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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4578, 22 November 1875, Page 2

The Oddfellows in the Dower Hutt District have determined to celebrate their anniversary by a dinner, on the 4th January, and call for tenders from caterers.

An inquiry will be held this afternoon, before Dr. Johnston, coroner, into the circumstances of the fire in Ouba-street. The inquiry will take place at the Victoria Hotel, Abel Smithstreet. The adjourned forgery case will be brought on at the Resident Magistrate’s Court this morning. Mr. Solomon has engaged the services of Mr. Stout ; the prosecution will be conducted by Mr. Quick. The fine weather yesterday induced a large number of persons to indulge in out-door exercise, and a great many took boat and rowed about the : harbor, which at one time was speckled with small boats and one or two racing-gigs. ... At the Resident Magistrate’s Court on Saturday, two cases only were on the sheet. Agnes Newson was charged with having been drunk and incapable, and was fined 10s. and costs, with the alternative of 48 hours imprisonment. It appeared that the defendant was found lying perfectly helpless in a waterhole. Thomas Dowling, on a charge of committing a breach of the Destitute Persons Relief Act, was ordered to pay his wife £6, having neglected to pay up his regular contribution. The new dramatic season at the Theatre Royal will commence on Monday, December 6, under the lesseeship of Messrs. Darrell and Hillsden, and the direction of Mr. Darrell. The season will Commence with an unprecedentedly strong combination. Mr. Wheatleigh, the celebrated Irish actor, having been engaged to appear in Boucicault’s latest, and from . all accounts, greatest success, “The Shaughraun,” whilst those popular artistes, Mr. and Mrs. George Darrell, will also reappear and take part in the representation. Fifteen new scenes, exclusive of; the two great sensations, will be painted; and Mr. Massey and a staff of auxiliaries are already at work, it being the intention of the management to mount the drama with a completeness of scenic and mechanical display far exceeding any dramatic production hitherto presented on the New Zealand stage.

An entertainment of a novel and attractive character will be given on next Friday evening. By land permission of Captain Leslie a soiree, under the auspices of the Typographical Society, will be held on board the ship Border Chief, which is lying alongside the Queen’s Wharf. The Artillery baud will be inattendance, under the conductorship of Mr. Cemino, their talented leader. This soiree, the second of a series of entertainments announced to be given for the benefit of the sick fund in connection with the Wellington Typographical Society, will in all probability prove even more successful than the first, as the idea of holding it on so beautiful a vessel as the Border Chief, in fact, upon any vessel, is somewhat novel, and novelty is always attractive. At the Theatre Eoyal to-night Natator, or, as Mr. Frank Buckland, the eminent naturalist has' named him, “ The Man Fish ” will for the first time in Wellington exhibit his extraordinary powers. What these are may perhaps have been probably guessed at by the public from some posters which have been stuck about lately, and posters to represent Natator calmly reclining at the bottom of the deep blue sea smoking a pipe, whilst around him swim the fishes large and small, apparently quite used to such a sight. In sober truth, however, we believe that Natator is in respect of his powers of existing under water for a minute quite miraculous in a human being, a marvel, and as such must, as the saying goes, be seen to be appreciated. The Thorndou Baths, about which frequent inquiries have been made of late, are almost, if not quite completed, and will be opened shortly, the promoters of the institution having advertised for some person to take the management of it. Many persons will hail this announcement with pleasure, as the opening of these baths will relieve a want severely felt by a large , section of the public who regard a dionnal swim aa a necessary of life, particularly in the summer months. A few there are so fond of water as to indulge in swimming during the winter. The Thorndon baths are well situated, both aa to the convenience of a large part of the public and as to the healthiness of the locality, the water there being free from any town excrement. Moreover, the baths take in a largo area, so that almost any number of persons can be accommodated at one time, and every care has been taken with a view to the comfort of bathers. The bath will be largely patronised, as numerous inquiries have been made as to when the work of fencing and building was likely to be completed, and we are now well into the summer months. Wellington has now a salt-water bath at each end of the town, so that there will be no reason to complain of a want of means for bathing in safety and comfort. Mr. Davies continues to draw large audiences at the Theatre Eoyal. We say Mr. Davies draws, because he is the chief attraction, the sauce that gives flavor to the entertainment. To say this is not to detract from the merits of the other performances, but the popularity that Mr. Davies’s entertainments have attained is, without doubt, owing to himself. On Saturday night he appeared before a large and thoroughly appreciative audience, and his performances seemed to be superior to those previously witnessed by the Wellington public. This may be accounted for by the fact that he introduced a number of new and original witticisms, some of which were really brilliant. Mr. Davies’s jokes are not of a stock character, which is the case with most jokes that are shot at the public from the stage, and it is in this continual freshness and original humor that the attraction lies. Any person who may attend the performance three times out of the week, is not expected on each occasion to distend his cheeks and convulse himself with mirth at some joke handed down from one or two back generations, but has ample opportunity for genuine amusement in listening to the rich humor Mr. Davies plays off through the medium of his . little figures, in regarding which, it becomes almost impossible to think of them as being anything but human, so complete is the imposition, and each of the characters have distinguishing points about their dialect and manner of conversation, which are never departed from by any chance, however rapidly the dialogue may be carried on. Thus, when “Joe” interrupts the Dutchman, there can be no doubt that “Joe” is speaking, though he happens to occupy an obscure position behind a. chair, because “Joe’s” remarks are always so much to the point, and his brogue is so thoroughly genuine. It may be safely asserted that Mr. Davies has few equals and fewer superiors ; and it should not be necessary to advise the public to take advantage of his stay amongst us, which will be limited, to witness Ids entertainment.

