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Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 161, 9 July 1888, Page 4

Nearly every consumer of flatfish or flounders has probably been puzzled to account for these fishes being coloured on one side only. There are several reasons that have been assigned for this peculiarity in different parts of the world. In Upper Egypt a tradition is prevalent that Moses was once cookiner one of these fish, bat by the time it had been boiled till it wasbro'wnon ope side only, the fire went out. Moses, in a temper the reverse of amiable, threw the fish into the sea, .where, though half-boiled, if came to life again, and its descendants have up to the present day preserved the same peculiar appearance, being white or colourless on one side, and coloured on the other. In Constantinople, strange to say, an exactly similar tradition prevails, but Moses retires in favour of the Sultan, Mohammed 11., the conqueror of Stamboul,

A resident of Wellington has received a letter from a friend, who recently left there to try his luck at the Broken Hill silver mines. ' The writer states that there are any number of men — skilled artisans and labourers — walking about the district, unable to obtain employment. He gives a doleful account of the climate, which, according to what lie says, is not fit for a white man to live in. The rate of wages prevailing is 11s per day for mechanics, which is stated to be equal to about 8s per day in Wellington. Winers after working for a while in the shafts are attacked by a malady caused by the absorption in their systems of minerals, which act as irritant poisons, and speedily kill them.

A petition for winding-up the North New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Association has been presented to Mr Justice Gillies, and will be heard ab the Supreme Court on July 20th next, or as soon thereafter as counsel can be heard.

The morning service at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral was well attended yesterday, when the choir, under the cbnductorship of Dr. Egan, Mus. Doc, performed Van Brees Mass. During the offertory Mrs Hiscocks sang with great feeling an Aye Marie adapted by Dr. Egan from Lebrefere Willy. The clear enunciation of the soloist was especially appreciable. Since Dr. Egan has undertaken the management of this, choir great progress has been made. In addition to the organ there are a double bass clarionette and a number of violins. Dr. Egan played a ilute obligato to some of the solos in the mass. In the evening tho Tan turn Ergo and Magnificat were rendered.

Captain McGillvray states that t,here is no foundation for the report which we published on Saturday, to tho effect that he is forming a syndicate for the purchase of a steamer to trade to Opotiki and Bay of Plenty ports. The statement in question was quoted by us from the Opotiki "Herald."

The Silver Star Minstrels will appear tomorrow (Tuesday) evening in the Parnoll Hall in one of their popular entertainments. On this occasion it is to be a nautical one. The first part represents the quarter deck of H.M.s. Silver Star, while the second will be a saloon concert, to be followed by a sketch and a good farce.

Thero was a crowded house at the Cit^ Hall on Saturday evening, and a first-clas 8 programme of mirth and music was presented by the enterprising manageress, Miss Smithson. The usual chair business passed off very well, the item being: Overture, " Martha;" opening chorus, "Farmyard Song," Miss Smithson and company; glee, " Comin'Thro'the Rye," Misses Smithson, Levy and Reid; motto song, "The Will and the Way,' Miss Masters ; song, " Clara Nolan's Ball," Mr Fredo; song, " Convent Bells," Miss Levy ; song, " The Boy in the Gallery," Miss Reid; American slab dance, Mr J, Burke; song and dance, " Howdy Doody," Miss Smithson. After the interval, Miss Reid sang " Thy Voice is Near Me," and ten genuine sovereigns were sold by Dutch auction for 18s apiece, the deirand proving greater than the supply. The Ethairdo sisters appeared in a very clever trapeze act, and Miss Smithson brought down the house with her rendering of " Caller Herrin'," accompanied by the Highland Fling. The programme concluded with a highly-amusing comic ballet, " The Statue Cover," introducing living statuary, which caused considerable merriment amongst the audience. Several of the representative footballers were present.

The Jubilee Minstrel Company performed to a fair audience at the Opera House last Saturday evening, amongst, those present being the native football team. The minstrels on this occasion appeared <in evening dress, with Miss Mary Thornton as interlocutress. The programme included : — Comic song, "Can't Get at It," by Mr T. Morris; song, " Two Little Heads," Mr Newell; comic song, "Have You Seen Her?' (encored), Miss Amy Vaughap ; song and dance, Do Lacey Brothers ; song, " Climbing Up The Golden Stairs," Annie Vaughah (encored); song, "The Cricket on the Hearth," Miss Foster; comic song, "Golden Sword," Mr C. Vincent; song, "I'll Await My Love," Mr Carroll (encored). This concluded the chair business, in which it is deserving of comment that the jokes were not up to the average of previous entertainments. The joke of the evening was : " Why are the native footballers like Her Majesty's navy ?—Because one travels with war ships and the other with Warbricks." The second half of the entertainment introduced several very good items, notably a sand jig by the De Lacey Bros., some comic impersonations by the Gisses Vaughan, a whistle selection by Mr Collyer a double song and dance by T. Watson and W. Vincent.-etc, the performance concluding with a laughable farce entitled " Jam." The Minstrels will perform again this evening.

