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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4949, 1 February 1877, Page 2

We are happy to state that the Wellington Jockey Club have very wisely intimated to the .Government that they will be willing to pay the sum asked, namely, interest on an outlay,pf £175,. and that they. will: also be prepared.to fit up a room.in ,the Grand Stand for on condition that a line of wire is carried from the Hutt station to the racecourse. The names of three gentlemen who, have agreed to become sureties have been sub-' mitted to the Government, and the work will be proceeded with at once ; indeed, we might almost say has been already commenced.' Wellington will soon be , filled with visitors from every part, of , the colony, and many of them will no doubt spend a good deal of time for two days onj the racecourse, and. while enjoying themselves; at the Hutt will find it a great comfort and convenience to be able to communicate at any moment, with' eyery part,of the colony, as the Government stipulate very properly that the office shall be open to the general public.- We, repeat that the stewards have done their duty in meeting the Government:and aiding in carrying out : an arrangement that will enable the public to enjoy a luxury they are entitled to, and- which’ we feel,.certain will be appreciated by the • sporting, .world. It, may, bp . added; that • the •request of the stewards for the loan of a watercart by the... Corporation fpr the purpose of. .preparing a training ground, baa been refused, 1 In Sri address replying to addresses j from clergy,,' and laity the new Bishop of Melbourne. said “ In; your address -you j have also, said dur Church is a , comprehensive institution; I particularly remarked that phrase, - because ! believe it' to be profoundly ' true.: Therd are'severa! reasons why the’ Church- is distinguished by this characteristic., One is that her,constitution allows great diversity of opinion on doctrinal points to exist within her, pale Without destroying her unity, i (Applause;) - When coming here I was in company with a celebrated dissenting divine, and;: on; one occasion. he said' toj me.'that our Church was'fqftuhate in qot : having to define inspiration.' The position taken up by the Church necessarily leaves room for considerable diversity of opinion. 1 Our constitfition makes ua .comprehensive, and we cannot' hdlp oursplVes. One * illustration of my meaning' is found in' the articles' of dur’-Church, which say that aman must not use his own pride in the ekamination: of dogmas,—but-must -take-them: in their literal and grammatical; senses.' [That that may not be very • clear is shown by a, passage in Bishop' BUmett’s ‘Descent into Hell,’ where he said that the jwotd; ‘Hades’ has three meanings, viz.;.Vai' 'jjrave,a' place for . departed- spirits prior to; resurrection, and a place of punishment.-;; If.you ask which of-the- three -meanings you are to accept, no anawer, can be given, becajuseif y»U accept one you would be placing youf own , private interpretation, upon .the .ariicle.and flying, in the face of the .Injunction which says tJjat,[yo,u their .gTamipatisal .Therjefdi^ when you,say .that the.C^upCfl.W rive dpatltntion, ,iadp»lttli»g; many [ shades of hdlief, I can heartily,,join ( with'fjou, and say

that I have also come to the same conclusion. (Applause.) Since my arrival here I have hpard that one of the great wants of the Church in the diocese is the necessity for supplying ministers of sufficient culture to keep abreast of >the‘times. I cannot say .that I have had much experience ,of the clergy of Melbourne.,; 1 Biit I have seeij, some , pulpits filled and also heard some sermons;',and .Rasked his Excellency whether they were fair-specimens of the sermons usually heard in the colony. If the Governor had replied in the affirmative, I .would have said “that : the sermons I heard were above the average sermons.

-The programme -of the Wairarapa race meeting appears in this Issue. .

The ordinary fortnightly meeting of the City Council .will be held.this afternoon at 4 o’clock.

We notice that another lot of books, novels and works of travel, have been added to the already .valuable collection in the Wellington Athenaeum, i- ■"”>■■■

The annual; meeting- of: the 'Wellington Trust, Loan, and Investment Society .takes ;place to-night. It will be seen by our advertising columns that Mr. Geo. Allen is a candidate for the office of director.

Our representative on board the s.s Wanaka telegraphs from Hokitika yesterday as follows: ;—“We leave,for Milford Sound ■ to-day, and shall arrive at the Bluff next Wednesday.!’ A painful accident-happened to a lad named .Grammar, who had one of his fingers cut off while playing with a chaff J cutting machine at Palmerston North last week.

