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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3885, 29 March 1877, Page 2

The entertainment of the Chicago Minstrels was very well attended last night. This evening there will be an entire change of programme. A very popular farce will be presented, and amongst other attractive novelties there will be a baby elephant exhibited, who will go through several performances. To-morrow evening the company will give a concert, consisting of sacred music. The return match between the Telegraph and Herald Elevens will be played to-morrow at Taradale. Two of Rymer's coaches to convey players and their friends to the ground will leave town at 9.30 a.m. The following are the elevens : — Telegraph — Messrs T. Murphy, Grigg, Pallot, ' Williams, Price, Scheeles, DeValley, Murray, Martin, J. Manama, and Bushnell. Herald — Messrs Sellars, Freeman, O'Regan, Carruth, Byers, O'Beirne, Lumsden, Tilly, Carlile, P. Dinwiddie, and J. Dinwiddie. Wickets will be pitched at 10.30. There is great excitement in Greytown about the railway route. That important centre of population is likely to be left out in the cold, and indigation meetings are being held to protest against such injustice. The sale of booth, cards, &c. , for the Napier Regatta, to take place on Monday next, will be held at the Criterion Hotel this evening at 8 o'clock. The fire which recently destroyed the Government buildings at Picton, is stated, in the Marlboroi/gh JS.vpresx of the 21st instant, to have been caused by the roof becoming ignited from sparks flying from a pot of charcoal fire that was being used by a workman in fixing some iron chimneypots. Messrs Cargills, Gibbs, & Co. have received the following cable message from Messrs Helmuth, Schwartz &, Co., dated 12th March : — "Since our last telegram sales continue flat. Cross-breds are neglected ; Sydney fleece and clothing descriptions particularly neglected ; Adelaide grease depressed. The good demand for wools of breed and quality maintains itself, but the bulk of the supplies sells rather easier, particularly inferior and faulty wools." — Otagu Times. The Wairarapa Standard of March 20 says :— " The County Councils, Road Boards, and ratepayers of the Wellington Provincial District, have not at present realised the fact that the money which ought to have been coming to them in the shape of subsidies for the prosecution of public works in their respective districts, has, with the sanction of the General Government, been kindly expended for them by Mr Bunny on such services as he has thought proper should be undertaken." A telegram from Christchurch dated Friday, March 17, states -.—The ewe fair to-day was not very successful. 1477 ewes were entered, but only a small portion were sold. T. H. Murray, of the Wairararpa, boughtanotherlot of Sutton's rams to-day, which will leave by the next steamer for Wellington. The Otago Times of the 21st says :— The counties which to date have resolved not to bring the third schedule of the Act into force are : — Geraldine, South Canterbiuy ; Piako, Auckland ; Waimea, Nelson ; Westland, Westland ; Coremandel, Auckland; Mongonui, Auckland; Clutha, Otago; Bruce, Otago; Whakatane, Auckland ; Wairarapa West, Wellington ; Manakau, Auckland ; Maniototo, Otago ; Collingwood, Nelson ; Raglan, Auckland; Marlbro, Marlborough ; Selwyn, Canterbury ; and Amuri, North Canterbury. To these must since be added Eden, Auckland. The solicitor of the Lyttelton Harbor Board considers it doubtful whether the Governor can legally delegate his powers to the board as a corporate body. The board, therefore, reftises to act on the delegation, until the Attorney-General's opinion has been taken on the point. The ]S r eiu Zealand Herald says :■— The Thames County Council, which, with the improved state of matters on the goldfield, will be a powerful and prosperous body, have evidently determined to do as much as they can towards the opening of the goldfield and of the fine agricultural country of the Upper Thames. Their roadmaking exertions in the Upper Thames are likely to be hindered to a considerable extent by opposition of the Maoris; but if the me"mbers of the council can only manage to prevent the Native Oflice from coming to their assistance when they get into a difficulty, they will, no doubt, get through all right. We look upon their operations in the Upper Thames as most impartant. Mr Justice Gillies, speaking at a meeting of the Auckland Ladies' Benevolent