The Evening Star TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1874.

Evening Star, Issue 3686, 15 December 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1874.

To-morrow (Wednesday, December 16) being the anniversary of the Province of Canterbury, Sunday hours will be observed at all telegraph stations within that Province. This month’s escort, as will he seen by a glance at the returns in another column, is the largest which has reached town for a considerable period. Cromwell heads the list with 3,2010za. lodwts. The Dunedin branch of the Hibernian Australian Catholic Benefit Society last night decided to dispense with the services of their medical attendant (Dr Cole), and also nominated officers for the ensuing six months. The three Auckland papers unequivocally condemn the penny wise and pound foolish policy introduced by Mr Passmore, Superintending Engineer of Constructed Railways, in regard t« the management of the Auckland lines. When Mr E. J. O’Conor recently addressed his constituents at Reefton, in addition to the usual vote of confidence it was resolved that the Province of Nelson ought to be included in the schedule of Provinces to be abolished. At the Port Chalmers Resident Magistrate’s Court, before Mr T. A, Mansford, R.M., John Williams was fined ss, or twentyfour hours, for drunkenness. The only civil oases were Fail v. Dunning, claim 5s for boat hire, and Fail v. Kimbell, 3s for the same. Judgment was given in each instance for plaintiff—in the first case without costs. The Trade Societies, at a meeting last evening, affirmed that “it is desirable to establish a Working Men’s Club in this City,” and strongly recommended it to the consideration of their fellow working men. A meeting of delegates will be held on the 21st instant, for the purpose of passing resolutions to bo submitted to a public meeting, A rumor was current in London a few days before the last mail left, and acquired considerable publicity through the indiscretion of a subordinate of the Press Association, that Spiers and Pond had failed for oyer a million. The announcement occasioned considerable excitement, but a dis-. claimer speedily appeared, and Australians will be glad to learn that the ex-Colonists are flourishing. Yesterday afternoon a man named Joseph Tunbridge had a very narrow escape from serious injury, on the railway pier at Port Chalmers, Tunbridge and another man were shifting one of the waggons when Tunbridge’s foot got fixed in one of the points. He fell and the Hauge of the wheel parsed over his leg, which seemed severely bruised; he was, however, able to walk home, and resumed his usual work on the pier this 1 morning. “The Heart of Midlothian” was played to » moderate attendance at the Princess’s last evening, but the company was unable to do ju'*to:e f® the piece. * r Keogh, in aniioui.ci 'ig Mr Steele's benefit for this evening .when ■ * Black Sheep” will be produced), stated th.to toe management would be unable to cai Ty out their original intention of producing a Christmas pantomime at the usual season, . toe company would then be out of town, but that on their return, towards the ena of January, a pantomime equal to any yet s to Dunedin would be placed on the boards of the Princess’s. The folhwing iteiMS are from to-day’s Bruce Herald ’ :—The* survey of a large parcel of laud on de/erred payments is caking place in the Otar.’a district. -Three miles of the Mataura and Olutba Railway ormation have been complete xi. opposite the acre bridge. —There already exist two settled iggiugs at the Toi-Tois, name.'y, the Waipapa and the Waikava, each affording a comfortable living to about thirty peop|o.—The

great abundance of fish, such as flounder, rock cod, and mullet, obtainable at the mouth of the Mataura, makes a fish curing station worthy of suggestion.—As a result of the deferred payment settlement, about 600 acres have been fenced in during the last twelve months in the Toi-Tois district, and a large amount of clearing and ploughing has been done.

