General News.
Otago Witness , Issue 1205, 2 January 1875, Page 17
About this newspaper
General News.
The Rev. Mr Ward Beecher, we observe (says the New Zealand Times), has now reached the sublimest height of notoriety. A life-like portrait-model of the "famous preacher and hero of scandals is in Madame Tusaaud's exhibition of celebrities.
A Victorian paper states that two squatters went to law some time ago to decide who was entitled to the possession of a ram worth £2 10s. The case has been before the Courts several times and is not yet decided. The costs up to the present time were said to amount to £500 on each side.
The Tasmanian Tribune, speaking of the Governor's levee, says that there was a great variety in the form and fashion of the cards that were used, but the most striking instance of an impromptu in that direction was the half of a bottle label on which the "name of the worthy citizen who presented it was printed. Among our southern neighbours. Westport (-ays the local Times) is getting into good repute. At Hokitika t!ie rumour has spread on serai-official authority that within two years time Westport will export a hundred tons of coal for every one sent out from the Grey, and business men are awaking to the fact that despised Westport has a great future before it.
The New Zealand Herald states that the Madras Government is pursuing the same policy that New South Wales and New Zealand initiated some time back. It is getting rid of its criminal population by transporting it to distant countries. It has sanctioned the deportation of five notorious vagrants to • Sydney, Melbourne, and England. One is a V surveyor, formerly employed in the Bengal Eevenue Survey, who has been twice admitted as a vagrant ; another is a labourer, who hasn't been able to get employment either in Calcutta or Bombay. The third is a fireman, who went to India in 1868 ; the fourth, a locksmith, wbo took horses to Calcutta in 1871 ; and the fifth is an ironmoulder, "at present undergoing two months' rigorous imprisonment." The Commercial Advertiser, published at Honolulu, states that on the 30th September a party of wood-cutters reported that they had found the remains of a Chinaman in the bush back of Paukaa Plantation. The story goen (as we get it from the natives) that a Chinaman named Achu some three weeks ago purchased a dollar and a half worth of opium and some bread, and informed some of his countrymen that he intended to kill himself and burn his own body. (A cremationist.) It appears that he went into the woods and gathered enough materials to make his funeral pile, swallowed his opium, lit a tire under his pyre, and laid down with the intention of going back to the Celestial Empire with the next passing cloud. But he was doomed to be a victim of misplaced confidence ; a passing shower appears to have extinguished the fire, and left his carcass to rot on a heap of brushwood.
A now daily paper is shortly to be published (says the London Weekly Dispatch), which will be conducted on an entirely novel principle. In order to be able to speak the truth on every subject fearlessly, it will accept no advertisements. All books reviewed will be purchased, the dramatic critic will not be a member of any dramatic club, or the bosom friend of any actor, and will always pay for his seat. The editor of the city department will be a man whose immense fortune and proved integrity will place him above the temptation of thousandpound cheques ; and a commissioner for taking affidavits will reside on the premises, in order to swear the contributors as to the truth of their copy before it is accepted. The journal will have no politics, no^ theological opinions, and no special commissioner. We wish our young friend every success, but fear that its ideas are too pure to Bucceed in this land of darkness.
The plans of an ocean-going steam vessel, constructed upon an entirely new principle of naval architecture (says the Argus of the 12th) were exhibited to some gentlemen who take an interest in the subject, by Mr llobert Wilcox, at the Port Phillip Club Hotel, yesterday afternoon. Mr Wilcox claims for his invention that a vessel constructed according to his method will give an increased speed of from 75 to 100 per cent., with reduced horse-power, as compared with the present description of ocean-going steamers, that it will be safer in all conditions of sea and weather, and, as the oscillation will be greatly reduced, there will be necessarily less sea-sickness, and that it will be free from all vibration from propelling power. To judge by the plans, Mr Wilcox has studied the subject very carefully, and several persons interested in steam vessels who have seen the plans have expressed a very high opinion of the invention.
Writing on the subject of the annexation of Fiji by Great Britain, the Hawaiian Gazette says s — "As soon as its local government is fully established, Fiji will become as safe and desirable a place to settle in as Australia, New Zealand, or any other part of the British Empire. We rejoice thai there is one nation that dares to accept the trust and destiny imposed on it by the Almighty, and when called on by the native rulers^ to cause its flag to be unfurled over savage territory, that it may aid civilisation, dispel barbarism, and protect Christianity where anarchy alone prevailed before. No one supposes that her flag will refuse to go beyond the Fijis ; or that she will refuse to accent other groups as well. When neighbouring archipelagoes see the peace and plenty which it brings to all under it, they will be only too eager to seek its protection. This is right, in every case where 'the native rulers cannot themselves secure a firm government."
