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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4370, 23 March 1875, Page 2

The telegraph lines between Oamaru and The Bluff were down yesterday morning, but by yesterday afternoon they were again workable. :

The steamer Manawatu had not reached Wanganui up to last evening. As the telegraphists on the West Coast stations describe the weather as being still very severe, she is probably under the friendly lee of Kapiti.

The Hon. the Minister for Immigration, Major Atkinson, was amongst the passengers who left in the Taranaki for the South yesterday afternoon. He proceeds to Christchurch, and from thence will go on overland to Dunedin. His visit is of an official character. A number of the friends of H. W. Blower, who for a considerable time past has. been landing-waiter at this port, assembled on the wharf yesterday afternoon, juqt before his departure for Auckland in the steamer Phccbo. Success and a pleasant passage were wished to Mri and Mrs. Brewer, and as the steamer moved off three hearty cheers were given. Mri Brewer has received the appointment of head landing-waiter at Auckland. The Star Club soiree, to take place this evening,.promises to bo a great success. ■ Meet complete arrangements have been made, and as the tickets are selling rapidly a successful and pleasant evening's enjoyment is anticipated. The club deserve great credit for their efforts to improve the physical condition of the; youth of Wellington, and as the soiree is given to partly recoup the heayy loss sustained through the damage to their whaleboat at Nelson, the public will no doubt extend a liberal support.

Severe weatherdias of late been experienced in all parts of the ‘ colony. - On .Saturday- and Sunday it blew very hard from north-west and south-west, esppcially 1 from Opimake south- - Syards; at Westporand Mhkitika.the gale was J especially .violentAand accompanied by thunder, lightning, hail and heavy rain, and a heavy sea came in from westward. .At .Queenstown die hillsvwere .cohered -with snow for’ some hours, =the yl wind 1 very .:,co!d and squally. The gale seems to have been almost equally bad at Port Chalmers, where the barometer fell to 29 In.- on Saturday evening. At Oatnaru the wind was south-west, varying in force, with sudden'hard-‘gusts, and-a considerable amount of sea, from,the eastward, in the roads. Yesterday, telegraphic communication was interrupted ‘ with all places south of Timaru until about 2 p.m., and from information received it appears that the" barometer was rising fast in the Middle Island, with moderating winds and clear sky. -• A number of. young ladies and gentlemen, principally members of the Kechabite choir, under the leadership of Mr. Barber, afforded excellent amusement to a fair assembly at the Odd Fellows’ Hal Mast evening. The proceeds of the entertainment are for the benefit of Mrs. Burbusb, whose husband some time ago received fatal injury by a blow from a cricket ball. The programme was a judicious selection of light songs, duets, and glees, interspersed with recitations, all of which were rendered with credit; The audience was lavish in bestowing applause, and the performers in every instance complied with an encore. Mr. Parker presided at the piano. The anniversary services of the Congregational Church were held last Lords’ day, when sermons appropriate to' the* occasion were preached by the Kev. W. H. West, the pastor. In the afternoon the usual children’s service was conducted by J. Woodward, Esq., who delivered in address admirable for its simplicity and interest during the service. A collection of Moody and Sankey’s hymns were sung in excellent manner by the children, under the skilled leadership ; of Mr. W. Payne. The services were brought to a close by a tea’ meeting last evening. The church was decorated with taste and neatness, and all the arrangements were of the most satisfactory description. After the. tea came the public meeting—the pastor in the chair— a report was presented by Mr. Knowles, which showed that the. church, and; all its .agencies were in a most efficient state. Mention was made of: the establishment of a Sunday-school, at Te Aro, and of the generous gift by one of the members of the church of a piece of ground and a school building for the same. Speeches, excellent in taste and quality, were delivered by the Kev. W. Morley and Kev. Mr. Ward, and Messrs. J. Woodward and W. Hutchison. The meeting, which was,; upon the whole, one of the most enjoyable, terminated at nine o’clock.

We are glad to observe that tenders are called for by Mr. Turnbull, architect, for. the erection of additions and the making Of alterations to St. Alary’s Convent, Hill-street. These tenders must be sent in by the sth proximo. We are also happy to learn that the labors and sacrifices of the nuns have not been disregarded by the Protestant portion of the community, in the subscription necessary to enable these additions to the Convent to be made, and that the nuns appreciate the liberality and good spirit of the subscribers.

