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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3034, 17 March 1881, Page 3

At the sacred concert to be given by the Siinonsen company on Sunday next, both Signer Paladini and Signor Luisetti will appear. At the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, before H. Eyre Kenny, E<q., R.M., George Turnbull was charged with being drunk, and was fined 5s and costs, or 43 hours imprisonment with hard labor; We are _ informed that Mr Lanau2e, against whom a protect was laid and allowed iv the swimming match at the late regatta, intends to challenge Mr Stone to swim any distance from 10 to 400 yards. The town gradually assumed a deserted appeararce after ten o'clock this morning; AJI places of business were closed, and the hotels Gi-jpty, sportsmen and pleasure seekers all wending their way towards the plains. The railroad appeared the favorite way of reaching the racecourse, every train up to noon being crowded, but large number* left :.-i vt-hioles of all discriptions, and many on iufvebaok. The weather being magnificent there ran be little doubt that Hastings to-day will see the largest crowd that has ever assembled on any racecourse in Hawke's Bay.

The betting fraternity did not appear to do a large business in town last night. At the Calcutta sweeps on the Napier Handicap On Dit held the position of favorite, brintfinu £20 in a sweep of about £70; Randwick brought £16, Dan £12 10a, and Danebury £11. In the Railway Stakes Randwiok took first plaoe at £13 in a sweep of over £50, Dan being fancied to the extent of £11, and Natator to £10, For the Hurdles there appeared to be little choice ; in a sweep valued about £50 Ada brought £8 10s and Matau tho same; Harkaway oarne next with £8, Angler ,£6, and Te Whitu £5. For the Maiden Plate Miss Dommett brought £8 in a sweep of £35, Grand Duchess coming next at £6 10s.

The Taradale pigeon matches yesterday were very largely attended. The first event, the All-comers Stakes, for which nine competed, was won by Colonel White, For the Grand Handicap Sweepstakes there were Bixteen pruns. The shooting was very good. Messrs Sladen, J. Jeffares, Haverley, A. T. Danvers, J. 0. Evett, Collingwood, and Leonard tied, each killing fonr out of the five birds. In the shooting off Mr Sladen proved the winner. A match between Mr Sladen and Mr Evett was then arranged, and this was easily won by the latter. Mr A. McCartney, who was mainly instrumental in getting up these pigeon matohes, had everything well arranged, and the luncheon he provided at his hostelry was excellent.

The mission services in the Catholic Church yesterday were of a somewhat solemn and melancholy character. In the morning mass was offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased members of the congregation, the church being draped in mourning. In the evening the Rev. Father Le Mennant preached a most impressive sermon on man's preparation for death, taking as a text the words " Remember. O man, that thou art appointed once to die." A beautiful catafalque had been erected in the church, by which means the rev. gentlemen brought prominently into notice the solemnity and sacredness of the ceremonies practised by the church. This morning, being St. Patrick's Day. High Mass was celebrated, and a grand procession took place this afternoon in honor of the Apostle of Ireland.

The Wairarapa Daily notices that several Masterton settlers went over to Te Ore Ore en Friday to see the " big pyramid." This structure consists of a basement story of kumaras, or spuds, a second tier of flour, a third of sus-ar, and a fourth of fleh, flesh. and fowl. The edifice, is 150 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 4 feet high ; and is a compact and solid mass of dyspepsia. Bags of flour and sugar could be counted by the thousand, and there were truck loads of dried eels, wa<?on loads of dog-fish, cart loads of shell-fish, numberless carcases of pics and sheep, casks of mutton birds, pots and pans containing preserved pigeons. All these dainties were racked opposite the principal pah, ready for distribution among the various camps at Te Ore Ore. So far the Wairarapa natives have been cooking for their visitors, but henceforth the spoils will bo divided, and each party will cook for itrelf.

The revised edition of the Bible ia now printed, and will seem to most people a strange new book. Chapter and verse are abolished, and each " book " or epistle runs on in a series of paragraphs without smy break from first to last. Of course this is only reverting to the ancient form, the division into chapters being of modern date ; but tho present generation has been accustomed to the Bible in that form, and any change to an older form will seem revolutionary and almost a sacrilege. There is a margin note indicating where chapter and verse commenced in the former edition, and this concession may make the transition to a new form less perplexing. The alterations of text and the new readings of debatable passages may excite curiosity and perhaps provoke controversy. Copies of the new Book will be soon ready for circulation.

