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Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3189, 9 May 1879, Page 2

. PtrcKs are reported to be plentifol some distance up the -. Thames Hirer. Daring: Wednesday and Thursday Mr Porter shot orer twenty brace of ducks, besides teal and widgeon. j

Mb Oeme was again admitted to bail to day, the new sureties being Messrs Griffith* »nd McDowell.

WSS would remind our readers of the special soiree to be held at the Congregational Church, Mary street, this evening. A concert of sacred music, interspersed by short speeches, will be given after tea. :

These was a clean sheet at the E.M. Court to-day.

i We are glad to see that energetic steps are being taken by the local Committee of the Sydney Exhibition. By advertisemerit papers are invited, and a prize of two 1 guineas offered for the best one containing statistical and other information upon the district. There should be little difficulty in getting a fair collection, on the Thames if all would contribute however, little to the general stock. ,-' - - ; if Thbbk was to have, been a sitting of the Warden's. Cojirt this morning,' but the only business to be dealt with, whs that of a miner named Andrews, who j was brought up at the suit of the Inspector j of; Miners Bights, (Mr Mcllhonc) for being in possession of land in the gold- i field, he not having a Miners' Eight. The case being settled out of Court, with the ; consent of the Warden, the defendant paying the Inspectors costs, , .. ; r

Mitchell's English Opera Company are playing to limited houses at Hamilton, Waikato. On Tuesday evening " The Bohemian Girl " was presented with Mr Crowthers as Thadeus, and Miss Alice Johns as the Gipsy Queen. L '

We understand that the members of the No. 3 company - Thames ■ Scottish^ Battalion intend holding a soiree, concert; and dance at the Public Hall,, Paeroa,, on Mond ay, the 26th instan tl -„ V , / [

The present high tides are a source of considerable amusement to the small fry. They turn out every evening in large numbers, and disport .-themselves in the flooded: streets, utterly unmindful of maternal anger when they get home, and a liberal application :of ; hard • soled slipper before retiring to rest.

The Zulus do not understand money. Cattle, the best railway-rugs (for the .gbief)," colored blankets, cotton ; sheets, coloured handkerchiefs* butchers' knives, beads, brass boxes, wire, lead, and Kaffir picks are articles most in demand. Guns and ammunition are- earnestly requested, but are nnot i;contraband. r; There ate nd roads properly so called; in Zululandi The tracks are made by traders taking their wagons into the countryi, ; Thermarch of troops through the:country would, on account of its broken nature, be chiefly confined to these tracks. Good strong horses can be swum orer all the rivers at times by experienced riders. |

The Kaffrarian ...... Watchmaii says :— " We have/ received the following extract from the letter of a gentleman whose testimony/may be relied upon :—' jWhen the loss of the camp seemed quite curtain, Colonel Pulleine called Lieutenant Melville and said,;'' Lieutenant: Melville, you and the senior lieutenant will take tho colours and make-the^best of your way." He shook hands with him and turned round and said," 11' Men "of thel-^ih, we are here, and here we stand and fight it out to the end." He wadf'^uite and collected/ i The gentleman who wrote this would not pen anything for the sake of mere dramatic effect, and we are glad to, be able to publish it, to show an English officer knows how to die when duty holds him to his post." ' : ,

A singular law case is: now going on at Soleure in Switzerland. A priest who died there some months' ago left, after bequeathing legacies to the Emperors of Austria and Brazil, the residue of his property to the 'Pope. The Em per on immediately renounced the legacies; bujb no answer has been received from the Pope, and his Holiness ig how summoned to appear before the Tribune of Soleure,, as the relatives of the deceased priest hsve' commenced a lawsuit against him, asserting that the testator was not in full possession of his mental faculties when he made his will; \ J ";,, VI M. Fautel, who has lately been investigating the mineral wealth of the district of Shantung, gives some interesting particulars concerning the existence of small diamonds and the method of collecting them adopted by the natives. The ■tones are mostly minute, varying f in, size from' a millet seed' to a pin's head, though occasionally larger one's] are met with. One recently, as large as a pea, wai' brought to Chefob, and sold to a mandarin there. 'The mode adopted for. collecting the diamonds is very curious. Men! with thick straw shoesClon walk' about in the sand of the valleys and , streams ofr the diamond mountains of Chinkangling, some fifteen miles southeast of Yichow-foo. The diamonds, which' ' are ragged and pointed,-penetrate the strawj and remain there; The shoes are then collected- in »: great"' numbers and" burnt,:the diambrids 1 being: searched for in ■ the ashesV^As is the 1 case! with amethysts' and rock crystal in the Lao-Shan, the priests in the ,t«mple> in the Chinkahgling are the principal dealer's in these small diamonds., From them they are bought-' .by glaziers, 'at} the large fairs held every" ,year at > Chuchow, Laicho w-fpo, Jl.Wanghsien, They are not to be found.iri shops and are packed in quills. ; ■;,■ '. - V.