The following tenders have been received by the Public Works Department for the rolling stock contract Amberley-Waitaki railways:— Accepted—Walter Hogg, Christchurch, £359. H. Kerr, 1 Christchurch, £380; Scott Bros., Christchurch, £474, It will be seen by our telegram from Auckland that the English team is victorious by one innings and 22 runs. '.Wellington cannot do much worse than this at any rate..,-’ The English cricketers leave for Wellington to-day. As might have been expected, the Theatre Royal was well attended last evening in dresscircle, stalls, and -pit, and the grand bill announced was played with signal success, Miss Lingard, in addition to her .well-known capabilities as an actress, • displaying such musical powers as astonished while they charmed all present. .To-night “Married in Haste” will be produced. The s.s. Hawea, which sailed from this! port for Lyttelton, had not arrived there up to the time the Telegraph Office closed last night. She sailed from'here at 3.15 p.m. on -Tuesday, and should a*: the least have arrived at Lyt: telton before noon yesterday. ’ The weather was fine in the’ interim,' and no fears for her safety are entertained.- . Probably she met with a slight accident, and arrived late last evening. ■■■■■■:■•

At early, morning yesterday frequent inquiries were made as to the reason of the shipping displaying their ensigns half-mast.' From inquiries : made; by our reporter, it appeared that at 8 o’clock last evening there died a seaman’ belonging to the ship Leicester named Benjamin Jones. He had been ailing throughout the passage from consumption, and six weeks ago was compel’ed to lay aside hia duties, , shortly after arrival having to go to the Hospital, , . A man .named George Henry Thompson was arrested yesterday afternoon on a charge of stealing from the shop of McDowell and Co. one pair of trousers. He was taken to the station, the trousers having been secured as well as the ticket upon which was the private mark of the firm. Prisoner was searched, and upon his person were found thirteen pipes; all new, and which afterwards were discovered to be the property of' Mr. Rowley. Prisoner was accommodated with a cell after being subjected to the usual form of searching. The crew of the ship Avalanche were out yesterday and the day before in search of the boats and the bodies Dfrthe men lost on Anniversary Day. They stayed on Somes Island all night, . and early yesterday morning they proceeded with the grappling operations. At about 11.30 a.m. something was hooked and lifted several fathoms, but, Owing to the heavy ?ea running, had to be let go again, It was afterwards made fast to a buoy. Mr. Bowling, the chief officer, is now confident that he has found.one of the boats, and , will try and raise her-at the first favorable opportunity.

There were few- civil cases at the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday. One case, Bilby v. Lombard, was heard before Messrs. : Holt and The ’’claim was for £ls Isa;,,for,the'allegal detention of a boat belonging to the ketch Otaki. Mr. Lombard is the captain of the yacht Secret, and Mr. Bilby is ; the -captain of-the Otaki. 'lt appears that Lombard and others belonged to, the yacht Secret, and on getting up one morningjthey found a dingy tied to the stern of their vessel. They tried to discover the owner, and at last they, found that the boat was the property of the.owners of the ketch Otaki, and handed it •over to them. The latter now sought to remover the sum ■ above ' mentioned from the former for detaining the boat, but as there was no evidence to. show that the defendant had taken the boat, the plaintiff was nonsuited, with costs. ’ . - ■ ' >

A telegram in another column mentions ■ that despite rumors to that effect no case of srdall-pox has yet been discovered in the city •of Sydney. Some days ago the Herald said;— “ The most absurd rumors are current as to the .existence of this malady, in Sydney. Everybody whose child is affected with chicken-pox,, or even with prickly heat, sends to the medical officers of the Government with the information ■ that another case of small-pox has appeared. It is not. necessary to tell persons of common sense or experience that every eruptive’complaint is not small-pox; but it is extraordinary how far imagination will carry people. The fact is that outside the locality around Miller’s Point, already proclaimed as .'a quavahtine' ground, there is not .known to be a single! case of smallpox, in-Sydney. It was intended by the authorities to burn down, the rooms in which .the Holden family live. They, however; occupy but two rooms at the end of a building. which is used as a kind of store, and which contains a considerable quantity of, ship stores, furniture, diving apparatus, &c: i The: two rooms which have? constituted the dwell- . ing-house, of the family have been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, and it is a matter for future consideration what the Government will do'with the store and its contents. To ensure ah .obedience of the , directions, of the health authorities, Mr. .Inspector Read, of the police, has given his personal superintendence, and he has.seen that strict quarantine has been (kept, and everything done to check the spread of the .contagion.’’ ( • ■:*'V" j ... -.(A model, half-lifp size, of the heroic statue, of:Captain Cook, which is to be placed lon a pedestal, 36ft. high, in. Hyde Park, Sydney, has recently been finished. ; The statue, which is . already advanced in ; the clay, is to be in bronze; and 13ft. in height, and will be placed So that it may be seen by all the ships , which’ enten the harbor. ; ,of : Sydney,, where it| .will' appropriately commemorate; the discovery of the; country, and testify to the honor in which 1 Cook’s memory is held in,the polony, j The . Athenceum,,B&ya jrrVThe action is appropriate to the circumstances and the history of the man and the place, the design being extremely impressive. , The idea is that;.Cook, on the-deck" ,b£, his ship, was looking through his telescope, 1 When the high ooastlineof New South Wales was by the shifting of vapor, ,or some pther|aocident suddenly revealed. This idea ds ad' mirable,’, and admirably expressed. Crook’s large and lofty form, his massive, solid, square, severe,., and handsome. face, with its large, masculine, and bold its dignified expression, andi its? noble, intelligence, ihave .been supplied by Flaxman’a exquisite model and Dance’s portrait, and Mr. Woolner never bad-better materials,!iwnmdabrtteninwof an; ■ opportunity, than rim this .case. . It is. a. firstrate work, sure to be remarkedat the Academy next year.for which gathering, the model .is,» wo presume, designed.; Tho c/e7r,aud admirable balance; of the t figure,, the, spontaneity m.the ’ design,itho learned and complete f ,mode .ojfjthe. execution, so far as we yet sop it, are. .beyond praise." . ■ .;" J-t < ■ rr

