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Southland Times, Issue 973, 22 June 1868, Page 2

It Tvill be .observed from our- advertising columns that a writ has been issued for the return of a representation for the district of Waiau, in the provincial Council. The election is to take place on the first of next month. We are requested to remind subscribers to the lottery for the Oil painting of H.M.S.' Brisk, painted by Captain Robertson, that the drawing will come off at the office of Mr K. Rose, Deestreefc, this evening, at, half-past seven sharp. A meeting of the Committe of the Agricultural and Pastoral Association, appointed to confer with the Government as to the grant of a site for a Show yard, was held on Saturday last. The Secretary stated that the Committee had visited ■ all the localities' where there were G-overnmeivb reserves, and selected as the most suitable place a block of land situated on the North Road, being the corner section to Q-ala-street. He had applied, to His Honor for a grant or lease of this block. In an interview with His Honor he was informed that the application had been placed before the Executive, but it was considered that the land applied for could not be bo appropriated, it being reserved for public buildings, but expressed a desire on the part of the Government to aid the Association as far as possible, in the obtainance of another suitable site. The Treasurer (MrDalgleish) stated that he also had had an interview with His Honor wbo had expressed to him the same kindly feelings towards the Society, and pointed out other sites available. Tho vice-President stated that upon learning the results of these interviews, himself and other Members of the Committee had selected the section adjoining ithe Cricket ground as the next beat one to be applied

for, although it would be somewhat expensive to clear. Ho had, however, called for tenders for the work, and a number of tenders had been sent in, from £18 upwards. It was resolved that a deputation should wait upon His Honor with reference to the granting or leasing of this land, with instructions to contract for the clearing of .the same upon the arrangements for its transfer to the Association being completed. , The fourth of the Penny Readingß entertainments came off at the Theatre Royal on Friday evening last, with the same success as has hitherto rewarded the efforts of the Committee of management. The lower part of the hous« was respectably filled, and the audience seemed to enjoy themsalves as much, and to feel as comfortable as they did in the building where the previous meetings were held. Amongst a number of old acquaintances who appeared on the stage, one or two new friends put in an appearance, and took part in the programme. The readings were all well given, and attentively listened to, the house being found much easier to fill with the voice than was anticipated, the muisical pieces (instrumental) were also rendered with that precision and taste which is always apparent in the playing of our amateurs. There was, however, one element of the proceeding evenings- noticeably absent on this occasion, viz. : — vocal music. The lateness of the time at which the Committee decided to continue their entertainments at the Theatre, probably prevented the vocalists from getting anything prepared, and the defect will no doubt be remedied on the next occasion. The following prologue was read by Mr Irvine, and was thoroughly appreciated by the audience : — PROLOGUE. ; i What ! Penny Readings living one night more ! I thought they would have died out long before ; As, judging from the history of the past, Twas judg'd that certainly they could not last ; And that it would be very useless trouble To take part in a Penning Reading bubble : For in all things we tried, decline was chronic — They broke up like our poor old Philharmonic : Societies and wooden rails alike were rotten— They soon decayed and quickly were forgotten. Those times are long gone by ; we'll look before To brighter days than e'er were days of yore ; — The fatal crisis past, we'll hope to see A golden era of prosperity. ' I know there are some grumblers left in town Who fatten in the place, yet err it down; There may be also left, in town, : a few Who say that they can nothing get to do ; But I believe they have themselves to blame, and that, if elsewhere, they'd just say. the same. I think, my friends, there is sufficient cause To say trade's better than it " use' to was.,' A person very seldom now, ye find, l Slopes off, not leaving his address behind ;— Tet people used to do so very often — I heard of one man leaving in a coffin ; — But now, when everyone is making money, We never here of anything so funny. Since, then, in these times everyone's succeeding, Be sure success will crown our Penny Reading. The "Daily Times," 16th June, says:— "On Friday night, about six o'clock, a land-slip took place at Mr W. Hooper's residence, Surry Gardens, Peninsula, happily unattended with loss of life. The house, consisting of five rooms and dairy, Is situated about four chains from