NEWS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XXI, Issue 2400, 15 April 1873, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

We have been asked by the Registrar of the New Zealand University to draw attention to an advertisement which notifies that the examination for the University Scholarships, will be held on the 26th of May next, and not on the 12th of May as was originally intended. At an early date it is intended to hold a public meeting at Oxford to pass a series of resolutions, and memorialise the Government to erect a bridge over the Warmakariri at the present Gorge ferry. From the vast amount of timber which has to supplied to the districts of Selwyn, Rolleston, kc, there can be no doubt that the advantages of having such a bridge would be considerable. We hope that a work of such importance to Oxford and these districts may be carried out. The bridge, we may say, would not be. a costly affair, as a suspension bridge of one span across the gorge would be all that is required. On Monday last a trotting match between two ponies belonging to Mr G. Kinley, "Hard to pull up." and Mr W. Harris, jun., " Wild Arrow," came off in the Kaikainui paddock, Kai.poi. Both ponies were under 15 hands. The course was I.J miles, over six flights of of hurdles. W. Harris, jun., rode his pony, and F. Hill that of Mr Kinley. They had a good start, but the latter baulked at the second hurdle and waa never again fairly in the race. Wild Arrow won by a chain and a half. The -takes on each side were £5. The Auckland correspondent of the " Daily Times" writes :—We have had another loud flourish of trumpets from the Government and no doubt it has reached you by telegraph also. This time it is not a mail service, noris the Colonial Treasurer the Dens exmachina. Mr M'Lean has.taken the role, and appears in his favorite character as the great healer of Maori troubles, in a telegram skilfully prepared for circulation, and designed to act on public opinion just before Parliament meets. By a-rare stroke of good luck, the Luna, on her way south, put into Kawhia, and the Native Minister there finds hostile Hauhau chiefs, with a son of Tawhiao, ready and eager to throw themselves into his arms, and ask forgiveness for their offencesThe narrative sent to the press by the Native Minister is carefully prepared, and made as picturesque as circumstances will allow. The scenery, the past history of the place, and particulars of the interesting meeting, are skilfully contrasted and suitably colored. The overwhelming effect of the presence of the Luna and of her august cargo on young Tutuwahia, is forcibly stated, but it is perhaps just a leetle overdone—unless young Tutuwahia be a little Boft, which is quite likely, for while much is made of "his manliness, no reference to his intelligence appears in the Native Minister's summary of this young man's character. But it is really time this sort of thing should end. The public, between Webb's telegrams and the telegrams of the Colonial Treasurer, and the carefully got up Teports of the Native Ofßce < have been victimised heavily enough. Possibly, the glowing account of this visit of the Luna may be justified by the result; but those who know the Maoris best do not believe them so easily amused or turned aside from their purposes. It had been avowed, months ago, by the natives at Kawhia, that they were planting wheat, and would allow vessels to come and trade for it when reaped; but the great lesson taught by this accidental visit of the Luna is, after all, as admitted by Mr M'Lean, that, if made officially, it would have been useless. Could there be a stronger proof that, if the Native Minister and his office were both abolished, and the colonists left to deal freely with the Maoris without obstruction, grand progress in the real pacification of the colony would have been made long ago ?"

The "New Zealand Herald " says :—" The Public Works Office is said to be working most unsatisfactorily at Wellington. Heads of departments are described as being utterly incompetent, but dare not be dismissed for fear of the loss of political influence. Subordinates are mutinous, and are fighting among themselves as to what each other's duties should consist of. All is confusion. An investigation into the state of the department is demanded, but none is held. The pullic suffer, but no one in power appears to care one jot. Snch is the news coming from the Empire city.

The trotting match at Woodend, on Saturday last, between Mr G. P. Milsom's b m Kate and Mr G. Palmer's b m was a failure. The race was twice run from the Ashley bridge to the White Crane Hotel, but ended in a dispute as to whether Kate broke into a gallop or not, and it is to be ran again when Mr Palmer is able to ride his animal himself.

