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Evening Star, Issue 4291, 27 November 1876, Page 2

Mr Hoffcr Ins been appointed superintendent of the Nelson Lunatic .Asylum. There were .hirty candidates for the situation. The whole of the single men passengers by the ship Dunedin were removed from Goat Island this morning by the p s. Samson, and conveyed to Dunedin by the 8.50 o'clock train. The Minister for Justice arrived in town on Saturday, and to-day has been inspecting the public buildings in company with the Hon. Mr Reynolds. On Wednesday the hon. gentleman proceeds overland to Invercargill, returning to Dunedin by way of the Lakes and the Goldfields. There was no business at the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, and the District Court, presided over by Judge Bathgate, sat for only a few minutes. The case of Wilkinson v. Carrick was struck out of the list, and that of Ueid and others v. • Urquhart was, by agreement of both parties to the affair, adjourned to the 6th prox. The Riverton Municipal Council have passed a resolution urging upon the Government the necessity of having the Western railways completed as soon as possible. Apropos of these lines, we hear that the Government, acting on a resolution of the Upper House during the late session, contemplate publishing the evidence taken in the arbitration case between Mr Proudfoot and the Provincial Government. Mr C. Bradshaw, the owner of the ketch Franklyn Belle, which won the silver cup offered for the schooners' race at Lyttelton last year, reeeived a reply from the Lyttelton Regatta Committee on Saturday evening, informing him that the ketch would not be allowed to compete in the forthcoming regatta, as the programme stipulates that n© centre-board vessels will be permitted to compete. Mr Bradshaw had informed the committee that he was quite willing to suppress the centre-board and fix a temporary fale keel to which the committe objected unless Mr Bradshaw would guarantee that the false keel was to be a permanent fixture, and as Mr Bradshaw will not agree to do so, the yacht is deterred from taking part in this year's regatta in Port Cooper. Sir William Stawell generally hits the right nail upon the head (says the Melbourne ' Punch'), and he did so the other day in summing up the libel action Broadbent v. Sina'J, when the Chief Justice is reported to have said that "Public men and public measures were public property, and it was the privilege of the public to discuss tho3e men and those measures, as it was termed, without actual malice. This was a privilege which they oil must cherish. No doubt these criticisms were occasionally not pleasant. Courts of justice came in occasionally for attack or censure— whether justly or unjustly it was not necessary for him to say. Judges were c-ensured, and even learned counsel did not escape, perhaps when those attacks were first read in the morning, they wore not very agreeable. If they were deserved, why they must be home ; if they were ui'/durserved they could do no harm, awl ; tliey probably served to amuse some people, Unless public criticism was allowed on public ition and public measures, the community would lapse into ft condition which would be exceedingly irksome to the public generally. If discussions were not allowed, why the community would be in a state of perfect plavery." This is the language of cummon sense and of sage experience. And none but fools and knavtifc sfcand jn dread of how 4 criticism, of just censure, md of I fearless satirp, ' ] •'1- . *

j At Oamaru, on Monday, Patrick Walsh j was committed for trial for stealing, from i Sue person of one Hugh Cameron; a pocketbook containing L3O and a deposit-receipt for LfiO. r

A woman named Ellen Vincent has been j committed for trial at Hokitika for the wilful ■ ( murder of another named Jane Cunnineto'n. upon whom she committed a succession of violent assanlts. A presentation of a handsome gold albert chain and Maltese cross (obtained from Mr Mislop, Princes street) was made by Mr Jackson, on behalf of the Dunedin Insurance officers, to Mr J. W. Biiudley, of the Victorian Insurance office, on Saturday afternoon. Jhe cross bore the following inscription :-« Presented to Mr J. W. Brindley by the Insurance Officers of Dunedin, 25th £ov 1876 " Mr Brindley proceeds to Ohnstchurch to take charge of a branch of the V ictona Company. The volunteers of Queenstown are determined to leave no stone unturned to make the attendance large at the proposed review there on New Year's Day. They have instituted an active canvass of the districts for subscriptions, and with so much success that tney are able to offer the Volunteers of Invercargill and Riverton to pay their expenses from Kingstown to Queenstown and back, and provide them board and lodging during a three days' stay in Queenstown.

