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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3022, 3 March 1881, Page 2

The entries for the Napier regatta on the 10th close at the Criterion Hotel to-night at 8 o'clock.

A sitting of the Supreme Court in Bankruptcy will be held to-morrow before Mr P, A. F. Birch, Registrar.

At a meeting of the Napier Rowing Club Committee last night, Mr W. J. Tabuteau was unanimously elected secretary to tbe Club in the room of Mr H. A. King, resigned.

As showing the good which Friendly Societies are quietly doing in our midst, it has come to our knowledge that the Hibernian Society, during the period of its existence in Napier, has disbursed about £250 in the relief of sickness and distress, and has now over £300 to its credit.

The death is announced in our Christchurch telegram of Sir John Craeroft Wilson at the age of 74 years. The deceased gentlemen had seen a good deal of military service in India, but for very many years past has been a settler in Canterbury. Sir Craeroft Wilson was a Knight Commander of the Star of India, and a Companion of the Bath. At one time he occupied a seat in the House of Representatives.

What has become of the Sir Donald McLean memorial about which there was so much enthusiasm manifested by tbe settlers of Scotch extraction when the greatness of the deceased was fresh in the minds of all ? It will be remembered that a meeting of Scotchmen was held at Kaikora, in response to a Gaelic advertisement; a subscription list was opened, several hundred pounds promised, and some few pounds were actually collected. What has become of the movement ?

The publication of a monthly journal is contemplated by two or three gentlemen in Napier, who hope thereby to supply what they conceive to be a want. The only want that we know of in that line is on tbe part of authors of rejected communications, who feel the need of a literary dust-bin that shall put to shamo the wastepaper baskets of newspaper offices. Whether the new journal will meet this want time will show. If the proprietors will accept original; poetry from up-country places it will relieve us of a deal of trouble. We have not heard what form tbe little venture is to take, but we presume it is to be after ,( '1 he Nineteenth Century," with a strong dash of " Good Words " thrown in.

Whether Cr. Leonard was right or wrong in accepting as true the statements contained in a letter that appeared in one _of tho papers in reference to the non-admission of a sick girl to the hospital, the public are indebted to him for causing an agitation upon a subject that requires further investigation. Wo do not care whether the management of the hospital is the perfection of skill and ability in a matter of the kind under discussion, for it is better in every way for the institution tbat the utmost publicity should be given to all that concerns its administration. The hospital is a charitable institution, supported by the voluntary contributions of all classes, by the Borough Corporation and by the Counties of Hawke's Bay and Wairoa out of taxes levied from the people, and by the General Government also out of taxes. The hospital is not a private institution, a sort of show place for the committee to take Bride in, but an asylum for all who are sick, and if it is attempted to restrict its usefulness by cast-iron rules and regulations the sooner the people cease to subscribe and the building goes to ruin the better. We trust, at all event?, that the result of the discussion will lead to the establishment of a lying-in. ward,

At the Resident Court this morning, before H. Eyre Kenny, Esq., R.M., David Sweeny was charged with drunkenness, and fined 5s and costs, or 48 hours imprisonment.

We are always glad to receive correspondence in reference to subjects upon which we have twited in our editorial columns, ami euu'u correspondence is none the less welcome should ie be hostile to the opinions we have expressed. We have, however, received a letter signed "A Liberal," so ungrammatically, coarsely, and offensively wordpd that its publication would be a breach of propriety. We may inform our correspondent that the opinions we expressed, and to which he has taken exception, were not formed from an exclusive study of articles in one-sided journals, but were published for the purpose of placing before our readers the views of the great and powerful party in England opposed to Mr Gladstone. It may please a few in Napier to regard Mr Gladstone as all that is great and wise, but we do not believe that opinion is shared by the mass of the wealth and intelligence of England.

The directors of the Auckland Gas Company have allotted tbe 200 £5 shares for whioh tenders have been asked. Offers were received for these at above £10 each. Tho total number tendered for was 569.

A week or two back a lady well-known in London society, and living at the West End. was appealed to for assistance for a poor girl who was in great distress. Being of a sympathetic nature, she was naturally interested, but being also of a practical one, she inquired into the case. She discovered tbat the poor girl had only £100 a year allowed her for dress, and could not afford more than five new evening dresses. It may readily be imagined that no aid was given. The lady quickly returned to her carriage and drove away.

A number of important facts in regard to the durability of railway sleepers have been ascertained by experiments in Germany on that subject." Oak, without any treatment whatever, is a more durable material than pine or beech, but both these woods can b6 rendered moro durable than unprepared oak, by introducing certain chemical substances under strong pressure; while, on the other hand, the oak still maintains its superiority if similarly treated. Creosote, sulphate of copper, and chloride of zinc have chiefly been used in the process of saturation —the last-named with the best results.

