The Evening Star SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1884.

Evening Star, Issue 6762, 29 November 1884, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1884.

Our supplement tc-day contains an article on the moa, literary lines, scientific notes, and a quantity of selected matter. Out of the vote of LBOO for district prizefiring Oamaru receives LsolSs6d ; Danedin, Ll3B 9s_2d ; Invercargill, L 45 las ; and the Lakes, L 23 lis lid.

O-sprey testifiers are springing up all over the Colony. At the Bluff resido two ex-Geelongese, who declare that in 1849 a ship named the Osprey, hailing from Liverpool, waa lying at tl »"> port.

A death from lock-jaw occurred lately in Sydney. J. Lee, a young man, trod on a nail, which was extracted from his foot without difficulty. Pain set in; he went to Sydney hospital, where lockjaw supervened, and he died within two days after the injury.

The London 'Spectator' recently published an account of a pamphlet in which the German General Von der Goltz maintains that in the next invasion of France cavalry must be employed on a great scale, and that serious battles of cavalry and horse artillery only may be expected. This (observed the ' Spectator' in its comments) is known to bo the viow favored by the ccientific German staff; and tho 'Times' described the great m uwuvres going on near Cologne, in which tho Ithineland a«:d Westpha'.ian Corps d'Armee are engaged. They were remarkable ior the groat position assigned to the cavalry, which, cu the first day. had the who!" of the w<,rk to do, not a rifle being find, s«.nd the whole of the infantry being employed in " mere strategical niarajuvriug." I', is known, moreover, that one gnat reliance of the Russian staff againßt invasions by Germany is on the great numbers of cavalry they habitually keep ready for concentration in Poland. The Germans cannot rival them in this arm. If this view is correct, the revival cf cavalry campaigning will greatly increase the expense of armies and the calamities of war. Cavalry can never be cheap, even in a conscript service; and a mass cf cavalry moving in an enemy's territory must desolate it. It cannot keep up the needful speed and carry stpres, and must, thorefore, live by requisitions, which, when tho number of horsemen rise high, blight a district like a flight of locusts,

It is proposed to establish a Parliamentary Uuiou at Lawrence,

Mr J. N. Wood, ±1 M. of Lawrence, has been granted six months' leave of absence. The buckets of the big dredge, whieh were sunk on the bar, have now been all recovered.

A poll was taken at Outram yesterday with regard to the proposal to have a water supply, and the undertaking was declared against, At the Port Chalmers Police Court this forenoon, George Hall, charged with drunkenness, was discharged. Mr J. Mill, J.P., occupied the Benoh, Waring Taylor, whoso bankruptcy at Wellington a short time ago created such a sensation, has been committed for trial on the first oharge of fraud preferred against him. The house of Staff-sergeant Harrison, of the Volunteer Force, waa destroyed by firo at Caversham this morning. It was a fiveroomed tenement, and was insured for L&00 with the Standard Company. Nothing but the piano was saved. The vital statistics for Dunedin for the month of November are: —Birthß, 137; deaths, 57; marriages, 42. For tha corresponding month of last year they were— Births, 154 ; deaths, 35 ; marriages, 41. At the City Police Court today Patrick M'Clusker and Peter Crawford were fined 10s, and Joseph Hughes, 20a, with tho usual alternatives of imprisonment, for drunkonness, Mestrs J. Logan oiid A. Uennie, J. P. s, presided. In oonsequenco of notion taken by Mr H. Richardson, instructions have boon given to the Audit Department to investigate the accounts of tho North east Valley Borough, under the provisions of tho 3!kd suction if the Public Revenues Aut. Tho proceeding will not entail any i xponso on tho ratepayers. A fire was discovered to havo broken out in the tailoring department of Messrs Saunders and Co., Princes street, this afternoon, but as it had not obtained much hold it was easily extinguished. How it occurred is not known, Au alarm was given and the Fire Brigade turned out, but there was no need for their assistance.

