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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5241, 10 January 1878, Page 2

A meeting of the Regatta Committee was held last night at the Pier Hotel, G. Hunter, Esq., M.H.il., in the chair. There were about forty persons present. Messrs. G. Hunter and Buchanan accepted the offices of. commodore and vice-commodore respectively. Captain Bose stated that the Mayor and himself intended to wait upon the Governor next morning to request.his Excellency’s patronage. Mr. C. A. Baker was appointed collector. The several canvassers present handed in a list of subscriptions received and promised. Messrs. L. Buhdell and J. Harding, £l2; Messrs. Hayes and Hill, £76 ; Captain Rose and Mr. Gaudy (Government offices), £ll ; Messrs. Renner, Coffey, Berg, and E. Dixon (Cook Ward), £l4. Sundry other small subscriptions, amounting to about £2O, were also acknowledged. Considering that the lists have only been in hand for two days, the, result so far shows well for the interest taken in the regatta, and more especially when it is considered that no returns have as yet been sent in from the canvassers appointed for Te Aro and Thorndon wards. The money prizes &c., were fixed for the various races, particulars of which will be duly advertised in a future issue. Cups were presented and promised by the New Zealand Shipping Com.pany, Shaw, Savill, and Go., the Xlnion Steamship, Company, Messrs. 'Dawson and Co., B, Cohen, and Koha and Co. The entrance fees were settled at the same rates as those of lust year. The entries were fixed to close on Thursday, the 17th inst., at the Pier. Hotel, at 8 p.m. -Messrs. Dewis Moss and R. Kent, who acted so efficiently at the last regatta, were appointed a wharf committee. Messrs. L. Blundell and J. B. Brown were selected from the committee to arrange details in connection with the flagship, &c. Captains Todd (of the St. Leonards), Mackelvie (of the Hurunui), and Messrs. G. Allen and J. R. Brown were appointed judges ; starters, Captains Holliday and Rose. Captain Brown, of the Mataura, and Mr. Coffey kindly undertook the measuring of yachts and the sealing of centre boards, in accordance with the rules. The sailing committee was appointed, consisting of the captains of vessels in port and Captains Holliday and Rose. The rules were discussed seriatim. One or two were expunged, and the following new ones were added, viz.:—One de-fining-a “junior’’and a “ maiden,” and one stipulating that each of rhe crew of any boat competing in the open boat sailing race be pi ovided with a life buoy orhelt. The secretary was instructed to write to the Premier, asking him to proclaim the day (22ud inst.) a public holiday. This was considered necessary inasmuch as since the abolition of the provinces ho provision has beeen made for continuing the day a holiday. We do not suppose that there will be any objection raised to this, because the day is not really the anniversary of the province, but of the colony. The secretary was empowered to settle all details in connection with printing; sale of booths, issuing race cards (the latter this time to be retained in : the hands of the Icommittee), and other matters, A vote of thanks to the chairman terminated the proceedings. The next meeting will be held on Monday next, the 14th inst., at the same time and place.

It is .just reported from ■ Adelaide that the Port Darwin line is down north of Alice Springs. It is reported that Mr. H. T. Curtis, a settler at the Upper Hutt, has'been missing from home for some days past, and his friends are anxious to know vvh at has become of him.

The committee of the Wellington Benevolent Institution met on Tuesday afternoon. Present—J. Woodward, Esq. (in the chair). Archdeacon Stock, Rev.'B. W. Harvey, Rev. R. Coffey, Messrs. J. G.' Holds worth, D. Lewis, L. Levy, and the secretary. Subscriptions received T. Whitehouse,.los.; E. Toomatb, £2 25.; C. P. Powlee, 10s. 6d.; J. G. Holdsworth, £1 Is.; L. Levy, £1 Is.; D, Lewis, £2 25.; H. C., £l. Several cases were considered and relieved. The annual meeting of subscribers was fixed for Tuesday, 15th inst.

The serenity of the Supreme Court proceedings yesterday was disturbed by unbecoming demonstrations on the part of the spectators. Mr. Barton had his bdfce noir. Detective Farrell, in the witness-box, and a lively crossexamination was raging. Perplexed with his cateohiser, Detective Farrell remarked, in explanation, “ I want to get at the truth,” which met with the extravagant response from Mr. Barton, “ I don't want the truth,” The confession might have fallen from a wig and gown in “Trial by Jury,” for the spectators laughed, cheered, and clapped their hands as though they were witnessing a stage representation of that burlesque. Mr. Barton looked sufficiently modest to suggest his acknowledgments ; the Crown Prosecutor seemed ruffled ; and his Honor looked in a manner threatening to annihilate all in front of him, and which certainly had the effect, of putting a termination to the unseemly manifestations. Such demonstrations, he said, would not be allowed, and if the Court officers would do their duty and bring the offenders before him, he would make an example of them. Subsequently, on an occupant of the gallery laconically signifying his opinion of a remark made by counsel, his Honor exclaimed, “I do not understand) this ; it is treating the Court as a theatre.”