The undermentioned gentlemen have been appointed immigration officers :— Wellington —H. J. H. Eliott, Esq.; Wanganui aud Bangttikei—A. W. F. Halcombe, Esq. The former officer is also an emigration officer under the Passengers Act, 1555, a member of commissions for inspecting immigrant ships, end chief clerk in the immigration depart* seat,

The City Council will hold its usual weekly meeting at 7 p.m. this evening. The Theatre Royal was last night exceedingly well patronised, the lower portions being crowded to excess, and the dress circle very fairly filled. The performance commenced with the farce of •' Little Toddlekins," in which Miss Mathews- and Messrs Douglas and Musgrave sustained the principal characters in a very excellent manner, and kept the holiday makers in roars of laughter from its commencement to the end. " Time and Tide " was then repeated for the last time, and went splendidly, the beautiful scenery by Willis being much admired, and the excellent acting of the various members of the corps dramatique being loudly applauded. This evening, Craven's comedy-drama, entitled " Coals of Fire," will be produced, the performance terminating with "Little Toddlekins." Saturday night's programme, with one or two alterations, was repeated last night at the Oddfellows' Hall. Miss Emanuel was in excellent voice, and sang her various morceaux with brilliant effect, though a little more variety in the programme we think would have attracted a more numerous audience. Nevertheless the apathy of the public in so musical a town as Christchurch in so poorly patroninng an entertainment of such undoubted merit is, to say the least, very unaccountable. Mr Andersou substituted for the " Polonaise" a brilliant selection from Gounod's " Faust," introducing " The Soldier's Chorus," which he played in a masterly manner, and was enthusiastically applauded. Mr Winter in the first part received an encore for his fine singing of " The Village Blacksmith," and substituted " Let mc like a soldier fall," which be sang with great spirit. The remainder of the programme was effectively rendered by the respective artistes. There will be a change this evening, and we trust to see a house more commensurate with the talent of the performers. Under the heading of the " Crisis," the "Nelson Examiner" writes:—"The Ministerial crisis is so far hopeful that it is the homage, however reluctant, paid by corruption and wholesale jobbery to the ordinary principles of political morality. We had learned to look on the appointment of Messrs Birch and Co., as Immigration Agents, as an inevitable consequence of Parliamentary Government. We accepted the fact, that an editor with a seat in the House might puff a Government to his great profit. We had seen with complacency, the whip of one party rewarded with a snug billet by another after the transference of his services for a single session. This and much more have we seen and endured, but it seems that it has struck some public men that this sort of thing might go too far. When Mr Joseph Shephard, at a most critical moment, transferred his vote from one side of the House to the other, strange rumours got into circulation as to what could have been his motive. For our own part, we felt implicit confidence in his declaration to his constituents, that no promises had been made to him which could in the smallest degree influence hia vote. Mr Waterhouse, however, the nominal Premier appears to have thought otherwise. When Mr Shephard was proposed to him as a colleague, he seems to have recollected that Mr Shephard was poised upon the rail until the last moment of the conflict, and that on the whole it would not look well to let the public suppose that Mr Shephard was fetched down on the Ministerial side by the assurance of office. He rejected the member for the Waimeas, and hence apparently all this fass. We naturally feel proud that it is a Nelson member who is thus so seriously affecting the history of the colony. Our sympathies are wholly enlisted on his side, for did he not throw up his provincial £400 per annum in hand, for the colonial £1000 still in th bush ? Did he not so fai rely upon the state of things as to go the length of abusing Mr Fox, whom Mr Waterhouse's vacillation and want of thoroughness have, contrary to all expectation, once more summoned to the head of his party 1 But the best laid plans of men and mice. " aft gang agee." Mr Waterhouse was found at the eleventh hour to have a conscience. Herte we have Mr Vogel contemplating an appeal to a country to which he has made an income or property tax, or both, a necessity. And Mr Joseph Shephard is not in receipt of one penny of the public money.