The friends of Miss Alice May, and we are sure she has many in I unedin, will be glad to learn that she has fully i eaovered from her late illness. She reappeared in Ch istchurch in the “ Bohemian Girl ” at the end of last week, and last night took her farewell benefit there, “Faust” being produced for the occasion. Our theatrical contributor informs us that she received quite an ovation, and that her Marguerite is considered one of her best assumptions. En passant we may mention that Mr Willis and his assi-t----«nts are preparing for the ensuing seas n, ooera-goers mav depend on seeing the novelties Mr Allen is prepared to give pro duced with scenery and mechanical accessories that have not been witnessed hero for a long time. Beefing prospects at the Lyell are very encouraging at present. The local paper says that the opinion that a large body of very rich stone would some day be discovered near the head of Irishman’s Creek has been advanced over and over again by those who were beat able to judge, and repeated efforts have from time to time been made to ascertain its wh -reabonts The last and best directed of these efforts was one under the auspices of the United Alpine Quartz Mining Company (limited), whose enterprise and perseverance have at length been crowne.d with the most complete success. Lyell can no longer be taunted with the ephemeral character of its quartz lodes, for in the low level tunnel of that company’s claim there is now exposed to view 50ft of a reef as well defined and as infinitely richer than any other yet opened in this island. Kine lads competed at the gymnasium last evening for the prizes for boxing offered by Mr W. K. Turton, but only four of the number attend Professor Long’s class, and those have only had six lessons. Nevertheless they shai ed well, and the efforts of some created, as might have been expected, not a little amusement. The judges (Messrs Turton, Kirkcaldy, and F. Muir) awarded the first prize to E. Hardy, and the second to 8. Coo t. The swimming match prizes, also offered by Mr Turton, were competed for this morning at the Pelich-t Bay baths by four boys, and resulted in the first prize going to W. Bakewell, and the second to W. M’Lean, It was a very exciting contest between thes two, and Bakewell only won by about six inches in a distance of a hundred yards. Mr ,S. Turton ac ed, as judge. The cricket match which was to have been played this afternoon had to be postponed, owing to the unfavorable weather. Our correspondent at the Arrow, in the account given of the removal of Feehey to the hospital at Frank on. who was sentenced by Mr Warden Stratford to th ee months’ imprisonment in Dunedin gaol f .r habitual drunkenness appears tehave beenmisinfo med on the subject It was not the police auth irities in Dunedin who overrode the sentence of the Court without giving notice to the Warden. The case stood thus : The prisoner being sentenced, was remanded to the care of the gaoler for execution of frs sentence, but he was too ill to b i retained in that prison with its limited accommodation, and removal to ) unedin, in terms of his mitenne, would have been equivalent to putting him to death Acdng, therefore, on the certificate of the medical <officer to that effect, the gaoler, on, his own responsibility, sent the man to the hospital, in terms of the 48th section of the Prisooets’ Act, 1873. Mr Warden Stratford’s jurisdiction has not, in any wise, been interfered with.

A bishop—and a very wise one, none other than Dr Fraser, of Manchester, thus express d himself very recently on cremation : —“ Philosophers had tried to trace our origin to some fine granular atom of matter as the primordial order of all things. But instead of going backwards he be'.i vecl in looking forward. Strange things too. had come into men’s minds with regard to what we ought to do with our dead, and that instead of burying our dead we ought to have cremation. For his part, he did not see that cremation interfered with the resurrection doctrine. His body would crumble to dust, and it was enough for him to know that his personal identity throughout eternd ages rested with his Maker. A surgeon might, cut off his finger, but ho was there still, whatever physiologists said as to the change of his body. Eye had not seen nor ear heard the things that were in store for us To die was human, and to live was life eternal. All of them ought to try and live for the life to come. ”

Commenting on the FT on Mr Reynolds's speech the other day the ‘ New Zealand limes’ remarks: -“It is not in contemplation by anyone, that we know, to ‘ take the land fund from the South; ’ but it clearly is the intention of a majority of the inhabitants of this Colony to have such a revision of its fiscal policy as shall result in an equalisation of taxation. How that is to be effected it is for the General Assembly to determine. The Assembly has full power to make any disposition it pleases of the public estate, and of the revenues accruing therefrom ; and the representatives of the people will doubtless consider the question, with a view to settlem nt, at no distant day. The policy of localising the land revenue, which was set out in the Ministerial pr gramme last session, is that which most commends it-elf to practical minds ; but extreme views like those enunciated by Mr Reynolds, himse'f a vliidster, must necessarily embarrass his colleagues in maturing a measure which would satisfy all parts of the country. It is this part of his speech to which we take exception, and for the reason stated. Asa Colonial Minister, Mr Reynolds should not know either North and South as having conflicting interests. His duty is to consider what is best for the whole Colony ; and if he cannot rise to the level of his official duty in this respect, he should withdraw from a ; position that must be irksome to him.”

