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Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1791, 29 September 1874, Page 2

A New York paper tells of a Vermont bachelor ■who one day B< t the table in Bis lonely übode with plates for hiioself and an imaginary wife and five children. He thin sat down to dine, and as often as ho helped himeelf to food he put the same quantity on each of the other plateß, and surveyed the the prospect, at the same time computing the He is still a bachelor.

Mb. SAMtra Tatiob, a printer, of Gfrraystok plaof, Fetter-lane, London, who wan buried at Highgate cemetery, has left £1000 to the Printers' Corporation for the benefit of poor printers.

We have a letter of "Homo Gossip." It appears to hare come by the Torres Straits mail, and reached Duaedin ten days ago. We shall publish it to-morrow, as though old in point of date, it will be found not uninteresting.

A settler in the Southern district of Otngo who engaged one of the immigrants ex Caroline as domestic servant, speaks of her as ono of the most useless and well behaved girls that could possibly be. Ske can be strongly recommended to a place in a house where the work is put out.

The G-olden Crown Bteamer left Auckland to-day at half-past one o'clock, and may be expected here at six. She will land passengers at the Goods Wharf, owing to the damage done' to Tararu. '± Ihe Crown will remain 'all night and leave for Auckland at half-past nine to-morrow morning.

Mb. Faieme, the manager of the St. James Theatre, announces in his advertisements, with reference to the " Ripirella" dance ia " Vert-Vert," tkat, in conseqnence of a« intimation received from the Lord Chamberlain, he " has put the Orphean troupe in long clothes."

An Intelligent Vagrant who now writes funny things for the Bruce H«rald has perpetrated the following :—They aro collecting subscriptions to provide a bell for a church in Milton. I asked a friend who had been asked to subscribe what he had given. Ho made answer, " They wrung a note cut of me."

Wh have recived from the GovernmenPrinting office New Zealand Gazette Ho 61, and the followiisg bills:—New Zealand University Act; Otago Beserves Act; Naval Training Schools Act; Burial Ground Closing Act; Goldfielda Act Amendment Act; Regulation of Mines Act; Inspection of Machinery Act; and a number of others of a looal character.

In the New Zealand Gazette of September 24 appears a notice that His Excellency the Governor hai been pleased to appoint Lieutenant John Edwin Macdonsld, No. 3 Hauraki Rifles, to be Captain; date of Cornmiasion, 13th May, 1874. William Nicholls, jun.j Esq., Thames, and John W. Thorp, Esq., Ohi-emuri, have been appointed interpreters under the 2Ta"tive Lands Act, 1873.

The fallowing telegraphic items, received on Saturday evening, were inadvertently left ©ut of yesterday's issue :—" Melbourne, Sept. 21. —Notice has been vTgiven of a Government measure to deal with larrikins and to provide for private whipping in certain cases.—Sydney, Sept. 21. —Admiral Rechart has deposed several officers at Now Caledonia and sent them back to France.—Western Australia.— The Bill has been read a second time for a new Constitution, and a dissolution has taken place. It provides for two : Chambersr—a nominated Upper Howe, and a Lower House of 25 members." . ,

The Wellington correspondent of the Wangahui Chronicle writes :—" There has been much talk about the suspension of Mr. Eustaca de Brandon, the Chief Clerk and Accountant in the Stamp Department. Thin toot place-some weeks ago, but the factr for a time remained unnoticed by the Press. It does not now, however, uppear likely that there is to be any regular investigation. Tho officer has remained suspended for several weeks, but though he is paid to have formally demanded an enquiry, yet tliß Government have not appointed the usual Board before which cuch enquiry could bo held. Meantime all sorts of rumours as to the reasons which caused Mr. Brandon's suspension are flying about. I doubt very much, however, whether anything but allowing the department to get into a state of confusion can be proved againit this officer."

A ctteiotts event happened on tho goocV wharf on Saturday. The topsail schooner Mariner was lying at the end of the tee at the termination of the wharf, and on Saturday those on board were slightly surprised to find themselves suddenly visited in an unceremonious manner by one of the huge trucks used for the conveyance of coal from the colliers. The way ia which it happened was this. The truck had been left standing at the other end of the tee, but had been insecurely fastened, the break having been left loose. The consequence of this was that when a strong puff of wind caught the back of the truck, it started and gaining impetus as it went by the assistance of the breeze, made a clean leap from the wharf into the centre of the Mariner's forecastle, and then stopped because it could go no further. Fortunately no damage resulted j but, as Captain Austin states, had the vessel been a few feet from the wharf, there can be little question bit that the truck would have caused serious injury to the vessel.

