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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3008, 15 February 1881, Page 2

A smart shock of earthquake was felt in Napier at 1.15 this afternoon.

By private telegram we learn from Wairoa that Mr R. Davies, builder, died yesterday, after a lingering Illness.

Captain Russell, M.H.R., and Mr F. Sutton, M.H.R , will address the electors of Napier in the Theatre Royal on Thursday, 24th, instant.

A match between the Wairoa and Petane Cricket Clubs was played at Petane yesterday, and resulted in a victory for the Petane team by one innings and two ruus. The Wairoa team play again to-day at Petane against an eleven of the Napier Club.

At the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, before H. Eyre Kenny, Esq., E.M., the case Watene Hapuku v. Cannon occupied the attention of the Court all morning', and was not concluded when we went to press. The claim is for £16, the value of a horse which both plaintiff and defendant claim. The evidence given up to the adjournment was of a most contradictory description.

Tho Napier Rowing Club's representative crew went out for practice yesterday afternoon on the water of tho inner harbor. In spite of tho wind being from the North there was a nasty jobble. From time to time "seas" were shipped, until the boat gradually filled and capsized. The crew 'swam ashore, a good quarter of a mile, taking their boat with them. This ought to settle the quetion of the regatta course once and, for ever.

At the meeting of the Public Works Committee last night the following recommendations were passed:—That Emerson-.treet and Tennyson-street be connected with the low pressure water supply. That the Engineer be instructed to make arrangements with the night soil contractor for the periodical cleaning of silt traps in tho drainage works. That tenders be invited for the supply of not less than 100,000 bricks for No. 5 contract. That the Overseer's report be adopted.

Daring the hearing of tbe case Watene v. Cannon, before the Resident Magistrate this morning, Mr Lascelles Complained that during the hearing of a recent case, when the witnesses were ordered out of Court, some friends of one of the parties to the suit remained inside and afterwards communicated the evidence to some of the witnesses. His Worship said, if he found any one acting in. thit manner, and in any way communicating evidence to witnesses who had been ordered out of Court, he would at once commit them to prison for contempt of Court.

The judgment in the cases of the Napier Grammar School v. J. Harding and the same v. R. Harding was given in the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday too late for our issue. The former case only wasgoneinto. Mr Cornford, for the defendant, pleaded that the defendant was not a shareholder in the company, and that the call had not been duly made. Evidence was given in support of the latter point, that the general meeting held for the purpose of authorising the call had not been held at the proper time. The plaintiffs were non-suited in both cases, with £5 14s costs in each case.

The Timaru Herald, sketching the Native Minister, says :—" Mr Rolleston has an intense prejudice against waste, jobbery, and humbug of every kind ; and, as he cannot speak a word of Maori, and instinctively regards an interpreter a rascal, his dealings with the native race are likely to be particularly simple and straightforward. He has two very excellent qualities. He can say '' No," and he never gives reasons.

The N. Z. Herald has the following :— Six Celestials proceeded on board the s.s. Arawata, bound for Sydney, and found their way to the steerage. They carried no superfluous luggage, one's baggage being stowed in an American bucket, the leading features of another's being two longhandled shovels, and the remainder formed no remarkable contrast, A fellow-country-man introduced them to one 'of the forecabin stewards, and solicited his kind offices on the voyage, as even the Children of the Sun do not enjoy immunity from sea-sick-ness. That individual suggested, by way of a joke, that they should go to the saloon. The practical-minded Chinamen thought this excellent advice, lifted up their luggage, and walked towards the cabin. Near to the door thereof they encountered Capt. Sinolair, who inquired if they were going ashore again. " No," laconically answered the spokesman, and they continued their march to the amazement of the worthy skipper. The look of horror and disgust that took possession of the countenances of the dandy waiters as the Chinamen filed into the cabin was a sight not to be easily forgotten by those who beheld it. They regarded the citizens of the Flowery Land with disdain. The Chinamen were afterwards seen paying the difference in the passage money. The fashionably got-up stewards were also seen handling their luggage —very daintily, it is true—and removing it at arm's length to the state-rooms of the Celestial voyagers.