Messrs Clifton and Towers's " Variety Troupe," made their debut last evening, in the Canterbury Music Hall, to a very good audience, the galleries being especially well patronised. A capital programme had been prepared, embracing sentimental and seriocomic singing by Miss Fanny Sara ; comic songs, by Mr Fred. Clifton ; and comic duetts, by Mr and Mrs Towers. The accrobatic portion of the entertainment was sustained by Mr Eugene Beda and Mr Esser Carle. Miss Sara on her. re-appearance received a complete ovation, and sang "My Pretty Jane " in character costume in imitation of Sims Reeves. The make-up .was capital and the lady's vocalisation gave a very lifelike idea of the style of the great English tenor. In the second part of the programme Miss Sara sang Arditi's valse song, "Beauty, Sleep," receiving the honor of being encored three times, when she substituted "X.C.8." and "Good bye, Charlie," in response to the vociferous and peremptory demand of the audience. Mr Clifton sang some of his best comic songs, and was loudly applauded, though we think he somewhat marred the effect of his last song by a little prolixity in the dialogue portion. Mr Esser Carle performed the difficult feat of walking on a single wire stretched fronl the stage to the gallery, and was loudly cheered. His feats of equilibrium were also very ingenious, displaying considerable dexterity on the part of the performer, whom we think we have seen before in Christchurch under another pseudonym. Miss Rosa Towers sang " Pretty Jemima " very nicely, and Mr and Mrs Towers contributed a laughable duet, and wound up the performance by an abridged version of Byron's burlesque of "Aladdin," which created much merriment. Last but by no means the least attractive item on the programme was the performance of Mr Eugene Beda on the flying trapeze. Notwithstanding the loss of his leg Bedadifplayed great daring and agility in his "Niagara Leap," flying from bar to bar, and turning in the air with all the ease, finish, and dexterity of an accomplished acrobat. His first appearance was enthusiastically applauded, and he received the same compliment at the termination of his act. This evening there will be a change of pro* grews-i