An exchange has the following;— About five and twenty years ago a police-constable, numbered and lettered as 184 B in the Dublin metropolitan force, was unlucky enough to arrest and get fined a gentleman of the fourth estate for being drunk and disorderly. The reporter vowed a vow that he would blot the offending constable off the face of the earth, and well did ho keep his resolve. Day after day and week after week the police reports of Dublin were filled with misdoings of 184 B. He was represented as appearing to prosecute for the most improbably absurd offences —now arresting men for stealing the gold off a child's gingerbread— lying in waib for days to defect the fraudulent ' philanthropist who habitually dropped a bad sixpence into a blindman'e hat—making cases cut of men who sniffed without payment the rich perfumes from a pastrycook's shop-win-dows. The magistrates were represented as continually inveighing c gainst the groß* stupidity and intense wickedness of 184 B. C>ne report that I particularly remember stated that the presiding justice remarked, at the conclusion of the case, that "Verily the devil had taken posesßion of 184 B." The constable became a byword ar.d a reproach to the whole force. Ho used to be followed by crowds on his " bate," anxious to sec him give vent to his diabolical propensititi, and no one ever looked on his number without laughing. The authorities held out for a long time, but at last, in the interests of civic order, had to give way,, and 184 B, as such, ceaied to perambulate the itreoto. A circumstance like thw shows the power of the Press very strikingly, and I hope it will be a warning to policemen on this side of the world to take no notice of drunken and disorderly reporters, if there be any such, unfortunately, in ovx midst.—Exckwge. ~

Mb. J. M. McLabbn, Provincial District Engineer, telegraphed to the Superintendent at Coroman del this morning, informing him of the damage done to the Tararu Wharf, and received an answer to put it in a state of repair at once. The damage is worse than was thought at first. There are three bays of the old portion.of the wharf carried away, while the part recently put in repair under Mr. McLaren's direction remains uninjured. The work of repair has been commenced, and we are informed tkat it will be so far comyleted to-morrow as to allow of passengers being landed if required.

Those who read English papers are continually told about the wretchedness and depravity of the "Low Irish." Lefc'nis see how the low English compare with them. In an articlt entitled: " The Vilest Specimens of Humanity," a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian describing the roughs of Lancashire says:—" To my mind the Lancashire_ rough of the Bolton and Blackburn districts is the vilest specimen of humanity on the face of the earth; indeed, he would disgrace th« lowest order of aaimals, and I think a cannibal or Anhantefl is a perfect gentleman compared with one of them. The villains never seem to think that kicking with.tke sort of clogs on they wear, is not one whit better than fighting with iron gloves or armed with spikes ; and I dare say oven they would admit that this was rather too much of a good thing. There is nothing in the shape of bodily suffering so repulsive to my mind as the blows given by these fcrutes by their clogs, and I should infinitely prefer a bullet through my head to undergoing the treatment to which they often subject each other, and even their poor wives."

A case of interest to the Maori world was heard in the B.M. Court this morning, and as msual on such occasions, the Court was crowded with Maories immediately on the doors being opened. A native named Eire was charge! with cruelly assaulting a white man named Wesfcon. The case arose oufc »f one tried in the same Court in May last, defendant being one of a party in a general row which occurred about that time in the Melbourne Hotel, Shorfcland. Weston went to the assistance of Constable Madill who was arresting another tubuleut spirit of dark skin; Eire either k aocked Weston down, or waited till he was down and kicked him. Ho then made his escape ; and kept out of tie way for some time ; but upon being brought up this morning, was sentenced to a term of two months' imprisonment, which he richly deserves. According to the evidence elicited the attack was as unprovoked as it was cowardly and brutal. Weßton received a serious wound on the head, inflicted by the boot of the culprit, and has nofc yet recovered from the effect of it. This Rire, though, would appear to bo a notorious rowdy and fightist. He is the hero of the Battle »f the Bridge, as Mr. Bullen deioribsdit, and which will perhaps have keen forgotten by many. A great disturbance took place on the Hape Creek bridge, Maories attacking the police. It wa« then that Mr. Bire, who must entertain a prejudice in favor of the old idea of canabaliism, conceiving a taite for a bite of something human, chawed Mr. Bullen'e thumb. He is said to have since congratulated himself upon this achievement. But this last episode in his life will not prove so satisfactory, and it is to be boped that Rire will emerge from the walls of the Mount Eden Stockade a sadder but wiser man.