" Civis," in Passing Notes in the Otago Witness, referring to the proposal of the Daily Times that the Presbyterian Synod should adjourn, and see Herr Bandmann in a Shakespearean play, as well as Bandmann's offer to " dead-head" the reverend gentlemen, says :—" It has been suggested that an appropriate play for these Reverend Synods-men would be ' Much Ado aDouc Nothing,' but that, you goo, ia ' sarkasm;' for myself, I am terribly in earnest, too. Do you want, most learned, grave, and Reverend Seigniors, to improve your diction—to your Shakespeare. Do you want to study human nature in its various phases—to your Shakespeare. Do you desire to conceive of a wide range of thought, of passion, and of pathos, and so get lifted up above this little narrow world to your Shakespeare. But above all don't forget the humour whish runs through all, and makes even the villain lago, and the miscreant Richard 111. more or less humorous. And, the critics notwithstanding, you might have worse guides to your Shakespeare than the veteran Herr Bandmann, Walter Reynolds, Cathcart, and the charming Miss Meaudet. The latter is but a child—only nineteen, —but what a pathetic little Ophelia Ehe makes, and how sweet her Desdemona! Go, reverend sirs, and weep, and laugh over a Shakespearian play, and then telf me whether you don't feel better for it, a little more human, and a great deal more modest in your estimation of your noble selves."

The Turkish newspapers not unnaturally take a malicious pleasure in rehearsing the evil deeds of other nations. " Was there not a Governor Eyre once in Jamaica," asks one of these journals, " celebrated for his hanging? And in Russia Poland was there not Mouravieff, surnamed the Hangman?" The Osmanli, not contented with contemporary criminals, has extended its researches to the Wars of the Roses and the Reformation. " Historians say," it tells its rtaders "that the atrocities committed in the wars of York and Lancaster were worthy of the mopt savage tribes in Africa ; it can hardly be believed that they took place in free England." Crook-backed Biohard is not forgotten; but Mr Froude will be grieved to hear that his Tudor hero furnishes the Osmanli with the most forcible illustration of the depravity of the English. It describes how the love of a king for a damsel sufficed to change the State religion of Great Britain ; it dwells upon the evil fate of his many wives, and it sums up its account of his reign as follows :—" The number of the victims of Henry VIII. reached the enormous number of 72,000 souls. As for the wealth confiscated, that was incalculable. Henry VIII. falsified the cu'rency to increase to the utmost the riches by which he was able to indulge his favorite vices. At last he repudiated his debts and became bankrupt." This interesting and amusing compilation of " facts from English history" is brought to a close by quoting the saying of Walpole, that every member of Parliament had his price. 3 bus are the sins of former generations evoked to condone the misdeeds of to-day.

The Melbourne Herald says •—" It is by no means to be wondered at the British General in command in Natal has applied for more cavalry before he can advance against the Boers, for it is probable that the whole of the force which so terribly maltreated the detachment of the 94th was mounted. The Boers have not—indeed never have had—any foot soldiers, or for the matter of that, any organised cavalry. But they are all, young and old, as thoroughly born horse-riders as. the upcountry Australians themselves They all can handle the rifle with no little skill, acquired by long practice it the game which abounds in the Transvaal. They know every inch of the country in which tbev dwell, and their holding-s are never lees" than 6000 acres, generally far more; consequently we may be sure that they attacked the detachment of the 94th with every advantage of ground in their favor. And this will prove, it is to be feared, the great difficulty in the way of the British troops when they advance to re-occupy the country. The Boers will not meet them in open fight-how could they without discipline or artillery ? But they will probably cany on a warfare which may last for years. It must be borne m mind that the Transvaal is a country nearly as big as France! that it is hilly and even mountaione, and almost entirely destitute of anything worth the name of a road. _ With an enemy who is positively fanatical m his desire for independence, a war in such a country may oost the British Government not a little blood and treasure.''

