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Evening Star, Issue 3828, 1 June 1875, Page 2

-l f_ «xtr«mely gra-ifying to hour Professor Ceio.-ITBEV s bold professor ini vi-ws at his lecture. His strong denunciation of S - “ll T , Ba, dtary precautions was a upiy justified. The c urse pursued is nothing more than a literal :.,r.viug of the seeds of <|estructmn. Ihe nv, i; |y stand taken against professional charlatanism was also needed at the present time. I he public have a great deal to answer for in the support offered to v, hat is, after all little better than barefaced quackery, I lie address, as a whole, was-full of common sense ciiticism on the various schemas of development modern science i« being built upon at the present time. Ji tiiere had been a greater condensation of material, the address would have been more effective ; but, at the same time, it would hardly nay# been so utilitarian, or so reflective ef the opinions held by Professor Coughtrey. The point made by the lecturer, when explaining the evil of beginning students in the ho,* pital room, ami working from the study of diseased forms to those of perfect health, instead of inverting the order, was especially good, and is beginning to bo understood. Otago may fairly be congratulated iu bavin,- secured for the inauguration of bar medical scliool a gentleman apparently so capable of making that school a success. We trust th»t the strong hope held out by the YicoOhaucel.or will be realised ; and that tno second year’s students in Otago will be able to go Home and there take rank as third year s students. It cannot be expected

that young men "!an be fully equipped in Otago with sufficient professional knowledge to enable 1 . elu to practice. This may come in course of time, but hotbed forcing in a matter of so serious a nature is out of the question, and by no ne stands more severely condemned than bv re, bolder of the chair Jof anatomy in our University.

tH* people of Wellington, or some of them, at all events ; have lately had their minds exercised with regard to Joshua and the Battle of Ajalon. Quite a lively discussion on the subject has been carried on in the ‘ New Zealand limes. One would almost think on readme the letters in the ‘Times’ that the said cattle was quite a recent event—that, in fact, the news of it had been wired to Aus traha, and the'cablegram had been brought to New Zealand by the last mail steamer. It seems that the correspondence in question took its rise from a review which appeared in the 1 lines of a book by Mr Wilson, entitled the Immortality of the Unirer.se.” The reviewer take. the view that the account given in the Book of Judges ”of the standing still of the sun and the moon, and quoted from the book of Jasher, is a highly poetical description ot an eclipse of the sun, which occuired during a e t_ ™at the battle was beintf fought Archdeacon Stock goes in for a mirage, and suggests that the expression “ about a whole day means “at the close of the day” \nother correspondent, “ Christian,” who has evidently a remarkably keen nose for sniffing the slightest taint of heresy, endeavors to start a small battle on his own account, by calling tke reviewer an “infidel,” and Archdeacon otook a rationalist or a deist,” never seeming 5 e f m [ e if they were a thousand times as bad as he tries to make them out to be, it could not have the smallest effect in the way of proving or disproving the authentisity of the account given in the book of Jaslv r. However, the Archdeacon is not altogether left, m the lurch, for a “ Scotchman ” comes to his rescue, and shows that the mirage theory is not one whit more wicked than that advanced by Christian’ -viz,, that to Joshua’s eve the sun appeared ta stand still, while it was really the earth s rotation that was stopped.” For as bcotchman ” very justly says, “ Once rein quish the literal facts stated in inspired writing, and allow any human interpretation why can it be more sinful to suppose the delusion caused by refraction of the sun’s rays as m a mirage, than by the (mite as unknown) rotation of the earth?” At last, th • cause of all this literary hubbub, the reviewer himself, closes the correspondence with a letter in which he disposes, more or less satisfactorily, of all his critics, and after doing so, comes to the conclusion that the discussion is of no practical importance, and that he and his fellow correspondents have been laboriously wasting their time. With this opinion we are certainly inclined to agree. All such discussions can have only one sort of termination; all the few facts «f the case, such as they are (and we express no opinion as to their value), have loug been known ; everythin'' that can be said about them has been said; au3 men will consequently form their judgments witn regard to them strictly in accordance with their general tone of thought on such matters The unquestioning and unscientific believer in inspiration will feel no difficulty in finding a niche in his creed for the “ purely miraculous” view of the Battle of Ajalon. The man of science, who believes in revelation, will endeavor by means of more or less satisfactory “explanations 5 to diminish as far as possible the proportion of the history that makes a de mand on his faith, pure and simple. The unbeliever again will, of course, reject tie whole story as utterly incredible, in short, the only conceivable effect that such discussions can produce is to make persons who hold certain views hold them still more firmly, and possibly too to cause a display of uncharitable feeling that might be far better kept out of sight altogether. Of course, if any new light can be thrown on such a subject by recent scientific discovery the case is altered altogether: for instance, there can be no doubt that Smith’s great discovery of the tablets containing an account of the Creation and the Fall of Man will throw a flood of light on the Book ®f Genesis and on the Scriptures generally. In such a case as that there could not be too much discussion. What we object to is the unprofitable process of threshing straw out of which all the wheat has long ago been gathered. On the whole, we cannot help thinking that the people of Wellington have even reason to be pleased with the fact that the opening of Parliament is near at hand: they will be probably better employed even in discussing politics than in wrangling about the book of Jasher.

