NEWS OF TEE DAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2158, 18 February 1880, Page 2

NEWS OF TEE DAY.

Mr and Mrs Florence, who will be remembered by Tinraru Theatre-goers in connection with their recent appearence, in conjunction with the D’Orsay Ogden troupe at the Theatre Royal, purpose we learn, giving a musical and dramatic entertainment next week, when they will be assisted by Mr and Mrs Vincent, and a number of well known local amateurs.

Pastor Chiniquy delivered his inaugural lecture at the Scotch Church last evening. A further report of the proceedings appears elsewhere.

On Friday evening next, we are promised a miscellaneous entertainment at the Queen’s Hall, by Professor and Lillie Taylor, Champion Skaters, who in addition to the Skating, will introduce Club swinging, Songs and Dances. Amateur Skating will also be a feature of the evening, and prizes will be offered for competition. The Champion Skaters have won the most favorable press notices elsewhere, and should be worth seeing. In the good old days when gold was plentiful and diggers were flush of money, it was no unusual thing for them to invent expedients for getting rid of their easilyearned accumulations, and it has remained for these hard-up days to prove that men can be found who squander money as foolishly as those in the " good old times.” On Saturday last (says the Press) there was a visitor in Picton in search of a new sensation, and he hired a man to wheel him about in a wheelbarrow, paying for this primitive mood of conveyance Is per hour. The labourer and his hirer agreed amicably together for some time, but the engagement did not last long, the rate of progress not exactly agreeing with the rapid ideas of the capitalist. The Nelson “Mail considers the circumstance of Mr Oswald Curtis accepting the appointment of Secretary to the Board of College Governors as precluding the idea of his being called to the Upper House, as was some time since stated as likely to ensue. The “ Mail ” regrets that the district is represented in the Council by two valetudinarians, Major Richmond and and Mr N. Edwards, neither of whom can be expected to pay unremitting attention to their legislative duties. At Napier yesterday, a lad named Vanter was bathing off the bluff with four companions, when a heavy wave carried him out. The whole four went after him, and held him up for 20 minutes, when a rope was brought and tied round his body. The rope was too short to reach the beach, and the sea was so heavy that the strength of all the boys was insufficient to save the drowning boy. They left him only afterall signs of life were extinct. The body has not yet been recovered.

The truth of the following amusing incident of Mr Gladstone’s recent visit to Scotland is vouched for by a contributor to a Home papa':—In a certain famous university there is a distinguished professor, who has a passion for entomology. He has, I believe, one of the finest collections of dead insects in the world; but, not content with that, he has also a collection of live insects, whose habits he studies with even more earnestness and enthusiasm than Sir John Lubbeck. Last week a friend, of England, who had followed Mr Gladstone into Scotland, was the guest of the professor. When the guest came down in the morning he was asked eagerly by his host if he had slept well. “Ye-es,” was the somewhat hesitating reply. The professor looked a little disappointed, and asked with more earnestness, “ Are you quite sure,now, that you slept well ?” “ A Veil, to tell the truth, I did not sleep very well.” “ You were bitten, eh ? was that it ?” asked the professor, with a mixture of triumph and interest. “I was very badly bitten. I never came across such llcas in all my life. They must be the most blood-thirsty rascals on the face of the globe.” “I believe you ! I believe you !” cried the professor, in a transport of delight ; they are the finest fleas in the world. They are noble specimens of the Sicilian breed. I imported them myself!" Under the heading of “A Telegraphist who wouldn’t be fined,” the “ Marlborough Express ” writes : —“ln a recent issue we stated our opinion as to the bad effect of the infliction of a tine of £5 on those operators in our local office who took part in the late strike, and recent events have to a certain extent realised our expectations. Mr William Hood, a cadet in the department, and the recipient of the princely income of £G Cs 8d per month, was one of the unfortunates liable to this penalty, over and above the reduction of his pay for the days he was off duty. On the receipt of the balance of his last mouth’s salary, he took fright at the idea of the fine being deducted from his next cheque, and in a moment of desperation on Thursday last, took his departure without going through the formality of tendering his resignation. It certainly appears that the lad had grounds for the step, as it is difficult to conceive how, on his meagre salary, he could pay the £5 penalty. that was to be imposed upon him, and at the same time liquidate his debts in an honorable manner.

