LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Evening Star, Issue 6478, 20 December 1883, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tne Corporation baths at Port Chalmers were formally opened on Tuesday, The baths are 142ffc by 130ffc, and the depth at high water ranges from 13£ ft to 6ft, and every comfort for b.ithers has been provided. Invitations wero sent to the members of the City Council, but, owing to the shortness of the notice, only Cr Dick was able to put iu an appearance. At half-past three o'clock the Mayor (Mr Dodson), accompanied by Cra Murray, Allen, Law, Schumacher, and Hercus, went to the baths, where a good many persons had assembled, and His Worship, in explaining the steps that had led the Borough Council to establish baths, said that their necessity was generally felt, and it was hoped that they would serve the double purpose of affording cleanliness and pleasant recreation. Those who had opposed their erection would, he felt sure, soon come to see that thoy were a benefit to the town and likely to prove a source of revenue to the Borough. He regretted the unavoidable absence of the Mayor and City councillors of Dunedin, who would have had an opportunity of seeing the accommodation these baths afforded. Cr Murray, as chairman of the Baths Committee, said the baths would have been erected years ago if there had b«en a road to the site ; and Cr Allen expressed the hope that tho Eailway Department would be able to issue to the Dunedin people season tickets, which would include bathing at the Port. Cr Dick replied on behalf of the City Council, and expressed his belief that these baths would attract many people to the Port. The Mayor and some of the councillors then donned bathing costume and had a dip in the briny. The Port people are to be congratulated on the acquirement of a comfortable bathing-house. The drought in the Macquarie district (N.S.W.) has caused a terrible destruction of sheep; One squatter carted 10,000 out of tho sheds, and had them burned, besides losing thousands of others he could never get in. The ' Colao Herald' hear 3 that a gentleman who recently died near Geelong, and supposed to be worth L 400,000, made a free fitb of all his property to hi 3 children beforo is death, and thus avoided a legacy duty of something like L 40,000. In a leading article on the annexation 'resolutions .'it the Sydney Convention tho 'Age' says:—"What we regret in the feeling that is now displayed at Sydney is the evil augury for the future. IfQueens:, land aud New South Wales wish to exclude tho islauds other than New Guinea from the discussions, because New Zealand is more interested in them than the continental colonies, that iu itself points to the exclusion of New Zealand from federal union at some future date. The evident concert of Queensland and New South Wales is also suspicious. It looks as if there might be a natural division hereafter on this continent, like that of North and South, or of East mid W|st, In America. New South Wales and Qiffiensland have a character of their own, \wiich ia unlike that of the western colonic!" Goinf from home for news we find the followilig in Saturday's ' Oamaru Mail' : lialani in. this town know Mr M'Gregor, the map of the Isabella Anderson, and they, will taprefore learn with pleasure of a noteworthy incident iu which he was the chief aotor lesterday, at the Jetty .street wharf, Dunefin. The particulars of the affair have been forwarded to us-vouched for by two mastefß of vessels. It seems that on going on b#ird his vessel yesterday morning he founofpicre three stowaways who had rau awayarom a- ship in port, and who were evidentl| determined to get away in tho Isabella Andcifcon. They became vory abusive, and on bofeg ordered a?horo were not disposed to ttompK with the order, but Mr M'Gregor was tifual to the- occasion, and helped them on thl way in on unmistakeablo manner. He foiowed them on to the wharf, and here what might have proved a very serious affair occurjid. The men assailed Mr M'Gregor, but hJis, as those who know him aro aware, a rouffli customer with...whom'.to play.at fisticuffs. Hia assailants soon discovered

that they had met the wrong man, and one of them drew his knifo. cut he was not given time to use it, for a well-directed blow upon the face felled the fellow, and the others then took to their heels, Mr M'Gregor, who, our informants say, acted with considerable coolness and pluck, did not receive a scratch,"

The recent dispute regarding the proposed Ormond Working Men's College at Melbourne has been amicably settled, and Mr Ormond now agrees to build the college at a cost of L 22,500 if L 5,000 is subscribed by the public, During the past year the Royal Humane Society of Australasia granted awards, thirty medals and certificates, for _ saving life, and received fifty-five applications for the same, The Society now possess seventyfive stations in Australia and New Zealand. In consideration of the services rendered during the past year by the servants of the Bank of New South Wales, the directors of that institution have awarded a bonus ot 10 per cent, on the salary of each of the officers stationed in New Zealand. The aggregate amount of the bonus iB something considerable.

