The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3706, 8 January 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1875.

A yacht club has been formed at Oamaru, and the promoters intend purchasing a vessel as soon as possible. One of the railways that, according to some wiseacres, was not going to pay, is the Napier one, which sines its opening has given a weekly profit of L6O, its earnings averaging L 96 a week, and the expens s L 36.

The ‘ Cross ’ states that the telegraphic story of a New Zealand judgeship having been offered to Mr Higginbotham, of Victoria, is entirely without any foundation. The Ministry never entertained any idea of such a thing. According to the Oamaru paper Mr T. Bracken is there credited with the perpetration of this conundrum :—vVhy should the Oamaru coach be a favorite with the clergy ? —Because it is owned by a Chaplin and driven by a Devine. ” There will only be a short sitting of the Supreme Court for the disposal of common jury civil business, all the cases with the exception of one having been settled out of Court. Malaghan v. Wenkheim, the case referred to, will be taken at ten o’clock on Monday morning. Proof of the wide-spread feeling of dissatisfaction which prevails in the Southland district with regard to t'le manner in which the re-union arrangements for immigration have been carried out is furnished bv the very large number of signatures which the petitions to the Colonial Government received in the course of a few days. The Christian Company, whose concerts have delighted the Auckland public, is for the most part the same as that brought to the Colony by Madame Goddard. Miss Christian is principal vocalist, and she is assisted by Mrs Smytne, Herr Dohler, Messrs Raiuforl, Skinner, and Harcourt Lee, the business management being entrusted to the indefatigable R. S. Smythe. The American Circus is performing in Christchurch, and Baker’s Hibernicon is on its way south. Mr Logan Wilson, of Mill Farm, Ryal Bush, informs one of the Southland papers that he has shorn some Leicester ewe hj «g----getts, many of which clipped over 121ba weight of fine lustre wool, and two of the fle ces weighed 14lbs and 17ilbs respectively. These must be considered very heavy fleeces, and the weights are more remarkable as the sheep were raised on the ordinary grass of the farm, with however, the addition of turnips for about two months in spring. At a meeting of the vestry of All Saints’ Church last evening, Mr Lubecki was elected parish churchwarden, Mr M'Laren minister’s churchwarden, and Messrs R. H. Leary, Doughty, M‘George, Mcar- s, Howlinson, Black, Jack, Watson, Haggitt, and Statham vestrymen. The vestry was auth rised to pay the Rev. Mr Stanford, in addition to his stipend, a sum equal to the dividend he would have received from the clergy mainte nance fund had the parish contributed to it. Cn the evening of the 2nd instant a man named Thomas Sinclair met with a latal accident in his hut at Winton, where he worked in the capacity of a baker. He had been reducing some fat or tallow to a state of liqnidness, and while doing so he upset the vessel in which it was contained, scalding himself somewhat severely. He died in the Invercargill hospital on Monday, his death resulting more from the shock his system sustained in consequence of the scald, than from the actual severity of the scald itself. It is satisfactory to find that many of the better class of immigrants evince anxiety to get their friends out hero to join them, and that nominations in considerable numbers are sent Home by every mail. In one of the nomination papers which we (‘Post’) have just seen, the man, who has been some four months in the Colony, strongly advises his friend to emigrate, saying ; “ This is a fine country. I have no wish to return. There is plenty of work for those who are willing to work. I get double the wages I did at Home, and work less hours.” This is the right sort of man for the Colony. The San Francisco service is certainly of some use as a postal route. The mails that left Sydney on October 24 were delivered in London on December 15, being the fifty-second day after despatch, whilst those that left here via Brindisi on the Ist November, eight days later than the Macgregor, arrived on the 19th. Notwithstanding that the Macgregor is one of the slowest boats used in the service, it will be seen that the mails via San Francisco were conveyed to London in only four days longer than those via Brindisi, whilst the time occupied via Southampton would be four or live days more than via San Francisco.

Madame Goddard refused all the offers for her grand piano, and on leaving Auckland shipped it direct Home. A speculative hotelkeeper .at Napier offered as much as LI 75 for it; but notwithstanding the freight, insurance, and other charges connected with its transport back to England, and although Madame Goddard has been playing on it for a year and a-half, Mr Smythe a-sured the ‘ Cross ’ that the instrument would be worth more than L 175 to Messrs Broadwood. JLhe piano is certainly an historical instrument, and an account of its detention in Sydney and its other adventures, will probably be some day written by Madame Goddard’s indefatigable agent. Mr E. J, Lord, the engineer of the Kanieri Water Race Company, has sent in a very favorable report of the progress of the woik, and says that everything looks favorable for a speedy completion of it At a meeting of the directors, held on the 30th ut, they passed the following resolution, viz., ‘‘That contractors receive notice that 1 nless all contracts are finished by th- 13th February, 1875, the penalty clau-es will be strictly enforced,” showing that the directors are doing their very best to have the whole race finally completed by that date. We understand that the Company will allow a liberal discount for cash payments of calls not yet due, as large payments have to be made to contractors now that the works are so near completion.

