Untitled

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1620, 16 October 1874, Page 394

Our attention (says the Otago Guardian) was drawn to a large number of defaced coins at the Custom-house yesterday. Not only were they defaced, but in many instances holes were drilled, and the apertures filled up with various substances, lead from the inside of tea-chests being the principal ingredient used, but putty, white lead, and other materials were also to be seen, Half-crowns and half-sovereigns appear to be the favorite coins for the swindle to be perpetrated on, and John Chinamen are supposed to be the perpetrators. The holes are filled up very : neatly, and can only be observed by close inspection. We would caution those in business to examine their change more closely for the future. The Auckland Evening Star says : Funereal folly and extravagance cannot be charged against a miserly settler at Hamilton whose wife recently required the performances of the last offices due to humanity, This individual, although well-to-do, declined to advance the necessary money to bring his son up to see his mother in compliance with her dying request. But the climax of repulsive meanness was reached when death had intervened aud the partner of his joys and sorrows had gone to her long home. Dispensing with the proffered services of the undertaker, the old man searched the shops in the settlement for a box capable of holding his wife's remains. One which seemed to him tp be nearly suitable he found on measurement to be a foot or more short in length. After seriously meditating whether to double the body up or not the " bereaved husband" was ultimately prevailed upon to get at least a plain wooden box made of the required length.' This done, it was suggested that a plate with inscription was a necessary a.ljUnct, but liberality had already been strained to extremity, and against further expense he steadfastly set his face. However, he was quite willing to compromise so far as to nail a piece of black cloth on the box and get inscribed upon it in chalk the name of the departed. And it was thus that the deceased was carted to her last home, and one mourner the more claimed the sympathy of a feeling world. The New Zealand Herald says:—The Provincial Gazette on the Ist instant announces that the public offices of the Provincial Government will be closed on Wednesday next, in conseqence of the day being the one hundred and fifth anniversary of Captain Cook's landing in New Zealand. Such a discovery, for which we are no doubt indebted to some Provincial Government employee, can only be paralleled by that of a junior bank clerk who, some few years back,.invented the anniversary of St. George and the Dragon, by which from that time to the present, and probably for evermore, until banking establishments are superseded by something more modern, and where overdrawn accounts will not be objected to, hundreds of clerks will obtain a holiday to commemorate the event when the invincible George subdued the dragon, as faithfully portrayed on many of her Majesty's medallions to the universe as a sovereign. \se could suggest several other events which might be held equally sacred to a holiday. What shall we say to celebrating the anniversary of the Compact of 1856, or the new metalling of Queen-street, or the layiug of the first stono or the last plank of the silt basins at the wharf, or the running of the first omnibus to or the arrival off a Governor'or his departure? appears to answer for a base upon which to build up a holiday. The date of Captain Cook's first landing iu New Zealand Is disputed by various authorities, there being no authentic data for the statement. However, it is of course not right that such a trifling difference of opinion as to facts should deprive the provincial employees Of a holiday, at whatever incoti' veriience'itraay prove to fhfe public, '

