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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4513, 7 September 1875, Page 2

A petition was yesterday presented to the Superintendent, by Mr. Lancaster and three other eentlemen, having 71 signatures-f-cover-ing 114 votes—affixed, from ratepayers of Karori and Makaro, praying that Mr. Monaghan should be nominated a member of the District Highway Board for Ward No. 1. There are about 100 electors in the ward.

A. sitting of the ,'Supreme Court in banco will be held to-day. at 11 o'clock. The election of City Councillors promises to pass off very quietly. Mr. W. K> Williams, who was nominated in opposition to Mr. Moss, having withdrawn his candidature, the Thorndon Ward only will be contested. The rival candidates, Messrs. Kainie and Worth, take matters very easily. There is no excitement, no canvassing, and as one "free and independent" remarked yesterday,, no "shouting." The election will take place on Thursday, at the Thorndon polling booth, lloyal Hotel. At the usual meeting of the Philosophical Society last night the discussion on Mr. Carruthers' paper was brought to a" conclusion. Mr. Travers read a paper on the period at which the moa became extinct. Mr. Travers combatted the theories of Dr. Haast on this matter, and brought forward certain recent evidence that had come to his knowledge in support of his statements. The annual election of a Board of Education for the province of Wellington will be finished in a few days. To-day the candidates for the city district will be nominated at the courthouse. As no contest has been spoken of, it is probable that all the city members who seek re-election ■will be returned without opposition. In place of Mr. Brandon, who will not come forward again, Mr. Gisborne will be nominated. For the country district a contest is inevitable. Mr. T. L. Travers has, on requisition, consented to stand, and Mr. Toomath, the former member, will fight it out to the last. Nominations for the country district will close at Ngahauranga to-morrow. A degraded member of the Sarah Gamp sisterhood made her appearance before Mr. Crawford yesterday morning with a complaint against her spouse. Having just emerged from prison, where she had been doing a term for vagrancy, she had flown to the house of her lord and master, but could not gain admittance—he would not let her in; and as the good lady breathed out her wrongs, unlike Niobe, but all tears nevertheless, the air became fragrant with an odor of rum and cloves. It appears that Mrs. Ashbridge is of a volatile character, being extremely lively, and when in a playful humor, accelerated by any number of modest quenchers, has a habit of amusing herself by breaking up all the crockery and smashing the furniture, and anything breakable within the line of sight. A knowledge of his wife's idiosyncracy had induced Mr. Ashbridge_ to keep his door locked—a very wise precaution, of which the Resident Magistrate expressed his approval, and so the fair creature departed sorrowful, but resigned to a fate which deprived her of the womanly privilege of making her husband'B life a misery.

A painful accident occurred yesterday morning on- board :the barque Ashburton. The second mate of the ship, Mr. Owen, sustained a fracture of the leg below the knee, while superintending the shipment of ballast. A plank had been lowered down from the hatchway, and one end rested on the bottom, whilst the other was supported by the sling at an angle of about forty-five. Mr. Owen was climbing up this plank when it slipped from the sling, and his leg was broken in the fall. The injured man was at once conveyed to the hospital in a cab, and received prompt attendance. On examination, the fracture was discovered to be simple, but it will prevent the sufferer from joining his vessel on the outward voyage, much to the regret of the captain, as Mr. Owen is an able officer.

The Hon. Sir J. L. 0. Bichardson redelivered his very interesting lecture on "China" last night, in aid of the St. Paul's Church organ .fund, at the Sydney-street schoolroom. The Hev. B. W. Harvey occupied the chair. The lecturer sketched briefly the vast accessions that had been made to the literature of travel and. exploration during the past decade. Commercial and scientific men had brought all their knowledge to bear in describing the various countries, and the manners and customs of the inhabitants that had come under their observation, and presented interesting accounts of these subjects in the history of their travels. So great was the demand forworks on these and cognate subjects that on the eve of a war special correspondents were sent out to furnish for the newspapers full particulars not only of the warfare but also other information as to the various localities in which the strife took place. The lecturer then pointed out the contrast between the Britain of ancient times, the inhabitants of which were in a state of barbarism, while at the period referred to the inhabitants of China were as civilised as they. are at the present day. In the one case we have the history of a progressive and still progressing civilisation, while in the case of China we have a remarkable instance of a certain state of civilisation being attained, and remaining for hundreds of years down to the present time in a state of fixity. The lecturer then commenced the redelivery of his lecture, which was listened to with marked attention. There was a very good attendance, and a vote of thanks was unanimously accorded to the lecturer. Mr. Hutchison delivered a very interesting and instructive lecture last evening on " James Watt," in the Presbyterian schoolroom, Willisstreet, the, attendance being moderate. Prayers having been pronounced by the pres ding clergyman, Mr. Hutchison opened his lecture by referring to the time at which Watt was born, the characteristics of that ago and contemporary history. Ho then sketched the life of the great inventor from his birth at Greenock, on January 10, 1736, to his death in the year 1819, detailing the various stages of his labors in the development of the steam-engiue. The lecture was interspersed with amusing anecdotes and appropriate quotations, and was listened to throughout with the utmost attention. At the conclusion, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded the lecturer ; and the Rev. Mr. Paterson took occasion to announce that the next lecture would bo delivered by the Rev. Mr. Ward, the subject to be "English and Colonial Life compared." It is seldom that persons become fond of gaol life, but that this is the case with a few, was exemplified yesterday morning at the police station, when an ol 1 lady, not unknown to an undesirable kind of fame, presented herself before one of the officials engaged in the conservation of hor Majesty's peace, with a roquest for admission to tho lock-up. Mrs. Boodle, that is the lady's name, had just finished a term of imprisonment, and had apparently got di-pusted with the monotony of life outside the prison walls. She was admitted, and will probably spend the rest of her life in gaol if the choice rests with herself. We have been asked to make public the fact that George Anderson who forfeited his bail in the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday on a charge of drunkenness, is not George Anderson in the employ of Messrs. Lovin and Co.

