways ; and also of the effect which British enterprise had made upon them from the opposite side to that of Russia, and foretold that yet those two powers would bring the vast territory within the pale of civilisation. A vote of thanks terminated the meeting. The 'Melbourne Herald’ is responsible for the following An individual has hit ®ut a way of living, which does infinite credit to his ingenuity. He selects the slowest sailing vessel on the berth for England, takes his passage, and lays in a large stock of ‘medicinal comforts,’apples, oranges, onions, and indeed everything iu the eating way conducive to the comforts of those who travel by sea; the packages being marked ‘ wanted on the voyage. ’ After the ship has been out some little time, the mau produces bis wares to tempt the appetit ;a of his fel-low-passengers— sets up, in fact, a little Paddy s Market on his own hook, and such is the craving for the shore delicacies he bad the forethought to provide, that he inariably disposes of his wares at a profit of about 300 per cent, before the vessel arrives at her destination, where he merely stays sufficiently leng to lay in a fresh supply of general produce and takes the first ship he can get to return home to Melbourne, repeating the selling manoeuvres as on the homeward voyage.”

The lately-reported explosion of fire-damp in a quartz mine is thus described by the Thames correspondent of the ‘ Southern Cross ’The drive on the course of the N T o. 1 reef in the Crown Prince mine has been carried a long distance to the seaward (westward) of the other workings of the mine, and a slide has been struck. The stopes have been carried up to the same slide, and hence the difficulty arose. At about eight o’clock last night there was a eakage of water about twelve feet above the level in the stopes in this reef. The underground manager, Mr Beeche (brother of the manager of the mine), went up into the stopes, and was about to stop the leak with clay. Unsuspicious of danger, he brought bis candle close to the aperture when suddenly a fierce blaze burst out. He at once dropped into the main level, and the flame, with great fury, roared through the stopes with a fearful sound. Mr Beecbe, by being underneath, escaped the flames, which in about ten minutes died out. This morning one of the workmen went to the aperture 'O J am up the hole, when his candle again et the gas. on fire, and before he could escape the front of his shirt and other por tions of his clothing were much scorched. his is quite a new enemy with which to contend. , The second quarterly meeting of the Caithness and Sutherland Association was held iu the Lower Hoom of the Dunedin Athenaeum, on Friday evening last, Mr Mathieson in the chair. The room was quite filled with members, and no less than twenty new members were proposed and admitted into the society. Numbers of the members hail from districts from the south of Canterbury to Riverton ; and two members from Tokomairiro, and one from >outh CJutha were present on Friday evening. The yearly membership of the society was reduced from 20s to 10s, with 10s of entry money additional. The secretary (Mr W. Elder) announced that he and Messrs Mackay and Cormack, of Port Chalmers, had boarded every late Home ship upon arrival in the harbor, and inquired for all immigrants hailing from these counties, placing their services at the disposal of such. Several immigrants had secured engagements through their influence and that of the treasurer (.Mr Gunn, Dunedin). The secretary announced that he had communicated with the London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and Glasgow Associations, but had nob yet received replies. Several letters were read from an up-country miner, requesting the benefit of the society’s services on behalf of expected arrivals. For the above we are indebted to the ‘Bruce Herald,’ but why the information was withheld from the Dunedin journals we are at a loss to imagine. The humorous contributor to the ‘ Bruce ’"'ho writes under the nom de plume of The Intelligent Vagrant,” relates the following story “From the township I have given so excellent an indication of there was an esteemed gentleman going away who had for some time been manager of the local branch of the great “.sixes and Sevens” Bank. Pap :r had been of value for some moutfis, produce was ‘up,’ and consequeutly there had been no putting on of tlie aciew, and no bitter feelings engendered bo a dinner was eiven to the departing gentleman ; and there happened after dinner a bit of that pleasant enthusiasm such as happened about the Scott Scholarship. It was resolved that the object of the enthusiasm should be presented with a testimomal worth, say, L2OO ; and it was resolved to forward this resolve to one of the big men of the Bank in London, with a request that he would choose and purchase a suitable piece of plate. So the resolution was duly forwarded to the ‘big man,’ who returned a moat civil answer, expressing his gratification that any one of the numerous servants of the Sixes and Sevens bank should be the recipient of so agreeable a testimomal and that he had chosen quite a handsome piece of plate, which hje 1 would purchase on receipt of ‘first of exchange’ (a mercantile term, I believe meaning the same as ‘H.M.D.’) The presenters of the testimonial should have been in ecstasy at getting this letter ; but, since the dinn-r, enthusiasm has had time to cool, and when they came to reckon up they found that they had not quite a quarter of the L2OO, and that there was but little chance of getting the remaining fractional part ; and so there le uow aprobiemt 0 solve-Who is to make up the balance ? ”

of tte Invercargill Borough Council, letters were read from Drs f and Yorath, intimating their willingess to comply with the requirements of the irumic Health A.ct by informing the «'ouncil, m its capacity of Local Board of Health, ef cue occurrence of cases of infectious or contagious disease coming within their cognisance. The third local nftdico (Dr M'Olure)

wrote calling the Council’s Attention to th® following facts s—“ Ist. When admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, I was—as a condition precedent to such admission—called upon to make, inter alia, and did make, a declaration, which for ever prohibited the possibility of my in any wise obeying the specific directions of the ‘ I7tb Clause of the Public Health Act,’ to which you have been so good as to draw my attention, and for a verbatim copy of which I have to. thank you. 2nd. For the reasons appearing in the foregoing paragraph it follows that the New Zealand Legislature, in enacting the aforesaid ‘ Public Health Ac-",’ has (so far as the 17th section, at all events, is concerned) acted ultra vires, Decause by that section I am required to perjure myself, and laid under a penalty if 1 re.rain from so doing. I wish it distinctly to be understood that 1 write in no litigious spiri , but in order to point out the fact that an oath of allegiance instituted by the Imperial Legislature for the wisest of reasons (unnecfssary here to enumerate), once taken, cannot be contravened by any Colonial or other enactment. ” A discussion ensued on a motion—“ That tbe letter be referred to the Corporation Solicitor, for his opinion on the question therein raised. ” One or two councillors thought this course unnecessary, as the functions of the Board were simply to see that the provisions of the Health Act were enforced; and, as Dr M'Olure refused compliance, he must bear the consequences of whatever legal action was taken. A third councillor considered that no declaration made as a conditiod of admittance to membership of an institution could be allowed to interfere with tbe administration of the law of the Colony, Ultimately the motion was carried. The bonded warehouses will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 30 and July 1. A meeting of the H.A.C. B, Society will be neiu in St. Joseph s Schoolroom, ou Monday evening next, at ?.30. J A special general meeting of the Chamber of Commerce will be held in the City Council Chambers, at 3 o clock to-morrow afternoon. Intending applicants for shares in the Colonial Bank of New Zealand are reminded tjiat this is the last week for receiving applioations m this Province. We understand that the number already applied for is considerably over the proportion of shares to which Otago is entitled, if they are allotted on the basis of the respective populations of each Province, as stated in the Bank’s prospectus.