NEWS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XXII, Issue 2632, 13 January 1874, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

«. Litebaby Institute.—The arrangements for the transfer of the Literary Institute to the Canterbury College are not yet complete, though the reading-room is now open to the general public. A meeting of the library committee was to be held yesterday at which rules for the issue of the books of the library would be framed. So soon as these were complete the opening of the library to j the general public will be accomplished. Sailing Races at Lyttelton.—A race took place on Saturday afternoon between the Edina, of Kaiapoi, Fluffatuta (Rich), and the Advance (Allwright), and resulted in Fluffatuta winning. The Lytteltonians issued a challenge to the Kaiapoi boat for a sum of £15—£5 each. The course was the same as on the regatta day—round the buoy off Rhodes' Bay, and round the reef and home to buoy off wharf. The weather was everything that could be wished. The Fluffatuta obtained the inner and weather berth, the Advance second, and the Edina the outer berth. A good start from the boatways was effected, the Fluffatuta being first away. On rounding the breakwater she was leading and keeping well up to the windward, the 1 Edina second. In rounding the buoy, the Fluffatuta was first, the Edina close after her. In running up to the reef the Edina passed her, and rounded the reef one minute ahead of her opponent. Here the captain of the Edina made a mistake. Had he made a short board or two, and fetched up towards Dampier's Bay, he would have done well. Instead of this he stretched across towards Church Bay, and the water being lumpy he lost considerable ground. The Fluffatuta was well handled, and beat up well to windward, and came in a winner by 3m 455, two minutes being allowed her by the Edina; Advance third. The following is the time taken by the timekeeper :—The race started at lh 13m 30s ; finish :—2£ tons, Fluffatuta, 2h 40m 15s ; 5| tons, Edina, 2h 42m ; 1£ tons, Advance, 2h 45m 15s. The race was run under the rules of the Lyttelton regatta committee ; centre-boards sealed up or down; time of allowance, thirty seconds per ton. Debenture Stamps.—A somewhat important matter as affecting the issue of the debentures of public bodies was brought under the notice of the Waimakariri Board of Conservators at the meeting yesterday by the chairman. It appears that the debentures about to be issued for the £4500 loan were sent to Wellington to have the one shilling stamp—which has been held to be sufficient hitherto — impressed, when the stamp office officials expressed an opinion that they should bear a ten shilling stamp, in order to comply with the Stamp Act. It appears from what we can learn that it is the form in which the debentures are worded which causes the difficulty. Under these circumstances the issue of the debentures have been stayed until the exact legal bearings of the case shall have been ascertained. A Cool Customer. — A young man named James Devlin, who had been admitted to bail on his own recognizances, waiting the arrival of the Tararua, on the charge of having stolen a watch from the steward of that steamer, went to stay for a few days at the Golden Fleece Hotel. On Friday morning last he disappeared suddenly, and on Mr Oram's return that afternoon from the North he missed some of his clothes. A further search proved that a watch, opera glass, and some clothes belonging to a lodger were also missing. Information having been given to the police, a telegram was forwarded to Dunedin, when the young gentleman was found safely on board the Lady Bird. He will make his re-appearance at the Resident Magistrate's Court during the week. Absent, Jurobs.—At the inquest held yesterday at the Hospital, the coroner and the majority of the jury were kept waiting through the non-attendance of some jurors who had been summoned to attend. When one of the missing ones made his appearance, the corouer told him that he had only exercised the power he possesses on one occasion, but if persons summoned to attend inquests would persist in being late and detaining men from their business, he would make a rule—if the practice were persisted in—of inflicting a fine in every instance. Coroner's Inquest.—An inquest was held yesterday before Dr Coward, Coroner, on view of the body of James McCann, who was found dead in hia chair at the house of Mr T. Shand, at Springston, on Saturday last. After hearing the evidence the jury returned a verdict of " Death from natural causes." New Building Society.—The final meeting for adoption of the rules was held last evening in the large room at the back of the new Oddfellows' Hall, and was largely attended. The chair was occupied by Mr W. Pratt, who read the'rules seriatim, as revised by the committee appointed for that purpose, and they were passed with slight variations, i Over 1000 shares have already been subscribed for, and the chairman announced at the close of the meeting that applications for additional shares of the first issue would be received by the secretary during the remainder ; of the current month without extra fees or 1 fines. . i Testimonial to Mb C. Cuff—On the ' motion of Cr Bishop it was resolved at last ( night's meeting oi the City Council that a ' committee purchase a testimonial to be pre- 1 sented to Mr Cuff in recognition of his long 1 services as Surveyor to the Council and for \ extra duties in connection Tvith the outfall ' drain, to be presented on the day the drain is < opened. ' The Outfall Drain.—His Worship the j Mayor intimated to the City Council last c | night that the outfall drain would be ready ( for opening on the 30th January, and asked ? that a committee might be appointed to . make suitable preparations for publicly { opening it on that date. On the motion of . Councillor Bishop a .committee was ap- j | pointed for that purpose. g Middle Island Excursion.—Lovers of I the picturesque who anticipated a treat in t the proposed excursion of the Taranaki x round the Middle- Island, will regret to hear I that it has fallen through from want of suffi- f i cientsuppojt, %

