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Evening Star, Issue 3635, 16 October 1874, Page 2

The Oxford Variety Troupe gave two very successful performances at Port Chalmers on Wednesday and Thursday evenings last. The Standard machine has jiist finished a crushing of 104 tons from Saltoun and-party, of the Try Again claim. Ihe yield was at the rate of close upon 21 dwts. to the ton. An information on rather a serious charge, arising out of fch&.-Teceut case of Max' Gall and Co. v. Cowan, has been laid against a well-known gentleman resident in Cromwell. The information willlSome before the Bench on Friday, and is me&hwhile exciting considerable interest in that town. Very deserved promotion has been made in the police force ; Sergeant Bevan, who has been sergeant of the mounted force and drill instructor for the past eleven years, having been appointed sergeant-major. The office is a new one, and we are sure that Sergeant Bevan will give as much satisfaction in his new position as in his old one. A fatal accident occurred on the sth inst, to a boy about six years of age named William John Blackwell, who was killed by falling over a precipice at Rockfcide, -near the Galloway Station, .Manuherikia. The bey had been amusing himself by rolling stones over a precipieoe about 100 ft. in height, and by some means had-overbalanced himself and fallen to the bottom, causing his instantaneous death. , . The manager of works to the Kanieri Lake Water-race Co. has reported to‘the that the works Lave withstood, the recent high floods and stormy weathbr well, no breakage having occurred. He-hopes to get the whole seven miles of the race completed by the end of the month ; and reports that two more claims have been taken up ;in Connolly’s gully, and .that, several parties are prospecting along the line of the race. A case of great importance to newspaper proprietors has been decided by Vice-Chan-cellor Little at Liverpool. Mr John Vaughan, I editor of the Liverpool ‘ Leader,’ had been summoned before the' registrar to answer I

ques ions os to the source from which he obtained information appearing in the ‘Leader’ oq the Civil Service Association, Mr Vaugli aaXrefuaed'steadily tp disclose his informant’s name ;"ahd after manjt, adjournment#, dec|de(i\ tbit he waaAqt boufid fcb the questions. single girls frgqiithe Invercargill were hrpdght to iowri By the noouAfftin to-day, and‘-Were conveyed t6 the payers!) am Barracks, where they may be .ehgaged on Tuesday. The couples aud single men will be brought up to-morrow. The former will be open for en gagement at the Caversham Barrack on Monday morning, and the latter at the Princes street depot at the same time. Fifty souls cx Invercargill go to Oavaaru per Beautiful Star to-night. A. waggon load (fifteen) went to Tokomairiro this afternoon.

.Yet another Southern constituency has declared in favor. oiL the.-abolicioxL-of-P-ro*-vinoes in the North Island. Mr G. B. £ arker, M. H. It for Geraldine, met his constituents at Waimate last week, and explained his reasons for the position he took up regarding the great questions wh>ch came before the" House, and especially his motives for‘supporting Mr VogeTa' abolition resolutions. At the-close of hia address the following motion was carried unanimously ; ■ ' ‘ That this meeting has every confidence in Mb G. B Parker as member for this dist<ict, and expresses its approval of the action he has taken in the question of the abolition of the Provinces in the North Island.”

Apropos of street tramways, the -propulsion ot tram ears by steani has been already, realised in Chicago. A boiler on •'lthe car is suppbed with steam from a stationary boiler, and the charge is sufficient for a run of three miles, a speed of twenty miles an hour bein' attainable. In San Francisco a very .novel mode of propelling street cars has been adopted. An endless steel cable .is laid underneath the track, to which the car is attached by means-of clamps. The cable is kept in motion by a stationary engine, and the sp.ed attained exceeds that of cars drawn by horses. When the car is to be stop .ed, the clamps are released, and the breaks applied, the cable moving on. A similar arrangement was used many years since on the London and Biaokwail Railway.

