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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4562, 3 November 1875, Page 2

One of the seameu of the Malay, William Minton, came to a very sudden end yesterday at about midday; with the other men he was engaged on the barque, when he fell prostrate. He was taken to the cabin, but soon expired. His sudden -decease could not bo accounted for at the tune. An inquest will be held to-day. We have received the November number of the " Mouthly Review," which still maintains its reputation. The article on " Amusements in the Schoolroom" has apparently been written in the hope of inducing teachers to avoid that painful sameness that has hitherto been the means of" disgusting young Btudents with school and its belongings. The writer advocates the more frequent use of the magiclantern as a means of imparting instruction and amusement at the same time. The history of the Abolition Bill has been carefully compiled, and is so complete that it will certainly be carefully perused and weighed by candidates at the coining elections; it is, in fact, by far the most complete summary of the debates on abolition that we have seen. Another article well worthy of the careful attention of all persons interested in education is " Education in Prussia and England." This month's number of the " Review" contains more purely educational matter than any of its predecessors, and should demonstrate to members of the teaching profession the necessity for aiding a paper so warmly devoted to the scholastic interests. The "Peep o' Day" was repeated last night to a large house, and pass«d off more successfully than it did the previous evening. To say that the play is a taking one would be superfluous, seeing that it ran a whole year in London when first produced, and therefore all that remains is to speak of the manner in which it was played. Mr. and Mrs. Darrell, who took the parts of the hero (Harry Ka vanagh) and heroine (Kathleen) respectively, were excellent, but the attention of the audience was more attracted by the singing and dancing of Miss Jennie Nye. The " Shan Van Voght," and the Irish jig which succeeded it, completely brought down the house, and an encore in each case was demanded. Mr. Sam Howard's Barney O'Toole kept the audience on the broad grin throughout the whole of the performance; while Mr. Oily Beering's Father O'Oleary is made a really good character. Throughout the applause was enthusiastic, and the curtain had to bo raised a second time on every tableau. The members of the Choral Society had a most encouraging practice for their approaching concert last night. The previous practice evening was so wet that but few were able to attend; however, this was made up for last night by a large attendance of both vocal and instrumental performers, so that the singers bad all the advantage of practising to an accompaniment. The forthcoming concert should be one of the best yet gi<ren by the society. Mr. Hall, the city missionary, gratefully acknowledges the receipt of the following contributions in aid for October :—Mrs. M. L., 10s. ; Miss P., 10s. ; E. A., 10s. ; D. A. J., 10s. ; Leatherpurse, £1 ; W. G. J., 5s ; W. S., 10s. ; H. F. L., £1 Is. ; a friend, ss. ; J. A. A., ss. ; K. and S., £1 Is. ; Mrs. Mac, 10s. 6d ; J. M., ss. ; total, £7 4s. 6d. Mr. Wallace held a land sale in his rooms yesterday. The attendance was very good, and the bidding spirited. A quantity of property at the Lower Hutt was Bold. The prices fetched were, on the whole, favorable Mr. Fitzherbert was the purchaser of a farm adjoining his property at the Hutt, for £BOO. Full particulars of the sale will be found in to-day's commercial columns.