At the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday, before J. 0. Crawford, Esq., R.M., John McAllister, charged with indecency and habitual drunkenness, was fined 405., with the alternative of seven days’hard labor, for the first offence, and for the second was ordered to be sent to gaol for a month without the option of a fine. A general meeting of the Star Boating Club was held on Tuesday afternoon at the boat sheds, when the following gentlemen were elected members of the club :—Messrs. J. S. M. Cowie, W. B. Scott, S. Buclcridge, 0. T. Batkin, andT. J. Mountain. Mr. Gair having, to the great regret of the club, resigned the secretaryship, Mr. E. C.: Batkin was elected to fill the office. Mr. Byton was elected to fill the ; vacancy in the committee, and Messrs. W. Fitzgerald and the secretary were deputed to represent the, club at the meetings of the Anniversary Regatta Committee. . The annual general meeting of subscribers to the Wellington Benevolent Institution will be held on Tuesday next, at half-past four at the Provincial Buildings, for the purpose of receiving the report and balancesheet, and for the election of officers, &c. When the lists are closed ’the names of the various; gentlemen who have subscribed so liberally already, and those: who have yet to come, will be duly acknowledged through the medium of ' the Press. The : Victorian . Insurance Company have issued a very handsome sheet almanac. The ornamental and illuminated lettering is very neatly executed. I ' Mr. John, Mitchell, an ,elderly man, who has been a resident for some time in Dunedin, met on Saturday morning with- a fatal accident. As he was driving along one of the streets ,at the north end- of the city ho fell from the cart on his head, breaking his neck. Dr, Gillies was called, and pronounced life to be extinct. The body was removed to the hospital, where a coroner's inquest was to have been held on Monday last.

We have received a copy of the “ Hawke’s Bay Almanack and Directory for 1878,” published by Messrs. Dinwiddle, Morrison, and Co., of the Herald office. . It is very neatly got up, and contains a large amount of useful local and other information. Another theatrical alliance has lately been concluded by a member of the Harrington family, the Hon. Wyndham Stanhope having married Miss Camille Dubois, Mr. Stanhope, says the TforW of the 7th November, who is somewhat out of health, sails this week for Australia, accompanied by his wife. The attempt to start a theatre company in Napier does not appear to have been attended with much success. The Hawke's Bay Herald of the 4th inst. states that at a meeting held the previous day it was proposed “That the company he wound up,” which was carried unanimously. It is somewhat singular, says the World, that Dr. Baxter ..angley, now imprisoned for fraud committed, first made bis mark when he was sub-editor of the old Morning Star by hunting down a swindler named Tucker, who was preying on the public. Mr. Baxter Langley, writing as “ A Man in the Street,” went for Tucker, and got him. A melancholy boating accident is reported from Ireland. Whilst Mr. Sullivan, son of the Irish Master of the Rolls, and Miss Exham, daughter of Mr. Exham, Q. 0., were enjoying a sail on Tuesday at the well-known wateringplace of Bray, the boat upset and both occupants were drowned. The Birmingham Mail says ;—The Floating Church floated by the .Bishop of Lichfield is nearly completed, and will be in use in a few days on the canals within his Lordship’s diocese. It is built boat fashion, but is much larger than an ordinary cabin boat. It is calculated to comfortably .hold eighty persons. Tlie church will cost between £3OO and £4OO. “ Vanity Fair” states upon what it believes to be reliable authority, that the strategical plans for recent movements of the Russian army, which have been 'so much more successful than the previous ones, were prepared at Berlin by the most eminent living strategist, and that the future conduct of the campaign will, to a great extent, be guided by his advice.

Sir Charles Sladeu (says the Melbourne Aye) made a somewhat unhappy allusion in his vehement speech in the Legislative Council recently against the second reading of the Appropriation Bill. He ouoted from a speech made by Mr. Vogel in the New Zealand Legislature some years ago, when discussing the mode of providing for the payment of the members of that body, and endeavored to show that the feeling there was decidedly opposed to the practice of including the sum in the Estimates. Mr. Vogel was of opinion that it was unfair to the Upper House of the Legislature to deal with the item by resolution and appropriation, and promised that during the session following the “ honorarium” allowed to members should be provided for by Bill. Mr. Cuthbert asked if that Bill was ever brought in, and Sir Charles Sladen was obliged to acknowledge, not only that it had not, but also that no attempt had ever been made in New Zealand to provide for payment of members otherwise than by means of the Appropriation Bills. “Atlas” in the World says :—“The King of Holland has, I hear, determined upon contracting a morganatic marriage with a dramatic star of small magnitude, known on the boards by the name of Mademoiselle Emilie d’Ambre, for whom the King has obtained from a neighboring serenity the title of Comtesse d'Ambroise. It is to enjoy a life of domestic happiness with his beautiful young wife that his Majesty has acquired an hotel in Paris,- to which he is sending his art-collections and other treasures! The marriage is expected to take place very shortly, and brilliant receptions are already spoken of for the coming winter.” ...

