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Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4306, 19 October 1882, Page 2

A telegram from a well informed correspondent in Auckland says the plans for the harbor works at Shortland are to be sent to the secretary on Tuesday. ■ Mb Bbqdiv, Count; Chairman, has recei red a telegraoi from Mr J. R. Brown, engineer who is working in concert with Mr Ritso, representative of the English syndicate, to the effect that he himself is in Wellington collect* ing information from the Government, and that Mr Ritso is in New Plymouth awuiting a telegram. Oub friends at the " Corner " hare apparently been having a dull time of it, so far as money-making it concerned, lately. The scrip mnrket has been so dull that do Hat has been published alt the week till this afternoon, and then —well, it was better than none. We hope matters will soon improve, so that the afternoon meeting may become a usual thing instead of a rarity, as it has been fur the paßt week or two. . Thb influence of the opening of the £&nama Canal, when completed, upon the tracts and commerce of Auckland will be very great I« is gratifying to learn that the < contractors for its constiuct ion (Messrs Huerne, Glarein, and Co.) state that they can finish the first channel, 103 feet wide and 8 feet deep, by. Ist of March, 1833; further, that they can complete the oanal throughout its whole width and depth as far as Gatam by Die Ist October, 1883, and finally, that the balance of their contract of six million cubic metres, eoinpiiing the denudation of the

Lower Chaffre», will bs terminated by th■■• Ist Aujuut, 1884—Herald. Some magnificent stone from fcho Bonanza claim, Te Aroba, has been shown at Hamilton by Mr Cummings. The fifth annual meeting of the Kaiapoi Woollen Company was held yesterday. The statement issued shows considerable and important additions have been made to the buildings and plant; eight looms are at work, , and the mill and clothing factory give employment to nearly 500 hands. The profit and loss account shows a surplus of £9043 11s IA, out of which it is proposed to pay a dividend of ten per cent., absorbing £5000..;, the balance is carried forward to new account. It is probable the electric light will be in use before the next annual meeting.

