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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5143, 17 September 1877, Page 2

The following memo, has been received from Dr. Lemon :—Adelaide, 3 sth. The cable ship was repairing the cable yesterday. Through communication has just been restored (12.15 p.ra.) There are no Press messages. Have asked Singapore if there are any. A rumor was afloat in town last night that the Evening Post had received some more “ special cable war news ” running as follows : —“ Prom the Emperor Alexander, Ployesti, to the proprietors of the Evening Post, Wellington.—Gentlemen, —Accept from the bed of sickness on which you have placed me assurances of my thanks and those of Heaven and Holy Russia for the anticipatory victory you gave my arms by announcing the battle of Plevna ten days before it began, and the fall of that place prematurely. Put me down as a subscriber to your valuable paper. The difficulty I have experienced in raising the last forced internal loan prevents my forwarding you my subscription in advance, but to gentlemen of your well-known enterprise the security of Russia, doubted though it be by English financiers, will I am certain be held sufficient.” Another “ special cable war news ” runs :—“Erom Brigham Young to the proprietors of the Evening Post. Gentlemen, lam not dead. Your kindness in announcing my decease, however, has emboldened me to put you down as subscribers of 500 dols. to the Temple.” And yet a third telegram was from his Holiness Pirns the Ninth, stating that he was never bettor in his life ; but that if the Post had sold a few Extras extra by announcing how ill he was, he did not mind so long as the proceeds of the sale were devoted as Peter’s Pence.” Intelligence has been received in town that Corpe’s sawmill near Carterton and two cottages were burned down on Thursday last. It is not stated whether the property was insured or not, but in any case it is supposed that the proprietor is a heavy loser, as if insured it would not be for the full value. An instance of the grim irony of events is furnished in the fact that one of the first motions on the Order Paper to be at the City Council to-morrow is one of which notice was given by Mr. Cleland before that gentleman ceased to bo a Councillor. At the Resident Magistrate’s Court on Saturday there were no criminal cases. On the civil side, before W. Hickson, R. J. Duncan, and J. Martin, Esquires, judgment was given for plaintiffs for the amounts claimed, with coats, in the following cases:—Phillips v. Sawyer, £1 17s. 4d.; Thomson and Nevin v. Kershaw, £3 ; Jameson Brothers v. Cook, £l2 ss, 3d.; Baker v. Moody, £1 Is. The following gentlemen have been duly elected to serve as Councillors in the Municipal Council of Napier ;— Messrs. J. Roohfort, E. Tuxford, J. H. Vautier, J. W. Neal, G. 11. Swan, G. E. Lee, H. Williams, G. Faulkner, and J. Dinwiddie.