Insurance agents, in their anxiety to " do business," are generally eager to trumpet how promptly their office meets liabilities. This phase if the competition is much caricatured in the following from the Australasian Insurance and Bank Record of a recent date:—"A Card.—l take pleasure in announcing that the Ready Insurance Company of Manoeuvretown has settled and paid its loss in full (without deducting interest or accrued assessment) on my mill now burning. I take satisfaction in recommending this company and its agile adjuster to public patronage. The adjuster of the other companies did not arrive until the roof fell in, and owing to some failure in his baggage and a sore finger, did not get his cheque signed until the fire was nearly out. lam assured by gentlemen of respectability that these companies mean well, but greater promptitude must be observed if public confidence is to be sustained.

In South Lambeth there existed until lately a pleasant little park. Surrounded by tall elm-trees, in the shelter of which wayfaring men lounged on sultry summer afternoons, this open ground seemed singularly out of place in a district where the hideous creatures of the " jerry" builder are cumbering every foot-breath of the costly soil. Within the palisades of this "demesne" was a quaint old house approached by a hammered iron gate; and the curious passer-by who cared to peep through its bars might be rewarded by a sight of cool lawns, great cedar, yew, and arbutus trees, or two of those little temples dedicated to Flora or to a departed dog which the sentimental horticulturists of two centuries ago delighted in rearing. This park and mansion was the home of the Tradescants, gardeners to tho Duke of Buckingham and to Charles I; and herein happier days Attenborough, Pepys, Evelyn, and even the King and Queen, visited the opulent Fleming, his son and grandson. In this open ground was established one of tho first botanic gardens in England; and in the mansion now demolished were accumulated the " curiosities " which subsequently formed the nucleus of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. But in a few days this ancient shrine of English science will have disappeared. The elms are hewn down; the axe is laid at the root of the cedars; and the arbutus which astonished Sir William Watpon and is described in his " Dendrologia " is on the eve of being converted into firewood. The house long known as " Tradeskin's Ark" has been levelled; and before many months a square mile of baked mud will have covered the spot where were firßt grown bo many rare plants, and,

among other choice exotics, were naturalized the apnco'.-. fhich John Tradescant stole from the Dey.of Algiers at the risk of his life snd liberty.

Mirs Sharman-Crawford, niece of Mr Wil-lismSharmau-Oawford, w no for many years represented Rochdale in Parliament, has, it is announced, given to her tenants in the County of Waterford a lease for ever of their holdings.

The Paris Liberte says that Father Hermann, superior of the dispersed Premontre Order, at Frigolet, is the half-brother of the Count de Chambord, being the son of the Duchess de Berry by her second marriage with tho Italian Count Luchesi Palli.

An attempt is being made in the United States tv utilise paper for the making of the barrels in which petroleum and kerosene are exported. Compressed paper pulp, much of which is made from stewed sawdust, is a material of surprising strength.

A Roman Catholic candn has written a letter condemning the land agitation, and adding that If the Communistic principles propagated by some of its leaders were extended, the Irish peasautry might eventually say,' By jingo, I won't even pay the priest ','

The excavations now in progress on the site of Leadenhall Market have revealed interesting portions of the mediasval hall, and, at a lower depth, Roman walling of considerable dimensions, arches, vaults, and a tasselated pavement. A layer of wood ashes of some inches in depth points to an extensive conflagration on the spot in Roman times.

" How is this for high ?" The extract is from a paper recently published by Sir William Thompson of Glasgow. "The stream-lines are as represented in the diagram, in which the region of transla-tional-velocity greater than wave-propaga-tional velocity is separated from the region ofj translational-velocity by a cats-eye border pattern of elliptic whirls."

Mr Pasmore Edwards, M.P., has presented to the Salisbury Museum an Egyptian coffin and mummy. Dr Birch says of it: —" The mummy's name on the coffin is a married lady or person named Unen, daughter of Haa, a priest of Amen. The mummy is enveloped in the usual pink-colored shroud, and is covered with a network of blue bugles, emblematic of the recovery the body of Osiris by nets in the Nile. It is about 700 B.o."