Mr W. E. Shury has been appointed deputy-registrar of marriages, births, and deaths for the district of Gabriels; Mr J. B. Bradßhaw, M.H.R., as a member of the Otago Land Board; and Mr George Mair as ranger of Crown lands, Otago. Captain E. F. Diehl, of the Otepopo Rifles, has been transferred to the unattached list with the rank of major.

A movement is on foot te expunge all traces of English conquest in Dublin by substituting Irish for English names to the streets. A motion will be brought forward in the Dublin Corporation to name the bridges after Irish kings or chieftains, and the quays after Irishmen who have fought for liberty in other lands than Ireland. The leading streets of Dublin are at present named after English statesmen. A most extraordinary prosodution under the Licensing Act is reported from Fiilding. Mr M, K. Samuel, a publican, had an argument with a customer as to whether a Certain word was to be found in tho dictionary. The discussion resulted in a bet of L 5, and on reference to tho dictionary Mr Samuel was declared the winner. An information was then laid against him for using his licensed house for the purpose of betting with persons resorting thereto. The case has not yet been heard. An English paper by the last mail has the following:—" The opposition to the Vaccination Act at Leicester, it is reported, has become so strong that the law cannot bo carried out, and about 3,000 people are waiting to be summoned. The Local Government Board has been applied to for advice under the circumstances. Meantime smallpox has been introduced from London, and, singularly enough, all the persons suffering have been vaccinated. The authorities hope by isolation to stamp out the disease." A Big Thing in Bets.—A Pennsylvania capitalist offered to bet a miniog property valued at LIOO.OOO, againßt a copper works, valued at L 125.000, that Blaine would be elected. The necessary documents were to be properly signed and given to a stakeholder pending the result. Probably if the e figures were reduced one-fifth they w. uld be nearer the mark, but even with that scaling down the bet is royal in its proportions. The fishing conteat for the gold medal and trophy offered by the Otago Acclimatisation Society and the Anglers' Atsociation, took place at Waipahi yesterday. Mr W. Fraser, of Lovells Flat, caught nine fish, weighing 131b 9oz, and wins the first prize, while Mr S. Thomson, who showed seven fish, of a total weight of 121b 4oz is entitled to the second, Mr W. Aitkon caught two fish weighing 61b, and there were three other competitors. A severe test of official integrity was recently witnessed in a criminal court in the County of Limerick, where the Judge eat in judgment in a case against his own son for felony, and sentenced him to five years' penal servitude. The young man had, at one time, been Sub-Sheriff of the County, and bad afterwards been allowed an ample income by his father, though it proved insufficient for his extravagant requirements. To force further supplies, he resorted to various vicious practices, among them attributing to his own father the most infamous and abominable offences, for which his after excuse was a diseased state of mind. The father did his duty with a courage and fairness that parallels the sternness of the old Romans.

At the quarterly meeting of the Christchurch Chamber of Commerce yesterday the president (Mr J. Cooke), in his address, said that a more hopeful feeling pervaded the commercial community. Prices at the local wool sales contrasted favorably with those of last year. He stated that, despite the heavy loss through wet weathor, and the export of over 100,000 carcasses of frozen mutton, the sheep in Canterbury on May 31 numbered 4,251,739—an increase of 228,011 over la3t year. Ho thought Canterbury could easily maintain an export of 150,000 frozen sheep yearly. There was a reduction of about one-third in area under wheat cultivation in Canterbury, and ho felt hopeful that, as it was doubtless much the same elsewhere, prices would not continue depressed on account of over-supply. Since January 1, ISB4, 123,000 frozen sheep had been exported from Lyttelton. Resolutions were passed urging reductions in railway charges on the Lyttelton-Christchurch line and in grain rates, also requesting Government to take the increased duty off binder twine.

