THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi.` MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1878.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3079, 30 December 1878, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi.` MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1878.

We take this opportunity of informing subscribers that with to-morrow's issue of the Star will be given our annual Sheet Almanac. A large number of copies will be issued, and we trußt advertisers will find that their favors have been properly treated. The copies of the same Almanac printed on cardboard (of which an extra number will be circulated this year to meet the increasing demand) will be delayed until a few days after the New Year, as they require a more careful manipulation than those printed on paper; and being intended for the walls of public offices, counting houses, &c, an effort is made to turn out a creditable specimen of typography. We also take this opportunity of informing advertisers that as our employees will be granted a holiday on Wednesday, there will be no issue of the Stab on that day. Advertisements should be sent in early to-morrow.

Mns Geobge Symington, of the Governor Bo wen Hotel, has handed to Mr Honiss, the secretary to the Hospital, a five pound note with which to provide a New Year's dinner for the Hospital patients. In addition to the Mayor's donation of £3 towards the Christmas dinner for Hospital patients, Mr L. Ehrenfried gave £1 Is, and Dr O'Flaherty £1.

On New Year'B night there will be given a dance at the Volunteer Hall, Shortland, which has lately been greatly renovated. Mr Steward's string band will be in attendance. The moderate sum of 3s is the price of admission.

It is expected that the Premier and the Hon. John Sheehan will visit the Thames on Thursday next, after which they will proceed to the Waikato. Mr Sheehan comes on business connected with the Native Department, and also re some County matters.

We are glad to learn that Sergeant O'Connor of Wellington, and formerly of the Thames, has received well deserved promotion, he having been appointed .Sergeant-Major in place of SergeantMajor Smith. The worthy sergeant's strict impartiality and bon homme made him a great favorite here, and many will be pleased to hearof his preferment. -

The Australian Eleven our (Argus) correspondent relates, had one very unpleasant experience at Toronto. On the cricket-ground five of them entrusted their watches to the care of a young man who had been recommended to the secretary of the club by the local Young Men's Christian Association, and he decamped with the jewellery. Allan and Horan lost the valuable watches presented to them in December, 1876, for their performances against the English Eleven in Australia. A full description of the missing property was given to the detectives, but nothing had been beard of it up to the time the team left San Francisco.

It is always refreshing (says " Atlicus " in the Leader) to bear of a rogue being

outwitted, and it is therefore pleasant to have to record the following instance, which is given upon very good authority. In the recent embracery trial a person, acting presumably upon behalf of the accused, waited upon a gentleman whose name appeared upon the panel from which the jurors were to be selected, and offered him a sum of money "to see that justice was done." The British juryman's first impulse was, of course, to indignantly reject the bribe ; but, on second thoughts, be declared his intention of seeing justice done and accepted the money. With commendable honesty and promptitude, however, the juror interviewed the Sheriff, and explaining the whole of the circumstances handed over the conscience-money to him. The Sheriff, it is stated, mentioned the matter to His Honor the Chief Justice, the bribed juror was in due course challenged, and, as a spectator, had the pleasure of seeing justice done. The unproductive cash that was to have " done" justice will probably go to augment the Supreme Court Library Fund under the heading of "treasuretrove."

We learn from a recent number of The Times that Colonel T. D« Baker, C.8., 18th Royal Irish, who served through the New Zealand War, 1864-66, and who is well known in Melbourne, recently left England to take up the appointment of military secretary to Lord Lytton, in the place of Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Gr. P. Villiers, who has proceeded on field service with the column now being massed at Jumrood. It is stated that for his services in the field Colonel Baker now possesses the Sardinian, Crimea, Turkish, Mutiny, New Zealand, and Ashantee, medals, and is an . A.D.C. to Her Majesty.—Argus.

