NEWS OF THE DAY.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2615, 24 August 1882, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The Mail—The European and American malic, via San Francisco, arrived this morning at four o'clock in the steamer Wanaka Shipping.—Nine sailing vessels and two steamers arrived this morning from foreign and coast ports.

(JomjiiTTM) FOB Texal.—Matilda Hansen, a married woman, was commi tid for trial at

the Supreme Court on a charge of robbery from the person. Steambb Abhoeb. —By telegrams else* where it is announced that the Union Company's B.s. Beautiful Star went ashore this

mornirg when coming out of Westport with a cargo of coals, but no particulars are given. It is however hoped she may ba got off at drat high tide. VoiTCTEßEnra.—The Major commanding the district will inspect the B Battery and City Guards on Friday evening next. Danish Sebtigb. —An address will bs delivered in the Waltham Public Library on Snnlay evening next in the Scandinavian language, when all Danes and others are invited.

Sydenham Pooltby Sooibty.—A committee meeting of the above society is announced for Friday evening next, when all members are requested to attend. It is also notified that the prize money of the late show will be paid on the 28th instant, at the Sydenham Oddfellows’ Hall, between 7.30 and 9 p.m. School Pbbsbntation. —On Friday last Mr Samuel Bailey, chairman of the Templeton District School Committee, presented Miss Blake, late pupil teacher in the school, with a handsome gold watch, bearing a suitable inscription, as a mark or esteem from the parents of the children attending the school. Miss Blake is leaving Templeton to take the position of 'mistress, and Mr Bailey, whilst expressing the regret they all felt at lasing her servicer, took occasion to congratulate Miss Blake on the promotion she had attained. The children attending the school, through Mr L, G. Wright, the master, also presented Miss Blake with an album and writing desk. Maobi Sevengb.—An important meeting of MfOrig is taking place at Kokoranci, the object of which is to discuss the desirableness of turning out all half-castes in the Sing Country, in consequence of the action taken by Barlow in the capture of Winiata. Tawhiaa and a number of influential chiefs

are present. KaIAPOI HoRTICnXTtTEAL SOCIETY. A general meeting of members was held at the Farmers’ Club Chamber on Wednesday evening, twelve being present, Mr J. O. Porter, president, in the chair. The rules were discussed, and, after amendment, passed. It was decided that wiv.-s ef members may become members by paying a yearly subscription of ss. A proposal to allow members* children to bo admitted as subscribers, at 2t 6 1 •-> year, was not seconded. It was resolved that monthly meetings be held for the discussion of subjects connected with theobjects of the society on the second Wednesday of each month, at 730 p.m., at the Farmers' Club Chamber, in the succeeding, months to April, 1883. Tho committee of management elected included Messrs O. Whitefoord, B. M. Wright, E. Pamham, B. O.mp, J. Q. Kidd, W. D. Humphries, F. Babins, C. E. Dudley, O. H. Wearing, J. Raise, O. J. Champion, E. Bevell, and J. Wilson. It was resolved that the committee inset on Thursday next to revise tho prize schedule, and, after passing some routine business, the meeting adjourned. Intbbpsovinoial Football Match. The Canterbury Football team playing in. the matoh Otago jv Canterbury, left by the express to-day for the South. The matoh will be played at Motgicl on Saturday next. Thb Nobthekn Railway, — A meeting ofthose interested in the convening of the maeciug to consider tho extension of the Northern Kailway as now before Parliament, was held at the City Council Chambers yesterday, when the resolutions to be proposed were discussed and drafted, together with, the names of the gentlemen to propose and. ircc-nd tlum. Weathbb Exchange.— Now Zealand—, Yesterday ; Barometer, falling ; N.W, winds in the South) showery from Taranaki to Wellington ; elsewhere fine ; heavy swell on the East Coast. Australia—A high pressure, with light westerly winds and rain, continues over Eastern Australia j 1.17 inch of rain fell at Sydney in tho last twenty-four hours. Barometer, falling j N.W. winds and approaching depression over Western Am* trali®,

A Good Litteb —The Young Bidley-Bubina-stook hare done remarkably well Bines their advent on the coursing field. One or these,Sir Boger.has previously made his mark, winning two stakes and a course. Of the others, viz, Bessie Bell, Mary Grey, and Kettle, it may be noticed that Bessie Bell divided the Trial’jtakesl it the first t b meld meeting in April, and won the All-Aged Btaks at the club's second meeting in_ May, and also scored two courses for the Exhibition Stakes in June last; Mary Grey w ° n President’s Cup at itha Sheffield Club s fixture in July last, and Nettle was yesterday bailed winner of the Maiden Stakes at the final meeting of the Shtffiald Club for the present season. It need hardly be mentioned that the first prize was awarded to Yonng Bidley at the Exhibition Dog Show recently held in Christchurch.