It is intended, we are informed, to hold the races at Southbrook on Saturday next, in a field near the Masonic Hotel. At a meeting of the Timaru aud Gladstone Board of Works, held the other day, tbe Board authorised its engineer to call for tenders for the construction of bridges across the Orari and Temukaha. In' a paragraph on the subject of the Cabinet, the " Post " says :—As a matter of opinion, we should say it was not improbable that Mr Moorhouse would be found shortly rejoicing in the title of " Honorable." Iv consequence of the Supreme Court crin*ual sittings extending over to-day, the usual chamber sittings will not take place. A sitting in bankruptcy „ will be held on Thursday next. A special meeting of the Board of Education will be held at eleven o'clock to-morrow, for the purpose of considering the amendments in the Education Ordinance necessary to be recommended to the Government relative to the establishment of a superior college. Counterfeit sovereigns are in circulation in Auckland. The " Southern Cross ".. says that they bear a strong resemblance to those recently issued from the London Mint. There is a dragon on the face, and on the reverse side is the word " Hanover." In our notice of tbe meeting at Broadfields we forgot to mention that;-the efficiency with which the hymns were sung was almost entirely owing to the untiring efforts of Mrs Aiken, who has taken great trouble iv instructing the children, and has been peculiarly successful. In reporting the proceedings of a concert that took place the other day at Bannockburn, the " Cromwell Argus ' says : —" The dancing that followed was kept up for three or _our hours by some thirty males and two females. Struggles for the possession of the fair demoiselles were the source of fun not included in the programme.' It is pleasing to add that the fun did not include fighting, but that it was.good-natured and of a pacific description." The "Argus " in a recent issue says :—A the planting season will shortly commence we draw attention, as we have for several years past been in the habit of doing, to the desirableness of every person taking advantage of the opportunity to put in trees and flowers wherever they*are likely to grow, all over Melbourne. There was a time when a tree in any of our streets was a rarity, and when back premises were hopelessly given up to dirt and nothing else. But it is not so now, as anyone may satisfy himself who will take the trouble to explore the narrower highways and those still less conspicuous thoroughfares we call by the uneuphonious name of "rights of way." Even in the densest neighborhoods there are now green spots, which, by a little attention, are made to look cheerful at all times. But they are only the exceptions. It is the rule for back yards, and nothing more, desolate, dreary, dank, and unwholesome, without a green leaf or a bright flower balance their untidy squalor. It is something, however, to have drawn attention riot only to tbe agreeableness, but to the wholesomeness of planting little plots, which, though measured by inches only, are capable of yielding returns of incalculable value. On one occasion when we made an appeal of this kind we are. now making, a correspondent (Mr Ford, of Swanston street) was good enough, in expressing his satisfaction at the endeavours we were making to promote this kind ,of social improvement, to furnish us with some quotations from an article by Mr D. S. Fish, a well-known authority on hygienic horticulture, in the "Gardeners' Chronicle," agreeably bearing on this subject; and they are so pertinently corroborative of the desirability of the practice we are now urging that they need no apology for our again quoting them. Mr Fish says:—" It is only through plants that the great problem of the day ' What shall we do with our dirt?' can be solved. There is no other mode of extinguishing dead matter but by its conversion into living substance, and plant manufacturers are alone equal to this stupendous undertaking. The antidote to pollution is living plants; these absorb, transform, utilise, and annihilate it; they weave these elements of disease and death np into the very staff of life. The chief remedy for the alarming death-rate is ...more trees around the suburbs,, all the open spaces of the city filled with sweet flowers. Fight fever with the sweet incense of lovely flowers, annihilate it with the absorbing force of feyer-consuming leayes." Now, • all this is possible in Melbourne, where the atmosphere is not yet reckoned with the belchings of a thousand tall chimneys, as is the case with some of the manufacturing towns and cities of England. Of Mr Hodgkinson's labors in this direction it is qdite superfluous to speak, but it is to the public generally we now again appeal, and urge— the time being apt—to fill up every inch of vacant ground with some plant or: tree, whose growth shall be a constant acknow-* lodgement—if in no other way, in the hygienic benefits conferred—of the little trouble of tending it.

Old colonial playgoers will regret to -read the following paragraph clipped from the "Weekly Dispatch," of January 20th :=— " We regret to have to announce the very sudden death- of Mr J. Gs Drummond, connected with Mr H. Loraine's dramatic company, now performing in Shrewsbury. The deceased oh Wednesday evening performed the part of Friar Lawrence in "Romeo and Juliet," and returned to his lodgings in his usual health. Early on Thursday morning he felt ill, and a medical man was sent for, but in about ten minutes after his arrival the unfortunate gentleman breathed his last." Mr Drummond was a few years back a popular member of the theatrical "profession in the Australian colonies, and supported the late G. V. Brooke in both New South Wales and Victoria.

Mr Gladstone, in his famous Liverpool speech, said—" To perfect that marvel of travel, the locomotive, has perhaps not required an expenditure of more mental strength, application, and devotion, than to perfect that marvel of music, the violin." Upon this the Duke of Somerset fastened, and asked sarcastically, " What the violin bas done for the civilisation of mankind ? Men have been scraping on those squeaking strings for the last 300 years, but. what good has the world gained' 1 by it?" The answer is," says the " Pall-Mall Gazette," " that the violin is an instrument, not for the advancement of civilisation, but for the production of those pleasures which are themselves a chief end of civilisation. Music cannot make men rich and prosperous, but it is one of the things which makes riches and prosperity worth having. If you are rich and prosperous, and cannot enjoy squeaking s.triugs—that is, the perfection of music, and, by implication, the perfection also of painting and poetry, and of all the other fine arts, and by a slightly further implication, and knowledge of nature and of man for its own sake—if, when you are rich and prosperous you cannot enjoy all these higher pleasures, then what is left for you to enjoy ? The lower pleasures, evidently— luxury, eating and drinking, the spending of your money on show and sensuality. That is the inevitable consequence. For, however much men may for a time worship the means of civilisation for themselves—wealth, prosperity, and the locomotive—they cannot go on worshipping and pursuing those for ever. When those have served their turn, and put them in possession of the means of enjoyment, they will look round for something to enjoy ; and if they have not been trained in the taste of the higher pleasures, turn they will to the lower oues. . . The curse of the age, and not least of our own country and race in the age, is to forget the ends ol civilisation ia its worship of th.

