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Evening Star, Issue 7237, 13 June 1887, Page 2

A number of leading important houses have made a joint requisition to the Commissioner of Customs for the appointment of Mr Chamberlain to succeed Mr Hackworth as Collector of Customs at Dunedin. An Auckland gentleman is endeavoring to ascertain from lovers of music in Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin if there is any chance of obtaining a joint guarantee for a New Zealand tour by Simonsen’s Italian Opera Company. The Railway Board Bill introduced into the New South Wales Parliament by the Parkes Government provides for the ap pointment of three Commissioners for a term of seven years, and gives the Ministry the power of suspending the Board without the authority of Parliament. In the Resident Magistrate’s Court at Wellington on Friday three employes of the Wellington Meat Company were charged with an infringement of the Stamp Act in not stamping the paysheet as a receipt for wages. The Magistrate (Mr Wardell) disagreed with the decision recently given in a similar case at Chaistchurch by Mr Beetham, and held that it was a money paymentand did not como within the exemption provided by the Act. Each defendant was fined LI and costs. A Greymouth telegram to the Christchurch ‘Press’ states that complaints are coming in from some of the men employed on the Midland Railway by the sub-con-tractors. It is alleged that the truck system has been introduced on some contracts, and men who do not deal at certain stores are discharged. The men state that while the wages are eight shillings per day they do not average more than four days a week, and that provisions are at such a price that a man cannot very well keep himself on less than eighteen shillings a week. The latest novelty in swelldom at Boston (U.S.), is a Greek dinner. The table was decorated with garlands of roses, and the centre ornament was a Grecian lyre with golden strings. Tho floral decorations of the rooms were garlands of roses, and the walls wore hung with rugs. Couches were placed at intervals throughout the room. The guests sat on great chairs covered with rugs, and each wore a wreath of laurel tied with purple ribbon. The menu was written in Greek, and among the dishes were wild boar, roast kid, and hare. An intermission of half an hour took place at about the middle of the dinner, when burning Oriental drinks were served in silver tankards. At the Christchurch Police Court on Friday, James Anderson, who is described as a young man of respectable appearance, was charged with stealing a sealskin bag containing L 6 10s in money and a cheque for L 5 Os lid. On the morning of the 7th inst. ithe wife of Mr G. F. Martin, manager of the National Mortgage and Agency Company, was driving from her home at Fen dalton to Christchurch, and lost a sealskin bag which contained the money and a crossed cheque. They were found by prisoner, who lost no time in going into Christchurch and purchasing goods. At a hatter’s he presented the crossed cheque, and stated that he knew by whom it was drawn. Next day, when arrested by Detective O’Connor, he said: “I was looking in Mr Nashelski’s window when a man came up to me and asked me to cash a cheque, I asked him why he did not go to a hotel and cash it ? He said that he did not like to do so, as he feared that he might get drunk and be locked up, as had happened before. I gave him LI for the cheque.” On going to accused’s house his wife handed over Mrs Martin’s purse containing L 9 10s 2d, and prisoner showed the detective where he had hidden tho sealskin bag in a stable. When the bag was produced prisoner admitted that he knew the bag belonged to Mrs Martin, whom he had served with groceries for some time, but pleaded that if he had not been pressed for money he would not have kept it. He had a bit of a mortgage on his property, and he thought that this money would help to pay it off. He was committed for trial.

Mr John George Findlay, LL.B., was today admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand before His Honor Mr Justice Williams. Mr L. E. Cohen, of Christchurch,, passed the barrister’s, and Messrs F.,E. Cobby and C> H. Franks,, alsoof Christchurcb, the solicitors (examination, Mr John Moffett (late .articled,clerk to Mr F. W. Wade, of Invercargill) was also to-day admitted as a barrister and solicitor. Messrs Bing, Harris, and Co. have given a donation of LI 00 to the Christchurch Jubilee Memorial Fund, and intimated that, if the scheme meets with the public support which they consider it deserves, they are prepared to double their subscriptions. At this morning’s sitting of the Resident Magistrate’s Court, before Mr Carew, R.M., the only case heard was a claim by Henry Benjamin v. J. and A. Keogh, of Ll4 17s 6d, pn a promissory note. Mr Stanford appeared for, the jplaintiff, for whom judgment was given for Ll4 10s, with costs. Reuter has been blundering again, and to-day he supplies an ■ important correction of a cablegram received by him on Saturday, It should have read that “owing to the opposition of the Liberal Unionists the Chief Secretary for Ireland has withdrawn from the Crimes Bill, and thp House of Commons agreed to the withdrawal of the provision for the trial in London of persons accused of committing crimes in Ireland.” Now Zealand is soon to be the possessor of a perfume farm. Mr Girling-Butcher, who Is a specialist in such matters, has made arrangements with Mr John Brooks, of Churchill, Waikrto, to start a farm of the kind mentioned on Mr Brooks’s estate. Mr Girling-Butcher is confident that success will crown his efforts, as he believes the climate is suitable for thp production of the required blooms, for which he can find an unlimited market.

