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Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1736, 27 July 1874, Page 2

At St. George* Church yesterday the Report of the Standing Committeo on the Home Mission of lho Diocese of Auckland for the year ending Jnno 30, 1874, was presented to members of the congregation. A FBTiTrcm has boon presented to; the As:enibly signed by a number of Tarannki residents, praying that the " Sale of Poisons Act, 1871, " may bo amended so as to include alcohol. The annual meeting of subscribers to the Thames Mechanics' Institute will be held at thelnstitue this OTening at half-past seven o'clock, to receive annual report and balanco sheet and to e'eefc committee and officers for the ensuing year. Mb. Miiburk, a compositor in the London Times office, who produced a set of verses in bonour of the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, has rectivod an autograph letter of thanks from tho Empress of Russia.

The Taranaki Herald says:—We Icafn that the telegrams did not go through on Saturday last. Tho reason assigned by the nativo for not conveying them, was that, his father having died, he was engaged in making a cofixn for him, and could not got another man to take his place. There is again a loud complaint on the Thames, consequent on the scarcity cf coalWebb's battery, although fuPy engaged ia at a stand-still for fuel. The Queen of Beauty have only a fow hours' stock on hand, th«n they must stop crashing. Tie Bright Smile have in a measure anticipated the want, having caused the Julia Price schooner <o be chartered to the Bay of Islandi for their own 1113. We nre informed that tho butchers of" the Thames hare raised the price of moat two- ! pence psr pound, in consequence of a corresponding a-Wanco charged by the salesmen, who alloge that until more resaels are put on the coast for tho catfle hv.do the pricj of' meat will necessarily rule higher than it has done for some time. It appears to ws that there is a monopoly of tho wholesale business, to break which some effort should bp made, or else we shall always be at the mercy of one or two individuals. A cotempobabt give? tho following as an instance-of " saanwnship and friendship : — The steward of the Prairie Bird committed suicide on the "voyage from Havre to New Orleans. The extract from tho captain's log, which tbo newspapers publish, is a mixture of the nautical and the literal:—, ' The steward went into the cabin with the dish basket. Hoard report; The carpenter sung out, 'My God, he has shot himself.' Laid him on the raoin hatch, and found a bullet hole in his' right 'emple. Then laid him out on a plank in starboard gang wiy; hauled down fore aid aft sails; laid yard abaok ; read funeral ceromony, and launched him into the deep." A iady, in Wangsnui, who, wiih her family, was the sole occupant of tho house, was awakened during the nighS by hearing in another room her little daughter talking to Borne one. On listening, she heard the little one, in the mosfe unconscious innocence, addro?sin# some person in the words,, " Please shut the window, or I shall catch a cold." The lady immediately win to tbo room, and discovered a man standing at the half open window,/through./which-he was apparently meditating an entrance. The : intruder,-who had hesitated at the fearles* and unconcerned conduct of tho little child, at once decamped upon the appearance of the lady. . The following story h told in a Melbourne •yiaper :—A young lady LUoly selected a piece of land up country, struck up* flirtation with tho aelector whose laud marched with hen, and came down to town a week ago to be married to him. On the way down the lover spent tho best part of the way on tho box beside tho driver, enjoying his favorite pipe and no doixbt dreaming of th* f-im'o when ho would have a lovely being by his fireside to cut hi 3 tobacco and darn h-s sooks. Tho selcctres*, left to herself inside tho coach, struck up another flirtation wiMi a fellow passenger, to whilo away the tedium of the journey, and tho result was that she maiuried the second man the day following her arrival in Melbourne. The moral is obvious. / Tns Paris correspondent of a contemporary gives adv'ca to strangers. Ho relates that a young Englishman who came to Pari3 to make his fortune—a useless speculation since, the field is over occupied—was dreaming dreams agains'lh<» quag wall, when he was accosted by a fascinating citizen, wlio stated ha was an liomme dcs lettrea, an I to, not ov« rich, but as tho eon of Albion had not a sous, he invited him to breakfast. The repast .was a fcasb of good things. When' t'"e waiter brought the bill,, the.Frenchman desired to converse with the proprietor; assumed him j they had no money ; that they would remember him for ever for h:s goodness, and announced they were ready to throw themselves into the arms of the police. Tin Englishman was nnarched to his Embassy—that seat, him j home—knowing nothing of the incident at ihe time, and his gencrou3 friend was led back to prison, which he had only left that msrning'. The following story is told by a French. ! journal: —A physician, officially connected with the prison of La Force, and much beloved by hia light-fingered patient?, perooived, on leaving the Yarietes one. evening, that hi» pockets had been picked, and that his operaglass was pone. Next day, meeting tha denizens of La Force, he expressed his displeasure at the occurrence. "It's all very w.e11," said he, " for you to say I am popular among you, but I am treated just as others are. Some of your friends contrived to relieve me of my opera-glass last night at the Varietes. " That waa only because they did not know you, doctor," replied a prisoner. " Who was", on ' tluty^ at the Varieties la»t night ? " lie inqaired, burning to a comrade. The answer wua given in a wkiiper". "You Bhall have your glass to-morrow.". he added. Next day a person called on the phyiioian'i wife. *' Hare," said lie, " are" all the opera* glasses stolen two; nights ago at tbo Yarietes j please to poiat cut tho doctor's." The lady baring dope e&, tho obliging: pickpocket handed itio her, restored the othwa to tlieir cawa and disappeared, ,