NEWS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XVIII, Issue 2670, 20 November 1871, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

♦ The Kaiapoi Regatta meeting takes place this evening. The Provincial Council is prorogued to January 3rd, 1872, when it will meet for dispatch of business. In our report of the Rangiora Resident Magistrate's Court on Saturday, in a case reported McPhee v. Carter, the defendant's name ought to have been Collier. In consequence of the wet weather on Saturday the match between the sides of the Secretary and Treasurer of the U.C.C.C. was postponed until Saturday next, the 25th instant. Lady Bowen took her departure from Canterbury on Saturday by the bs. Taranaki. Her ladyship was accompanied on board bj his Honor the Superintendent, Judge Gresson, Mrs Gresson, Mr and Mrs Studholme. Mrs Rhodes, &c. The following is Captain Rose's letter, in reference to Shaw, Saville, and Co.'s cup, written to the Cure Boating Club, Kaiapoi :— " Ship Zealandia, December 22,1869. Henry Feldwick, Esq., Kaiapoi. Dear sir—Yours of yesterday came duly to hand. I wish the different clubs to settle amongst themselves where they will row for the cup, that they may all be satisfied. I am yours truly, rIENRY Rose." The complimentary dinner to Mr Alfred Cox, by the residents of Papanui takes place to-morrow, at the Sawyer's Arms Hotel. Mr Robert Wilkin will occupy the chair on the occasion. A meeting of the cricketers of the province will be held at White's Hotel on Wednesday next at 7.30 p.m, to appoint a committee to make the necessary arrangements for the interprovincial cricket match with Otago. The lecture by the Rev. E. Bailey on " Bernard Palissy, the Potter," will be completed at the Music Hall on Wednesday evening, when Mr W. Wilson will occupy the chair. Those who hold tickets of admission from the last lecture, or who paid at the door, can obtain admission free of any further charge. We understand that a complimentary dinner to Captain Rose, of the Merope, by several of his old passengers in the Mermaid, together with those travelling in the ship he now commands, will take place at the White Hart Hotel to-morrow evening. The adjourned meeting of the Heathcote Regatta Committee will be held at White's Hotel on Friday next, at half-past seven o'clock, when the various collectors are requested to send in their lists. The meeting will also complete the programme. We hope to see a good muster of members on the occasion, and that the collectors will exert themselves to be enabled to hand in a goodly amount. We remind members of the Popular Amusement and Entertainment Association that the adjourned meeting at which the reports of the sub-committees will be read, takes place to-morrow, at the City Council Chambers. We understand that the executive officers of the various friendly societies have expressed their willingness to co-operate with the association in worthily celebrating the twenty-first anniversary of the province. What the bills called "the great moral drama " of " The Bottle," was the piece de rexistunee at the Theatre Royal on Saturday night, when there was only a moderate attendance. The piece was fairly played, hut pieces of this sort are somewhat beyond the range of the company as at present constituted. This evening the spectacular drama of " The Sea of Ice," will be produced. In this ample scope is afforded for the exercise of the scenic artist's peculiar talents, an opportunity which has been fully taken advantage of by Mr Charles Massey, who has painted some really excellent scenery for the occasion. The managrment are sparing no time or trouble in the mounting of the piece, and we hope to see a good audience on the occasion of its production. Plumbago has been discovered near Fair? field, New South Wales. A perfectly hairless horse has been caught in the M'lntyre district, New South Wales. Sheep and cattle have been dying by thousands in Queensland, owing to a long- j continued drought. The Dunedin Evening Star says:—We hear that a thousand guineas was offered for the stallion " Master Bowe," aad refused by Mx Pritchard,

A Queensland squatter has fenced in a piece of scrub thirty-two miles in circumference, containing wild animals that damage his run. This monster trap has cost £4000. It is reported that a correspondence has been discovered in the Tuileries, developing a plan to put Napoleon on the throne of Belgium. A sensation is caused in Belgium. The Times correspondent writes that he traversed the Mont Cenis tunnel m thirtyeight minutes. The air is excellent, the rails are level, and it works admirably. Ladies are admitted, and attend the meetings of the Otago Institute. We think the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury might follow the example set them with advantage. We learn that shops and dwellings are going up in all directions in Poverty Bay. The erection of a school house lias been commenced, and it is even whispered that a newspaper will be started there before long. A door lock, the Builder says, has been invented, which rings a bell and- lights a taper on the instant