a—__J___M_pi_*-k-a__-____________-The second company rifle competition of the Biflo corps took place this morning l , the result being that Sergeant Chicken and W. Duncan secured first and second places, with scores of 45 and 44 points respectively. Everybody has heard about the beauty of the young ladies of Taranaki, but a local paper sets forth a new claim to celebrity :-*» "We are sorry to say that as regards garden robbing, the mischief has not been, perpetrated by the sterner sex alonei there 1 being well-founded suspicions of female, indulging in midnight raids on the strawberry beds of suburban residents." During the hearing of a case at the Resident Magistrate's Court,Dunedin, lately, one of tbe solicitors engaged termed a witness a " right bower.'' His Worship questioned whether he could take judicial notice of such, an expression; but the lawyer referred to affirmed tbat in America not only had the Bench to countenance " poker," but it had also to bo conversant with all the rules of that game. Mr A. Dbfhwell, formerly of Auckland, has the following advertisement in the Otago Daily Times : —" Has a horse only instinct, or has it reasoning capabilities ? After rubbing turpentine oil on my mare's sprained shoulder, and when the pricking sensation became intense, she took a mouthful of straw, and began rubbing the sore place. The above animal can be seen any day behind the shop, where the prijnest meat in Dunedin is sold at the lowest price." Which edition is to be read in the schools if the Bible in Schools Association carries out its way P Are the children to be taught that part of Mark is a forgery ? If so, will this raise the sanctity of the Bible in the minds of the children ? If the present edition is so badly translated as Mr Furlong seems to say, that it takes years of reading the originals in their Hebrew and Greek before they can be appreciated, nay, even understood, what is to be done P la the teacher to give any explanation P It is a pity that the Rev. Lindsay Mackie had not explained these things instead of quoting from the silly speech of our borse-racing Governor, Sir Hercules Robinson.—Dunedin Echo. Mr Gear, the well-known butcher and meat-preserver of Wellington, has lately been in treaty with the agents of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency, and Messrs Shaw, Saville and Co., with reference to the exporting of frozen meat from Wellington to the London market. If either of these companies will provide a steamer fitted with the necessary freezing apparatus, Mr Gear will undertake to fill her witbeef and mutton carcases within a week of the date of her arrival at Wellington. There ia every probability of an agreement in this matter being come to, and Mr Gear expects that the first shipment will be despatched inside of twelve months. He oonsiders that 4_ per lb in London will pay handsomely. As evidencing (says the Argus) how strongly established Melbourne hag become as the great central depot for the sale of wool in Australasia, we may mention that 141,902 bales of wool have been offered for sale in the colony during the season to date, and that 108,953 bales have been sold, these figures closely approximating to those of the corresponding date of last year. Tho shipments of wool from Victoria show an increase of 36,665 bales, the total exported to date being 240,665 bales, against 240,009 bales shipped at this date last year. This increase is to a considerable extent attributable to the additional consignments from the neighboring Australian colonies, also New Zealand and Tasmania, whioh are being attracted to this market for disposal at the auction sales in Melbourne. From time to time rumors appear announcing that Her Royal Highness the Princess Louise left Canada solely because she neither liked the country nor the people. The Ottawa correspondent of the Toronto Globe loams upon excellent authority that Her Royal Highness, whilst on her journey to England, several times during the voyage expressed to a distinguished passenger her profoundest regret at the publication of such, rumors. Their publication gave her pain because—first, they were entirely devoid of foundation ; and, secondly, were unjust to the Canadian people, for whom she felt the greatest regard. As for Canada, instead of despising the country, her feelings towards it were entirely the rdverse. Her journey to England and Continental Europe was undertaken solely upon the advice of her medical attendants, who further urged her to remain there during a part of the winter, so as to restore her health from the influences of the nervous shock she experienced during the unfortunate sledge accident last winter. Her Royal Highness will probably return to Canada about tho end of February. The Southland Times says:—" It is notorious what luck has fallen to the foreign whalers that during late years have visited the New Zealand waters. The American barque Asia, and the barque Sapphire, hailing from Hobart, are lying at present in Half-moon Bay, Stewart's Island, the former having 45 tuns of sperm oil on board and the latter 65 tuns. The crew of the Sapphire had lately an encounter with an old sperm whale off Preservation Inlet, that is fit to go into a book. Instead of sheering off after receiving the harpoon, the old fellow faced about and came at the boat open-jawed, fighting with both mouth and tail. During five hours he did not move a mile from where Le was struck. Two harpoons were got into him, and one lance, and also five or six bomb lances, but one of the last exploded. The line which held him gave way somehow, and the crew returned to dinner, the barque being only about 200 yards off. After dinner the boat was again manned, and got close alongside the fish without being observed. The mate had a gun ready, and being in a position to fire a deadly shot, pulled the trigger, when the cap snapped, and the whale seeming to hear the noise, swam away to windward and escaped. The fruitless snapping of that cap cost probably five or six hundred pounds.—Such is life—and whaling !" A dramatic entertainment in aid of the pavilion fund takes place at Waipukurau tonight. Cricket match, Australian eleven r. twenty-two of Hawke's Bay, at Hastings at 12.30 p.m. to-morrow. Mr W. Routledge will sell to-morrow at Hastings the old Show Yards at 2 p.m., also Goodwin's hall and site. Mr J. T. Johnson will supply a good substantial lunch at the cricket match tomorrow. A special train will run to Hastings tomorrow and Thursday at 1.30 p.m. Mr J. Scholer has taken the Hastings timber yard. A reward of £5 will be given to anyone giving information which will lead to the conviction of the person or persons who opened the gate of a paddock at Pakowhai, and either let out or drove out horses. Messrs Combs and Co., advertise Specialities. The offices of the Hawke's Bay County will be closed to-morrow and Thursday at noon. A number of new advertisements will bo found in our " Wanted" column.