The Evening Star TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1891.

Evening Star, Issue 8406, 6 January 1891, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1891.

The Rev. Mr Cotes (not Cowx as stated by us yesterday), of South Yarra (Melbourne), has been appointed to the charge of St. Mary's, Mornington. Mr Ballance'B paper gives circulation to the improbable story that a Beat in the Legislative Council is to be offered to Sir F. IX Bell to induce him to quit the Agent--0 eneralship. A New South Wales magistrate who advised trade unionists to arm themselves with repeating rifles and ammunition, in order to be in a better position to enforce their demands, has received notice from the Premier calling upon him to show cause why he should not be struck off the commission of the peace, as it is held that his words formed an incentive to a Bection of population to rise in armed rebellion against the laws and institutions of the colony. Sims Reeves is willing to visit Australia on a guarantee of twenty concerts at L 5.000, with a deposit of the full amount, or a guarantee of fifty concerts at LIO,OOO, with a deposit of L.5,000. Moreover, if the guarantors prefer a start with him on a season of twenty concerts and then decide to prolong the seaeon to fifty concerts, they have the option of so doing on the terms mentioned in the draft agreement. This agreement is for Australia only, ac the great tenor reserves himself the right of doing New Zealand on his own account. In a recent interview with a New York ' World' reporter Edison is reported to have said of the perfected phonograph that it would some day be used for taking accurate reports of meetings. A person could sit in front of the machine and keep up with the speak into the tube in so low a voice as scarcely to be heard by those near him, and yet the machine could catch every vibration. Mr Edison said he had tried it. At that experiment he had present one of the swiftest stenographers in New York. When the stenographer and the machine subsequently compared notes they were word for word alike.

The Wellington ' Press ' gives the West Coast coal companies a gentle reminder. It says:— "The report of the Royal Commission upon coal mining on the West Coast suggests to our minds the present very high price of coal. The principal coal company has settled the question of wages, and has fixed them at the rate which allowed a profit at the price of coal before the strike. The strike has been over for some time, the steamers are running as usual, and the coal coming out of the mines in good quantity. We trust the company are not becoming as greedy as the men were !" Infractions of the defence regulations are visited with great severity in the Home Country. A recent issue of the Edinbugh ' Scotsman' says :—"ln the Glasgow Sheriff Court on Tuesday, John Shaw, 284 Buchanan street, a member of the Ist Lanarkshire Royal Engineers, was sued by the regiment for the amount of capitation grant, Sbaw having failed to qualify as an efficient. Sheriff Murray ordered the defender to pay L 3 12s, with S3 expenses, within ten days, or Ho to prison for seven days. Another volunteer, against whom was a similar charge, failed to appear, and a wanant was granted for his apprehension." Referring to our recent statement, made on excellent authority, that "ithas been found impossible to carry the road by way of tho Cleddau, but further explorations are to be pushed forward by Mr Simpson to determine whether or not this will be practicable," Mr W. Quill, an assistant of Mr Simpson—and who is thoroughly familiar with the Milford Sound country—informs the * Wakatipu Mail' that he will guarantee in two days to walk from Milford Sound to the Wakatipu Lake, coming np the valley of the Cleddan, and even over that stumbling block the razor back at Homer Pass, on the face of which he asserts that a projecting ledge runs up sufficiently wide for a pedestrian to travel along. The Auckland Trades and Labor Council have forwarded the following letter to General Booth on the latter's scheme of colonisation :—" Trades and Labor Council, Auckland, New Zealand, 16th December, 1890. General Booth, Salvation Army Barracks, London. Dear Sir, —I am instructed by the above Council to respectfully inform you that, while we have the deepest sympathy with you in your selfimposed task of redeeming the worst and most neglected class of your community, and truly commending your action in exposing the sufferings and deplorable condition of the masses of the people, mentally, physically, and spiritually—wishing yon God-speed in your laudable undertaking to alleviate the sufferings and improve the minds and social positions of your less fortunate brethren—still, we cannot suppress the strongest feelings of surprise and resentment at any attempt to foist upon our respectable and law-abiding community the offscouring of God's most glorious earth. We strongly deprecate, and shall strenuously oppose, any action that might lead to the deportation of pauper or undesirable classes to New Zealand or the Australian colonies. Trusting you will leave us free from contamination of the criminal character, to foster our present law-abiding, peace, and good-will spirit to all men,"

The luvoroargill petition re calls to the Legislative Council, forwarded to the Governor, contains over a thousand signatures.

The Commission appointed at Auckland to take evidence in the case of Whitaker versus Hutchison commences its sitting tomorrow.

Our Inveircargill correspondent telegraphs t " The agent for the s s, Kakanui does not expect her to return from the Macquaries till this evening. The steamer is now away thirteen days. Mr Hatch's ketch Gratitade is still at Invercargill jetty. 1 ' Of the by-elections that have taken place in England the Liberals have gained fourteen, and it is calculated that if they gained at the 'same rate dnring a general election the party would have a majority of between eighty and ninety. The final exhibition of the phonograph was given in the City Hall last evening, when the bust houue of the season assembled. Encol«.rag9d by the growing popularity of this wonderful machine, the management have determined to revisit Dunedin in about three months' time.

