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Southland Times, Issue 1576, 10 May 1872, Page 2

We understand that 31 nominations under the Immigration Act hare been received at Invercargill up to the present time. The usual weekly meeting of the Town Council takes place to-night, having been postponed on account of the holiday yesterday. Mr Tavares, the celebrated tragedian, gives a Shakespearian entertainment in the Theatre on Monday; evening, comprising scenes from Othello, Hamlet, and the Merchant of Venice, to con-; elude with The Honeymoon. Mr Tavares will : be assisted by Miss Surtees and a number of gentlemen amateurs. From the favorable notices; which have been published of Mr Tavareß's performances, the public may look forward to an i entertainment of a high order. ■ j

Yesterday being appointed as a day of public thanksgiving for the recovery of the Prince of Wule3, was observed as a close holiday by the banks and public offices. The storekeepers followed suit early in the afternoon, and business was entirely suspended. Appropriate services were hold in the Anglican and Presbyterian churches in the evening. Wednesday. afternoon was again observed by the retail storekeepers as a half-holiday. There were a few notable exceptions, however, and it is feared that the present arrangement will not pro^e very permanent, as there are rumors of further secessions. The entertainment given in the Theatre on Wednesday night by the musical and dramatic amateurs of Invercargill was a decided success. The attendance was good, and, judging from the frequent applause, the audience seemed to appreciate the efforts made for their amusement. Mr Wotton's stump speech on " Passing Events" elicited roars of laughter. The farce was played with a cara and thoroughness seldom Been in amateur dramatic performances, and though where each did so well it would be invidious to notice individuals, we cannot help remarking on the extremely successful manner in which the difficult part assigned to the lady amateur was sustained. We hope to see a repetition of these entertainments during the winter. At the monthly committee meeting of the Invercargill Athenaeum on Tues lay, 7th inst., seven members were present. Ihe Secretary reported that the Society's reserves in the Oampbelltown Hundred had not yet been leaßed. The subcommittee for dealing with the city reserve, advised that it would be necessary to obtain an extension of the term for which the committee was empovered to grant a lease, and was instructed to apply to the Government thereupon. The remainder of the business was simply routine. A sitting under the Bankruptcy Act was held yesterday in the chambers of the Registrar, for a first meeting of the creditors of Hugh Graham, of Invercarjill, plumber. In the absence of the "Registrar, Mr B. D. Butts, Clerk of the District Court, preaded by appointment. The bankrupt did not appsar, but was represented by Mr Wade. There were no creditors present, and the meeting was adjourned for seven days. Mr Hisbp met with a number of the settlers of the Limeßtone, Plains, in the Western District, at the house of Mr W. A. Lyon, lala Bank, on Saturday last, to take steps for the establishment of a local school, there being a large number of childrenin that district. As there is no school at presert within seven or eight miles of many of the settlers' houses, Mr Hislop said that they had a good claim on the consideration of the Education Board, and advised that a memorial should be forwarded to that body, stating the number of children unprovided for. A committee was formed to carry out this object, and a central site for a school agreed upon. Mr Hislop promised to use his endeavors to obtain a grant of the whole or part of the section selected. A vote of thanks to Mr Hislop for his attendance closed the proceedings. The Invercargill Reserves Management Ordinance provides for vesting certain reserves, hitherto held by the Superinten lent, in the Corporation. There are three schedules, the first comprising no less than 121 quarter-acre sections, WUlch may t}6 leased by tko Oorpoi-afcion, and fcho proceeds devoted to works of public utility. The second schedule contains lands set apart for the purposes of public recreation, namaly, the Taystreet Public Garden Reserve, a reserve of 16 acres between Tyne and Forth streets, through which the Puni Creek runs, the reserve known as the : Town Belt, and the Park of 200 acres to the North of the town. These lands may also be leased by the Corporation, but so that the inhabitants of the town shall not be excluded from them, and the rents must be spent in improvements on the lauds from which they are derived. The third schedule names the Southland Municipal Endowments Ordinance, 1862, as repealed. We understand that Mr Theophilus Daniel, M.P.C, has been appointed immigration agent for the Rivertqn District. We are glad to hear that over ninety immigrants for that part of the country are expected to arrive shortly, many of them nominated by frien ds. The sittings of the Court of Appeal at Wellington open on the 17th inst. The next session of the Supreme Court at Invercargill has consequently been postponed to the 17th June. Mr James Smith, late editor of the Australasian, has delivered two lectures on Spiritism in Dunedin, on the two last Sunday evenings — the first in the Masonic Hall, the second in the Theatre Royal. The lectures have created a great sensation in Dunedin, and the newspapers are filled with correspondence of all degrees of ability maintaining every possible view of the