HEWS OF THE DAY.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1429, 13 September 1878, Page 2

HEWS OF THE DAY.

Wholesale Civic Resignations.— On calling at tho Council Chamber at three o’clock this afternoon for information on the matter of the reported civic resignation?, the town clerk was unable to give us any particulars on tho subject, but suggested that we had better find the Mayor, who would propably have the resignations in his pocket if there were any. Enquiry at Mr Thomson’s place of business, elicited the fact that ho was not there, and therefore in the absence of any thoroughly reliable data, wo give the following report for what it is worth. It is reported on good authority that Councillors Radcliffe, Ruddenklau, Pratt, Jameson, and Bickerton have already resigned. Theatre Royal. —Byron’s comedy drama entitled “£100,000” was repeated last night,and was followed by tho burlesque “ How to rule a Wife or Ye Honeymoon.” The City Council. —Councillors Ruddenklau and Radcliffe forwarded their resignations to his Worship the Mayor last evening, and it is stated on good authority that several other Councillors will adopt the same course. 1.0.G.T. —A public meeting was held last evening in the Templar Hall, Worcester street, when Mr J. W. Jago, Grand Worthy Chief Templar from Dunedin, delivered an address on Temperance. Splendid Orchid.— There is now on view in the window of Messrs Duncan and Sons, Cashel street, a splendid specimen of the Dendrobium nobile, grown by Mr Norman of Papanui. It has one hundred and thirty blooms upon it, and is well worth a visit. Madame Anneeeau. —The remains of this lady were interred this morning in the English Cemetery, the burial services being read by the Rev. H. O. M. Watson, There was, in addition to the immediate friends of the deceased lady, a largo attendance of mourners, consisting principally of members of tho theatrical, musical, and equestrian professions at present resident in Christchurch, a fact which testified strongly to the estimation in which Madame Annereau was held by tho united professions of which she was a member.

St, John’s Entertainment.— An entertainment was given last night in St. John’s schoolroom, in aid of the Sunday School Fund. The programme included instrumental and vocal music and a reading by Mr Cherrill. The musical portion was rendered in a very attractive and efficient manner by Mesdames Townend, Winter, Tombs, Mackett, and Miss Robinson, and Messrs Melchor Winter, Knox, Anthony, Darby and Holmes. Madame Winter and Mr R. Searrell performed the duty of accompanists, and Mr Spensloy’s band played two overtures in their usual effective manner. The entertainment was a complete success, about 350 persons being present, and the fund will be benefited to the extent of about £l4.

Philosophical Institute.— The usual monthly meeting of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury was held last evening at the Public Library. Professor Yon Haast, the president, occupied the chair. After the election of some new members, Mr C. W. Adams, geodesical surveyor, read a paper on “ A new method of finding distances without measurement.” He explained that by his system the only operations necessary to find the distance between two hills were to take the angles of elevation and depression from the one to the other. A short calculation, the rationale of which Mr Adams explained, then gave the distance in feet or links, as might bo required. It was pointed out that this method was extremely well suited for hilly or mountainous country, where other systems could not bo employed. Several examples were given of the distances obtained by this plan, which showed that the results generally came true to within less than 1 per cent, and this was sufficiently correct for a topographical survey of a new country. Mr Adams also showed how, by a modification of the rule, heights could be ascertained as well as distances. A discussion followed, in the course of which several surveyors present expressed their approval of the method. Sunday School Anniversary. The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Durham street Wesleyan Sunday School was celebrated last evening by a tea meeting in the schoolroom, followed by a public meeting in the church. The three anniversary services were given last Sunday, morning, afternoon, and evening, the total amount collected being about £29. The tea meeting last night was very numerously attended, about 450 persons being present. The tables were furnished on a very liberal scale, and provided by Mesdames Hart, Parker, Loo, GJ-ould, Balluntyno, Harris, England, Howett, Judge, and Wilson, exclusive of the usual bachelor’s tray. On the conclusion of the tea, an adjournment was made to the church, and the public meeting took place. Mr Connal occunied the chair, and on the platform were the Revs. Keast, Smalley, Morley, and Luxford, After the chairman’s opening remarks, which were of a congratulatory character, the secretary read his annual report, which showed that during the past ton years the average attendance of scholars has about doubled, the average for the past year haying been 302, with a total of 519 on the register, the latter being an increase of 57 on the previous year. The teachers on the roll are 38. with an average of 9 in the morning, and 25 in the afternoon. The highest attendance of scholars on any Sunday was 393, and the lowest 132. The highest average for any month was 352. During the year the sum of £25 has been expended on library books, the number on the catalogue at present being 750. It is hoped, however, before long to increase this to 1000. The number of scholars using the library is 200, the average fortnightly circulation being 31, and the number of books issued during the year 1783. An order has been sent to England lor a supply of maps, cartoons, banner texts, Ac., and these are expected to arrive before Christinas, at a cost of £l2. The amount collected by_ the scholars during the past ten months in aid of missionary enterprise has been £ll 15s 41. The treasurer reported an expenditure during the year of about £BS, leaving a balance in hand of about £9. About £l4 was collected at the close of the meeting, the total receipts arising from the anniversary amounting to a total of £65. During the evening, a number of selected hymns were excellently sung by the children, under the leadership of Mr J. T. M. Smith, who presided at the organ. Votes of thanks were unanimously passed to the chairman, the ladies who had furnished the trays, £c., and the meeting terminated in the usual manjieft