This is the high-falutin indulged in by Dr Tahnage on his return to America from his English tour: “Let us swing wider open the gates of our Continent. Let us remember that the coming American is to be an admixture of all foreign bloods. In about 25 or 50 years the model American will step forth. He will have the strong brain of the German, the polished manners of the French, the artistic tastes of the the Italian, the staunch heart of the English, the high-toned piety of the Scotch, the lightning wit of the Irish; and, when he steps forth, bone, muscle, brain, nerve intertwined with the libres of all nationalities, heaven and earth will break out in the cry, ‘ Behold the coming man ! Behold the American !’ ”

A few' days ago “ Amicus ” declared in the >St. Petersburg “Vodomosti” that “the women of Germany undoubtedly hold the low'cst place among women of the continent not only in beauty, but in wit and wisdom also.” “What,” demands the “ Novoc Yremya, “ does this ‘ Amicus ’ (which we may take to be Latin for ‘ ass ’) know of the world beyond his owm nose ? Not to (mention a thousand names of beauties and wits that crow'd upon our memory, where, we ask will you find a grander ideal of a constitutional sovereign than in Queen Victoria, a greater diplomat than in Catherine the Great, or a more lovely female than Marie Antoinette ? The theory is too ridiculous to deserve any investigation, and its originator should be immediately arrested as a lunatic at large.” English society journals are indignant that Queen Victoria should be thought to be a' German.

A batch of liberated Communists have just arrived in Auckland. Eleven of them arc political deportees, and the balance of the offenders are of a criminal class. They have been amnestied by the French Government, and their passage paid to Auckland. Accompanying the party are one woman and child and three girls, the wife and infant of one political deportee, and the daughters of another. The men are of various trades, a compositor, lithographer, printer, batcher, baker, painter, writer and glazier, music master, and laborers. They are anxious to get to work at once. The political batch seem (puck, intelligent, and a respectable lot of men.

A subscription list has been opened for the widow and family of the late John Byrne, who was killed on Saturday last by a fall of earth. Much sympathy is felt for Mrs Byrne, who is left most unexpectedly to provide for a large family of young children. It is to be hoped that the public will subscribe liberally in so good a cause. A number of influential residents yesterday waited upon His Worship the Mayor and requested him to call a public meeting at an early date to take into consideration the distress at present prevailing in Ireland. In compliance with this desire His Worship has convened a public meeting to be held at the Queen’s Hall on Thursday .evening next, at 8 o’clock. Ths Maori Chiefs, assembled at Otaki, have passed a resolution condemning the action of the Government in removing the Maori Prisoners without first giving notice of their intention to do so.

The Lyttelton Borough Council are excessively angry with their ratepayers, because, as they alleged, 15,000 gallons of water per day are being wasted, homebody is to be prosecuted. At Kimberley, on Saturday, a lad aged 15, named liodcrick Mcßeth, was killed by a reaping machine. Waimate has sent 800 guineas to the Lord Mayor of Dublin for the Irish Famine Belief Fund.

Yesterday at Waiwera in the Clutha district, the horses in a reaping machine bolted and the tipper, Duncan McKenzie, had his left foot cut clean off above the ancle by the knife. A number of valuable greyhounds from the very best strain of blood in North Britain, arrived by the Te Anau.

Additional extensive blocks of land are to be thrown open for settlement in the Southland and Otago land districts.

Lately on the arrival at San Francisco of a vessel from Honolulu, there was found on board several cases which had been shipped to that port by some Chinese in ban 1 rancisco, and sent back condemned by the consignees. The cases were opened, and found to contain shoes. The heels appeared made as usual; but by pulling out a nail or two, and removing one thickness of leather,a hole was discovered in which opium had been placed for introduction to the Hawaiian market. The “condemned” dodge was a part of the programme, and the shoes w r erc returned that the holes in the heels might be refilled with opium, and afterwards again sent to Honolulu.

AVc have to acknowledge receipt of the Crown Lands Guide No. 1, published by authority of the Hon. the Minister of Lands. It is neatly got' up by Mr Didsbury, Government printer, in pink cover, printed on toned paper and embellished with a map of the colony, which looks as if it had been smudged over with the juice of raspberries and black currants. The work is chiefly intended for new-chums smitten with land fever, and consequently although it has been manufactured of the best materials and stained with the loudest of fruity colors, quite regardless of cost, at the most expensive printing office in the colony, the cost is only sixpence. This we presume will meet the case of would-be estate owners who arrive in New Zealand with empty pockets. The profits of the “ Guide” which from its cheapness ought to enjoy a large circulation and run through several editions among the consumers of waste paper will, of course, help to replenish the Colonial Treasury and eventually find their way to the shareholders. The Auckland “Herald” has the following about a meeting convened by the Mormon elders on Feb. 8 : -There were about 100 persons present. Elder Pearce gave a discourse, which was rather discursive in its nature, ranging from the authenticity of Joseph Smith’s mission, to the defence of polygamy, but as it arose out of a series of questions propounded by “ An Enquirer,” the querist may be more to blame than the preacher in that respect. Elder Pearce eulogised the latter practice ns a Heaven-created ordinance, and said that if his hearers ever got to Heaven they would find it crowded with polygamists—men like Abraham, Jacob, and David. He quoted from Michelet’s “ Life of Luther ” to show that the great German Ileformer believed in the religious legality of polygamy, and that Melancthon, in the case of the secret second marriage of Philip Landgrave of Hesse, had sanctioned it. As a further proof, he quoted the wellknown passage in Isiauh, “ And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, we will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel ; only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.” The application of the text caused some expression of dissent, and, altogether, the audience were not so quiet as on former occasions.