The Garrick Club held a meeting at the Bank Hotel (Mr. Sam Howard’s) last evening, to deal with . the. proceeds of the late performance by the club in the Odd Fellows’ Halt, for the benefit of the widow and family of the., late. Air., H. .Grimstone. The accounts were audited and passed by *AIr. Grimstone, the brother of the deceased, and a sum of £2O was handed over to Airs. Grimstone. This must 1 be 'con -idered a very good I’esult. The club requested Mr. Newlyn to continue the management, and appointed the ■ necessary officers; and agreed to give another performance in about a month.

" The cat is out of the bag at last,” says the Canterbury Press of the Kith instant. “In an article in this journal on the 10th of February, doubts wore thrown on the value of the official statement that the Canterbury railways had, during the month of December, : suddenly jumped from the production of a heavy loss to the; production of a profit. It was suggested that Air. Alaude might have manufactured the apparent surplus - by. purposely deferring payments belonging to December. This now proves to have been the fact. Incredible as it' may seem, it is absolutely true that this miserable trick has j been resorted to, in order to beguile the public into the belief that the railways were being profitably managed, and that the opinions wb expressed of Mr. Maude's administration, were unfounded. It is a common habit ot weak and incapable people to hide one blnuder by committing another ; hut, in public matters, the combination of deception with incapacity, becomes intolerable. 'To have ruined the railways as a public asset is bad enough ; but to attempt to delude the owners of the railways into 'viewing their ruin as their prosperity, is both disgraceful and disgusting.” ' '

Writing of Mr. and Mrs. Case, who are about to revisit Wellington, a Canterbury contemporary, in a late issue, remarks ;—“ These clever artistes renewed their, acquaintance with the Christchurch public at the .Odd/Fellows’ Hall in their clever, entertainment ‘ Latest Intelligence.’ As a drawing-room entertainment this is certainly one of the best of its kind, the variety, of ..the characters assumed by Mrs. Case. being, so numerous, and yet all so well enacted, that one gets bewildered, and is apt to ask whether the lady on the stage is really Miss Egerton alone, or whether she has not a numerous corps of assistants. The changes of apparel, Voice, and manner are all executed with such rapidity and completeness as /quite to astonish her audience. , Amongst the’ best of her characters was that in imitation of Mr. Sims Reeves, when.she sang ‘The Death of Nelson ’ excellently, and, being encored, responded with ‘-Down in a Coal Mine,’ which was capitally sung'. Mr.-Case "aided in the success of the entertainment materially, by his playing on both ,tho concertina and violin, and as a whole one can spend a couple of hours very agreeably. with, the succession of quaint characters to which' Mrs. Case' introduces her auditors.” • '

How valuable Government"'property may disappear unnoticed, says "the Otago Daily Tunes, is shown by a. discovery that took place lately.. ■ The workmen digging out the foundations of Messrs.' Sargood, Son, and Eweu’s new warehouse, in High, and Dowling streets, came upon some pieces of machinery. There was a piece of shafting, TGfh long and 3iu. in diameter. There, also was,.what is called a hose pipe, being an iron cylinder, about 9in. in ■diameter, which is fitted on to shafting, and on to the . outside of which machinery is keyed. Another discovery was a heavy toothed wheel, sft. in diameter, and 9in. by Gig. in thickness. The whole of this machinery had once been turned and polished. Of course it is now all covered with rust, after having been for some years in the ground. Many years ago the Government workshop and yards were on the site of the warehouse now being erected, and these pieces of machinery, which are duplicates of some of ‘ the machinery of the dredge New Era, were it would appear neglected and allowed to get covered over. How much more Government machinery has been covered up in the reclaimed land it is hard to say, but it is not likely that the pieces lately dug up constitute the whole lot. The machinery was looked upon in the light of a lucky patch by the. finders. But it came to the ears of Mr. Cameron, the Harbor Board engineer, on the jetty, that some machinery had been found, whereupon it was promptly claimed in the name of the Government, possession was taken of it, and it was removed yesterday to the yard of the prison workshops. - The Wairarapa Standard is responsible for thejfollowing:—“The Secretary of the Education Board, at the last recent meeting, announced that three masters were going to be married at Easter, arid mentioned that they asked'‘to have ■ the whole Easter week as a holiday under the circumstances. The Board readily consented, and wished , them every happiness.” ‘

Dr.,Diver has been appointed medical examiner for the industrial branch of the Govern-, meiit Annuities scheme. / ; Dr, Julius Haast, F.R.S., has been appointed Provincial Geologist for the province of'Canterbury.-

The steamer Taranaki, which .sailed South .yesterday-afternoon, had on board 107 immigrants fori Otago, who arrived here by the Dallam Tower.