means of civilsation. The, ends ol civilisation are culture, the diffusion of the higher enjoyments, a life made liberal for as many as possible by knowledge and beauty. The means of civilisation are prosperity and wealth, and the commerce and instruments of commerce. which conduct to prosperity and wealth." " Those scenes in the French Assembly, says the "Pall Mall Gazette," which scandalise us so much, are really not scandalous at all from a French point pf view. We cahnot get over our insular notion that 750 gentlemen would hardly come from all parts of the country and meet in Council at Versailles without a purpose of furthering public affairs in some degree. Except in the case of half a dozen men of notorious and exemplary moderation, the immense mojority of the members have no 6iich purpose. Publio business, indeed, when the question is how society is to be saved, whether it be from priests or Radicals, from Monarchists or Socialists ! The debates are carried on with little view to practical measures at all, but chiefly in the interest of certain abstract ideas and fundamental principles. During the autumnal session examples of thia occurred neariy every day. Whenever a member of the Left made a suggestion, he was generally answered by a member of the Right requesting a reply to this preliminary and important question,- ' Does our-colleague believe in a God V One of the most applauded arguments in M. Batbie's famous report, when he advocated the government of combat, was, ' You Radicals hold that men have descended from monkeys,' and he proceeded to ask for the summary suppression of such wretches. As neither side even hopes to- convert its opponents to its own views, as all are indeed convinced that their adversaries are too wicked and too depraved to make their conversion even desirable, discussion degenerates into a series of the*most, wounding, taubts and venemons personalities. 'You are a set of assassins,' said M.*Ordinaire last year to the Right. • Ybn are a parcel of scoundrels,' said General Changarnier to the Left a few weeks ago ; and though both I orators were called to order they won golden opinions from their respective parties. A favorite topic of invective and ridicule is the personal appearance of a hostile , politician. Poor Gambetta's one eye ia a constant theme of savage pleasantry : he is a Cyclops, a Polyphemus. But Gambetta's friends took their revenge when M. Batbie, who weighs about 20 stone, mounted the tribune; he was the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and finally the megatherium of the Right. The " Republique Francaise*" is one of the most moderate in speech of all the French journals, but it could not help draw • ing attention to M. D'Audiffret-Pasquier's voice, which resembled '' that of an exasperated capon.' A Legitimist paper noticed that Gambetta's coat collar was greasy on the day of his great speech of the 14th ult, and Louis Blanc is likened, to a gamin de' Paris, prematurely old, bald, and greasy (again), like a hat that has seen too much service. It is this absolute unyielding temper which .makes French politics so sterile and unprogressive." The-"-'Economist" of Jirtuary4 states that the French Governmenthas.not. chosen;to wait for the terms l stfpjftated by the last convention to make its payment to Germany. The convention stipulated that £20*000,000 was to be paid two months after its signature; £20,000,000 on "the Ist of February next, and £40,000,000 additional on the Ist of 1874, and the remaining £40,000,000 a year later ; but in addition to the first £20,000,000, a second £20,000,000 has already been paid, and it is now stated to be arranged that £8,000,000 a month is to be paid in the first five months'of this year, which will complete the Becond milliard almost a year in advance of the stipulated time. The rapidity of "the payments is of ofevious in-, .terest ; for business men. Practically ' £80,000,000 ie being transferred from France to Germany between September, 1872, and May, 1873, or in less than, nine months, for the most part by nearly equal monthly instalments.' The effect of a rather smaller operation in the corresponding mbnths of 1871-2 was acutely felt, and the probability clearly is that the present operation will have similar consequences, the money market being now far more strained than it was this time twelve months.