America is usually ahead in everything:. It is rathe- severe, however, on the fellows on this side, that one "beastly Yankee" should have captured their greatest heiress, and another have so got the inside track with their greatest beauty. Lady BurdettCoutts seems to have set the fashion of taste to one of fashion's leaders. I have heard no more of late about the engagement of Lord Dupplin to Miss Vanderbilt, of new York. Lord D. is a divorced man, wild and dissipated, and it is but too plain what he is after in wanting to marry Miss Vanderbilt. Ifc is to be hoped Papa Vanderbilt will think more of his daughter's happiness than the possession for her of an impoverished Scotch coronet with a rake attached, and will consepuently refuse the required " settlement," without which no English " marriage in high life" is ever " arranged."

Regarding la cloture, a correspondent says : " I cannot at the present moment attempt to give the full history of la cloture. but I happen to be able to lay my hand upon a very able exposition of the meaning of the phrase in all its varied applications, written a few years ago by M. Charles dv Rozoir, a Parisian journalist by no means of unknown fame. In tbe course of a lengthy but brilliantly written essay upon the word, M. dv Rozoir thus criticises the Parliamentary cloture. I translate freely but I give the gist of his ideas on the subject when I give them in the following words: ' La cloture', says he,' was the cry by which majorities, rightly or wrongly, put an end to a debate. La ! This word repeated by hundreds of voices, has often, without doubt, prevented scandal, but it has more of ten stifled useful discussions and frustrated beneficial legislation.' That is the Irencb. expression of la cloture. What will the British expression be P

The London Sporting Times says:—A clergyman who lately left Liverpool in one of the huge ocean steamers began to feel rather uncomfortable soon after leaving the mouth of the river, and having bad an introduction to the captain, sought him out, to learn if there was any danger. The captain did not answer immediately, and told him to listen to what was going on. The clergyman was shocked to hear a party of sailors" swearing vigorously, and expresed his horror to his conductor. The captain merely remarked: "Do you think these men would swear in such a manner if there was any real danger f" whereupon the parson seemed satisfied and retired. A day or two afterwards, when they encountered a rather severe storm, the clergyman, remembering what he had been shown before, managed to make his way with great difficulty to the forecastle, and was overhead by the captain, as he came away, exclaiming* to himself: " Thank God they're swearing yet!"

The prosperity and recuperative elasticity of France may well be the envy of the world. It is not ten years since the milliards were paid to Germany, yet the country ia now better off than ever. _ It has been possible to diminish taxation by 120,000,000 francs this year without endangering the equilibrium of the Budget. The workhouse is unknown, and charity does in France all that the Poor-rate does in England. Yet there have of late been deficiencies in the wine crops in consequence of the ravages of the phylloxera, which may be estimated at hundreds of millions of francs a year. The Paris correspondent of the Times explains the exceptional good fortune of France by three causes—fiist, the geographical frontier and the even distribution of agricultural _ and industrial resources ; secondly, the thrift of her people; thirdly, the deraocratisation of credit—in other words, the universality of investment in Government and other securities. The French farmer is hardworking, economical, and sober, and gets all the land can yield. " The head servant of a private house here, who has often filled my glass at table," writes the correspondent of the Times, " has saved enough to bring him in £700 a year. He has been for twenty-five years in the same situation, and does his duty as strictly as he did tbe first day of his service. He seldom goes out, never takes anything between his meals, and all he gains is carefully put aside." Imagine an English butler doing this ! Again, in the middle-class households of France every child s future is provided for at his cradle by the earnest efforts of its parents, and it is rarely their fault if they do not succeed. It is only among the workmen and artisans in the large towns that there are exceptions to this rule of frugality. Here there are improvidence and drunkenness, and, as a consequence, Communism.

Messrs Banner and Liddle will sell at their rooms to-morrow the regatta privileges, at 2 p.m. Monthly meeting of Sciude Lodge this evening at 7.30. The Chief Inspector of Sheep notifies that he intends to fence in the quarantine reserves at the Waimate. Tenders are invited for the purchase of rural section No. 170 at Woodville. His Worship the Mayor proclaims a halfholiday on Thursday next. Messrs Miller and Potts will sell on the 16th instant, at the Criterion Hotel, sections at Havelock, Waipawa, &c. Messrs H. Monteith ancl Co. will hold their usual weekly sale at the horse Bazaar on Saturday, and also a stock sale at Waipukurau on the 16th instant. Mr S. Carnell, photographer, has received the second order of merit at the Melbourne Exhibition.

A number of new advertisements will be found in our " Wanted" column.