Entries for the Athletic Club sports, to take place on Easter Monday, will be received this evening at the Pier Hotel, between the hours of eight and nine. There was but a ineague attendance at the Star Cricket Club meeting .at the Pier Hotel last evening, and, in consequence, little business was brought forward. Is it true that' the native bat is becoming extinct? A country contemporary says so, and asks—“ Are all the native productions of these islands destined to follow the moa ?”

The cargo of the ship Ocean Mail, that lately sailed from The Bluff for Loudon, was valued at £95,226—n0t a bad contribution to the amount of the total exports of New Zealand for the season.

An extraordinary occurrence is reported from Tauranga, the whole of the telegraph staff there being at present prostrated with measles, which are said to be very prevalent in the district. The line was closed for a time, until the arrival of an operator from another station. But who is to insure him against measles ? A well-known shipowner of Hobarton— Captain Charles Bailey—died, lately, leaving the whole of his property, valued at £200,000, to his brother, Captain James Bailey. The deceased was chief or sole owner of twenty-six vessels sailing from Hobarton in the. Intercolonial trade. The major portion of the deceased’s fortune was made in whaling enterprises.

A suit has "been brought in the United States Cn*cuit Court at Pittsburgh, Pa., by a Mrs. Coyle against a Security Life Insurance and Annuity" Company, on a policy taken out by her late husband. The defence is that the, insurer consulted competent physicians as to a tumor which was afflicting him, and was informed'that a surgical operation would doubtless prove fatal ; that he took out his policy, and then submitted, to the operation, which killed him.

■ The Bruce Herald remarks: —“A German soldier, who fought in the late Franco-Prussian wai*, is now at work with Messrs. Brogden and Sons, at ballasting ‘operations on the Clutha line. As wc observed this powerful fellow smartly wielding his' pick and shovel in the ballasting pit at Stoney Creek, we could not help thinking how fine a counterpart, illustrative of peace, the painter of to-day might' form, to a picture of one of the battlefields of the late war, by a view of this veteran of war, engaged with thirty or forty other laborers, in this distant Biitain.of the South, in extending .the peaceful march of civilisation, by aiding in the construction of our railway works. ’Are there no future great artists among our colonial youths who could work up the idea on canvas In a way similar to the great English Painter, which would doubtless prove the best immigration agent we could employ, in securing an increase of population from Europe in these threatening times.” . The Illustrated New Zealand Herald for the present. month reached us yesterday.; It is an’unusually good number, although but few of the illustrations have reference to New Zealand; This is. a defect which must be got over before long. New Zealand should have its own “Sketcher.” The: view, given of the New Museum in Dunedin, shows that a building of considerable pretensions has been put up there. The engravings the Herald contains, however, are very good*—such as the view of the New Government House, Melbourne ; Bush Fires at Mount Macedon, Victoria ; Labor and Best.” &c.

Mr. Joseph Braithwaite, of Dunedin, sends' us a copy of No. 2 of “The New Zealand Songster,” the .first number of which we ncsticed lately. Its success, it appears, has led to the issue of a second number much earlier than was originally intended. A pretty bold preface introduces No. 2, expressing the very laudable desire of encouraging local talent ; the intention, we hope, will not be forgotten. A little more care should;be taken on the part of the printer, the omission of little words here and there occasionally spoiling* the humor of the selection. -

Mr. Wilson Gray’s modesty is all but proverbial in New Zealand and Victoria, The Court he held at Queenstown lately was the last he would hold before his retirement on his pension, and it was intended by the barristers and others connected with the Court—over which Judge Gray has so long presided—that his withdrawal should be marked in a suitable manner. His Honor, however, declined—in very kind and feeling terms—to accept any public recognition of-his services.