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Evening Star, Issue 3852, 29 June 1875, Page 2

Several oases of typhoid fever have been reported in the Tokomairiro district. A telegraph station r ,|isj[to be opened at Havelock as soon as the department can make the necessary arrangements. the appearance of rangers among tne deferred payment section holders it would appear that the Government are determined to enforce the residence clauses. According to the local journal the trout introduced into the Arrow district are gettmg on famously ; some seen lately near Butel Brothers’ flour mill were'"nearly a foot

long. At the Waitahuna ploughing match, a rosette, the work of a young lady, was awarded ta tho best-looking young ploughman, and one William Robertson was the fortunate recipient. Wiltshire, the pedestrian, will commence at Oamarn on the 20th prox. the task ‘of walking 250 miles ki a hundred hours; and he has bound himself to walk neither more nor less than two and a-half miles in each hour. r % Meeting of'fhe Loyal Leith Lodge, i.u.u.r., held last evening, it was decided to erect the nsw Oddfellows’ Hall on the ground at present owned by the lodge in Albany street. The installation of officers takes place on Monday, 12th July. % the San Francisco mail his Honor the Superintendent received advices from the Home agent for the Province to the effect unable to charter vessels for the Bluff Harbor, unless by the payment of L2 per head for each emigrant, over and above the rate of passage charged to Port Chalmers. The monthly inspection of the Artillery Band took place last night In St, George’s Hall; twenty-seven members being present and five absent. Lieutenant Muir pub the band through a series of evolutions, after winch a number of selections were played. Captain Jack expressed himself as being well bancT d With b ° th the drUl and P la > in go f the The drawing capacity of the Fairlia engine was well tested on Sunday last, and with a highly satisfactory result. By the 230 p m down train over 420 persons travelled on the me, and the engine, drawing seventeen car-

moveu. a tong quite easily. Over a hundred of those who went down by the 2 30 steamers* 6 paSßengers *7 the outgoing -Advices have been received by the Immigration Department ot the departure of the Aids, grove from the (Jlyde with 371 souls, equal to 309 statute adults, on the 30th April. Her passengers, who are spoken of as a most desirable class of immigrants, consisting mainly of farm servants, domestics, and such like, are forwarded by the tago Home Agency, through the Provincial Agent, Mr Adams. It is repotted that the General Government have abandoned the idea of establishmg a station for long-sentenced prisoners on Re?olution Island, on the south-west oast of this Province, The Greymouth paper strongly advocates the selection of Greymouth, and points out that prison labor could be most profitably employed there for many years to ome in constructing harbor works, which are so much required there. Our Tnapeka contemporary is responsible ' for the following : —“ A man suffering from rheumatism lately took a passage by the Dunstan coach for Dunedin, intending to enter the hospital there. ftoon after start-

mg on the froaty road, the poor fellow was pitched about the coach in all directions, from under the seat to the roof, a feat common to all travellers on that road in the winter time. Such was the shaking the patient suffered that by the time the coach reached Lawrence the rheumatics had totally left him, and the man, instead of going to the hospital, returned to his work.” The Waitaki bridge is fast approaching completion, and it is calculated that the remaining girders—thirty three pair—to be feed will be placed in position in about a fortnight, together with the other ironwork. Lately, one of Marshall’s ten-horse power l>ortaule engines, which had been used for > vorking the air-lock, was put in order, for the purpose of securing power for cutting the iron-bark logs to be used as cross-biams fior the decking, and on Wednesday last a I three-feet circular, with travelling bench, was set in motion. The logs are twenty feet long and fourteen inches square, and a out

is put through the centre from end to end whieh gives the required size of the croes.beaniß. The whole work of this bridge is being executed in a systematic manner; and the ‘Tribune’ informs us that it is expected that the bridge will be finished before the contract time expires, in November next. Another action for slander has been initiated in Christchurch. The defendant is the noted Mr William Wilson, better cnown as “ Cabbage Wilson,” and the person so anxious to vindicate bis wounded feelings is a gentleman who lately started business as an importer of seeds, in which line of business Mr Wilson has been successful for many years. Mr Newton, the plaintiff, complains that the defendant used towards him certain words, implying that the Bankruptcy Court would prove a not improbable haven, whereupon a writ, claiming L 5,000 damages for the alleged slander, has been issued.

The L 2.000 forgery bubble has burst at last. The wonderful stories which have floated, and increased most rapidly by the process, would very much amuse our readers if it were permitted to touch upon such tender ground. Some of them -have been telegraphed by the Press Agency all oyer the Colony, and have been satisfactorily distorted there. Things had arrived at that pitch that many a man of business kept a vigilant eye upon his banking account, to preclude the possibility of becoming the; “forgee” of the mysterious forger. The Christchurch cor respondent of the ‘Waitangi Tribune’ selves the mystery. It now turns out that the firms of Twentyman and : Cousins, and of Saunderson and Henderson, received some time ago from Melbourne a double set of invoices of goods about to be .forwarded to them for sale, the declared value of the articles contained in one set being fraudulently set down at a much less sum than shown by the secret invoices. As a matter of course, the gentlemen in question placed the whole thing in the hands o[ the Customs authorities; and it is rather singular that firms of such recognised respectability should have been selected by the Melbourne people as likely adjuncts to assist them in their nefarious transactions.

