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Auckland Star, Volume III, Issue 813, 26 August 1872, Page 2

The annual meeting of the Caledonian Goldmining Company will take place on Wednesday next. Mr Warwick Weston and Mrßßleazard aro candidates for a seat in the directorship.

Miss Florence Colville, tho graceful and talented comedienne, will take her farewell benefit at tho Prince of Wales Theatre this evening. It is announced as the last appearance, and we hope to see the playgoers of Auckland rally round her on the occasion. The " Lady of Lyons" will be produced, and the fair bencficiare will enact the role of Pauline, the " beauty of Lyons." An amateur (Mr A E Isaacs) has kindly offered his assistance as Claude Melootte. From what we havo seen of this gentleman's acting we can say that it would not disgrace a professional. An efficient actor, possessing perfect case on the stage and knowledge of his part, the imDersQnation is sure to be a good one. Signor Vragnizan will sing an ana trom the opera of "Lucia do Lammermoor," and " A Happy Pair," by Mrs Colville and Mr Hoskins will conclude tho performance,

His Worship the Mayor returned from Wellington by the s.s. Wellington, which arrived in the Manakau yesterday.

An infant three months old, the son of a woman named Kent, was found dead in bed at the Kumeo Flat.Eiverhead, through overlying on Friday last. The body will be brought to town to-day, and an inquest will take place to-morrow.

The regular monthly meeting of Lodge St, Andrew, No. 418, S.C., will be held this evening at the Star hotel.

We regret to see that his Honor the Superintendent has met with an accident in Wellington. We have been shewn a private letter written from Wellington on the 20th instant, and have been permitted to make the following extract: —" Gillies had a narrow escape last night of getting a broken nose. Some fellow went to his lodgings drunk and demanded £2. Gillie's endeavoured to put him out, and a scuffle took place, A next door neighbour came to the rescue, and tho fellow was given into custody, The skin has been rubbed off the Supert's nose, and you will fancy that his appearance is not much improved thereby."

The Post, of the 15lh instant, says : — " The House presented an unwonted appearance of excitement last evening— indeed it is doubtful if so much interest has been manifested in tho proceedings since the want of confidence motion was discussed in 1869. All the galleries were full to crowding, the ladies especially mustering in the strongest force. At halfpast seven, amid an opening chorus of cheers from provincial supporters, Mr Curtis rose to move tho motion standing in his name. He was hardly equal to the occasion ; his speech was not in any way remarkable, and may bo considered a disappointment. Mr Fox, who followed, was in no better vein. He mis-quoted Pope, read long extracts from Hansard and from various newspapers, and after reading a newspaper-editor homily, concluded a mentally dropsical speech with an onslaught on Superintendents, and a statement that the House, by its. speeches, and the country by a general election, had approved the policy of tbe present Government. This view of matters brought Mr Gillies to the front, who made a damaging speech upon Ministerial maladministration, and the miserable failure that had been made of public works and immigration. Mr Webster compared our eight or nine Governments to a two-donkey power engine with twenty or thirty cog wheels. All the power was exhausted in turning these wheels, and none was left for ulterior purposes. There were, he thought, too many persons employed in fjoverning and in spinning cobwebs of egislation, which are broken through by the first bumble bee. Messrs Harrison. Collins, and Bathgate contributed their quota to the dullness of the evening, the former naively stating that the Government had "done its best," thereby admitting how bad that best had been.

We beg to acknowledge receipt of a number of papers from the Grovernment printer, consisting of statistical tables in anticipation of the annual volume of statistics of New Zealand for the year 1871, relating to finance, post office, telegraph, trade, and interchange, meteorology and population, also three numbers of the THTansard.

The Teutonic tailor of a Pennsylvania village having married a second wife indecently soon after the funeral of the first, the young men of the place signified their disapproval by a tin-horn serenade during the progress of the wedding feast. The vulgar fraction of a man expostulated in the following style : " I say, poys, you ought to be ashamed of yourself to be making all dia noise yen der vas a funeral here so soon!"