Yesterday being the Sunday next after the festival of Corpus Chrisli, there were special ceremonies at St. Joseph’s Cathedral. After vespers, at which there was a densely crowded congregation, Bishop Moran preached, and at the close of the sermon a solemn procession took place, affording a most imposing spectacle. As the procession moved slowly round _ the building hymns wore sung by the choir in the organ loft, and upon the return to the altar the ceremony was ended by the benediction. Tie seventeenth anniversary services in connection with the Trinity Wesleyan Church were held yesterday, and were largely attended. In the morning the Rev. Mr Waddell preached, taking his text from Isaiah, chapter Hi., verse 1: “Awake, awake 1 put on thy strength, O Zion ; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem.” In the afternoon the Rev. J. Beckenham gave an address to the young, and the Rev. W. Morley (pastor of the church) occupied the pulpit in the evening. The collections for the day were in aid of the trust fund account. A two-roomed wooden house owned by Richard Connor, occupied by David Guttler, and situate in Bradshaw street, South Dunedin, was burnt to the ground yesterday afternoon. Mr Guttler was in the house by himself at the time, and he says that lie lay down on the bed and was falling asleep, when he felt something suffocating him. He got up, and found the kitchen full of smoke and the roof on fire close to the chimney. He gave the alarm, and managed to save some of his effects. There was no insurance on either house or furniture. The following members of Parliament journeyed from Christchurch to their homes on Saturday by special train :—Mr Turnbull (Timaru), the Hon. Mr and Mrs Shrimski, Messrs Duncan and Hislop (Oamarn), Mr J. M'Kenzie (Palmerston), Mr J. C. Buckland (Waikouaiti), Messrs W. D. Stewart, D. Reid, and J. W, Thomson (Dunedin), The Hon, Mr Chamberlain, of Auckland, also came through. The train also had three first-class and six secondclass passengers who, of course, paid the ordinary fares. It is the fact, we believe, that the Government undertook that the hon. gentlemen who were passengers by the Penguin should be conveyed to their homes on Saturday by the ordinary train, but, owing to the length of the steamer’s passage, it was found impossible to carry that arrangement out. The questions which the long-suffering taxpayers are likely to demand replies to are : How much did this special train actually cost th.e Department; and why hon. members could not have waited, like some of their fellow-legislators, till to-day’s train ? Preaching at Oamarn yesterday the Rev. A. B. Todd is reported by the ‘ North Otago Times ’ to have drawn attention to the degrading and brutal scone lately witnessed in the Public Hall, when two men engaged in a boxing match until one lay like a dead man on the stage, with disfigured face and covered with blood. He expressed his horror that such scenes should be permitted, and said they ought to be put down by the strong arm of the law. It was a disgrace to the proprietors of the hall that they should let their building for such a purpose. All promoters of such contests, and also those who attended them, were guilty of a great wrong. He earnestly urged his hearers to discountenance them, and induce others to do the same. A Mrs Parkinson, formerly a resident of Opotiki, writes to an Auckland paper, through the Rev. Mr Gow, asserting she has been cured of cancer through the sedulous use of the following prescriptions, and there had been no signs of the return of this fearful disease: “Cancer cure—2oz of sulphur, ioz of quicksilver, loz of cream of tartar, |oz saltpetre. Put into a pint of molasses, stir; take a tablespoonful before going to bed.- For outside applicationone bottle British oil, loz of red precipitate. The sulphur and quicksilver must be thoroughly mixed for a long time in a druggist’s mortar, and then the other ingredients added. I wish, she adds, this could be published in every paper in the land, and that in after years I could have the satisfaction of knowing that many have been saved from horrible suffering and death by its use, and that it may be regarded as a reliable specific.”

The admissions to the Dunedin Hospital last week wore twenty-three and the discharges therefrom twenty. On Saturday there remained 125 inmites. There was one death )Bichard Francis) during the week. We have received a copy of the ‘ Auckland Football Annual’ for 1387. This publication, which contains a large amount of interesting information, was compiled by Mr J. R. Reid, vice-captain, secretary, and treasurer of the Cordon Football Club. As a whole the book is very creditable to the compiler, but the photographs and the price compare very unfavorably with the ‘Otago Rugby Union Football Annual. ’ A large attendance assembled at the Princess’s Theatre on Saturday night to witness the third performance of the Jubilee Misstrels. The “ chair business ” was good, the witticisms of Bones and Sambo evoking much laughter, as did the finale “Branigan’s Band.” In the second part the most successful items were a double song and dance “ I don’t know why,” by Messrs Smith and Dixon, which was encored, and a banjo solo by A. Smith A farce, “Ebenczcr’s Visit to New York,” concluded the programme. Mr G. M. Reed, now editor of the Auckland ‘Bell,’ has avowed tho authorship of tho humorous papers which, under the heading of ‘Calamo Currents, ’ have for some considerable time occupied a prominent place in tho columns of the Auckland ‘Weekly Herald.’ Nearly everybody knows that Mr Reed wields a facile yet vigorous pen, but few, we fancy, were inclined to give him credit for the possession of so much quaint humor. It is exceedingly difficult for any man to keep up this style of writing without running himself out or tiring his readers; but Mr Reed appears to have done neither, and his latest contributions are as pleasant reading as those which constitute the opening chapters of the little volume of his writings, which have just been issued in pamphlet form. The little book is well worth reading, and those who purchase it will at once turn to tho pages in which the author describes how he attained almost world-wide fame by the circulation in English, American, and even Continental papers of his Munchausian invention of-the discovery of tho remains of Noah’s Ark in a glacier on tho slopes of Mount Aararat; how he traces the progress of his wild story, and how quaintly he takes leave of the subject.