that any one attempts to pick it; or it may be so arranged as to produce the light only, should any one let himself in late at night. About six o'clock on the evening of September 17, twenty-nine desperate prisoners cut their way out of the Nevada State Prison, at Carson, and after a fearfnl hand-to-hand conflict with the guards, made their escape. A number have been re-captured in the mountains. The Pall Mall Gazette denounces the Daily Telegraph for misinterpretations of the sentence in Disraeli's speech in regard to the Queen as flagrantly dishonest as any which ever appeared in an English journal. It declares that if Gladstone keeps such company as that of the editors of that journal, none but the rabble will follow him. When the Rangitoto was in Nelson last she took on board fifteen tons of Collingwood coal to give it a trial in her furnaces, and a telegram has been received from Captain Mackie by Mr Cross, stating that the coal was of first-rate quality. The Nelson papers say it is a great pity the capital of this company is so limited, as the supply could, we understand, be indefinitely increased, and a stop altogether put to the importation from Newcastle. | At Ross, last week, a drayman occasioned ! the smashing of a public-house lamp. The event is thus chronicled by the Ross Ne?vs — " Broken Glass — A rather unprofitable ' smash' occurred yesterday, in Aylmerstreet, through one of our respected draymen backing his cart against the uprights of Mr Cole's lamp-frame, when the very fine illuminator came ' down by the run,' and became totally unfit to again shed its lustre on the entrance to scenes of revelry." We (Grey River Argus) are informed that the punt at Rocky Island, Grey River, was completed and all ready to start yesterday, when two Nelson troopers, acting under instructions from the Warden, visited the spot, and with an axe cut down the wire. This is a very arbitrary proceeding, especially after the report recently furnished by the arbitrators in the matter of the Grey River Ferries, and we trust that steps will be taken to have it thoroughly investigated. A shocking accident occurred at Bellevue Terrace, Charleston, on Thursday afternoon, to a miner named William Reid, who was killed by a fall of earth from the face where he was working in company with other men. The fall came unawares, the face having been considered perfectly safe. A large block fell upon the head of deceased, kilhng him instantly, and knocking down and partly covering another man named Nye. Deceased was thirty-two years of age, and a native of Scotland. He was a married man with three or four young children who are left entirely destitute. Mr John Anderson, of Wyndham station, writes to the Bruce Standard. "Mrs Anderson has been engaged since we came into the settlement in manufacturing stocking yarn for the use of our family. She has, however, hitherto found it very difficult to obtain dyes to colour the BtooKlngs. She at last tried the flax, and by a very simple process has obtained a very rich brown color. We have been wearing stockings dyed with flax and find that instead of becoming lighter or fainter in color, they become always darker. Perhaps this flax dye may be very useful for woollen manufactures. If so, what a valuable article will the flax be to this settlement. The root end of the blade cut in short pieces and boiled in soft water, produces the dye." A Mrs Barling—benevolent creature, she should have her name spelt with a D—advertises in the Auckland papers, says a contemporary her intention of publishing shortly a Matrimonial Times, with a view, as she expresses it, to meeting the requirements of settlers in the out-districts, who are debarred from forming acquaintances amongst the opposite sex. Dear, disinterested benefactress of the human race! If it were not for an unfortunate allusion to a trifling two-and-sixpenny fee that will be required at tho hands of those who may avail themselves of her services, we should be inclined to look upon her philanthropic—a crusty old bachelor has in my hearing called them misanthropic—efforts with a favorable eye, but all the romance that might under other circumstances have attached itself to the Matrimonial Times and its editress, has faded away before that wretched half-a-crown. Among bankers, and those connected with banking interests, says a contemporary, the increase of the impost upon cheques from Id to 2d will, it is alleged, greatly benefit them. It is well known that the Banks are always anxious for as large an increase of their notes as they can obtain. It is true that these represent gold or silver coin, when either is demanded in exchange, but then, as a rule, this is seldom the case. Notes pass from hand to hand, and are generally received in payment in preference to gold. Now that the stamp upon a cheque has been doubled, tradesmen, it is said, will draw largely upon their accounts in notes, pay in notes, and receive in notes, and so will be the means of increasing their circulation ; for although notes, like bread cast upon the waters, reI turn after many days, the Banks reap an [ advantage during the interim, this is what lis said, but whether it be cprrect those only initiated in Banks and banking can possibly say. The general opinion, however, appears to be that the revenue will derive little or no increase from the new fiscal measure. In a recent case (Ferguson v. M'Cormick), in Auckland, before Sir G. A. Arney, a definition of the term " Yankee Grab " was given, which caused some amusement. The following is an extract from the report;— The plaintiff, in cross-examination, said that himself, the defendant, and another man were original holders of the ground called the " Clyde," for which each one got thirty-three shares in the Alburnia Gold Mining Company. In answer to what was to be done with the 100 th share, the plaintiff said that Mr Hannaford told them that th.ey were to have " Yankee Grab" for it. His Honor; "Yankee Grab"" [Laughter.] What is tbat?—Mr Hesketh ; 1 do not know, your Honor. I believe it is shaking something in the hat. [Lond laughter.! Praoticallv he knew nothing whatever of '* X aukee Grab," but he had been informed upon reliable authority that it was a peculiar pastime, invented to arrive at a result—as, for instance, where two persons were in doubt as to which of them should I pay for a bottle of wine, or the like ; or, as in the matter before the Court, to determine who should beoopie the ewnej- of the odd share. Some poisons had opined that this method of deciding things had not a moral tendency $ but he (Mr Hesketh) could not say of his own knowledge. Mr Rees stated in respect of his belief, but not of his experience, that the game referred to would be known in years as " rattling the bones." It was an appeal to decide certain issues by ascertaining the aggregate number of spots upon the dice thrown in triplicate in an agreed-upon -ueoession of throws or casta. His Honor bowed his acknowledgments for the information, and resumed taking notes. [None of them knew I ]

Mr Haughton, referring in the House to the scarcity of openings for educated youths in the colony, made the following-remarks:— i " There was only one prof e&rfon open to young men, and that necessarily only to a limited I extent, in the country. He referred to the ! legal profession. He had observed by the newspapers that no less than twelve young j men were admitted the other day in one j place in New Zealand. The country would be flooded, no doubt, with home-made , lawyers. There was no other profession opeto the young men after they had passed through this hot-house system of education. The only openings were in merchants' offices and banks ; and to increase the swarm of patronage hunters—and they had a swarm— I they were going to educate up to a state of what might be called Government officeworriers." [ " The evening of the recent election day in Paris, Kentucky, was marked," reports the New York Tribune, "by one of those bloody | incidents which from "time to time occur in the south-west, as if to confirm and authenticate the wild stories of murder and violence which give to foreigners their only idea of I American life. A young gentleman named Hiblcr was sitting in front of the Bourbonhouse in that town, according to the gipsy habit of the west, passing the pleasant hours before midnight in conversation with friends on the side-walk. An acquaintance, a member of the prominent family of Alexander, [ came out of thc bar-Toom, and, passing [by Hibler'B chair, told him to get out of the gangway. He replied there was j plenty of room. Mr Alexander, with true [ Kentucky spirit, having objected to the position of Hibler's chair on the side walk, was j bound by every dictate of what is called in that neighbourhood ' honah' to right the ' wrong of which he had complained. He therefore tried to push the seat and its contents out of his way. Mr Hibler, who was equally high-toned, was of course bound not to get out of line, and gave Mr Alexander the ominous warning that he had better desist, if he did not want a difficulty. 1 This humorous patrician retorted. • Can't you take a joke ?' to which Mr Hibler responded that his appreciation of the comic was very highly developed, but that at this moment he was not mirthfully disposed. Upon which Mr Alexander, touched to the quick by this untimely seriousness, became imperative and profane, and said, 'By , Mr. Hibler, step your step !' which in the South - western language, has the same meaning which is conveyed by the ' Draw ! false traitor!' of the melodramas. Mr Hibler was not laggard. He rose, saying, 'If that's your game, I'm your man,' and both these high-toned gentlemen put their hands to their hips and drew the revolver, which seemed to be a part of every rural Kentuckian's wearing apparel, and commenced firing. Hibler tells his storj with a devilish coolness, which is full of character. His first shot struck Alexander in thc shoulder and disabled him. But not wishing to leave his work half done, he kept on shooting. Fiuding he was in the light of the open door, he dodged into the shadow, and then dropped on his knees so as to get a good shot at his crippled opponent, as the