Return of sick treated during tho week ending Saturday, August 24, 1872, at the Provincial Hospital. Remained last return, 64 ; admitted since, 10 ; discharged, 8 ; died, 1; remaining, 65 ; males, 58 ; females, 7. Arrangement of cases :—Fever, 1 ; scrofula, 1; syphilis, 2; phthisis, 5 ; rheumatism, 5 ; neuralgia, 1; ameurosis, 1; cataract, 1; ophthalmia, 1; paralysis, 4; bronchitis, 4; aneurism, 1; dyspepsia, 3 ; diarrhoea, 1; fistula. 1; burn,_ 1 ; tumour, 1; uterine complaints, 3 ; caries, &c, 4; fractures, 5; dislocation, 1; abscess and ulcer, 6; wounds and contusions, 6 ; debility, 6. A man died on the 19th instant of serous apoplexy. Thanks are returned to L. O'Brien, Esq., for a large parcel of illustrated papers; and to Mrs Sadlier for old linen.

There is, it appears, in America one Mr Proctor, who has committed eighteen murders, and who, as the New York Times despairingly remarks. " is yet unhung." Mr Proctor is, however, occasionally tried by a jury, and an incident is mentioned in connection with his most recent appearance in the dock which may perhaps in some measure account for his persistent good luck. Mr Proctor's trial (for tho murder of his wife) took place in an Indiana border Court House, and we read that not only was the prisoner attended by a dozen or so of friends armed to the teeth and " determined that no conviction should take place," but that Mr Proctor had with him in the dock '* a Spencer rifle and two revolvers," Supposing the revolvers to be six-shooters, it would become painfully apparent to the jury that, independent of the Spencer rifle, which might probably be meant for the judge, here was a ball apieca for them in the event of their returning a verdict of guilty. Under these circumstances, while we should, in common with all persons out of reach of the danger threatened, have preferred to see the jury inflexibly perform their duty, we cannot wonder if they took an unduly favorablo- view of the defence offered in behalf of Mr Proctor, and permitted him to walk out of the Court with his small stand of firearms undischarged. Perhaps the simplest way of dealing with the case which tho New York Times deplores would be to relieve Mr Proctor of his stock of pistols and guns as a preliminary to his next arraignment. No one can accuse the English authorities of harshness to criminals; but it is a well-known fact that in this country the most deadly weapon a prisoner in the dock finds ready to his hand when his angry passions have been roused by the issue of his trial is a hob-nailed boot or an official inkstand.

The annual meeting of the Auckland Total Abstinence Society will be held in the rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association to-morrow evening, at halfpast seven o'clock, to receive report, &c. By the next steamer from Sydney we may expect the arrival of Mr Harry Eickards, the great London comic singer, who has been " starring" for some months in Victoria and New South Wales in company with Enderby Jackson and Miss Lizzie Watson. Mr Eickard's agent (Mr W. Allison) has arrived by the Wonga Wonga, and arrangements have been mn,do for his nppAn.nnoe at tho Prince of Wales Theatre immediately after arrival. Mr Eickards will be accompanied by Miss Carrie Eickards, a serio-comic singer of no ordinary merit ; Mr Henry Hallam, a comic vocalist; and Madame Sanderson, an operatic singer, possessing a remarkable clear and powerful voice.

We learn that Messrs Archard and Brown are the successful tenderers for the construction of a telegraph line from Auckland to Kaipara. The line is to be in working order three months after the signing of the contract. The line of route will be the New North Poad, It is to be hoped the contractors will not meet with a second edition of the native difficulties they encountered at Coromandel telegraph. Breakers ahead ! Tho Ministerial ship is driving on to the rocks. The captain and the officers have lost their presence of mind, and all hands are beginning to think of the propriety of saying their prayers. Having escaped the Scylla Curtis, the Ministerial cock-boat is in danger of tbe Charybdis Stafford. "E'en Palinurus nodded at the helm," and even Captain Fox lost his reckoning yesterday. Should the shipwreck occur, and little short of a miracle can save the leaky old ship now, Captain Fox and Lieutenant Peeves will inevitably be drowned ; Paymaster Vogel may swim to shore without a rag to cover him; Lieutenant Ormond will reach dry land with a Superintendency in his pocket; Cabin-boy Gisborne will get to shore in the Annuities Lifeboat ; and Doctor M'Lean will paddle his own [Maori] canoe to the safe haven of Hawke's Bay.—Evening TPost.