Society, seemed rather to throw cold watar on the theory of assisting criminals to reform. He said :— " As to the relief of persons released from gaol, tlist is a very large and wide question. But the result of my own experience is that in nine-tenths of the cases of persons convicted of crime, neither poverty nor drunkenness are active causes of the criminality. These are but the accidents which develop the pre-existing tendency. Mv opinion is that the criminal tendency is hereditary. That appears to me to bo the case as far as my own observation has extended. I should not like to put forth this view positively, but the majority of j the cases with which 1 have been acquainted point in that direction. The only hope of reformation that I can see is in cases where the criminal is young, and where he can be removed from associations which develop the criminal tendency. That is not to be done by holping him when ho has committed a crime." A telegram to the Oamaru Mail states, on what authority ir not shown, that thu alleged libellous letter of Sherrin's was originally intended for a leader, and altered by the proprietor of the Tribune to epistolary form. The New Zealand Times- says : — " We have heard it stated on pretty good authority that Mr Macandrew, M.H.R., is about to permanently leave the colony. He is disposing of his property in Otago, or has already disposed of a considerable quantity of it ; and is about to settle in California."

The New Zealand Herald gives the reason which led the Eden ratepayers to "hang up the County Act" as follows •— " Misgovemment the County of Eden electors might have stood ; they might even have endured the peculiarities of their chosen representatives ; they might have tolerated a secret banking arrangement ; but that fatal design of Eve°in Paradise, standing in a clump of -phormiinn lemur, alongside a wheel plough, with the serpent coiled.round a cabbagetree, was too much. ' Everybody felt, when that device was exposed to the public view, that the fate 6f the Act was effectually sealed." Our spirited little contemporary the Oainaru Mail, one of the best edited of the evening papers, has given offence to a gentleman named Hossack, who writes to the editor in the following style : Oainaru 16 March 1877 (I have seen meney of your class in life) to the agust parson mannagen the Evening Mail take notice that I do not want your Magncficent publecetien Namely the Evening Mail you do not chuse to know me nither do I chuse to know you that is what I call tit for tit & keep the Evening Mail untile I asks it I have yet to lern to nuckill down to hen pickers but impertenaht Ignorance I have had enough from the gi'ait' or' rather would be oauiftru lights with a Burster or a Evening mail at the Bai'ks wmderfull'larg I am Walter Hossack that can live without you and your sevelitay The World remarks as follows with re-

ference to a late famous elopement in high life :-— " £98,000, the worth of the diamond necklace which played so prominent a part in the French Revolution ! Nowadays £90,000 is in the market, and may figure in the Divorce Court. ■ Verily in the market ; for the woman who has left husband and children for the company of an ' honorable' protector, with that sum settled on herself, may try other society when her present rapid life tires and satiates. £00,000 is a large sum enough to tempt the virtue of men ; enough, we trust, to induce the injured husband to dare publicity, and secure some portion of the mother's dower for her deserted children. Would it not be well, now that divorce cases are so fashionally common, for a clause to be inserted in marriage settlements regarding the disposal of money when the runaway . episode takes place I Certainly a new method is recjuired to check the epidemic which pervades some portion of the habits and customs of our upper ten." In referring to the Church of Sweden, the Churchman's Magazine says : — The primitive faith is expressed in their liturgy and preaching. But the liturgy of Sweden was seriously modified and impaired in 1810, under a se'mi-Arian archbishop. The effect of that revision was to impair and displace a previous robust and primitive one ; and many of the best men in Sweden now wish to see the old liturgy restored. The writer of " English sporting news," in the Auckland Star, says : — " The chief topic of conversation at the Clubs is the defeat of the All England Eleven in Australia. There is some talk of trying to persuade an Antipodean Eleven to