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Southland Times, Volume VI, Issue 491, 11 June 1866, Page 2

We understand that the Blutf Railway will be open for public traffic in about two months. The time for receiving and despatching telegraphic messages throughout the colony is now extended to 8 p.m. Formerly ho message was revived after 5 p.m. The Freemasons have recently conferred the degree of W.M. on Mr. Edward D. Butts, Chief Postmaster, for the ensuing year. We understand that a party of miners, supposed to be some of Hunt's party who have recently loft the River ton Goldfields, have determined to prospect the whole ot the Coast line between 'Southland find Otago. The party is well equipped, aad have laid in a stock of provisions for several months. The information, which we published lately as to the appointment of a commission to re-organise the Civil Service of thi* colony, is confirmed by a Gazette issued on Wednesday May 31st. The Commission has also power to enquire into the working af au income tax. The notification is the Gazette says : — Charles Knight, William Gisborne William Seed, and James Major Spcnce, Esqrs., have been appointed Commissioners to enquire into the state of the Civil service. Their duties ai-c to enquire generally into the clerical strength and efficiency of the several departments of the public service ; and especially as to the number, age of admission, rules of advancement and promotion, and remuneration of the several clerks and higher officers of the Baid departments : And to report 6uch improvements in the organization of the same, by way of consolidation or otherwise as may, in their opinion, promote" efficiency and economy. Also, to enquire and report on the subject of retiring and other allowances and pensions; and, especially, whether the same should be provided by a contribution from the clerk's in the nature of a Benefit Society; and, if so, whether the said contributions should be compulsory, and therefore general, os only voluntary. Also, to enquire and reports as to tho manner in which an income tax might be raised, aud tho most effective and, economical mode of raising the same, and especially what proportion -the cost of collection would probably bear to the gross amount of tax collected. A meeting of tho Waste Land Board will bo held at the Government Buildings on Tuesday. Several fresh applications for Land have been received. A meeting of the Chamber Commerco will' bo. held for the transaction of important business in connection with tho Mail Service. A full attendance is requested. Tho meeting is called for 3 o'clock p.m. on Tuesday. We reprint some of tho chief clauses in the Police Bill, which was thrown out of tho Couucil at its last sitting. The following are the lines of telegraph now laid in New Zealand : — Hokitika to Christchurch, 170 miles. Provincial Government of Canterbury, proprietors. Nelson to Christchurch, 257 miles ; Christchurch to Bluff, 414 mile 9. General Government, proprietors. Dunedin to Tuapeka, 74 miles ; Tuapeka to Dunstan, 72 miles. Provivcial Government _of Otago, proprietors. Dunedin to Port Chalmers, 9 miles. Proprietors, Driver, M'Lean and Co. Christchurch to Lyttolton, 8 miles. General Government, proprietors. Tho line botween Hokitika and Greymouth, 25 miles, is now in course of erection, and is expected to bo open to the public by the Ist of Juno. Tho telegraph cable to connect the Middle and North Islands is «xpccted to bo laid and communication established about tho beginning of 1867. In the North Island tho only telegraph, in existence ie tho Military ' Electric Telegraph connecting < Auckland- and Onehunga with To AwamutUjOne of the military depot on tho Wftikatoy about 120 miles from Auckland, and is under the management of thejßoyol Engineers, ;

It is always pleasing to hear of a native of any of the colonies attaining to eminence in the home country. Tasmania has the honor of having given birth to an artist who has taken- a high position among the renowned painters of Europe. Many in this Province will remember Robert. Dowling who, for some time, had an unpretending saddler's shop in G-eelong in 1852 ; and who was remarkable for hi 3 industry in sketching the countenances of hie visitors, rather than executing their orders. Being one of nature's genuis, he had a soul above leather, and abandoned that occupation — or tho occupation abandoned him — and determined to turn his attention to portrait painting. By perseverance and industry he succeeded in accumulating in tho Western district of Victoria sufficient capital to enable him to visit ' England, with the intention of studying the best masters in Italy. Upon his arrival in London, one of the scenes which appears to have attracted his attention was a coffee stall, with the varied customers that surrounded it. He reproduced the scene on canvass, and obtained for it a place in the Art Exhibition ; and, much to his surprise, it received the praise of all beholders, and he at once became a marked man. He is entirely self-tought, and tho G-oelong saddler now rants among the renowned artists of Europe. His last production is thus noticed in tho Argus, 29th May.