NEWS OF THE DAY.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1419, 2 September 1878, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

School of Cookeby.—Miss Fidler gave her second course of lessons in cookery on Saturday, when there was a good attendance. Vital Statistics.—The Registrar's returns for Christchurch and district, for the month of August, are as follows: Births, city, 46 ; district, 107 ; marriages, 29 and 8; deaths, 14 and 31. The Cable Inteeeupted Again. —We have been kindly supplied with tho following by the officer in charge of the Telegraph Station : —The Batavia-Singapore cable, which has during the past few days been working intermittently, b now totally interrupted. The repairing steamerleft Friday last to effect repairs. •.- ** <" y The- CißCtrs.—There wad a very Air attendance, at the circus on Saturday ewxiing, when the Duvalli Brothers took their benefit. A good programme was gone through, and all the items were highly appreciated by the audience. To-night the company w'U aga'i appear in a new programme. A New Weekly. The " Geraldine County Chronicle " is the name of a new weekly paper published in Timaru, which will replace the " Tomahawk." The " Chronicle " is considerably larger, and more thoroughly classified than its predecessor, and will no doubt attain a large circulation in its district. Aeeival of the English Mail.—The inward European mails via San Francisco arrived per Wanaka yesterday. They consisted of four bags for Lyttelton, forty-two for Christchurch, eight for Timaru, and six for Oamaru. The Christchurch and southern portion came through by a special train leaving Lyttelton at 3.45 p.m. Mr Cheeseman, of the Auckland post office, was the ma l '! agent. Cookeby Lecturer. —There is a. probability' 'of' the £harftabl& to terms with Miss Fidler, to give a course of lectures on cookery to the elder girls of the Lyttelton Orphanage. The matter was discussed at the meeting of the Board on Saturday night, the members expressing themselves favorable to the proposal. Administbation of Decease© Persons' Estates. —While the Administration Bill was in committee on Tuesday, says the " New Zealander," Mr Swanson spoke strongly in I favor of.'some' provisioning made for removing the costly and cumbrous machinery in connection with the administration of the estates of deceased persons. Mr Swanson, who is always fruitful in illustration, cited a case which is now the subject matter of a petition before the House, wnerein the estate of a person who died was not ODly altogether swallowed up in legal costs, notwithstanding that the friends of the deceased had done all they could to provide for its economic administration, but it wasyioundins the end that there Vaß not enough left; lb pay for funeral expenses. No doubt if Mr Swanßon thought fit that hon. gentleman could discover many other instances where estates belonging to the living, after haying once got into the hands of the lawyers, have not only not realised sufficient to pay funeral expenses, but have left the owner unable to purchase a "bier." The hon. the Attorney G-eneral maintained that the law in this colony relating to the administiation of the estates *>f deceased persons was simpler than that of any of the other colonies. This, we think, does not say much for the other colonies. Lyttelton Wintee Evening Readings. —The entertainment committee of the Lyttelton Colonists' Society propose ending their series of winter evening readings by giving three grand concerts, the first to be held on Thursday, Soptember sth. That day was selected instead of Friday (the usual day), because many of the ladies and gentlemen who purpose giving their aid are resident in Christchurch, and wish to return by the late train. The performers being all volunteers, the committee are enabled to limit the price of admission to Is, thus placing the performance within the reach of all. It may not be generally known that the Colonists' Society is in a great measure dependent; on the proceeds of these entertainments for ~tho successful carrying on of the- library £nd reading-room, and anyone seeing the great number of maritime visitors who frequent the institution will acknowledge what a great boon it is to the seafaring population as well as to the townspeople. Tub Minstrels. — The very successful season of the C.K.B. Minstrels in Christchurch was brought to a close on Saturday evening, when Messrs Cheevers and Kennedy took their benefit, a large, and enthusiastic audience being present. The programme of the preceding evening was repeated very successfully, the songs in the first part and the farces, especially " Slocum's Dog," being loudly applauded. Messrs Cheevers and Kennedy in their speciality act were encored three times, and hud to respond to vociferous recalls. In the farces Mr Bent was exceedingly funny. The finale was a piece new here, in which Mrs Cheevers 'made her debut before a Christchurch audience. This lady has a good stage presence and voice, and made the most of the small part entrusted to her, and she may be congratulated upon having made a very successful first appearance. Mr Cheevers as the old Irishwoman, and Mr Kennedy as the Irish tenant of the house, were both very funny. The Minstrels leave for Wellington to-day, .where they play for a fortnight. Inspector Feast.