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Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2042, 20 November 1869, Page 2

A Blank Day.—There was no business transacted at the Resident Magistrates Court to-day. Acclimatisation. —Letters were received at Nelson by the last inafl; announcing that a number of hares and partridges had been shipped for the Nelson Acclimatisation Society in the John Bunyan. Volunteers. —The Artillery, Naval, and First Batta'ion will, under general orders, parade for battalion drill in front of the Custom House on Wednesday next at 7 p.m. The band will be in attendance.

The Speritendent. We understand that his Honor the Superintendent, accompanied by Captain Fraser, left town on Wednesday on a visit to Cromwell and the other goldfields towns. He will be away about ten days. The Glass Blowers. —Mr and Mrs Woodrooffe, the American glass blowers, after a successful tour in the Clutha district, have returned to Dunedin en route for Oamaru, where they expect to open for a week on Thursday. We do not doubt that the interest manifested wherever they have been will be equally excited there, and this interesting exhibition will be well supported. The Municipal Election. The approaching election for a councillor for Bell ward in the room of Mr John Simpson resign- d is likely to be warmly contested. There are already in the field, Mr Benjamin Bagley, wi o represented the ward about tv o years ago, and Mr Carroll of the Hibernian Hotel, Octagon. The names of Mr Wordland and .Vir John Baines, the present Inspector cf City Works, have beeu mentioned as likely candidates. Soiree. —Last evening a very pleasant soiree was held at the Waikari Schoolhouse ; Mr George Hepburn was in the chair The meeting was addressed by the Lev, W. L. Alves, and Messrs J. HMop, John Gillies, John Hay, and, A. fl. Ross. The tables were bountifully furnished by the ladies, to whose efforts much of the success o i the meeting is attributable. Mr Baird, assisted by several vocalists, took charge of the musical arrangements, which wore very ably carried out, A dance brought the meeting to a conclusion. Princess Theatre.—There was a fairly attended house last evening, when the drama of “Hearts are Trumps,” and the burlesque of “The Maid and the Magpie,” were presented. In the burlesque Miss Jenny Nye made a charming Ninetto, and Miss Fordo sang some beautiful songs in her, usually excellent manner. This evening’s programme comprises “Benthe Boatswain” and “The Maid and the Magpie.” Mayor’s Court. —The Mayor’s Court is to held in that portion of the police barracks, Maclaggan street, formerly occupied by Messrs Ms ßon and Clayton, architects. The Courtroom is ,<jn the ground floor, and is of a considerable size; bgt the great defect is want of light The fitting# y/fll be put in next week, and in making the arrangements, the defect above mentioned should be remedied. The City Council advertise for ■ andidates for the office of clerk to the bench, for which a salary of L2UO a year is offered.

Thomson's Road Steamer.—A wellknown engineer in England writes to a friend in Kelson with regard to these engines, as follows : —One of Thompson’s road steamers, of six-horse power, and weighing six tons, has been working regularly for the last three months. It runs four times a day through the streets of Aberdeen, and and out to the Tullooh mills. The distance is three and a-half miles, which it accomplishes in an hour. The road is considered about the worst in the kingdom, as besides being narrow and crooked, the gradients for onehalf the distance vary from one in nine to one in seven and a-half. Up this acclivity the engine takes its Lead pf ten tons of flour with the most perfect ease. It has pow run about a thousand miles, and does its work so steadily and equably that it delights all concerned with it. A gentleman who has since ordered an engine, told us lately that when the Aberdeen engine was first started, he privately scratched his initials on one of the indiarubber tires with his ) eknife, and that on examining it recently he found it sti 1 there, whick proves that the surface of the indiarubber does not wear away at all, The tires are protected by flexible, open, at- el chains, which do not interfere at all with the elastic action of the indiarubber, and which give a most perfect bite on the road. Du*ipg the past fortnight very interesting experiments have been made almost daily with two of Mx Thompson’s road steamers of six horse power each. Two Italian engineers came to Edinburgh to see them op behalf of the South Italian Railway

