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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3611, 7 February 1883, Page 2

The steamer AVauaka, with the 'Frisco mail, having only reached Wellington at 0.30 this morning, we cannot expect our mail to-morrow night.

A stupid misprint occurred in our issue yesterday, when for some reason best known to the intelligent compositor in correcting the proofs the word Jactu was made to read Vacia.

AVo are requested to state that new members of the Artillery A .uuuteors who claim to be drilled men will have carbines and accoutrements served out to them at the Protestant Hall to-night.

Mr Dennett has transferred the license of the Exchange Hotel, Havelock, recently destroyed by fire, to the premises known as tho "Pacific Hotel. This building is to be removed to the site occupied by the ruins of the old Exchange.

The Municipal Council Avill hold its ordinary meeting this evening at the usual hour. The chief business will be the appointment of an engineer for tho pumping station, and the consideration of the report of the Inspector of Nuisances.

Passengers by the morning train yesterday found the possession of umbrellas very convenient. The dry weather has had the effect of shrinking the woodwork of tho roofs of the carriages, and the rain yesterday percolated freely through on to the heads of passengers.

The following gentlemen were nominated to-day for the three representative seats for the borough on tho Napier Harbor Board: — Messrs J. A. Smith, E. Lyndon, H. Monteith, D. Balharry, J. AY. Neal, and H. Williams. It having been reported that Mr Ormond's return is certain as tho AVaipawa representative that, gentleman declined to bo nominated for Napier.

New members who recently enrolled in the Artilery and Rifle A.hmteer companies, and who claim to be drilled men, are requested to parade at the Protestant Hall to-night for the purpose of being inspected, &c. Of course this order does not apply to volunteers who have simply re-enrolled under the new regulations, and who have already been passed as efficient members.

A telegram from AVairoa states that it is doubtful whether the Council of that County will elect a representative on the Napier' Harbor Board. It is a matter of the utmost indifference whether they do or do not. If they do not a representative will be nominated for them by the Government. The AVaipawa Council at the election two years ago neglected to appoint representatives, and the Government, in accordance with the Act, supplied the deficiency by reappointing the two members who had been elected at the previous election.

AYe understand that Mr H. S. Titt'en ha s generously given the use of the enclosed ground in his garden where the Horticultural Society's late exhibition was held to be used as a temporary drill shed for the local volunteer corps. Arrangements have also been made with the Horticultural Society for the use of the framework and canvas that formed the booth. As great difficulty was experienced in the attempts recently made to secure a suitable place for drills, the concession granted by Mr Tiffen is all the more Avelcomc as a very satisfactory solution of the position.

Although the weathet- was again very unfavorable last evening there was a good attendance -present sit the Theatre Royal to witness the second representation of the comic pantomime "Jack the Giant Killer" by Messrs Stanley and Darbyshire's juvenile company. On the whole the performance was even more successful than that of the opening night, and, judging from the enthusiasm displayed by the audience, the effects of the clever little artistes forming the company were highly appreciated. The dancing" was again excellent, aud evoked rapturous applause, as did also the singing of Miss Childs, Miss Graupnev, and Miss Hodge. All tho remaining characters in the caste were faithfully represented, while the comicalities indulged in by the_ Clown, Pantaloon, See., were exceedingly mirth provokin,"-. AYe recommend everyone who desires to witness a clover and laughable entertainment not to miss the present opportunity.

The undermentioned Crown lands classified under the Land Act, 1882, were offered for sale for cash by the Commissioner at Napier to-day, and were sold at the following prices;—Pohui survey district, block XIII., section 33, containing 41 acres 24 perches, section 34, containing 30 acres 1 rood, and section 35, containing 32 acres 10 perches, at £51 Ss 9d, £36 ss, and £40 Is Gd respectively, being the upset price in each instance, to Mr J. Hallett. The following lands were also disposed of under the deferred payments system: —Tahoraitc district, Block XIII., section 22, containing 32 acres 3 roods 29 perches, at £32 18s 7d, to Mr J. P. Lindagreen ; Norsewood, Block 111., section 28, containing 50 acres, at £90, to Mr C. R. Ljungquist; Bush Mills, section 14, containing 9G acres 2 roods 30 perches, at £103 4s Gd, to Henry Charles Gregory, of AVaipawa. The last-named section was the only one for which there was any competition.

