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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4544, 13 October 1875, Page 2

The Inspector of Police has been enabled, through the kindness of some of his friends, to make very satisfactory arrangements for the admission of Eliza Smith, the defendant in the late trial for perjury, into a private school. At the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday, before J. 0. , Crawford, Esq., R.M., Rowland O’Hara Was charged with committing a violent assault, and was remanded for a week.—Mary Bowtell, charged with vagrancy, was sentenced to three calendar months’ hard labour.—Charles Lane, convicted of being drunk and fighting in the public streets, was fined 405., or in default seven days’ hard labor. —A warrant was ordered to issue for the apprehension of Peter Gallagher, charged with the same offence, who was out on bail, but did not appear in answer to the summons.—John Brown was charged with wilfully damaging property, and was fined 405., together with 205., the amount of the damage, or in default seven days’ hard labor.—There were six civil cases of little interest. Judgment for the amount claimed was given in four cases, with costs. One case was withdrawn, and in the other the summons had not been served.

There was a very good attendance at the Theatre Royal last night when “Blow for Blow” was repeated, with a success similar to that which marked its production on Monday evening. To-night, Kotzebue’s well-known play, “ The Stranger,” will be performed. The piece itself always attracts a good audience, and Mrs. Darrell as Mrs, Haller makes one of her most successful impersonations, so that those who attend are not likely to be disappointed in regard to the merits of the performance.

It seems from the letter of a correspondent to an Otago paper, that the most noticeable manner in which the people of that province mark the improvement effected by railway instead of coach travelling is that it lessens the expenses in the fashion of wayside drinks. It is calculated that under the coaching system a traveller from Tuapeka to Dunedin would spend some 20a. in drink, whereas, even doing his best now, he has not time to go beyond a shilling. Street-digging in Hokitika is apparently not yet exhausted as an industry, according to a West Coast paper. At the last meeting of the Borough Council, a letter was received from Mr. J‘. B. Henham, requesting permission to mine for gold on the upper and unmade portion of Tanored-street, and guaranteeing to leave the ground in the same state as he found it.

An attempt is being made to establish a farmer’s club in Marton.

The Straits Times of the 9th August says : —“ A telegram received yesterday by the agent of the Messageries Maritimes announces the total loss of tho company’s steamer Neva, on the voyage between this port and Batavia, on the night of the 6-7th instant, she having run aground when only eight miles from Batavia. Tho passengers, crew, and mail were all saved. The telegram is not explicit as to particulars, but wo understand the vessel is a total loss, though it is expected part of tho material and cargo will be saved.” The Westport Times of a recent date has the following remarks on Government Life Assurance :—“ The appearance amongst us of the chief agent of the Government Life Insurance induces us to review some of theleadingfeatures of a scheme which has, wo believe, proved an unparalleled success in insurance business. Wo believe that the Government first turned their attention to the matter in 1868, when the failure of the European Company produced an amount of misery not easily to be imagined, and scandalised the business of life assurance so much that one of the greatest institutions of modern times wasindangerof being brought into general disrepute. Life insurance is one of those means of saving which should bo removed from all possible speculation ; it should be made a certainty ns nearly as anything human con bo so made. In London, at the present moment, it is stated that immense excitement