Company, on whose lines a gap occurred which necessitates the conveyance of passengers and goods over a mountain through which a tunnel is being bored. Another visitor was Major Skinner, Chief Commissioner of Roads in Ceylon. He is consideicd one of the greatest authorities on road and traffic, and has been requested by Government to make a report on the road steamer. I will now only mention two of the various achievements of the road steamers during the past week. One of these six-horse engines took a load of thirty-four tons up a road with gradients of from one in eighteen to one in thirty-five ; and the other took a party in an omnibus from Granton to Leith —the distance being two and three-quarter miles—in twenty minutes. Each engine weighed six tons. The three gentlemen whom I have named and several others all went down to Aberdeen to see the road steamer there at work, and were delighted with its performances. Major Skinner said to me, ‘ I came down here determined to be very critical, and to take nothing upon faith, and now I can only say I am delighted. It is perfection.’ ” Port Molyneux.—A correspondent of the Bruce Standard, writing under date the 15th says;—Mr Balfour, the General Government Engineer, inspected the works at the Nuggets on Saturday last, and expressed himself as satisfied wi;h the substantial manner in which the works were being carried out. Stone steps are recommended to be laid down on the steep part of the road leading to the lighthouse, and two acres of bush to be cleared in the vicinity of the dwelling-house, for the convenience of the lighthouse keeper. It is sincerely to be hoped that the engineer will recommend the improvement in the line of road at Kaukau Point, as it is impassable eight months out of the year for wheeled vehicles. Messrs Gray and M'Glashan have undertaken to finish the contract, Mr Pearce, the original contractor, not being in a position to finish it. It is intended to have everything completed and a light in the tower on tJie first day of March next.—A large seal was seen on Sunday last playing about in the sea at the Nuggets. One of the men sent a rifle bullet through it, b it the shot app:ared to have no effect upon its progress in the water. Four of the men went to the bottom of the cliffs, and in penetrating one of the large caverns, found the seal taking a rest, and bleeding very much from the bullet wound. It immediately made for the water. Mr Wilson, of Puerua, ran on to a narrow reef towards the mouth of the cave, to intercept the seal from taking to the water. The seal with open mouth ran straight at Mr Wilson, who could not get out of its way, on account of the deep water on each side of him. He struck it on the neck with a stick, when it seized him by the leg. His trousers were torn in two places, the leg of his boot cut through, and a flesh wound made in the calf of his leg. The suddenness of the attack and the narrowness of the reef caused Mr Wilson to fall over head and ears in the water, the quick jerk clearing Mr Wilson’s leg from the seal’s mouth. After the drenching, Mr Wilson was congratulated on his escape from being worried and drowned, and was asked what he thought during the attack. “ He thought the cratur’ ud keep it’s hand, and drag him into the sea,” The seal made its escape. Intemperance. At the annual Synod of the Church of England, held recently .at Christchurch, the Very Rev. the Dean of Christchurch read a paper on this subject. Referring to the means that ought to be taken to suppress the increasing trade in liquors, he said, “Why not join til® Alliance, and strive with them to procure the adoption of the Permissive Bill, which would give power to two-thirds of the ratepayers in any district, to prohibit absolutely, within such district, all sale of intoxicating liquors for any but medicinal purposes ? Well, the very title of that association is sufficient to alarm very many, and cause ihem to fear that the zeal of its promoters has outrun their discretion. It is styled ‘The United Kingdom Alliance, to procure the total and immediate Legislative Suppression of tho Traffic in Intoxicating Liquors, as Beverages. ’ Purely this is altogether too rash and too sweeping; the fiercejpegs and pugnacity of its tone provokes opposition, and prejudices the mind against the efforts and arguments of the Body which brandishes such a threatening title-p‘ge before our face l . Why not try something more practicable, something more really effectna’, something (it may be) more just and equitable than this “total and immediate suppression?” I cannot pretend to enter into any exhaustive argument on the question, but I will state briefly what appear to me to fee very grave objections, to say the least, against even that mildest and most plausible of all the repressive measures which have been proposed, I mean the Permissive Bill. It involves a serious encroachment on the liberty of the sober and pe£ ceable citizen who may not agree with it, and would afford a dangerous precedent for many other conceivable acts of tyranny on the part of a maiority over a minority of the population. Again, like the laws of Draco, its very severity, where carried out, would provoke a re-action. Thirdly, it would be pretty sure to lead, as the Maine Liquor Law has been found to do, to a secret and illicit traffic, and to innumerable evasions. Lastly, it would be unequal, and therefore unjust, in its effects ; it would be introducing one law for tho rich, and another for the poor ; for the rich or well to-do person, who can lay in his stock of drinkables from other quarters, would be practically untouched by such a law, which would be most oppiessive in its effects upon tho woikiug man, who could not obtain a pint of beer or a battle of porter for himself or his wife, however much they might need it. It is very possible, however, that those objections may not appear so forcible to others as they do to me ; or they may think that, however forcible, they gre overborne by considerations of yet greater moment; therefore I hope that, if the course should be adopted which I am about to propose, the plan of the Alliance would receive a full and dispassionate consideration. I am not about to propound any nostrum or panaeva of my own, but simply to propose the adoption of a course which, if taken up with zeal and carried out with perseverance, would lead, I believe, to many practical good results. I propose, in short, a similar course to that which was taken two years ago with respect to the social evil question. That movement was productive of good results in more ways than one, which I have not now time to particularise; it served as a salutary check at the time, and it led to legislation afterwards; it stimulated also, if it did not originate, the useful efforts which have since been made amongst us for social improvement and entertainment. I propose that a committee should bo formed, of men