Mr \V. C. Edwaids, C.E. (son of Archdeacon Edwards) was offered and declined a lucrative appointment on the staff of the Engineer-in Chief of the Taemanian railways, but preferred to remain in the employ of the Midland Railway Company, under Mr Napier Bell. The Women's Franchise Bill was shelved by the Lords in the South Australian Parliament, not because of any adverse majority, but because the number who voted for the third reading—l2 to 3—does not constitute the absolute majority required by the Constitution, Mr Saunders thinks that the ' Hansard' reporters contribute very rauoh to the flood of talk in the House by their constant practice of making grammatical and often even sensible speeches for men that know nothing of grammar, and possess the very smallest amount of common sense. If all the speeches are reported by an impartial machine, errors and all, there would be less twaddle talked in the House.

Dr Coughtrey, the honorary correspoudent of the Royal Humane Sooiety of Australasia, has received information that Mr Claude Ferrier, an officer in the U.S.S. Co.'a service, has been awarded the honorary certificate of merit of the society for saving life in Decamber, 1889, and again on May 20, 1890. It and the other certificates granted to young Montgomery, of the Albany street School, and to Mr Lyle, of Port Chalmers, will be presented in due form through His Excellency the Governor in July this year. The monthly meeting of the Committee of Management of the New Zealand Commercial Travellors and Warehousemen's Association was held in Watson's Hotel last evening ; Mr James Wilson (Bing, Harris, and Co.), president, in the chair. A lot of business was got through, and no less than twenty-nine gentlemen were proposed for membership. Several lapsed members applied to be again put on the roll, paying arrears due. Altogether great enthusiasm was shown, and the advance of the society during the next year is most promising. An interesting little anecdote about the aged Marshal Von Moltke comes to us from Berlin. A pushing American lady, hearing that the veteran was present at a regimental banquet in the hotel in Berlin where she was staying, sent up a waiter with a note begging that the marshal would put bis signature to an accompanying photograph of himself as a present to her daughter, whose seventeenth birthday it was. Instead of the photograph came back a message that the marshal wished to see the young American girl, who blushed to find herself the centre of a brilliant assembly of officers. The old marshal, after questioning his young visitor most kindly about her studies and pursuits, signed the photograph, adding, in English, the words : "I was young, and now lam old; yet have I never seen the righteous forsaken." It is difficult to see the applica tion of the quotation, but perhaps he did not know another.

Lodge of Otago, E.G., meet in Masonic Hall to-morrow evening at 7.30. Mr C. H. Hinunu (evangelist) preaches in Farlty's Hali tonight at 7.30. The riflo corps if Dunedin parade for battalion drill on the evening of the 19th inst. H. Wood did not com pets at the Caledonian Ground for the dancing events on Thursday. In the competition for the medal for dancers in the recent Caledonian sports (youths under ten years of a e) the judges placed the winners thus: D. M'Donald, 1; Low, 2; R. Clark, 3, Mr John P. Pieroy has been appointed district agent in Otago for the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society. The handsome building of the company at the corner of High and Princes streets has been remarked by eveiyone visitin? Panedln duiiug the holidays. We wish Mr Piercy success. The 'Holiday Gu : de Book,'issued from the 'Tatanaki Herald' Office, furnishes the louriat with full descriptions of all places of interest in that provincial district that deserve to be written. The pamphlet, which has been prepared und'r the auspices of the Jubilee Celebration Committee, is ably written. The history of the Taranaki distiict begins with the arrival of the William Brian, which came to anchor at the Sugar Loaves on the evening of the 30th March, 1841, and the 31st of that month has ever since been treated as the anniversary of the district, which will celebrate its jubilee next March.

At the balf-yarly meeting of the Leith Lodge, A.T.0.F., Jaet night G.t. Kcid, a°suted by Bros. Russell and Wilson, installed the following officers for the current term:—N.G., Bro. fcotfc; V.G, Bro. Walker; R.8.N.G., Bro. Miscall; L.B.N.G , Bro. Pago; R.S.V.* ~ Bro. M'Lein ; L.S.V.G, Bro. Hodges; warden, Bro. Russell; oonductor, Bro. Qxley ; R. 8.5., Bro. Patter on ; L.S.S., Fro, Arnelll ; 1.G., Bro. Ponton ; secretary, Bro. Millar (reelected) : treasurer, Bro. M'Peak (re-elected). Bro. Cohen, on behalf of the lodge, presented J.P.G. Bro. Thomson with_ a handßomelyframed allegorical diploma, suitably inscribed, in recognition of his valuable services while in the chair. The retiring N,G. said that Bro. Thomson's zeal and enthusiasm in the ciuse of Oddfellowship should act as an incentive to younger members of the lodge to strive and emulate him. His occupancy of tho chair had been characterised by unusual vitality in the lodge, which had enjoyed a remarkably successful year under his guidance. He (the apeak or) trusted that the lodges in the Dutiedin district would, at a very early date, seo their way to reward Bro. Thomson's energy and activity by promoting him to a sphere of wider usefulness in the t'rder. The G.B. complimented Leith Lodgo on the mnrktd progress it had male during the past year, and urged the newly-inß'ialled officers to emulate the enthusiasm of Bro. Thomson.