the edge of the Bay, on a considerable incline, which had been excavated a breadth of 40 feet, to afford a suitable site. It had been enlarged recently, and the painter had just finished his work that very day. After several premonitory slips of no importance, about several hundred cubic yards gave way in a moment, and crushed in the kitchen end of the house. The servant, who was in the kitchen, had barely time to escape, when it was filled in a moment with a mass of earth and gravel, The furniture in the kitchen has been destroyed." The 'Nelson Examiner," 6th June, says: — "The Government has been furnished with a rough estimate by the Provincial Engineer of the cost of .constructing a dry dock in our harbor, cabable of receiving a vessel of the size of the Panama and New Zealand Company's steamer Otago. Mr Blackett's estimate for constructing a dock built of stone, 235 feet long, of adequate width, and with fourteen feet of water on the sill at average tides, is £31,982, but he thinks it highly probable this sum could be reduced some L 5,000 or L 6,000 should the natural foundation prove a bed of rock, as he believes it to be. The Superintendent wishes to appropriate to the construction of this dock a sum of L 12,000 set aside fer another object, but for which he cpnsiders it will not now be required, to supplement this by about L 5,000 out of the present year's revenue, and to complete the work by a vote next year. If the L 12,000 referred to can be secured for the dock, it will be a beneficial method of applying the money, since a dock constructed as proposed by Mr Blackett would be an enduring work, and prove of the highest service to our port and the trade of the city. Some difference of opinion exists as to whether a slip or a dock would best suit the requirements of Nelson, but although something maybe said for both, we have the opinion .of the General Manager of the Panama and New Zealand Company, that a dock would be preferable, and this coming from a gentleman whose vessels would contribute no small item to the trade, should have its weight." ' . The Balclutha correspondent of the "Bruce. Herald," of Wednesday, thus alludes to the pro- 1 gress of the Salmon Ova : — " It will reasonably be expected that any information emanating from this locality: respecting the •almon hatching experiments may be relied upon ; for this reason, that I have hitherto carefully abstained from giving publicity to the thousand and one rumors concerning the experiment, that would only have served to make uncertainty more uncertain. Since, however, there is no longer a doubt, that so far as vitality having boen secured to the ova is concered, the demonstrative proof of numerous young fish being alive and kicking in their cradles or boxes, will be highly satisfactory to your readers. The leaky objections, more freely than charitably urged against the boxes, have swollen up into satisfactory efficacy. Upon this point it may not be out of place to remark upon the virtue of a fault. Had the boxes been put together in the first instance so as to be perfectly tight, the natural effect of water upon wood would have altered the record from a satisfactory consummation into condemnatory thoughtlessness, inasmuch as, before this time every box would have burst to a degree that would have been fatal to the retention of the ova. The real fact of the matter is, that preparations for receiving the ova were commenced far too late, and as everybody knows, anything done in a Jiurry is rarely done weD." . , ... ". _ - -■■■ • - ;<

The " Age," 11th June, says :— " The criminal statistics of the colony of Victori*, just published, show a satisfactory decrease in the amount of crime a3 compared with previous years. The total number of persons taken into custody WCB 23,721, of whom 14,573 were summarily convicted, 553 convicted on trial, and the remainder discharged by magistrates or acquitted by juries. Of those taken into custody 18,791 were males and 4930 females. In all classes of more serious crime there is a considerable decrease as compared with the previous eight years. There were 9351 convictions for drunkenness and disorderly condnct." The latest South Australian papers to • hand contain but little intelligence of general interest. We extract the following :— " The AuditorGeneral has issued the comparative statement of revenue and expenditure for the quarter and year ending 31st March, 1868. It shows that the revenue from all sources during the first three months of 1868 was £170,360, as against £185,124 in the corresponding period of 1867, while the total revenue for the year was £701,531, as compared with £862,716 during the proceeding twelve months, exhibiting a deficiency of £161,185. The expenditure totals are as follow: — Quarter ending March 31, 1868, £181,978'; do, 1867, £280,412; year ending March 31, 1868, £104,837 ; do, 1867, £1,132,136; decrease iv the year 1868, £227,299. -The memorandum giving particulars of the bonded debt, including English accounts, to December 31, 1867, supplies the following information : —