During the performance of " Der Freischutz," by the English Oj)era Company in Wellington on the 7th instant, in llio incantation scena, "the artificial fire," says the Tribune, ''went very near to producing the real element, one of the side .scenes having actually ignited and begun to burn. With admirable presence of mind, those engaged in the pyrotechnic display gave no sign. The curtain fell in the usual way, and the fire was at once guished. Anything in the shape of alarm, however groundless, might have led to a rush and a crush, which, among the large number of people in the building, would have been unpleasant, if not daugerous." The New Zealand Herald says:—" In a leading article the Hawke's Bay Herald innocently tells its readers that it believes that immigration will be fostered by the introduction of trout into our rivers. The author of this brilliant thought says : 'There can be no doubt many men are greatly governed by their stomachs, and the prospect of having as much variety of food here as in England would undoubtedly be an attraction to a large number of desirable settlers.' The man who could conceive and bring forth such an idea would obtain the first prize for the worst conundrum at any contest, without a very vigorous exercise of imagination." The Dunedin Star t-lls the following stoiy. apropos of Sir Donald M'Lean's knighthood:—"A curious circumstance occurred shortly after telegraphic information reached the colony of the hon. gentleman's elevation. In the House of Representatives and out of it he was at once styled Sir Donald; but the Speaker (acting, it is said, under instructions from Government House) declined to recognize him as such, contending that official cognizance of the title could not be taken until the patent was received in the Colony, or official notification made of the fact. Accordingly Sir Francis gave instructions that in Hansard and other Parliamentary papers. the name of the Defence Minister should continue to appear "Mr M'Lean," to which Mr Vogel objected, and as often as the Speaker struck out references to the hon. gentleman's title, reinstated them. The Premier ultimately carried his point." The Pall Mall Gazette observes :—" We' learn that the interesting person known as ' Sullivan, the New Zealand murderer,' has sailed for England, whose hospitable shores will no doubt welcome him, and whose admirable detective police will receive him, it is to be hoped, with a cordiality tempered by intelligent reserve. But as the ' groat Australian bushranger,' by name Gardiner, has just now been let loose, and has also declared his intention (enlightened, no doubt, by a diligent perusal of our newspapers) also to honor us with his presence, it may interest our readers, or at least those who have to traverse lonely streets in the dark nights of the ensuing winter, to learn the nature of the representation on which he is not only released but allowed to leave for England. The papers have been just laid before the Sydney Parliament, and the contents may be Bummed up thus: The prisoner, Francis Clarke, alias Christie, alias Gardiner, has been three times convicted—viz., March 17,1854, July 4,1864, July 8,1864—0 f horse stealing, robbery, and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm ; sentenced (in all) to thirtytwo years' roads, the two first to be spent in irons. In a minute, dated November 30,1872, the late Chief Justice, Sir Alfred Stephen, stated in terms quite unmistakable, ' That Gardiner had most unrighteously escaped hanging, particularly because three of his subordinates were executed for crimes perpetrated under his tuition.' In this our readers will possibly agree. But Sir Hercules Robjnsou has on different evidence taken another view, and declares, ' I have already decided to grant a conditional pardon at the termination of ten years' imprisonment,—H,R„ 7-12-72.' The nature of the evidence is not calculated to reassure timid people. The two sisters of Gardiner declare that ' their brother is & reformed character.' One physician has been found who says that he has ' lost that peculiar ferocity which formerly characterized him.' Arid of two clergymen, one believes that ' Gardiner deeply regrets his former life,' and another adds that ! Gardiner's sisters train up their children in the fear pf God.'" The Cincinnati Commercial says:— "There is now in this city a unique work of art —the Dreaming lolanthe—' a study in butter,' by Mrs Caroline S. Brooks, a daughter of the late Abel Shawk, of Cincinnati. A few months ago, while living on a farm near. Helena, Arkansas, Mrs Brooks began to sculpture faces in. the butter she made with her own hands, doing it to ornament the pats she prepared for market. The only implements at her hand were a common butter paddle, cedar sticks, broom straws, and a camel's hair pencil. The faces that sprang into relief under the toueh of these rude tools possessed a singular charm for the farmer's wife, and she labored over them with patient delight. Mrs Brooks has no technical knowledge of sculpture or drawing, and her work was the product of her intuitions. In a brief space of time her faces in butter became the marvel of her neighborhood. Then one of them, christened Mary Queen of Scots by the reporters, was exhibited in Memphis, and the best judges of art there were greatly surprised by its excellence aud originality. Mrs Brooks continued to remodel her ideal, and was not satisfied until she found a subject in ' the Dreaming lolanthe.' She discovered this character in a translation of " King Rene's Daughter," a poetical drama by the Danish poet Henry Hertz. lolanthe is a blind princess, from whom acknowledge of her sad misfortune is, withheld until she reaches her 16th year. Mrs Brooks presents a bust of the innocent and beautiful girl as she lies sleeping and almost glorified in happy dreams. The bust, which is somewhat less than life-size, is in high relief in the concavity of a large tin pan. The butter is almost white. Its translucence gives to the complexion a richness beyond alabaster, and a softness and smoothness which are very striking. The hair ripples back in waves, and the lips are parted with a heavenly smile. The harmony of the face is exquisite. The ear is quite a marvel of delicate manipulation. In the absence of all technical knowledge of art Mrs Brooks has succeeded in creating a face Jhafrnay make her famous. Artists say that, ih spite of the mobility of the model, a cast can be taken of it. Like Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote many a chapter of Uncle Tom's Cabin while glancing occasionally at the bubblings of the coming dinner on the cooking stove, Mrs Brooks has fixed in lasting form the kitchen table the poetic creatures of imagination. It is safe to assert that no other American sculptress'has made a face of such angelic gentleness as that of lolanthe. Mrs Brooks,is a native of Cincinnati, and has many f rieuds here that are fi:ratifi«<i h» Jjjj sudden revelation of artistic power." Problem.—There was a room with eight corners. Ifa each corner sat a' cat, before each Cat sat seven other cats, and on each cat's tail sat aTcat. How many cats ih all I