A meeting of the provisional committee of the Alliance Fire Insurance Company is called for this evening at the Post Office Hotel.

The Melbourne Herald is informed that in a private letter of a late date from the Cape of Good Hope this startling intelligence is conveyed “ The town (Cape Town) is in a state ef the most intense excitement, in consequence of the unfortunate affair of the Cora troupe. Business with them had been very good, and everything looked pleasant for a successful season. All of a sudden the whole town was thrown into a state of the greatest excitement by the news that Madame Cora, in a fit' of jealousy, had strangled to death the young vocalist. Miss Alice Wren (sister of Mrs. F, M. Bates, the actress). Madame Cora has since been sentenced to death, but the penalty was afterwards commuted to three years’ imprisonment, with solitary confinement. Mr. Bushe (Cora’s husband) has gone to England, and Val Vbse, the ventriloquist, has formed a company and gone into the interior,” ;

, It is feared that the number of salmon originally hatched out has been over-estimated, and that as the percentage of bad ova was so small, Canterbury did not receive its fair share of the consignment'from San Francisco. ' The_ Times says :— Up to the present time 23,000 young salmon have been liberated, and it has been ascertained that not more than -25,000 remain in the hatching boxes and feeding races in the gardens. It is true that a number of the salmon escaped from the hatching boxes Into the stream which ring through the fish-house.; but even , allowing for this, the total comes far short of what it should be. In addition .to this, it was stated at the meeting of the Acclimatisation Society the other day that whan the salmon ova were despatched from. San Francisco ithe United States Fish Commissioners sent a special lot of 50,000 ova as a present to the Canterbury Society, and if this was really done the Council of the Society are anxious to know what, became of ■ the; ova. No doubt the whole matter will be fully inquired into. We were much gratified a day or two since by a visit to the workshop of Cutler and Co. (late" Cutler and Moore) to see and hear anew oblique trichord piano, constructed entirely by them. Many of our readers would scarcely be able to tell an oblique from an ordinary cottage piano externally, only by its being so much longer, but on opening it would find the internal arrangements far different. The strings are set obliquely from left to right, whereas in a cottage they are perpendicular. ‘ The. object in view is to obtain a much more powerful tone; the bass string of an oblique piano being about one foot longer than is the ordinary cottage ; the back or bracings run the same way as the wires, and the back is supported by four compensating iron bars. It has a metallic bent side plate, and everything is made as strong as possible. In addition to a forte pedal there is a soft or celeste pedal, not usual in this description of instrument. The wood used was all imported in plank and worked up here, and the ironwork was all cast in Wellington. When placed in company with instruments from the best English factories, for appearance it compares favorably,, and we have been given to understand that competent judges have given very flattering .testimony as,'to its tone and touch. The price is not'higher than that of an English piano, of the same quality ; and if the firm can turn out such instruments, there seems no reason why there should not be a ready sale for them. ’ With regard to Mr. Balance's speech the Manawdtu Times says Mr. Ballance remarks that Government are eager enough to deal with such bodies as the Emigrants and Colonists’ Aid Corporation of Feilding. . Now the reason of this wfe believe to be that dealing with such . bodies lessens the trouble and responsibility of carrying, out the deferred-payment system.. With the Feilding Corporation the Government deals as with an individual, and is spared the labor of working out the details of the deferred payment system, which labor devolves upon the Corporation. 