ARREST OF MR PARNELL.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 90, 14 October 1881, Page 2

ARREST OF MR PARNELL.

? Startling news comes to us to-day by cable from England. While the Conservative leaders were urging that the Government were not showing sufficient " vigour" in dealing with Ireland, instructions had been given by the Ministry for the arrest of Mr. Parnell, the chosen leader of the Land League party, and it is possible that even at the time Sir S. Northcote waa speaking at Newcastle, the member for Cork was actually in custody. VVhat will be tho lull effect of this decided measure remains to be seen. There is no doubt, however, that the nowa will cause great excitement among the Irish people, and may lead to additional disturbances.

The rumour which has found currency, that active steps were to be taken against Te Whiti and his followers before the next Parihaka meeting 1 , which is to be held on the 17th instant (Monday next) is obviously inaccurate, as it is well known that it will take a considerably longer time than that io make the needful preparations. Mr. William Price will address the Te Aro electors this evening, at tho Arcade. Captain J. L. M. Carey, assistant clerk at the Ke3ident Magistrate's Court, has now recovered from the illness (cogestion of the lungs) which prostrated him for many weeks past, and will resume duty after taking a few days' holiday in the country. Tho Registrars of Electors of the Electoral Districts of Rangitikei, Wanganui, Wairarapa North, and Wairarapa South have given notice to the Colonial Secretary that the new electoral rolls for such districts are formed. Mr. Edward Christian Hodgson has been appointed an additional public vaccinator for the District of Wellington. Mr. E. Stafford will address the Te Aro electors on Tuesday evening. During an interval in the performance at tho Theatre Royal last night, Mr. Cary made a speech to the audience, in which he took exception to the criticisms of " The Sorcerer" which had appeared in the Wellington papers. He stated that he had lost iJBO during his stay in Wellington, and he considered that for a first performance Wednesday evening's was a good one. He attributed the smallneas of the attendance last evening to the adverse notices to which he referred, and added that down South the papers had always given him fair criticism, and were most enthusiastic in their praises of the operas produced. In reply, we may state that Mr. Gary's opinion of Wednesday evening's representation is oertainly not that of the large audience Who had the misfortune to be present on that occasion. Of course we have nothing to do with tho lino Tvhich Southern papers may take, but it may be mentioned that when the " Clockes do Corneville " was produced for the first time in Dnnedin, the Otago Daily Times remarked th*t " the performance was a most disappointing one " ; that the principal male performer " knew very little of the text " ; and that "confusion prevailed from beginning to end of the opera." This may be "enthusiastic praise," but it looks astonishingly like censure, and some even stronger remarks were mode by the Dunedin Evening Star, which we mercifully forbear to quote. The inference would seem to be that hist Wednesday evening ia not the only occasion on which Mr. Cary has placed an opera on the stage without sufficient preparation. A'o newspaper, haying any regard for ifa duty to tho pnblic, could have allowed Wednesday evening's fiasco to pass nncondemned, and Mr. Cary would have been far wiser had he accepted a well-merited rebuke in th.3 friendly spirit in which it was offered.

The numerous friends of Mr. W. H. Floyd, late of the Telegraph Department, New Zealand, will be glad to learn that he has been appointed Telegraph Superintendent of -Hie Great Indian Peninsula .Bailway, at a very handsome salary. The report on the first year's working of the new General Church Fund, established by the Church of England Synod for the Wellington Diocese, contains some interesting information. It shows that the total receipts up to 30th June amounted to £3,185, and the expenditure to .£2,996. The outstanding liabilities at that date amounted to £1,387," to "meet which there were assats amounting to .£1,293, of which £659 has since been received, to which mnst be added the caßh credit balance at 30th June (£18S), which reduces the liabilities to £ 145, while pew rents to the amount of .£176, and £265 subscriptions, are still outstanding. If these were all paid the fond would prove equal to all it 3 engagements, less about JB4. It was pointed out by the Rev. Mr. Fancourt that thiß was a most encouraging result for a first year, especially in view of the commercial depression which had prevailed, causing increased taxation and diminished incomes. He also mentioned that £800 more had been raised in the diocese during the past year under the new scheme than any former year, while Church work generally had been greatly stimulated. i'ne ill effects of intemperance receive almost daily illustrations in our Courts of law. A case in point was heard this morning at the Resident Magistrate's Court, before Dr. Diver, the Hon. J. Martin, and Mr. J. Hislop, J P.'s. William Potter, a shoemaker, residing at the corner of Hill and Rolleston streets, wa9 brought up on a warrant, charging him with having assaulted and threatened hi 3 wife. He was represented by Mr. Gordon