A gipsy woman has been sentenced to three months' imprisonment by tho AVolvcrhampton magistrates for obtaing money from servant girls who were foolish enough to believe that she was "the daughter of the seventh virgin Jupiter." Tlus is only another instance of the blind faith of some people who are apparently only too ready to believe anything that sound like the impossible.

The writer of the notes in the Leader is of tlie opinion that, leaving Midwinter out of the question, the present Australian eleven cannot be strengthened by the introduction of any on e raan in Australia.

A case of what is called "intelligent voting '' in this country is thus recorded by a contemporary. A man was locked up for drunkenness just previous to the openingof the poll at a recent election in the South. A canvasser for one of the candidates bailed out the '' drunk,'' lugged him round to the booth, saw him record his vote on the right side, and then toted him back to the lockup again.

In a second eleven match between Melbourne and East Melbourne recently, Mr R. P. Dickson played the most sensational innings ever seen on the Melbourne or any other ground. One splendid hit into the tennis court split the cover of the ball clean open ;withanother tremendous swipeDickson smashed, his bat; this feat was followed up by driving a ball hard into the opposite wicket and breaking a stump, whilst a fourth hit brought mid-off to grass with a severely injured leg.

The electric light on board the Union Company's s.s. AVairarapa is regularly used when the vessel is under steam, the oil lights being used in port only. Occasionally 3 the small incandescent lamps are broken through the two small wires in them fusing. Upon a recent occassion one of the stewards was unwittingly using a large clasp knife to separate the wires of one of these harmless looking miniature globes, when, quicker than he could wink his eyes, the heavy blade was burnt oft' the handle, leaving tho latter in Iris grasp. The steward considers he was as near being the hero of an accident in the history of electricity on the Wairarapa as it is possible to get and survive.

At Rockhampton recently a man was engaged to assist in unloading a steamer, he having appealed to the chief officer to give him a job, as ho had no money and was starving. Unfortunately (says the Australasian) he was not a member of the Labourers' Union, and immediately after he had commenced work the other men—who are all members of the union—refused to continue unless the starving man were discharged. Unwillingly, the officer explained the circumstances to the poor fellow, who replied that he would join the union so soon as he had money to pay the entrance fee. This promise would not satisfy the union men ; whereupon the man appealed to each in turn, begging them to withdraw their opposition and permit him to earn enough to obtain a supply of food. They, however, refused point blank, and the poor fellow had no choice but to depart.

On the subject of the prerogative of newspaper editors, so little understood, tho AVestern Star has the following sensible and pertinent remarks:—"lt is an unwritten law, well understood in journalism, that no editor is under the slightest obligation to give a reason for his acceptance or non-ac-ceptance of manuscript. He is not called upon to write a private critique on the article to tho author of it. His acceptance or rejection is an absolute and unquestionable fact. Among amateur writers this docs not appear to be understood. All suband reporters understand that it is an unjustifiable impertinence to ask the managing editor his reason for publishing or not publishing any matter submitted to his judgment. Outside writers and aspiring amateurs rarely seem to comprehend this truth, and their transgressions are largely from ignorance rather - than intention. The nature of editoral work requires absolute power of decision, in order to preserve the unities of the journal the editor conducts.

Several clergymen in Christchurch hav_ recently been writing in the local press about the necessity for Bible-reading in schools, and condemning, in no measured language, the present system. At the last meeting of the East Christchurch school committee, the chairman said he would like to draw their

attention to tho significant fact that during his term of office the chairman had not received a single application from a minister of any denomination whatever to be allowed the use of the school buildings for religious instruction. The building was vacant everyday after 4 o'clock and all day on Saturday. If the clergy were so anxious about their "obligations to the young," surely they would avail themselves of their ample opportunities of instructing them, thereby counteracting the inferred evils of the present hated system of education, which, according to some, leads to no better results than " smoking tobacco and swearing" at parents."