A youug man named Moran, who has been frequently brought up at the Resident Magistrate’s Court for various offences, was arrested at the Upper Hutt on Saturday, and brought into town on the charge of being a suspected lunatic. Ihe Bine Arts Exhibition at St. George’s was very well patronised on Saturday evening, as indeed it usually is, the combined attractions of the exhibition itself and the performances of the Variety Troupe being evidently highly appreciated. ... The grand concert in aid of the Karori parsonage fund will take place this evening at the Odd Fellows’ Hall, under the patronage of his Excellency the Governor and Lady'Vormanby. The programme is a most attractive one, and is of itself sufficient to draw a full house. The lecture at the Congregational Church this evening will be on the very interesting subject of “ Natural Typology,” by his Worship the Mayor. Sir George Grey was announced to take the chair, but we regret to learn that owing to a severe cold he has been obliged to intimate his inability to attend. Mr. Eees, M.H.K., has kindly consented to take the chair instead. There was a very good attendance at the Theatre Royal on Saturday evening, when the drama of the “ Green Hills of the Far West ” was performed in a very creditable manner. The Vaudeville Troupe also highly entertained their audience. Onzalo, the ferial evolutionist in one of his flights, failing to catch the trapeze, fell, but was fortunately not hurt, and gelling up immediately as if nothing had happened, resumed his part of the performance. At a grand fancy dress ball lately given in Melbourne, we learn from the Australasian that a sufficient number of unbidden guests were present 'to render it necessary for the Mayor to take notice of the presence of intruders and require them to withdraw. The fact would not demand full publicity were it not that more than one of the persons called upon to retire had previously been refused tickets. For some time past it has not been an uncommon thing for gentlemen who have received in Rations to accept them, and then pass them on to friends when they find they can’t go themselves. The Mayor resolved that such an example should be made of the few unwelcome guests who could be picked out as to put a wholesome check ou what he regarded as a very unworthy practice. The names of some three or four of the intruders were the subject of common talk in the ballroom, but it is not necessary to publish them. The dirty product known as tar is the Africa of the chemist. Everyone who dips into it and make explorations is sure to find a new substance to reward him for his trouble. Those who were earliest in the field came upon paraffine, solar oil, creosote, and then followed a long line of exquisite colors ; this branch of the subject being apparently exhausted, more skilful chemists discovered carbolic acid, and, subsequently, a way of manufacturing salicylic acid ; then followed a whole progeny of sweet od u s, including artificial oil of winter green, all of which were made from the noisome tar ; finally, a German chemist has found in the creosote of beechwood a substance ont of which he has produced, by means of chloroform and excess of soda-lye, a fragrant substance closely resembling in flavor and odor the celebrated vanilla bean. The new product is called vailline, and it is already extensively used as a substitute for the native vanilla for all purposes where the bean was formerly employed. There is in Paris a vast establishment--the most extensive of its kind in the world—where the imitation of pearls, diamonds, and precious stones generally is carried on with all the skill which modern ingenuity renders possible. . The sand upon which the whole art depends is found in the forests of Fontainebleau. False pearls are liued with wax and scales of the roach and dace, which have to be Stripped from the fish while living, in'order to retain the peculiar glistening hue. The setting is always of real gold, and the fashion of the newest kind. It has been represented to the commissioners for Victoria at the Paris Exhibition that many intending exhibitors who have no representatives in the French metropolis.have agents in London. It has therefore been determined to send from Paris to Lon don, after the close of the Exhibition in the former city, at the cost and risk of their respective ovners, all the exhibits which the commissioners have been requested to so forward. An enterprising speculator has purchased Man-field Island, an islet in Lake Erie, which he proposes to devote exclusively to the cultivation of cats. He will stock it with (say) 1000 toms and tabbies, and bid them increase and multiply ; then, when the stock needs thinning out, he will proceed to take the lives >f as many as may have ripened, utilising their skins and intestines for commercial purposes. Another Australian-named horse has won a race at home ; Parramatta, by Victorious from Adelaide, the property of Colonel Forrester, won the Ashtead Stakes at Epsom the day before the Derby, being a weight-for-age selling race of 200 sovereigns, with a sweep of ten ; Parramatta, a brown horse, 5 years old, carried 9st. lllbs., and was sold for 400 guineas after the race to Mr. Grain, who again sold him to a Mr. L. Davis. The second horse was the Earl of Lonsdale’s Oxonian, aged, 9st. Slbs.; and the third was Mr. Bash’s Bei'zelius, two years old, 7st. The Solicitor's Journal publishes some interesting remarks on the position of neutrals and belligerents, as affected by the introduction of torpedoes as a means of harbor defence. The efficacy of such a protection depends of course upon the position of the torpedoes being kept secret from the enemy, and the Russians have accordingly issued regulations with the object of preventing this secrecy from being endangered in the admission of neutral vessels to the protected ports and in their departure therefrom. All such vessels are to be piloted through the line of torpedoes by a Russian crew, and tiie crews and passengers of these vessels must not watch the course taken, but must, it is presumed, remain below. Inasmuch, however, as these precautions would be obviously inadequate as long as the ships of the other belligerent remain in a position to watch the course taken by the Russian pilots, it is further announced that no neutral ship would be allowed to enter or leave the protected ports so long as any enemy’s ships of war are in sight, and the Turks have been formally appealed to to retire their ships ont of sight during such time as may be necessary for the removal of neutral ships. This demand is made, it is said, “ in view of a state of affairs new in maritime warfare, and consequently not foreseen by international law;” and we have not yet learned what reply the Turks intend to make to it. It is not, however, easy to see what consideration is here offered to a belligerent for consenting thus to accommodate his conduct to a novelty in maritime warfare which operates wholly against himself and in favor of his enemy. If these torpedo rules of the Russians should prevent neutrals from entering or leaving Russian ports, unless the Turks assist to carry out the rules in the obliging manner expected of them, the effect, as the writer we quote from justly remarks, will be that the Russian torpedoes will supply the place of a Turkish blockading squadron. But in that case so much the better for the Turks. If they can force their enemy to blockade his own ports in the attempt to protect them against Turkish ships of war, we know of no argument from the point of view of international right by which he can be fairly called upon to forego his advantage. The other belligerent has certainly no right to claim any such sacrifice ; and as for neutrals, they might as well insist on the raising of an ordinary blockade on the ground that it was prejudicial to neutral interests. A boy belonging to one of the ships of the Channel Squadron, the Lord Warden, recently fell from the mizzentop, a height of nearly 100 ft. He struck against the lower rigging, and- rebounded overboard. Captain Preemantle was on the quarterdeck and saw the occurrence, and knowing that the boy would be stunned and sink, he instantly dived off the deck into the water, and succeeded in grasping him and bringing him to the surface.

The Timaru Herald reports thaton the runs and farms hear the coast in that'district the lambing season is now well advanced, and promises to be a very satisfactory one. ' The percentage of latnba 19 above the aveiage, while at the same time they are remarkably strong and healthy. A singular instance (says the Melbourne Age) of the curious disposition shown by prisoners in gratifying their propensities whilst * undergoing confinement, occurred at the Pentridge stockade recently, where, to the astonishment of the officials, some prisoners employed as bakers and cooks were observed to be under the influence of something stronger than gaol water. The only information our local correspondent could gain on the subject was that ' a quantity of yeast is used in the prison bakehouse, a double allowance being supplied on every Saturday. Whether the prison baker is an adept in the art of baking or not, it is evident the yeast underwent some process to make it drinkable, and the grey jackets induced too freely in their new beverage, ihe authorities will probably take precautionary measures to prevent a repetition of the affair. Mr. Henry Thomas, formerly a member of the Municipal Council of Sydney, and by trade an undertaker, has come into a very large fortune. The Sydney papers state that he has proved his right and title to an estate in Glamorganshire valued at £-130,000 and the rightful possessor of the sum of £500,000 in Chancery. One of the principal proofs of his identity was the copy of a letter brought with him from his father to Mr. Thomas Walker, of Yaralla, Concord, in 1823, fifty-four years ago. Statistics show that in twelve months 4i known deaths from starvation occurred in London. The Standard, commenting on the fact, says :— “Presenting itself as it does at the height of the London season, and when the metropolis is the scene of pleasure, opulence, and expenditure never before witnessed in the history of mankind, the _ document comes upon us, we must confess, with all the shook of .the proverbial skeleton at the banquet.’' .