Ouhioub OIBOUMSTANCH. — In some giblets which were bought on Monday at Mr Havker’a shop were found, by the purchaser, several small pieces of gold, some of them larger than a pin’s head. The fowls, the original possessors of these giblets, must evidently have picked these pieces up in the course of their ramblings. Moreover, as the fowls presumedly came from within a radius of, say, fifty miles of Christchurch, there is food for reflection as well as digestion in these same giblets. Valuable Works op Art. —The Hamilton Palace collection of works of art—pictures, Japanese and Chinese porcelain, inlaid furniture, &o.—was recently sold by auction in London. The three days’ sale, which sufficed to dispose of only the fourth part of the collection, realised £91,000. The first day the sale of pictures brought in £43,000. Bubers’ “ Daniel in the Lions’ Den ” was sold for 4900 guineas; a design for a salver sold for 1600 guinea#; and “ The Loves of the Centaurs,” by Babens also, brought 2000 guineas. In 1802 this last-named picture sold for only 260 guineas. Of the porcelain, one pair of vases sold for 1180 guineas ; a ■mall pedestal cabinet for 2200 guineas, and Bn antique bust in porphyry of the Emperor Augustus for 1650 guineas. On the third day a small table by Eiesner was the best thing offered. It was but a tiny piece of furniture, yet its inlaid woodwork was quite unsurpassed, no also were the exquisite metal mounts, which were probably the work of Gontfaiere. This little gem was sold for £6OOO, and its companions—an upright secretaire and a commode—went respectively for 4400 and 4100 guineas. All three had belonged to Marie Antoinette, and they are probably the finest existing pieces of combined wood and metal work.

Merivaib Entbbtainment. —The above entertainment was given last evening, and was in every way a success. The songs and glees were well received, and the farce “ Rendezvous,” which abounds in laughable incidents, was loudly applauded by a very large audience. The National Anthem end thanks to all who had taken part in the evening's amusement, brought one of the most successful of the Merivale gatherings to a close.