The extraordinary effect which a false

accusation has upon sensitive people was (says the South Australian Register) sadly exemplified in the case of the woman Hodges, upon whose body, which was found in the Torrens, an inquest was held on Tuesday, the 9th hist. She had been accused of stealing- a watch from a person named Hartland, which caused her so much mental depression, although her conscience proclaimed her innocent, that she determined upon self-destruction. The day after the charge was made, when her husband went to Bellair, the poor woman rashly cut short her existence by throwing herself into the Torrens Lake, and, evidently fearful of the future of her infant, about six months old, carried the helpless babe with her to a watery grave. One of the most pitiable facts in the case is that only on Tuesday afternoon, when it was too late to allow her to completely absolve herself in the eyes of the public, the detectives arrested a well-known old scoundrel named Pierce, and found the missing article on him. Shortly, after midnight on Saturday last (says the Christchurch Telegraph) the licensee of the Star and Garter Hotel, who had retired to rest, was alarmed by hearing a loud explosion on his premises, followed by tho sound of a heavy crashing of glass. Impression with the idea that an interview with burglars was on the tapis, the landlord at once made a tour of inspection of the establishment, but failed to find the least indication of the cause of the unusual noiso that had disturbed his slumbers. Next morning, on entering his bar, the mystery of the nocturnal sounds was at once made ap2iarcnt. Two soda-water syphons, which on Saturday night stood on a back shelf in the rear of the bar, were thoroughly demolished, the metal tubes and tops alone marking the ..pot they previously occupied Some idea of the force of the explosion may be gathered from the fact that pieces of tho glass of which the gasegencs were composed were found twenty feet away, driven into the woodwork and skirting of the walls, while all round the shelves jiresented the appearance of having been subjected to a shower of minute glass particles. Had the explosion occurred during business hours, -with customers at the bar, the consequences are serious to contemplate, as, if notblinded, some frightful flesh wounds must have resulted. The prevention of an occurrence of a similar nature, so far as any accident resulting therefrom, would be materially lessened by the syphons supplied from the icrated water manufactories being covered with wire or wicker network. It would be interesting to know the sentiment of the little red goblin whom a legend associates with the destinies of the Tuillicries when the skeleton of the palace was knocked down at the beginning of December for 32,300fr. The conditions of sale stipulated that the lowest bid for tho whole should be 25fr. The market value of these historic stones, which sheltered the sovereigns of France for more than 300 years, and which, were they not dumb, could tell more secrets than the world, with all its appetite for revelations of private life in high places, would care to listen to, .proved to be less than £ 1,300, Moreover, the purchaser, according to report, believes thct he has bought a "white elephant," aud that he will lose by the transaction. He is bound to deliver over to the municipality such fragments of sculpture as have been marked for preservation; aud should he discover during the work of demolition any secreted treasure he will not be permitted to keep it. A rare opportunity is now permitted to Pickwick Clubs, and those aesthetic persons who cannot resist the temptation of chipping ancient monuments, to acquire whole blocks of the Tuilleries at the prico of second-hand building material.

A London daily newspaper, in a receiit editorial on the death of Mr Chabot, the expert on handwriting, says.:—" Brothers frequently write singularly like each other, and anyone who has paid the slightest attention to the subject cannot fail to notice the broad peculiar!tfc_ y/hich the caligxaphy of certain people possess.- in common. There is no mistaking the plain, expansive, clearly-formed letters of those who have been taught to write in the schools of America. The admirable handwritings of the Scandinavians are so much alike that experts will be able to pick out from a hundred examples almost everyone executed by a Dane, a Norwegian, or a Swede. The Italian handwriting is also so marked that it js one of the '' styles '' affected by writingmusters ; (tin! the pretty scratchy characters of a Frenchman, with their flourishes and sudden redundancies, inevitably sug; gest the gay,- volatile, fickle character of the race to which'hebelongs."

The following is a curious example of the formidable power of molecular forces. The Italian ship Francesea, loaded with rice, put into port on May 11 at East London, leaking considerably." A large force of men was at once put on board to pump out the water contained in the ship and to unload her; but in spite of all theactivity exerted the bags of rice soaked in water gradually, and swelled up. Two days afterwards, on May 13, the ship was violently burst asunder by this swelling of her cargo. Tho amount of property destroyed by fire annually in Russia is appalling, it being estimated that the whole empire is burnt out more than once in a, e_iit_r\-. The latest trustworthy statistics show that from ISGO to 1874, inclusive, leaving out of account the two capitals, Poland, Finland, the Don country, and four large towns, thero were 250,000 fires, occasioning a lo*s of 500,000,000 of roubles. The forests and peat bogs are now on fire for miles round St. Petersburg, aud the capital has for days been covered with dense smoke. A recent medical writer, who is also something of a philospher, asserts that nine out of ten cases of suicide are to be accounted for by an apprehension of future trouble rather than an experience of present distress. That is to say, men are far more inclined to kill themselves because of Is which are imaginary and intangible than of those which are" existent and actual. The fact, he goes on to show, in an interesting way, applies with more or less force and sua-g'estivencss to the general manner of looking at life. The germ of this morbid sentiment that drives so many persons to self-murder is an inherited trait of human nature, he contends, and is illustrated in the daily fretting and worry with which we make ourselves miserable when we might as well be having a good time._

