The Evening Star THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3866, 15 July 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1875.

We have purposely abstained from discussing the question of purchasing the old, or building new gasworks, because the information before the Corporation is not sufficient to justify expressing an opinion. That the supply to the City of gas and water should be under control of the Corporation, admits of no question; but bearing in mind the manner in which our civic rulers were led on to pay an extravagant price for the waterworks, we are inclined to look very , suspiciously on the negotiations for purchasing the gasworks. The Waterworks Company contrived to dispose of their property just in time ; for had they delayed selling a few months longer, they would have been met by the argument that being inadequate to supply the City with water, a large sum of money must immediately be expended in additions to the works, that would not be immediately reproductive ; and that, therefore, the shares would be reduced in market value, because of the lessened annual dividend that would be payable. The "shrewd men of business" who conducted its affahv, could not have acted more skilfully had they foreseen the dry season that disclosed the real condition of the property. Whether they merely guessed the capabilities of that reservoir, or knew it, the result is the same : they closed the bargain on their own terms. The proprietor of the gasworks has no such advantage of position, but his offer is entitled to fair and candid consideration. If the works can meet the needs of the City, we believe the feeling generally will be that he should be paid the worth of his plant. The difficulty really is in knowing what that worth is, for although there may have been actual outlay of so many thousand pounds, several questions arise which ought to have weight in deciding whether it is advisable to purchase the old or to build new gasworks. For instance : the situation of the gasworks is pronounced unsuitable by all the gas engineers who have reported on the subject. Our contemporary the < Daily Times' this morning oracularly pronounced in its favor, m opposition to the. opinion of scientific and practical men, in an article that savors much more of chquism than of anxiety for the public

■welfare. We can hardly suppose that Mr Hankky or his agent has influence in the editorial sanctum, and therefore conclude that the writer of the article must be ignorant of the report of Mr Smith, and of the sites of gasworks in most of the principal towns in England, or he would not have committed himself to an argument based on such false assumptions as are put forth. Next comes the difficulty of estimating the efficiency of the underground plant; for mains and reticulations that were ample twelve years ago may be quite inadequate to supplying the largely increased demand that has grown up since the works were constructed. We are not skilled in the art and practice of gag manufacture, but from what we have read of the present mode of construction of apparatus and of conducting the processes, there appear to have been vast improvements within a few years, tending to cheapen the production and improve the quality of gas. Whether it has been possible to apply these to the Dunedin Gas Works, or whether, if possible, they have been applied, we do not know, although they are leading features in arriving at a conclusion whether they should be purchased or new works erected. If it is found that on fair terms, with due regard to efficiently supplying the City, the present works are purchasable, we think no ratepayer would advocate laying out some thirty i or forty thousand pounds in addition to the money already expended in the present works. Th«re is no economy in frittering away capital by investing it in superfluous machinery ; and public bodies should be very careful not to injure private property by needless j competition. On the other hand, the real question arises what, as a business investment, any man would give Mr Hankey for his property 1 It is not what it has cost him, for we are free to think it has cost him far too much. The present worth, measured by what equally efficient werks can be constructed for, with sufficient allowance for deterioration by wear and tear, and some consideration for relinquishing the business, is all that a purchaser would give, and a Corporation, without being screwy, should not give more.

One mußt go abroad for news. The Melbourne 'Leader' states that " according f°on rfJ attSt n <? a r, ifc *? P r °Po»ed to vote L 20.000 as a testimonial to Sir Julius Vogel. By our foes we observe thaj . Miss Jenm.- Nye> who returned from Mel _ a few weeks ago after some years' absence from Dunedin, opened a dramatic season with a rather weak company at the Theatre Royal, Invercargill, on Saturday. The weather at Lawrence and the Teviot appears, from our country exchanges, to have been very severe at the beginning of the week, heavy gales and terrific bnowstorms having ruled there. At Switzars, on the contrary, mild spring weather ha» been experienced. _ There seems to be no likelihood of a scarcity of candidates at the ensuing municipal elections. For High Ward alone there are already three gentlemen in the field—Messrs F. R. Ohapman, H. F. Hardy, and R. Wilson—and various rumors are in circulatien as to probable contests for the other Wards.