A case of scarlet fever—the first which has occurred for a long time at Port Chalmers—was reported yesterday. The patient, a young gentlemen resident in Dunedin, has been in the habit of visiting some friends at the port, and as usual came down on Saturday afternoon, to all appearance in good health. Yesterday morning Dr. Drysdale was called in, and on seeing him declared that scarlet fever was the cause of his illness. Ihe owner of the house immediately sent his family away, and strict measures have been adopted for its perfect isolation. At the Port Chalmers Police Court this morning, before Mr T. A. Mansford, R.M., Herman Oehs and John Linsburg, seamen, belonging to the barque Frederick Hardwick, charged with being drunk and disorderly on the railway pier on Saturday night, were each ordered to- pay a fine of 10s, in default, forty-eight hours'imprisonment. On the civil side of the Court, Wm. Forrest was summoned to show cause why he had not satisfied a judgment of the Court for L 6 3s 6d at the suit of Henry Erridge. The defendant was ordered to pay the amount forthwith, or, in default, to be imprisoned for a month. The Central Board of Health have advised the Governor to declare by proclamation the following diseases to be "infectious diseases" within the meaning of the 20th section of the Publie Health Act, viz. : Cholera, small pox, scarlatina, diphtheria, euteric, or typhoid fever, typhus fever, and measles. It was decided that instructions should be issued, by circular, to each of the Local Boards of Health to report to the Central Board annually on the 31st March. Uuder the provisions of the Act, every municipality and road board is a local board of health. It was resolved that a printed form should be prepared for such return to be made, in order that all the reports might be identical in form The editors of the ' New Zealand Times' and' Post' are loving journalists. Neither neglects an opportunity of hitting the other. The latest point is scored by the editor of the ' Times,' who lately wrote :"A mean attempt has been made to deprive my graceful and accomplished friend Mr Gilloa of the honors he has successfully won as a dramatist. I hasten to neutralise that attempt. [ He did dramatise Lady Audley's Secret, and ! one point excepted, it is beautiful dramatisation. Its interest would have been heightened, however, if he had introduced a final sensation scene in which lady Audley, previously to being sent to a madhouse, should have pushed the talanted dramatist himself down the well. He might have engaged me permanently to assist by putting the cover on the well subsequently and sitting on it. For the sake of playing so important a part, I would not have haggled on the question of salary." The ' Chronicle' complains of the ignorance of the Land Board as to what is goiDg on in the way of settlement upon proclaimed blocks and hundreds, and referring to the remarks of Messrs Strode and Reid re the Kyeburn Hundred when the petition of the settlers of Moonlight Flat was being discussed, makes answer that, as a matter of fact, which Mr Strode can ascertain if he likes to take the trouble, 2,000 acres or more are taken up—Mr George Currie and Sons alone holding 1,000 acres, which they will very speedily prove to be one of the best mixed farms of Otago. The only other blocks opened in this district are the Maniototo block, the Sow burn block, and the Blackstone block. There is one section only on each of the first of these two blocks unoccupied, while, with regard to the Blackstone Hill block, we have no accurate information, beyond knowing that several successful farms have been created there for several years back. Tin-kettling seems to be much in vogue up north. A batch of eleven men were brought up before the Ranj>iora Police Court, charged with serenading a newly-married man with empty tins and other abominations, and with creating a disturbance generally. The object of their attention curiously enough was not in the house at all while the row was going on, and he Said in Court that he didn't mind it, which, seeing that he was not there, was not very astonishing, while the neighbors also stated that they felt no annoyance at the tin-kettling. The Magistrate, however, was not disposed to suffer the practice, and fined the ringleader 40s, and the others 20s each. All except two preferred seven days' imprisonment, and got it. They (says the ' Canterbury Times,' from which this is taken) will sigh out their term of durance vile in Addington, and probably long before the time is up confess what fools they were not to pay the LI down and have done with it. It is stated that no bad feeling was displayed. Three cricket matches were played on Saturday—two on the Oval and one at Montecillo. The citizens tried conclusions with what profferred to be a third eleven of the D.C.C, but would have creditably represented the premier club anywhere, they put together 111 to their opponents' 46. The second eleven of D.C.C- gave the brewers anafternoon'sleather-huutiiig. Double figures were plentiful, a brace of fifties and twenties figuring in the score?, which mounted up to 214, of which no less than 34 were for extras. When time was called the Brewers had only obtained 14, with the loss of two wickets. At Montecillo, the Carisbrcokians put the Albious through comfortably, the respective totals being 64 and 24. At Milton, the jnavrkd and single members of the local club played a match, which resulted in an easy victory for the Benedicts. —It is mentioned by the 'Lyttelton Times'that the agent of the All-England Eleven has written that the Eleven will play at Auckland on January 2gtb, 29th, and 30th. The team will then travel southward*, playing at Nehon, Christchurcli, Dunedin, and possibly also at Taranaki. They will leave New Zealand after playing at Inveroargill. The Christchurch match will take place about the middle of February, but until the team arrives iu New Zealand, it will bo impossible tofisthedfttp,

x-/> i. V ' S * Graut to-day showed us a cerI tificata from Dr Gillies, who states that he has now fudy recovered and may pursue his calling without any danger to the public. The Auckland people are raising a subscription for the widow and family (five) cf Christopher Leatham, who was killed lately Iby lighting at Tokeno. They were decent | people, and had been working on land which J was mortgaged to Mr A. Buckland. Mr ) Buckland cancelled the mortgage, aud gave the widow the land unencumbered. That was a really generous act. Anti-Abolitionism is played out. The Auckland «Herald' "throwsup the sponge," and admits the battle to be lost. Speaking of Lord Carnarvon's despatch, it remarks : "The whole tone of the despatch is such as to disciurage the contemplated deputation fromOtagoto England, and will probably put an end to further opposition to the Abolition Act, in that form at all events." The case of Owen Kane, a man recently sentenced at Wanganui to a lengthened imprisonment aud a flogging, for a criminal assault upon a child of tender years, has excited much discussion and comment in the local papers. The ' Chronicle' and several correspondents, whose letters display considerable ability, contend that the evidence against the prisoner did not warrant his conviction, while the 'Herald' takes a contrary view. The balance of opinion is, however, against the verdict, and a memorial is being addressed to the Minister of Justice, prating that a fresh inquiry should be made into the case before the more degrading portion of Kane's sentence is carried out.

Messrs Maclean Brothers will hold thenweekly wool sale to-morrow instead of Wednesday.

Members of the Press Club are requested to attend a special meetfnginthe reading-room, at 7.30 p.m. to-morrow.

The usual monthly meeting of the Lodge of Dunedm will be held in the Maßonic Hall tomoirow evening, at 8 o'clock.

The Artillery Band will muster at the drillBiied for parade on Tuesday evening instead of Wednesday, bb previously advertised. T7 The a uat *erly meeting of the Ota?o Licensed Victuallers A ssocialion will be held to-morrow at 7 30 p m., in the Fire Brigade Booms. ' The attention of our Masonic readers is directed to a notice re the District Grand Lod*e Quarterly Meeting, which appears in another column.

The ladies and gentlemen who have kindly promised exhibits, etc., for the Otago Institute Conversazione are requested to leave them at the University Hall by 11 a.m. on Tuesday.