- It says :— " Mr Bobert Dowiing has achieved for himself an honorable position among modern artists, and is espocially celebrated for the finer shades of character which he has contrived to express in his pictures. We have been reminded of. some of his best performances by tho inspection of an engraving now exhibited in the shop-window of MrW. B. Stephens, Collins-street west. The subject i 3 the baptism of Jesus. The Divine person i3, of course, tho prominent figure in the" piece, and it is scarcely possible to speak too highly of the expression thrown into the countenance. For serenity, seriousness, benevolence, and holy submission, that face has probably never been surpassed by the pencil of any artist, even of the middle ages. 'In contrast with the expression of the face of Jesus, is that of John the Baptist, whoso austerity and stern severity of character ai-e admirably conveyed in his spare figure and m tho impassioned earnestness which the artist has thrown into hia face. If the engraver has simply conveyed tho excellences of the painting which ho has copied, the eriginal is certainly fitted to enhance the artist's wellacquired renown. Mr Robert Dowiing is th^son of a Baptist Minister, of Launccston." While so much ridicule has been thrown on the proposal to hare lady doctors, we notice with pleasure that a Female Medical Society has established a Medical College in London, which will provide especially for ladies, advantages similar to those which have long been provided for gentlemen in respect to tho scientific study of midwifery, the treatment of tho diseases of i women and children, and the principles of hygiene and preventive medicine. .A London contemporary in alluding "to the subject says: — " Every institution and enterprise that opens up a new channel for the virtuous employment of the female portion of our population deserves encouragemont, but none more so than that which qualifies woman to minister to her sister woman, 'when pain aud anguish wring the brow.' Our remarks are directed to the ' Female Medical Society,' the object of which is to qualify ladies to treat scientifically, and therefore confidently, the diseases Incidental to women and children. Philosophy may argue as it will against the instinctive delicacy with which woman shrinks, in many cases, from the examination and inquiries of the physician. Tho feeling is ineradicable, and we may rest satisfied that spread of knowledge which is inevitable, woman will seek more and more, when suffering from disease, the counsel and aid of her own sex. It is to bring about this result that the Female Medical Society has been established, but, like many of the purest and soundest, ideas which have commanded the assent of mankind, we regret to say its merits have not met with the appreciation and support which, it daserves. From Sydney papers we learn that a Mr A. Conway, jeweller, of Sydney, has in his shop a twenty-one day clock, which as an ingenious piece of mechanism, is .not undeserving of some especial notice. The dial-plate of the clock — about ten inches in circumference — is placed on the one side of an imitation of rock, overshadowed by a cleverly executed arborescent on which are represented numerous flowers in full bloom. Several birds are perched amongst the branches. At the foot of the tree, by a mechanical contrivance, there is the *sem blance of a cascade of clear running water., of which a bird (apparently from its bright plumage a denizen of tho tropics) is stationod, as though about to drink. On turning a screw this bird opens its bill and sings, stooping at intervals as if to drink, and imitating in other respects the natural motions of a bird. At the top of tho tree another of the feathered tribe flutters its wings whilst the strange | song of its mate continues. The notes of the [ singing bird very closely approximate to those of a canary. The mechanism of this curiosity is contained in the basement." Medical and scientific readers will be interested by the following extract from a private letter which appears in the Sydney Mail : — I have beon writing to Archie, to-night, and have told him of discovery :.of which you also, in common with every friend of humanity will be pleased to hear —a discovery second only to chloroform in its irnj portance. Imagine an agent which, in less than thirty seconds, has the power co to paralyse any part' of the body, so that tho nerve may be cut, torn, or burnt, and yet refuse to : complain. By directing, through an ingeniously-contrived apparatus, a fine stream of very pure ether, a local ansethesia is produced, which converted the skin on the back of my hand in thirty seconds, to tho color of the finost white kid leather, and made it as insensible as a stone. By this means teeth may be taken cut without pain ; and a multitude of operations — even some of the capital ones — may be performed, your eyes seeing all the while what is going on. It is there - fore, perfectly free from danger, and- I think; some day not very distant it will take the place of chloroform for almost everything lut mid wifery. The ethor must be very pure, bringing the thermometer to twenty or thiity degrees below aoro. I have often performod Bmall operations by congelation, or freezing, the part, by ice and salt ; but this is a giant atridojj in the same direction." ' Tho RocMand Gazette, in announcing the receipt of a new work, speaks thus briefly, and to the point ;— V Wo hare received a book entitled ' Arabello, & Talc of Tenderness.' The, author is • fooL :,= . .-;:.. ;,:...

