NEWS OF THE DAY.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1207, 16 January 1878, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Suez Mail. —The outward Suez mail, consisting of 9 bags—7 from Christchurch and 2 from Lyttelton —went in the s.s. Arawata yesterday. Visitors. —Mr J. E, Fitz Gerald, Comptroller of Public Revenue and Commissioner of Audit, and Mr Carruthers, Colonial Chief Engineer, arrived in Christchurch yesterday ou an official visit. Merchants Employees’ Pic-nic. —At a general meeting of the Merchants employees, held at the Scotch Stores, last evening, it was resolved that the procession should start from the General Post Office, at 9 a.m, sharp on Monday next, Lydia Hotvarde Company. —This company will appear at the Gaiety to-morrow evening in the “ Rose of Auvergne,” a concert programme, and another operetta as a conclusion.

Grass Seed.—Last week Mr E. Parnham, of Kaiapoi, harvested twelve acres of grass seed, which yielded 555 bushels, from land near the north branch of the river. Caution to Bathers. —Mr W. Cameron observed a shark, from ten to twejvo feet long, inside the platform at the old bathing place, Dampier’s Bay, Lyttelton, on Tuesday evening. The iish was in very shallow water, and would certainly have soon made an end of any person bathing in the vicinity. 1.0.0. F., American Constitution. —The installation of officers of Die Avon Lodge took place on Monday evening, and was conducted by Bro. Wallis, A.D.D.G.M., from Timaru. The following were the officers installed : —Bro. If. D. Manning, N.G. ; Bro. E. Taylor, V.G. ; Bro. J. J. Fryer, P.S. ; Bro. P. Patterson, 8.P.G., as treasurer ; Bro. H. T. Price, warden ; and Bro. A. Schwartz, conductor ; Bro. C. Lezard taking his seat as J.F.G. After a pleasing address from Bro. Wallis, two visiting brethren from America gave some interesting intomation relativs to the progress of fho Order, aftjj $0 |bdgO jfd* joined at 10

An Evangelist.—A Mrs Bayertz, desorbed as a Melbourne lady of Jewish birth has been conducting special religious services at Hobart Town, and delivering a scries of Christian addresses. Her delivery is said by the local papers to bo characterised by groat earnestness and distinctness. Crown Brewery.— The second annua meeting of the shareholders of the Crown Brewery Company (Limited), was held last evening, at Eadcliffe’s Commercial Hotel. The balance-sheet disclosed a very prosperous year’s business, after allowing for depreciation of plant and all bad and doubtful debts. The shareholders present expressed themselves highly satisfied with the result , and elected Messrs Cecil and Charles Louisson, W. Eadclitfe, J. L. Eadcliffe, and J. Baylie, directors for the current year.

Soldene Opera Company.—As alread y announced, this company will appear in Christchurch on the 22nd inst., the opera chosen for t heir dehut being “ Oirofle Oiroila,” which has recently been produced by them most successfully in Dunedin. The sale of season tickets commences to-day, and as the prices have been fixed at a very reasonable scale, no doubt, many will avail themselves of the opportunity. The various operas produced during the season will be placed upon the stage with every attention to detail, the wardrobe of the company being varied and extensive.

New Board op Education.—At the con elusion of business at the Kaiapoi Borough school committee on Monday evening, Mr Pashby drew attention to the advisablcness of returning the members of the present Board of Education as the members for the new Board for the Northern district, and a desire was expressed by the chairman and other members of the committee that the new committee in the north should arrange matters to bring about the return of the gentlemen at present holding office, by their concerted action in nominating and voting for them.

VOLUNTEER INSPECTION. The USlial monthly inspection of the headquarters companies was made last evening by Major Lean at the drill shed. There was a full muster of the Artillery, but rather a small attendance of the Engineers and City Guards. After the inspection the men were put through company drill, battalion movements, and manual and platoon exercise. Seeing some of the men without rifles Major Lean expressed an opinion that those volunteers who had received rifles, and would not attend inspection parade, should send them in for the benefit of their comrades.

