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Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1909, 3 December 1874, Page 2

We understand that Mr Allom, Mining Registrar, has made application for the appointment of Warden at Ohinemuri, and has lately spent a good deal of- his time there, for what purpose we cannot imagine. Major Keddell has been spoken of for some time as the person to be appointed,'in the event of Ohinemuri.being opened, and his appointment would certainly be the most satisfactory to the miners and the public.

Through telegraph communication from Mr Severn's operating room, near his own dwelling-house, to the locality of Lieutenant Palmer's observations for the transit of Venus, at Bnrnham, near Christchurch, wa3 completed late last evening, and experimental messages were expected to be exchanged. For the purposes of this observation arrangements have been made to transmit direct through the submarine cable in Cook's Straits. Mr Severn has had an operating-room erected for the observation, near his telescope, and in a few days photographs of importance in connection with the observation will be taken, • The librarian of the Mechanics' Institute informs us that the books are coming in very slowly, that there are still a large number out, and that until these are brought in, progress cannot be made with the printing of the catalogue. We hope that members of the Institute who have books out will see to this, so that I there may be no delay in opening the institute, and tint (he catalogue may be maJe as complete and accurate as possible. Kirkwood street, from Queen-street to Pollenstreet, has now been raised by mullock from the, Exchange mine. The wek has been done at very : little cost to the Borough, as the Exchange furnishes a team to cart away the stuff on to the street, while the Foreman of Works looks after the spreading, the largest lumps,of mullock 'being placed as a pitching for. the road. When, finished the street will carry light traffic admirably. By and by all the streets on the flat will be raised by the mullock from the hills', which will be a great improvement in every way.

A dramatic entertainment in aid of the funds of the Thames Boating, Club and,the Naval Brigade Boat Club, will be'given to-night in the Academy of Music by the same company of amateurs who recently performed with so much success for the benefit of the' Cricket Club. The programme is one which promises considerable fun and pleasure It opens with the farce of-"The Quiet Familyj" which'wiii'be followed by a musical melange, and the entertainment will conclude with the burlesque of "lord Lovel and Lady Nancy i Belh"f<MrOwen will Act as musical conductor, and Miss Laura Wiseman will kindly give her services for the occasion.. ; Other lady amateurs will also appear, and we have no doubt an entertainment will be provided, which wid afford pleasure to all.-, ; We. notice (that the. Volunteers are to parade in uniform and march'to the hall, and the Thames J>cottish Brass Band will perform selections prior to the commencement of the performance, Now that the Thames and Auckland regattas are close at hand, we hope every encouragement will be afforded to our Thames Clubs to get their teams into training,' so that they may be able to Bustain the prestige which they have earned for the past .two years. We hope, therefore, to see a full attendance on this occasion. >

We are sorry to hear that the child Morton, who was thrown out of the spring cart on the Parawai road on Monday last, is much worse than was at first supposed. Dr Payne was sent for'when the parties reached homeland has since been in constant attendance on the child, vhich is six months old. There is(Considerable danger of life Mrs Morton is: also severely injured on the head, but not dangerously. Mr Deeble himself was hurt ou the shoulder.

In our advertising columns the Thames Magnet Variety Troupe announce that they will give one of their grand entertainments at the-Academy of Music, on Saturday next. They will be assisted by Mr W. H, Reed. I

With reference to the accident to one of Mr Quinlivan's eons, through the carelessness of some school-boy." in frightening his mare Belle of the Isle, we are requested to state that Mr Coburgh, the master, of the Parawai School, made inquiries amongst his scholars yesterday in order to ascertain if any of them had i beeu concerned in the matter; and the inquiry, wenjt to show that tho accident occurred in Jtollestonstreet, instead of on the Parawai Road, and that none of his boys were concerned in it.

The Choral Society purpose giving another concert during the present month, and a full meeting of members is to be held this evoning for the purpose ojE deciding on a programme. Hie meeting will bo, Held at the. freeinasoaa' ttdli " '

The Thames Scottish Company and band parade this evening at seven o'clock in uniform and with side arms. The arrival of the ship' Queen Bee,' the first wool ship in Poverty Bay to load home direct, was quite an event. The Standard chronicles the arrival at some length, She proceeded from Napier, after discharging all her inward cargo except about 200 tons intended for Poverty Bay. The Echo th« 3 alludes to an evil very prevalent at the Thames, and to which it would be well if l)i > attention of the police as well as parents were directed:—"To any one into whom maxims of propriety have been instilled it is a lamentable spectacle to.witness the crowd of young lads win ' slinge' about the streets on Sunday evenings, and who appear to have no other object thin to idle away time in a manner unprofitable both to their bodies and souls. Last evening this was specially remarkable. Rows of hobbledehoys were to be seen in the main street sitting on the doorsteps, and wherever else they could obtain room, or standing in knots at the corners of the streets, making use of most obscene language, and criticising passers-by in more forcible than polite terms. Clearly all this arises from defective training, and from the gross negligence of parents. If mental education ef children is. to be made compulsory it is a fur question to ask whether parents should not be made responsible for their moral education. Certainly some forcible measures will have to be adopted ere long to rectify the crying evil of the age, —the depravity of the rising generation. If no cure can be found it is evident that generation number two will be worse still. .This is a serious matter, and one which, should occupy the attention of our legislators. The clergy do not take half the trouble in this matter that they might. A great deal of good could be done if they would . exert themselves more in the lane 3 and alleys, and those who take an interest in Sunday schools and institutions of a similar class might do far more than at present in assisting in reclaiming the youngsters now growing up and on the verge of joining the ranks of 'larrikins' and other young rutfians who are already too in advanced in the science to be reformed by anything but the corporal punishment which ought to be awarded them.''

