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Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 8, 27 April 1877, Page 2

The mail for Europe, t^» Sue^, closes on Monday raoraing at 1- a.m. We learn that the case of Williams T* Shaw ' having been, before tjbe Supreme, Court, Hjok^i* tjika, has been transmitted for hearing before the Grand Jury at Wellington. There -will be a meeting of the Inapagahua Local Revenues Board to-day at 3, p.m., when it is to be hoped specifications for the main* tenanoe contracts will be sumbmitted in order that, tenders may bo at once called, for, the repair of the County roada for the current year. 1 A, challenge ha; been forwarded; to the Greymouth cricketers to play a return match ■ within a fortnight of the present time, but no replj has, we believe, yet been received. Should the challenge be accented, the match will, we are informed, be played in Smiths' paddock on Saturday, sth proximo, and the local nteye^s will, be selected from the, combined Beefton and Crushington elevens. The amateur entertainment which has been arranged for to-morrow evening, for the benefit of Mr George (Toques, promises to fuljy realise the expectations of its promoters. I!he programme, which we publish elsewhere, is a Vfiry lengthy one, and in tariety will bear favorable comparison w,ith any yet presented :to the public of Beefton, and as the different , paits haye been diligently rehearsed they will no doubt be creditably rendered. We are glad, to be able to state that the,, various Friendly Societies in our midst have cordially agreed to aid the cause by appearing on the occasipn in their unjfced, strength, and we can only hope in conclusion that the, general public will, respond to the call with the same cordiality. The entertainment being, conducted gratuitously, the proceeds will be subject to no deduction, and, it may therefore be reasonably expected that the. performance wUi result in something ijibstautial* Men are driven by necessity todflslpange sometimes. Yesterday a man who, had, been knocking, about the town for a day or two previous in a half idiotic state from the eff/ects^f, liquor was seen stooping down poo}- ; ing hijs, V.hiealpd coppers " by a drink of the : sewage w^hich, glides down the slimy channel ,on l&e qoujbh side of Broadway, The man, having "refreshed" himself, got upon his ' feet and just wiped down his, chin with the sleeve of his coat and walked, away. He had evidently not pasted or.ljearnjt the fact that the liquid, he, had been imbibing was the foul distillment of all the filth of Beefton.' Possibly in it he may have recognised something akin to much of the liquor he had consumed previously, and it may bo that with all its

'? palatial " drawbacks it is not one whit more poisonous than some of the drink sold under a different name. At any rate he seemed quite satjsfied. Here is a bit qf f fat" for the advocates of Temperance. The next sitting of the lopal Courts js fixed for Monday next, but the business set down for hearing is not' likely tp b,e pf particular importance. One case hag been fixed fpr hearing which may evolve, an important point of law in relation to the service of judgment summonses. The particulars of the case are somewhat as follows. Some months ago a judgment summpns was issued against a man working in one qf the mines. The mine is so situated that the approach Qf the bailiff can be seen by those interested in time to defeat any process of the Court. The bailiff was in consequence unable to effect service of the summpns. Finally the bailiff applied to the Court fpr substitution of service, as in the case of an ordinary summons, and an order was accordingly made for a copy of the sum* mons to be served upon the debtor's ordinary place of abode, and upon the mining manager of the mine at which he was employed. Tho point now to be decided is as to whether the Bench has power to dispense with per* sqnal service in these cases. We believe the point is a novel one, and a decision upon it will therefore be looked forward to with interest. The rapidity with which the standing timber is disappearing around what may be termed the suburbs of Beefton may be taken as a sure sign of the expansion of the town. Along the Buller-road the forest is being fast cleared away, and in the place of the trees and scrub which a few months ago greeted the observer on all sides there are now to be met with residences in yarious stages of erection. The land is ako being cleared, and there is hardly a house in the locality which' has not got its snugly fenced kitchen and flower garden. At the present rate of progress there is no doubt that in the course, of a very few years the whole of the f^afc land stretching from the Court. House in the direction^ the cemetery will be settled, upon, fortunately the whole of the. land referred to has esoaped the greed of early monopolists, but it is not so in relation to the frontages on the western side of the Buller-road, for there large areas are locked up as agricultural leases held by absentees, who have never expended a sixpence in improvements upon the land beyond the bare necessity of fencing. There must be something radically wrong in the leasing law as administered in this Province that will allow men, to hold vast areas year after year at a, merely