From Wellington we learn that LieutColouel Mouie is about to proceed to i nglaud ; and it is whispered there that Major Gordon wdl be appointed to the Undersecretaryship of Defence. The Government have not yet selected an officer to make the next annual inspection of volunteers. Seeing that that offic r has hitherto been invariably drawn from the North Island, we think it only fair that the South should this year be called upon to furnish the inspector. The Adjutant of the Otago district is, we believe, the oldest officer in the force, and it would be a graceful act, and a compliment to the Province, if he were appointed, t f one thing we feel certain, if Major Atkinson were called upon to inspect the force, he would furnish a report that would be thoroughly reliable. ,

It is not uncommon (says the ‘ North Otago Times’) to read of men attempting to break out of gaol, but it is very rarely that one hears of a man attempting to break into oiie. Yet it appears that an individual named Henry Young, alias Jones, having done recently bis three days’ in what is euphoniously and variously termed the Castle Hotel and Her Majesty’s Boarding House, was so charmed with his.quarters that, being unable to obtain admittance otherwise on seeking to return to them, he smashed jn a window for the purpose, and got a mouth fqr bis pains (panes.) It is said that the individual in question wanted to get a fortnight’s lodging at the public expense tq make out the time till shearing, and is awfully disgusted at the Magistrate’s having exceeded that sentence and curtailed his liberty for a mouth.

•fc'arly on Monday the barometer was lower than ever before known in Tuapeka. At dawn of day a terrific gale of wind was blowing from the westward, and at 7 o’clock rain and sleet commenced to fall in a manner seldom seen in these low latitudes, the rainall raising the creeks in a short time to an almost impassable condition between Lawrenpe and the Beaumont. A party of surveyors, encamped on the flat opposite Bellamy station, were by water, and had to remain within their tgnts the whole, of the day. At 4 o’clock, in the afternoon, snow commenced to fall heavily, and continued with but slight intermission for about twelye hogrs, acppmpanied with occasional peals of thund.er. Y ester (lay the weather was again very stormy and wet, and unless a change seon takes place for the better, we (‘ Tuapeka Tijnes ’) fear we shall have to chronicle heavy losses i» stock, and serious injury to growing crops as a conse quence.

At the R.M. Court, Tokomairiro, on Tuesday last, a case was brought by Mr Henry White, seedsman, Tokomairiro, against Mrs Fanny Grey, of the same place, to recover the sum of Lls 17s, alleged to be due by her late husband, who died suddenly about two years ago. Mr Gooday appeared for the plaintiff and Mr Taylor (with him Mr Rein) for the defendant. The case seemed to excite considerable interest on account of the p,cu liarity of its circumstances. The defendant, in the course of her evidence, said that when her husband died there was household furniture consisting of a common deal table, a few chairs, three or four cups and saucers, two iron bedsteads, four or five knives and forks, a few plates, and a small chest of drawers. At the time of her husband’s death, the hpuse was furnished to accommodate a boarder, S£e had not paid any debts of deceased, and was s»re her husband did not, at the time of his death, owe the amount claimed for rent. Since her husband’s death she had not paid plaintiff anything on account of rent due previously. She and her children were left destitute. Not a credj-or, except Mr White, had asked her to pay. Several of the other creditors gave her receipts for the amounts due them without getting any money! White sued her before for Ll2; since when she received anotice from plaintiff to deliver up the house she lived in, which was her property, or pay a rent of L 5 a week. White, in “his evidence, said Grey at his death owed the amount claimed. He raised the rent to get Mrs Grey out of the house; Donald Reid, sp'ieitor, said when he was paying rent lately fo)" Mrs'Griy, plaintiff had said, in a spiteful mihiiier, he wdijld have it but of Mrs Grey though ’it cost him bis 1 last Shilling! Mr Oarew, R. M., considered a sum 61 money 1 was due to plaintiff out of the estate, and the evidence showed that defendant had taken control of the estate, and had assets to pay the creditor.' Judgment was given for L 5 17s, with costa, to be paid by instalments of 10s a week.

The Princess Theatre will be re-opened tomorrow evening by a Combination Company of vocalists, etc. The concert in aid of St. Mathew’s Church Building Fund, which was tp have taken place in the Temperance Hall on Monday evening, has been unavoidably postponed till Friday next. Purchasers of tickets to whom tjie postponement may prove inconvenient can, on applying to Mr Prosser, have the money Refunded.