Suicide in Pigeon Bay.—Mr E. Goodwin, a farmer, who has boon residing for many years in Pigeon Bay, was found in one of Isis outhouses on Wednesday evening hanging by the neck, and perfectly dead. He has been for some time past suffering from illness and in a very despondent state, and was last seen alive at 4< p.m. on Wednesday.

Waimatb Hospital. —Plans for this hospital were called for by the County Council some time ago, and sixteen architects responded to the invitat ion. The plan of Mr Thomas Forrester, of Oamaru, has been accepted, and tenders are invited for the building in accordance therewith. The plan of Mr T. B. Jacobsen, of Oxford terrace, was highly spoken of, but a building such as he had designed was held too expensive.

Death op an Eauly Pbospectoe. —The “ luangahua Times” of September 2nd records the death of Mr Patrick Kel'y. Mr Kelly was one of the pioneers of the Inangahua, being one of the original prospectors of the Golden Fleece line, and amongst the fortunate shareholders in the company of that name. Ho was also amongst the earliest explorers of the Otago goldfields, having reached this colony from Victoria before the main rush to Gabriel’s Gully. On the first receipt of the news of gold discovery on the West Coast Mr Kelly at once made his way down, and thereafter acted a leading part at nearly all the important rushes which followed.

Colliery Explosions and the Microphone.—Mr Charles E. De Ranee, A.S.C.E., E.G.S., her Majesty’s Geological Surveyor, Chester, writes to the “Times”:—“Professor Hughes has recently informed the Physical Society of the varied applications of practical value to which his remarkable invention, the microphone, has already been put. It has occurred to me its operations may be extended to the possible prevention of colliery explosions. All who have visited a fiery mine have listened to the peculiar hissing sound given out by pores and joints in coal seams from which gas is being evolved, varying in intensity with the quantity delivered. Could not a combination of the microphone and telephone be constructed so that these sounds emitted underground may be reproduced in the colliery office, and a permanent record be kept by means of the phonograph ? This, consulted every morning by the firemen previous to their daily inspection of the mine would indicate not only to a certain extent the quantity of gas given off, but the exact part of the mine from which it has been given off ; for several trans nutters’ might bo placed in each coal seam, and a separate phonograph, connected with each ‘ receiver,’ in the office. Should this be found practicable, the importance of daily telegraphic exchange of results is obvious when it is remembered that the causes leading to extensive outbursts of gas at a particular colliery are experienced over a wide area.”

Hallucinations. —In a recent lecture Dr. H. Maudsley says that one striking feature observed by medical men who have had cases of hallucinations under their charge is that the patients cannot be convinced that the objects they see, the sounds they hear, and the smells they perceive, have no real existence, and that the sensations they receive are the result of their excited nerves. It frequently happens that a person who suffers from hallucination in respect of one sense has the others unaffected, and is on all other matters perfectly sane. Hearing is most frequently affected, and sight next. Several interesting cases were referred to ; one of a gentleman actively engaged in business, who believed his body continually gave an unpleasant odour, and consequently kept away from everybody as much as he could, and when ho was assured that people did not perceive it, always replied that they were too polite. Hallucination may arise either from an idea on which the mind has dwelt, appearing as something exterior, or from excitement of the sensory ganglia. It is said that Newton, Hunter, and others could, at will, picture forms to themselves till they appeared to be realities. A successor of Sir J. Reynolds, Dr. Wigan records, had the power of painting portraits after seeing his sitters but for a short time at one visit only, and was able at will to reproduce them to himself as exterior realities. As years advanced, he found he could not dismiss these forms as he could recall them, and ho began to fancy himself haunted, and was for many years in an asylum.