Charles John Smyth, the confidential clerk in nn Auckland banking-house who levanted With 1.1,000, hiß not been tent back to Auckland for trial. He lies in Melbourne dangerou&ly ill. The deputation from the Christchurch Chamber of Commerce, which had an intervie \v with the Minister for Public Works on Monday re railway rates, brought up the question of a night train between Dunedin and Christchurch. Mr Maxwell replied that it would cost L 24.000 or L 25,000 a-year to run such a train. Mr Mears suggested one such train a week, and also that ou one day a week each way a train should run, calling only at the larger stations, and thus shorten the journey by two or three hours. The Archbishopric of Sydney has been successively assigned by the voice of rumor to a brother of the late Archbishop Vaughan, to Dr Tynan, and to Monsignor Capel. The first-named has been a notorious failure as an ecclesiastical superior in the North of Scotla*d. Of Dr Tynan nothing is known except the fact that he enjoyed the doubtful privilege of being secretary to the lata Cardinal Cullen ; whilst as to Monsignor Capel it is impossible to believe that his ecclesiastical superiors will consider him suitable. That if he could last he would be one of the most popular publio men who ever entered New South Waleß I (London correspondent of the ' Ago') make no doubt. At first he would be certain of exciting a furore, but then there would always be the chance of his being found out at the Antipodes as ho has been by his co-religionists here. A paragraph which he himself probably inspired states that were he nominated to Sydney a wealthy Catholic peer would be preparod to discharge the liabilities wbioh the Monsignor incurred in connection with the Kensington College fiasco, and which still hung heavily round him. The Catholic peer is of course Lord Bute, whom it is the Monsignor's chief boast that he brought into the Church. The statement is, however, in all probability as little reliable as too many of the figments to which the Monßi'guor, when cornered, commits himself. Lord Bute looks on his former guide and quondam chaplain with anything but a loving eye, and, if report speaks truly, dismissed him from the post of keeper of his conscience in a very abrupt way, i and with not a little contumely. It iB not for mo to pry into the scandals of the Roman Catholic Church, but it is no secret that Cardinal Manning has refused to give the Monsignor any clerical employment within the diocese of Westminster, and this not, it is said, without weighty cause. It is asserted by somo of Monsignor Capel'a friends that the opposition of Cardinal Manning to the once most popular pulpit orator in London arisea from jealousy, and from a convert's antipathy to a born Catholio ; but those who know the Cardinal best know him not to be the sort of man to act from spiteful motives of the kind. The Monsignor has had the first say at Rome, and Cardinal Manning admits that he himself is not so influential with Leo as he was with Pio Nono; and yet, with both these advantages in his favor, the Monsignor has not been able to extort from the Vatican any censure of the Cardinal's attitude towards himself. It is not likely, therefore, that Pope Leo will appoint the Monsignor to the Southern See which he so much covets as giving a new stamp to his orthodoxy and his influence, especially as Cardinal Manning is now at Rome, and i 3 sure to be consulted on the matter. The New South Welshmen are evidently eore over the commanding position occupied by the Victorian delegates at the recent Convention. In tho course of a debate in the Sydney Assembly on the 13th inst. Mr Cameron characterised tho speech of the Victorian Premier on his return as an insult to New South Waleß in particular, and to every truth-loving Australian, as it was misleading, and calculated to give rise to a false impression relative to the positions of New Suuth Wales and Victoria. It was not true, as Mr Service assorted, that New South Wales was jealous of Victoria, and it ill became him to stir up strife between the colonies, seeing that he was an advocate of federation, and had talked nioro bunkum on that subject than any twenty men. Several speakers reprobated the action of ths Victorian delegates in making the proceedings; of the Convention public. Mr Allan M'Donald gives a flat contradiction to the statement that he had offered to resign his seat in favor of Mr Ormond. Ho intends to contest the East Coast electo rate against all comers at the general election. sssaacßsssgasa^