Qbnbbating Electkioitv. says :—“ Some practical steps appear to have been taken to apply the water-power of the Niagara Falls to what has been some time talked about, that is to say, generating electricity. Articles of agreement have been signed to this effect between the Prospect Park Association, of Niagara Falls, and Mr .I, Henkle, of New York. Mr Henkle, who is said to be a practical engineer who has made several profitable inventions in different branches of industry, has apparently solved the problem of making the power of the Niagara Hirer, at Niagara Falla, available in generating electricity for illuminating purposes. He claims to have invented a method of his own both for applying the power and for generating the electricity. He also claims to have perfected a plan by which electricity will be taken on insulated underground cables as far east as Boston, and as far west as Chicago, in sufficient quantity to light the streets of those cities as well as private residences. After long negotiation he has secured the offer of a contract which would bind the Prospect Park Association to transfer in fee simple by deed the property comprised in the twelve acres of the park and the three aores outside of it for the consideration of 1.000,000d01. The consideration does not appear excessive, although £14,000 an acre is a good stiff sum to pay in America. Heckle's plan is to erect enormous hydraulic machinery on the American aide of the river just below the falls, which will boused to do the work of generating the electricity.” Ebboteio Lighting. —A gentleman of well-known scientific attainments, who is at present travelling in Europe, writing to a friend in Sydney in reference to electric lighting, says :—“ A few nights ogo we were at a pleasant conversazione of the Colonial Institute in the South Kensington Museum, where we met with a great many colonists. We had a goad opportunity there of comparing lighting with gas and with electricity, and we decidedly preferred the gas. Electricity may do for outside illumination, but the mode of burning gas has been so much improved that I do not think it has much to fear from electricity. Whitehall and some other streets are lighted with gas in such a manner as to leave nothing to desire. At Paris, also, 1 bad opportunities of comparing street lighting with electricity and with gas, and I preferred the latter. I was fortunate in seeing the last of the electrical exhibition in the Crystal Palace, and I picked up then a deal of information about the various sorts of apparatus.” Drunkards’ Association. —The following paragraph has been going the round of the Home papers:—“The latest novelty in cinferences is a National Drunkards’ Conference, which bat teen held at Arnolds, in Indiana. It was attended by about 20,000 drunkards from all parts of tha United States.” It was not in the nature of things (s&ya the “ Pall Mall Budget”) that with so admirable a text we should escape a sermon; and thus a contemporary, in a fit of propriety, wrung its bands aghast at the hideous vision of the meeting of these “20,000 drunkards,” and found its mind, even “ at the outset, recoiling in bewilderment from the task of ideally realising the alcoholized spectacle.” It was indeed easy enough to form a “ feasible conception” of such trifling matters as The Thormopylitan Three Hundred, or of the Illiberal Four Hundred of Carpet-weavingtonoum-Strikely or Smokely-on-Sewer, of the Six Hundred who rode into the Valley of Death at Balaklava, or cf Garibaldi’s Miglia di Marsala ; the retreat of the Ten Thousand yet remains in the pages of Xenophon a concrete picture. Bat the notion of twenty thousand “Bourbon Whiakeyites or Monongahelians almost defies embodiment.” However, after lengthy consideration, the conclusion was arrived at that after all the whole affair was the last desperate outcome of the American Total Abstinence party, who seem to be at their wits’ end to devise means of grappling with an evil which £ fillets not only the surface but rages in “the deepest vitals ” of AngloSaxon life on both sides of the Atlantic In all this there is the same touch of “ saturnine eccentricity and grim humour” which our contemporary finds in “ most of the manifestations of the American public ; " for “ Drunkards ” turns out to be a wicked mis print for “ Tunkers ”or “Dunkers”—an innocent sect of American Baptists, somewhat resembling our Peculiar People, who taka their name from the German word tunken, to dip ; and hence “ Tunkers,” or, as sometimes erroneously spolfc, “ Dunkers,” simply meaning “ Dippers,” or those who baptize by immersion.

gjcoßELßVp's Death. — General Skobelefl died suddenly of rupture of the heart at the Hotel Dussax, Moscow, on July 7ch. the ‘well known editor and PunSlavic leader, was present with the General at the time of his death. There were, says the correspondent of the Dunedin “Star,” at first reports or foul play, but an examination showed that death resulted from the cause stated. The trouble, it is thought, came in the first place from a contusion received daring the attack on Plevna. His end was without warning, as a week before he rode seventy versts in a little over one night. The funeral obsequies were performed by Archdeacon Yite at Lananiso, assisted by numerous priests, in the presence of thousands of the people. The Emperor sent a telegram of condolence to the General’s sister. A Moscow despatch to the “ New York Herald ” says th» belief that Skobeleff was poisoned by the Germans has taken a firm hold of the popula mind in Russia, and it will be difficult to eradicate it. The medical examination of the body showed convincingly that Skobeleff’® death was due to apoplexy. Nothing suspicion was discovered upon the woman in whose company the General appeared to be at the time of his death. This woman was temporarily detained by the police, but was joon released.

I Meeting. —A meeting will be held this evening in the Phillipstown schoolroom wit reference to the formation of the district into town district. \ I O.O.F.—The District Grand Lodge officers visited Tai Tapn on Tuesday evening, for the purpose of installing the various officers, Bro. Schwartz, D.P.G.M., officiating. The following brethren were invested : N.G., Bro, Lambriok; Y.G., Bro- A. Blank ; treasurer, Bro. B, Forbes ; secretary, Bro. G. Murray. Two candidates were then initiated. The lodge was then closed io duo form. The brethren then adjourned to a banquet. las Oathhdbal Site. —A conference 00tween the works committee and the deputation appointed by the Cathedral Chapter to arrange abont the transfer of the sites on the southern and northern sides of the Cathedral now occupied as tank reserves, took place yesterday, but the proceedings were of a private nature.