DUNEDIN NOTES.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1880, 14 August 1874, Page 3

DUNEDIN NOTES.

♦ [from a correspondent.] Dunedin, Aug. 8. Dunedin has taken the notion to found a Sailor's Home, and the promoters of the scheme have " come down " remarkably handsome, over L6OO having been already subscribed Another useful institution has been talked about, viz., a Working-man's Club, but as the subject owes its birth to the excitement of the Mayoral elections, I am not over sanguine as to its future. Among the many questions brought forward at the Municipal elections no one seems to have thought of the necessity of a public park or gardens. A correspondent of a local paper lately expressed a belief that as a rule Scotchmen were "tree-haters," and really the fact of a city like Dunedin (founded, you may say, by Scotchmen) being so utterly void of any place of pleasurable out-door resort seems to justify the remark. Of course you. will have heard ere this the result of the several elections. I think that most people are glad that this "terrible affair" is at an end (terrible at least to the " better-half " of those who are apt to mix too much whisky toddy with their politics). : Evangelism is " all the rflge " just now, and has an "organ" all to itself, the August number of which is jubilant at the exclusion from the Athenaeum of the "Harbinger of Light" and other publications of a similar nature. One would hardly suppose that bo short a time ago the great Peebles was the ruling spirit of the time. I can only suppose that the "harmonious influences" are just now absorbed by the Evangelistic. However it would seem that the Bank clerks here have not yet caught the contagion, as they are anxious to let the public know by advertisement that a " tit-up," at the usual time and place, will be held, and that the "bobby" on beat atl a.m. is "squared." Poor fellows, I am afraid it took nearly all their spare cash to do the " squaring," business. Curiosity prompted me to enter the Museum to see the moa's leg the other day, and while there it struck me that the little bit of dusty coal marked " Brunner mine, Grey River," was an awfully poor sample of the resources of the district. A t canger looking at it would nevei dream .represented a number of square miles Hjniles of first-class coal, and if told so, he wouldn't realise it, but if he saw a black thing (two cwt. lump) occupying a conspicuous place, he would come to the conclusion the sooner more of it found its way to the Dunedin market the better. The new arrivals are beginning to find out "all that glitters is not gold," and are calling a meeting to discuss the " why and the wherefore," that all the brilliant prospects held out by Government agents have as yet escaped their notice. At last we have something fresh in the way of entertainment, viz., the Great Californian Minstrels, drawing very good houses at the Queen's. I observe they have visited most places in New Zealand except the Coast. It struck me they must have heard of the " Amateur Ethiopians," and wisely forebore to tempt fate in your direction. The " season" at the Princess must, I think, be near its close when, that highly moral play "Jack Sheppard "is indulged in.; It would be unorthodox to close without remarking the weather, and therefore I must simply say that it's miserably wet.

Unbroken telegraphic communication has been established from England (through Lisbon and Madeira) to St. Vincent, Cape Verde Islands. Rochefort was hooted and hissed by an excited crowd at Queenstown, Ireland. The police were obliged to protect him from their violence. The American Senate have agreed to appropriate five hundred thousand dollars to the relief of the sufferers by the Mississippi overflow. .',.,. A fire atDemerara, West Indies, caused a loss of over half a million dollars. The government are rendering assistance to three and a half million of famine-stricken natives in India. Some of the Paris journals are writing in favor of holding England responsible for the escape of Roohefort and his colleagues.