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Otago Daily Times, Issue 266, 27 October 1862, Page 4

At the Princess Theatre, on Saturday evening, " Dick Turpin, ani Tom King" whs the first . piece. It'was well put upon the stage ; but there were no.representatives of " Mr Howard, with his splendid horse, Black Bess," who ire so frequently made ••stars" in the home provinces, when the drama is played there. Mr George Fawcett possesses very markedly, the com!>ined ad.iptabi- '. lity and taste necessary for effective " make] up," which is essential to thorough success m an actor. -This was very evident in his Tim King, for he looked as well as acted like a 'very prince of finically gentlemanlike highwaymen, Mr Tom IWcett was not quite so succesjlful as Dick Turpin. Mr Joim Dunn caused roars of > laughter as the country-servant; and tho piece, - as a whole, decidedly pleased the audience. In ' the screaming farce " Stage Struck,'^&liss EmmaNeville was Admirably good as £ajly Bcraggs, *

A -meeting of thu Directors of the Otago Caledonian Society will be held this evening at halt-past 7 o'clock, at M'Cubbin's Hotel, Rattraystreet. • .

The usual monthly meeting of the Bun-din, Debating Club will be Leld this evening. The subject % discussion is,« Are Scripture Lives Examples of Abstinence."

Our Wesleyaa readers may be interested to learn, that at the recent sitting of the Weslevan Conference, the Ray. W. M.Panshon made* an ' extraordinary offer. He offered to undertake the task of raising no le3s a sum than £10,000, to be duvoted to the purpose of buildin-jj Wesleyan Chapels in the watering-place 3of England.' It ■was thought by Dr. Oiborne and others that the tax upon his strongth would be too great, but the reverend gentleman removed all obstacles by declariog that he would sacrifice even h;s health, if necessary, to the accomplishment of such a result.

Dutiedia is tolerably well thronged just now, but all the population is most creditably quiet and orderly. Oa Saturday night, the lock-up at the Police Station wua without a single prisoner ; and the happy state of emptiness continued up to nearly eleven o'clock last night, when we made our usual call. '

"Rob Roy" was" 1 excellently played at the Theatre Royal on Saturday evening. Mr C. Holt ■was the hero, and was very suoc3s*ful, whether in the humorous scenes with Bailie Nicol Jarvie. or at the head of hi 3 followers, fighting for his freedom. Mrs Holt was effective as R:>b's wife ; and Miss-Matthews played well as Mattie, the " sonsy lassie " of Nicol Jarvie- The Bailie of Mr Shbls was really a first-rate performance ; brogue, kindly self-conceit, and good-heartedness, alike seemed natural to him. The " Dougal creature," with his savagery towards the Sassenach, his adoration of the chief, and his fondness for all whom that chief likes, was well conceived and forcibly acted by Mr Wolfe; and Mr Kyan was good as the sullen and treacherous Rashleigh Osbaldiston. Mins Ada Hart is not to be blamed for nofc possessing the physique necessary for doing justice to the -somewhat namby-pamby Francis Osbaldiston. She sang the music of the part, and especially the introduced air " Goodbye, sweetheart," with an approach to real power and true musical expression, which we confess we did not suppose her capable of making. After the drama, the coxswains of the whale-boats City of Hubart and Alert (T. Farrcll and D. Mackenzie) came upon the stage ; and Mr Wolfe presented to the former a purse of 20 sovereigns, and to the latter one often, being the prizes won in the boat race during the afternoon, Farrell said that the Dimt.-din watermen would always be ready to do their best to serve and to ',entertniu the public. The farce of " The Man About Town" concluded the performances. " Our Village, or the Wreck of the Rattlesnake,"' is to be produced this evening.

The Lu-ly Young brings us Honolulu papers to August 28th. The chief item of news is the death of the Prince of Hawaii, Albert Edward Kanikeouli Leiopapa A Kumehamn, a child 4 years of age. The Commercial Advertiser, the paper from which we obtain the information, appears in mourning. The Legislature was adjourned on the 23rd August, by Royal commission.