CUBT.—On Sunday a most terrific hailstorm, accompanied with thunder and lightning, swept over this district causing an immense amount of damage to the crops, &c, the effects of which are most disheartening to the farmers and the damage to every kind of grain that was either standing or uncut, ripe or unripe, being most unparalleled. Fields of wheat are completely laid down, with scarcely a head of corn standing, and that which was nearly ripe has been completely threshed out. The oats also are completely threshed and lying on the ground. The hailstorm, we believe, has been the heaviest that has ever happened in Canterbury. The size of the stones varied from lin to lfin in thickness. On weighing one or two they were found to average about l£ozs each. The damage done to fruit trees is also ,'very great, and nearly every house in the district has had four or five panes of glass broken iv the windows facing the S.W. Onepersou, Mr J. D. Dickinson, has had, alone, thirty-four panes broken. Quantities of poultry have been killed and their legs have been broken in lots of instances. Rifle Association.—The meeting of the Council of the Rifle Association which was I to have been held last evening, did not take I place owing to the waut of a quorum. Those present were Messrs D. Craig, S. Manning, H. Gain, and H. Hesketh. Dr Carb's Seances.—-The phreno-mes-meric seances of Dr Carr appear to be increasing in popularity, judging from the large and fashionable audience which last evening filled the Oddfellows' Hall, when the twelfth seance was given. The phrenological delineations of character —some of which were from the heads of well-known citizens —elicited the loud applause of the audience, who evidently appreciated their truthfulness. The mesmeric experiments were equally successful, many of them bordering on the marvellous, and indicating the high degree of power possessed by the mesmerist over his subject. This evening Dr Carr will give his last seance in Christchurch. Theatre Royal.—The play of " Leah," from its varied situations, strongly marked plot, and the great scope afforded to the representative of the character of the heroine for the display of high histrionic ability, has always been a favorite with Christchurch playgoers, and last night attracted a very large house. We have before noticed in terms of commendation the artistic rendering by Miss Colville of the character of Leah, aud last night, if possible, she was even more successful than on the previous occasion. The difference was in the evident care and thoughtfulness displayed by her on the part, and the result was a more finished performance. In her scene with Rudolph at the moonlight tryst, the deep love which the unfortunate Jewess lavishes on him was presented by Miss Colville with great force, whilst in the curse scene, where the passions of her race surge through her mind with irresistible force, she displayed tragic power of high order, and was deservedly greeted with quite an ovation, being called before the curtain at the end of each act. Mrs Hill played the good girl of the piece—Anna — evidently intended by the author as a foil to Leah to heighten tbe effect of her scenes, with care and effect. Mr Steele was good as Rudolph ; indeed, this is by far the best part this gentleman plays, and the other characters, all of which are subordinate to Leah, were well filled. To-night Mr Booth takes a benefit, and offers a very varied bill of fare. Timon, a contributor to the " Southern Mercury," writes as follows of the Governor :—Sir James is winning the sincere respect of all brain-possessing men. But he will never be popular in the worst sense of the word. He is too manly a man for that. He does not fawn upon and flatter the ; oi polloi, nor does he play the flunkey to our upper crust snobs. Some popple don't understand or approve of this. I do. Sir James sets an example very mnch needed in this particular part of Her Majesty's dominions. May his shadow never grow less ! When I hear of his combating with "roughs" at St Leonards to secure seats in the railway carriages for women and children —giving up even his own sept for the purpose, and afterwards insisting on his compartment in another train being filled with weary travellers ; when an echo from Canterbury tells mc how $ir James insisted on the weary way-worn miner .being accommodated' with a seat in his private carriage, remarking that "the Bwag was no good witbout the man ;" when I read of his snubbing the toadies who professed to anticipate wonderful results from a Governor's visit to an agricultural show, by plainly telling them that attention to the importation of good sires would do more than any visits to improve the breed of cattle; when, I say, tbese little things reverberate in my tub, my cynical old heart beats warmly, for thereby I discern the lineaments of a true man, such as our family ever respect. I shan't get out niy lantern to examine the Governor. 