The Evening Star MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1874.

Evening Star, Issue 3685, 14 December 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1874.

The annual meeting of the Chamber tf Commcce, which was to have been held this afternoon, was adjourned till tomorrow, at three p m., there not being a quorum present. Charles Dodd, late second mate of the barque Oneco, was discharged from gaol this morning under an order from Mr Justice Chapman, which Mr Caldwell received early in the forenoon. At the cattle show at Invercargill last week Messrs Sutton Bros.’ lost one of the finest of their stud rams, which succumbed to the effects of heat and travel. The auimal was a well-known prize-taker, and worth nearly L2OO. A valued correspondent, whose accuracy is unquestionable, informs us that the notorious Sullivan, of Mauugatapu ce'ebrity, was met lately in Sydney and also in M 1bourne. It is surmised that he returned from Ruglaud a week or so ago by one of the late arrivals to Australia. At the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Fort • balmers, this morning, before Mr T. A. Mansford, R.M., John Williams, for being drunk, was dismissed with a caution ; and a charge of insulting language, preferred against William Pcntony by Charles Pistol, was adjourned until Jim sday. Wc extract the following paragraph from the ‘B .ndigo Adveriiscr’ of the 2()th ult. “ A very old resident of Bendigo, now n member of the House of Representatives for the important mining centre of the Ueustan —Mr T L. Shepherd—is at present ou a visit to Sandhurst.'’ Mr Shepherd met with a hearty reception from his friends in Victoria. Some of the U. S. party for observing the transit of Venus have been making tour of the Lakes district, and are loud in their praises of its scenery. Mr Pierson, the photographer of the party, who has travelled nearly all ovor the United States and seen views of scenery from most parts of the world, tells the ‘Mad’ that none of them equal the scenery of the MronlLht Gorge, of which and the surrounding country the party took forty-five views.

There was an excellent downstairs attendance at the Princess’s on > v aturday night, when “Temptation” and the Scotch drama “ Cilderoy ” were performed. In the former the pri' cipal parts were sustained by Mrs lill aud Mr Steele, and in the latter Mr Keogh appeared to greater advantage than iisuul “i he We-trcof Mi ilothia.u” is an--ounced for to night. Mr >teele’s benefit takes place to-morrow evening, when “ Black beep” will be produced. VVe expect to see ■x large attendance. A. little before eight o’clock on Saturday evening a rep >rfc was spread about that a yacot had capsized in the bay and a youth been drowned. On proceeding to liattrav street jetty, however, where a la-ge crowd of people had gathered, the information was found to be for unately incorrect as regards the loss of life. It appears that William Perry, David Cairns, and a Fijian saiior, belonging to the schooner Jessie Niccoll. went out for a sail in the yacht Toimeut, and while crossing from Anderson’s Bay, and when oppos-te .Rattray street jetty a sudden gust of wind, which was biowing in puffs trom the mrlh-east, upset the boat, and throw its occupants into the water. They were ail able to swim, however, and supported tbemsblves until rescued by a boat despatched from the jetty.

