The Oamaru Mail MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 25 October 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1880.

Discontented with the ten per cent, reduction, a hundred members of the Armed Constabulary force on the AY est Coast have resigned their positions. It is understood that the Government will not fill their places. This is so f=r satisfactory, inasmuch as the Government will save thereby at least LSO a day. 13ut the expenditure for " defeni-e'' purposes on tsie \\ est Coast is still between Lii.o and WOO per day, and one feds inclined to wish that the Government inav be led into .-till further reductions of such a* reckless waste of public money by additional retirements. i"-> 0 one knows why such a force is maintained, except it be to bolster un the ui=trict allien is represented by the Colonial 1 reasuioi'. Xt is farcical to pretend that there or has been for years, any danger of a native outbreak in the district.

The tonic sol-fnists have again carricdoff the first prize at the Sooiety of Arts examination in music, Mr. George I'aul, of Aberdeen (a holder of the Intermediate Certificate of the Tonic Sol-fa College), being the prizeman ; Anderson's College, Glasgow, obtain--17 second and 3 first-class certificates, and the Aberdeen Mechanics' Institute obtaining the first prize and 11 second-class certificates. At both these institutions the sol-fa method is used. London gets 2 first-class certificates, both takci) by sol-faists. In all 324 papers were worked, being 30 more than last year. Paragraphs containing the result of the examination have gone the rounds of the musical ami educational papers of Great Britain. Figaro saya ; —" The tonic tolfaists have achieved a great and amply deserved victory. The Society of Arts instituted an examination in the theory of music, open to all ! ncl-ind, and the first T)rize has been carried oil' by a tonic sol-faist, Mr. George Paul, of Aberdeen, the victory the iijere complete because the only examiner vas thufe arch-enemy of the tonic sol-fa movement, Mr. Jo!m Hullah. Things have indeed seemed to go crooked with Mr. Huilah lately.

The usual monthly meet-in? of the Waiareka Road Board will be held in the offices, Tync-streec, to-morrow, at one o'clock. A nwino. from the oftiecr in charge of the Telegraph Oitice inforiua us that the uikotialti otfice has been closed for business on Sundays.

Captain Edwin wires that the glass will fall within 12 hours, and that the wind will back.

Mr. Imrie, the Inspector of Works on the railway, met with an accident on .-aturday while driving into Oamarn. When crossing the Waiareka stream in abuncy the horse he was driving commenced kicking, and kicked over splash-board, striking Mr. Imrie on the right let: and causing & .compound fracture of the bone a little below the knee. Mr. linrie ivas broucht into town and attended by Dr. de Lantour. On making inquiries to-day w£ were pleased to learn that he is progressing very well. At the Resident Magistrate s Court, this morning, before T. . Parker, Esq., R.M., the folio wing fines were inflicted for allowing animals to wander at large Thomas Paterson, one horse, 4s J)aniel Tooliey, one horse, ; James Hook, one hojrsc, -Is ; . If. Konayne, one cow, 3s. j The members of the Fire Brigade Concert Committee are reminded that the tinal meetj n rr to pass accounts, lVc.. wiil take place at = the Star and Garter Hotel, to-morrow evening, at So clock. Mr. Wilson, one of Mr. Headland's shopmen, met with an accident on Saturday evening of a serious nature. He was taking a little exercise on a new style of bicycle, with the brake at the tcp, and while ill full motion he accidentally pressed down the brake and brought the machine to a sudden stop. Mr. Wilson was precipitated forward. . falling to tiie ground on his hands, with the bicycle on top of him. One of his elbow joints was dislocated, and the other arm saverely bruised. It is not yet known if any bones are broken.

The attendance at Mr. Proctor's Saturday evening's lecture was large, ; u: not so large 33 that "f the previous evening. The ject was not so comprehensive and exciting. A dissertation on what are g£*itrally accepted as worlds that are separated tivtn its by an infinitude of space, and of which we, tharelora, know comparatively little, naturally aroused the enriosity of the public to a hiaher pitch than an exposition of the nature of a body that is our nearest neighbor, and of which, by the aid of powerful astronomical instruments, we probably know something upon which we can rely. It is the old story—that which is difficult, i? prized more than that which is easy, of attainment. As was demonstrated on Saturday night, by means of photographs of the moon, modern science has tjs to view its wonders just as we can view the wonders of this earth by means of the niked eye. We now know beyond dispute that the moon is a terrestial body, somewhat similar in formation to our world, and we arc led to the moderately well-founded conclusion' that it kbs entered upon the last stage of its existence, or Mr. Proctor calls "old age." We are, therefore, placed in a position to conclude that the motm is a world —or rather has been a world—such as ours, from direct evidence, and we are thus led to the belief that the other luminous bodies which appear in the firmament, and which are too distant to admit of such minute inspection, arc similar in nature. Mr. Proctor's Satnrday evening's lecture was as jcLever as that of the previous evening. In ihese days of rumours of the impending dissolution cf our planet —when men predict that "the end cf all things " is at hand, and that humanity has but a short lease of lifeno wonder that people fly io i'le science from which we are supposed to acquire information more authentic than the baseless railings of religions enthusiasts or the unanthori- j tative astronomical conclusions of the tyro. Mr. Procter's success is mainly attributable to the circumstance that he places before the people in popular language theories having the appearance of reasonableness, and which seem to prove the fallacy of such predictions. Hypothetical though his arguments necessarily are when dealing with the | wonders which wc are only permitted to see ' " throceh a glass darkly," or, withlout the" aid pf science, as mere specks in the sky, there pan be little doubt that his deductions, drawn from the careful investigations of the great astronomers oi all age 3, are such as to allay any feelings of alarm that may have been created in the minds of people as to the immediate future of our planet. W hat we admire most in Mr. Proctor is the facility with which he gives his figures, apparently without any aTds, a::d the homely though able manner in which he addresses himself to his audience, if Sir, Proctor has not left us much new material of an authentic kind connected with astronomical science, he has at least awakened within some of us at least a spirit of inquiry, in the exercise of which much delight and profit may be derived.