1 The "Otago' Daily Times" furnishes the following information respecting the Island of St Marguerite, the place of Marshal Bazaine's banishment. The island, whicb is to be bis prison, forms with a smaller one named St Honorat, and a few rocks, the Lerin group. It is two and a half miles in length, by three-quarters of a mile in breadth, and is distant two and a half miles from the mainland at Cannes. The two principal islands are defended by a fort and several batteries, and besides the garrison the inhabitants consist of a few fishing families only. Rabbits and partridges abound on them, aud St Marguerite is well wooded. The castle of St Marguerite has long been used as a State prison, and is famous in history as having been at one time the place where the mysterious Man of the Iron Mask was confined. The reflection is hardly a consoling one for Marshal Bazaiue, though the combination of ideas is likely to furnish abundant material for the pens of French journalists and romancers. In his island prison, within sight of the Bpot where Napoleon I. landed on his return from Elba, Bazaine will have ample food for reflection if death do not soon overtake him. The following are stated by the Astronomer Royal to be the arrangements made for observing the transit of Venus in December, 1874. The principal stations are Alexandria, Honolulu, Rodriguez, Christchurch (in New Zealand), Kerguelen's Land, and a station in Northern India. The Russians will occupy numerous stations in Southern Siberia, and on the Chinese coasts. French, German, American, and Dutch parties will also take part in the work; Campbell's Island being one of tbe stations selected by the French—a fact to which we owe the visit of the French man-of-war Le Vire. At a meeting of the New South Wales Royal Society, on the 3rd September, Mr Russell, Government Astronomer, read a ps-per, " on the local particulars of the forthcoming transit of Venus." Three stations have been decided on in this colony---Syd-ney, Eden (Twofold Bay), on the Blue Mountains. The Professor of Hygiene at Munich has lately delivered some sound and clever lee* tures on the " Relations of the Air to the Clothes we wear," "The Houses we live in," and " The Soil we dwell on." We are glad to see that a translation of tbese have just been published in London, and we commend the book to the attention of those to whom the ordering of books for the Otago publio libraries is confided. The following extract is interesting in itself, and will give au idea of Professor Petten gofer's way of treating his subject;—" Generally our clothing has been considered as an apparatus for keeping the air from us. This conception is utterly erroneous; we can bear no garment which does not allow continual ventilation of our surface. Just those textures which are most permeable to the air keep ub warmest. I have examined different materials for their permeability to air, and taking the permeability of flannel as 100, linen allowed 50, silk 40, buckskin 58, chamois 51 parts, and kid 1 part of air to pass through them. If the common notion above stated were correct, kid would keap us hundred times warmer, and chamois warmer by half than flannel, and -so on, while everyone knows it is quite the reverae," i >

An important decision as affecting the rights of the Press, says a Melbourne con. temporary, has lx;en given in Tasmania by his Honor Sir Valentine Fleming, theActin/. Chief Justice. The " Mercury " reports that an" application was made to his Honor in Chambers by the defendants in the matter of the Attorney-General v. the publisher of the " Kxaminer," to have the venue changed the defendants alleging, and supporting the allegation by depositions, that they would not have a fair trial in Hobart Town. At the appointed hour our reporter asked permission to attend the hearing in Chambers in hia professional capacity, but his Honor said that as it was desirable at all times to assimilate the practice of the Supreme Court of Tag. mania with that of the superior courts at home, he was reluctantly obliged to adopt the course pursued in England on the pre. sent occasion. His friend, Mr Justice Dobson, who held the same opinion as he (the Chief Justice) did on the subject, had placed in his hand an extract from a London newg. paper of a very recent date, which he would read. It was as follows:—"On Saturday last the question as to the admission of reoorters to the judges' chambeni was decided by Mr Justice Honeyman. Some time since Mr Justico Grove mentioned that the judges had met and expressed an opinion that the proceedings at chambers should not be reported without permission, and the matter rested until the present occasion when admission was given as to the case ok an infant who was brought up on a writ oi habeas corpus. The solicitors on both aides expressed their willingness that the caso should appear in the newspapers, as the matter was of some importance, and an applj. tion was made that the matter should be made public by the reporter who had attended in chambers for a number of years. His Lord. \ship, in answer, said the judges had held J that the proceedings at chambers were not to bo reported, and he could not give permission in the present case. It is understood that the press will be excluded from the chambers of all Courts of Common Pleas, ex. eluding the Divorce and Probate Courts," —— * mmmm^ M —^—■■—■———i^