Untitled

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2555, 15 March 1877, Page 2

We believe that the allotment adjoining the Academy of Music, purchased yesterday by private sale, -was bought for Mr Batchelder, proprietor of the Academy of Music,, arid that it will beutilrsbd for the purpose of making a; means of egress from the Academy, c from the? gallery of that place of amusement, in accordance with the provisions of the new Municipal Corporations Act. We are glad to learn' that the spirited proprietor of this'pretty little house ,can see his way to further expenditure in: connection therewith, ;and we feel sure that if he visits the Thames (as he no doubt will) with hisshow at present; exhibiting in Aucklandi that it will receive a fair patronage. ....

i -' We noticei placards in the. town- ari>Inouhcing that-there wiUbe an eicjirsionV !to Coromandei on Sundiy, next |on Monday evening; bnwhichq day the ißanks will be closed. The^' exciirsipn Jis-'^gpt ;up'by/ ithe Thames 'fcfipkeiieTs, [who; intend playing the- retiirn: matcEr on the Monday with, the' Ooroman-'; del club. The i advantage Q of 1 on tlie Sunday ispbVioua,, as-^y ,:s|artjng ( onthe Monday^ 'c^si^able:par^f.i|e dayls spent on the water», and the,,day's. excursion is too fatiguing for a great many, whereas by starting ample JimewiUJbe. given to- spend an ;enjoyable diiy vat! Cor6marider and; return in good time to~ the Thames. It is exp^cte^ that a .great many .will avail themselves of the excu'rsio'n";-^;' ■ • I

; Some of us were~tfnder the impression that -tßei; ChtnesecGiarit/ name, would find it-convenient to pay a ivisiito the ; Thames arid hold afewjevees, but from a;jpassenger list published in 5 the Auckland "papers we find' % that this son of Anak was a passenger by the; outgoing mail steam6r:for San Frajaciscoyesterday, so that our recoUebtion'of .Chinese giants must be .confined. to theiamiable Chang who condescended to visit us some,years ago under the auspices 'of the;, InteUi-/ gent* Vagran t" during the' latter's shoift career as a showman,; ■„ , , i

; For/BTY-Forß persons were -charged in Auckland with neglecting "to pay the Education rate, None of' them put in an appearance, and... judgment was i.given, against them in every case. Thirty-seven Out of the four ty-four /were from Coroinandel.

f- EEaAEiHENa the charges of wijful destruction to property on which Pooley is Committed to take, his; trial in Christchurch, it appears that he made a bet with Donkin, the complainant, offering to the odds of 6 to 1 that he would hame the .scores of each of the Christ-, church eighteen. The odds having been? laid Pooley prophesied that all of them would get duck's-eggs, he, of cdurse, expecting to receive, six pounds (the bet was made in pounds) for every duck'segg made, and to.pay £1 for every player who broke his duck. The result of this would, of course, have been that had only three players made duck's-eggs Pooley would have gained £3, if four had failed to score, £10; had five failed, £17, and soon; whereas had only two or one retired with 0 to their.names he would have lost £<L in the first case and £11 in the second. It is a bet very often made in matches against odds, and can hardly be termed a." catch bet; " however, Donkin seemed to regard it as such, and declared he would have nothing to do with it. This was* after he had made the bet, and the result was that

Pooley, who refused to regard the matter in the same light, was Sued £5 for an assault. Tho other charge of destroying Donkin's property has yet to be heard. If true no one yrtmld Venture to exonerate the cricketer, whatever allowance they might finddispo^ed to^make in, the case o£ assault, on the ground of provocation^

At the/District Court House to-day there were.Wetings of creditors in the estates of Willoughby Brassoy, Edward Seine, and Eichard John Moore. These^ meetings not being open to the Press we*'] are unable to give the results, but we are ] informed that the influence of creditors ] present-was entirely subverted by "the i proxies in the hands of the Creditors', j 'Trustee. ' • '' ■ ■-■ ■ ■} - ■■'■■■■'■■ "' \

r The Thames District Volunteer Ghab lenge Belt has been received back from Auckland with the'"narrio' of the last .winner engraved on it. There are now seven names on the silver plates, of which mo less than four are or were members of ithe T.S.V. Two are names of Native ■Volunteers, the other that of Vol. Arm- : strong of No. 2 H.R. V. Members of the last named company have also tied the i. winner on no less than three occasions.