Considerable progress has been made at the Bell Hill works during the past week, considering the interruptions that have been caused by the ■weather. About 500 men are at present employed, a number too Jarge for the present area of the works, and the men are constantly in each other's way. We understand a number of the nun are to be employed, during this week, in cutting a drain round the recreation ground at the head of the harbor.

The plentiful supply of fish in this town is a great boon to the working-classes, and we are glad to see that they freely avail themselves of this cheap and wholesome food. As the men employed at the Bell Hill works were dispersing after receiving their wage, on Saturday afternoon, most of them were carrying fish.home with them, a fine supply of which was being retailed to them nt a cheap rate, by sonic enterprising fishermen who had brought a boat load close up to the works. The Criminal Session of the Supreme Court, which had previously occupied thirteen days, was brought to a close by an afternoon sitting on Siitunhy ; when lli3 Honor, Mr Justice Gresson, passed sentence (as will be found reported elsewhere), oa five prisoners, including the three convicted of the rape at Tuapeka, or the assault that preceded it. The Civil Business will be commenced at 10 o'clock this morning. As we have before announced, there are fifty-six causes on fie list including eleven set down as special jury. It was decided on Saturday that the specials should be taken first ; and the common jurors will this morning be told up to what day their nttendancc will ba excused. The first cause to be tried (Maclcay and another v Campbell) is of the sometimes amusing and generally long class of horse cases. We extract the following item of information relative to rifle p-actice, for the benefit of the Dunedin volunteers, when they can arouse themselves from their present state of inglorious ease, and muster a shooting party : —" The Ascot meeting has been fertile in novelties, but perhap? the most valuable of these is the new mode of sheltering markers. Ordinarily they are cooped up in narrow, not over-secure mantlets, where, if tho weather be unfavorable, they must sit and be rained on all the day loftg, as protection of any kind overhead would interfere with the free ■working of the signals. Oa this studiously uncomfortable system Sir Paul Hunter's plan is a great improvement. He has caused pits to be dug in the ground to a depth of seven feet, throwing up the cbiy excavated as a shelter at the back of the holes. The pits are'then covered in with umbrella*shaped roofs of timber almost level vf'nh the ground, over which clay is likewise spread, rendering t'lem bullet-proof. In the direction of the target the soil is cut away in order to give a clear view to the irarker, who, thus removed from danger, and protected from the weather, can walk about in the pit, and indicate the hits made on the adjacent signal-cross. The cost of these pits is £1 each (?) but they are decidedly supeuor in construction to any of those in ordinary use ; and at long rarge firing they are invaluable, as they present no perceptible obstacle to the line of sight."

•Hie Liverpool Albion contains the following Bin<nilar account of the notorious Major Yelverton's movements :—" A letter htis been received in Liverpool by the last mail ftxm Australia, from a female passenger who went our from this pert in the Merchant Prince, in which the writer says : —'You will be surprised to hear that Major Yelverfcon was one of the sa loon passengers, and his third >Ue. He married her three days before they left England. She was a milliner when he married her. They came out as Mr and Mrs Edwards. His uncle paid>ll" expenses and sent him out of the country,"-

Tue following oa the subject. 4 of slreet preaching, we extract fiotn :m English paper:—" Sir Archibald Alison, in deciding upon a case the other day at Glasgow, said that street preaching was illegal if it obstructed a universally used thoroughfare, such as the Strand, London, or the South Bridge,-Edinburgh,'independent altogether of any danger to the public, peace, and that even although the place where the preaching took place was not a thoroughfare, yet the preaching was illegal if it threatened the public peace."

Quite a " Canvas Town" has sprung up on the vacant ground skirting the Harbor towards JPelichet Bay. Scores of tents are erected in coni. venient positions, and sheltered from the cold winds by being placed under the lee of clumps of bush; The plentiful supply of fresh water which exists close to this spot, and a number of stumps of old trees which furnish firewood, seem to have made this locality a favorite camping-ground. Most of the occupants are employed at Bell Hill, and are exceedingly quiet and well conducted.