American insurance companies impose fines upon districts in which appliances for the extinguishing of fires are deficient. On November 1 all the representatives of companies doing business in Mobile advanced the rates 25 per cent., because the municipal authorities had failed to supply the fire department with new hose. The Franklin office has suspended business altogether in Galveston, 'on account of the insufficient protection against fire there. The companies doing business in Quebec havo also raised their-rates to meet the lack of adequate provision in that city. At Cincinnatti the Fire. Commissioners asked the fire insurance companies to supply the city with hose. The reply of the insurance men was : " Unless the department is put upon a proper basis by Octob _ 1, we (the underwriters) will be obliged to advance rates to protect ourselves." AVhereupon the Fire Commissioners thought better of it, and ordered 5,000 ft of hose. It is a number of years since a professor of the art of horse-taming, according to Rarey, was amongst us, and we had come to the conclusion that his disciples were extinct, and that the art was forgotten. It appears, however, that this is not the case and that a gentleman who has been for some years a resident of Invercargill has discovered the possession of powers over the equine race, similar to those displayed with such marvellous results by the great American horse-tamer who caused such a sensation twenty-five years ago when he visited the Old AA _rld. Mr John Dewe has been most successful in his method of taming the most vicious horses in Dunedin and Invercargill, and has high enconiums bestowed on liim by every one who has seen him. AVhat his system is may be gathered from the following extract from the Southland Times:—"The horse selected for the occasion was a riding hack, which was parted with by a previous owner on account of its inveterate bucking aud kicking propensities, and which Mr John Dewe—the horsetamer in question—who had never seen the animal before, broke in so effectually that when it was set at liberty, after about an hour's treatment, it followed liim about like a dog. An inspection of the animal convinced Mr Dewe that the constitutional defect of the horse was nervousness, and that its intractability arose from that, and not from a naturally vicious temper, and he treated it accordingly. Tho .spectators were so pleased that they made up a liberal subscription on the spot, which was handed over to Mr Dewe by Mr John M'lntosh, who had publicly challenged the horsetamer to give a proof of his skill." The First District Criminal Court of Berlin and a jury have (the Times correspondent says) for two days been engaged in the trial of a case which would certainly have afforded De Quincy some interesting material for his essay on "Murder as one of the Fine Arts." The chief actor in the tragedy was a man named Conrad, aged 34, who began life as a philosophic tailor, somewhat after the style of Kingsley's Alton Locke, and after roaming through the gamut of various occupations, including military service, ended by strangling in one night liis wife and four children. Conrad, as the family newspapers term him, is a man, for his"station in life, of great force of character, intelligent, inquiring, wellread, inventive, ready, and of remarkable self-possession. He had been a diligent reader of Schiller and Darwin, and his desultory course of study had ended in making him, like many others of his class in Germany, a believer in nothing whatever. Not only had he renounced all his religious faith himself, but hehad compelled his wife to leave the Church, and brought up his children in heathen darkness. He transferred his affections from his own wife to another, an unmarried woman. He denied the paternity of two of his children, and his household became a perfect hell. He wanted to be free to marry the object of his second love, and in the night between tho 11th and 12th of August last he strangled his wife and four children while they slept. In the morning the corpses of the"'mother and her youngest child were fouud hanging at the back of a door, while the dead bodies of the other three were discovered similarly suspended in a wardrobe. On the mother's bed lay a volume of Schiller open at the poem of the '' Kuidei-niorderin '' (child murderess), which the father had placed there so as to suggest to the officers of justice that his wife had committed both infanticide and suicide. A letter of triumph, however, which Conrad wrote to his mistress before the breath could have been long out of his wife's body formed a strong link in an otherwise somewhat fragile chain of circumstantial evidence, so he was found guilty and condemned to death.