Baptist Tea Meeting.— The annual tea meeting in connection with the Hereford street Baptist Church was held last evening in the old St. Paul’s Church, Lichfield street. About 300 persons eat down to tea, which was provided by Mr A. Gee, who catered in his usual excellent style. After the tables had been cleared away, a public meeting was held, the church being crowded; the Rev. C. Dallaston presided. The annual report, read by Mr Purdie, showed that 45 additional members had been received during the year, making a total of 135 on the books, as against 98 at the last annual meeting. The receipts had been £351 9s 4d, and the payments for the year £309 18s, leaving a balance in hand of £4l 11b Id. In addition to above receipts, three special collections had been made, at which a total of £3l 2s lOd were received. The increase of funds during the past year was attributed to the weekly envelope system introduced. The meeting was afterwards addx’essed by the Rev. chairman, and Revs. H. Jveast, J. S. Smalley, J. W. Sawle, and W. Horner. During the evening, a number of hymns were sung.

Count de Zara’s Lectuee. —The Congregational school-room, in Manchester street, was last evening occupied by a large and attentive audience, assembled to hear Count de Zaba. lecture on “The Study of History.” Mr. J. Inglis occupied the chair, and brieHy introduced the lecturer. Count de Zaba then came forward and, after congratulating himself and the audience on the additional prestige given to his lecture by the presidency of the Chairman of the Board of Education, claimed for the study of history the highest place amongst educational subjects. He then referred to the ditliculty which had always been experienced in impressing on the memory ihe multitudinous facts of history —a difficulty, to overcome which numerous systems of more or less merit had been invented. These systems, however, had been found to be useful only to a very limited degree. What was required was a simplyconstructed but comprehensive system. The lecturer then referred to a chart hanging on the wall, in which, by an arrangement of lines and colours, the history of the world since the Christian era was sketched. After explaining how this was done, he called up to the platform three of his pupils—two little girls and a little boy—whose answers to questions on the history of the first and second centuries were so prompt and accurate as to call forth hearty applause. The lecture was an interesting one, and was enlivened by i several anecdotes amusingly told. Whatever I may be the merits of the system explained I last night, there can be no doubt that it has I an able in Count de Zaba, whose rapid review of the history of some nineteen centuries, os depicted on his chart, went far to establish its capabilities. Loud and prolonged applause followed the conclusion of the lecture, after which votes of thanks to the Count and to Mr Inglis terminated the business of the evening. Gold at Queen Charlotte's Sound.— Some remarkably rich specimens of auriferous quartz, taken from Empapa Bay—an inlet iu Queen Charlotte’s Sound—have been exhibited in Wellington, and the “ Post ” gives the following particulars regarding the situation ; —Some four years ago it was discovered that the quartz reefs iu the neighborhood contained gold, and an experimental crushing of a ton and a half of surface stone gave four ounces of gold. Owing to various cause's, however, the lessees of the land djd not further proceed with their experiment. Thei? lease lately expired, and Messrs Williams, Finch, Eicholls, and Monk have taken it up, with some native land adjoining, making a claim of 33 A acres. They have run a tunnel of 60ft. into the hill, with a shaft 30ft. deep, and cross drives of 15ft. A second shaft runs down 20ft., with cross drives. At the bottom of the deep shaft were found three more lodes, varying in thickness from 20in. to 2ft., and a cursory examination of the face of the hill has disclosed another lode 2ft. thick. The ground has been examined by several mining experts from Auckland, and Messrs Williams and Co. have been offered a large sum for their interest in the land, but they will not sell it. The object of their visit to Wellington is to form a company to work the mine, in which they can retain shares as payment for their claim. The projected company is to be o&Ue4 “ IJae CtoWoo jpoiat Cee^a^.’ 1

Appointment. —The Kelson “ Mad” understands that Mr Von Tun/.elmunn, who was the first master of foreign languages at the Nelson College, has been offered and ha? accepted a similar appointment at Christ’s College, Christchurch. Gaelic Sermon.— The Rev. Mr Donald Ross, of Queenstown, preached a Gaelic sermon in St. Andrew’s Church, Dunedin, on Sunday afternoon. There was a good attendance of the Gaelic-speaking inhabitants.

