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Kumara Times, Issue 417, 26 January 1878, Page 2

A special meeting of the Borough Council is to be held on February 7 to consider the bye-laws. It must not be forgotten' that Mr and Mrs Morton Tavares appear for the last time in Kumara to-night, at tike Theatre Royal, when a capital programme, embracing the Closet Scene in "Hamlet," " The Bashful Cousin," " The Husband in Clover," and "The Conjugal Lesson," will be presented. These very clever artistes have not been supported as they should have been during their short stay in Kumara ; but it is to be hoped that tonight the public will show that they are not-wholly insensible to the charms of good, clever, and refined acting. In'consequence of a change in the timetable of the mail service, the mails for Hokitika will after to-day close at 12.30 p.m., the coach leaving at 1 p.m. instead of at 1.30 p.m. as hitherto. The last gold escort brought to Dunedin ove.r ounces of gold. The Grey River Argus says of the Burns banquet that took place in Greymouth last night. " The celebration of the anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, thanks to the patriotic efforts of a right leal son of Caledonia, Mr James Payne, was worthy of the ocoasion;" but—doubtless in the exercise of a wise discretion—the editor states that thefu' report of the proceedings is " held over." In a recent charge to the Grand Jury, Judge Gillies indicated an opinion on the subject of attempts at suicide, which, although entirely in accord with common sense, is somewhat heterodox from a legal point of view. He said, "There is one case of a man being charged with an attempt to commit suicide by hanging himself while in a state of drunkenness. It can scarcely fail to strike you as being somewhat ludicrous that we shouldpropose to try a man on account of failing to commit an offence for which if he had succeeded in committing it we would have been unable to punish him." The gold exported from Cooktown during 1877, as per Customs returns, is 155, OOOozs, showing a decrease of 14,000 as compared with the previous year. The yield of gold at Gympie for the current year amounts to 45,1190z5, showing an increase of 5000ozs. Mysterious lights have recently been seen on the coast of Wales ; they seemed to rise from the sea and flash about in an erratic manner, and no one can understand them. As far back as the fifteenth century they were observed, and in the seventeenth they became so bold as to land far a while and burned a field of hay. The tints of the flames are various. Mayfair says of, France :—" We shrink from the imputation of assuming the role of alarmists, but we have unquestionable authority for the assertion that the blow will fall much sooner than is expected. How far the result of the elections may affect the scheme we cannot say ; but we have, very good reason to believe that before five months are passed the crisis will have arrived, and will have been precipitated by Germany." The Times bears testimony to the energy with which the Catholic Clergy hi France devote themselves to their work, as an active, aggressive, and disciplined army, far more than before when Gallicanism was among them. Mr Archibald Forbes, the war correspondent of the "Daily News," has received the Order of St. George—the highest military distinction—from the Czar. The "Augsburger Zeitung," writing dn "the subject of Mr Forbes's decoration, says it was bestowed upon him, "not for flattering the Russian cause or for the use of a complaisant and convenient reticence, but for his great courage, his prodigious sang froid, and his unshakeable love of truth." . One of the most cruel blows ever struck at the sanitary reputation of a town has just been dealt to Berlin by Dr. Schweinfurt, the well-known African traveller. The doctor is about to return- to Africa, and the reason he assigns 'for this intention is that he "is not able to support the Berlin climate."