Comparing the Estimates of the late and present Governments, we find the latter provide for increased expenditure and new votes to the extent of L 22.305, and the former are reduced by L 36,275. There is still a deficiency of L3OO between the two, which we have not been able to trace. The increases are under “departmental, LI ,975; immigrants’ cottages, LI,OOO ; under main and branch roads ” —Dunedin to Patmerston, L 500; Cluthato Mataura bridge, LI,OOO ; luapeka to Teviot, L 50 0; Pukeuri r tt l I ? urow ’ LloO; Kurow to Wanaka, LI50; Wmton to Kingston, L 80 0; Riverton to Wallacetown, L 40 0; Wmton to Wreys Bush, L2OO • Otautau to Wairaki Downs, LSO; Otautau to Waiau plains LSO; mam north road to Moeraki, Ll5O ■ ditto to Oamaru point, LSO ; under “ jetties ’’ r fvon^ 1^0 j* J Bluff wharf and approaches, JLiOdO ; and under “ woika and bridges ”—lighthouse at Oamaru, LIOO. The new votes are under ‘ roads”—Mataura to Edendale, L 700; Edendale to Woodlands. £4OO ; road from Bridge Inn to Invercargill, £500; road th.ough Winton, £150; road through Lower Mataura, £SOO • Aimstrong’s crossing to Forest Hill, £3OO- - coast road, £250; Port Chalmers to Purakanui village, £SOO ; Waitati saddle to mam north road, £500; telegraph line to Waitati, £250; road through township of Kaitangata, £200; under “bridges”— bridge over the Makerewa, £500; and bridge over the Clutha at Inch Clutha, £3 500 • under “jetties’’-repairs to the Kaitangata jetty, LSO; and under “works ancl bridges”—Lsoo for the Oamaru gaol. The decreases are under “ departmental L7OO the revenue officers and one forest bailiff being struck off; under miscellaneous—steam service by L 325 ; Mataura to Invercargill, LBOO • Dunedin to Portobello, L 60 0; Waipori to Weatherstone s, LSO; main road to Waikouaiti harbor L 30 0; roads not provided for, L 2.000; ditto on goldfields, L 2.000, Waitaki bridge, L 4.000 ; Waikouaiti harbor works, L 500; and school buildings (which it is proposed to meet by loan), L 25.000.

The oyster cutters of Stewart’s Island have done a good trade during the present season, tome of them having averaged LI2O per month.

! wd ay’s sitting of the District Court •’ atheaon Bros, v, Macau drew o oi 'lioiod after we went to press, -s.ft.er ev douce hul baen given on both sides the J'y returned a verdict for defendant.

The Irish play “The hast Life” was re-i-e dcd at the Princess’s last night, with “ Mr and iirs Pringle ”as an afterpiece. To.night —Mr and Bates not having yet arrived - “ Jrot Guilty ” will be again given. An amusing incident is reported by tlm ‘ Bruce Herald ’ to have ■ ccurred in a southern Presbyterian church lately A certain lady, of extraordinary strength of lungs, persisted! n singing the Ust psalm at double the speed of the precentor. Many were le i astray, seme singing correctly with the precentor, and others gallantly following the lead of the lady. There was another capital house at the Queen a last evening, and the entertain* ment especially the wond- rful performance called Anoetos—passed off successfully. A good deal of natural imnatienca was exhibited by the audience at the numerous and lengthy intervals betwe m the items of the programme, but these a e perhaps unavoidable owing to the preparations necessary fo: the various illusions.

A Wellington tele ram in the * Bruce Herald* says, that “despite contra Actions whichhave appeared,itis stillauthoriiaiivesy said that Mr U. E, Haughton will contest Mi

Vincent Pyke’s seat for Wakatip at the ap preaching election.—We have a small edition of the Chain Hills tun:.el business here in the shape of one of the tunnels at Puk»ratahi, which keeps caving in, and came down altogether by the run on Saturday.” At the City Police Court to-da-. be .'ore Messrs Ward and Begg, J. IVs, Jo: n HerV, ■jharged with, drunkeune-s, was let off with a caution; and Neil M'Lean was fined 6 for the same offence. Marion M‘Donald, an old offender, for using obscene language was fined '• 5, in default two months’ imprisonment. Several petty charges again.nTames M‘Donald, of obtaining money by false pretences, were adjourned for a week, Additional evidence of the value of these u atera for whale fishing was furnished by the New Bedford whaler, Eliza Adams, which, in January last, put iu to Stewart’s Island to tryout. The captain then reported having caught in two months three ■sperm whales, averaging from thirteen to fourteen tuns each, between the Solanders and the south c <peof Stewart’s Island. Thus, iu two months, (remarks Mr Pearson, in m report of the Island) upwards of L 6/ 00 was netted off the Stewart Island coast by Americans, while native energy, enterprise, and capital lay dormant.

The annual meeting of the North Dunedin Rifles will be held in the Company’s shed, tomorrow evening, at eight o’clock.

The usual monthly meeting of the Third New Zealand Building Society will be held this evening, at seven o’clock. In yesterday’s “ Astronomical Notes ” it was stated that the sun enters Gemini on the 22nd of the month. Instead of Gemini read Cancer. The current number of the ‘ Illustrated New Zealand Herald ’ is very readable, and contains among other engravings a likeness of the late Air Wilson Gray. Next month the proprietor intends to issue a bird’s-eye view of Dunedin, the proof of which we hsve seen, and therefore are in a position to say that it will give to per sons at a distance a much better idea of the city than any previous publication of the kind. We are glad to state the concert in the Tern iterance Hall last night in aid of the widow and orphans of the two men, Daniel Claffey and Robert Byers, who were accidentally killed a few weeks since, proved what we anticipated it would be, a decided success. The Mayor was in the chair. Madame Jeannette gave valuable assistance, all her songs being encored. Mr Denovau was decidedly successful in rendering his humorous scotch songs, while Mr Warren’s comic solos were highly appreciated, Messrs M‘Gregor, Mitchell, aud Jarvis sang some songs very pleasingly, and the dancing M Messrs Haig and Hannigan was well received. The proceeds of the concert are between LSO aud L6O. Miss Lack and Mr Litoff presided at the piano.