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Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3167, 14 April 1879, Page 2

As will be seen by a number of bills distributed about the town theT.O.Gr.T. will celebrate their anniversary in the Templar Hall this 'evening by a soiree and an entertainment of a diversified kind. Hitherto the anniversaries have gone off successfully, and probably the present one will not be an exception.

It is intended to hold a bazaar in the St. Joseph's Schoolroom, Willoughby street, to-morrow and the two following days, in aid of a fund for providing desks and school furniture. A small, charge of Is will be made for admission, and the Band of the Hibernian Society will play selections of music during each evening. On Thursday a grand promenade concert will take place.

Mb J. L. Btebs delivered a lecture last evening in the Academy of Music on spiritualism. The attendance was fair, and. great attention was paid throughout to the lecturer. Mr Byers speaks very well, but more after the style of an actor than that of a lecturer; his language, however, was good, and he dealt with his subject in an intelligent manner.

We understand that the Eotomahana will be taken off the Auckland trade in the course of a few days for the, purpose of having new engines put in her, which, when completed, will materially shorten the time at present occupied in the journey. The JRowena will probably take her place until the improvements are effected.

The County authorities are calling for tenders for a number of road contracts, which will afford work for a portion, of our unemployed. We hope the County treasury may long continue to hare funds at disposal for such necessary works.

One person was punished for drunkenness at the Police Court this morning. His Worship the Mayor was on the 'Bench.

We regret to learn by telegram of the death at Gisborne of a former resident of the Thames, Mr George Blott. Many on the Thames will remember Mr Blott as a hard-working tradesman, and a rery intelligent, useful citizen, and one who had gained the respect of the whole community by his upright and honest discharge of his duty in every relation of life.

By our late London files we notice that the following Celebrities well known on the Thames are at present performing m London; Miss Alice May, in "La Grande Duchesse," at the Alexandra Palace ; the Wonderful Girards at the Alhambra; and Mr Stephen Massett, elocutionist and mimic, notifies his arrival after a tour round the world.

One of the most ingenious pieces of mechanism we have seen for some tima is now " performing " at the establishment of Mr T. Wood, Pollen Street. It consists of a little gentleman comfortably seated in his arm chair, who, by some intricate machinery smokes his weed with apparent enjoyment. The way in which' the little fellow (who by the bye will only smoke cigarettes,: and those too of the finest quality) blows the fragrant clouds of smoke out of his mouth is rery amusing, and the novelty of the affair draws a considerable number of persona to see the show. - ■ >

Feom an advertisement appearing in another column of this issue (says the Bay of Plenty Times) it will be seen that the Government have accepted the services of the proposed Katikati Mounted Volunteer Corps, and a meeting of persons interested in the movement is called for „>to o'clock on Saturday, tho 12th instant, at the No. 2 School-house, Uritara. It is expected that about eighty effective members will be immediately enrolled, and as many of the loading residents will become honorary members, tbe corps has every prospect of being one of the foremost mounted forces in the colony.

The wonderful escape of one of the passengers by the ill-fated Princess Alice was directly due to the fact that he was a musician. He was playing" a gigantic double bass at the time, and when tho collision happened, he clasped the waist of his beloved instrument, and trusted himself to the mercies of the Thames. The holes in the double bass were, of course, downwards, and the gigantic instrument was sufficiently buoyant to keep half a dozen men above water.

The latest freak of Edward Kelly (remarks the Riverine Herald) fully maintains his character for imprudence. In a mining centre within the boundaries of the electorate of Rodney, a grand fete was to be held on St. Patrick's Day. la

this town resides on who is said to bo acquainted with the Kelly and Quinn families, and last"w.eek ho received a lettor from Ned Kelly, enclosing a £5 note towards the funds for tho dornonstration on St. Patrick's Day, the recipient averring that Kelly nairely states that tho banknote was a portion of the plunder annexed at Jerildere. ■

The Bay of Plenty Times thus " goes for " the spiritualist Slade:—lt is a melancholy thing to see that in an enlightened age and in so progressive a country as New Zealand, there should exist a section, who in. spite of frequent exposure, still put their faith in manifestations of spiritualism. One of-the passengers in the Australia on her last voyage to San Francisco was the notorious swindler Slade, who it will be remembered, was so signally exposed and prosecuted by Professer Lankester in London. On hearing this a number of foolish people immediately introduced themselves and were rewarded, with an exhibition of the \|eary old tricks of rapping and lifting. By the way, why will spirits always persist in lifting tables only, why not turn their attention to some useful kind of lifting, such as, for instance, bringing up the dinner, or helping (he housemaid with the coals P Among the misguided people who took part in the proceedings was the Bey. S. Edger. It is perfectly disgraceful that a clergyman should give the light of bis countenance to a convicted swindler.