A Pekss Association telegram Bay a: "Mr Lewis is progressing favorably, although not considered out of danger." A local in our Auckland morning contemporary reads: "Private telegrams from Wellington, from indubitab'e authority, inform us that there is no truth in the extraordinary rumors that have been current with respect to the case of Mr Lewis. His brain is at present affected, and from that cause there is still considerable darger." TbU is all beautiful, but there is somdhinj; very extraordinary about the affair, the Press Association and the New Zealand Herald to the contrary notwithstanding. f Mr Lewis were only laboring from the effects of an over-excited brain—cerebral excitement, as the doctors put'it—and the wound «uoh as were likely to have been inflicted by a person in that condition why, in the name of all that is sensible, all this profound socregy on the part of medral men and relatives ? Such reticence, they must be well aware, would itself create suspicion, and arouse curiosity. If there is no foundation for any of the extraordinary rumors afloat, then the action of those who have charge of the patient is extraordinary and inexplicable, and the ruin of his reputation will lie at their door. 'What a grand thing it is to be of the "Upper ten," and to be enabled to attain anything within the reach of humanity. If the patient had been Bill Muggins the tinker, Jark Smithera the tailor, or Paul Scroggins the eweep, the public would speedily lmve had official accounts of the affair. The door of the sick chamber would have swung wide opea ro th© detectives and the reporters. Neither the Minister of Justice nor the bead of the police would have consulted a mother's wishes or feelings in the matters No, the inquisitor of the law would have turned a deaf ear to her pleadings, or pushed her aside 88 unworthy of notice —she not being of •' society " or the wealthy. And y&t human natuie is the same in all grades of society. In the higher ranks men are not one whit more moral than those of the lower classes, although they may not be so coarse or vulgar. The great difference is, that they indulge their passio/is through means of a class not their equals in society. The lady, of course, for a wife, but the servant girl is a fitting object for illicit amours. Wfyat of her ! Ob, she will find a mate amongst her own class after ministering to the gentleman's appetite, or should there be any outcome from their illegitimate intimacy, then £50 will send mother and child beyond the seas never to be heard of more. A little one is launched upon the billows of life never to know a father's care, and its mother—she probably has commenced a career which goes on from bad to worse The end is I hat the mother likely dies in gaol or a brothel, the child possibly lives to become 11 thief, a waif, or the inmate of an industrial school. We hold that the true remedy of society is for the same degree of purity to be demanded from » an as from woman. How far different is it now, when the young " blood " makes it his proud boast that he baß rendered so many —the more th« better— persons the victims of his passions. The same man, who probably has sisters of the most virtuous type, and would quickly resent a whisper agninst them or the slightest word of d'srespect towards them, their honor being his care, thinks it a praiseworthy pursuit to deprive some other persons' sisters, who however belong not to the caste of "Vere de Vere, of their chastity. That there is a great deal of disregard for the moral law, especially for that portion relating to the Blrongest, passion of our nature, must be admitted, and, although this cannot be justified, some allowance may be made for it. Reflection will show that it differs vastly from crime, robbing the fatherless and the widow, enviousneßs, lying, hypocrisy, and such like. It is only a misuse off at endowment which is productive of the best qualities of our nature. Our Saviour seems so to have viewed it, and he never spoke in the same hareb language of those who yielded to this passion, as He did of the selfrighteous Pharisees who, pretending to be holy, were plotting against their neighbors. But he nevertheless did not excuse the act; he called it a sin, and said to the offender, " Gro, sin no more." Amongst the humbler class,' those who wrongfully yield are frequently the warmer hearted, and their illegitimate offspring are carefully attended to, and marriage as a rule is the ending of a wrong beginning. Their affection wtfß honest «nd true, the wrong being in not placing proper restraint upon thimselVes, or possessing due regard for the seriousness of giving way. They did not realise the sacredaess of love. The women of the humbler classes are more liable to yield for at least two reasons : very frequently their training has not. been so good as their favored sisters in a higher sphere, and the punishment of the false etep would not be so severe a< if one fell from the dizzy heights of seject society. On the ether band, the girls of those bet'er off, are carefully watched, receive an excellent moral education, and are surrounded with more elevating influences. Not only are they happily subjected to less temptation than their humbler sisters, but th6y have bb a rule, altogether irrespective of that dread of social ostracism which would almost inevitably result from being discovered, a due sense of hue wrongfulness thereof. They are entitled to be credi*cd with b ing actuated solely, or principally (of course there is a good sprinkling of black sheep who are impure at heart if not in deed) by a sense of right and duty. They would never dream of stepping aside from the path of virtue simply because it would be sinful to do so ; it would be a wrong before their God. But these should sympathise with their humble cis era who have not been so well guarded—and, broadly speaking, good parents have good children, such is the deduction from our observation, —or whote habits of 1 fe lead them more into temptation. After all, the lady has not much to boast of if she has not been called upon to resist the temptation the poor girl has been subjected to. What is wanted, is more, humanity and greater purity on the part of the men; and to wind up with what we began, one law for the poor and rich alike, one rule of procedure for all classes of society. Alas! after all, money rules the land, and now, as it ever has done, covers a multituJe of misdoings.

A San Francisco exchange suys : The particulars of a twelve-sided fight between cowboys to settle a dispute about cattle has just reached here. The affair occurred on the plains, in the vicinity of Denver. Two herd', owned respectively by Keely and Howard, got slightly raixod, and neither being wilting to restore the other his bullocks, it was agreed that the quarrel, should be settled by a light between the employe's, 12 on a side, on horseback. At the firet fire, four men were instantly killed, and thm the Howard purtj fled the camp. Keely then rode up to Howard, ttni. proposed thafcthey fight it out, but be declined. An equitable exchange of the mixed cattle was then made. The deid. were buried by the other men of both parties, and the herds and those in charge separated for their differeutfyoutM.

AtfTl-REIIGrOT/3 disturbances occurred at Montneon and (Jommetry, France, on the 4'h Eight crosses were torn down and des'royed.