Os the trip from. Queenstown to America, the Argus says that the Australian eleven were of course objects of interest on board, and the American mania for collecting autographs cropped up in connection with them. One evening, just before the termination of the voyage, a young American lady said to the gentleman who sat opposite to her at dinner, "You know the band; dp you think you could get the captain to write his name and place of abode in my album ? " The gentleman said he thought he could without much, difficulty procure. for the fair applicant the autographs of all the players. " Ah, that would be real nice," said she. " The only ' difficulty," observed the gentleman, " is to find them; but I am sure that those who are not reading the scriptures are playing cards.'' An ornamental volume, with pen and ink, soon made the circuit of the saloon, and the number of the cricketers engaged with cards was found to be 11. The maiden's prayer was granted—ll pages of her album were filled with efforts at penmanship of divers degrees of merit,; and that young lady was the happiest injihe ship. " Ah," ' said her sister/ disconsolately showing her own album with a few names scratched in Paris; "if I had only thought of that! "

The following extract from an unpublished work on the ethnology of the Afghans by Mr Talboys Wheeler, will be of interest to the society recently formed in Dunedin, to investigate the whereabouts and literature.of the Lost Tribes of Israel: —" To all appearance the Afghans are of Jewish origin; not Jews of the, orthodox type, the outcome of Jerusalem and the Temple, worship, but Jews of the old, turbulent, stiff-necked type, who revolted'at Shechem against Jiehoboam, and set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan. The Afghans claim to be descendants of Saul, the son of Kish. are divided into tribes; clans? and families. They distribute conquered lands by lot, perform the ceremony of the scapegoat, and build shrines on high places. Their features are unmistakably Jewish; but their language is not Hebrew, nor anything akin to Hebrew. It is conjectured that they are the descendants of the ten tribes whom the King of Assyria carried away to the city of the Medes ; but the loss of all traces of the Hebrew language militates against this theory, and it is impossible to verify the identity. In modern times they are Mahommedans of the Sunni religion, and traditional foes of the Persians or Shiahs." In a footnote referring to the Jewish type of a feature exhibited by the Afghan, the author remarks that this, to his mind, outweighs the evidence of language. He goes on to say that " the face of She're Ali Khan, the present Ameer of Afghanistan, reveals not only the Jewish features, but the melancholy mania that belongs to the character of Saul." In the fourth volume of his " History of India," Mr Talboys Wheeler mentions the spirit of revenge in which the hereditary feuds of early Afghan history were carried on. He observes that this national characteristic is a proverb in India. "No man is sard to be safe from the revenge of a elephant, a cobra, or an Afghan."—Morning Herald.

In connection with Mrs Bladeu Neill's Australian Silkgrowers' Depot, a London correspondent of The Argu9 communicates this startling information :—" The latest idea in the way of underclothing made at this place is a mysterious affair known as the' combination garment.' .It is intended to clothe the wearer from the neck to the ankles as tight as a glove, and adapting itself to, or rather aiding and abetting, the modern fashion of tight walking-dresses. Such is the tyranny of fashion that there is a run upon the comprehensive undergarment to which I have referred, and it saddens one to reflect that the day of petticoats has departed." There is no joy without its compensating drawback. Just as the provider is solaced by learning that a " combination garment'<* has been discovered, his economic hopes are dashed by the discovery that this simple single garment must be an envelope of silk; and that a " tight walking dress" is an indispensably necessary adjunct. I am told that a Literary and Debating Society will shortly open a discussion upon "The Combination Garment: how to get into it; and where are the Buttons ?"

Eefeebing to the Glasgow Bank, the European Mail says :—•'• The general result of the investigation is that the bank has made £7,000,000 of bad debts, and that there is a deficit in the accounts "as compared with the liabilities of £5,000,000, making the total loss, with the capital, £6,000,000. How long the bank has been insolvent does not appear by the report, which only goes back to 1873, when the accounts were falsified to the extent of £1,000,000, by items which have been sincel regularly brought forward from half year to half year. From the commencement of the present year, if not before, the weekly returns to the Government of gold held against notes issued have also been deliberately falsified by from 60,0C0 to 300,000 a-week in order to cou-