That there has been a good deal of bungling from time to time over the opening of Ohinemuri we do not dispute, but to accuse tie Government of "looking;and praying they may not find," as does our Thames contemporary, is a little too much. In calculating whether a man will act honestly or not'it is usual with people experienced in the. world's doings to weigh the chances of its paying him to be dishonest In the case in question we can see every reason for honest exertion on the part of the Government, if only to regain some of the popularity they have lost at the Thames, to say nothing of the advantage to the colony of opening a large tract of country to'the energy and enterprise of the settlers. On the other hand failure means many an adverse .vote, not only at the Thames but 1 in Auckland. It is difficult to offer an opinion as to the beat means of conducting native land transactions— they are beyond the ken of. ordinary mortals. There are so many different interests and prejudices on the part of the natives themselves to consider, and in addition there is a large number of unprincipled white men who, to gain a little profit to themselves, would do any conceivable dirty trick to gain their own ends. We have already expressed our opinion of some of the proceedings that have marked the attempted purchase of Ohinemuri on this, occasion. We have not hesitated to condemn the.ration .system as immoral and impolitic, but we cannot well at the same time accuse the Government again of over-anxiety to purchase or of culpable carelessness about success. We believe the Governmentj/are| sincerely anxious to obtain this la-id, aSd we can conceive of no good reason for their drawing back except an honest conviction tbatWia not safe to go on! This' may very well beVhe case, and if it is so we should be. Borrx.feJhjak that any undue pressure was brdught to bear upon them. We'have had enough of this in the past history of the colony. Some of" us can recall the story of Waifcara, and those who remember that purchase know that it is possible to be too eager to complete a native land purchase. If Ohinemuri can be bought— honestly brought—from the owners, and mt merely from one oE them, we cannot conceive' anything which would do the Government more good than to buy it. If it cannot, we hope that no pressure will iuduce them to seize upon the land without these formalities.— Tld Echo,

We hive received files of the Cooktow i papers to the 31th October, but they contuu very little of interest, is usual thee is a vast am.uut of contradiction as to the prosperity of the place. By some it is represented as a'veritable E! Dorado, and by others a-place utterly unfit for a white man to live in. Still the : place seems to go ahead, and new rushes are occasionally formed which keep up the excitement. The blacks are very troublesome, 1 : and one -funisy named Strauoe were murdered under circumstances of great barbarity, and there are rumours of others hiving f illen victims to these sivages. The last find is thus referred to by the Cooktown Herald of thi 31st October:—During the last few days the.town has been all astir with the reports from the neff rmh, and everywhere you go you will chance to come across a group of men in solemn'conclave assembled, asking one another if anything is known of the matter, | As yet, however, nothing definite is known, although we are told.one of the men came in the 1 other day with-55 ounces of gold, aHdfrom what could be gle tned of the rush it was stated to be at the head rf the : Normanhy River, near where the new road crosses to the Upper Camp. Our informant says he was told there, is. any aSoant of country to prospect,'and that'you could not go wrong for;gold.— Mail.

• The sparrows in the locality of the Union. Bank, Auckland (says the Echo), have evinced a spirit of determination worthy of a better cause than that-of accumulating a quantity of rubbish and giving the custodians a great deal of unnecessary trouble in cleaning up the portico every morning They were: Buminarily ejected irom their- nests behind ihe volutes of the composite columns, and excluled: by'inetwork; but they have now-taken possession of the capitals, and are building as fast as ever on the summits of the columns. ..,-. : ;

A correspondent at Wangaroa'says that in two cases seizures have been-made under an order from the Court for the recovery of the Education rate... A settler, named .Osborne had a bbrse sold' to liquidate the rate, the'expenses on the recovery of which amounted to £] odd. In another case, that of Mr Kerr, his household furniture was seized,'the expenses'on the sale of which were £5 'lis 6J; ; Action in these cases was taken for the recovery of the old rate, the defaulters being siilUliable for the current 'one; : ■''■:■'■ -■■ •-• '" : .' '-■'■■ - ;1 ' ■''[ A Deep Level Prospecting Association js'being formed at Bendigo, province of', Otago. Its capital is £10,000, in 40)000 shares of' Breach, The calls are fixed at one half-penny per share ,per. month. 34,000 shares were taken on tho spot. The object the association has ,in view is to drive a low level tuanel from Bendigo Gully into the range, for, the-purposeof, cutting the Lucknow, Aurora, and i other noted reefs, and for intersecting the main lode. ■ • The following is siid to be a simple method of extracting children's teeth:—The operation consists in simply slipping' a rubber ring over, the tooth|': and forcing it gently under the edge of the gum. ; ; The patient is then dismissed, and told hot to remove the appendage, which, in a few days,.loosens the tooth;; and.causes it to faliout. -Grownchildren, whosbrinkfromthe shock and pain of the dental nippers, may also havo their teeth removed by means of the rubber,' which is a mild form of treatment; ■■:.■-.•' f : ' •.-,'•. ■■.•.•:■.:■■,'.' A' good story is told of the Veryßev CanonSmith, of Sydney.., When .his' Excellency was at the Bathurst races some weeks, ago he came across the Canon! ' Making up a book, Canon ?' said Hercules. ' Yes,' said; Barnaby,,.'here jt is' Hercules looked and admired, It was a subscription-' list for 'the ''addition;, to th.e \ new cathedral. 'Put medqwn'foratennerl' said Herouleß. .'Done,' said Barnaby. Up comes Mr Eiles.' '.Going in ? '.. saidHercules,. •' Yes, your Excellency,', said Bale 3,'': f Put him down for two tennewl' said Hercules. > : 'Dooe/ said the Canon; andjti \?as w,m Hercules and Eats?.. ,: ."■ ; '"'■■;' ■';. -..