smoke lifted and revealed him in the blaze of the gaslight opposite. This shot was effectual, and finished Alexander ; but Mr Hibler, not wishing to carry a loaded pistol home, emptied his revolver in the corpse. All this Mr Hibler tells in his own defence, and is perfectly exonerated and discharged. The chronicler says, ' he bears an excellent name, is obliging, good humoured, and popular." ' The late General Sir Horace Seymour, who distinguished himself very greatly at Waterloo, was one of three brothers all distinguished for their stalwart proportions and graces of person (Sir Horace was the father of the present Rear-Admiral Beauchamp Seymour, whom many of our readers will recollect when in these waters in command of the Pelorus). A story is told of this hero, illustrative of his popularity with the fair sex. At Hampton-court, where his regiment was quartered, he was accustomed to attend the chapel : —" Three Sundays ago, the weather being very hot, a handsome young lady, a Miss By, not a resident in the palace, but living in the vicinity, fainted. Considerable commotion arising among those near her, Sir Horace Seymour, the most powerful and handsomest man in the place, walked across the chapel, raised the prostrate fair one in his arms, carried her to his apartments, deposited her on a sofa, left her to the charge of his housekeeper, and straightway returned to his seat. Strange to say, on the two following Sundays, a young lady, each time a different one, fainted, and on each occasion, as if by prescriptive right, the same gallant knight performed the same kind office fcr the sufferers, and then returned to his post. On the last of these three fainting Sundays, Lady George Seymour, a very clever and high-spirited lady, the milk of whose kindly nature was getting soured by these periodical visitations, came to mc in the vestry, and said, ' I say, Mr Young, this nonsense must not be allowed to go on. This fashion for fainting will degenerate into an epidemic if it is not put a stop to. With your permission I will affix, before next Sundry, this notice in the cloister at the door of entrance: —Notice: 'Whereas a tendency to faint is becoming a prevalent infirmity among young ladies frequenting this chapel, notice is hereby given that for the future ladies so affected will no longer be carried out by Sir Horace Seymour, but hy Branscombe the dustman.' I cannot say that this notice was ever carried out, but the threat of it getting wind, the desired effect was produced, and ' the plague was stayed! " An English paper, says the Australasian, mentions that the Princess Mary of Teokand her husband are devoting their means and their efforts to save or reclaim young girls from a life of vice, and are erecting a village for their reception in a sequestered part of Surrey, where the girls will he trained to habits of industry, under the direction of a matron, and amidst the healing and purifying influences of nature. Here is an example which might be copied by some of our wealthy ladies with advantage to the objects of their solicitude, and with even greater advantage to themselves. For it cannot be denied, we think, that the lives wliich very many of them lead are a burden and a weariness to them. All forms of pleasure and excitement are tried, but they all produce the same result—disappointment or satiety. Balls, parties, novel reading, picnics, " evenings at home," amateur theatricals, are suocessively engaged in, and the game is pronounced to he not worth the candle. Even the ostentatious rivalries of those who deny themselves no gratifica- ; tion that money can purchase are productive ] of envy, heart-burning, and jealousy. If Mrs I A. spends 30 guineas on a dress, she is pre- ' sently thrown into the shade by Mrs 8., who has imported one from Paris that cost 50 ; Mrs C.'s diamonds are outshone by Mrs D.'s ; Mrs E.s drawing-room, with its elegant decorations, is eclipsed by the sumptuously furnished apartments of Mrs F.; Mrs G. has the mortification of seeing Mrs H.s daughter carry off the matrimonial prize she had hoped to secure for MissG.; and Mrs I. is disgusted at getting only four square dances at the assembly ba.ll, when Mrs J. stood up for a§ many as sis round ones. And so life resolves itself into a dreary round of aspirations that are never fulfilled, and of artificial excitements generating nothing but dissatisfaction and lassitude. Health is enfeebled, the temper is soured, the spirits are depressed, the face is prematurely lined and pinched, and the matron of the period finds vent for the acerbity of her feelings in propagating censorious criticisms on her neighbors. In the pursuit of an illusory and illusive happiness they overlook and lose the attainable reality, which could he easily arrived at by simple living, homely pleasures, and the cultivation aud practice of those moral principles which are tlie strengthened beauty of a woman's character. And all this while society is being corrupted and depraved by evils whioh the active benevolence and considerate forethought of women could do so much to mitigate or cure ; and what with vice at one end of the scale, and folly, frivolity, aud extravagance at the other, womanhood threatens to lose the reverence and respect which were formerly its right, but which will soon be offered to it only as a matter of courtesy based upon tradition, of the past,