If the facts stated below by a Christchureh paper are correct, the Edison telepheno now in use in this Colony will soon be a thiug of the paßt, Mr Frank Hebden, a telegraph engineer, recently from England, and now residing in Christchureh, has just applied for a patent for a new telephone which he has invented, and which is certainly an immense improvement on the instrument now generally used in this Colony. In Mr Hebden's instrument the mouthpiece ia moveable just as the ear-piece is in the ordinary instrument, and the latter does not require to be pressed close to the ear, aa the faintest whisper over the line can be heard quite distinctly with the receiver held a couple of feet away. The first real trial of Mr Hebden'a invention was made recent'y on a private line between Christchureh and Lyttelton, and the results fairly astonished all who were present. The slightest whisner in any part of the room at Lyttelton couid be distinctly heard in Christchureh, and even the scratching of the pen of a person writing several feet away from the iuuu'ument was distinctly audible. There was i.one of the blur and clicking noise which is so disagreeable with the ordinary instrument, and the universal v..roV.:t '■! all present was thoft Mr Hebden's telephone waa immcasureabiy superior to the American one. The U.S S. Company showed their conviction by at once ordering instruments to be affixed to their private line between Christchureh and Lyttelton, and several other Christchureh firms who own private lines have followed the example. We understand that Mr Hebden is about to visit Wellington to offer his invention to the Government, and we trust that, if it is found to bo really as good as its trials heretofore have shown it to be, the Government will como to terms with the inventor for its general use. The instruments can all be made in the Colony, and at a very small coat.

Leith Lodge, 1.0.0. F., meet on Tuesday next,

A Eot'cD to the Wakarl Bln\>s appears in this Issue.

Operative Baktra' Association meet on Tuesday nezt. Pioneer Lodge, No. 1, 1.0.0. F., meet on Tuesday evening. South D!str'.ot R n-u hold a danoa at Green Island on Monday ntglit. A telephone bureau has been opened at the Town Qouncll offices, Oaverebam. ■ No. 1 Bianch of Amalgamated Soolety of Journeymen Tailors meet on the Bth December The dogleg clasi meeting In Farley's Hall with their ft lends will hold a plonlo on Monday at Q larantlne Island. The Primitive Methodist publlo soiree and Baziar will be held in St. John's Oburoh, York plaoe, on Tuesday evening Alter the tea the sale of good* will oommenoe. A cricket match will be played on the Caledonian Qround on Monday between an eleven representing the Pboeitx 0 0. and an eleven of the Oarhbrook 0.0. Play will oommenoe at 11 a m, We have to rirrilnd our readers that Woodyear's Circus opens on tbe Market Beierve, Prlno«s street south, to-night The oompany have just ootnpleted a highly successful tour of New Mouth Wales. In the Resident Magistrate's Oourt yesterday the oaw of F. W. Holworthy v. H, Bower, a claim of Lll 84 6d on a judgment summons was dhmltsod, Messrs Fitohett and Mouat ap pearedfortho plaintiff and defendant respectively. The Dunedin Iron and Woodware Oompany hold their annual plonlo at Wittati on Monday A spool .1 train will leave the Dunedin Railway Station at 8.40, and oall at lUvensbourne. The Noith Dunedin Rifles Band will be In attendance, and a very pleasant day's outing should bo »pottt by the employs and their friends. The anniversary servloes in connection with the Trinity Church Sunday sohool will be hi id to-morrow. Tho Bov. J. Cope, of Tasmania, and the Bov. H. Bath, president of the Victorian V7o»loyan Conference, will oondaotthe servloes. The children will lead the slngiog with hymns specially selected and praotlsed for tho ooosslon,

Plenty of sport Is provided for those whi rauke holiday on Monday. There fre the D.J 0. races at the Forbmy; an cxourslon by the Kakannl to tbe Kolk} an oxcunlon by rail and steamer to Quarantine Maud; and tho Fair of All Nations; whllo in tbe evening there are the performances at the Prlnoass'a Theatre and the Cirous.