nominal rental without expending a fraction upon improvements. It would be a gppd thing for this community if a public subscription were started to test the validity of some of these holdings. Not a few of our young lady reader,? may feel a personal interest iv the following para* graph taken from a London paper : — " En» gagement rings are now made Ike brooches, to close round the finger with a clasp. They are no, longer plain, but embody various neat and chaste designs. About the most chaste aud appropriate iB oue that simulates a rat* trap." It is stated by the Licensed Victuallers Gazette that it is now well understood in Dunedin that the go-called bet between the Davenport Bros and "Captain" Barry was purely and simply a plant on the part of thoße eminent tricksters to draw the local bawbees into their coffers. Of course the " captain" made a good thing of it, and so did his confreres in the rope-tying Bwindle. The Dunedmitea, however, saw through it all when it was too late, and they now duly rejoice—on the wrong side of the face. We (Melbourne Argus) are indebted to Messrs Poole, Picket; , and Co. for information from the Lacepedo Islands, which they have received by telegram from Ereen antlp, via Adelaide, to the effect that a hurricane of great violence had occurred, there, causing (jhe total lpss r of six vessels, viz., the Cingalee j Albert Victor, Helen Malcolm, Aboyne, Mary Smith, and Isabella. There are no particulars to hand, but the telegram makes no reference to any loss pf life. We believe the cargoes of these vessels are all insure^ in our, local offices. The Rangiora Standard says :— lt is a remarable coincidence, which shows bow well nature does balance things in this sublunary pla.net, that while the editor of the Licensed Victuallers' Gazette is, and has for years past, been a strict teetotaller, the editor of the Good Templars' organ, the Temperance Times, has alw,ays taken, and still continues to take his liquor, freely. Hence, probably, the moderate and courteous tone in which each brother of " the quill attacks the other. Things woujd be different if they changed places. The following paragraph, among a number of others, which appeared in the Nelson papers on the same subject, is, published, by the Times :— "We have received a long letter from Charles M»t<ihewß, a Karamea settler. . Its contents w,e, believe to be true, but unforw tunately— for their publication— they are also libellous, and w,e do not; care to be responsible for the charges made against the persons therein named— at present. The. letter, will, however, be shown to the, Government Agent, Mjr Curtis, and if no, steps, are, taken to institute the inquiry our correspondept demands, we shall then feel justified ip giving publicity to its complaints, regardless of consequences^ Of ope thipg Mr Matthews may rest assured, this ' Karamea. swindle '■ (we can use no milder, term) shall be exposed if it is in ( our, power. to, accomplish its exposure." At Cromwell, says an, exchange, a depujta* tipn waited u PP n %>• on - ■&* :Rfiid » w > hen there were represented, to hjm the, reasons, w.hioh. induced a desire for, the fprmatipn of a new county separate from Vincent County. M>? Eeid, in reply, said he migh^ at once say he was opposed to the sub-divisipn of counties on principle, as he thought it w v qujd be a mistake. There, might be special instances in which an exception could hold, but generally , he thought small counties would be a gre,atj i mistake. It would bo better, in his opinion,

to amalgamate and make them larger. In fhe particular case of Vincent County there mighf be strong local reasons {qf making an exception. He believed jn some case? that it would be better to haye f mall counties with communities <jf interests rather than large ones without. He d}d not t^ink it would b« wise, however, to encourage the idea thaji.separate counties could be easily obtained, as it would give no pnd qf frpnble. The petition from that or any ofher community woujd be con* sidered fairly and without bias. A writer in the Wellington Argus, com« menting upon the absurd mania for giving " testimonials," says he knows of a person in the capital connected with the Government service, who went to a friend of his to borrow £50 in order that he might make a present of a diamond bracelet to Mdlle, De Murska when she was there. This young gentleman, who was getting £175 a year, oTejed his wages as security, while at the same time he Was unable to pay more than 5s a week on account of a tailor's bill, for which judgment had been given in the B.M. Court. He didn't get the money, and she didn't get the bracelet. „,,.. , The game of chess played with living chessmen, which was a favorite amusement in the Middle Ages, has according to the Pioneer, been revived by Lord Lytton, who, when recently at Moolfcan, tried the experiment with Colonel Millet. The chess board consisted of a carpet of alternate red and white calico squares, a yard wide, placed on the grqund, and the pieces were men and boys dressed in appropriate red and whit« costumes, who stood on the squares, and moved at the word of command. Lord Lytton, it is said, won an easy victory. He did not, however, follow the example of a certain Em« peror of Morocco, who when playing with living chessmen, used to cut