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OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

(t'ltOM ODB OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Sydney, Sept. 8.

Tho length of time between the Easby's trips obliges me to make my letters rather epitomes of news than commentaries upon passing events, which happen in such quick succession here and of late have been of so much importance that a week's budget even becomes formidable. This morning (the Bth September) as the Herald was being printed, the foreman of the machine-room while taking a short cut through a passage was dragged into a portion of the machinery—the driving-wheel, I believe —and fearfully mutilated. His injuries were of course mortal ; in fact, death was instantaneous.—The death of Commodore Goodenough, of which no doubt you have been apprised by telegraph, caused a profound sensation here. The funeral was a very largo one, and was attended by thousands ; his wife (a goddaughter of the Queen) being amongst the mourners. We have a good many South Sea traders here, who marvel much at any one, much less a Commodore of the British Navy, going ashore on such an island as Santa Cruz, where the natives invariably attack all comers, unarmed. The good man's last words are published to-night in the Erenhvj News. —Lyeock and Trickett, two young oarsmen, pull for £IOO a side and the championship of the Port Jackson waters, on Friday next. Trickett is a strong favorite, having done a good time.—The Derby was ruu on Saturday last; the numbers were as follows: —Richmond, 1 ; Valetta colt, 2 ; Valentia, 3. Richmond was a Melbourne horse, and his beating the favorite (Valetta) was a godsend for the bookmakers. Yesterday Go dsborough again saved the ring by beating Kingsborough, who started at evens. Kingfisher was third. Kingsborough's performance, for all he was was beaten, is looked upon as a wonderful effort. He is not four years old yet ; carried Sst. 101 b. for two miles in 3min. 322 sec, a wondrous quick time —Since I wrote last we have had the Ristori here. Although she came here with a terrific reputation, she is all the critics' fancies painted her, and created a furore. She cleared £3OOO, besides very heavy expenses. Some of her houses were over £SOO. It is impossible to praise her acting too much, and the fact of her playing in a foreign tongue did not prevent her audiences from-beiug enraptured with her marvellous genius. Her company was a magnificent one, Mageroni being fully equal to any man we ever saw in Australia. Ristori is now doiug a fine business in Melbourne.—Javanschek, the great Bohemian, is now here, playing at the Queen's in English drama. She is not a success, and will not draw money, being a good actress, but possessed of an unpleasant delivery. —Mrs. Stenhouse, the well-known Mormon elder's wife, is denouncing polygamy and Brigham Young, in a series of lectures, to good audiences.—A new prima donna, Miss Melville, is doing well in opera bonffe, under Mr. Lyster's management, at the Victoria.— Apropos of Mrs. Steuhouse's visit, it is interesting to learn that six Mormou elders arrived on a proselytising tour by the Whampoa.—Judge Hargraves has passed a sentence upon a man named Woods that has awakened the sympathy of the whole colony, though he is a great scoundrel. Woods met a Captain Stackhouse, R N., one evening in the park, and entered into conversation with him, ending by (the captain says) taking some liberty with him. The next day he called on Stackhouse, with some other men, and they commenced a course of black mail levying and intimidation. Woods was arrested, but the others escaped. He was proved to have been guilty of a sitni lar offence in Melbourne, and Judge Hargraves sentenced him to fifteen years' imprisonment, during which time he is not to look upon a human face, but turn to the wall when the jailer comes near him. Such a horrible sentence was never inflicted before in this colony, and it can scarcely be carried out.—Mr. Anthony Trollope, no doubt you saw, left here by the last Californian mail. During his visit he attracted little attention, the only outing he had being a picnic in his honor to the Zigzag, given by Sir James Martin, the Chief Justice.—We heard last week that the Bank of California had collapsed, and if such a thing were the ca<e, Mr. Williamson, the celebrated actor, who had invested his savings (some £10,000) in it, is beggared. The report is neither confirmed nor denied, but can scarcely be true.—Mr. Hungerford, who was beaten on the third event in the much-vexed election for the Upper Hunter, has been entertained at a banquet at Musclebrook. One hundred and twenty sat down to a fine spread, and the speeches were highly eulogistic.—The Attor-ney-General has refused to file a bill in the case of Golling v. Rev. Thackeray and J. M. Sweet, for libel. Golling was a churchwarden of the church from which it was sought to oust Mr. Thackeray, and during the proceedings he was accused of acting as a spy upon his pastor. At the trial for libel brought against the Bishop of Newcastle, who had accused Mr. Thackeray of being criminally intimate with a Mrs. Philpotts, the barrister for Philpotts, the plaintiff, asked Golling if he "were an Englishman, and he replied "No." "Then," said Mr. Windyer (the barrister), " thank God for saving my country from disgrace." These words were repi-oducedin a lecture by Mr. Thackeray, and which was printed by Mr. Sweet. Hence the proceedings, which have lasted a long while. The Attorney-General offersthe pursuing party the privilege of prosecuting at his own expense.—The feeling of the people of Melbourne respecting the opening of the Town Hall for Sunday readings, &c, is to be ascertained by a poll ; a sensible plan.—A printers' strike threatens here. The men on the Evening News and Town and Country demand the discharge of, I think, all the boys, and have given the notice agraed upon. Mr. Bennett declares he will not give way, and there must be a collision. The papers are making £IO,OOO a year profit, so unless the proprietor gets fresh hands, he must perforce give way.—By a fire at Cooktown, the work it is said of incendiaries, whose object was plunder, some £5,000 worth of notes was lost or destroyed, and a considerable sum in notes has been lost or stolen in Mel bourne. A Mr. Why cross Sawyer is under arrest for embezzling £1,400, and it it is thought that he knows something of the missing notes. —Mrs. Fairfax, wife of the proprietor of the Herald, died, not unexpectedly, a few weeks ago. She was distinguished for unostentatious benevolence and liberality. Louisa Hinton, a prostitute, murdered a colored man last month. They lived together, and had a quarrel over a pair of socks, when she stabbed *»ira in the liver with a largo butcher's knife, causing almost instantaneous death.—The s.s. Bowen, bound from here with the Torres Strait mail, broke down olf the coast on Tuesday, and is being towed back. The Somerset will take her place as soon as the mails can be transhipped. —Of fires and alarms we have had plenty lately, the only one of consequence being the destruction of part of Lane Chester and Co.'s ship chandlery, in George-6trcct. £10,009 worth of things were burnt and destroyed. Mr. Mort's freezing process is un fait accompli, and last week 300 persons sat down to a banquet composed of things iced down twelve months ago. The affair took place at the works, Lithgow, on the western line over the Blue Mountains.—Mr. Pillars, Unitarian minister, a man of considerable attainments and much respected, fell over the rocks at the Heads as he was clambering about on a fishing excursion last month. His death was quite a shock to the community, and a memorial in his honor is to be erected by public subscription.—Much