who have given much thought to this subject, or who have special experience of the evils of intemperance, and of the working of the laws by which the liquor traffic is at present regulated ; and that they should earnestly and carefully consider, with a view to subsequent action, the best means to bo adopted for checking, and counteracting this great mischief, so far as this object is attainable. The committee might divide itself, as the Social Evil Committee did, into two or more sub-committees ; one of which should consider what means are available, and within our reach at the present t me, whether of a legal or of a moral and social character, for the repression of drunkenness, the reformation of the druudard, and the encouragement of temperance; while another should devote itself to the enquiry as to what reforms and amendments should be aimed at in the laws which affect the Liquor Traffic, the Granting of Licenses, and the Regulation of Public Houses. ffrmTTERXANDEZ. The following bit of information will be of interest th« workL-aver: —At a distance of less than a three days voyage from Valparaiso in Chili, and. nearly in tile same latitude witla tills important port on the Western Coast of South America, is the island of Juan Fernandez, where once upon a time Alexander Selkirk during a solitary banishment of four years, gathered the material for Defoe’s “ Robinson Crusoe,” This island, little thought of by the inhabitants of the Chilian coastland, has lately become of some interest by the fact that in December, 1868, it was ceded to a society of Germans, under the guidance of Robert Webrhan, an engineer, from Saxony, Germany, for the purpose of colonisation. The entrepreneur of this exp-dition, Robert Wehrnan, left Germany eleven years sinee, passed several years in England, served as major through the war of the republic against secession, and was subsequently engaged as engineer with the Ceropnsco Rail, in South America. He and his society, about sixty or seventy individuals, have taken possession of the which is described as being a most fertile and lovely spot. They found there countless herds of goats ; some 30 halfwild horses, and CO donkeys, the latter proving to be exceedingly shy. They brought with them cows and other cattle, swine, numerous fowls, and ail the various kinds of agricultural implements, with boats and fishing apparatus, to engage in different pursuits and occupations. The grotto, made famous as Robinson’s abode, situated in a spacious valley, covered with large fields of wild turnips—a desirable food for swine—has been assigned to the hopeful young Chilian gentleman, to whom the cure of the porciue part of the society’s stock has beon entrusted, and he and his protects are doing very well in their new quarters. Juan Fernandez is one of the stations where whaling vessels take in water and wood.— Home News.

We notice that the steamer Golden Age proceeds to Port Chalmers to morrow (Sunday) afternoon, at 2.30, to meet passengers per Phoebe and Claud Hamilton. If the weather keep fine, this will be a pleasant trip. It is announced that the sixth anniversary of the Pioneer Lodge (No. 1), A 1.0.0. F., will be celebrated by a supper, to be held at Wain’s Old Masonic Hall on Tuesday next, at eight o’clock.