The opening paragraph in the European Mail says :—“ The first mail for conveyance, via San Francisco, under the new contract will bo made up in London on Thursday, October 21, and thenceforward the mails will be despatched from London on the evening of every fourth Thursday. Arrangements have been made at Washington by which the journey from New York to San Francisco will be reduced to six days. It should be noted that October 25 is the day on which mails are made up by the P. and O. route, via Southampton, and that the mails, via Brindisi, are despatched a week afterwards, as showing that the service, via San Francisco, runs too close upon that carried on by the P. &O. Company. Indeed, the opinion is pretty general hero that the arrangements as to dates might bo improved, especially when it is remembered that the mails by the Queensland service are made up but five days before those via San Francisco. Thus the colonies will have the mails tumbling in one upon the other. The new service is evidently arranged with the view to anticipate the Brindisi route.”

According to the European Mail, “great satisfaction is expressed at the arrival of the Strathmore at Otago, after being 107 days out. A premium of ten guineas had been paid on her at Lloyd’s. A. premium of eighty guineas has been paid on the Strathnaver. It will be remembered that she left Sydney on April 27, for Loudon. She was consequently 156 days out on September 30.” This satisfaction would be intensified here only for the fact that the Strathmore has not yet, sad to say, arrived.

In reference to a rumored attack of Waikatos on the Taupo natives which we mentioned some time ago, it is pleasant to know that the rumor was without foundation. In the first place, the party supposed to be aggrieved were not Waikatos ; and secondly, the party aggrieved have not come down as threatened. In a recent number of the Scientific American, there is a wonderful illustration, entitled “ Bridge over the Waitaki River, New Zealand,” with a railway train crossing the said bridge in fine style. The Daily Times thinks the illustration must be somewhat puzzling to Otago people, as it bear's not the slightest resemblance to the railway bridge now in course of construction over the Waitaki. The puzzle, however, is explained by a statement that the illustration has been supplied by Millar, F.S.A., whose design for the bridge, we may state, was not accepted. A correspondent, writing to the Standard, says :—“On inquiring at the General Postoffice I was informed that the Now Zealand mail would be due on August 23. Not receiving a letter, I inquired again, and was told that the mail had missed the steamer at San Francisco, and was not expected till September 6. Now lam informed it will he in on the 13th. Is is not a disgrace to the Postoffice authorities that one of our most flourishing colonies, New Zealand, with a population of 299,800, should not have a regular mail running as there is to India?” The Wailcato Times, by the courtesy of McGregor Hay, Esq., has been permitted to see a curious relic of “ Old New Zealand” in the form of a copy of the Wellington Independent of date January 21st, 1846. The imprint of the paper shows that it was then “ printed and published every Wednesday morning by William Edward Vincent, Thomas McKenzie, James Muir, and George Fellingham, Lamb-ton-quay, Wellington, Port Nicholson, New Zealand.” The title of the paper, the Wellington Independent, is printed in rustic letters upon a black scroll, with a central design .representing a beehive, surrounded by a floral decoration. The motto is, “Nothing extenuate or set down ought in malice.” It has no page headings, it is about crown size, four pages, .with four thirteen em columns in each,, and is printed in bourgeois and minion. There are altogether about four and a-half columns of advertisements, two and a-half on the front page, and two on the second. The shipping news records the arrivals and departures of a few cutters and schooners. There were in port three schooners, two brigs and a French whaling ship. The shipping paragraphs contain information regarding the building of, a schooner of twenty tons by Mr. Mathieson at Wanganui, and another by Captain Taylor and Mr. Watt of thirty-five to forty tons, at the same place. The leading article commences, “We are still without recent news from Auckland.” It goes on to refer to the expected arrival of “Captain Grey,” (the present leader of the Opposition,) and the claims for compensation to be submitted to him by settlers. The article says : “It is not merely theholdersof laud-orderswhich were Unavailable as a means of acquiring possession of land who have suffered; it is also those who have been induced by the representations of the New Zealand Company, hacked since 1840 by the sanction of the Government, to emigrate to this place, either as laborers capitalists, in the belief that they might find this a profitable field far the employment of labor and of capital, and whose expectations have been falsified.” How completely the condition of the colony has been altered since that time ! The arrival of two whaleboats with wool is made a subject of congratulation, and the Independent says : “We believe that there will be more than five tons of wool exported from Port Nicholson, instead of four tons as previously stated.” This reads comically enough at the present time. There is also in the same issue a reference to the progress of the war against Hoani Heke. The rebels not having assented to Captain Grey’s terms, he was about to send reinforcer ments of troops and militia, and the war was to be resumed with vigor. There is next a report of a debate in the House of Commons on a vote for a sum of £22, 565 for the Colony of New Zealand. In this report we find Mr. Roebuck saying :—“ He was convinced that with a little care they might strike out a self-sustaining system of colonisation. Let there he a Governor and Executive Council appointed by the Crown, and a Legislative Assembly by the colonists. Let there be the Legislature, and the administration be the Governor, with the advice, not by the consent of the Council. Let the colonists in local matters govern themselves. He entreated the Government not to allow an hour to pass before they formed a uniform system for the colony.” Sir Robert Peel, referring to the Legislative Council, said; — “In some way or other it ought to represent the public opinion of the colony.” Judging from the following remarks there must have existed a singularly happy agreement between the various denominations : “Mr. Hindly complained that the present Bishop of New Zealand had consecrated for the exclusive burial ef Protestants, a portion of the cemetery which had hitherto been used for the interment of the inhabitants of the colony generally, without regard to religious distinctions.” We gather some curious facts from advertisements. In those days William Fitzherhert sold groceries, whaler’s slops and hoop iron. Robert Watt, Esq., father of the manager of the National Bank at Hamilton, occupied almost halt the advertising space as a merchant.