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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5309, 1 April 1878, Page 2

The criminal sittings of the Supreme Court commence this morning at 10 o’clock. We have already published the calendar of prisoners for trial. The outward San Francisco mail consisted of 5099 letters, 229 book packets, and 3390 newspapers for the United Kingdom ; and 270 letters, 5 book packets, and 203 newspapers for America. We understand that there will not be the usual meeting of the Public Works Committee of the City Council thisafternoon, as there is little business of any importance to be laid before it, aud tire Town Clerk is fully occupied iu checking the list of ratepayers to be handed over to the electoral registrar. The Odd Fellows’ Hall was last night crowded by a most attentive audience while Mr. Harrison Ord, with his usual earnestness and power, preached ou Mat. xi., 28. , He showed that the iuviter is the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the invitati >n is to come to Him, and that those invited are all who labor and are heavy laden ; to tho e,, that: is, who work, or who carry burdens of care. He pointed out that Christ lias worked, so that we need riot work for salvation, but on the contrary must leave off working before Christ can save us, just as a drowning man must give up struggling aud trying to save himself before a swimmer cau rescue him. Mr. Ord showed that the rest Christ gives is from God’s broken law, which man cannot obey, from a guilty conscience, from fear of death, which is not the debt of nature, but the debt of siu. Christ has, however, taken away the sting of death as regards all who believe in Him. This rest is also from the fear of judgment and from the fear of hell. Christ does not sell, but gives it to all who will accept it. The discourse was illustrated by several appropriate anecdotes, and was .listened to throughout with marked attention. At the conclusion Mr. Old announced that to-morrow night he would give an address at the Athenasum Hall ou “ Stumbling Blocks,” and lecture ou the “ Tabernacle of Israel” on Wednesday and Thursday. He also stated that gospel meetings will be continued every Sunday evening at the Odd Fellows' Hall. An after meeting was then held, at which Mr. Ord urged anxious ones to leave off trying, and to trust in Jesus. A double bill was presented at the Theatre Royal on Saturday evening, of -Shakspere’s -charming comedy, “ The Taming of the Shrew,” and “ David Garrick.” The lower parts of the house were well filled, and the audience an appreciative one. In the first piece Mrs. Walter Hill and Mr. Dillon appeared respectively iu the parts of Katharine and Petruohio, each giving an able representation, whilst Mr. Graham also deserves mention for the accuracy with which he rendered his difficult Hues. Mr. Sotheru had already established himself in the part of David Garrick, aud was no less successful on Saturday evening. “’Les Danicheif,” a Russian drama, which has been very popular at many of the theatres at Home and ou the Continent, is announced for this evening, and from the careful preparations made for its production-hero, we have reason to believe that the piece will be placed on the stage iu a complete style. We take tho opportunity of again reminding our readers that Messrs. T. K. Macdonald and Co.’s land sale, to which attention has been called iu previous issues, will take place this afternoon, at half-past 2 o’clock, at the Exchange Land Mart. A large attendance aud spirited bidding may confidently be expected ou this occasion. The allotments having frontages to Brougham, Austin, and Queen streets are most desirably situated in one of the most pleasant aud salubrious portions of the city, close to the tramway, aud within an easy distance of the Post Office, tho wharf, aud other central business sides. They cau be built upon without the ground being first excavated or filled in, a manifest advantage, which is not always possessed by building sites in Wellington, which by the way are every day becoming scarcer, every available plot of ground being eagerly taken up. In a very short time indeed it is evident that if the present rate of progress is maintained there will be little or no level land to build upon. - Such opportunities as tire present, therefore, should not be lost, as they may not easily occur again. The terms are exceedingly liberal, viz., 10 per cent, on the fall of the hammer, and the balance by acceptances at from three to thirty-six mouths from date of-sale, bearing interest at 9 per cent, per annum. The auctioneers will assist with liberal advances all persons who desire to build on any lots purchased. The programme of sports of the Wellington Amateur Athletic Club ou Easter Monday will bo found; in another portbn of our columns. The events ou the card are numerous aud varied. The leading prizes, which are of considerable value, will be exhibited in the window of Messrs. Kohn and Co.’s establishment a fortnight before the time at which they are to be contested for. The day will be a bank holiday, and if the weather prove favorable some capital sport may be expected. A correspondent of- the Southern Plantation writes as follows about the power of a wellknown plant:—“ I have discovered a remedy for pulmonary consumption. It has cured a number of cases after bleeding at the lungs had commenced, and the hectic flush was on the cheek. I have tried this, remedy to my own satisfaction, and have thought that philanthropy required that I should let it be known to the world. It is the common raullen leaves, steeped 'strong and sweetened with sugar, and drank freely. The leaves should be gathered before the end of July, if convenient. The leaves of young or old plants arc good, dried in the'shade, and kept in clean paper bags. The medicine must be continued from ’ three r to six months, according to the stage of the 'disease.