A fatal acccident occurred at Port Moeraki on ' ew Year’s Day, but the name of the unfortunate man is not reported by the correspondent of the Uamaru paper who supplies the information. It appears that two men set .out in a dingy from the Port towards a vessel lying iu the bay, when somehow or other the dingy capsized and

the meu were thrown into the water. One I of them swam ashore for assistance to save his m Ae, but by the time he returned the drowning man had disappeared, and the body has not yet been found. The large number of sharks known to frtquent the bay almost forbids the possibility of its ever being recovered The dingy was afterwards found upside down. By the steamer Phoebe, which came in from the North. yi-sterday, arrived Mr R. Reay and a string of racehorses. These comprised the four-year old colt Traitor, by Traducer out of Deception; the three-year-o’d filly by Towton out of Opera; the three-year-old colt Tadmor, by Caieder out of Brunette ; and a two-year-o’d colt, named Daniel O’Rourke. Traitor and Sonnambula are engaged in the Dune in Oup, and will, with their companions, doubtless, enter for other races at the March meeting; and in the meantime they will compote at some of the up-country meetings. At present the four are located at Mr Scott’s stables.

The * Western Star ’ of last Saturday reports that a pedestrian named Stark, who competed at the Riverton Caledonian Games on Boxing Day, was disqualified from ever running at that ulace again, on account of Laving pulled up in a 40 ) yards race and allowed an opponent to pass him. The sell is said to have been a most clumsy one, and palpable to the least observant spectator. We learn that Stark had entered for our late games, but that Mr Giglis, secretary to the Invercargill Caledonian '•ociety, telegraphed the fact of the disqualification to the Jtago Society, and the runner was debarred from running here also. Stark has only recently arrived from Melbourne, and has the reputation of being a fine runner. The German Cremation Society in New York, numbering about 450 members, have decided to erect a suitable hall, with wal’-s of iron, 6,020 ft-, by 44ft., containing a rotunda, supported by eight pillars. In the centre there will be erected an altar for religious ceremonies, and upon a large stand in front of this will be placed the coffin. The ceremonies ended, the coffin will be gradually lowered, by means of screws, into a furnace, where it would be submitted to a hot air blast of I.OOOJeg. Farhenheit, It is calculated that complete cremation would take place in an hour and a-balf, after which the coffin would again be returned to the altar. The ashes would then be gathered, and placed in urns provided by the relations of the deceased. Connected with the furnace will be an apparatus for condensing the gases and smoke. The running of a late train to the Port was the means of bringing a good many of the Port people to the Theatre last evening to witness the “Grand Duchess” Owing to Miss May’s illness two important alterations in the cast had to be made; Miss Lambert having to sustain the title rdle and Miss Howe that of A anda. It says a good deal for the versatility of those ladies that they should have been so perfect, both in the music and the text of the libretto, as to carry the perform mce through to a successful termination. Those who had nob seen Miss May’s Duchess must have been pleased with Miss Lambert’s assumption, which tons was a pleasant surprise, and we confess to a great liking ft) Miss Howe as Wanda. Miss Lambert received au encore for her rendering of “ Say to him,” and the regulation duet deservedly came in for a good round of applause. To-night the burlettas i f the “ Crimson Scarf,” and “Cox and Box” will be produced for the first time here.

An amusing story has been going the rounds of the Victorian Press. A certain young lady who considers herself in the cream of V; elbourne society was betrothed to a vvell-known Ballarat merchant. Before the ceremony her ‘ ‘ ma ” persuaded her to pay a visit to the fashionable Bourke street drapers, where an elaborate trousseau was purchased to the extent of about L6O. Injunctions were given that the bill should be sent in to the expectant spouse, but not until a certain date, a few days after the ceremony, the approach of which vas not of course mentioned. By an accident the bill was sent out at the end of the month in the usual course, and the bridegroom expectant of course at once called to explain to the drapery firm that, being still a bachelor, he could not possibly have incurred a heavy liability for feminine frippery. The state of the case was represented to him, the result being that he declined to fulfil his matrimonial engagement and to pay the bill. The lady (says the * Ballarat Star’) is therefore left without'her sweetheart, and with her trousseau on hand for the next emergency of a similar character, for which “pa” will probably have to pay. A distressing accident occurred at Masterton (Wellington Province) a few days ago. A son of Mr E, Chamberlain, aged three and a-half years, was ailing, and his father went to Mr Sheet's establishment for medicine, which was given in the form of two powders. Subsequently the mother administered one of them, and symptoms of the child being poisoned were at once manifest. The father went to Mr Sheet’s immediately and inquired what the medicine was. Mr Sheet perceived that there must have been some thing wrong about the medicine, and looked at the bottle from which he had taken the material for the medicine, and found that he had, by mistake, used strychnia instead of worm powder. The two bottles were similar in appearance and apparent contents, and had been somehow misplaced. Mr Sheet at once despatched the father home with an antidote, bub the child died before it could be administered. The verdict of the jury was, “ That the child died from strychnia, given to it by its mother in a powder prepared by W. H. Sheet, chemist, in a mistake for worm powder,” and a rider was added, stating that in the opinion of the jury deadly poisons should only be kept in bottles having some distinctive aud unmistakeable character.