prevails in consequence of the returns of insurance companies having in terms of a recently passed Act been presented in both Houses of Parliament, and Mr. Sprague, an eminent actuary, having stated in a letter to The Times that ‘an examination of the accounts of certain companies has led him irresistibly to the conclusion that the companies in question are insolvent beyond all hope of recovery.’ These circumstances lead almost irresistibly to the conclusion that the New Zealand Government has acted wisely in undertaking the protection of insurers ■within the colony. Indeed, it is truly a political duty—for whatever is the duty of the young, the middle-aged, the man of wealth, of moderate means, or of the poor, and in fact of every section of society ; whatever tends to promote habits of forethought, industry, and economy in the community ; whatever tends to give a large number a stake in the colony, and to increase the stake of those who already hold one; whatever tends to promote prosperity, to diminish pauperism, to alleviate and largely to prevent destitution, and to keep those who might become criminals out of the way of temptation ; whatever does all this it is obviously the duty of the consistent politician to watch over and promote by every means within his reach. Indeed it requires no great strain upon the imagination to picture to ourselves the business of life insurance, when taken up by a Government, marching forward as a great reforming power arresting the tendency to improvidence, poverty, and crime. The Government Insurance affects us all, whether we wish it or not, for we are jointly guarantee of the payment of every policy when it becomes a claim. It thus becomes the interest of each and all of us to insure, and to do our best to induce others to do likewise —thus, if A insures and so protects his family, it is his duty and interest to see that B does likewise. For B may die, and A may not only have protected his own family, but may have to contribute his share to the support of B's family. Since the passing of the first Act there have been several amendments. Last session an Act was passed consolidating all former Acts, and rendering the profit made in the department divisible among the assured, and as the expenses of the Government are much less than those of any company can be, it holds as a necessary consequence that the profit will in all probability be proportionately great.” The New York Graphic's London correspondent describes how London “ snobs ” ride with the foxhounds, the truth of which he vouches for :—“ We have in London a very curious institution called ‘splashing houses.’ If a snob wishes to make it appear that he has been riding with the foxhounds of a certain ‘ meet,’ he goes to one of the houses and pays three shillings at the door. A man meets him in the hall and says, ‘ What hounds, sir ? Kent, Surrey, Essex ?' and on being informed, he leads the gallant hunter to a stable where there is a wooden horse standing in a puddle of Kentish or other mud. The man turns a wheel ; the wooden horse kicks up his heels, and in five minutes the snob is covered with as much mud as he would have gathered had he been riding across country five hours. Then the splashed one, with whip in hand, walks up Pall Mall and Piccadilly, and tells those of his friends whom he meets what a glorious hunt he has enjoyed. This also is quite true.” A bush marriage under peculiar circumstances was graphically described by Father Woods during the delivery of a lecture at Hobarton, as reported in the Mercury. He had been unexpectedly called to marry a couple at Ellerslie, South Australia, where he had taken up a temporary residence. The ceremony was to be performed about four miles from Father Woods’ dwelling, but as heavy rains set in, and all the creeks were swollen, he determined to abide his time, and wait the subsidence of the waters. The rev. gentleman evidently regarded the affair in a cool philosophical light, almost equal to the frigid indifference of a scientist. It was the natural sequence of mutual attraction, he concluded, and no extraneous force could either hasten or retard the contract. So he thought matters might be allowed to rest until the return of genial sunshine. “It had rained incessantly,” observed the lecturer, “ and I thought they would not think a clergyman would come. But I little knew with what eagerness people would rush into this matter, although my experience in human nature was great.” The bridegroom suddenly rushed into his presence, and asked him why he had not come, “as they were all waiting for him.” In vain he explained to the impetuous lover the dangerous condition of the creek ; the lover replied that horses could swim ; but the clergyman remained immovable. Next day the bridegroom repeated the visit, but the result proved similarly unsatisfactory to him. On the third day Father Woods determined to relieve the love-stricken man’s longings, and accordingly he started for the purpose of solemnising the matrimonial ceremony. He found the creek much swollen, as he remained on his side of the water, the bridal party assembling in full force on the opposite side. Matters at this juncture assumed quite a sensational aspect—only fifty yards of turbid and turgid water separated bride and bridegroom from coveted happiness. But, alas, for human obduracy—the Mediterranean sea might as well have intervened! Not an inch would the clergyman budge, notwithstanding the frantic and heartrending expostulations of the perspiring bridegroom. With unpardonable coldbloodedness, Father Woods then conceived the propriety of opening a parley. “ I’ll tell you what I’ll do with you,” said he across the angry stream. “You can hear me quite plain if I read aloud the service.” “Yes, yes,” yelled the frantic lover. “No, no,” shrieked the blushing bride. She remained inexorable, and would not accept the proffered condition. “Very well,” replied Father Woods, “ I cannot treat on any other terms at present." Nearly a week elapsed before the couple were irrevocably noosed. Such is an instance of the inconvenience that frequently attended matrimonial alliances in the Australian bush.

“From our north-western country,’’ writes the Brisbane correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, “ comes a story of death of a most remarkable and terrible description. The sheep at an out-station on Goougarry being found in a scattered state, search was made for the shepherd, and after some lapse of time the body of the unfortunate fellow was found hanging by the leg in the fork of a sapling. It would appear that he had for some purpose climbed the tree, but losing his hold, had fallen, with one knee catching in a forked branch. Near the tree lay his watch and clasp-knife, and he had evidently been endeavoring to cut away the branch in order to extricate himself from his terriblepositiou. Failing in this, he had endeavored to give support to the other leg by tying it to the sapling with his shirt. All his efforts, however, were useless, and he must have died a lingering and dreadful death in his solitude. When found, his head was nearly touching the ground, and one hand, evidently in the death agony, had clutched a tuft of grass.” A rather startling statement of the tactics resorted to by the Papacy in its war against enlightenment and civilisation is made in careful detail by the Berlin correspondent of the Argus in his last communication. Evidence has been elicited in the course of some recent judicial trials in Germany and France, showing that the Vatican has issued orders to its priesthood to inculcate afresh the belief in witches, sorcerers, sorceresses, and demons in all subject to the influence of priestly teachings. A book of instructions has been issued, under the sanction of the Pope, called The Method of Liberating the Afflicted from Demons. This cheerful work is filled with the darkest spirit of the Middle Ages, when the belief in diabolical possession and agency spread so deep a gloom over human life. It leaves one in doubt which to wonder at moat, the imbecile superstition and credulity upon which it is meant to work, or the impudent wickedness of the design to foster and encourage beliefs so hopelessly exploded. Of course the purpose to be served in such a policy is very clear. It is sought more and more to widen and perpetuate the breach between the Church and its followers on the

one side, and the science, progress, and rationalism of the age on the other. The more gross the imposture, the greater the demand it makes upon the blindness and credulity of those to whom it is directed, the better fitted it is to answer this purpose. Such a policy as this, however, is a very desperate one. It can only succeed by annihilating the light of reason and science, drowning all human knowledge under a flood of ignorance, spreading the darkness of superstition over the, mental and spiritual world, and confounding civil society in a state of anarchy and chaos. This is the best to be hoped from success. But systems which can only exist by striving against the irresistible onward movement of humanity do not succeed but fail, and such endeavors can only recoil on the heads of their instigators, and make the ruin of the system more hopeless and complete. The statements made have a local application. At a time when the Roman Catholic priesthood among us are moving heaven and earth to secure a state subsidy for educational purposes, it is of importance to note the character which, under favorable conditions, they give to the education they impart, and its hostility to the truths of science and the principles of human progress.