—Tue following from the " Grey River Argus ,' of August 24th, will interest many of the residents in thu> district :—Mr Sub-Inspector Feast has no easy times of it. He returned, yesterday, from a visit of inspection, covering a distance of about 3CO miles, on horseback. He left hero on Wednesday, the 14th, and has since visited Ahaura, Reefton, Lyell, Westport, -Charleston —back again to Westport, and thence via Reefton down to Greymouth, and, yesterday, finished off by going to No Town and back; The weather has been bad all the tfme, ancj. anyone who knows what trayelling the route he traversed is even in line weather can well understand the vicissitudes to be encountered on such a journey. An irrpyerent resident of the Lyell township is said to have remarked that after a famine there is sure to be a Feast, the worthy inspector having arrived in that classic region just as the last pound of Hour was giving out, and was immediately followed by supplies by boat and otherwise. Some indication of the difficulties of existence at the Lyell may be gathered from the fact that one cargo boat was three months in getting up from Westport, and by that time all the consumable portion of the cargo had of necessity been appropriated to the use of the^crew. Tub Fatal Accident at Rainciiff.— At the inquest on the body of Mrs Edwards, who was burned to death in a tussock fire on the Rainciiff Station on Wednesday, the following statement of her husband, who was too much injured to appear, was read—"l am a farmer living at the head of Beautiful Valley, near the Opuha river. The deceased, Lucy Edwards, was my wife. She was about twenty-one y v ars of ago, and came frorz Auckland. She and I had Jived together iri a three-roomed house' on mv land for aboui two months. On Tuesday last, between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., the deceased and I were engaged burning somo tussocks in a gully at the back of the house. The wind suddenly changed, and sent the flames up the hill towards us. We were about forty yards r>,r)art at the time, and finding it impossible to l\'efc away frgm the flames, I ran through them. I then looked i'ound for ;uy wife, and heard a low moan. I then'ran'to T*r,'and found that her clothes were all in flames'. I tried to extinguish them by rolling heir over and over on the ground, but finding this was of no use, wc both ran to a creek, and I there Uttfc the J, ames out. I then got her into the house, which wus about 500 yards distant from the scene of the fire.' i immediately afterwards ran to James Robb's hut, about half a mile off, and asked him to go for assijt 1 - ance. I then returned to my own house, and found my wife Mug on her Led. I gave a drink of (jjyperine, and covered' Epr oyer with the bed clothes,. At this time and until she got some medicine she complained of being very cold. She died about three o'clock the following morning. She did not seem to be in much pain, and talked to me until she died, during which time she was quite cou« ecious.--(3jgned) TaPJUS BpwassbV'

The Shbibtaity. A New Zealand " Gazette," issued on Thursday, notifies the appointments of the following gentlemen to be sheriffs under the Act of 1858:-Edward Willcocks, Esq., Auckland ; Charles Edward Rawson, Esq., Taranaki; Duncan Guy, Esq., Hawke's Bay ; Alexander Sutherland Allan, Esq., Wellington; Frederick de Oartoret MaJet, Esq., Canterbury; Alfred Hassal King, Esq., Westland: Edward Efrancis Ward, Esq., Otago; William Stuart, Esq., Southland ; vice Theodore Minet Haultain, Charles Douglas Whitcombe, John Thomas Tylee, Ebenezer Baker, Alexander Back, William Alexander Spence, Isaac Newton Watt, and Henry McCulloch, Esqrs., respectively. The above appointments are to take effect on and from the Ist proximo. The Fbanchise fob Sailoes.— In his speech on the second reading of the Electoral Bill, Mr Sheehan proposed another new qualification for the franchise, as follows:—I will now refer to a franchise which I hope to see established in this country. I do not want to be Scriptural. My hon. friend, the member for Timaru, has made one quotation. He Compared this island to the Promised Land. If I may pick out another illustration from Scripture, I would compare this island, as the hon. member for Auckland City East (Mr Bees), in his lecture on "The Lost Tribes of Israel," compared it, to the island of the sea. We are essentially a maritime people, and closely associated with maritime pursuits. It follows, therefore, that we are bound to have a large maritime population, and the franchise I would ask the House to accept would be this: that every peraon in the colony who had attained the age of twenty-one years, and who had served three years in a vessel owned in the colony, should have a vote for the return of representatives to this House. By doing so you would be conferring one of the greatest benefits upon them which you could possibly bestow in connection with this question of extending the franchise. You would give a stimulus and encouragement to many young men of high feeling to join the mercantile service, and qualify themselves for a good position in life in connection with what must always be a main industry of this colony. Thb Duty ok Boots.