The Philadelphia Trade Journal announces a discovery by which petroleum can be used for fuel, and the waste product be 6old at a higher prico than the crude oil costs. The theory is that the lighter and more volatile constituents of the mineral oil will be consumed, leaving the heavy lubricating fluid iv the furnace. The residue is thc more valuable part of the petroleum, aud is separated in the combustion of thc other components. The description includes, among many novel features, a four-horse engine, which was-run for ten hours at an expense of fifty-five cents. A report of the gas referees, just presented to Parliament, gives the public some useful information. It appears that almost all the annoyances of which the public complain iv using gas are due to imperfect burners, aud the referees declares that the best in existence are those made by Mr Sugg. Hi 9 London Argand, No. 1, is the most convenient ever made. The referees further state that gas bums brightest, costs least, and throws out least effluvium when under just so much pressure as will allow of an easy and equable flow without any waste, and that wavering is not due to pressure but to a bad burner, allowing the air to mix itself with the gas. The referees say nothing about the best covers for gas burners, but arc very distinct in recommending the glass chimney, which reduces the size of the flame, but greatly increases its clearness aud brilliancy.— Spectator. The Times' correspondent in New Zealand, says the Spectator, reports that the Colonial Government is in great want of labourers to execute large public works, such as railways and roads, and intends to offer very good terms, namely, a cheap passage, two years of guaranteed employment upon public works, aud a block of land in freehold close to thc work to be executed. Should English labourers decline these terms, assistance will be sought in Germany and Scandinavia. We greatly fear that in this country at least the desired supply of men will not be obtained without the addition of a free passage. A navvy can save ten pounds for himself and his wife ; but a navvy will not go, and an agricultural labourer, who will, has no ten pounds to spend. The object of thc demand is, we presume, to obtain a more respectabic class of settler; but it would be better to trust to the judgment of a Colonial agent, and allow him to offer the only terms which attract English labourers at once, namely, a free passage for the family, a pound a week for the two years—lower wages than the current rate—and the block of land at the end. Mr Ed. Whymper, in his scrambles amongst the Alps, thus describes a night on the Matterhorn : —Time sped away unregarded, aud the little birds which had built their nests ou the neighbouring cliffs had begun to chirp their evening hymn before I thought of retiring. Half mechanically I turned to the tent, unrolled it, and put it up. The sun was setting, and its rosy rays, blending with the snowy blue, had thrown a pale, pure violet as faT as the eye could see; the valleys were drowned in the purple gloom, whilst the summits shone with unnatural brightness; and as I sat at the door of the tent, and watch thc twilight change to darkness, the earth seemed to become less earthy and almost sublime; the world seemed dead, and I its sole inhabitant. By-and-bye the moon as it rose brought the hills again into sight, and, by a judicious repression of detail, rendered the view yet more magnificent. Something in thc south hung like a great glow-worm in the air; it was too large for a star, and too steady for a meteor; and it was long before I could realise the incredible fact that it was the moonlight glittering on the great snow-slope on the north side of Monte Viso, at a distance as the crow flies of ninety-eight miles. The career of Mr Clarke (known in Melbourne as " Long Clarke," says a contemporary, the gentleman who has recently purchased 50,000 acres of land in the province of Otago, is a most remarkable one. Originally in business in Tasmania as a butcher, and that not in a very large way, he is now probably the largest landholder under the British Crown. His peculiar faculty seems that of gripping with pincer-like tenacity everything that once passes into his possession. 