The bed of the Wanganni River (says the : • WeUington r < ribane') ia silting up, bo much so that the cattle steamers have to leave ' with short cargo, and even then do a little dredging on their way to the Heads. A local cattle salesman estimates the export cattle trade of Wanganui at L 40,000 a year, and apprehensively points to the conduct of the river. In yesterday's 'Gazette' are published regulations u&de by the Waste Land Board » for the management of pasturage within the . Heriot Hundred, as approved by the Superintendent. There is also a notification that . on September 1 about 8,200 acres of land in , the Crookston and Greenvale districts of the same Hundred will be offered for sale by ; public auction. At two o'clock this afternoon Messrs J , Logan and IS. ff. Ward, J.P.'s, attended at the gaol and investigated a charge against a prisoner named Llewellyn Williams of stealing a waterproof coat, value L2, from the shop door of Mr Brown, draper, Princes street, on the 2od Prisoner being an old offender, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment with hard labor, cumulative on a former sentence of three months. A party of miners at Callaghan's Gully, while sawing down a tree for timbering purposes came across a couple of live lizards, which they found embeddtd in a hole in the solid stem of a tree. The «Grey River Argua' sa a the lix trds are from four to five inches loDg, and the miners were so surDrised at finding such specimens in the heart of the limber thai, th<-.y resolved on presevvm« them, and thoy have forwarded the couple, carefully pjaoed in a large glass bottle, with sufficient food in the shape of white sugar to last them for some days, addressed to the Westland Institute. The pedebtrain match between Scott and Edwards has falleu through. Articles had been drawn up and were to have been signed at the Empire Hotel last evening where b th parties put in an appearance On the previous evening the match had been made for 1.25 a-side, with the option of making it LSO, and last night it was agreed to increase the stakes to the latter amount, with the option of making them LIOO. Just previous to the article boiug signed Austin, on behalf of fcV>tt, offerred to make it LIOO a-side, upon which Edwards sail he would only walk for L 25. As Austin objeoted to this, the match was declared off. The now Lolge of Oddfellows—the Loyal Unity—was institutedla:tnight at Maloney's Ocean View Hotel. Thirty members were initiated by G.M. Bro. Gourley, assisted by O.G Ma ter, Bro. Jos. Braithwaite; Gr,nd W f!sf U \ Bra Rußs eU; P.O. Bro. Bracken; f.O.U. Master, Bro. T<?ague; and Grand secretary, Bro. Boyd, The following officers were fleeted aud duly install, d :-P.O. Bro Brack, n, N.G.; Bro Boelke, V.G. ; Bro! '■ homson, .secretary ; ro. Uarney, Trea--BU r .e r\_ Bro - Dr Fergusson was in attendance and efficated as Medical Examining Officer. We were informed that upwards of thirty inore residents in the neighborhood have Hjgnifiei theirj intention of joining the lodge .°o much has been said about tbe inade. qnary of the Supreme Court buildings for fiieii- present ute, th, t no room is leit to i.dd anything further in condemnation of them. a o opportunity is, however, let slip by iiench o* Bar to rsfer |to tht f/ralty ooa«

tfruofcion of the Courthouse. So many were I the complaints during the latter part of Judge Chapman's occupancy of t' e ttencb, that it was decided to have the room thoroughly remodelled. This, however, does not appear to have remedied its defects, and this morning hia tionor Julge Johnston ordered the witnesses to stand between himself and the jury, saying that the witnessosx in it ß present position was perfectly useless. •« The jury," continued his Honor, are too far back ; they should be where that gentleman (pointing to the Beat occupied by one of the reporters, and directly his Honor's se>t)-is." Mr Maeasat-y complained that hardly a word spoken in an ordinarily loud tone could be heard. The 'Press' reports that Mrs Annie .1 hompstone, residing at Landsdowne, Halswell, met with a sad death on Thursday night last. Mr Thompstone and his wife bad been out driving on that day with a norse borrowed from a neighbor, and after returning home Mr Thompstone left the w°" Se to return the horse to its owner, when he again reached home Mrs Thompstone was not there, and receiving no answer to his repeated calls, he went to the riveronly a short distance from the house -and found the unfortunate lady partly in and partly out ef the water, but quite dead. \t this spot the river is only about 3ft 6in deep, and it is supposed that when going to draw some water Mrs Thompstone fell into a fit, to which she had lately been subject, and overtopping into the river her final struggle, when completely exhausted, placed her in the position in which she was found. On the body being taken out everything possible was done, and Dr Symes sent for, but the unfortunate woman was beyond" all hope.