On Thursday we were furnished with 1 another costly illustration of how utterly in- I capable the Telegraph Dei arcment is of overtaking ev<n a moderate press of business, i About seventy per cent, of th; messages sent i to us on that day were so delayed in transmission as to be on delivery completely useless to us. Thin is not the first, or the second, i or, we might 'safely say, the hundredth time that the energy of our agents has been wasted, ourselves put to great expense, and our readers deprived of the earliest and important information by the inefficiency of the telegraph. We have complained, and, it appears, in vain; it is now time the public came forward and asked how it is that a short message announcing the arrival of an English mail steamer—a fact that interesteverybody takes six hour in transmission from Auckland. Nearly ail our messages on : io> - av w- re remai kahle for similarly expe ditious treatment : on an average they look seven hours in transmission, while many that were sent from Welling on at two in the afternoon did nob reach us till the next morning. And not only, as we have alre dy said, is their use practically lost to us, but we are called upon to pay for them what w ( do not hesitate to call the exorbitant charge of a halfpenny a word, because our telegrams trom our correspondents in this Pro vince nearly always exh.uit the daily allow ance of 2UO words, in respect of which cheap rates are. charged. The present ta-iff. iustca , of encouraging an extended use of the wi ea appears to have been specially framed to cripple the enterprise of evening papers and in i his latter process the Department is assisting most effectually by such inordinate decays in transmission as we have just been noticing 'and have frequently complained of before, lb it we are not alone in our c ;m----plaints can be seen by the telegrams from our Auckland and Napier correspondents in this issue. A special meeting of the Pioneer Lodge, 1.0.0. F,, will be held to-morrow evening. A meeting of the Otago Rifle Association will be held at the Drill-shod to-morrow eveuino- - eight o’clock. *” The quarterly meeting of the Carpenters and Joiners Society will be held on Wednesday evening, at 7.45. A summoned meeting of the Court Pride of Dunedin, A.0.F.. will be held to-morrow evening at eight o’clock. A meeting of the Committee of the Dunedin Sailors’ Home will be held in the City Council Chambcis to-morrow afternoon, at ’half-past four. Mr B. Isaac requests us to call attention to the fact that the date of Air Levy's communication of September 4, DO?, was published in his (Mr Isaac's) letter to us on the 9th iust. feo great was the interest in the service manifested by the congregation of the Baptist Church last evening, that a special service will be held to-night at 7 o’clock. Air B. Short will preach. The ‘Australian Sketcher’ for November has reached us. The chief picture is a two-page engraving of the Cap Race, which is a really artistic effort. The other engravings are not so good as usual, but the letter-press is, as usual, excellently selected. The _ Bazaar in aid of the Building Fund of All Saints’ Church will be opened in the University Hall on Tuesday, 29ch inst. From the large quantity of goods promised, and the energy of the promoters, there is little doubt that a handsome sum will be realised. The drawing in Reith and Wilkie’s Art Union takes place on Wednesday evening next at the Temperance Hall. As a number of the prizes are choice original pictures, intending subscribers would do well to inspect them before the collection is finally broken up. Almanacs pour in upon us. That publish e l by Air Wise is -a marvel of cheapness, and the ‘Southern Provinces Almanac’ published by the ‘Lyttelton Times’ office is not to be excelled anywhere for completeness of the information it furnishes. In Air Wise’s publication the directories, even to the smallest township in the Province, are alphabetically arranged, distinctly printed and very handy for reference’ those of Akaroa, Timaru, and Waimate in the I adjoining Province being added. This annual is now in its ninth year of existence. To-morrow there will be on view, at the shop of Thomson, Strang, and Co.,’ Princes street, a very large and handsome opossum skin, imported from Melbourne by Mr M, Benjamin, of this city. It has been manufactured to the order of a gentleman in the North Is land, who intends to present it to a Native chief. It was on view in Melbourne, and referring to it the ‘ Argus ’ said : “ It is composed of skins of every description of opossum, the most beautiful being the Tasmanian rock opossum. This rug, which is m uch larger than the ordinary siz-, attracted a good deal of notice here. ” During the week ending December 11, twenty-six patients were admitted and twentyfive discharged from the Dunedin Hospital. Five deaths occurred during the week—Duga’d Cameroiq farm laborer, aged 40, native° of Arey leshire, from typhoid fever; James Williams, shepherd, aged 55, native of Newcastle (England), from disease of the brain and paralysis ; James Waters, cook, aged 47, native of Meath (Ireland), from disease of the heart; James Brosinhan, laborer, aged 22, native of Ireland, from typhoid fever ; Joseph Bennett, fireman, aged 30, native of Chester, from disease of tlm heart. The number of patients at present in the Hospital is 15G, of whom twentynine are women.