I am glad to sec that the divided skirt, dual garment-lire, or a.hatover it is called in ears polite, is still to the fore. The last time I heard of it Avas when it Avas in the hands of an English Dress Reform Society, aud I had begun to fear that it had gone the way of all fashions before it had taken proper shape. It has, hoAvcver, turned up all save in California, Avhere Mrs Scott seems to have taken the place of Lady Something —I forget her name —as tailoress-nurse. It_is also satisfactory to know that tho garment has, so to speak, come to something like maturity, and assumed its proper appellation of trousers. This is, of course, what it has always been aiming to be, the tendency of female dress as a whole being towards" a change of sex, as witness the little hard felt hat, the ulster, and, croAvn of all (Juris rrrum caput v&l), the divided slurt. "My trousers," said Mrs Scott, " are made with a plait, and descend just to the lino of beauty in the calf of the leg where the dresses of young girls come, and if young girls Avore their dresses so, why should not old girls adopt the same fashion _' A.Tiy not, indeed. Unless they happen to Ikia _ no carves to their legs, and consequently no line of beauty. In that ease the trousers might grow to full masculinity, and cover the upper part of the boot. A defectiA-c ankle —not the rarest thing in the Avorld—Avould thus be protected from the common gaze ; not to say that this elongation or natural evolution of the tAvin members of the divided skirt might prove favourable to maiden modesty, and matronly too. But such a consideration Avould probably not weigh much with Mrs Scott, avlio seems bent on exposing "the line of beauty in the calf of the leg" to the admiration of the world. AVho knows but that this is the final end of her trousers'. Lady Mary AVortley Montagu said that if it were the fashion to go naked, the face Avould be hardly observed ; and if a jury of matrons Averc to invetigate the bodily perfections of this Califoruiau dress reformer, I should not wonder if they reported that her calves excelled her countenance. Bo this as it may, almost anything Ai.uldbeau improvement on the dress in wliieh young girls and old girls arc at present tl eabin'd, cribb'd and coufiu'd," aud which to my eye reveals more fines of ugliness than of beauty. It Avill at any rate be a monstrous shame if the 'Frisco police " run in " Mrs Scott, as they threaten to do, for merely exhibiting "the line of beauty in the calf of the leg" in a pair of undeveloped trousers.—" Civis "in the Otago Witness.

A Home paper of November 25th has the following:—"The arrest in London of a young man, Alfred Edward Sanders, has disclosed an extraordinary case of attempted murder through jealously. It seems that a Miss Rose Ann Ellingham. a pupil teacher, of Harpendcn, in Hertfordshire, acquaintance of a man named Alfred Edward Sanders, who was employed as booking- clerk of Harpendcn station, on tne Great Northern Railway, which was kept up for four years. About nine monts ago, Miss Ellingham wont to AVesternham m Kent, having been appointed schoolmistress of the infant school there. She, however, had not boon long in the town before she transferred her affections to a Mr Toppin, who was engaged as schoolmaster at the Hosev Common Board School, and this ended 'in their marriage about, six weeks ago. Sanders, hearing of _ the

en_a_eme.it and subsequent_ marriage, made" numerous threats against them, and had on more than one occasion been seen in the neighborhood of AVesteruham. Toppin resides about half a mile from AYestcrnham, and on Friday night last, being accompanied by his wife, lie went to that town. They returned about nine o'clock, and when within a short distance of thoir home Sanders appeared, and without a word of warning, deliberately discharged a revolver at Toppin, the contents lodging in his left arm. Teppiu, who, in consequence of threats from Sanders, carried a revolver, instantly pulled it out of his pocket and fired, but without any effect. The men then simultaneously fired, and Tcppin was struck in the left breast. Strange to say. the bullet struck the ring of his watch, which was broken, as also was the swivel of the steel chain attached to it, and the bullet dropped into the lining of the waistcoat. On Toppin exclaiming that he was a dead man, Saunders again fired at him, and ihon decamped. Toppin and Ids wife were taken to a cottage close by, the occupants of which distinctly hoard the five shots. He is progressing favourably, but the bullet is still in his arm. Sanders has boon arrested in Loudon, and it has been found that the shot fired in return by Tepiu'n entered Sanders' shoulder, and passed out through his neck. AY "hen arrested a revolver, fully loaded, was fouud upon him.

Quinine is an alkaloid found in the bark of trees, belonging to tho Cinchona, or Peruvian bark family, and is ono of Ihe most valuable febrifuges and antiperiodics known to medical science: while incorporated with iron tincture it has no equal as a tonic Pure quinine and iron may be obtained put up in bottles oi' any size to suit customers at Professor Aloore's Medical Hall, AVaipawa. -[Adyt].

If people would only exorcise more judgment than credulity they would take nothing into the system, but what, like AVolee's Schnapps vindicates its value by its effects. —[Aovt.]