Some interesting and highly satisfactory experiments, says the Broad Arrow , were made on board the Oberon hulk at Portsmouth lately, for the purpose of ascertaining how, in case of war, merchant and mail steamers might be made available .as auxiliaries to the Royal Navy. The machinery of the steamers belonging to the mercantile marine not unfrequently rises twenty feet above the water-line, and if called upon to act as transports or patrols in case of hostilities breaking out, it is evident they might be paralysed by a shot penetrating into the engine-room or stokehole. How this danger can be provided against was more particularly the object of the experiments on board the Oberou. Two compartments were formed alongside the hulk by means of bulkheads extending from the main to, the upper deck. These compartments, which were each 17ft. Gin. in length, and 10ft. inwards, were filled with coal, No. 1 being filled with Welsh anthracite coal, and No. -2 with blocks of patent fuel. Through the bunkers thus formed, two boiler plates threeeighths of an inch thick were placed loosely through the coal in a vertical direction. This completed the experimental protection for the machinery. Three shots were fired against it from a 64-pouuder gun on board the Bloodhound gunboat, two against No. 1, and one against No, 2 compartment, at a range of about 200 yards. None of these got through. Four shells, containing a bursting charge of 7lbs., were next fired, one against No. 1, and three against No, 2 compartment, with the same result. They all penetrated the first loose plate, and one burst open the upper deck, but none succeeded in perforating the protection, nor was any portion of the coal set on fire by the burst. The result of the experiments was considered highly satisfactory. Among those present were Mr. Nathaniel Burnaby, director of naval construction; Admiral Boys, director of naval ordnance and Mr. W. B. Robinson and Mr. J. 0. Froyne, the chief constructor and constructor of the dockyard. Mr. H. Ward, writing to the Live Stoch Journal, says that an old sergeant who had had great experience in India cured his hand from the severe bite of a dog by pouring some pure liquor of ammonia into the wound, and afterwards by applying a diluted quantity of ammonia to: the wound with a piece of lint. 1 Mr. Ward says his hand was well by the end of the week. He adds; “I naturally had a conversation with the old sergeant, and I will give you part of it, thinking, it will interest some of those who, like myself, are in the fancy. He said, ‘ I would never allow a bite of a dog to be cauterised, because it stops all possibility of the venom, &c., from getting out of the wound, and it must therefore act inwardly.’ 1 But,’ said I, ‘it is the recognised remedy for a dog bite.’ He replied, l lt may be recognised by some, but not by me; on the contrary. Now, I’ll.just tell you this: I’ll warrant that if you get bitten by a mad dog, and you come to me at once, -I'll save you, and that’s not saying a little. I’ve cured many a bite from a green snake in India in the same way as I’d cure you from the bite of a mad dog. The first thing I’d do is to put purr, liquor of ammonia on the bite, and I’d mix a draught for you to take inwardly at the same time.’ On asking the nature of the draught, he gave me the following recipe:— Mix ten drops of liquor of ammonia with one ounce of camphor mixture and one ounce of brandy, and drink it. Then he added, ‘ I tell you plainly, there's not a doctor but would be afraid to do it, and .they would let you die from hydrophobia when they might cure you in consequence.’ There is no doubt whatever that the ammonia which I applied to my hand by his jdirection after receiving, the bite cured me, and though not the bite of a mad dog, it was a very dangerous wound.” Public Opinion observes ;— The celebrated comedy “ Our Boys,” was played ou the 2nd November, at the Vaudeville Theatre, Loudon, for the 900th time, to a house crowded from floor to roof-tier. The special attraction was the re-appearance, after a long holiday, of .the Messrs. James and Thorne in their original parts of Perkin Middlewick and Talbot Ohampnoys. These excellent actors were heartily: welcomed and had, with the other members of their'bright and clever dramaticcompany, to appear before the curtain after each act—a perfect ovation awaiting them at the end of the comedy, the success of which is quite; unprecedented in the history of the drama. ;

The Glasgow Herald, in speaking of the schools of cookery in that city, says ; —“ Without any undue desire to set up cookery as “ the first and greatest art of life,” it is satisfactory to know that the rising generation of women are now provided with excellent opportunities of acquiring sound knowledge of such a domestic essential. It is not so long since we in Scotland began to think that if our food was to be fully utilised it was better that it should be properly prepared than be consumed in a condition which gave the least possible nourishment to the body, the price of the commodity being the same whether it was well or ill cooked. Fifty years have not elapsed since in many rural districts it was considered in the light of a sin for persons to be solicitous about the preparation of their daily food ; anything was considered “good enoughand by some of the peasantry brose was, in consequence, preferred to the halesome porridge. The influence of food on health was not considered, or indeed not much known, and the dread powers of the kirk-session were not unfrequeotly invoked for the admonition of persons who were reputed in the language of the period to 1 make a god of their belly.’ Happily for the general health and well-being of the community, people of all grades have now a better knowledge of what is good for them ; they have learned to know that well-cooked food is one of the chief elements of sustained health, and therefore an important factor iu the attainment of long life.’