Sea-Bathing .—The inhabitants of several colonial towns have lately provided themselves with bathing enclosures in the sea. Nelson has most recently done so, the baths being also furnished with fresh water shower-baths, and now it is proposed in Dunedin to construct salt-water baths at the Ocean JBeicli. Mr George Fawcett Rowe. Home papers notice the marriage of the clever comedian and author, Mr George 1.0 woe It Eowe, wlm will be well remembered in this colony, where ho for some time resided, ife has married the beautiful Miss Kate Girard, one of the handsomest women on the stage, and, all say, one of the most charming. Embezzlement. —Mr Inspector Atcheson. of Wellington, has received a telegram stating that a man named Frederick Israel Pavia has been arrested at Hokitika, charged with embezzling the sum of JJ-UO. the property of the National Bank. The informa - tion, which has been laid by the manager of the National Bank in Wellington, states that Davis was acting as trustee for the Bank, and in that capacity embezzled the funds. Employment of Females Act- -A prosecution under the Employment of Females Act was heard before Mr Parker, R.M.. at Oamaru, on Thursday. The “ North Otago Times’’states that the defendant Cleghorn. admitted the offence, but pleaded that he had only done a good action, as he had agreed to allow his employees two days’ holidays in lieu of the extra hours they worked on the night in question. The Magistrate held that a breach of the Act had been committed, and imposed a line of os. Mysterious. —Some swimmers in Meech’s baths at Wellington recently asserted that they had seen in the proximity of the baths the* body of a man, and search was made, hut without result.. Suspicion arose that it might be the body of Mr Tonks, a local merchant, who was said to be missing, but Mr Tonka turned up, having been in the country on business. Then Mr Curtis, of the Upper Hutt, was reported missing, but he has telegraphed to a friend to say that he is in Christchurch. Unfortunate Accident.— A serious accident occurred during the rejoicing on welcoming Mr Pearce’s return to Wellington. As the Arawata was replying to the salute fired by the Artillery Volunteers cm the reclaimed land, while one of the A.B.’s named Kobert Malcolm was ramming home a charge in the nine-pounder gun, it suddenly exploded, owing probably to the gun having been insufficiently sponged, and consequently some ignited material being left in the tube. The result was that the rammer was driven away with great violence, and the unfortunate man Malcolm had his right hand blown almost to pieces, the thumb all but torn off, and the whole hand fearfully lacerated and burnt. Dr. Bradford was in attendance within ten minutes, and did all he could to relieve the sufferer, who was removed as soon as possible to the Hospital. The sufferer is a fine young man of 23, very steady, and much liked. The Telephone. —ln another column we quote the description of some experiments with the telephone which were recently made in Melbourne. The following account of another interesting experiment appears in the “ Argus” of a later date:—The use of a wire between Melbourne and Geelong having been obtained through the courtesy of the telegraph department, an attempt was made to transmit messages to and fro, the telephone at the Melbourne end being one of those recently manufactured by Mr Josephs, and that at Geelong being the instrument made by Mr W. J. Thomas, a description of which has appeared. It was found that the disturbing influence of the electric current circulating through the adjoining wires interfered with the transmission of intelligible messages ; but sounds could nevertheless be heard, and the operators were able to exchange “cooeys” very distinctly. The experiment is to be repeated on some occasion when there is no business on the wires.

Chicket Matches with the Australian Eleven. —At Wellington the match committee of the Cricketers’ Association have chosen tiie following players from the country districts to take part in the match:—W. J. Salmon and Lister Kaye (Wairarapa), Cross, Barrington, Barton, and Mason (Wanganui), Anson and Robinson (Rangitikei), and tins secretary has communicated with others with a view of obtaining the very best men. The following town players are also practising : Blacklock, Kennedy, Horwood, Armitage, J. A. Salmon, I. J. Salmon, Knapp, Mace, Fordhara, Robinson, K ember, Lynch, Willis, Laurence, Lambert, McGee, Doyle, Duncan, Sunley, Samson, Dodswortb, Platt, Hickson, Houghton, Maplesdcn, Allan, Webb, Webb, Wyatt, Lloyd, and Lockett. At Napier the following have been selected as the Twentytwo to play against the Australian Eleven : Messrs Cotterill, Sladcn, Rees, Bellers, Moon, R. Brnitbwaite, Sainsbury, T. Moore, Crawford, Williams, Mayo, Gilberd, Humphreys, Liddle, Stott, Thorn, Winter, Ferris, Bridge, Bloomfield, Goring, and Newton. As two at least of these are doubtful about being in Napier at tire time c£ the match, the following were selected as extra men:—Messrs Fulton, Searfe, Knight, Mclntosh, McCartney, and Lewin.