The Evening Star THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3711, 14 January 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1875.

Several parties are prospecting in the neighborhood of the Hock and Pillar range, and it is expected that a new goldfield will be opened up in that locality during the current season.

The only case at the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Port Chalmers, this morning, before Mr T, A. Mansforl, R.M., was a charge of drunkenness preferred against John Baker, who was fined 10s.

Mr John Robertson, the Martin’s Bay mailman, informs the Queenstown paper that, on the 9tb ult., the weather was splendid f om about eight o’c'ovk in the morning until five in the evening, and that the transit of Yenus was very plainly visible to the few at that sett ement who had availed themselves of the necessary applianc;s. A prostitute, named Mary Thompson, was thrown over a bank in Clark street this morning to a depth of twelve feet, and falling on her head rolled on to her face. It appears that she had been quarrelling in a brothel with a man whose name wo have been unable to learn, and in the scuffle was thrown over the bank. She was afte wards r moved to the hospital, where on inquiry we learned that the injuries are not of a serious nature.

’I he body of James Bambery, who was drowned at Hampden on JNew Year’s ay, was found on the bearh near Port Moeraki jet y, on the 10th instant. The remains were badly mutilated by fish, the lefo arm bring taken off from the shoulder; the left leg and thigh had almost all the flesh eaten off; the clothes were torn from the body with the exception of a portion of the inside flannel which was left on the right arm; and the features were not recognisable, but the boot found on the right leg was identified as the property of the deceased. An accident happened on the Main South road, near Greytown, Otakia, yesterday a'ternoon, to a Popotunoa carrier named Thomas Spence. The accident was not seen by anyone, but as Spence is su ject to fits, and as about a fortnight ago be fe I down in a fit wh le leading his faoisea and d'ay, when the cart wheel rolled over him, it is thought that the same thing occurred again. He was fe nd to be severely cut on the right temple and ann, and the end of the wheel bad passed over his shoulder He was immediately attended to by I r Inglis. From the reports in our contemporaries we learn that it was decided at the Acclimatisation Society's meeting yesterday, to endeavor to c -tch a number of the starlings, hedge sparrows, and linnets, which are so numerous in the neighborhood of Dunedin, and to distribute them in the up-country districts. It having been reported that these imported birds are being shot at, it was resolved to post m conspicuous places along the roads near t uneebn placards cautioning persons against destroying the birds. The ex tendon to us of the courtesy of inf rming us of the Society’s mee ings is more honored in the breach than the observance. A serious accident occurred on the Cricket Oval on Monday afternoon through tae foolhardiness of an officious individual. Hendley’s assistant, a youth named James Bedford, was engaged in his usual occupation of mowing the grass on the < >val, when an onlooker, who is described as a “new chum,” but whose name is not known, volunteered to show a more expeditious way of using the scythe. Bedford paid dearly for his lesson, for the other managed by some means, instead of mowing the grass, to cut Bedford, inflicting on the calf of his right leg an ugly wound, the effects of wmch will c inline him to his bed for some weeks. Bedford bad to be taken to the Hospital.

In an article on the statistics of this Colony for 1874, the ‘ Australasian’ remarks: —“ Thanks to their immigration policy our fellow colonists in New Zealand are shooting rapidly ahead, and they deserve the success they have achieved. We may entertain some doubts as to the wisdom of contracting so heavy a debt as that which has Already been incurred, amounting in round numbers to eleven millions sterling but, on the other hand, it is to be remembered that a portion of it has been, and is being expended on public works, and that if the po pulation doubles itself during the next decade, as there is every probability that it will do, the individual incidence of the deb will be very light ii.deed, while the resources of the country will be lar ely developed by 'he establishment of railway communication from end to end."

Perhaps, now that the Synod is in session, the spiritual wants of the Upper Taieii may not be overlooked. A correspondent of the ‘ Waikenaiti Herald ’ writes that, “StrathTaieri, with four large homestead stations, employing a largo number of hands during six mouths of the year, together with a large number of settlers on the plain, is left year after year without the means of grace being administered. I am very much afraid that the current season will be allowed to close without a single visit being paid to the district by any of our ecclesiastical brethren for the purpose of ministering to our spiritual wants and requirements. It is astonishing that such a large district as Sti»th-Tii;ri should be left to this period without either a resident or a visiting minister of any sect or creed. I am persuaded that in the event of any minister paying a periodical visit to the district the residents would willingly contribute towards defraying any expense incurred in travelling to it.” It is the custom in some parts of the Colony for ladies to visit the hospitals in the towns of which they are dwellers Some sit and read with patients, others convene ; some bring presents, others do some needful piece of sewiog, or distribute flowers, or, 'ormiug the convalescents imp small coteries, cet up a discussion upon some ligi t and editing subject. All this tends in the direction of much good. Sp. aking of what the ladies of Wellington are in the habit of doing—and we should like to see th-irev-araple followed in Dunedin—the ‘Neyv Zealand Herald ’ says that Mrs Fox was a trtquent donor to the local hospital, sending fish twice a week to each path ut; Miss M‘Lean, sister ©f .-ir Donald, is a large contributor of strawberries and other fruits and vegetables; Mrs Sewell was particularly mindful of the sick, and her gifts to them were invariably large and always in season; while Mrs Fergusson, wife of the late Governor's aide-de-cafity, used not only to take

fruits and flowers but go even into th wards to cheer the sick with conversation an l reading. An I there are others, to all of whom high praise is due “ But why,” asks a Wellington contemporary, “ hould there be no organisation—no nnans —where by every one who feels a cah to this work of unobtrusive good-doing, might join in such bemfi ence, and have the right of suggestion in the way of improvement ?” Why, indeed !