The Bishop of Liverpool addressed a bazaar assembly at Liverpool recently " for the first time in his life." The Bishop spoke strongly against many of the accessories of modern bazaars. He objeoted to raffles, because they led to gambling ; to antimacassers because " they are always sticking to the buttons of man's coat;" and to pincushions, because a person cannot be expected to fill his house with impedimenta of such a description. His lordship also strongly advised that tor the future the promoters of these enterprises should refrain from the exhibition of such sensational objects as a pet lamb and " sacks of the same flour as that supplied to the Bishop." In lieu of these attractions he suggested the provision of good shirts, good coats, and good pairs of shoes, and ended by expressing a fervent hope that in time " young ladies attending to bazaars would go out of fashion altogether."

Herr Bandmann has had a fall-out with a section of the Christchurch Press, and refused admission to the critics of the offending paper, which said that is Othello was an nneven performance, and accused him of a disposition to rant in some places. In the course of a very abusive letter, in which he attacks the critic in unmeasured terms, he says :—" May I ask why—for what reason or on what authority your wiseacre uses his rusty and malicious cheeseknife to try and make insertions upon a well-established reputation of twenty-five years' standing, backed by half the civilized world, and such men like my late friends Lord Lytton, John Forster, Tom Taylor, John Oxenford, Charles Dickens, the present Ralph Waldo Enaerson, Longfellow, Lord Southesk, and numbers of other eminent men ? Am I to come to Christchurch under heavy expense and outlay, and instead of having the hand of hospitality and fairness offered to me, as was the case in every town in the colonies, to be received with cowardly meanness and malice propause ? " The editor appends a foot-note to the fiery epistle, stating merely that there is not the slightest foundation for the charges made in it.

One result of the severe weather in London has been the adotion of Canadian methods of locomotion. Sleighs are to be seen frequently gliding easily along the snow-encumbered streets. They are drawn by horses, carrying the appropriate harness with tinkling bells, and their occupants are osily wrapped in great robes of fur. The Prince of Wales has set the example, in a sleigh which was presented to him by the Governor-General of Canada, his brother-in-law, Lord Lome, and is an excellent specimen of colonial coach or sleigh building. As a general rule the sleighs at present used in London are more ornamental than useful; they have high curved runners, and would hardly do much heavy work. It is strange that some effort has not been made to utilise this means of transport for the heavier tiaffic. For railway-vans and coal-carts in difficulties as they constantly are now, their over-strained teams toiling often ineffectually to move their excessive burthens, the sleigh runner would be an excellent substitute for wheels. The difficulty is that plant of this kind is not kept on hand, and it would take some time to make. Before any number of sleighs had been taken into use the much-yearned-for thaw might have come, and the snow would disappear. But for pleasure-seekers the sleigh, with its pair abreast or tandem, is a most delightful recreation, especially in those delightfully organised Canadian pic-nics, when couples drive their ten or a dozen mile 3 into tbe country, dance till night in a barn, and then return home under the clear light of a winter moon. Something of this kind to Richmond or Hampstead would go far to reconcile Londoners to the snow plague unaer which they at present groan.

The Simonsen Company to-night at the Theatre Boyal, " Martha." To-morrow is the second day of the Jockey Club's race meeting at Hastings. Calcutta sweeps to-night at Messrs Kennedy and Gillman's store, and at the large hall Emerson-street, next to Mr Williams (painter). Luncheon in the grand stand at the races to-morrow by Mr J. T. Johnson. Mr Grocott has removed his sewing machine business to opposite Mr Knowles' store, Hastings-street. Mr T. K. Newton will sell, at Hastings, on the 24th instant, the stock of Mr It. Somervillc.

Mr Routledge's sale at Hastings on Saturday will commence immediately on the arrival of the midday train.

A. bazaar will be held in St. John's schoolroom on the 6th, 7th, and Bth of April, and a gift auction on the 12th. The sitting of tho Assessment Court at Ashley Clinton is postponed to Friday, April Bth. A number of new advertisements will be found in our " Wanted " column.