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Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3086, 8 January 1879, Page 2

By telegram we learn that Mr J. Sheehan will probably not reach the Thames until Monday next, as he is about to extend his stay in Waikato, and the proposed banquet will be postponed until the beginning of next week. At the E. M. Court this morning, before A. J. Allom and J. Skene, Ksqs., J's.P., one inebriate was punished for drunkenness. John Power was charged on suspicion of being of unsound mind. The certificates of two medical men as to the lunacy were handed in, and the Bench decided to commit him to the Lunatic Asylum, subject to personal exaamination by the Bench. A Gazktte of the 27th uU. contains the proclamation of the contraction of the Hauraki Gold mining District, re the Karaka and Tararu Tunnel; the appointment of William McCullough, Esq , Mayor of Thames, as a Justice of the Peace of the Colony; the appointment of Messrs Bagnall, McCullough, Brodie, Davies, Brown, Kilgour and Wilkinson as governors of Thames Boys' and Girls' High School. . Mb J. E. Macdonald arrived here from Napier yesterday. We have received from the publishers The New Zealand Christian Record of Jan 3. and The New Zealand Press News for JanttHry. The former is a well written and well printed "weekly miscellany of religious literature."

The Australasian Sketcher for December (with a copy of which Mr Jefferson has favored us) contains, amongst other illustrations, a capital portrait of Sir George Grey, portraits of' Lord Harris' English Cricket Team, views of the country and incidents of the late bushranging episode, reception of the Anglo-Australian Eleven in Sydney, &c. The Christmas Supplement is a finely colored picture of a picnic party under a giant gum tree measuring 40 feet in circumference.

A DtrNEDiir telegram says:—The death of Mr Gilliean, the well known racehorse owner and runholder, has been the means of raising one person in Dunedin from comparative poverty to affluence, namely, his brother Charles Gilligan. This genlleman has been employed as a draper's assistant in the establishment of T. Kerr. This morninp, after wringing a reluctant permission from his employer, he pro* ceeded to the Supreme Court, where he had been summoned as a common juryman. While there, a telegram announcing his brother's death was received, and handing it to the Judge, he obtained a gracious leave of absence, and receiving a week's wages from Mr Eerr, be bade him good-bye, and leaves to-morrow for Wellington. The estate to which he becomes heir is worth over £70,000. Charles Gilligan was formerly in business at Macrae's, where he made and lost a small fortune. [The same Charles Gilligan will be remembered as one of the firm of Gilligan and Wilson, Sebastopol House, corner of Williamson street.]

" Theee is a good deal of corert irony," remarks the Newcastle Pilot, " in a para graph that has been going the round of the colonial press respecting the removal of Sir George Bowen from Victoria to the Mauritius. Sir George is toH by the Mauritius organ that although hie may suffer in salary by thAxchange, he wiil gain in a variety of resects. The society

he will find on the sugar cane island will be very superior to that which he has had to endure in Victoria. He will live in a Crown Colony where he will be tree from the harass of responsible Ministers. He will have, like the Viceroy of India, his residence on the hills for the summer, and at St Louis during the part of the year in which it is just possible to exist in that city of plague, pestilence, malaria, and other evils. We can only wish Sir George joy at the prospect there is before him. Probably the society he will find will be of a higher character than that of Mr Berry, Mr Woods, or Mr Lalor. But then this is not saying much for it. He might be amongst colonial brethren of a far higher type. The disciple of Confucius, who has just translated Professor Darwin's celebrated book for the benefit of his countrymen, and who is engaged on Butler's matchless ' Analogy,' is a philosopher compared with Mbjor Smith. But what we know of St. Louis is that few people care to live there longer than they can help. All Europeans leave it as early as they can conveniently do bo. Samoa, Tonga, and many islands in the South Seas are looked upon as Gardens of Eden compared with the country to the Governorship of which Sir George Bowen haa been transferred from Victoria."

"The late Lord Chancellor," says a writer in an English journal, " used to tell how he had once been ' taken down special,' and with a large fee,, to conduct an ejectment case in the country, in which property of considerable amount was at stake. He stated his case lucidly and succinctly, examined his witnesses so as to get out the important facts, and then addresed the jury in a speech of some twenty minutes, and won an easy verdict. The Court had adjourned for lunch, and Mr Brewster was waiting outside, when he heard a discussion between two of the jury. They were talking about himself. ' What did you think,' said one,• of this great counsellor they brought down from Dublin? They tell me he's a great man, and that they gave him ever so much for coming.' ' Well, I did not think much of him,' said the other. 'He came and he spoke it all quite limple and plain, so that we understood every word of it quite clear; and the whole thing was over in an hour. God be with Watty Nolan, whom we're used to. He'd hammer away for three hours on a stretch, and not one of us would know which side he was on when he sat down.' "

Yesterday afternoon, says Tuesday's Herald, Mr W. Aitken received a telegram from London informing him that Mr J. N. Crombie, formerly photographer in Auckland, bad died in Melbourne, on his way to Auckland. In a letter dated at Melbourne on December 11, Mr Crombie had informed Mr Aitken that he would leave Melbourne so as to catch the mail steamer leaving Sydney for Auckland on January 2. Mr Crombie had been complaining of bronchitis for some six or seven months, and he adds to his letter, "still very wheezy." He must have become worse shortly after writing the letter, and probably was dead before the time came to leave for Sydney. Mr Crombie came out to Melbourne at the time of the gold discoveries in 1852, and not finding employment at his trade of a practical engineer, he went as assistant to a photographer, with whom he learned the business. In about two years afterwards, he came to New Zealand, and commenced business as a photographer in Nelson. He removed to Auckland about sixteen years ago, and opened in Shortland. Crescent. In 1864, he went to England, and while he was absent his place was burned. On his return, he erected premises in Queen street, where he continued for several years. Having been successful in mining speculations, he purchased a considerable quantity of property in Auckland, and retired from business. For the last six years he has resided at Sydenham, near London. Having become afflicted with bronchitis, he determined on a trip to New Zealand, which he was destined never to see again. Mr Crombie was about 48 years of age ; he leaves a widow and five children.