attention of late has been bestowed on the water supply question, and precautions are being taken to prevent contamination.—On the Bth August a young clerk _ named Mills while out boating was capsized in a boat and drowned.—The large number of appointments by the Government have attracted much attention and been severely criticised by the Opposition Press, who have not lost the opportunity to cry out against what they term corruption. Amongst the list of new police magistrates is Mr. Edward Reeve, art critic and summary writer for the Herald, a man of culture and a good journalist.—Time warns mo that I must conclude, and I have to crave your kind consideration for the disjointed nature of my contribution, on the score of its being race time, the heaviest time of the year for press correspondents.

The day after the despatch of my last letter, the Postmaster-General, Mr. Burns, informed the Assembly of the terms of the new postal contract. The particulars of the contract, which was entered into by Mr. Thomas llussell and Sir Daniel Cooper, on behalf of the Governments of New Zealand and New South Wales, with the Paoific Mail Company, you are familiar with. There was some difficulty here in regard to the ratification of the contract by Parliament, in consequence of a telegram being received from London to the effect lhat the solicitors of the Pacific Mail Company had given an opinion that the company could not enter into a joint contract with Messrs. Elder and Macgregor, but matters were arranged by those gentlemen being accepted as sureties. Mr. Burns appeared satisfied that the contract would be a successful one, and that it would give the two colonies a first-rate service, with large boats of sufficient capacity to compete witli the boats on any other line, and at a lower rate than was now paid for the temporary service via Auckland. As a matter deserving of remark, he said that the contract would lead to the saving of £0695 f o this colony, on account of the obligation of New Zealand to pay half of the £3OOO advanced to Mr. Hall, and half of other special expenditures in connection with the temporary service. There was no decided opposition to the contract, except in the case of Mr. Hoskius, who objected to the expenditure, on the ground that the people of the country would be taxed to the extent of £-15,000 a year for the establishment of a steam service of little benefit to them. Some members indulged in a little banter, and Mr. Lloyd, the late PostmasterGeneral, of course seized the opportunity to place the claims of the late Ministry before (he House. Ultimately the resolutions were passed, with only two dissentients. People view the efforts made by the present Government to establish a permanent Pacific mail service with satisfaction, and confidence is felt that the contract will prove a success. Nothing has been done in the matter of enforcing the payment by the sureties of Mr. Hall of the amount of the bond entered into by them, since the Parkes Government went out of office. But Mr. W. Forster, the present Colonial Treasurer, leaves here for London by the next San Prancisco mail, on matters affecting the interests of the cjlony, and one part of his mission will be to inquire into the position of affairs connected with the Had contract.—The new Land Bill is now in full operation, and its provisions against dummyism are causing consternation amongst a certain class of persons, who have long traded by means of dummying upon the public lands of the colony. There was great fear just before the prorogation of Parliament that the Bill would be lost, owing to an apparent impossibility of the Assembly and the Council agreeing to certain amendments made by the Upper House. But a few days before the session came to an end, it was agreed by both Houses to have a free conference upon the matters in dispute, and to endeavor by that means to come to some arrangement. The conference was held, but nothing came of it, and the objectionable amendments were debated again and again. It was decided to have another conference, and at that happily the two Houses met each other, as it were, halfway, each conceding something; and by this method the principles of the Bill, which had been in jeopardy, were saved, and the Bill itself became law. It was much needed. Its chief object was to prevent dummyism. This object has been secured by two clauses, to the effect that an application for a conditional purchase must be tendered in person by the applicant, who must be above the age of sixteen years; and no person shall become the conditional purchaser of any land who is, in respect of the land he applies to purchase, or any part of it, a servant of, or an agent, or trustee for, any other person ; and all land applied for shall be for the bona fide use of the applicant in his own proper person. Penalties are, of course, provided for persons entering into illegal contracts. On tho day the Act came into force instructions were sent by telegraph to all the laud agents in the colony, and the following day numbers of notices appeared in the newspapers of the scenos at the various land offices. The Government take a good deal of credit to themsolves for passing tho Bill.