Allan. Mrs. Potter, a quiet, respectable-looking woman, stated that on the 30th ultimo her husband came home drunk a quarter of an hour before midnight. Knowing him to be usually violent when "in his cups," she lay in bed pretending to be asleep, under the impression that he would soon fall asleep himself. Instead of doing so, however, he dragged her out of bed, and administered considerable bodily harm to her. So soon as Bhe was able to recover herself, she fled from the place, and was admitted into the house occupied by her son, a short distance away. Fearing to return home, there she had remained ever since. Ordinarily, her husband was very good to her — he was an industrious workman, acd, -when soner, treated her with the utmost kindness. All she required now was that the Court might warn him not to repeat the offence. The Bench severely animadverted on the conduct of the defendant, which they characterised as most cowardly. As, however, Mrs. Potter did not wish him to be punished, they decided to give him " another chance," and ordered him to enter into a bond of £50 to keep the peace towards his wife for six months. Pott°r expressed great contrition over his behaviour, and left the Court promising to " drink no more as long as he lived." There being no other business, the Court then rose. Mr. W. C. Fitzgerald, of Manners-street, kindly sends the following as the best way to clean pawa shells : — " Dip them into hydrochloric acid for two or three minutes, then immerse them in water. The lime may then be scraped off easily. Repeat this process until the shells are quite clean." A general meeting of the Wellington Guards was held at the Fire Brigade Station last night. Captain the Hon. Kandall Johnson presided. There was a good attendance of member J , and all the officers were present. The business, which was chiefly of a private nature, terminated with the election of several new members The Naval Brigade are announced to co-operate with the Star Club to-morrow in the opening of the boating season. The band of the company will be put on board a steamer chartered for the purpose, and head the procession. It will be seen by an advertisement that the company is going in for torpedo drill. There are many old men-of-war's-men among the Brigade, who, it ia stated, are conversant with the work. A meeting of the members of the Wellington Bicycle Clnb was held at the Pier Hotel last evening. Mr. W. H. Cutten presided. It was reported that 14 membera had joined the club, and more were shortly expected. The rules prepared by Messrs. Beswick and Scott were submitted and adopted with a fen alterations, and the following appointments were made : —Captain — Mr. Scott (a membei of the London Bicycle Club) ; Deputycaptain — Mr. Tblson ; Lugler — Mr. WiL liams ; Committee — Messrs. W. H. Cutter and W. P. James, the officers of the club tc be members ex offiaio. The election of c president was deterred till a subsequeni meeting. Mr. R. E. Plimpton announced that he had ordered a tricycle from Home, as also had Eeveral ladies with whom he was acquainted, and who would soon be seer travelling along the streets by means ol these machines. It wa3 arranged that th( members should meet on Saturday next foi the purpose of having a " spin." Donations consisting of bundles of ole linen from Mrs. Scales and Misa Woodman and a number of woollen shawls from Mrs Batkin for the use of the patients, are thank fully acknowledged by the Hospital authorities. Speaking of the memorable Manners-streei fire, which resulted in the total destruotioi of the Opera House, one gentleman— Mr. J Petheriok, jun. — expressed his belief at th( insurance meeting held at the Arcade lasi night, that " the fire was not accidental." He referred to two mysterious persons — whose names were not mentioned— who, he stated had been seen in the building under sna picious circumstances just prior to the out break of the fire. These persons, he said were not far off, and could easily be laid hole of. Probably Mr. Petberick did no i realist the serious nature of the statement at th< time he made it. In any case he is to b< condemned for the injudicious utterance Either the fire was not accidental, as he says — in which case it »vaa his bounden dutj to place in the possession of the polio authorities the circumstances whioh ma] have led him to this conclusion— or he hai given public expression to a mere rumoui founded on hearsay testimony, a course which cannot be too strongly deprecated The following persons are gazetted m having been elected for the several wards o: the Featherston Highway District :— Henrj Humphrey Jackson, Grey town ; Jamei Donald, Featherston ; Alfred Matthews Western Lake; William Edward Bidwell Kahautara ; Edward E. Martin, Whare kaka; Duncan M'Dougall, Turanganui Edward Joshua Riddiford, East Coast. Th< Board is elected for a term of three years. It may not be generally known that then is a clause (No. 167) in the new Licensing Act which runs as follows : — " When it shali bo made to appear in open Court that anj person by excessive drinking of liquor misspends, wastes, or lessens his or her estate or greatly injures his or her health or endangers or interrupts the happiness of his or her family, the Justices presiding in such Court shall by writing under the hands ol any two such Justices, forbid any licensee person to sell to him or her any liquoi for the space of one year, and