- It is very good for the blood-vessels,' strengthens and builds up the system, makes good blood, and removes inflammation of the lungs. It is the wish of the writer that every periodical should publish this remedy for the benefit of the human family.” ‘

Mr. W. J. Habeas, 8.A., has been appointed by the Government- Inspector General of Schools under the Act of last year. . The new season at the Wellington Skating Rink will commence to-day. Particulars as to terras, &0., will be found in our advertising columns. ' Mr. M. B. Miller, of Napier, reports the sale of Mr. Henry Ford’s Whana leasehold property, 18,600 acres, IX years of f lease unexpired, rent £209, with 12,000 mixed sheep and all station plant, to Mr. N. E. Beamish, of Okawa, for £13,500 sterling. Sealed tenders are invited up to Thursday, the 16th of May," for contracts on the works in connection with the contemplated improvements of the Wanganui River, undertaken by the Wanganui Harbor and River Conservators Board. Particulars will be found in our advertising columns. ■ Season ticket holders at the Paris Exhibition, following the fashion of the Philadelphians last year, will all have to paste a photograph on their vouchers, a duplicate photograph being pasted in the book whence the voucher was withdrawn. The price of the season ticket will be £4. Caroline Bauer, wife of Count Ladislas Brol Plater, died recently. This lady was a renowned beauty and actress in early life. The AUgemeine Zeitung alleges that she was secretly married to Prince Leopold, but that some years afterwards, on his becoming King of the Belgians, the union was quietly dissolved, and in 1844 she was married to Count Plater. The Sydney Morning Herald of the 15th ultimo issued a supplement for the Paris Exhibition. It contains eight pages, and is printed in both the English and French language. A description of the resources of the colony, and a variety of information evidently most carefully and accurately prepared, are given, and the production on the whole is a most creditable one. Prince William of Prussia, Queen Victoria’s eldest grandson, is reported to be pursuing his studies at Bonn with great zeal and perseverance. He attends lectures, privatissime, by Professor Bona Meyer on philosophy, by Professor von Strutzing on Roman law, and by Professor Clausius on physical science. In addition to this the prince is a very regular attendant at the public lectures of Professor Maarenbrecher, a rising historian. School teachers (says the Otago Daily Times of the 29th ultimo), are becoming a scarce commodity. Owing' to the influx of children to the schools since the coming into force of the new Education Act, applications have of late been requested for a considerable number of assistant teachers, and in no single case, we believe, have the applicants numbered more than three. In one or two cases—that of an assistant for the Waikouaiti school, for instance—there have been no applicants at all. All the Year Round contains the following information as to false hair as an article of commerce ;—“ Live hair, hair bought, to use the technical phrase, “ on foot ” —the hair of girls and women, bribed to submit their locks to the shears—grows annally scarcer and dearer. When the modest demand for tresses was influenced by a few elderly dames in need of wigs, the supply was easily secured by agents who bargained with the peasant maids of Brittany and Auvergne. Paris alone would now consume ail, aud more than all, of the available capillary crop in France ; and Marseilles, the present centre of the hair trade, deals with Spain, the East, 1 and especially the Two Sicilies, for the forty tons of dark hair which she annually makes up into 65,000 chignons. “ Head hair ” has something of a sinister sepulchral sound, but, as without it the cheap curls, fronts, aud chignons could not be made at the price, it may be comfortable to know that the original owners of the raw material are, as likely as not, alive aud well. Rag-pickers value no uucohsidered wait or stray of the street, short of a gold ring or a silver spoon, so highly as the clotted combings of female hair, soon to be washed with bran and potash, carded, sifted,-classed, and sorted. There are, commercially, seven colors of hair, and three degrees of length. Much dead hair enters into the cheaper of the 350,000 “pieces” annually made in France. The dearest chignon costs some £25 ; the cheapest a fiftieth part of that amount. England is the best customer, and close upon her heels comes America.”