; The following is the itinerary of His Excellency Sir H. Robinson's proposed trip to the Southern Island :—April 18, leave Wellington after noon by Hinemoa; 21, arrive at Bluff before dark, dine and sleep on board; 22, special train from Bluff to Kingston, arrive adout 2 p.m., thence by steamer to Queenstown, arrive about 5 p.m.; 22 at Queenstown, visiting Wakatipii Upper Lake;. 23, at Queenstown, drive round bj Arrowtown; 25, by 81earner to Kingston and. special train to Invercargill ■„ 25 at Invercargill, visiting Merton ; 26, special train to Dunedin. Prom Sunday to Thursday (inclusive) will be spent in Dunedin visiting the neighborhood ; May 2, special train to Oamaru to lunch and noon to Timaru to dine and sleep; 3, by train to Christchurch, stopping at Ashburton; from Sunday to Wednesday (inclusive), at Christchurch and visiting neighborhood ; Thursday, leave in the morning by the Hinemoa from Ly tlelton for Akaroa harbor; stay a couple of hours there, and leave the same afternoon for Wellington; 9, arrive in Wellington in forenoon. 'A copy of the above has been posted to all the Chairmen of County Councils and Mayors of Municipalities and Boroughs throughout the districts of Cantetbr^y. and Otago.-^Ex. ''•'■ . !':'',' ' '.','; V ' ..'''■,'. '. '

The following is the text of a Chinese Bill as a substitute for the House bill: — " That the President of the United States is hereby requested, a3 promptly as*in his judgment would be expedient, to giro notice to the Emperor of China that the existing treaty stipulation regulating the immigration of the subjects of the Chinese Empire to this country, and the practice of immigration which has resulted there* from, are not satisfactory to this Government ; and to request such modifications thereof as will, in his opinion, limit or prevent the evils resulting therefrom; and that, unless the Emperor of China shall assent to such modifications by negotiation of a new treaty, to be submitted to the Senate for its ratification on or before the first day of January, A. D. 1880, the President is hereby authorised and requested, then further to notify the Emperor of China that this Government abrogates the existing treaty from and after the first day of July thereafter.

' The Telegraph, in its financial article, says :—" It is understood that there will be another meeting of the creditors of the City of Glasgow Bank in a fortnight, after which, it is stated, there will be a call of £4000 or £5000 per share, so as to place the estates of all the shareholders immediately under the control of the liquidator, and obviate the necessity of a further call. [The call, as stated in our cablegrams yesterday, is fixed at £25C0.] A report from the liquidator, presented at a meeting in London, anticipates that all the creditors will be paid in full, if, as is believed, the House of Lords confirms the decision of the Scotch Judges concerning the liability of the trustees for the shares registered in their name."

The Wellington Evening Chronicle states that some of the recently appointed assistant under-secretaries h.ave been exhibiting snobbery extraordinary, even in Civil Servants. It is said that three gentlemen complained to the heads of their departments that the messengers failed to salute them in the street, and that peremptory orders were issued to the independent messengers that they should duly salaam whenever an assistant undersecretary came along. The result is that when a messenger sees an assistant under-secretary in the distance he makes for the other side of the street. "Man dressed in a little brief authority plays such fantastic tricks," &o.

Thebb were now in '„California (sayg Senator Sargent in Senate) more :Chinamen than there were voters, and they were increasing enormously, year by year, month by month.' Thwe had been |a hope that Congress ypould act upon the ■subject, and the people of the Pacific coast had been persuaded to patience up to this time. There had been no violence, except in sporadic cases. He argued that it was the duty of Congress, when there S was great discontent among the people, to investigate the causes thereof and endeavor to remove them. There 1 was in San Francisco, within _ the city limits, a site cut out of Pekin. Sargent here pictured the Chinese quarter in San Francisco, the filth and vices of the Chinese, and said that the Chinese did not bring their families «to this country with them. What were the morals of a hundred and fifty thousand men without families, or. who could discuss the subject in this presence P He referred to the labor question, and asked, \ow could the American laborer compete with the Chinaman ? The American wanted to educate his children, to live comfortably; he wanted the little conveniences of life; he wanted American civilization. The Chinaman did not; he lived in squalid barbarism. Sargent said ho had no sympathy with agrarianism ; ho had no sympathy with Kearneyism ; but some means must be devised to remedy this Chinese evil. Long years ago, in 1862, he made in the House the same speech he was now making. With the coolie by the side of the white laborer, the white laborer must starve, and he had to compete with Chinamen in every avocation of life except journalism r.2d law— hftd not yet been invaded

by the Chinese. An American could not compete with a man who could sleep in twenty cubic feet of space.—San Francisco Chronicle.