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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5045, 5 April 1878, Page 2

The drama of " Black-Eyed Susan" and the burlesque of " Ali Baba" were repeated at the Theatre Royal last night. The classical drama, ' i Pygmalion and Galatea," which had an immense run in London, will be produced to-night, with the farce of the "Quiet Family." We hear that arrangements have been made by the management for the appearance in Napier next week of the celebrated actress, Mrs Fitzwilliam, of the Haymarket Theatre, London. Negotiations are also being carried on with Mr Lytton Southern, son of Mr Southern, of " Lord Dundreary" fame, who is now in Wellington, for his appearance in Napier for seven nights, but he ha 3 not as yet accepted the engagement. It will thus be seen that the management intend to cater liberally for the play-going public during the remainder of the theatrical season. We have had a good many enquiries about the tree-felling machine referred to in a previous issue. We find the following on the subject in a contemporary : — " Where will the march of intellect stop 1 A tree-felling machine, patented by Messrs A. Ransome and Co., of Chelsea, has been tried on the Roupell Park Estate, Tulsehill. The machine is a saw, driven by steam power, and itcuts the timber close to the ground. An elm, 2ft. 9in. across the cut, was felled in less than four minutes, and another 22£ in. in diameter, in a minute and a "half." We should think that it would be well worth while for some of the bush settlers to club together and import one of these machines. It would surely very soon save enough labor to repay the original cost. A serious accident occurred yesterday afternoon on the Western harbor works to a young man named William Francis, He went over with a horse, to exchange it for one that was being used there. In getting upon one of the trucks while it was in motion his foot slipped and was caught in one of the wheels, and before he could get it extricated his foot was very severely crushed. He was relieved from his painful position as soon as possible, and was placed in a cab and brought to tpwn to the residence of Dr Caro, who attended to the injuries the unfortunate young man had sustained. The members of the Hawke's Bay Gun Club will meet at Farndon to-morrow, to shoot their first match, and, from the numerous entries, a large attendance of the lovers of the trigger is expected. Tho first bird will be trapped at noon. A contemporary, in remarking on the division of opinion among the various nationalities which compose Austria on the Eastern question, remarks that Pesth illuminates for the victories of the Turks, while Prague illuminates for the victories of the Russians. M. Waddington, the- French Foreign Minister, has \i on golden opinions among his countrymen. M. Fournier, now French Ambassador at Constantinople, said of him recently, " I have never yet seen such honest worth arrive at such a degree of authority." Mrs Fitzwilliam, who is engaged to play with the dramatic company now performing at the Theatre Royal, left Auckland in the Taupo yesterday afternoon. It is said that Captain Maling, Private Secretary to his Excellency the Governor, lias received telegraphic orders to rejoin his regiment immediately, and that he leaves for England, with his family, by one of the next ships. If this report be correct, and it reaches us (Post) on apparently good authority, it will cause general regret. Captain Maling, by his invariable courtesy and attention to the many persons who have to seek the Governor on public or other business, has rendered himself a universal favorite, and everybody will be sorry to hear of his early departure. The Lyttelton Times calculates that there will be a deficit of from ninety to a hundred thousand pounds at the end of the financial year on the railway as estimated. The Municipal Council of Southland are not lavish of the ratepayers' money on political demonstrations. According to the Times, a Mr M'Lean wrote to the Council, asking for a sum of £2 12s, loss incurred at the Horticultural Show in gas burned upon the visit of Sir George Grey. The show had been a financial failure. Councillor Wade strongly objected to expenditure for an extra gas jet to do honor to a political party. He thought that those who desired to glorify any particular party should pay the piper. The motion to pay the amount was lost on the casting vote of the Mayor, but lie suggested a subscription by councillors of 5s each to the funds of Ihe society. According to the Nelson Colonist, the "trip across the Atlantic in the Red, White, and Blue, was eclipsed lately by a gentleman who came over from Motueka in a cockle-shell nine feet long, i

He started at 4 o'clock in the morning, and arrived in harbor at 9 o'clock, having come the sixteen miles in five hours. Considering that at this season the weather is not at all to be depended on, and that half the journey was accomplished during darkness, the adventure was a most reckless one. The boat, however, contained somelife-buoys, improvised out of kerosene tins." The Otago Daily Times learns from a private source that the new drama from the pen of Mr George Darrell, entitled " Back from the Grave," was produced at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, on March 2nd, and was enjoying a most successful run. The play, which is rendered remarkable by the introduction of modern spiritual manifestation, is, of course, i highly sensational. The Sydney Herald devotes a column to a favorable notice of it, and the Press generally speaks of it in high terms. Mr and Mrs Darrell will probably, in the course of a few months, revisit New Zealand en route for America. The following, with reference to the entrance of the fleet into the Straits, is of interest : — Pursuant to orders, Admiral Hornsby's fleet Jleft Besika Bay on the 20th January/ Jand entered the Dardanelles, proceeding to Chanak, where a telegram was received directing its return to Besika Bay again. The Sultan had granted a fireman for its passage. It was not known, however, whether resistance would be made, and all was ready on board to force the passage, guns being shotted and run out, gatling guns hoisted into the tops, and upper yards sent