By th* last mail the Jewish congregation here received a circular inviting their cooperation in the movement begun in England to raise subscriptions towards the testimonial proposed to be given to Sir Moses Mentefiore, Bart. A meeting of the congregation will be called for an early date to form a committee and issue subscription lists, as in other places. The latter will be open to other denominations. In the circular issued by the English committee the following appeal is made “It is confidently hoped that the friends of humanity throughout the world, and all those whose' hearts are animated with the love of Zion, will liberally and -cordially co-operate-towards the success of an undertaking which must be dear to them alike on account of the nature of the object it is intended te effect, and the high admiration they in common with the world at large entertain towards him in whose honor it has keen proposed, and whose name it is intended to commemorale.” As explanatory of the object to which the money raised is to be devoted, it may be said that Sir Moses Montefiore, when asked to indicate the nature of the memorial which would be most congenial to his ewn feelings, suggested an undertaking for permanently improving the condition of the Jews of the Holy Land by the promotion of industrial pursuits,Jthe erection of improved dwellings, and the acquisition and cultivation of land oil a moderate scale. The printed subscrip-tion-list attached to the English circular contains subscriptions to the amount of 15.844 6s (id.

The Bruce Coal Company, at their annual meeting on Friday, instructed their directors to prepare a acheme for the construction of a branch railway to connect the Tokomalrire coalfields with the main trunk line. The proposal is strongly condemned by the ‘ Herald,’ which urges that the line should be undertaken by an iudependent public company, and points out that if the land owners will act like the Kaitangata people, and give it without compensation, it is very possible that notwithstanding the fact that the required notice has not been given, permission would be granted to introduce a Bill for a private company into the Assembly, and failing this, there is good reason to believe that the line oould be made under the Tramways Aet of 1872. The line is estimated to cost Ll4 000 From the report of the proceedings of the Coal Company’s meeting it would appear that personal feeling alone stands in the way of the construction of the line, the necessity of which is admitted. In the course of a lengthy speech, Mr J. L. Gillies, who presided, said that, “seeing the circumstances the district would be placed in, he had written to the Hon. Mr Reynolds, and suggested to him that, instead of passing all these separate private Bills for branch railways, the Government should introduce one general measure, under which any companies might register themselves, so long as they were agreeable to come under the regulations of the Act. He had very strong hopes that this course would be followed, and that, iustead of legalising individual companies and giving them different terms, would adopt one scale or rule under which companies might register themselves and carry out the work.” The management of the Princess’s Theatre last night introduced to a Dunedin audience another play of sterling merit and composed of pleasing and effective material. It is called “ Fanchon, the Cricket,” and shows unmistakeably its, as announced, German origin ; for the whole is but a simple village tale, with characters using language suitable to their positions in life, with a vein of the religious element running through it, and not without a tinge of the supernatural. Fanehoo, nicknamed “Cricket” from her merry spirit, is a wild, bold country girl living with her grandmother, an old hag, who, from her knowledge of the virtues of certain medicinal herbs, has been enabled to cure many eases of illness amongst the villagers. Old Mother Fadet’s success is, however, attributed to withcraft, and she is looked upon with dread—Fanchon being of course equally disliked and avoided —but in reality the young girl is being brought up by her only relation- in a strictly religious .manner. Throughout the progress of the drama the heroine gradually, by her exemplary conduct and winning ways, wears down the dislike aud contempt with which she has been regarded, until the good qualities of the despised Fauchon are fully recognised, and the obstacles to a marriage with the man of her heart are removed. We shall not go fully into a description of the plot, being of opinion that the interest of a play, as of a novel, is thereby destroyed. Mrs Bates has In Fanchon a part most eminently suitable to her powers, aud we have never before seen her to such advantage. She enters fully into the spirit of the character (in fact, she is in the first act almost too uncouth), and carries the sympathy of the audience with her from first to lost. Of the moonlight dance incidental to the part we cannot say much, but a pretty ballad in the fourth act is sweetly sung by Mrs Bate?. Mr Bates represents Landry B srbe&ud, Fauci o i’s lover after he has thrown up Ids o iginal sweetheart, and while there is nothing very striking in the part, it is evenly and suitably played. Next in order of merit comei Mrs titoneham, who outers very naturally and powerfully into the feelings and actions of the money Joying old

Mother Fadet. Mrs f Stoneham was frequently applauded last night for her spirited acting. Mr Stoneham appeared in the charaster of Didier, a simple fellow with no will of his own but what is subordinate to his brother Landry’s. He indulges in a little piece of conventionalism in the last scene which we trust not to sse repeated, as it is anything bat apropos. Mr Musgrave makes a good p4re Barboaud, a queer mixture of good and bad qualities; but Miss Stoneham and Miss Willis have but small parts. “Fanchon” is excellently, put on the stage, the dresses being generally appropriate, and the scenery very pretty and telling. It will be repeated to-night, and those who then visit the Princess’s will find this piece quite refreshing after the bewildering sensational dramas that have recently called for our attention. Not that the company are to be blamed for giving an occasional play containing a little of the startling element s they must supply variety in order to please all tastes. A meeting of the committee of the Horticultural Society will be held at the Occidental Hotel to-morrow evening, at 8 o’clock.