11l 183G he left Tasmania for New South Wales and took up a station on the Liverpool plains ;at that time, of course, such could be had at a moderate expense. Shortly after, in consequence of disputes with the superintendent of a neighboring run, he sold his property at the very nick of time when the plains were looking their very best after a wet season. Their verdure, and carrying capacity at such times are most extraordinary. The happy moment thus seized by Mr Clarke to clear out, was followed immediately by the droughts of 1838-39; and those who are colonists of that standing, must remember the losses of those seasons, and the ruin entailed by them. With happier fortune Mr Clarke invested his augmented means in the vicinity of what is now known as Keilor, in Victoria, and there laid the foundation of those enormous territorial possessions that are a wonder even in the colonies. The last number of the Indian Medical Qaiette contains an account of thres successful cases of skin grafting. This curious operation is as follows :—A patient is suffering from a large ulcer. The worst is, however, over, and the ulcer is healing. But nature works too slowly for modern surgery, so a piece of skin is cut from some other part of the body and planted in thc sore. At first it seems to have failed, for the graft disappears, evidently absorbed into the wound, but in a few days a speck of healthy skin appears in the centre of the raw surface. The transplanted piece has, in fact, taken root. The apeck now rapidly spreads, other grafts are made to take root, becoming each of them centres of anevvgrowth, which as they expand, join each other, and in a very short time cover the site of the ulcer with a smooth and healthy skin. Not long ago an sxperiment was tried in a London hospital of grafting a negro's skin on an I ulcer of a white child, to see if the pigment cells would be reproduce-. The experiment failed, as the hit of skin died, but the indignation of the public at what they considered an unwarrantable liberty taken with a whiteskinned subject waa curiously vehement. The authors of the oases quoted in the Indian Medical Gazette do not say whether the skin reproduced after grafting was the same color as that of the rest of the body or of the pink color so often seen in the scars ' on natives' legs. This is a point which ! might advantageously be cleared up. In consequence of the alarming statement promulgated by Professor Stanley Jevons, says the Australasian, that England's supply of coal is rapidly approaching exhaustion, a Royal Commission was appointed by the Imperial Govermont to investigate the question. Its report confirms the soundness of the professor's calculations. The available supply at the present rate of consumption and increase will only last 110 years .- but by economy it may last out until the year 2230 "We fear, therefore," observes the Spectator, "we must look forward to a time when England will again bean agricultural country, very much burdened with debt, and with a population, organised on Swiss principles, of about ten millions." Painful as the prospect may be, we cannot hope or expect that our fatherland will escape the fate of other great empires which have fulfilled their appointed mission on the globe. " Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they V Thc acme of national progress seems to be reached in the constitutional period of national existence, when the three elements of political power—monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy—are interblended, and bold each other in check. When the two former go down, and the plutocracy and democracy are rivals for rule, nations have already entered on the downward path which conducts them to a centralised despotism. Such, at least, is the lesson taught as by history.

A public meeting was held at the 'P/*Hall, Hokitika, on Nov. 14th, advertisement, to consider the coudnct *'f the Hospital Committee in tlio matter of th late robbery, and the general management of the institution. The meeting was, accor ? ing to the West Coast 'Times, the largest and best conducted of any that has ever ber held in Hokitika. Before the time appointed for commencing the proceedings — e -„v_: o'clock—the large hall was well filled, and at the time the Chairman took his seat th*. hall was crammed from end to end. T',„ following resolutions were carried •< Ti _. this meeting views with disapprobation the general management of the Hospital by t„ e Committee, and more especially their conduct relative to the late robbery ; first jj not remitting thc investigation to the policesecondly, in allowing thc House Committee' composed as it was of interested member**'' to undertake thc duty; and thirdly, i n the' partial dismissal of the employes of the institution, instead of extending the measure to all, without exception." That the Committee be requested to resign, but beforo doing so, it is the opinion of this mcetin" that the committee should do an act of jus 1 , tice, by reinstating thedischargod scrvauts in their respective situations." " That failinc the compliance of the committee with the request iv the preceding resolution, a petition be prepared for presentation to the County Chairman, requesting the Government to resume the management of the institution." " That a vote of thanks be passed to the proprietor and to the editor of the West Qtast Times for their persistent and courageous action, in commenting upon the mal-adniinig. tratiou of the Hospital Committee." " Th a (_ the thanks of this meeting be recorded to Messrs Hine, Ingram, Driscoll, and for thc impartial manner in which they hare discharged their duty as members of the Hospital Committee."