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Kumara Times, Issue 436, 18 February 1878, Page 2

Sir George , Grey, Mr Macandrew, and Mr Fisher leave Wellington for the West Coast this evening. It is stated that Mr Gisborne, the member for Totara, will also accompany the party. We publish to-day important telegrams, bringing European news down to the 15th inst, on which date, it will be seen, the relations between Great Britain and Russia were of a most critical character. Since these telegrams came through the overland telegraph line between Adelaide and Port Darwin, is, we regret to learn, down north of Tennant’s Creek, ,1400 miles north of Adelaide, The partial (about four-fifths) eclipse of the moon which took place last night was very clearly visible from this part of the island, and was watched with interest by many hundreds of people in Kumara. The first contact with the penumbra took place at 12 minutes past 8 o’clock, and with the shadow an hour later. The middle of the eclipse, or period most nearly approaching totality, was at 41 minutes past ten o’clock ; the last contact with the shadow at seven minutes after midnight, and with the' penumbra at Ih. 11m, this morning. What made the phenomenon more interesting was that the eclipse was simultaneous with the occupation of a star of about the third magnitude, the star emerging from the left (unobscured) limb of the moon threequarters of an hour before the time of the modn’s maximum eclipse. Ex-constable Wm. Clarke, recently stationed at Ahaura, and sentenced the other day tq six months’ imprisonment for appropriation of Government funds, passed through Kumara this forenoon on his way to the Hokitika gaol. We had occasion to complain the other day of the unnecessary delay at Hokitika of the Kumara portion of the inward California mail. It seems that Kumara is not the only sufferer from changes that have recently taken place in the Hokitika Post-office. The West Coast Times says ; “The new Postmaster at Hokitika appears to have a desire to place himself under the latter (dust-raising) category, by a display of excessive zeal for red tapeism and petty authority. So much so, that we feel compelled to devote more attention to this branch of the public service than wo have hitherto had occasion to do. Several complaints have already reached us on this subject, some of which have been published, and our own experience of late directs the belief that thesehave not been made without foundation.” The annual ball in aid of the Hospital Ward funds is announced to take place on Friday, March Ist, in the Public Hall. This room is in every way suitable for dancing, and the fact that it is not in immediate connection with a public-house will, doubtless, induce many to patronise it who would not have felt inclined to go elsewhere. Every effort is being made by the Committee to secure the comfort and enjoyment of those who will be present, amd when the laudableness of the cause in aid of which the ball takes place is considered, it cannot be doubted that the affair will prove a great success. The Rev. G. W. Russell is announced to deliver a lecture in the Public Hall, next Thursday evening, on “ The Life and Poetry of Sir Walter Scott,” Mr and Mrs Adamson, of the Telegraph and Post-office Hotel, invite their friends and the public generally to a grand opening ball, to take place on Friday evening next. It is announced in the Gazette that the Secretaries of Education Boards are authorized to frank letters and parcels posted on the public service. Landslips have again interrupted communication between Westport and Reefton. Linisetti, the Italian, who left Hokitika overland for Okura on January 7th, and who was supposed to be lost, has arrived at his destination after a month’s journey. l A company is being formed to secure the extension of the railway from Sheffield to Kowai Pass. This will reduce the coaching part of the overland journey ■hence to Christchurch by six miles. Barry Sullivan, a short time since, I while playing Othello, met with a reply as unanswerable as it was unexpected. The : tragedy had proceeded Smoothly to Scene 4, Act 3, when his frequent allusion r tb the handkerchief, M Where is the handkerchief 1” was suddenly answered! from, the gallery, by a strong Hibernian voice, “ Never moind yer handkerchief, sor ; blow yer nose anyhow, and get on widthe P%.”,'

A Western editor, in an unguarded I moment, recently wrote : “ The good lius- ( band keeps his wife in wholesome ignorance of all unnecessary secrets.” The next day. his wife laid the rolling-pin, down on the table under his nose three or four times, and in italicised syllables inquired what he had been up to now. The Americans have improved upon the idea that the fortfeiture of life is a sufficient punishment for the blackest crime. In the. state of Vermont, Asa Magoon, for wife murder, was sentenced to be hanged in November, 1878, eighteen months of the interim to be passed at hard labor, and six months in solitary confinement. It has (says a contemporary) been discovered by Russian and German journalists that France cannot be pooh-poohed in any efforts that may be made to settle the Eastern question. The St. Petersburg Gazette speaks of replacing the “ purely ideal love of Prussia and the doubtful friendship of Austria by a closer union between Russia and France,” and the North German Gazette observes that such an alliance “ would necessarily transform the so-called _ doubtful friendship of Austria and the ideal love of Prussia into sheer hostility. ” A correspondent in the Atlantic Monthly. gives an amusing anecdote of Ralph Waldo Emerson and what befel him at a college commemoration. After his oration was finished, the President, as was the custom, called upon a clergyman to conclude the service with prayer. A reverend, gentleman of Massachusetts stepped into the pulpit which Mi' Emerson had left, and uttered a prayer of which only one sentence remains on record : “ We beseech Thee, 0 Lord, to deliver us from ever hearing any more such trans-. cendental nonsense as we have just listened to from this sacred desk. ” After the benediction, Mr Emerson asked his next neighbour the name of the officiating 'clergyman, and, when falteringly answered, remarked, “He seems a very conscientious, plain-spoken man,” and went j on his peaceful way. i An American paper says ;—“ The Duke (of Norfolk, whose marriage to Lady . Flora Hastings has been the absoi’bing topic of late in English social circles, is ;Aaid to’ possess more acres of ground than ' any other land-owner in England. His numerous estates cover about 45,000 acres, and his entire annual income has been estimated at no less than 1,500,000 dollars. But the Premier Duke of England uses his vast wealth with great judgment and consideration for the wants of others.” . . Oscar 11. of Sweden has asked in marriage for his son the Princess Charlotte, eldest daughter of tlie Prince Imperial of Germany, but as it has already been promised to the Duke of Meiningen, the .alliance with the royal family of Sweden cannot take place.. The Rev. J., Harding, Gilford, writes to the Daily Express ; —“ When performing a marriage ceremony a few days ago, in a neighboring church, the registrybook disclosed the following curious facts. There had been no wedding in the church since the bridegroom himself had been married, so that his name appeal's in two consecutive entries. The bridesmaid, who had signed the register as witness of the former marriage, was now transformed to the bride, and the same person was ‘best man’ and witness at both ceremonies. Can any of your readers, or the editor of Notes and Queries, give a similar instance 1” Mr John Robinson, described as a betting man, was recently elected a member of the Town Council of Nottingham; and, apparently to celebrate the auspicious event, he handed over £SOO to the local ministers of religion for, the benefit of the poor. These ministers, of all denominations, it is now stated, have ‘ ‘ indignantly declined ” the offer. More fools they !