Mr Halby, Mayor of Cambridge, has communicated to the' Secretary of the Financial Reform Association a copy of a resolution passed at a public meeting held at Cambridge on the 2nd insb. It is as follows : — '•That whilst this meeting recognises gratefully the retrenchments already effected in the public expenditure, it is of opinion that the whole machinery of government has vastly outgrown the necessary and financial ability of the colony, and that > much greater simplification" is necessary to secure that economy which the circumstances of the colony require. That this meeting would suggest in furtherance of the first resolution retrenchment in the following directions :—l. Greater simplicity in the conduct of the Legislature, including abolition of Hansard. 2. The colonialisation of r all public endowments for educational purposes. 3. Reduction of the capitation grant for primary education to £3 10s per head; towns having a population of more than say 2,000 being required to erect and maintain their own school buildings ;..and a portion of the cost of all buildings being required to be paid by the local bodies. 4. Abolition of all subsidies to local bodies. 5. Amalgamation of. public offices. 6. Curtailment of railway services on unreproductive lines or sections. That the time has now arrived when the colony should terminate its borrowing policy, and that its revenues should in future be economised that all further necessary public works may be paid for out of ordinary revenue."

There was a very good attendance at the Star of Newton 1.0. G.T. open social last Thursday evening—Bro. Whitten in the chair. The following programme was gone through :—Song, Bro. Masong ; " As Pants the Hart," Sis. McGreavy; " Water Melon," Bro. Mclntyre (by request); recitation, Bro. White ; " I Guess You've Been There," G. Havord ; "The Fisherman's Child," Sis. Dickenson ; reading, Bro. Lightfoot; " Lardy da Brigade," Bro. Masong; Mr Moran, "I Vant to Fly;" Bro. Ryan, song; " Rolling Home," Bro. Mclntyre; recitation,Bro. Williams. The rest of the evening was spent in games, and refreshments were served.

"Agriculture, as a Practical Science," is the subject of Professor Thomas's lecture for next Wednesday evening in the Napierstreet school. The subject is very appro priate, and in strict harmony with theobjects of the evening technical classes, and should attract a large audience from the city and suburbs, as a little scientific knowledge to experienced practical as well as amateur tillers of the soil will be very useful. It also bespeaks a treat seldom hitherto afforded an Auckland" audience. The lecture will be illustrated by numerous experiments.

The immigration to the United States this year will -probably reach 700,000. Every ship comes with a full cargo of steerage passengers—and several of the lines have had to stop further booking until the autumn. Besides this, there is a steady flow of population from over the Canadian border. Canada, indeed, has been of late very seriously looking at the census returns. From 1861 to 1881, she imported 500,000 immigrants, but lost during the same period nearly twice as many to the United States of native-born Canadians. The census shows that there are now nearly a million Canadians residing on the United States side of the frontier, while the total population of Canada is only a little over 4,000,000. Just at present these Canadian residents are trying to comb:ne with the English and Scotch, and have formed for political purposes what is known as the British-American League. Mr Goldwin Smith is one of the great advocates of this new departure, and avows his hope that in this way the malign influence of the Irish vote may be successfully combated. But a pretty extensive canvass shows that most of this proposed new political material is Gladstonian in its tendencies, and by no means opposed to Home Rule. Americans look askance at the movement.

" Jonathan Roberts " continues to be an absorbing topic in the South. A Government school teacher in Canterbury, wishing to gauge the ideas of his Third Standard scholars on contemporary history, set them to work writing an essay on the popular theme, and the following are a small boy's ideas of that hero's adventures, verbatim et literatim, as he set them down:— " The story John robets is a clever man he stol a horse and he got three year then put him in timaru gale then he ran away from the gale the police months after caught him again then he give him another year extre for run away send him to Lyttelton gale then he went to work with the other prisons second day he went away over he watch a chanch at twelve o'clock he had his dinner then he did run away not a wader did see him when he run away Shortly after waders missing him waders looking around robets culdent be seen robets did cross swim the creek and he did run away he his the Clever man he can swim he can run he can figho and he can jump robets he is the clever man police he look allover for robets but hes not found yet."

The rev. incumbent of St. Mark's, Wellington, made two rather bold and sweeping assertions in the course of his sermon last Sunday night. First, that some of the wives of artisans in New Zealand were the veriest domestic drudges he knew of—even worse than some of the poorest and most miserable people ne had known in Ireland—the special drudgery in question being that tyranny on the part of their husbands which kept them at household duties on Sundays and prevented their attendance at church. The second statement was that there was a sad and serious deterioration in morals amongst the young people in Wellington, on account of which he had been obliged to suspend the parish juvenile temperance society rather than bring the children out at night to attend its meetings. Mr Coffey.suggested the advisableness of forming in the parish a Mothers' Union, for the promotion of the better raining of the young people.