In Earl Eussel'a lately published " Essay on the Constitution," lie makes tlie following remarks -on capital punishment: — "Forniyown part, I do not doubt for a moment either the right of a community to inflict the punishment of death, or the expediency of exercising that right in certain conditions of society. But when. I turn from that abstract right and that abstract expedience in onr own state of society — when I consider how difficult it is for any judge to separate the case which requires inflexible justice from' that which admits the force of mitigating circumstances, how invidious the task of the Secretary of State in dispensing the mercy of the Crown, how critical the comments made by the public, how soon the object of general horror becomes the theme of sympathy and pity, how narrow and how limited the example given by this condign and awful punishment, how brutal the scene of the execution — I come to the conclusion that nothing would be lost to justice, nothing lost injthe preservation of innocent life, if the punishment of death were altogether abolished. In that case a sentence of a long term of separate confinement, followed by another long term of hard labor and hard faro, would cease to be considered, as an extension of mercy. If the sentence of the judge in cases of murder were imprisonment for life, there would scai-cely ever be a petition for remission of punishment sent to the Homo Office. Tho guilty, unpitied, would have time and opportunity to turn in repentance to the Throne of Mercy." T3ie Provincial Council of Wellington has arrogated to itself the right to be considered the model council of the colony, — the great statesmen of the Empire City, a fair sample of their statesmanlike proceedings is made plain by the i-eports which have been published, from one of which it says :— " The following resolutions was*moved in tho Proviucial Council of Wellington by Mr Bunny : — ' That in the opinion of this Council, the present system of Provincial Government is a delusion, and ought to be abolished. That this Council is of opinion that His Honor I. E. Featherston, Esq., should be made Superintendent for life. That application should be made to. the General Assembly to obtain an Act to carry the above objects into effect, aud to give permission to the said I. E. Featherston to do -as such Superintendent in all respects as he pleases, and to spend the Provincial revenue in whatever manner he may think right." Mr Bunny spoke at some length on the subject, and, withdrawing the last portion of the motion, was supported by Mr Borlase. Most of the members, however, appeared to consider the affair as a mere joke ; and Mr Watt/in that strain, regretted the withdrawal of the latter portion prevented his moving ' That Mr Henry Bunny be Provincial Treasurer for -the. same period.' This roused Mr Bunny's wrath, and in reply 'he begged to teli the hon. member that he would not bo frightened from his purpose by any remarks from Mr William Watt, whose business it was, on every occasion, to "' soap the Superintendent, and rob the people of their right 3 and privileges.' " This, according to the report of the Advertiser, created " confusion," and the clerk was directed to " take the words down." The affair terminated by the Speaker reading aloud, " Soap the Superintendent aud rob the people of their rights aud privileges," and then reminding Mr Bunny that in the course of his speech he had several times transgressed the rules of the House."