Unseawoethy Ships ax Tijiaeu.— Writing of the barque Melrose the Timaru “ Herald ” of Thursday says : —The evidence given before the Court of Enquiry showed, in our opinion, most conclusively that she was utterly rotten; her timbers being that unsound that it is a wonder she ever held together at her anchors. If we are to believe Captain Kennedy’s statement, and we have no reason to do otherwise, the vessel was inspected about five months since in dry dock at Sydney by a professional Marine Surveyor on behalf of the Underwriters ; and that he was satisfied with his examination is conclusively proved by the fact of the policy on her being allowed to continue. Either, then, the Surveyor did not make a proper inspection of the Melrose, or else he intentionally shut his eyes to the fact of her unseaworthiness. Very grave, and we must say well founded, suspicions have been created here in the past by the discovery of the utter unsoundness of many of the vessels which have come ashore, and which has led to the belief that they were sent here to be wrecked. We do not, of course, mean to charge the owners of the Melrose with wilfully intending to cast her away; but wo do say that they must have been perfectly well aware of the state of her hull, and consequently have known she was totally unfit to be sent here. No wonder the port of Timaru gets a bad name when such match boxes as the Melrose are sent here, and it is high time steps were taken to prevent their coming. We thought that under Plimsoll’s Act, it had become almost an impossibility for such tubs to be allowed to go to sea, but such does not seem to be the case, at least so far as Sydney is concerned ; for even certain underwriters there seem to offer a premium on shipwrecks. We trust that the various local agents of insurance companies hero will represent to their respective head offices, in the strongest possible manner, the reprehensible conduct of a Sydney officer in taking a policy on such a vessel as the Melrose, for every insurance company is indirectly interested in the matter. It is due to the people of Timaru that wo should use every endeavor to prevent this place being made a marine cemetery of.

Communication with Etthope thhough Asia. —The strides, says the “ Sydney Echo,” that are being made in every direction are simply wonderful, and not jthe least striking is the way in which the time of journey between England and Australia is being lessened. Clipper-built ships at one time were thought to be wonderfully fast when they accomplished the trip in a little over two months ; now the ocean steamers run the journey from Adelaide to Plymouth in thirty-nine days. This was the feat which the Chimborazo achieved ; but there is, if the indications of the times are to bo relied on, a higher pinnacle far in the march of successful accomplishment than any yet generally believed practicable. Less than eighteen days between the Old World and her Australian possessions is now on the tapis, and many of advanced thought hero think it possible even within the next ten years. Those ladies who are humorously described by Tom Hood in effect as beholding a coffin in every tackle and block and spar connected with a ship will rejoice that the dangers of sea during a trip home are to bo lessened. The idea is this—Four days to the Gulf of Carpentaria, seven days to the Indian continent, and then from seven to nine days from the Indian continent right into Charing Cross, and that too without leaving the railway carriage. It is no Utopian scheme. The valley of the Euphrates is the great land road to the East, and England must secure its openness at all hazards. It is doubtless for the protection of her land and water routes to her great Eastern possessions that the islands of Cyprus and Socotra have been annexed. When some lime in the future the idea shall have changed into an accomplished fact, the natural exclamation will bo, what a shrewd old fellow that. Beaconsfield is ! Not only did he buy the Suez Canal, and fortify it, and place Egypt in English hands, but ho also opened a land highway to the East. It will come yet to be ru iron-gulled earth,

An Example for New Zealand. —The British Columbians seem considerably more energetic in the development of their coal deposits than thnir fellow colonists in Now Zealand. A San Francisco paper says : —Victoria appears to be crowding our own coal miners and shippers to tins port to a great extent. Some of the coal mines on this side of the line have closed working because the proprietors and shippers say they cannot afford to carry on the business, it having been done at a loss for some time. But the Victorian shipments have increased immensely. From that port, during the six months last past, the shipments to San Francisco have been sixtyseven thousand six hundred and nineteen tons as against thirty-four thousand one hundred and eighty-five tons shipped during the first six months of 1877. The Vancouver Company has sold forty-eight thousand tons, and the Wellington Company over forty-four thousand. It appears that the shipment of coal has just about doubled within the year past. As our wood supplies grow less and less, dearer and dearer, because the regions of supply are gradually receding from us, this trade in coal from the north must necessarily increase. Are our northern neighbors to run our people and coal out of the market ?

Bazaar. —As will be seen by advertisement, a committee of ladies are soliciting donations from town and country friends in aid of the Colombo Eoad Wesleyan Church Bazaar, to be held on the 9th of November. St. Luke’s Debt Fund. —The concert in aid of the above fund, advertised to take place on the 19th instant, is unavoidably postponed sine die. Notice will be given in a future advertisement of the date when fixed on. St. Mary’s, Merivale. —An entertainment in connection with the parish of St. Mary’s, Merivale, will take place in the schoolroom this evening, when a good programme of vocal and instrumental music, &c., will be given. School of Cookery.— Miss Fidler intends to give the ladies of Lyttelton the benefit of her experience in the art of cookery by a course of lessons, the first lesson to be given "on the 16th inst.