Capt. BEST.^says the HerSld, the mete- : orological observer at Grahamslown, gends I the following notes to Wellington respecting the late thunderstorm :—" I never saw such rain as then.fell: it came down ;at times in sheets of water, and during ; the whole of ■- .the week,it had .been-.thun?- ---: deririg and lightning, the lightning* being ■ principally forked. One garden near where I live was, struck by it, and its ; course was along two rows of raspberry bushes, cutting them clean to the ground as ifiClipped * off* alpng two. rows* of potatoes and burning one side of a peachtree and pear-tree in its course. The trees are stjUaliye. >It ?str ; uck another garden and furrowed it up in five or six places, leaving a in one; place two or three feet deep. I hare not seen'such lightning since I was last in the Straits of ; Sunda." f ;> ? j . - •| £) 5v ■

\ The death is announced of Mr James 1 Merry, late M.P., the, racing iron master. There are few who have been present at ' any of the jraceimeetiqgsiiin^Enjf!larid Jforthe'pa' 1s tfc quariier'bf'"'a century to : whom the sharp cut features of Mr Merry ; were not well knowfi; and by racing men j his loss much,be felt,,,, j^osgess^ed of great judgment ttr? all toattet connected with horse-racing, patience and large means r he, was one of ;;> the mo, at forttinate of all turf L speculators', especially considering he backed his own horses. Though known long before on the turf he won his first Derby ■ with Thormanby in 1860, the trainer ; being M. Dawson, and Custance the rider. Though not a plunger Mr, Mprry was reported to ha¥e iydii '3670,000 'oh' ttii s ! race. The same horse, after winning the i Ascot Cup, ; with 6 t0, 4 on him, became famous as one of the' fashionableVsires'of the day. There was hardly a year for the next tea years that Mr Merrydi^not* own one of;the' prominent 'ffiybnt^s'Yor the Derby, although he-only succeeded in carrying-off the blue riband once-more, • viz., wfien he won with Doricasteri In 11861 he ran second for the Derby with Dundee; the wonderful,performance, of j this horse in running" secdh'd iFdPsu'ch'a race in almost the shortest time known ! will be remembered, as long as the Turf j will last, tfiegrektriess bf^ the-feat con-

; sisting in that he finished the race on three legs, one of his. fore-legs being injured in the last furlong. Many have said this horse was, the best Mr Merry i ever had \ she gejer ran-atter;^ha^{Depby4 ;arid at the breaking up of Mr BlenkiIron's stud was |pld,,though. all his good looks remairiecl.ifdr 405 guineas. Besides I these horses Mr Merry had Sunbeam, j Marie Stuart, Liddington (famous as a two year old), Zambesi, BebttishiiChief, Wild Charlie, Prince Charlie, Buckstone (memorable for his two dead heats^with: Tin* TOiffler the' Mscbt Cup—Tim Whifller is now in Australia), Marksman (second in the Derby), Belladrum and manyfiothß^Cwho;htfve'bbffi:6n occasions distinguished, themselves, and jon others disappointed their owner. \ So I popular were his horsesjtbat mahyrbacifed jthe " yellow and black " simply because [they were Mr Merry's colors. He left, it is stated, a large fortune behind him.