subject. Mr Smith prefaced his first lecture by saying that when he was invited to Dune lin, he submitted the matter to his. spirit friends, and they not only advised him to •come, but furnished him with the introductory leoture he was about to deliver. The good therefore which his remarks might contain belonged to the higher intelligence of which he was the mere amanuensis, and if he failed to reach the hearts of his audience, the fault — he feared — would be his own. From the report of the lecture furnished by the Evening 'Star, we extract the following, that our readers may be able to form some idea of the inform ition 'supplied by "the "higher intelligence :" : — " To get at the truth of spiritual intercourse, and to understand the beautiful gradations of intelligence and rule by which the world was governed, it was necessary to go to the foundation of things, and to understand that the human race made its appearance on the earth tens of thousands of years before the date assigned to the Creation in the Mosaic cosmogony. There have been great ingatherings of the human race — spoken of in the vision of John as churches — '■at intervals of many thousand years. The first took place in what we now call India ; the second in Syria ; the third in Egypt ; and aome idea might be formed of the incorrectness of our systems of chronology from the fact that the ingathering of the third church occurred at a period evidently anterior to the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt. The time had arrived for the commence-: ment of the ingathering of the fourth church ; ' and, although a thousand years might probably i elapse before it was completed, it was steadily : proceeding, and would eventuate in the establishment of such a spiritual civilisation of the I globe, and of such a confraternity of the| spiritual- minded in all countries, as had not; 1 been witnessed since the consummation and '

fulfilment of the Egyptian Church. The first church was gathered in 21,000 years ago, when the earth was smaller than it is at present. Its members, on their ascension, became the spiritual guides and counsellors of the human race next dwelling on earth. At the conclusion of each church, the earth underwent a great convulsion ; its physical aspect wa3 changed, and its bulk expanded. At the expiration of 7000 years the second, church was gathered in : the first ascended to a higher scale, and became the teacher of the seconl ; and "so with the third. Whan those arose the first passed into the sun, and its members were invented with a lustre corresponding with the glo"ious raliance of the centre of our planetary system. Prior to the third ingathering there was but one continent and one sea. The four continents whioh now exist were riven asunder, and the islands we inhabit began to emerge from the ocean. We foolishly imagined that America was discovered a few centuries back. That land was perfectly well known to the members of the third ohuroh ; it was the seat of a pure and spiritual civilisation, and dwelling-place of a noble and natural race of beings. It was because the fourth ingathering had commenced that a spiritual awakening was now taking place all over the globe. Men of science and theologians were finding themselves brought face to face with doubts and difficulties they were unable to solve ; old superstitions were crumbling to ruin ; scepticism was invading the sanctuary 3 of orthodoxy, and the belief in a physical devil and physical hell being discarded by all but 'an unenlightened few ; the theory of the plenary inspiration of the Bible rejected by many of those who were formerly its staunchest and defenders ; and mankind beginning to extricate themselves from the meshes .of a pernicious theology, and to seek communion with G-od through the inatrucaontalitj- of hia angels. These things were but the prelude to the change awaiting us." A firm in Adelaide which employs a number of young men, has established a " blasphemy fund." The practice of swearing had been much indulged in, and by general consent, fines have been enforced upon every member of the establishment who used a profane or objectionable expression. The money accumulated in this manner is expended in some useful or pleasurable way— such as furnishing the funds for some annual entertainment. The . establishment of a " blasphemy fund" (says the Melbourne Herald) is not a new idea, indeed it would appear to date from the earlier periods of Christianity. St. Chrysostom — it is recorded — was so vexed with the blasphemous language indulged in by the citizens of Antioch, that he delivered a series of homilies on the sin, and recommended self-inflicted fines to those who transgress against the commandment, the money so forfeited to be expended in buying provisions for the poor. This occurred about the year 387 a.d. To this we may only add the saying of Solomon, " there is nothing new under th« sun." The Launceston Examiner begins an article on the present prospects of Tasmania as follows : — " Drifting, drifting, drifting ! Customs declining ; land fund gone ; debt increasing ; mad projects on foot to ' revive' the colony j what is to be the end of it ?" During the quarter ending with December the shipments from the port of Adelaide to Great Britain were valued at £493,563. The value of the wheat shipped was £73,439, and of the flour £4486. Copper to the value of £67,915 was sent away. Silver, lead ore, and bismuth were exported to the value of £48'). Wool figures in the returns for £297,213, tallow for £24,292, preserved meats for £11,540, wine