In Messrs. R. Goldsbrough and Co.’s summary for this mail (says the Melbourne Argus of the 20th ultimo), some interesting information is given respecting the losses of 'sheep which have been sustained through the severe drought we have experienced since the clip of 1876. The wool export from the three leading colonies—Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia—to date shows a reduction in the number of bales of 67,170, as compared with the export to the corresponding date of last year, from which however must be deducted about 25,000 bales, known to be waiting the opening of the navigation of the Darling, thus leaving an ascertained deficiency of about 42,170 bales to the present, instead of the usual increase of 7 to 8 per cent. Had the increase been maintained, we should this season have shipped 646,000 bales, or about 48,000 bales more than last year. Taking, therefore, into account the quantity that we might reasonably have expected to have produced had the season been an ordinarily favorable one, we may estimate the ueficiency at 90,000 bales, and assuming that each bale contains 100 fleeces, the three colonies referred to are thus 9.000. of sheep short. But the actual deficiency is even greater than it appears from these figures, owing to the unusually large proportion of wool shipped in the grease. Clean washed wool would not require so many bales, but this season comparatively few growers had. sufficient water available for washing their sheep. The reports from Queensland, Western Australia, and Tasmania are not likely to show any material alteration, and as regards New Zealand an increase may probably be anticipated. The shipments from the chief wool-growing colonies for the year ending September 30, 1877, were as follows: Victoria, 329,791 bales ; New South Wales, 145,008 bales ; South Australia, 123,566 bales; total, 598,355 bales. In reference to the treatment of persons taken in charge for drunkenness, a contemporary has the following:—“ An inquest was held in January last in London, on the body of a man found lying on the pavement in Old Cavendish-street, London, and who had been conveyed to the police-station. The divisional surgeon ordered him to be placed in front of the fire with blankets around him; but he expired shortly afterwards. The surgeon said the cause of death was the rupture of a bloodvessel on the brain, or apoplexy. The coroner (Dr, Hardwieke) made some strong observations as to the police arrangements that ought to be in force for the reception of persons who were found in an unconscious state in the streets. At each police-station there ought to be two rooms constructed, one for men and another for women, to bo furnished with beds, 60., in order that such cases might be treated humanely, and a chance given of recovery. The police authorities of New Zealand would do well to profit by this recommendation. The treatment of anyone so found, especially in the winter, is anything but humane at the New Zealand lock-ups. It is taken for granted that he is drunk; no medical man is called in; and a threadbare blanket, without pillow, is all he has besides the J bare boards.” In chronicling the conversation of Osman Pasha with various Russian officers, the correspondent of the Russian Oovernment Messenger says that the Turkish commander spoke as follows, when some one brought forward the subject of Turkish cruelties at Sohipka and at Teliche: —“ As far as I am concerned, no one can accuse me or my soldiers of any atrocities of this kind. I know that our Bashi-Bazouks are quite capable of them ; and accordingly I took my precautions at Plevna in view of the possibility of such things. I, drove out the most undisciplined, the most turbulent of them —men who might really be regarded as useless mouths—and incorporated the remainder in various regular battalions, thus obliging them to fight in the trenches, I hanged five who had given themselves up to marauding ; and from that moment marauding was at an end. The only thing you can reproach me

with is the order I issued to my skirmishers to prevent- you from coming forward to carry off .those of your men who had been killed or seriously wounded. But what was Itodo ? They were so near my entrenchments that you could not have failed' to discover their weak points, and you would have profited by it at your next attack.. For the rest, we.were the first to suffer by the odour from the putrefying corpses : your soldiers had fallen close to my entrenchments—a fact that testifies to their valour. But to put an end, once for all, to the atrocities with which my colleagues are charged, this is what I propose to do.” Then, asking for pen, ink, and paper, Osman Pasha wrote to Reouf Pasha in these words:—“Ferik! General Scobeloff informs me'that our troops commit acts of cruelty upon the Russian wounded. I must remind you that such acts are contrary to all sentiments of humanity, to all international laws, and especially to the Geneva Convention, by which we are bound in common with the other States bf Europe. I recommend you, therefore, to take immediate measures for putting au end to all kinds of atrocities.” The letter, says the correspondent, contained only the above words, without auy of the usual long formulas of politeness and without any Oriental compliments. By way of signature Osman Pasha put his seal upon it. He then handed the letter, to General Scobeleff, saying to him,, “Find an opportunity of conveying this letter to Reouf Pasha, and I am convinced that all these atrocities will cease.’