Athletic sports are announced to take place on the Te Aro pleasure grounds, nep,the Victoria grounds,' on the Prince of Wales' birthday. Particulars will be given shortly. ' Another sign of progress in the Wairarapa district is the establishment at Masterton of a branch of the Bank of Australasia. This will be opened immediately, and should prove a great convenience to the inhabitants of the upper end of the valley. In consequence of the great success of the " Peep o' Day," and in compliance with requests made them, the management have decided to withdraw " Oamille " for the present, and repeat the " Peep o' Day" this evening. Tomorrow the performances will be for the benefit of Mr. George Darrell. A grand soiree is to be held in the Odd Fellows' Hall this evening. A large attendance is expected, as the entertainment is of a most attractive character {vide advertisement), and the proceeds are to be devoted to a charitable purpose. The musical portion of the entertainment is to be presided over by Mr. Cemino. Shoeblacks have at various times endeavored to educate the people of Wellington into supporting such an occupation, but have generally failed. However, another is making a start, and yesterday for the first time took up his stand opposite the Club. He does not advertise, nevertheless we wish him success, for if ever there was a city in which shoeblacks were required, it is Wellington, with its continuously muddy streets. On Friday evening next the Rev. P. P. Agnew will deliver a lecture upon "Freemasonry," under the auspices of the Masons of Wellington. Mr. Agnew has been a member of that order for many years, and has rendered valuable assistance to the Masons of Australia, in consequence of which they requested him to extend his usefulness as a Mason while in New Zealand. As the Masons of Wellington are a very strong body, the lecture will prove particularly interesting, and they will no doubt show up in force. The lecture should also prove of considerable interest to the ladies, who have been specially invited, as they will have a chance of hearing some of the secrets of the craft, regarding which they are known to be very curious. Writing on the subject of the coming general election, the Dunedin Star says:—"We have the best authority for stating that Mr. C 32. Haughton lias no intention, as was at one time stated, of re-entering political life, and of standing for his old constituency of Wakatip, for which we believe Mr. Pyke does not intend to offer himself for reelection. For the Dunstan two local candidates are named, but whether Mr. T. L. Shepherd will again stand, or run, for the Wakatip against Mr. Manders, is not yet known. Mr. Mervyn has no intention of offering himself for Mount Ida, but intends to contest Waikaia with Mr. Bradshaw. Opposition is threatened to Mr. Murray for Bruce, and to Mr. Thomson for the Clutha, but we doubt if it will be serious in the latter case. The seats of Messrs. Steward and George McLean may be considered safe, but for the additional Waitaki seat there is certain to be a number of candidates. Mr. Cuthbertson has not finally decided upon retiring, but should lie' 'stand for Invercargill, there will be at least three candidates. Indeed, all the Southland seats promise to be hotly contested." We have not yet heard whether Mr. W. A. Murray intends to offer himself for re-election, but if he does, we believe he is likely to be opposed by Mr. W. J. Dyer. A correspondent, signing himself " B," considers our notice of the Typographical Spelling Bee, in yesterday's issue, incorrect. In the first place, he says the examiner pronounced the word " addible" very distinctly. In the second case, there is no " or " with regard to the spelling of this word, which is not adible. In the third place, the committee of management by an utter inattention to their duties made the position of all who endeavored to interest or amuse the audience most unpleasant. lectures in general seldom prove so very interesting as did that of the Rev. P. P. Agnew, delivered at the Odd Fellows' Hall last night. Unfortunately the attendance was not large, but those who were present manifested a keen interest in the lecture, the subject of which was " The Lives of Bushrangertj." Some of the pictures drawn by the lecturer were of a decidedly marvellous character, and the majority of the incidents (told with great effect) were quite as wonderful as ever a hero of hot romance participated in. It would be manifestly improper to give the Rev. Mr. Agnew credit for indulging in those impromptu flights of fancy for which the versatile Jingle was famous. Mr. Agnew relates facts which have come \mder his personal observation, and such is his power of description that one cannot listen and fail to admire one who has seen so much of the dark side of life, and who can recall it for the benefit of others with such clearness. Mr. Agnew is no mean word painter, though he only produces pictures from life scenes. At the conclusion of his lecture he announced his intention of giving a free lecture in the Wesleyau schoolroom to-night. The Otago Daily Times of Saturday says that at the coming elections there appears to be every probability of another member of the Press being added to the list of candidates. We learn that Captain Baldwin will contest the seat for the Waikaia district. The gallant captain represented this constituency from 1863 to ISGS ;. and the Tuapeka Times, in alluding to the contest, considers that Mr. Bradshaw will have rather a formidable opposition to contend against in Mr. Mervyn and Captain Baldwin. The suspicions of two detectives were aroused at Victoria station, London, on Saturday, August 14, by the movements of two well-dressed persons, who carried portmanteaux of the same size and shape. They were followed to Norwood Junction, where they took tickets for Brighton by the 3 35 train. A good deal of luggage was on the departure platform, and the persons in question placed their portmanteaux close to a hand truck containing other luggage. As the train drew up to the platform an alarm was raised by a young lady that a travelling bag and a small box had been stolen. Nothing could be seen of them, but just as the two men were entering a first-class carriage, the detectives requested them to alight and accompany them to the station-master's office. They at first indignantly refused, but, the police insisting, they proceeded to the office, where their portmanteaux were examined, and found to be made with false bottoms. The interiors were fitted with an ingenious contrivance of springs for clutching, without exciting observation, anything over which they might be placed. The missing articles were found within them, and the two men were at once hauded over to the police. " The attention of the Society for the Prevention of cruelty to animals might," the Hampden Guardian thinks, "with some good results be directed to the cause of the poor sheep which are just now about to undergo their annual course of torture. As a rule, the process of shearing, unless carefully and skilfully carried out, is by no means a pleasant one for the animal operated on, and owing to the extreme competition amongst men, and the desire to get through the largest number in the shortest time, the sheep often loses more than its wool under the operation of the shears. But there is yet another, and so far as we can learn, a far more cruel and painful ordeal that this patient animal has to undergo in order that its wool may be ' got up' in a white and bright condition for the London market. We refer to the system of spout-washing, by means of which every animal passed through the washpool is placed and held, for a longer or shorter period, under spouts of water often falling with considerable volume, and from a great height. It is known to most flockmasters that the effects upon the bodies of the sheep washed under * the spouts' is very severe indeed, and sheep killed, even some weeks after such dressing, have been found, when skinned, to bo perfectly black in the flesh. So far are sheep-owners aware, apparently, of the injurious effects of the ' spouts,' that they do not now risk their most valuable and high-priced sheep under such » process, but