such Justices or any other two Justices may at the same or any other time in like manner forbid the Belling of any Buch liquor to the saicl drunkard by any such licensed person of any other city, town, or district, to whicli the drunkard shall or may be likely to resor< to the same." The penalty provided for s breach of this section is a sum not exceeding £10. This clause, of course, only comes into force after due notice has been given to the publicans. It will have been noticed from our telegrams that the clause has been brought in force at Dunedin in the oa3e of a man who attempted to commit suicide through drink. It has frequently been stated that Wellington possesses "the biggest wooden building in the world." It seems that it is about to be "capped." The Japanese papers report that a new residence for the Mikado is about to be built at Teddo, which will be entirely of wood, and will cost nearly £1,120,000. There will be, however, a grand reception hall, in which all grand State ceremonies will be performed, which is to be built partly of tiles and partly of wood, at an estimated cost of about £34,000. There was a poor house at the Theatre Royal laßt night, when Cary's Opera Company made their final appearance prior to their departure for Napier in the s.s. Eingarooma to-day. The bill-of-fare consisted of an act each of "The Pirates of Penzance," " Les Cloches de Corneville " and "The Sorcerer." The performance of each of these selections was somewhat similar to previous ones, and do not therefore call for criticism. During the interval between " The Pirates" and 'Lea Cloches," Mr. R. W. Cary, the manager, came before the lights to complain publicly of the treatment the company had received at the hands of the local critics for their representation of " The Sorcerer "on Wednesday night. His remarks are referred to elsewhere. The Wellington Wesleyan Mutual Improvement Society held an open meeting last night, when an easay on Sir Walter Scott was read by Mr. W. J, Dust, and readings and recitations were given by various members of the eociety. As usual, a very pleasant evening was spent. Essays on "Gold" and "Coal" will be given at next week's meeting. The half-yearly social gathering of the Wellington Young Men's Christian Association was held last night at the Athensum Buildings, and was a very pleasant affair. Abont 200 members and frienda sat down to an excellent tea, and when this had been disposed of thoae present adjourned to another room, where addresses were delivered by the preddent (Mr. J. G. Holdsworth), the hon. secretary (Mr. C. M. Rosa), the hon. treasurer (Mr. Wells), and the Revs. A. J. Smith and H. B. Redstone.

About 40 boats will take part in the procession intended to inaugurate the boating season to-morrow afternoon, at 3 o'clock, and the affair promises to be attended wioh much success. Mr. Robertson's steamlaunch Te Aro will probably be placed at tho disposal of tho Star Boating Club for tho purpose of conveying the Naval Brigade Band during the procession. The Bishop of Nelson intends paying a visit to England shortly. During hia absence the affairs of the diocese will be managed by the Yen. Archdeacon Mules. The stewards of the Jockey Club have fixed their coming meeting for the 30th November. It so happens that this is the date also fixed for the Mayoral election, and the former event will greatly interfere with the latter. Mr. Andrew Young is the starter of the horses at the Hutt races, but he ia himself a starter in the race for the Mayor's place. How ho will manage to be present in two distant localities at one and tin same time will probably puzzle him a good deal. Attention is called in our advertising columns to the fact that an oil photograph of the lato Mr. Levy was removed from the house without permission on Wednesday last, during the auction sale. Any person having it in bis possession is requested to return it to the auctioneers, Messrs. T. Kennedy Macdonald, & Co. ; failing which, the majesty of the law will be invoked. The Star of Wellington Lodge held its weekly session last evening at the Athenaeum, which was presided over by the W.C.T., Bro. Thompson. A further accession was made to the roll of membership. An interesting address was delivered by Bro. W. Haynes. L.D. of the Hutt Lodge. Several pieces were sung by the sisters. It was announced that an open lodge meeting would take place at 8 o'clock next Thursday, and that the usual session would begin at 7 o'clock. Letters of naturalisation have been issued to Edcrar Josef Alois Eberle, merohant, and Paul Kleeberg, butcher, both of Wellington. In compliance with the request of the Parent Society at Home, the Wellington Sunday School Union has prepared a series of special services to be held during the week commencing Sunday next. Particulars will be found in our advertising columns. We learn from a Southern paper that the Town Clerk of Timaru read a statement at the last meeting of the Borough Council shewing the cost of street-lighting in several cities and boroughs. The cost in Timarn is £1 16s por lamp per annum for an average of eighteen nights per month ; Aehburton, £6 10a for eight months in the year ; Christchurch, X 9 for large lamps and £7 14s for small ones, for the year ; Lyttolton, 6d per lamp per night (the charge for gas being 14s 6d por 1000 ft), kerosene costing 2Jd per lamp per night; Sydenham, eighteen nights per month, iilO