ceal how Jar^e the issue of notes was as compared with the security supposed to be held. The last balance sheet presented to the shareholders represented the position of the bank as £3,000,000 better than it was, irrespective of so-called securities being taken at their par value, whilst they were next to worthless, if not wholly so, and in one instance the shares of an American railway company were returned as worth £346,500, although at their present market price they would only produce, according to the valuation of the accountants, £11,950, or something like eightpence in the pound, and other securities represented to be in the hands of the bank appear to have been previously mortgaged in London. The accountants estimate that against liabilities for £2,320,592 the bank holds securities for £688,185, a deficit of £1,632,407 ; second liabilities, £1,861,627, with securities of the probable value of £452,852, a deficit of £1,412,044; third liabilities, £1,142,987, probable value, £310,552, deficit, £832,455; and fourth liabilities £464,188, probable value, £17,135; or a deficit of £393,851; the total deficit under the four descriptions of liabilities being over assets £4,000,000.

Panic, the most useful of Australian stud, horses, died at his owner's stud farm, Bryann O'Lynn, near Warrnambool, on Saturday last. Victoria thus loses an animal that cannot well be replaced, for his stock were always valuable, being celebrated for their stoutness, soundness, and general usefulness. Panic was bred in England in 1858, and when a yearling was purchased by Mr George Brown for Mr Samuel Blackwell, of Tasmania. I remember seeing him landed at Hobart Town in the year 1860, a rough, longtailed two-year old, and after doing a season at the stud, the announcement of a rich Champion Eace at Hobart Town induced Mr Blackwell to put Panic into work. He was trained at Melton Mowbray, on the estate which is now the property of Mr Alfred Page, where Horatio at present officiates as lord of the harem. In the Champion Eace referred to our hero ran third, his stable companion Shillelagh being second, and Mr P. Keighran's Mormon first. On the third day Mormon, with 9st 121b., easily beat Panic, with Bst, in the Tasmanian Handicap. Subsequently Panic was victorious in the land of his adoption, his most important victory beiDg the Launceston Champion Eace in 1865. He was then sold to a Victorian purchaser for a large sum, and in the Melbourne Cup of 1865 covered himself with glory by carrying lOst. and running second to Toryboy, 7st., for the Melbourne Cup. At the same meeting he defeated Mr Tait's Volunteer for the Corinthian Eace, but the latter easily turned the tables when they met in the Queen's Plate, and the following New Tear's Day Panic was easily defeated by Tarragon and Votunteer in the Champion Eace. Some time afterwards he was sold to Mr Henry Phillips for stud purposes, and as a sire he has since proved himself one of the best we ever had, his stock having for years won more races than that of any other sire. The Melbourne Cup fell to his son Nimblefoot, who also won the Australian Cup. Melbourne and Wellington have made his name famous by winning the Derby, and Melbourne Cup. The Fawn, and Adelaide carried off Leger honors for him. Strop, one of the soundest horses that ever carried a saddle, twice won the Launceston Champion Cup, and in addition to running second for the Melbourne Cup, added other Victorian triumphs to his name. As a sire of hurdleracers and steeplechasers, Panic never had an equal. Prodigious, Postboy, Postman, and Partner (now Lone Hand), were a nice quartette, the la^t-named being the best steeplechaser we have ever possessed. Amongst the flatracers that he laid claim to were Nimblefoot, Strop, The Fawn, Melbourne, Adelaide, Transit, Pluto, Wellington, and many other good ones too numerous to mention. He was a very stoutly-bred horse, his sire being Alarm, and bis dam Queen of Beauty, by Melbourne from Birthday, by Pantaloon from Honoria, by Camel, the sire of Touchstone, so that he possessed the strains of the great corner stones of the stud. His death will be a •serious loss to Mr Henry Phillips, who refused a good sum for the old horse only a few months ago; but in.the brother to Pluto he possesses an animal equally valuable, and this youngster will, perhaps, worthily fill the place so honorably occupied by his father for many years.