The announcement that Sir Arthur Gordon is appointed Governor of Fiji (says the Post) is, we trust, incorrect, as, if not, the most unpleasant results ate almost sure to ensue. A more unfortunate appointment could not, in fact, have been made. Sir Arthur Gordon's career in Mauritius shows that he is utterly unfit to occupy the position of a Governor in any Colony, and more especially unfit to hold it in a Colony like Fiji. If he is appointed he will booh be at enmity with both the natives and the settlers, and not improbabjy 99m99 fiwaity between them, Sir
Donald M'Lean would have done much better. If, however, the English Government sends Sir Arthur Gordon out, then we trust that the various Australasian Governments will flatly refuse compliance with Lord Carnarvon's paltry request for a contribution of £4000 a year each towards the expense of maintaining the Fiji Government. If the Colonies are to contribute anything, they should certainly have some voice in the administr f ion, and not be called on to find money for a man like Sir Arthur Gordon to expend.
The Alta California says :— "The trade that is being developed constantly between this port (San Francisco) and the islands and citios of the South Pacific, and which will undoubtedly be still more rauidly more apparent in consequence of a regular and reliable steam line, is of consequence enough to all parties immediately and remotely interested to demand a far more thorough and general survey of the islands and harbours of the different routes than has ever yet been accomplished. It is a long trip, and may prove, as it has often proved heretofore, a dangerous and destructive one." After referring to the number of vessels that have been lost, the Alta concludes as follows :—": — " What should be done we do not pretend to say. But with a growing commerce and rapidly increasing trade and population at either end and along the route, it is evident that in the inteiests of trade and humanity, the nations should uo-operate in causing one general and thorough survey."
As we suppose it is quite hopeless (says the Post) to expect any direct information from the Government or its organs as to the terms on which the £300,000 worth of debentures was recently disposed of in Sydney, we have to avail ourselves of other sources of information. From one of them we learn that Mr Vogel did not succeed in personally negotiating these debentures, that he tried to do so and failed, but that after his departure they were floated by a broker in whose hands they were left. The price we have not heard, but it must have been a low one, if, as is stated, they were taken up chiefly for the purpose of remittances to Europe. Mr Vogel will consequently find these bonds staring him in the face when he arrives in London, and the objection entertaiued by the Stock Exchange to the disposal ot any loan, except in open market, is well known. The credit of New Zealand is sure to suffer by the extraordinary spectacle of its Premier and Treasurer travelling round the world with a carpet bag full of Government securities, to the value of four millions, to dispose of them when, where, and how he can.
"Lounger," in the Melbourne Herald, writing of the arrest of the murderer Sullivan, says : — "What a grim revenge has been taken on this wretch ! No spot on earth offers him a home. No man is willing to give him a crust or shelter ; no man will speak to him, or eat and drink with him. Can we not fancy that there are moments when he has envied the fate of those whom he betrayed, and that he has often longed to end his misery — aye, and would do so, but for that threatening hand which, all unseen, is always raised in stern readiness to seize the blood-guilty ? Ah ! Mr Sullivan, all things' taken into consideration, 1 conld pity you. And 1 certainly think it would be better for you and society in general if you were locked up until the time comes, you know, when you too shall be called upon to open your eyes to the mystery which you have so often helped others to penetrate. And if they send you to gaol, and should permit you to enjoy literature of a light and consolatory kind, let mo recommend to your notice Mrs Crowe's ' Night Side of Nature ' as a sort of reading calculated to bring ease and mental composure."
Prince Frederick William, eldest son of the Crown Prince, and heir to the German throne, has been duly entered as a scholar of the second form at the Public Grammar School at Cassel. Imitating the practice usually observed in Germany, his parents t <ok him to the head master of the establish ment, and, like ordinary citizens, had him examined in their presence. Before leaving the director, as the august monarch of a German gymnasium is called, the Crown Prince stipulated that his son was not to be addressed as " Royal Highness, " but to be known only under the name of Prince William, and treated in all respects as were the other boys. The Prince will live in a house opposite the school, under the superintendence of General yon Gottberg and Dr Herzpeter, the latter a philologist; an(3 the son of the gentleman to whom the Crown Prince is indebted for his Latin. Thus installed, the future Kaiser, whatever the eminence awaiting him in after life, will have to make good his position among comrades quite as cag p r as himself to get well up in Livy and Euclid. There are some thirty boys in the same form with him, most of them the sons of well-to do inhabitants of Caasel.