prefer to shear all such high-class wool in the grease. Washing and shearing are, of course, very necessary operations, but it is not absolutely necessary that they should be carried out with such a regard to economy and despatch as to ignore altogether the obligations of humanity. It is by no means necessary that a sheep should be tortured in order that its fleece may be removed in a clean condition for market, and where the profits of sheepfarming are so very enormous, a little, we think, might be spared to secure immunity from needless pain to the patient animal that increases the wealth."

A lively discussion took place at one of the sectional meetings of the British Medical Association, at Edinburgh, in the beginning of August last, on the subject of "Emotional Aphasia." It is an ailment which strikes the sufferer speechless, or compels him to utter nonsense. . Professor Gairdner said he "remembered a case personal to himself. When going through the wards of Glasgow Infirmary, after a deal of hard professional work, he lost command of his tongue and found himself talking nonsense—absolute nonsense. He knew it was nonsense, yet he could not help it; he felt that for the time being he must speak nonsense. At the same time he was attacked with ' dizziness,' but after resting a little he regained the control of himself, and the thing never occurred again. That attack he could only attribute to the extreme fatigue he at the time experienced." Another case was mentioned of a well-known Scotch sheriff, who at one period of his life felt occasionally that he must speak nonsense, whether he liked it or not ; in fact, this unfortunate gentleman, if he spoke at all, could not help speaking nonsense. Later in life, to his great relief, and doubtless to that of his friends, the tendency left him entirely. In fact, for this form of ' emotional aphasia' entire rest, even from speaking, is the best chance of cure, We have here, says the Melbourne Argus, the rational and longsought-for explanation of the unmitigated nonsense that is so frequently talked in the Legislative Assembly, the City Council, at public meetings, and even in the pulpit. The speakers are suffering from " emotional aphasia." What a blessing it is that the cure is so simple. Let us earnestly hope that the remedy for this terrible malady will become as popular as it deserves to be.

In a paper read at a meeting of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, London, 9th December, 1874, by Lieutenant Jekyll, R.E., on " The Telegraph and the Ashantee War," he says :—"We never experienced an instance of malicious damage by the natives. They regarded the telegraph as the white man's fetish, and held it in wholesome respect as such. The Ashantees had evidently heard tidings of it, and looked upon it as a powerful charm, for shortly after crossing the Prah the advanced parties discovered a white cotton thread suspended from the trees by the roadside for a distance of many miles, obviously in imitation of our wire." This bears a curious analogy to a statement which appeared in the Brisbane Courier a few weeks ago, which ran as follows :—" It is a remarkable fact in connection with the telegraphic system of the colonies that very few instances indeed are recorded where either the posts or the wire have been damaged by the blacks, and this is particularly remarkable in the case of the overland line from Cardwell to the Gulf of Carpentaria, on many points of which they have been 'so troublesome in other respects There was, however, a singular and ludicrous discovery made by the line repairer the other day, between Georgetown and one of the stations towards the Gulf, being nothing less than a sort of opposition line which the blacks had constructed in true orthodox style, running parallel with the real line, post for post, for a distance of a quarter of a mile. As is well known, coils of wire are placed at intervals along the line for the purpose of repairs, and these ' the noble savage' had used for the purpose, finding his own poles."