The rise and progress of Templarism was briefly and tersely stated by Mr M alius, the Chief Templar of England, at a recent public meeting held at Birmingham to celebrate the introduction of the order into Great Britain. Six years ago, he said, some twenty-one persons met in a small chapel iu a bye-street in Birmingham for the purpose of hearing an explanation of the order whose advent they were met to celebrate. After that meeting a lodge of eighteen members was formed. Though they met with great difficulties, in about two years they had initiated 2,500 members and had formed 83 lodges; now there were 3,743 lodges, and the members had increased to 210.555. That was the number of faithful subscribing members at the present time. They had held during the past year more than 20 COO public meetings—an average of 66 per day all the year round. In Scotland they had some 810 lodges and some 62,000 members Brother Ihotnas, of the Welsh Grand Lodge, claimed that though the English (*rand Lodge was the biggest in the world, the Welsh showed the greatest per-centage ; for while Ireland bad only one Good Templar per 1,000 inhabitants, England ten or eleven, and Scotland seventeen, they had forty-five per 1,000. Mr Bowen, in answer to questions put to him at his Kaiapoi meeting, is reported to have said : —“ The Government do nob intend at the next session to raise any further loans, after the present authorised amount has been raised. In his opinion, it would be the best policy to commence tentatively the process of Provincial abolition where it was most needed; bat next session, or pet*

haps the session after that, it would be right j to introduce a Bill to include the Middle | Islaud. He would not pledge himself at all to say when the proper time would be to do this, but most decidedly be was of opinion that the Middle Island should be included. He was not in favorfof borrowing, at least on the system now carried out, in which the P ovine s pledged the credit of the Colony. This, he thought, was ruinous. He tried to explain that he was in favor of the municipal dies or divisions, or whatever they might be, borrowing money if they had any security to offer to the public creditor, but he did obj-ct to the Provinces all hanging on to the miich cow, the State, some milking her ope dy and in broad day. :.ni others under cover. As he had always said, he objected to the Provinces b-iug allowed to hang round the Colony, sorrowing on the strength of the credit of the Colony.’' Speaking of funeral reform in Christchurch, the ‘ Church News ’ says :—The subcommittee appointed at a recent public meeting in that City, is now engaged in obtaining information as to what has been done, or is in contemplation, in Adelaide, Dunedin, and other places. They have also sought a conference with representatives of the various friendly societies in Christ 'hurch, with the view of ascertaining whether they are disposed to co-operate in the movement. Very great and general interest is felt in the matter, but no small amount of determination and perseverance will be needed to overcome the inveteracy of custom in these matters. Meantime, one example is wor hj much talking. Not many days ago a funeral was conducted on what may be called reformed principles. The deepest feeling was manifested, bub all display and unnecessary expense, as well as all that is merely gloomy, were studiously avoided. The deceased, a child of four summers, was borne to the cemetery, not in one of those gloomy structures called mourning coaches, but in an ordinary close carriage. The coffin was of poll-bed wood, without coverin .-, and without pUvte or inscription. JSo p ill, no hired mourners, nothing dismal, nothing unbecoming those who are bidden to “sorrow not as those who have no hope.” The mother was there, but not in oppressive black laden with crape, which, on that sultry day, would have been cruel even to behold, but in cheerful white, subdued by a braiding of black. The choicest of white flowers were thrown into the grave by the hands of the parents, and the only thing one missed was, that the voice of Christian so.-g was not heard before the mourners moved away.

The Artillery Band will parade at the drillshed at two o’clock to-morrow. A meeting of St. Paul’s,parish ionera will be held in the school-house, Stuart street, this evening, at eight o’clock. The annual meeting of St. Matthew’s parishioners will be held in the church on Tuesday evening, at 7.30. The usual fortnightly meeting of the Loyal Pioneer Lodge, P.A.F.S., wifi be held on Monday evening, at 8 o’clock. The committee of the Benevolent Institution acknowledge, in our advertising columns, the receipt of various donations in aid of the charity. A meeting of gentlemen favorable to the formation of an Amateur Athletic Club will be held at the Criterion Hotel, on Monday evening, at 8 o’clock.

The New Zealand Insurance Company have published one of the handsomest illuminated card almanacs we have seen. It has been printed in Auckland, and for artistic drawing and arrangement of colors is equal to any work we have seen even at Home. Mr Eliott has also forwarded us a very neatly-printed pocket almanac, which, in addition to the calendar and record of memorable events, contains some very racy, readable stories and useful hints, bearing mainly on lire risks, If the fine weather continues, the Caledonian sports to-morrow ought to attract a large attendance, as the various events bid fair to be hotly contested. For the 220 yards race there are no less than twenty-four entries, including S. Collins, Drake, and Westland; for the quarter-mile, nine; for the half-mile, eleven ; for the 300 yards race, twenty (handicaps to be declared on the ground, thus making it take the place of a consolation stakes); and for the walking match, five, including Drake, who walks here for the first time.