come over and try conclusions with the gentlemen teams of England. Western, the pedestrian, failed to accomplish the feat he declared he was able for, and after walking 50G miles gave in. He is certainly no wonder. Rinking is going out of fashion, and the proprietors of the gorgeous temples for this amusement, many of them just opened, are beginning to dread bankruptcy." " Regarding Onslow's statement that Arthur Orton has been discovered in a lunatic Asylum at Paramatta, which was made with such a flourish of trumpets in England, and has gone the rounds of the Press, Mr J. D. Jackson writes to the Sydney Morning Herald, that the lunatic in question " has no marks or figures whatever tattooed upon either arm, neither are his ears pierced " so that he cannot possibly be the Arthur Orton of whom Mr Onslow has sent a description. Mr Onslow has stated .that he knows the Rev. Mr Buckingham, who bored Orton's ears, and Onslow also describes the tattoo marks with great particularity. The lunatic must therefore be a fraud. A warder named Drinkwater, in the gaol at Mudgee, N.S.W., recently made 19 consecutive bulls-eyes at a ten-inch square target, at 200 yards, ,fchus scoring 79 out of a possible 80. Another warder named M'lntosh, hit with a fowling piece 25 pennies thrown into the air. Mr Angus Mackay, the Queensland Commissioner at the Centennial Exhibition, recently stated at Brisbane that exPresident Grant would shortly visit the Australian Colonies. The Timant Herald gives a description of an artesian well which has been bored through the solid rock underlying the clayey soil of Timaru with success. Mr Yardley has a shaft on his premises at the edge of the cliff, 20ft deep, with a tunnel on a level with the bottom of the railway extending to the face of the cliff. In the portion of the tunnel underneath the the shaft, he dug a well 30ft deep, the bottom being the solid rock. Through this rock he bored for 4Gft — the last 10ft of which was alternately porous Milestone and red sandstone. When this depth had been bored the water gushed up so quickly that it rose a distance of (ilft Gin in 20 minutes, or a distance of 15ft Cm up the well, the distance from the top of the water to the level of the tunnel and railway being 14ft Gin. The depth of the Avhole sinking is thus 102 ft from the surface of the cliff, and the water rises to within 40ft Gin of the top of the cliff. The water is perfectly clear, and has been pronounced by several to be entirely free from brackiahness and altogether pure. The Auckland Herald states that the death of James Merry, Esq., M.P. , who for nearly half a century was a supporter of the English turf, has been telegraphed to Melbourne. He won the Derby with Tliormanby and Doncaster, the- latter horse having afterwards sold for the enormous sum of £14,000. , Aingiigstother well-known horses lie owned Hobbie Noble, for whom he gave £7000 when a two-year-old, and who started. ..first favourite for tho Derby Avon by Daniel O'Rorke. He also owned Chanticleer, Sunbeam (winner of the St. Leger), Marie Stuart, King of the Joust, Scottish Chief, Lioness (winner of the Csusarewitch), Siddington, Zambesi, &c. He was an entirely self-made man, and has left an enormous fortune behind him. It is said that he never lost on the year's racing. On the 22nd hist, the Emperor of Germany completed his 80th year. Messrs Cassell, Potter, & Galpin have established on their premises, in La Belle Sauvage-yard, capacious dining and refreshment rooms, to which all their hands — some 700 or 800 in number — have admission. The articles are retailed at cost price, and, what is better, are of the best quality. At one o'clock there is a capital (able d'hote, consisting of meat, vegetables, and pudding, with a glass of beer, for one shilling. A man could not live cheaper at home, and certainly not for the price, quantity and quality being the samu, were ho compelled to patronise the dining-rooms for his "midday meal. The example is one which might well be followed by other large linns. "Can you help me a little !" said a tramp, poking his head into a country shop. — "Why don't you help yourself ?" said tho proprietor, angrily. — " Thank you, I will," said the tramp, as he picked up a, bottle of whisky and two loaves of bread, and disappeared like a lightning streak, followed by half a-dozen. lumps of coal,