—The new Mining Bill has been published, and will bo submitted to Parliament next session. Some important changes are contained in it. One is, that instead of appeals from the Warden's Court to tho District Court, as at present, the appeals will be to a Court of Mines, which will be presided over by a judge specially appointed for tho duty. Mineral licenses are to 1)0 made to serve the purpose of searching for mineral lands, enabling persons to test the lands at a nominal cost ; and there will bo a provision for working small areas containing stream tin. Miners' rights and licenses will be antedated without fine, and the liability of registered claimholders anil miners will be generally lessened. Since the prorogation of Parliament, which took p'ace on the 11th ult, tho Ministers have been feted over and over again, and tho usual selfgratulatory speeches have been made. Much of the feasting has been used by the Government to shelter the Minister for Lands, Mr. Garrett, from the serious charges made against him in the Assembly ; but notwithstanding the declaration of Ministers that the country places no belief in the charges made, the Press has pointed out that these have not been disproved, and that Mr. Garrett and his colleagues instead of courting inquiry have done their best to burke it. This matter, therefore, is in an unsatisfactory condition, and people expect tho subject to be brought again before Parliament immediately the House meets, which it will do in November. Mr. Forster, the Colonial Treasurer, is going to England, and various rumors have been afloat respecting his object. Many persons incline to tho idea that he has the AgentGeneralship in his eye. The Government have stated, however, that he is going Home to inquire into the recent railway iron frauds, and into matters connected with the payment of the bonds in the Hall mail contract. Connected with the report that Mr. Porster will be made Attorney-General are others—that SirCharle9 Cooper, the present Agent-General, will bo pensioned, and that the Colonial Treasurer's office will be given to Mr. Alexander Stuart, tho champion of denominational schools, or to Mr. G. R. Bibbs. Both these gentlemen are members for Sydney, and merchants of standing. Rumors have been afloat of other probable changes in the Ministry, the principal of which is that the Minister for Mines, Mr. Lucas, will receive a permanent appointment in connection with tho railways, and that tho Mining Department will merge into the Lands Department, or that a member of the late Administration (Mr. Suther and) will accept office in the present Government.—Previo is to tho steamer Easby leaving for New Zealand on her last voyage, the subject of overloaded vessels going to sea was brought before the notice of Parliament, and it was believed that after the expression of opinion on that occasion tho Government would use some special effort to prevent vessels that are overloaded, or in an unseaworthy condition, putting to sea. But nothing has been done. The Press took the matter up, and public attention was drawn to it, specially by the reports of somo cases heard at tho Water Police Court, in which seamen were charged with deserting vessels which they declared to be unseaworthy. Probably tho member who brought tho subject before tho Assembly last session will do so again next session, when something may bo done to remedy an evil which exists here to a very serious extent.

Advice to Motheks !—Are you broken in your rest by a sick child suffering with the pain of cutting teeth? Go at once to a chemist and get a bottle of Mas. Winslow's Sootuino SYBur. It will relieve the poor sufferer immediately. It is perfectly harmless and pleasant to taste, it produces natural, quiet sleep, by relieving the child from pain, and the little cherub awake 3 "as bright as a button." It soothes the child, it softens the gums, allays all pain, relieves wind, regulates the bowels, and is the best known remedy for dysentery and diarrhoea, .whether arising from teething or other causes. Sold everywhere at Is. lid. per bottle. Manufactory 493 Oxford-street, Loudon.—[As vt. Oxyokn is Life.—Dr. Brigiit's PnosriionvxE.— Multitudes of people are hopelessly suffering from debility, nervous and liver complaints, depression of spirits, failure of memory, lassitude, want °f power, &c, whose cases admit of a permanent cure by the new remedy, Phosphodyne (OEonic Oxygen), which at onoe allays all irritation and excitement, imparts new energy and life to the enfeebled constitution, and rapidly cures every stage of these distressing maladies Sold by all chemists. Caution.—The large and increasing demand for Dr. Bright's Phosphodyne has led to several imitations under somewhat similar names; purchasers of this Medicine should therefore be careful to observe that each case hears the Government Stamp, with the words " Dr. Hright's Phosphodyne," engraved thereon, and that the same words are also blown in the bottle. Agents for New Zealand: Kempthorne, Prosser, and Co., Duaedin and Auckland— Advi.]

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18750918.2.20

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4523, 18 September 1875, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
3,055

OUR SYDNEY LETTER. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4523, 18 September 1875, Page 3

OUR SYDNEY LETTER. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4523, 18 September 1875, Page 3

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