An amusing story (says the Ballarat Star) has been going the rounds lately. A certain young lady, who considers herself in the cream of society, was. betrothed to a wellknown merchant. Before the ceremony her "ma" persuaded her to pay a visit to £he fashionable Bourke-street drapers, where an elaborate trousseau was purchased to the extent of about £60. Injunctions were given that the bill should be sent in to the expectant spouse, but not until a certain date, a few days after the ceremony, the approach of which was not of course mentioned. By an accident the bill was sent out at the end of the month in the usual course, and the bridegroom expectant, of course, at once called to explain to the drapery firm that, being still a bachelor, he could not possibly have incurred a heavy liability for feminine frippery. The state of the case was represented to him, the resnlt being that ho declined to fulfil his matrimonial engagement and to pay the bill, The lady (says the Ballarat Star) is therefore left without her sweetheart, and with her trousseau on hand for the next emergency of a similar character, for which "pa" will probably have to pay.
A A r ictorian journal (the Evelyn Observer) is accountable for tho following singular story :— " What may happen to one's correg. yondence in transmission from one Colony to another was strikingly exemplified the other day, when a letter was receive^ by a near
just twelve years in making its way from Tasmania to Victoria. An explanation of this somewhat singular circumstance, which would have been considered rather out of the way, even by the predecessors of Rowland Hill himself, was given in a short inscription on the back of the envelope as follows : ' Found back of letter-box, at General Post Office, Hobart Town, when the box was being repaired, Oct. 27, 1874.' — just twelve years after the affectionate missive had been posted, it having been committed to the Hobart Town box about the some date in 18(>2. We uecd scarcely add that the recipient was not a little surprised upon opening the letter, which doubtless awakened many pleasant memories, but had, withal, not a few melancholy associations connected with it, seeing that the writer had long since gone to that 'bourne from whence no traveller returns.' "
The coach conveying the English Opera Troupe to Oamaru yesterday morning (says the Timaru Herald of the 2Sid) was arrested by the flood in the Pareora, the river being swollen from bank to bank. When the flooded stream came in Right some consternation was caused among the occupants of the coach, and before the vehicle was in the water the leading comic member of the Opera Troupe was observed emerging from the inside, and taking his place in the boot (from which the luggage had already been removed to the roof) with a profusion of gesture and grimace which only he is capable of. But for the real peril in which the passengers were j>laced the scene would have been eminently ludicrous. When the coach reached the middle of the stream, the boot passenger was immersed up to his neck, and squalls very different from those to which the habitues of the Mechanics' Institute are accustomed arose from the fair occupants of the interior of the coach. We are glad to learn that the whole party escaped with no worse consequences than a wetting. The Otaio and Waio, we are informed, have been flooded, but the waters are fast subsiding in all the rivers.
The London Standard says that M. Giguel, captain of a frigate iv the French navy, rinds himself in a singularly awkward position. The gallant officer, who has been stationed for some time in the Celesti-il Empire, having heen lent by his own Government to assist the Chinese in organising the maritime arsenal of Foo-chow, has been awarded the order of merit of the first class Ti-Tu. To refuse the decoration would be an insult to His Ethereal Majesty; the brother of the sun. ; besides, no Frenchman was ever known to refuse a decoration, and Captain Giguel had not the discourteous courage to go against all precedent. He accepted the distinction. But here the difficulty arises. The order confers on the bearer the exalted privilege of wearing a jacket of yellow — the Imperial colour. To join a band of knighthood without the intention of ever wearing its insignia would be a peace of lubberly sneakishness, of which no Freuuh seaman could be guilty ; but to walk about the Boulevards dressed in a gamboge nightgown, like the doomed heretic of an atciu da/r, is a procedure hardly to be contemplated by a sane mind. Captain Giguel is very unhappy, and oscillates between the exquisite national sense of courtesy, aud the delicate national dread of ridicule.
A man has just died in the Bicetrc Asylum whoso lunacy had a very singular origin. His name was Justin, and he exhibited waxwork figures at Montrogue, his gallery consisting of contemporary celebrities and great criminals. On a pedestal in the centre Avas the figure of a youug girl remarkable for her graceful figure and perfect features, her hair falling in long curls over her naked shoulders. Justin had. named her Eliza, and was so struck by her beauty that he passed hours in contemplating her. She seemed to him to speak, and her blue eyes, with their long eyelashes, seemed to respond to bis passion. Under the influence of this illusion he neglected his business, and for want of a showman to puff it people no longer visited the g,illary. Poverty succeeded easy circumstances ; the modern Pygmalion conld not separate himself from Eliza. His wife was obliged to sleep on a bare mattress, and when she remonstrated he ill-treated her. Irritated at the unjust harshness, she one day destroyed the wax figure. Justin was furious on seeing the fragments, and seizing a broom stick he struck his wife and would have killed her bad not her cries drawn the neighbours to her assistance. Justin, who had lost his reason, had to be secured, and was an inmate of Uicetre for five years, living up to the last under the charm of Eliza, whose image seemed always before him.