The first anuual meoting of the Wellington Literary Society will bo held in St. John's schoolroom this evening at half-past seven o'clock. The secretary and treasurer's report will be presented, and officers elected for the ensuing six months, after which an address will be delivered by the Rev. Mr. Paterson. An esteemed, but somewhat eccentric, correspondent of the Bcndigo Adacrtisar writes:— Is it a hoax 1 An Anglican Bishop, a Romish Bishop, and members of an opera troupe lunching together at a Governor's table ! Hurrah for the Millennium ! " The lion shall lie down with the lamb." After this Burely they can't separate t o dormitories of the different creeds at the industrial schools ?

Object teaching is favored very much for Sunday-schools, but is not often adopted in the pulpit. The Baptist Weekly reports a recent case of a minister using it with groat effect in New Jersey. The Rev. W. V. Wilson, the earnest pastor of the New Monmouth Baptist Church, lately preached a sermon on dishonesties in trade, and especially condemned farmers who topped their barrels with large potatoes and put exceeding small one below. In illustration, he drew from his pocket four diminutive potatoes, and exhibited them to the astonished gaze of his congregation. That small-potato Bermon will not soon be forgotten, and probably the customers of the transgressors, whose offence elicited it, will be greatly benefited.

An -English, paper says:—'lThe process recently discovered whereby glass; is bo toughened as to be made almost unbreakable throws considerable light on some passages'in classical writers hitherto believed to be devoid of truth. Mr. E. A. Paley mentions the following anecdote, for instance, hitherto discredited, but which may now be fairly believed. It is given in Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Koman Antiquities' (art. Vitntm) :— ' A strange story with regard to an alleged invention of malleable glass is found in Petronius (and elsewhere.) An artist appeared before Tiberius with a cup-of glass. This he dashed violently upon the ground. When taken up it was neither broken nor cracked, but dinted like a piece of metal. "The man then produced a mallet, and hammered it back into its original shape.' This account would now seem to be verified beyond the possibility of.doubt, if we allow of some exaggeration, or perhaps confusion, between the flexibility of glass and its tough and unbreakable texture." , The "baby-killer," a graphic account of whose case has been published in the New Zealand Times, has had her sentence commuted to penal servitude for life. The prisoner is only a little over twenty years old, and her education in every respect appears to have been entirely neglected, and she can neither write nor read, and so far as religion is concerned, she appears to be utterly ignorant of the subject. In fact, the Rev. Mr. Jones, the ordinary of Newgate, who has been most kind and attentive to the unhappy prisoner, states that he had to deal with her in reference to this subject just the same as he would with a child, as the wretched woman appears to be utterly ignorant of the simplest truths of religion. She appears to be utterly witless and simple, and she has stated that she was in such a state of misery and desperation at the time that she cannot recollect the actual circumstances under which the child got into the canal. Since her conviction the prisoner has been visited by her two brothers and her father and her sister. We have boen requested to announce that Mr. G. H. Vennell's salo of surplus stores ex Kodney is postponed until Thursday next, on account of the goods not having been landed. Mr. James Smith requests us to call particular attention to his mnst extensive and varied assortment of merchandise to be sold this day by public auction, by order of the importer, James O'Shea, Esq., at Messrs. Kebbell's stores, Te Aro. There will be upwards of £7,000 worth of goods submitted to the hammer. The sale commences at 12 o'clock with No. 1 lot in catalogue, and for the convenience of the trade and hotelkeepers, &c, the sale of choice wines, spirits, and beer will take place at half-past 3 o'clock sharp.