Professor Tyndall remarked in the course of his now famous discourse that it was easy to obtain intellectual peace at the price of intellectual death. The Archbishop of Canterbury, in an address to the students of Durham University, in effect supported this opinion. He told them they would be unwise to shut their eyes to the progress that material science was making, and he warned them against joining in the senseless cry that the prosecution of such science necessarily ended in an irreligious materialism. If they were wise and true to their Church (his Grace said) they would never seek refuge from the prevailing faults of this materialistic age by rushing into a wild and bigoted adoration of times past, as if we must burn up all modern civilisation in order that we might maintain our faith. He left aU such views as that to a dying passing Church, which had but little sympathy with the present or the future. There are more than the students of Durham University who require to have these truths impressed upon them.

The “ creche,” or day nursery for infants, initiated by the wife of Commodore Goodenough his been started in >yduey. The nbjeit of the institution is to receive and tako charge of infants under five years of age, whose mothers are compelled to go out to woik. The holding chosen contains every requisite form han institution. There are seven rooms, all large an! well ventilated, with bath-room, pantry, and large ilayground. Three of the rooms are set apart for the use of matron, and the remaining apart ments are furnished for the recepti m of children. On the ground floor there is an office for the bon, see., adjoining which is the -hildren’s nursery, opening on to the bath-room and playgtouud. Upstairs the largest room is s it apart as a bedroom for the children. The other four rooms being furnished for the use of the matron and the servants. Each child on being brought to the institution is washed and carefully fed, and cared 'or from 7 am. until 7 p.m., at a small charge of fid per day upon the production of a certifica e from a clergyman, ma.istrate, or a respectable householder. Th s aura, it is found, will just cover the cost of the children’s food.

The Press agency Jias lately been the means of circulatiog some extraordinary things, which we will poiitely call misconceptions of fact. The most recent was one to the effect that there was a large number of unemployed or only partially employed men in Wellington—a conclusion drawn from the number of applications for some s tuitions advertised there as vacant. The ‘ Foss’ says : —“ The faots do not justify the conclusions. There are very few, if any, unemployed or partially employed men in Wellington. There L at present plenty of work for all who are willing to do it. in many of the < ountry dis triuts, there is an abso'ute dearth of labor, t:e demand far exceeding the, snep y. rh< d' nations, . hich attracted such a large num her of applicants, were of <. permanent ch - racter, and easier than ordinary day labo>, ft does not at all follow that because the e were some two hundred applicants, there must be a large number of unemployed, or only partially employed men in the city. Probably very few, if any, of the applicants were either unemployed or only partially employed. ... If there are any unemployed in town it is because they will not accept the work offered, or prefer hinging about town waiting f.-r something to turn up. jfco goin j into the country to seek employment. There may be some of this latte class, but we do not know of any.” <hir amiable morning contemporary, the ‘Guardian,’ in an article comparing “The Parliament of Britain ” wl hi the Corpora ti<m of Dunedin, like many other reformers dLptays much zeal, and we sny it deferentially—but little knowledge. His professed desire is to correct an alleged tendency on the part of the City Councillors to talk—as if the work of a deliberative assembly could bo done in silence To suppo-t his views, he quotes Scripture to show that the ‘Guardian’ knows more about the value of counsel than King Solomon did. who he declares “ penned an unwise remark ” when he asserted “ in the multitude of .councillors {sic) there is safety.” The ‘Guardian ’ compares the present Dunedin City Council of twelve with the past Council of eight, and says since the twelve were elected “ there has never bien peace within the civic halls:” from which Jeremiad we conclude he is troubled with a short memory, as he cvi. dently thinks there was peace before—at least he has forgotten the wrangling of the eight, ns well as the vastly increased interests that have now to he considered. But the moat amusing feature in the flippant reproof by the ‘Guardian’ is the erudition displayed in the choice of words We can imagine the “Slang Dictionary” supplied the term “jaw-power ” as app ied to speeches; but we are at a loss to find the “ plain Saxon” of the following intlafed sentence which we quote frnm the ‘Guardian’:—“ In plain Sax>m. this verbosity is becoming— has become in fact—a. must intolerable nuisance ’ Perhaps Max Mil ler might throw some light upon the intimate 'eiationship between the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin ; or it may be the wisdom which excels that of Solomon ha* found out the error of supposing the words we have italicised are derived from Latin roots ; but with only two principal words which we can recognise as of AngloSaxon origin, we are puzzled to discover what school has trained so brilliant a writer.

The lettera of “ Enquirer ” and “ Minister ” will appear to-morrow. A meeting of the Union of Otago Temple, No. 2, will be held to-morrow evening.