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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3653, 30 March 1883, Page 2

It is not generally known that the Rev, De Berdt Ho veil attends the district school on Tuesday and Friday afternoons from 4 o'clock to -1.30 to impart religious instruction. The average attendance of children is about eighty. At the annual meeting of subscribers to tho AVaipawa Public Library, held on Wednesday evening, a vote of thanks was pilled to the proprietor of tho Daily leleurapii for supplying the institution with that journal free of charge. By the monthly Pocket Guide issued by the Union Company we find that the new steamer AVaihora, which arrived at Melbourne this week, will take up the running from Port Chalmers next week, arriving at Napier on Saturday, 7th April. Professor Hugo gave his concluding lecture on Physiognomy in St John s school-room last evening The lecturer handled his subject, "lour lypcs .of Faces," in an interesting style, and was as usual successful in giving satisfaction to the audience. During the remainder of the week Air Hugo will bo m attendance at his office for private eonsulatiou. It may be of interest to the members of the temperance societies in town to learn that Archdeacon Hooper, of Timaru, is to preach, in St. John's Church on Sunday evening next upon the subject of "Temperance." AYe have authority for stating that all persons who may care to do so arc cordially invited to attend. At the evening service "tbe address will be given by Dr. Cowie, the Bishop of Auckland. ■ All the dignitaries of the Church of England in Now Zealand will bo gathered ™ Napier next week on the occasion of the meeting of the General Synod. This Synod only meets once hi three years, and assembles in the cathedral town <•*:««$ diocese in rotation. It is 1 °J seven Bishops, including the Mo" Melanesia, twenty clerical and twcuty-eight lay members. T_9 session co«»~c.s o_ T_-9s_*y ass**

AYe have received a telegram from the Auckland Press Association agent, containing 555 words, giving the text of Bishop Luck's letter to the Hibernian Society. Before the telegram reached us we were in receipt of tbe northern mails, and in the New Zealand Freeman's Journal of the 23rd instant the same letter is published in full. If the letter was of any importance whatever—which we fail to see—it nught at least have been telegraphed in less than a week after publication. A'cstcrday the annual treat in connection with St. Peter's Sunday school was heldin tho church grounds at AVaipawa. As an invitation had been given to all the children in the township to be present, it is needless to say that a large number put in an appearance. The usual games were freely indulged in, and havoc was made among- the cakes, buns, ko., by the youngsters. At about dusk the children were mustered at the schoolroom, when three cheers were given for Air and Mrs Eccles, and others who had assisted to make the holiday a success, after which all dispersed for home. A meeting, it was reported, was held of the members of the two local volunteer companies after the Government inspection parade on AVeduesday nig-ht. Now, according to section 170 of the Volunteer Regulations, it is laid down that "no meetings, except those called together by or under the authority of the commanding officer of a corps or battalion, who will be responsible for doing so, will be recognised." As there is no battalion in this district, and as the commanding officer had called no meeting of the battery, we were perfectly right yesterday in stating that the Artillery Company had not been consulted with respect to the observance of the Queen's birthday. Wo understand that, when a meeting of the company is called, a programme will be submitted that will include shot and shell practice as in previous years. A shrill note of alarm has been sounded by a writer in Macinillaii. If we become a nation of water-drinkers the country will be ruined! AYe must choose between wine in our cellars and on our tables and an empty treasury! It is a serious matter; but, looking at it, from a common-sense point ot view, the remedy is plain. Is there not such a thing as moderation, and are Englishmen so absolutely weak of will that, if they drink at all, they must become drunk ? Moreover, the majority of medical men: are agreed that stimulants in moderation preserve health, and that total abstainers are for the most part enormous eaters; and surely over-eating is as bad as over-drinking. The " lang toon " of Kirkcaldy, in Scotland, has been enlivened recently by the performance of what are termed "a full company of Star New Zealand Artists, including the Colony's greatest Comedians." The perplexity created by this announcement is not allayed by a glance at the following- cast: —"MrG. Franks, the Grand Colonial Baritone; Mr Fred Neville, the King of Laughter-Makers and Comedians; Air Dan Everett, the Coloured Colonial Philosopher; the Campbells, the eminent Musicians; Air J. Fairley, the Champion Highland Dancer ; and Air Sydney Colville, the Colony's Greatest Mimic, A r entriloquist, and Entertainer, who will appear each evening in Selections from his ' Album of Oddities,' and as Lecturer to 'Zealandia.' " A *' grand diorama accompanies tho show, which " covers over 2000 yards of canvas, and is replete with the most startling and marvellous mechanical effects." The "Rise and Progress of our Great Southern Colony." is said to'be illustrated by the most eminent of living artists, who has depicted with life-like fidelity the "glorious success of the early Scotch settlers." This is how an American journal described the AViggins tempest:—" It is to strike the Pacific coast at the western extremity of the Isthmus of Nicaragua, and will cross by the old Nicaragua route, tearing up the earth on its way so as to render the work of constructing the Nicaragua Canal mere child's play. Professor Wiggins had originally intended to bring his storm across the Isthmus of Panama, but as M. de Lesseps failed to make liberal arrangements with him, he finally came to an agreement withthe promoter's of the Nicaragua scheme. On reaching the gulf the storm will, as has been said, follow the Gulf Stream. If, however, proper inducements are extended to the professor, he will arrange to bring the storm directly across- the upper part of Florida, so as to facilitate the making of a ship canal across that peninsula From Long Island the storm will proceed to New England by the old route from Greenport to Newport, and will ravage Rhode Island, Eastern Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Nova Scotia. Professor AViggins is as yot undecided as to whether he will send it to the North Pole where it can do no harm, or whether he will launch it against Great Britain, _ but the probabilities are that being a British subject, he will spare the British Islands." Much concern is felt in North Germany with respect to the steady increase in tho number of parricides, and most of them aro attributed to tho custom which prevails in country districts among the peasants of making over to their children—as soon as the latter are £rown up—their property, reserving for themselves only the right of food and lodging to the end of their days. This is what is popularly called the Altentheil (old people's portion)—an expression rendered famous by Prince Bismarck, who used it to describe tho AlinLstry of Foreign Affairs to which he would perhaps confine himself hi his old age. The children soon get tired of having to support their parents, and in some cases either starve them to death or actually murder them. Crimes of this description are so much on tho increase that several of the district governors have issued circulars urging the peasants not to make over their little .properties in this way. But that the practice and its consequences are not altogether of modern date may be gathered from the fact that over the gateway of the little town of Juterbock, sonic GO miles from Berlin, hangs a small club, with an inscription to the effect that "whosoever transfers his property to his children during his lifetime, aud suffers in consequence, deserves to be killed with this club."