down. The orders to the Admiral were not to proceed further than Stamboul, but to keep the waterway open thence to the Dardanelles. No instructions were given as to landing at Gallipoli. A telegram had been received from the Russian Government that that town would not be occupied unless a Turkish army was concentrated. One of the most curious features of the new discovery of the means of conveying [ sounds by the use of the electric wire is the peculiar faculty it imparts to deaf persons. The lightest telephonic sound appears to be audible to their sense in a much greater degree than it is to that of people who have never suffered the deprivation of the blessing of hearing. I know of one case (says the Melbourne correspondent of the Ballarat Star) of a gentleman possessing many claims to scientific distinction, whose organ of hearing is utterly unaffected by ordinary spoken sounds, but who can stand by the little metallic ear-piece and translate perfectly to those near him the faintest whisper which passes through it. I present the fact to the profession of aurista, who may find in it a new development of their noble art. The Daily News of the 7th February published a long telegram from their special correspondent at Adrianople, stating that at an interview with Server Pasha on the 28th, the latter distinctly asserted that, notwithstanding the official despatches of the English Government, both Mr Layard and Lord Beaconsfield had privately, both at the Porte and to Musurus Pasha, promised England's eventual support. The Earl, Mr Layard, and Musurus have given the most emphatic contradiction to the statement. Server Pasha is also alleged to have said that henceforth Turkey could only look to Russia for countenance, and would accept her policy and alliance in place of England's. In the additional Suez mail news, we learn in London enthusiastic meetings in favor of the Government were held at the Guildhall, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor, and at the Cannonstreet Hotel, the Stock and Corn Exchange, at Lloyds, Exeter Hall, Trafalgar Square, and in all the suburbs. Meetings of 20,000 persons were held at Sheffield, Leeds, and Manchester ; and numerous gatherings which took place at nearly all the principal towns pronounced in favor of the Government and the vote for six millions. For several days Lord Beaconsfield was received with a tremendous ovation on reaching the Parliament House, and the excitement was greater than any since the Crimean war. The Manaxoatw Times relates the following amusing anecdote : — " It is a bad rule that will not work both ways, and a joke is never so good as when it is double shotted, and recoils upon the perpetrator. The following occurrence, for the truth of which wa can vouch, is too good to be lost, and consequently we rescue it from oblivion by giving it a place in our columns. A party of Palmerstonians lately paid a visit to a neighboring township, and on getting on board for the return trip, their departure was witnessed by a host of friends, amongst whom was the local iEsculapius. Before the first mile had been covered it was found that one of the horses had cast a shoe, and a return was necessary. While the animal was being shod, it was suggested that a messenger should be despatched to the man of medicine, telling him that Mr was lying in the hotel in a bad way, a similar story being forwarded to his late companions. As the worthy doctor entered the room, he found the invalid stretched on a sofa, his head supported by one, while another held a glass of water to his lips. Never stopping to inquire the cause, but jumping to the conclusion that an upset had taken place, the medico felt the pulse, worked the arms, and performed other pantomimic performances peculiar to the profession, and after some consideration ordered the patient to be removed to bed. Scarcely had he so delivered himself than the sick man sprang to his feet, which of course was the signal for a perfect volley of laughter, to which none contributed more heartily than the supposed invalid. So far so good — the merriment was general, always excepting the doctor ; but when he gravely stated that, joke or joke not, he had been sent for, and should certainly send in his bill for his professional fee, one ringing note of laughter was then missing, and much as it was enjoyed, the joke was not considered worth a guinea. " Another gigantic engineering project has been suggested, viz., diverting a portion of the flood-water of the Nile into the deserts of Nubia, Libya, and Soodan. As is well known, the main stream of the Nile is fed by the great equatorial lakes of Africa, and its annual inundations are caused by the in-rush of torrent water, laden with soil from the fertile slopes of the Abyssinian plateau. This silt is now for the most part deposited in the bed of the Mediterranean, where it is gradually forming a new delta. Sir Samuel Baker, in a letter to the London Times, after rehearsing these facts, proposes a plan by which not only the waters of the Nile, but the mud which it now deposits wastefully, may be utilised as a means of fertilising the deserts south of Egypt. He proposes, by suitable engineering works, to divert a portion of the Nile flood-water into these deserts, where it can deposit its rich sediment in the sands, and also irrigate them so as to transform them into "cotton fields that would render England independent of America." He would construct sluices and dams at different points of the Nile ; at the cataracts, for instance. These dams and sluices, by enabling craft to pass the cataracts, would also render the Nile navigable from the Mediterranean to Gondokora. Divine services will be held on Sunday next as follows : — Church of England, by the Rev. J. C. Eccles, at St. Peter's ! (Waipawa) at 11 a.m., Kaikora schoolroom at 3 p.m., at Te Aute Church at 7 p.m. ; by the Rev. H. W. St. Hill, at St. Matthew's (Hastings) at 3 p.m., at St. Mark's (Clive) at 7 p.m. ; by the Rev. J. Shearman, at St. Mary's (Waipukurau) at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. , and at Onga Onga at 3 p.m. ; by the Rev. A. Shepherd, at Havelock at 11 a.m. , and at Maraekakaho at 3 p.m. Mass will be celebrated by the Rev. E. Reignier, in the school-room, Clive, at 11 a.m,