i The electro-plafe man is still abroad =and finding .Tictims. In .the. Auckland Star aPth'e; iatii-ifeta'ht we fina'tKe fol : lowing letter :—Deae Sib,—-Allow me through your columns to caution the public agajiMlpa. hare-faced imposition jwhich:is'lsUtt^biStimfed^ notwithstanding* ithat it has bjeen noticed by the Auckland press. I reife&ltb*an? individual who is going from house to house selling a clear liquid in 2oz. pliials, guaranteed to clean and replate silver and "electro-plated articles, as also to clean steal, pewter, etc. An instance came under my notice on Saturday, in which a lady paid 5s for a bottle of this precious mixture. On seeing the liquid, [I at once suspected it to be a solution of nitrate of mercury, which anyone can make at a cost of a few pence by dissolving mercury in nitric acid. I found this to be the case, as on adding a little soda, the oxide of mercury was precipitated, from which the pure mercury was afterwards derived by retorting. It is the more necessary-, that-the public should be guarded against this so-called plating and cleaning solution, as the effect of applying it to silver or electro-plated articles is really to amalgamate them with a thin coating 1 of mercury,' which wiU'ruin them.—l am, etc.,,. Thos. Peacock.— Shortland street, March 12,1877.

As the wardsman'of Dunolly Hospital, Victoria, was looking down the list of ad* vertisementsifdr;missinp:friends-(reports the Express of the 9th instant) he observed one Alex. Peterkjn, advertised for under the head of "Heirs Wanted." „ Knowing the man, he made the remark that he was living at Sandhurst not long since, and he (D'Arcy) would write and call Peterkin's attention to the advertisement. Judge his surprise when-;oh Monday morning among the patients seeking admission to the institution was the very' Alex."\Peter«> kin. The advertisement'stated.that^ Peterkin left ;New York in: 1851. for Australia, and had not since been heard of. "

■ The Ota^b Guardian-.says ;~it is., nowan understood thing' 'that insaddition to the action brought.by the Messrs Brogden against the Colonial Government for breach of the Immigration contract between that firm and the Government, an action of some magnitude wilLalsblshortly be commenced by them for extras and loss sustained ■ in i various'ways in the carryinj;, l oijt.Qf,,tUeir. contracts Public Works Act.' Damages will be laid at, a:'very/hetfvy I amount;. and we understand that strong, efforts will be made to' have the case tried in England. A number of Colonial engineers, &c, will be required to be summoned to give evidence, and if the plaintiffs are successful

in their endeavours to have the case fixed for trial at Home, there is a certainty of an excellent pleasure trip for a number of persons in the Colony. It cannot be:s»id that we have anything like satisfactory results to show for the mil-, ijions that hav t e been expended on our railways and^other, public worksimapy vo)| which have been carried out tti ji#sh§i faulty stylerthat van enormous expenditure for repairs and reconstruction table; and these actions are^giViri^ matters a Jttill more unsatisfactory aspect. 1 After all the high falutin' we have had I over our " heroic policy," this is rather a I sleepers, used-up rails, and a law suit in i England, the cost and the end of which i no. man knows.

: A correspondent of thel Manning Biver [Times relates that a rather extraordinary incident occurred at Pampoola saw-mills. A bird -got- entangled -in s the webs of spiders, and wiissiitte'rly unable to;- extrijcate itself, although making desperate efforts tpdo so. !?A'fter sometime it began ;to manifest unmistakabje; .signs of exhaustion, and to sink tinker "its fatiguing :exe.rtions tt> free itself from the.,web. Several spiders made their'appearancei iand gazed on their helpless prey, but a !man standing by liberated the bird.

■:■ .The Cromwell'Argusiis threatehed'with a criminal prosecution for libel at the instance of Mr Vincent Pyke, Chairman of ; Vincent Cpunty Council; The alternative !offered to the editor,'and declinedvis ah iample apology and three guineas for Mr ;Pyke's costs. ' •TTi-T^^v' '; ... : .

: agents'* sometimes sue -in; their own name for debts due to their principal"Bj; merely adding the- words " as agent-for." A case of this kind came ; before the Wellington Court the Pther morning, and Mr. .Barton, appearing fpr 4 . Jthe ftefenc^ raisedithe. f lkaithat^sjcyismt was not indebted to..the ; plaintiff, and the actiplif jSbblMdoave^een£l)rx)ugnt? in,the name the!- real-principal, .xth.6 by the j way w^as present as a'wittiessi His Wor(ship granted a nonsuit with costs. A 'fresh summons was; tlien/talcen*) ofitoin* f-1.