each per annum, and kerosene lamps at £6 per annum ; Oamaru, £4- 10s per annum, the works in this case belonging to the borough. To this may be added the result of our inquiries as regards Wellington. There are 181 street lamps in the city, and tho average cost of each for gas is £7 9s lljd per annum. They aro lit and extinguished by employes of the Corporation at a cost of £98 16s per annum. They are lit every night from sunrise, unless there is a moon, when they are lit on the setting of the moon, provided that takes place before midnight. In the event of tho moon rising after midnight the lamps are then extinguished. The Gas Company charge the Corporation 103 6d per 1000 feet. Tho Bpecial correspondent of tho New Zealand Herald thus describes Titokowaru: — " Ho looks active and strong. Ho is rather below the medium size, but wiry ; would not be bad looking if it were not for the loss of one eye. He says should there be fighting tho Maoris would not fight in a body, but Bcour tho country in small bands. For his own part he has had enough fighting, but would go with his people. The old boy's favourite liquor is ginger wine when out, but when at home he likes rum db lib. Some years since he begged sixpence from me, yesterday a shilling ; so great a warrior, s j mean a suppliant ; childlike, so bland in time of peace, blood-thirsty in war, and cunning." A decision given in a case rocontly tried in the Home Courts will be of interest to a large number of people in the colony. Tho owner of a house which was covered by insurance sold it under an agreement which did not refer to the policy. After tho agreement had been signed, but before the sale was completed by payment of the price, the house was burned by fire, and it was decided by the superior Court in England that the seller was entitled to the whole of tho insurance money, and that tho purchaser was liable for the full price, and was not entitled to any part of the money payable under the policy. Referring to the approaching elections and the "Working man cry," the Rangitikei Advocate says :—": — " Now, we take it that nine-tenths of the people of New Zealand are, in the proper sense of tho term, ' working men ' They have not been born with silver spoons in their mouths, but rather with wooden ladles, and all that they possess, whether much or little, has been acquired by their own unassisted efforts as ' working men.' We would give a word of warning to ' working men ' of all grades — Beware of the politician who comes forward as tho champion of the ' working man ;' for be sure that, in the words of ' Poor Richard,' he has an axe to grind, and he wants you to turn tho grindstone." A man, named Martin Rusroll, attempt.-d murder and committed suicide in Melbourne recently. Russell lived in Simpson's-road, Collingwood, carrying on business as a draper. A few days ago ho rose about 6 o'clock in tbe morning, and, apparently without provocation, got a heavy stick and commenced to beat his wife violently about the head. The woman ran away and cillod for assistance ; a girl ran in, went into Russell's room, and saw him crouching on the floor with a dagger between his knees, and his throat cut from ear to ear, quite dead. No cause is given for the act, but it is assumed that Russell was mad, ho having been under medical treatment for disease of the brain. Both were respectable people and doing a good business. Messrs. Francis Sidey & Co. will sell tomorrow, furniture, &c. Messrs. Dwan & Co. will Bell to-morrow, jewellery, &c. Mr. George Thomas will soil to-morrow, new potatoes, butter, cheese, &c. Messrs. Croskery, Hasell & Co. will Bell to-morrow, fruit, produce, Ac. Messrs. Laery & Campbell will sell tomorrow, produce, fruit, horses, kangaroo skins, &c. Mr. H. H. Lang will sell to-morrow, feed oats.

Lawn Tennis is now such a favorite pastime and mode of recreation that attire suitable for it becomes a necessity. James Smith, Te Aro House, has just received per mail steamer, a select assortment of Lawn Tennis Hats, in cream, pale blue, Royal blue, scarlet, cardinal pink, brown, and mottled. For garden parties, games of croquet, and lawn tennis, nothing is so becoming and charming ns the Japanese bunshades, just impoited. 'Ihese are in universal use in the Old Country, and being exceedingly pretty, novel and inexpensive, should, as the quantity is but limited, meet with a ready sale. For Lawn Tennis Dresses nothing can Burpass a beautiful make of diagonal twilled cream serge. For perfection oi finish and durability this material is unrivalled, and can be obtained at James Smith's, Te Aro Hodse.— FAdvt." 1 , Graves & Fleming have opened one case of Pompadonr Prints, at 4-£ d per yard, which will be on sale on Saturday. They are beautiful patterns, and warranted to wash, as each piece has been tested. Also, Ribbons, Laces, Scarf Hose, Childrens' Sox, Gloves, and- new Dress Goods, of all descriptions, at unusually low prices ; Black Velvet Ribbons, 9d and Is per piece, best quality. The ladies of Wellington are cordially invited to Graves & Fleming's on Saturday, and during ensuing w?ek.— [Advt.] An Apology.— Graves & Fleming take this opportunity of apologising to those ladies who went out of their premises daring the week without being served owing to press of customers, and they wonld ask the special favour of another call from them, when every attention will be paid them. — [Adtt.] ___________