The Wangamd Chronicle, in a recent issue, draws attention to a subject which we have frequently alluded to in our columns, viz., the danger to railway travelling arising from cattle getting on the line. Our contemporary says : — " A correspondent sends us an account of an accident to the train from Foxton to Fielding, conveying people from theraces, when it was brought to a stand by coming into contact with a bullock. Fortunately the engine was not thrown off the line, and no harm was done beyond killing the animal. Several accidents have now taken place from the same cause, and a serious question arises as to what steps can be taken to ensure immunity from accidents due to like causes; One plan is to encourage the settler through whose land a railway runs to plant live fences, such as the quick-thorn. A direct encouragement would be given to do this by the Government supplying the quicks, and we know that many of the settlers in this district have been Willing — anxious in fact — to comply with such a regulation. This may appear a small matter, but when the safety of travellers depend on the fencing of the lines, it is really one of very great magnitude. Wild cattle evidently find little difficulty in clearing the post and rail fence to reach the luxurious herbage which grows on the other side. Railway passengers have a right to expect that nothing will be left undone within the means of the authorities to ensure their safety. The accident we notice is suggestive of common danger." With reference to the dog tax, the Olarjo Times remarks : — " The mode in which the tax is collected under the new system varies in different districts. In some places the police are- collecting it, in other the officers of the Council interested, while the Waitaki County Council has resorted to the Eastern system of farming the tax, subject, howevei', to the Western modification of an auction. This device appears to have been adopted on the ordinary business principle of getting as much as possible from the tax, and not from the sudden growth of despotic ideas of government. The Council doeß not seem to possess any clear notion of how much the tax is likely to realise, and has therefore, invited sporting offers for it. As the Council's auctioneers observe in their advertisement — ' ' The whole affair at present is a sort of mystery, and a purely speculative concern" — and, now that billiard tournaments are pronounced illegal, it might be possible to supply their places by a series of dog tax auctions, judiciously spread over the year, and so satisfy that love of speculative excitement which in some countries finds vent in billiard tournaments, and in others in State lotteries. One fact, however, will have to be taken into account by bidders on these occasions — namely, that as soon as any locality is proclaimed a rabbit district under the Rabbit Nuisance Act, 1870, all the clogs employed there solely for the purpose of destroying rabbits are exempted from the tax." The JJr.S r . Z. Herald of March 24 says :— " Of late we haA'e had to notice several instances in which gentlemen from the South have purchased improved farms in the Auckland provincial district, and we are always glad to be able to add to the list. We understand that Mr Mawson, of Canterbury, has purchased Mr Douglas's farm, consisting of 800 acres, at the rate of £10 per acre. The property is situated between the Waikato and Piako country, near a property belonging to Mr Morrin. Mr Fantham, the well-known breeder, of Canterbury, who has purchased Mr Reynolds's farm, is about to bring up all his stock at once." A young married man, of extremely jealous disposition, recently visited one of the most famous clairvoyants in the city. Being far from home, he wanted to know what his wife was doing. " She is looking out of the window, evidently expecting someone." " That is strange," said Benedict? "whom can she expect?" ' ' Someone enters the door, and she caresses him fondly," went on the clairvoyant. "It can't be !" cried the excited husband ; ' ' my wife is true to me. " " Now he lays his head in her lap and looks tenderly in her eyes." "It's false ! I'll make you pay clearly for this !" yelled the jealous husband. " Now he wags his tail," said the medium. The green-eyed monster subsided, and Mr Young - husband paid over his five dollars. " My business is to talk," said a stump speaker, "1 deal in words and sentences." "Yes," said a voice in the crowd, "and as long as I've known you your place of business has never been closed." The Rev. A. Shepherd will (D. V.) hold Divine Service on Sunday next, the Ist April, at Maraekakaho, at 3 p.m.