for only £331, and bullion for only £300. In the preceding quarter the value of the exports was £674,811. In the same three months tha shipments from Port Adelaide to New South Wales amounted to £62,933; to Victoria, £37,066 ; to Queensland, £35,029 ; to New Zealand, £30,336 ; to Western Australia, £5193 ; to Mauritius, £14,912 ; to Calcutta, about £30,000 ; to New Caledonia, about £4000 ; to France direct, about £5800 ; and to Batavia, £2000. The Medical Society of Melbourne have resolved to request the Solicitor G-eneral to enter a nolle prosequi in the case of Mr W. H. Jackson, surgeon of Merino, charged with manslaughter by a coroner's jury. It will be remembered that he used a piece of wiri, an augur, and a chisel to perform the operation of eraniotomy. Tha Medical Society unanimously resolved, at a special meeting, that under the circumstances, and judging by the evidence contained in the depositions, no imputation of professional incompetency rested against Mr Jackson. "He was held to have done the best he could iv a very trying emergency, and it w^is stated by several inetnbars of the committee that the operation of ' craniotomy' had occasionally been performed by practitioners of the most undoubted skill with instruments even less delicate than those used by Mr Jackson. It wns moreover, considered as a very noteworthy circumstance, and one very much to Mir Jackson's credit, that notwithstanding the rudeness of the instruments he had been compelled to use, no injury whatever had resulted to the mother."* The total quantity of gold exported from New Zealand from the Ist April, 1857, to the 31st March, 1872, was 6,427,875 ozs., of the' declared value of £24,961,021. To this amount, Otago (inoluding Southland) contributed 2,928,144 ozs., the value thereof being £11,444,012. During the quarter ended 31st March, 1872, the yield in the various gold-producing provinces of the colony was as follows ; — Auckland, 32,587 ozs., value, £118,382; Marlborough, 935 ozs., value, £3,820; Nelson, 27,9080z5., value, £111,632 j Westland, 34,484 ozs., value, £137,936 j Otago, 59,063 ozs., value, £236,252 ; making together a total yield of 154,997 ozs., of the value of £608,022. During the same quarter last year the total yield was 180.16J ozs., the value being' £676,981. There has been a very considerable falling off in the production of Auckland, while there is a considerable increase in the returns for Otago. From a private . letter the Lyttelton Times is. informed that the Rev. R. Ward, of the Primitive Methodist body, who formerlyministered in Wellington, but has been on a visit to England, is about to return to New Zealand, accompanied by seven other ministers, who are to be distributed over these Colonies. The Rev.: R. Ward will be stationed in Christchurch, the 1 Rev. B. J. Westbrooke will be stationed at In-j vercargill, and the remainder will be located as! follows :— Two in Queensland, two in New South; Wales, and two in South Australia.

The Wairarapa correspondent of a Wellington paper says : — W>at with boiling down, and the infusion of fresh blood into our flocks, a vast improvement in their appearance and wool- pro- ' ducing qualities may reasonably be expected. The Bowing of English; grasses tends, as everyone knows, to improve the flaece ai well as the carcase. Messrs Beotham have this season expended the enormous sum of £3000 in grass seed and the sowing of it. Their run extends over 40,000 acres of some of the finest land in the Wairarapa. ; The Provincial Government of Taranaki is » very unpretending institution. From the estimate of revenue and expenditure lail before the Council, for the half-year en ling December, it appears that the available revenue for the year from all sources, including the fifteen shilling capitation grant, but excluding grant for public works, as being of an exceptional character, only amounts to the sum of £4.450 j while the expenditure is estimated at £5,934. The cost of the prosecution of Cyrus Haley has, by an order of Chief Justice Arney, been made chargeable on the convict's property, under the provisions of the ' * Convicts Property Act." The following paragraph from the Wellington Independent is too good to be lost : — Mr T. L. Shepherd, the member for Dunstan, has forcibly reminded us of his reputation for impudence and vain-glorious impertinence. The other day he did us the favor of supplying us with a telegram to the effect that he had addressed his constituents, spoken over two hours, and received a vote of thanks ; but he omitted to pay the three shillings, cost of the message. As Greville's agent obliged us with a similar message upon the same subject we had to pay rather dearly for the gratification of learning that the brazen member for the Dunstan had — like another hiatoric.il personage — spoken. Under the heading " £100 Boirard," in the New South Wales Police ft izatte, the following notice in connection with the late melancholy double suicide at the Wanganui Bridge appears : — " Whereas on the 20th and 22 id ult., the charred bones found in a paddock at Malamuddy, Queen's Pinch, Mudgee District : and whereas, at an inquest held on the 4th instant, before J. W. Lees, Esq., Coroner, the following verdict was returned : — That the bones produced are the bones of an infant ; but how they came there, or whose remains th >y are there it not sufficient evidence to show ; and whereas Richard Crossing and Bella Crossing are charged on warrant with the murder of the infant, and there is reason to believe that the remains above referred to' are those