An amusing “ take in” comes from Arrowtown, and the account of it, as told by the ‘Mail,’ is being freely circulated. A learned Professor, holding a chair in a university, was, or is travelling in the district. On arrival of the coach at Arrowton. lately two pieces of rock salt were taken out of the box for the horses to “lick at,” as is the usual custom, it became known very soon th-t Professor “ White” had arrived, and when an oppor tunity occurred, a wag took up a piece of this rock salt, and attracted the attention of another party to it by showing it, as a splendid sample of limestone that had recently been found near a new coal discovery. The Professor’s attention was also attracted by the celloquy that went on between the two the result being that he seized hold of the specimen, inquiring where was the locality «f the chemist’s shop in that great town To this shop sped the Professor, accompanied by others, one of whom was the energetic and enthusiastic Mayor of the rising city, already proud to have engaged the attention of so learned a savant, able to pronounce authoritatively an opinion upon so valuable a discoveiy. The immense and varied stock of the chemist did not contain the required acid. A very good substitute in another acid was, however, obtainable. A piece of the rock salt was then pounded up, and the acid poured upon it, but it did qfc “fij;” as

pure limestone would do and every ordinary I lira stone should. The Professor was puzzled; the hopes of those around fell to zero. Some one suggested—probably the wag—that it should be analysed by tasting it. This was done, and all commented upon its saline taste. Last c->rae the Professor’s turn. Of course the unanimous verdict w*s that it was a pieco of rock salt. One horrible individual in the crowd had the hardihood to state that he knew it was rock salt all the time, but this piece of information was not graciously received. To America we are again indebted for an improvement which promises to result in the creation of an e itirely new and advantageous system of telegraphy. The discoverer is a Mr Edison, the inventor of a number of electrical devices now in use on the American lines, and himself one of the best engineers in the service of that country. The present discovery relates to that form of apparatus known as the automatic or chemical telegraph, in which signals are made and reco ded by causing the elect-icity to pass through paper, the latter being saturate ! with a chemical substance which changes in color when the current acts. Lines, dots, and dashes are thus produced with greater facility. In the ordinary working of this form of telegraph the electricity is sent over the line wire by a key, in the umal manner and passes though a pen, stylus, or lever, which has no movement, hut simply rests upon the paper, the latter being moved by a weight or clockwork. No magnet and armature are used The salient feature in Mr Kdis m’s discovery is the production of motion and of sound by the pen or stylus, without the intervention of a magnet and armature. By the motion thus produced, he works any of the ordinary forms of t legraph printing or sounding instruments or ©lays, and is enabled to s--nd messages, by direct transmission, over thousands of miles of wire, at the highe-t speed, without rewriting, delay, or difficulty of any kind. More than this, his apparatus operates in a highly effective manner under the weakest electric currents, and be is able to receive and transmit messages by currents so weak t,h t the ordinary magnetic instruments fail to operate or even give an indication of the passage of electricity. Thus, when the common instruments stand still, owing to weakness of current, the Edison telegraph will be at work up to its fullest capacity. The author has baptised his discovery the electromotograpb. The letters of “ Citizen ” and “ David Andrews ” are held over till to-morrow. The Horticultural Society’s exhibition will be held in the Temperance Hall to-morrow. The Artillery will parade at the Drill-shed to-morrow evening, at 8 o’clock. The band will be in attendance. The Evangelistic services will be continued by Mr B. Short, in the Hanover street Church, on Wednesday and Thursday evenings ; the service on Wednesday being specially for the young, Mr G. E. Barton requests us to state that he was not a passenger by the Christian M‘Ausland, as some people appear to have imagined fmm the publication of the names of Mr and Mrs Barton in that ship’s passenger lisc.