Amount of bonds issued, £1,644,400 ; do, redeemed, £367,150 ; do, in circulation, £1,277,250 j interest paid, £500,881. The total revenue balance at the commencement of 1868 was £116,114, and by the close of the quarter on 31st March, this had been reduced to £104,446." A frightful murder, committed at Bullock Creek, near Sandhurst, is chronicled in the " Bendigo Evening News" : — "The victim, whose name is Eooney, has lately returned from Now Zealand, where he had been successful in mining, being possessed of some £200 or £300 in deposit receipts. His supposed murderer, a man named Doolan, alias Parker, appealed to him for charity, being very hard up, and the deceased took him into his tent and shared his ' tucker' with himi permitting him also to sleep there. Eooney had not been seen for a day or two, but no particular notice was taken until yesterday, when Doplan made his appearance at a Bhanty and spent some few shillings. Dancing was going on to the dulcet tones of a violin, and Doolan having run up a score of two or three shillings, remarked to the fiddler that he must go to Mb b y bank and get more. Being asked where his bank was, he replied ' a hollow log.' The fiddler and another watched where he went, and found him go direct to Booney's tent. When he came back, they proceeded with a lantern to the tent, on opening which they were almost overcome by the intolerable stench. They discovered the body of the unfortunate man Rooney, in an advanced stage of decomposition, with his skull smashed in and his brains scattered about. A stone- breaker's hammer was in the tent, which bore marks of being the weapon used in the perpetration of the murderous deed. Information was at once given to the police, and Mounted-constable Nolan at once proceeded to the shanty, and apprehended Doolan on a charge of wilful murder, and conveyed him to the Marong Lock-up." The "Sydney Morning Herald," 9th June, says : — " By the Magellan Cloud, which left Fiji on the 21st May, news has arrived that Thackambau has been defeated by the rebels. With respect to the native war, therefore, some error has apparently occurred. The intelligence received by the Bchooner Jeannie Duncan, via Lyttelton, being to the effect that King Thackambau had been victorious over the mountain natives, but Mr Thurston, the acting English consul, who was direct from the spot, was on board the Magellan Cloud as she was getting under weigh, and stated that Thackarnbau had been beaten back, the rebels having gained the advantage." A Parliamentary return has been issued, in England, stating the salaries of the several colonial governors. At the head of the roll stand the two great prizes — Canada and. Victoria, each paying its governor £10,000 a year. Jamaica, New South Wales, Mauritius, and Ceylon follow, each with its £7000 a year. Then come South Australia, the Cape, Hong Kong, British Guiana, the Straits Settlements (Singapore), and Gibraltar, each £5000 a year. Next are New Zealand and Malta, £4500 ; and then Tasmania, Queensland, Barbados, Windward Islands, and British Columbia, £4000. Trinidad pays £3500 a year ; and the Bahamas, West African Settlements (Sierra Leone), and Antigua and Leeward Islands, £3000. Bermuda pays £2746; Newfoundland and St. Helena, £2000; Western Australia, £1800; the Falklands, £900; Labuan, £800; and Heligoland, £500. The list of lieutenant governors and presidents of council ranges from Natal, £2500; through British Honduras and Penang, £1800 ; Prince Edward Island, £1500 i^ St. Vincent, Grenada, Tobago, Dominica, St. Kitt's and Nevis, Gambia, Gold Coast, and Lagos, £1300; Malacca, £1200 ; the Cape, £1000; the Virgin Islands, and Turks and Caicos Islands, both £800 ; St. Lucia, £700 ; and Montserrat, £500. The total is £149,246 ; the population about 10 millions. The " Jewish Chronicle," a very high authority among the people whose views it advocates, has the following remarks in reference to the new Premier and Judaism : — " There seems, indeed, to be a singular mistake as to the relation of Disraeli to Judaism. Some Jews censure him as an apostate, and urge his apostacy as an instance of tergiversation. Some Christians scoff at him as a Jew, with a singular, disregard of all they owe to the Hebrew race. Now, the fact is that, in plain English, Disraeli is neither an apostate nor a Jew. He w»3 born of Hebrew parents. His father, Isaac Disraeli, the author, and his mother, a scion of the Basevis, were members of Shephardim Jewish families. His grandfather and grandmother, indeed, rest in the Portuguese cemetery at Mile-end. Benjamin Disraeli was admitted into the communion of Israel, but his father, thinking fit to quarrel with his synagogue, failed to teach his child Judaism. One day Rogers, the celebrated banker poet, happening to visit at Isaac Disraeli's house at Hackney when Benjamin was about five or six years old, and regretting to find so intelligent a youth without religious instruction, took him to Hackney Church. From this event dates his absolute and complete severance from the Jewish communion. He became a Christian, and a great genius was lost tOUB." i