1 Therefore we say, let the Small Farm Associations transform them-. selves intobodies corporate having legal' existence as such, and let them have their affairs managed - as-- those - of - such -bodies are — 1 by’ directors Chosen from among the shareholders. Let the Corporation ; alone be responsible to - Government ; let the Crown grant be issued in favor of the Corpora-' tion; and let the division of the block and the collection of the rents, &c., be undertaken by: the'Corporation. This would render the,“cooperation” of which Mr. Ballance speaks a real co-operation, whereas at present it is only nominal, the Small Farm Associations being merely the “fortuitous concourse, of atoms’’ between which there 1 is no other connection or interdependence "than "that of companionship.; We. merely throw out this suggestion in the hope' that it may. be discussed, ; and therefore we shall not go into details, for the consideration of which there will be plenty of time be--fore Parliament meets • or a Land - Bill is brought forward* ' , . A resident of Dunedin has, under the nom de plume of “ Economy,” written us a letter, complaining of the wasteful extravagance of the late Provincial Government *in police administration in Otago. We have not space for his ' letter as a whole, but give the salient parts of it. He says:—“ We have in Otago one commissioner, four inspectors, one Sub-inspector, eighteen sergeants, two acting-sergeants, and about ninety constables. It is not to the latter grade I wish to call your, sir, but to the salaiies of the commissioner and his officers. ' In Dunedin alone," we have— One commissioner, who costs the Government at least £916 per annum;- viz.y salary, £550 ; constable and orderly, at 9s. 2d. per diem, £166 ; house, fuel, and light, at least £IOO ; horse, forage, and-travelling expenses may reasonably be' estimated at < £IOO. Inspector: ’salary, £350 ; quarters, fuel," and light,'£7s; total, £125. ■ Sergeant-major, £300; chief clerk to the commissioner, £325; second clerk, £215 2s, 6d. ;'third clerk, £166; clerk to the inspector, £166 ; three first-class sergeants, at 11s. 6d. per diem, £645 3s. 6d.; one second-class sergeant, £2Ol ls.--.6d.; two senior constables or acting-.. sergeants,at 9s. per diem, £336 10s. Grand total, £3572105;—a sum sufficient to maintain an average police force in One of the other; provinces. 1 The number of constables stationed in. Dunedin and the suburbs I am certain does not exceed twenty ; yet it requires two officers, one sergeant-major, four sergeants, and two acting-sergeants to see that they perform their duty. . . . The same extravagance is visible in the country districts. . . Now that retrenchment is the order of the day with the Government at Wellington, I think something might be done with a view to reduce this wasteful and lavish expenditure.” .Commenting on the gold returns for .1876 ‘the, Argus, says When we consider what gold has done for this colony—how its attractions were the means of transforming in an Incredibly short period of time a primitive community into a highly organised society withrsomo pretensions to rank as a nation, we feel that any information concerning it has an interest which doies not attach to the reports relating to other matters of commercial importance with which we are periodically furnished. ' Unfortunately, nowadays,. it is i only . a melancholy interest that : we .can take in raining operations./ A glance over the returns for .the last eleven years shows that, throughout that period, with only two exceptions, there has been a steady decline in the quantity of, 'gold produced. In 1871 'and-1872 the downward tendency was -arrested: for a . time, but 1873 ; saw the old course presumed,, and wo regret to-say that it, has since been followed without interruption. During 1866, 1,536,581 ounces of gold were obtained, while last, year only 937,260 ounces rewarded the labor of the “miners.'' This ■ shows a falling off in-the annual yield- : of 599,321: .ounces, . which,, at ,£4 per ounce, equals £2,397,284. However,, we will abandon any further comparison with the returns of ,11 years ago,,and see how matters stand between the .years 1875 and 1876. - In an article which appeared on the 13th January lost we showed that,the total yieldbf gold for jibe previous 12 months had been 1,058,823ez., or 43,7910 z. IeBS ;thah in 1874. 1 This was a . .very. considerable , falling off, but. it is not jnearly one-half of the qeficiency i'n 1876 as compared with 1875, During last year 606,221 ounces of • Victorian gold were”eX-'

ported according to the Customs returns ; 427,878 ounces were received at the Mint, and 71,467 ounces were held by the banks, on the 31st December last. These quantities together make 1,005,566 ounces. If from this we take 68,306 ounces, the quantity, held by the hanks on the Ist January, 1876, we arrive at 937,260 ounces as the yield for the twelve months just ended, or 121,563 ounces less than in 1875. Way Poison the Sice with, the liquors of commerce when a pure stimulant containing vegetable agents, which endow it with extraordinary, alterative, and strengthening properties, which never excites and invariably affords relief, is just as easily procured. If the patient is weak or nervous, his kidneys, stomach, or bowels out of order,' let him have recourse to that safest, surest,, and pleasantest of regulating tonics, Udolpho 'Wolfe’s Schiedam Aromatic Schnapps. - [Ad vt.]