Reverting to the subject of turning the rabbit to account commercially, it is instructive to find thab the trapping and tinning of rabbits was suggested some time ago by a 'cute American who had heard of the plague from which the Australasian colonies were suffering. His cure he put practically in these words: —"Tell the Australians that all they have to do ie to put their rabbits into tin cans and sell them as food in the markets of the great cities of the world, just as they are selling beei and mutton." When it was suggested that there would be many practical difficulties in the way, he went on as follows : —"There is no difficulty about it; jugged hare, potted hare, or whatever you choose to call it, is a luxury and commands a high price; because it is a luxury and commands . a high price the demand for it is limited ; make it abundant and cheap, and great as the supply is, it will not meet the demand. I know what I'm talking about, as I've been in the business of canning salmon and lobsters. Let the Australians put their rabbits on the market in the shape of canned food, always being sure to sell it at a price that keeps it in the domain of necessity, and does not make a luxury of it. Whenever salmon goes so high that it costs to the consumer more than Is a pound the demand falls off immensely. At 13d a pound three-fourths at least of the sales will stop, as though cut off with a knife. Tell them to sell their tinned rabbits for 8d or lOd a pound at retail in London, and in less than 10 years all of Australia and New Zealand cannot supply the demand, and there won't be enough- rabbits for seed."

Statistics regarding typhoid fever in Sydney chow that during the ten years ending in 1885 there was a very large increase in the mortality from typhoid fever, viz;, from 4607 per 100,000 in 1876 to 102-17 in 1885. Since then, however, the mortality from typhoid fever has undergone considerable and progressive diminuition. In 1886 the rate per 100,000 was 90-90, in 1887 it was 58*11, and the ratio for the five months of 1888 was greatly below that for the correspondingperiod in the two previous years, being only 30 '97 as against 38*16 in 1887 and 62-17 in 1886. The report of the Board of Health, from which these extracts are made, concludes with the following remarks,.which may be applied with equal propriety to Auckland :—" The Board would lastly urge upon the Colonial Secretary the very great importance of this matter. Typhoid fever is essentially a preventable disease, and makes its ravages chiefly among the younger and more vigorous members of the community. By well-concerted sanitary measures the prevalence of the disease can be very greatly reduced and much sickness and death may be spared to the community. But for this purpose the Board is of opinion that a Public Health Act is required.

Miss Vaile notifies that she has removed to Morven, Valley Road, Mount Eden. Other engagements have compelled her to relinquish some of her scholastic duties, so she is forming a morning class for various subjects, devoting especial attention to the English language and literature. Her circulars contain many flattering testimonies to her success, both from her examiners' reports and from letters from parents of pupils. Miss Vaile holds first-class certificates and is a professional litterateur.

It has been resolved to commence a third quarter of the Caledonian Socials, and the opening gathering will be on Wednesday evening next at the Foresters' Hall, Karangahape Road. A number of new members have joined, and there is every prospect of another successful season.

The success that attends a genuine sale has been very marked in Montague's assigned stock, a manifest proof there is yet some spare cash in Auckland. Daily the place is thronged, and no wonder at the price the goods are being sold. By an advertisement in this day's issue the close of the sale is announced.

The meeting of the New Zealand Radical Reform League which was adjourned last Monday in consequence of the public meeting, will be held to-nigh*i at the Masonic Hall, Karangahape Road, at 7.30 p.m.

Earl and Montgomery are determined to keep well abreast of the times. Some time ago their delivery cart was smashed up through collision with a tram-car, and they have now gone in for a fine two-horse van, which is constantly delivering goods to all parts of the city. :

All the rinks received a good t>U support on Saturday. The Chorß? was well filled in the afternoon, and tVwas a very large attendance atthe Columj!' 1' At the latter place in the evening ProfWyman gave an exhibition of bww! 0' and fancy skating. ™W Two popular officials of the Union I^l Messrs Woodward (teller) and fW* (ledgerkeeper), take their departure*1 Australia to-morrow, having been ordered? report themselves at headquarters n numerous friends of Messrs Woodward 1 1 Ferguson will join with us in congratiS ing them on their prospective advan« ment. Both gentlemen have beenV cipients of testimonials of regard from th* brother officers at the Bank. Smith and Caughey's large and increak trade necessitates enormous stocks »Jj limited accommodation compels a ClearS Sale the end of each season. Winter M' will begin on Monday next.— (Advt.)