£lf the following extract from the shipping column in the Christchurch • Globe' is to be credited, the Lanarkshire, which arrived at Lyttelton on the Bth inst., after a passage of 118 days horn Gravesend, cannot have been a very agreeable vessel for the passengers :—•* The accommodation for her second and third class passengere is excessively bad, being a mere dingy hole, with little light and less ventilation. There has also been a great deficiency of stores and water during the passage. We believe that it is usually the custom for a vessel to take provisions for 150 days, but in this case before s xty days were passed a great many things were run out of. There was no suet, no pickles, no oatmeal, no cheeße, and only three quarts of water allowed per diem during the whole voyage for the second and third class passengers; and out of that they had to find that necessary 'or cooking. Towards the eud, as the easterly winds continued, this Bmall allowance was reduced to two quarts per day. The flour was of excessive y bad quality. At the end of two months the candles for the passengers were all expended, and they had to either go without a light or use slush lights." The Switzers correspondent of the • Tuapeka Times' writes:—An old resident belonging to this place, named Sinclair Scott, met with his death near the Nokomai, under the following circumstances. On Wednesday last Seott and a man name! O'Keefe started for the Nokomai for the purpose of bringing down a mob of cattle. They reached within abont four miles of their destination, when they were overtaken by the darkness. Being apprehensive that they might lose their road they lay down amongst the tussocks. The night was a most severe one, and after they had been lying for some time O'Keefe, feeling very cold, got up and went in search of the horses. On returning to the place where he had left his companion, scott was nowhere to be found. Thiuking that he had gone on, O'Keefe proceeded to the Mokomai, where he ascertained that nothing had been seen or heard of him. Surmising that something serious had happened, a search party was formed, and on reaching the river, in the vicinity of which the men had camped, Scott was found dead with his face immersed in the water, it is supposed that on awaking ho had gone to the river, and kneeling down to get a mouthful of water, had been seized with a fit, and in that condition expired from suffocation. An inquest was to be held next day. Mr Warden Broad, of Reefton, had an amusing case to decide upon last week, judging from the reporte of the local papers. The suitore were Mra King and Miss Wyldish, a dressmaker, and the dispute was over a silk dress, which was alleged on the, one hand to have been spoiled in the making, and over charged for. For upwards of an hour the fair disputants are reported to have kept the Court in one long paroxysm of laughter. Miss Wyldish said, amongst other things, that she was a " ladies' dressmaker," and that was her style of making out account. She had charged 3)s for making the dress, 14s for extras, 3s for cotton silk, and 15s for "loss of time in running about with the acoount." Tn reply to Mrs King the defendant said: extras have got nothing to do with you ; that is my business. If you knew what a silk dress was ysu would not talk so foolish. I have made silk dresses for ladies and you are not one, and 1 never had any trouble with them. You never had a silk dress before in your life." (Great laughter). At a later stage of the proceedings the plaintiff divested herself of part of her clothing, in order t J enable the defendant to better explain to the bewildered Magistrate the points of defect in tb.3 drcs3 in dispute, but the explanation only made matters worse. In vain the plaintiff stood for a quarter of an hour with her back towards tne Magistrate, while thu defendant was manipulating her (plaintiff's) pannier or Grecian bend, in order to point out its superiority to the one in dispute. In vain the sleeve.-*, the boJy, the collar, the trimmiugs, the bitton holes, and the hooks and eyes were pointed out to his Worship. In vaiu the " pattern " pannier was turned up and turned down, this way aud that, and almost wrenched from the well-developed form of the wearer. At last the belligerent dress was produced—pannier, skirt, body aud all-* and the defendant proposed that the dress should bo tried on for the especial edefieation of the Bench, but his Worship explained that he did not know what, technically speaking, constituted a "good fit." The dress might fit like a sentry-box, and he would not know the difference. ihis discouraged the proposal, and the dress was deposited upon the lawyers' table, and the fair disputants resumed the cudgels, and proceeded with the case. Finally judgment was given for 30s for making, and 5a for extras, aDd the dress ordered to be given up.

Mr H. J. Walter will address the ratepayers in the Temperance Hall at eight o'clock tomorrow evening.

A Bpecial meeting of the Typographical • 880ciation will be held in the Provincial Hotel on Saturday evening. _ Mr Reeves will address the ratepayers of the different wards of the City—to-worrow evening at White's Hotel, Albany street, at 7.30 ; and at Cotter's, King street, at 8.15. On Tuesday evening the usual fortnightly meeting of the Kensington Band of Hope was held. Mr Morriß occupied the chair, and about sixty persona were present. An excellent programme was presented, and the audience dispersed well pleased with the evening's entertainment.

Councillor Mercer, who has so long been connected in various oapacitiea with municipal matters, recently intia '.aled his intention to resign office. A numen >usly signed requisition has oeen presented to hi m, asking a reconsideration of his resolve, as will be Been by our

advertising columns, business engagements compel Mr Mercer to adhere to his determination.

The Pride of Dunedin Lodge, No. 30, I 0.G.T., met in the Temperance Hall lodgeroom last evening, when the attendance was urood. An official visit was received from the D.D.G.W.C.T., Bro Jago, and his District Officers. The District Deputy initiated six candidates, and decided to pay an official visit to the Guiding Star Lodge on Monday. Twenty-five members were announced as having secured conveyances for the trip to Blueskin on the 23rd inst. A vote of thanks was accorded to the visitors, and responded to by Bro. Jago,