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Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3442, 6 January 1880, Page 2

A meeting of the Thames Orphanage Committee was being held this afternoon at 3 o'clock at, the Borough Council Chambers.

Thi Stewards of.the Parawai Race Meeting will assemble tonight for the purpose of settling up all outstanding accounts.

. Mb Wilkinson is advertised to address the electors oX the South Ward on Thursday uifcht" at the 'Odd" Fellows' Hall, Richmond street.

To-morbotv evening, at the Academy of Music, will appear the Sciopticon of the Zulu war. This exhibition is highly spoken of by the press in Auckland, and an old Thames friend, Mr J. B. Steele, is the descriptive lecturer. The business manager, Mr J. O'Brien, is also well known on the field. A variety of useful articles are given away each night, consisting of gold and silver watches, tea and coffee services, rings, &c. The admission charges are three, two, and one shilling.

Pastob Chiniquy . will, we believe, commence a series of- lectures on the Thames on the 18th inst.;- A committeo, consisting of Ministers of various churches and some influential citizens, has been formed for the purpose of making all the necessary arrangements. '*

The Wanganui Chronicle says: Mr Hurley, the secretary of the Fire Brigade, received by the last San Francisco mail, a sample of what is known as "brown thread" hose, lined with vulcanised todiaruhber, which renders it completely impermeable by water. This af'icie is #aid: to last longer and dry more rapidly" ordinary hose. It is coni template! '?*&ttlng & thousand feet by the next mail.

Mb Dri^coH's mare, which was severely burnt in the fire which destroyed his bouse on Saturday morning last, died this morning from the* effects of the injuries sustained. Mr Driscoll valued the animal at £20.

We understand that the* Sieiw^flf the Thames Annual liaces ht™ °eett ■erred with a summons by Mrs }***? Taipari for £30, the amount of the prize for the Thames Plate at the recent meeting. The Stewards, owing to the unfair riding of Tanner, Skylcrk's jockey, hinded half the stakes to the second horse, and awarded the other half i to Skylark. Mere is' not satisfied with ' this, and hence bias recourse to the ball of justice to obtain hee rights.

. On the Ist of January, the following clause of the Tobacco Act, 1879, came into operation: —" 23. Every- person who,, after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and eighty, shall' sell or offer for aale, or hate in his!

possession, any package of manufactured tobacco which has not been stamped or marked as required by this 1 Act, or who shall knowingly acquire possession 0f,,0r harbour, keep, or conceal, or be in .Jiny way knowingly concerned in carrying, removing, depositing, concealing, or in any way dealing wilh auy manufactured tobacco with intent to defraud Her Majesty of any duties due thereon, shall, for each such offence, forfeit either treble the value of such tobacco, including the du'y payable thereon, or one hundred pounds, at the election of the Commissioner ; and the offender may be detained and dealt with in the manner provided by the said Act in respect of persons detained for offences against Acts relating to the Customs."

Wb have received a copy of the official catalogue of the New Zealand Court, of the International Exhibition, issued by Dr Hector. It is a wellarranged octavo volume, containing 71 pages, and must be of great service to visitors to the Garden Palace. All the Thames exhibits are mentioned in their respective classes.

It is proposed to hold a social meeting of members of the Good Templar Order.

A -meeting ' of persons' interested in having a block of land set apart for Thames residents is called tor this evening at the Star Office, it is proposed to apply for a block of land if sufficient persons signify- iheir intention to take it up either under the deferred payment system or purchase it at once direct.

A otritious case of abduction of a European girl by a Maori is reported from Clive, (near Napier). The girl is the daughter of a German named Teakstone, and is eleven years of age. She states that obout 8 p.m. on New Year's eve, she went down the Pakawhai road in company with another little girl, and as she was returning home she was met by a Maori, who took her under his arm and carried her to a ware, but did not assault her in any way. - Between 4 and 5 o'olock in the morning she took a knife which she saw in the whare, and cutting the rope which fastened the door she got away, and returned home. The girl's father having made complaint about the matter at the police station. Constable Mortley proceeded on ftew Year's Day to the Maori pah at Kobupatiki, accompanied by the little girl, but she was unable to say which was the whare she had been kept in. There were only three Maoris in the-pah at the time, the rest being in Napier. She did not recognise any one of the three as the one who had carried her away. Constable Mortley considered the fright the girl had received prevented her identitying the whare, but he believed her statement to be true, and that he would be enabled to discover the Maori. The matter is being enquired into.

"A visitoe to the Kawau sends a report of bis Tiait to Sir George Grey. Writing to the Auckland Star, he says:—"We ,were met on the little wharf, warmly by Sir George Grey, and conducted to his house. Passing through an art gallery containing many rare pictures and specimens of art, w,e were led upstairs into the room containing M.B.S. books, and pictures, many of which are absolutely unique. Nowhere out of Europe does- such a collection exist, and there are many original books and M.S.S. here, of, which'no copies are to be found in the oldest libraries in the world. Sir George Grey showed these treasures with his customary courtesy. There were two large wooden cases containing the original J#:S.S. from, which the first Vulgate bible ,Was printed by Fust. John Fust had a printing office at-'Meh(z in 1442 where he printed the Tractatis Petri Hispani, and in 1462 Fust and Sclioeffer printed the first Latin bible with date, from the original M.S.S., now in the possession of Sir George Grey. John Guttenberg had printed between 1450 55, from cut metal types which he had invented, the earliest edition of the Latin bible (termed the Mazarine) from M.S. found in the Cardinal's library at Mentz. The earliest copy of the whole bible was strictly speaking the Complutonsian polyglot of Cardinal Zitnenes. This was printed at Alcala in Spain, 1502-14, and the first edition published in 1522, in 6 Tols. folio, at the Cardinal's expense at a cost of 250,000 ducats. 600 copies were issued, two on rellum, for one of which Count MacCarthy paid £453 at the Pinelli sale. The M.S., from which Fust's Vulgate was printed, is in two folio volumes, marked Tom 1 and Tom 2, each enclosed in wooden cases fitted with lock and key. One of the rarest books in Sir George Grey's possession is the Speculum Humanum Salvationes." This was printed in block letter, before the invention of detached types, byLaurenzes John Koster, of Haarlem, about 1438. We can form but a very inadequate conception in this age of cheap printing, of the vast labour involved in carving' a whole page of letters on the surface of a block of wood.. The paintings in the book are in the ancient style of art. The career of our first parents, and the subsequent events of Old Testament His tory are delineated, and there is one singular picture representing the saints sitting like moderns at an opera, and contemplating with looks of beatification the torments of the damned in the flames below. The leaves of this book were printed on one side only, and to preserve them from the destroying hand of time, Sir George Grey has had them laid upon other leaves with a broad margin, after the style o? the original.