YESTERDAY'S TELEGRAMS

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 886, 27 April 1877, Page 2

YESTERDAY'S TELEGRAMS

INTERPROVINCIAL. The Trance Medium Walker. [from a correspondent.] Auckland, April 26. In compliance with the invitation by Mr John McLeod, a number of gentlemen of the press, with several ladies, assembled last evening to witness a private sea nce by Thomas Walker, trance medium, who recently arrived from Sydney. He is spoken of by Mr Peebles as one of the most eloquent of the professors of spirits. The company cons : sted of Mr Walker, Mr McLeod, and the members of his family, several ladies and gentlemen. McLeod opened the proceedings with a pi eliminary discussion as to the programme which would suit the majority of the company, and fully agreed that the medium should deliver a discourse in the first instance, and afterwards submit to be questioned. A lady sang “Sweet spirit hear my prayer,” and while the song was being sung, Walker fixed his eyes on the corner of the room and gave a start and shiver and closed them. He appeared to subside gradually into a state of trance. He was then presumed to be under the influence of the spirit of the Rev Hr Stewart, Scotch minister, and who, since his advent to the land of spirits, is said to have rambled through a flowery vale in a state of bliss, in company with Mungo Park, and a faithful negro attendant of the great, traveller. The medium then convulsively proceeded to discourse on the subject “ What is Truth.” The lecture was very discursive. At the conclusion of the discourse, a series of questions was propounded, principally directed to the elucidation of some practical test, which should recommend itself to the minds of the int errogators as proof of the alleged phenomena of spiritual communications to mortals The medium, or presumably Hr Stewart, replied in such vague and general terms as to shroud the answer in mist. Where the spirit descended from a region of pantheism and speculative philosophy and condescended to deal with plain matters of fact he invariably laboured under a bad memory, or excused himself on some plea such as the absence of particular spirits. After an hour of hard practical questioning, during which no tangible test was elicited, the visitors look their leave with a very clear perception of the fact that spiritual phenomena, so far as revealed by Walker, have their existence in the region of mere imagination, and require an unlimited degree of faith in order to recommend themselves to intelligent believers. Auckland, April 26.

The thirty-first half-yearly meeting of the Bank of Xew Zealand was held to-day; l)r Campbell in the chair. The report and balance-sheet were unanimously adopted. The report is as follows:—“The nett profits on March 31st, after making ample provision for every debt considered bad or doubtful, for reduction, Bank premises, furniture, &c., amount to £61,687, to which have to be added the amount received as premium on shares issued to shareholders of the Fiji Banking Company, £17,500; and balance of undivided profit, Sept. 30th; £8635 ; making a total available for division of £87,822. The following appropriation of this is now recommended :—Dividend, at fhe rate of 10 per cent., £36,250 ; bonus of 5s per share, £15,125 ; total for division, £54,375 ; addition to reserve fund, £25,800; balance carried forward to next half-year, £8447. The Bank capital now stands at £725,000 ; the reserve fund, £275,000 ; total, £1,000,000. The dividend and bonus will be payable at the Head Office, Auckland, on Monday, April 30th, and at the branches on receipt of advice.

Walker, the “Trance Medium,” from Sydney, gave a private seance to members of the Press last night. The subject was “ What is truth ?’ ’ The medium professed to be under the control of the spirit of the Rev. Dr. Stewart, who died in 1805. The lecture was discursive, pantheistic, and speculative, utterly deficient of anything tangible. The “Medium” submitted to questions, which were principally directed to the elucidation of some practical test. The answers were general and evasive. The papers hint that the whole affair is humbug. At a meeting of the Auckland branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society it was stated that the total issues during the year had been 2718, an increase of 25 per cent, over last year. The collections were £l7O 19s. Hokitika, April 26.

Mr Gisborne has held meetings at several places throughout the Totara district, and lias been well received everywhere. The interest is a good deal divided, and the contest it is generally supposed will bo close, unless one of the local candidates should retire in Mr Gisborne’s favor, which is not probable. I)l'm:din, April 26. A deputation of thirty members of the mercantile community waited upon the Harbor Board this afternoon, and urged that the proposed docks should be situated towards the south end of the city. Those towards the north are strongly opposed to this, and the question will be warmly discussed. Wang anui, April 26.

Judge Richmond, in passing sentence on Moffat, said —lf your offence were to be punished in proportion to the danger which it occasions to the public, you ought to receive a heavy sentence, You are to be looked upon

by all well-judging persons, as an enemy both ways in this Island. On the one hand, you have been strengthening against your fellowcountrymen a merciless foe. Maori victory, you well know, means massacre, sparing neither sex. On the other hand, you have been encouraging the disaffected in a vain resistance to the advance of civilisation. You have been planning disaster for the European, but for the natives you have been preparing utter destruction. The evidence lias but given a glimpse of your proceedings—enough, however, to disclose their dangerous, treasonable character. It is well for you that the time is one of pronounced peace, or you could expect, as you would deserve, nothing but the halter. I am going to pass upon you a most inadequate sentence, but it is the heaviest which is allowed by the extreme leniency of the law on this subject. Moffatt was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment ;and hard labor. The Waimate Libel Case. {From a correspondent of the Press.) Timaru, April 26. Mr Cuming, proprietor and editor of the I Vaitangi Tribune , Waimate, was charged with a libel upon Mr McCulloch Reed, at the Resident Magistrate’s Court to-day and committed for trial at the Timaru Supreme Court, bail being allowed. MWWI ,'WPCTifc—MiJBBUBBSHWPHBBtt