"Specialities," in the Queenslander, thus writes of the heir apparent to the ex-King Cakobau : — The noble savage has been in Sydney in the person of Katu Timothy, heir apparent to Cakobau. Ratu Timothy is every inch a prince. He stands upon his dignity, but the other day he rather sat upon it. He was recently the lion of a stately dinner at Government House, and comported himself with native dignity. But what unsophisticated virtue is proof against the wicked inventions of civilisation ? Ratu Timothy came to grief. He assumed his place at table, escaped the liquid allurements of his finger-glass, and might have pulled through had it not been for his table napkin. What that complicated snowy model of the cocked hat of a man-of-war officer might symbolise he could not divine. He east furtive glances at the enigmatical structure, but pride forbade enquiry. He speedily congratulated himselt on his self-command. His opposite neighbours one by one unfolded their cocked hats and conveyed them under the table. He understood the matter at a glance. But he was a prince, and his motions must be attended with fitting pom]). He rose from his chair, gracefully waved his snowy damask a space, then flung its folds —to adopt the language of Poe, slightly varied — " upon the crimson velvet lining, which the lamplight floated o'er, threw it o'er his chair-Beat truly, stately sat, and nothing more. "
New Zealand, and ita finances (says the Home News) have attracted a good deal of attention in commercial and other circles of late, The fact that Mr Julius Vogel purposes visiting England early in the ensuing year with tho intention of raising another ma*»so the extent oi four milljous #pwhs
it is said — has naturally tended towards concentrating this interested. That New Zealand is a great Colony no one acquainted with it or its capabilities can doubt. That it is expending money far faster than it earns it _ig patent to all the world. To spend money is, nearly always, a pleasant process, but, as a rule, a day of reckoning must come. Mr Charles Fellows, who appears to know the Colony well, has addressed a couple of letters to the Pall Mall Gazette, calling attention to what he deems the ruinous and suicidal policy of paying interest on loans out of other moneys raised for reproductive purposes. This he contends is practically the habit of the New Zealand Government, and, if true, must have an unfavourable influence upon the commercial position of the Colony. It would be a pity to bring such an effect to bear upon the circumstances of the Colony, and it is to be hoped that Mr Vogcl's moneyborrowing propensities may be restrained within becoming limits. His Polynesian scheme is not looked upon -with much favour here, and he will find it difficult to " work the oracle in that direction.
The Hobart Town Mercury states that on the 4th inst., at the sitting of the Criminal Court, before the Chief Justice, Sir Francis Smith, the present position of the Church of Scotland in Tasmania was brought somewhat prominently forward, and some passages at arms took j>lace between His lion our, the Rev. John Storie, of St. Andrew's Church, and Mr Crisp. The case before the Court was that of the youth William Hopwood, charged with perjury, in having sworn certain false statements before Mr Sfcorie, whereby he induced that gentleman to marry him to a damsel named Ellen Haylett. Mr Storie was placed in the witness box, and deposed to having married the defendant, at the same time producing the affidavits. Mr Crisp, who appeared for the defence, then proceeded to cross-examine him, with Mie object of proving that Mr Storie had not sufficient authority to perform marriages. The rev. gentleman held an authority from the Rev. li. S. Duff, who signed himself as Moderator of the Presbytery of the Church of Scotland in Tasmania ; and Mr Storie not only asserted that there was no Presbytery in this Colony, but that Mr Duff was not a minister of the Church of Scotland. The Chief Justice thought Mr Stories conduct in acting under an authority from a man whom he did not recognise even as a minister, much less as Moderator of his church, was so re prehensible, that he twice told him he ought to be ashamed of himself. Mr Storie received the reprimand very quietly, and it did not appear to disturb the equanimity of his temper in the least.
A communication recently received at the office of this journal from Christchurch, on subjects connected with the projected Dunedin Marine Store and Piggery Company, was forwarded to the promoter, Mr Pavletitch, who promised to give it his immediate attention. According to the prospectus, the capital of the Company was to have been represented by 400 shares of £5 each, but the management has decided, without reducing the total capital, to make the shares £1 each, for the purpose of enabling the poorer classes to invest in the undertaking. In response to the promoter's application for an allotment on which to establish a piggery, His Honour the Superintendent replied that a piece of ground between Blueskin and the North Harbour could be obtained at the upset price of £1 per acre. Besides supplying first-class pork, hams, and bacon, it is intended to breed poultry of every class, and no effort will be wanting to render the speculation remunerative. The Marino Store is to utilize the waste products throughout the country, and every yard in Duucdin will be cleared gratuitously. The promoter estimates each load conveyed by our dust carts to be worth about 10s, if properly sorted. His principal object, while believing in the remunerative character of the scheme, is to give light employ ment to persons at present compelled to live on charity. Mr Pavletilch declares that, unless the shares are speedily taken up, he will individually establish the Piggery aud Marino Store, which, besides proving a financial success, would prove also a public benefit. We heartily wish that the prospect 3 held out may be realised.