off, the heads oi the captured pieces. A numisaatic discovery almost unparalled in extent hag beetn made near Verona. Two large amphora have been found containing no less than two quintals, or about 600 English pounds weight, of coins of the Emperor and his successor!, within the hundred years fallowing his reign. The number of coin is estimated at between 50,000 and 55,000. Of tjhose of the Emperor Probes there are more than 4000. The majority are of bronze, but there are some of silver and others of bronze severed fsubarata,) They are all in the finest state of preservation, and w.ith the exception of those of Gallienus, which are a little worn, they are. fresh, from the mint as to make, it evident they were never put into cir« culation. Th,e discovery has been considered of sufficient importance for the Minister of Public Instruction to despatch Signor Pigorini specially to Verona to report upon it. All the finest examples are to, be placed in the Museum of Veron*, and the remainder either exchanged in sets with other museums, ' or sold, as may b,e decided, upon. The correspondent of the Sydney Morning Heral I writes :— The musical world of Paris has just experienced a " sensation." At the benefit just given in favor of an excellent actor, Lavyent, W^ho is retiring from the stage, a young violinist, named Dengremont, only nine years of ng<S made bia first appear--ance, and will certainly become one of the musical celebrities of the ago. i^ of French origin, but was born in Brazil, and is said to have phyeJ the violin almost from bis cradle with the same facility as the birds sing, that is to say, without a teacher. Siv.orri took him as a pupil for a shortj time, and he has since been for three months' under the care of the violinist Leonard. When the childish figure was seen to enter upon the stage in his costume of black velvet, wearing the silver cross of a, Brazilian order, and his little violin under his arm, a murmur of surprise ran through the house. But this astonishment soon gave way to amazement .and admiration, for the boy is not only " a wonderful player for his age." but he is, in the fullest acceptation of the term, a great artist, and bids fair to become the leading violinist of day. The Economist states that a movement is afoot for negotiations between the United States and the British Government, for adopting a uniform coinage by the two countries. The Bill, passed on the motion of Senator Sherman, provides '.' that the money of account in each country shall be the dollar which shall be represented by a coin formed of standard gold." " All accounts for trans* actions in coin to be kept in dollars anjd cents or in fractional parts of a cent." The pound sterling is to be taken as equivalent to. fi>e dollars, the shilling for 25 cents, the sixpence to 12$ cents, and the farthing to a half-cent. Coins which are multiple parts of a dollar may be 'made, and will be a legal tender in both countries. The Economist condemns the proposal on the ground that it is retrograding in civilization to go from a large unit of account to a Small one, andadvo* eates an international coinage such as has been already proposed, viz., that called" the farthing plan."- By this arrangement anew pounjd sterling would contain 1000 farthings or £1 Os lOd, and the new florin 2s 2d, the new sovereign being of almost identical value with the American V half eagje," «d having as its exact fifth, part the American dollar, and the English halfepenny would be, equal to t;he present American cent. This System would cause, very little fresh coinage, and Would ensure a, common money of account, and give Great Britain, and her Colonies the vast advantage, of the, introduction of the much,-needed decimal system. The veneration which, Mussulmen entertain for the Koran has been forcibly dwelt upon by Eastern travellers. A, case Jthich, lately came before the Court of Petty Sessions at Glasgow illustrates this. The Glasgow Herald, of leb. 9, sajs sr-On, Wednesday we reported that in the.aofcion at, the instance of some 1 urkish, sailers against the owners, of. the Silistria., at present lying in Leith Docks, the men, were sworn to, tell the truth on the Koran. Suitable preparations were made, in the way of providing water, with which the witnesses might wash their hands before they took the oath, and the reason why water was.

i not used onlj transpired yesterday morning. It seems that Mohammedans will not take the oath with a printed copy of the Koran in their hands, and jt was consequently neos* ssry to have a manuscript oopy. The manuscript copy of the sacred book was borrowed from the TJniyersitf Library in Older to overcome tbe difficulty, and, in reference to it, il may be interesting to state that it former^ belonged to Tippo. Sahib. f«W» whom |t waj taken in the early j*n» of the present cc«« tory.and subsequently presented by the Easl India Company to the University of Bduv burgh. Having thus got rid of the difficult] about using a printed copy of the Koran, t fresh difficulty arose. The Koran had na< only been bandied by "infidel Christians/ but had been placed on a seat lower than i man's breast, and had thus, in the eyes of th< Turks, been defiled ; and, for this reason, the] dispensed with the customary ceremony ot such occasions of wash ing their hands.