of an infant alleged to hare been murdered, the above reward will be paid on such information being given as will lead to the apprehension of the parties named." The following is from the Kapunda Herald : — We have had an opportunity of inspecting Mr J. White's flock of Angora goats, which had just been brought down from the Murray Scrub. Mr White is of opinion that it would be an immense advantage to formers who possess flocks of the common white goats to obtain a male Angora, of pure breed, to run with them, a3 at the fourth cross the fleece becomes equally fine and long as the pure-bred goat. Judging by his own experience, Mr White estimates the annual yield of wool at from 71b to 81b par head per year (they being shorn twice a year) the wool being worth from 2s 6d to 3s 6d per lb in London. Mr White commenced three years ago with a pair bought from the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria, for which he paid £15. He has lately bought 33, nearly pure and mixed breeds, from Mr Jones. His flock now numbers fifty, the majority of which are beautiful looking creatures, and it was difficult to distinguish between some of the crosses and pure bred goats. Mr White has sold one pure bred kid for £13, and a second one was accidentally killed. Some of the kids of four and five months old had splendid fleeces on them." At the meeting of the medical profession, recently held in Auckland, the subject of infant mortality came up for conversation, when, according to the Southern Cross, the astonishment of the professional men present seemed to be, not that the rate of death was so high, but that it was not a great deal higher. Two m ijor causes were adduced for the high death rate amongst the children— the liberal use of " soothing powders," which had a really soothing effect ; and the great amount of artificial feeding of children which existed here. If mothers were to nurse infant children in the manner Nature intended they should, the death rate would rapidly diminishSteadman's soothing powders were said to contain a large per centage of calomel, and after partaking of them for some time the mouths of such children assumed a sloughing conlition. Grahamstown (the Thames) will shortly be lighted with gas, the works being nearly completed. We learn from a West Coast paper that tho following application, made by Mr~ Tribe on behalf of Messrs Brogden and Sons, has been received by the County Chairman of Westland : — "We offer to construct a railway for steam traffic from Ross, through; Hokitika, to the Grey coal-mines. ,In consideration of our doing which we ask for a belt of land one and a half miles (freehold) the whole length, through which to make the railway. Any sold lands that may be crossed, or be within the belt, to have a chain wide through them if required for the line, conveyed to us, and an area equal to such freeholds to be conveyed to us outside of the mile and a half belt." The amount of land is stated at 43,000 acres, said not to be worth. ss an acre at present. It is suggested that it would be better for the oolony to grant land in alternate blocks with reserves, instead of continuously along the line. The Victorian harvest returns are expected to average about twelve bushels of wheat to the acre ; a very small yield, but still double the South Australian average, which is only five bushels and three-quarters this year. The judge who sentenced Peeney to death for shooting Marks in the" ~CarTton~ Gardens, Melbourne, told him that when he found that Marks had missed him he should hare blown his own brains out. This remarkable advice, from a judge, has provoked a good d«al of comment. The Illustrated New Zealand Herald for thi month contains an excellent . representation of the township of Balclutha, with the bridge over the Molyneux in the foreground. The other engravings comprise illustrations of - Australian scenery,' incidents, &o. ' . L The Rev. W. M'Gregor has received _a call te the Presbyterian congregation at Eaiapoi, in the I Presbytery, of, Canterbury. •

The Wellington Independent saya that an enquiry into the conduct of Colonel Harington at Christchuxoh is necessary in justice to him and hia accusers, bat the Government cannot order an enquiry on anonymous complaints. Tawbiao, the Maori king, invites the Governor and the Hon. Mr M'Lean to meet the Hauhaus at Alexandra. At an indignation meeting, held at Beaftos, West Coast, a resolution was passed asking the General Government to withdraw the delegated p«wers from the Superintendent of Nelson, and to takeover the management of the south-west goldfields, in consequence of the action of the provincial authorities in curtailing some of the leases and refusing to grant others. A Dunedin paper says that Mr Gisborne has written to Dr Featherston, requesting him to arrange for the shipment of a quantity of salmon ova, if possible to the Bluff, from the Clyde. The ova cannot be obtained until the cud of the year, at which time they will be procured and pacfced — probably under the supervision of Mr Frank Bueklana 1 . The Otago Daily Times of the 7th inst. is authorised to state that arrangements have been made for the conveyance of the outgoing mail, should the Nebraska, from whatever cause, not be able to take it. The s.s. Wellington, which was to have sailed for the North on Tuesday, has been detained by the Government until Friday, the regular date for the despatch of the outward mail, which she will take to Auckland. From Auckland, failing the Nebraska, the mail will be conveyed by the s.s. City of Adelaide to Honolulu.