—Respecting the new tariff on imported boots, the " Otago Daily Times " says:—" Dancing boots and watertights pay equal taxes, and the navvy and the ballroom beau stand literally on an equal footing, modified only by the size of thoir respective feet. It can hardly be Baid that the hugeness of a man's extremities makei him better able to bear the burdens of the State, yet in this particular department, in the adjustment of the incidence of taxation, the chances of exemption are in favor of the dandy against the ploughman, whose supports nature intended not for ornament but use; and the dainty little feet of many a belle will go lightly taxed, while the shoeleather of her fellow-colonist at the washtub will yield substantial aid to the salaries of the civil servants of the colony." On the ■ame subject, a correspondent of the "Post" writes:—"Under the old tariff the public paid for thoir luxurious tastes. If they wore light and fancy boots the duty was higher; if they wore heavy boots the duty Was lower. Now this state of things is reversed. To prove what is stated, take a few examples extracted from genuine invoices. Thus 72 pairs men's elastic-side boots of second quality would pay under the old tariff £3 5s 4d; under the new one they pay £3l2s an initial difference of 6s 8d against the }>oorer consumer. Compare this with a simiar number of gentlemen's boots, best elastic sides or Balmorals, both of which are about the same rate. Under the old tariff 72 pairs of these higher class articles paid a duty of £5 7s; under the new rates they pay only £3 12s, showing an initial difference in favour of the wealthier consumer of £llss, or fully 33 per cent of a loss to the revenue. Take, again, men's ordinary blucher boots, second quality, the working man's wear. 71 pairs of these at the old rates paid £2 6s 6d ; under the now they will pay £3 12s, or nearly 55 per cent, of an addition on the class of articles which, both as regards value and consumer, should be lowered, instead of being raised. The Pbbmieb and the Govebkob's Des-patches.—-The following is the " Hansard " report of Sir George Grey's remarks on correspondence Jbetween the Governor and Secretary of State :—I should like, as Premier, to make a few observations generally upon the question which the honorable gentleman has raised, and I think it extremely probable that he will agree with me in those observations. I do not wish to dictate to the House, but I almost doubt whether it is wise for honorable gentlemen to pass this motion. I really think the time has come in which we, as independent men, might determine not to pay any attention whatever to any correspondence that may pass between the Governor and Secretary of State—not to embarrass ourselves with that subject, but to go quietly about our own duties, to do our duty to our fellow-countrymen here, to do our duty to the Home Government, and simply to correspond with the Secretary of State, as an Assembly, upon those points on which we are compelled to correspond with him by the Constitution Act—that is, the correspondence which we carry on with Her Majesty with regard to Bills. All other despatches which go Home relate to by-queations. When there was a large body of troops in this country, and when the Home country paid sums of money for the defence of New Zealand, it was exceedingly important that we should know all that passed between the Governor and the Secretary of State. But I really think we shall act best for the home Government and for ourselves if for the future we say we do not inquire into any correspondence of tho Governor with the authorities at home. We should expect to see despatches on all subjects which, as an Assembly, we ought to be acquainted with—that is, with regard to the letters addressed to her Majesty. With regard to other matters of minor import we should not ask to see any despatches. Then I think there will be much less chance of getting into differences with the Governor and the home Government, an 4 yre should show a proud, manly spirit of independence, which would be materially for our own advantage in forming our character as an independent Legislature Upon the whole, it appears to me that is the best and most desirable course. I felt it my duty to unburden iny mind on this subject to the House. lam Batjsfied the thoughts I throw out are worthy of consideration, and I go so far as to say they are worthy of adoption. 'Lecture.—Mr Thos. Bracken, of Dunedin ? will deliver a lecture at the Oddfellows' Hull, to-morrow evening, in aid of the funds of the Loyal' Avon Lodge, 1.0.0. F. The subject chosen is " The Glory of the Press." Oddfellows' Hall.—lt is announced that on Wednesday and Thursday the public will have an opportunity of hearing, at the Oddfellows' Hall, a telephonic concert, the performers in which will be at Akaroa. There will bo other inducements for attendance, as the sale of fancy and useful articles, which is to take place in the hall on the days named, for the purpose of h'qaidating the St. Luke's parish debt.