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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5339, 25 March 1879, Page 2

The settlement for the Hawke's Bay races took place on Saturday evening at the Criterion Hotel, when the following amounts were paid by the Jockey Club for stakes :— R. H. Vallance, £240 ; J. G. Allen, £135 ; J. Lyon, £125 ; T. Powdrell, £78 j H. Powdrell, £78 ; R. Ray, £30 ; G. Bernand, £30 ; R. Kelly, £30; R. Farmer. £20; T. Hooper, j £10. We understand" that after paying | stakes, &c, the Jockey Club have a balance to the good of £415 Is 7d. The flourishing condition of their finances will enable the club to give much larger stakes to be run for at the next races than has been usual hitherto. The racing course and the training course, we hear, are to be ploughed at once, so as to be in readiness for the spring meeting.

The Resident Magistrate's Court was crowded aH day yesterday wh% the first of the conspiracy cases was proceeding. An amusing incident occurred whilst Karma, the first native witness for the prosecution, was undergoing oross-exanii-nation. Mr Oornford; tli rougH tlie inWl&eter,, asked the witness to repeat what %.<* liatl previously said about the bidding at the sale of Otupai. Kariha at once told the interpreter that he had previously answered the question, and was not going to repeat it agajm Ml 1 Odl'riford demanded of llle Witness that he should answer tho question, to which Karma again refused to accede; saying that Mr Cornford was not a child that he should want to hear it dyer again; The magistrate then told tile 1 interpreter to inform the witness that he was bound to answer the question, but he still refused, saying he Avas not going to go back of what he said. He was at length induced by his, counsel, Mr Rees, to cotnply with Mr Coi.'nfdrd's feqviest, although with a very bad grace. The Napier Gas Company would do well, we think, if they took care that their lamplighter does not bring them into disrepute with regard to their contracts for lighting the streets of the town. The contract requires that tho lamps shall be kept alight until daylight, but they have been extinguished of late at abbiit two o'clock in the morning) thus leaving the streets in darkness for several hours before daylight. Yesterday morning the present writer saw tho company's man extinguishing the lights at a quarter to two, and remonstrated with him, but the man replied that he had orders to put out the lights as soon after 12 at night as he chose. Now, to our mind, it appears that between midnight and daylight is the very time when the lamps should be alight. But in point of fact, whether it is necessary that the lamps should remain alight or not is entirely beside the question, seeing that the Gas Company have contracted to keep them lit. Extinguishing them before daylight is therefore a scandalous evasion of the contract, and calls for prompt measures being taken by the Municipality. It may bo true of tho Gas Company as of other corporations, that they have neither i a body to be kicked nor a soul to be damned, but they have a purse that can be squeezed, and the company will probably be made to feel in that sensitive place the injury their lamplighter may bring xvpon them, if he is not better instructed as to his duties in the future. The pantomime "Snow "White" was repeated at the Theatre Royal last night to a very fair house. The Hydes Company, however, played with great spirit. Miss Jennie Nye's songs and dances, Miss Lizzie Morgan's singing, tho absurdities of the clown and pantaloon, and the singing and dancing of the Misses Alice and Amy Johns were each in turn applauded. To-night the comedy of "Who Speaks First," and the burlesque of "Cinderella" will be produced. The conspiracy cases against Messrs Kinross, Sutton, and Worgan will not come on for hearing till Thursday next. Mr John Harding, of Mount Vernon, Waipukurau, in addressing a temperance meeting at Cavershani, Dunedin, a few nights ago, said that he had been a pledged total abstainer for 44 years ; he never had reason to regret that he had taken the pledge of total abstinence, and the longer he lived the more convinced he was that he was the better for it. Tho intemperate habits of the people, which arose from their drinking customs, he pointed out, were, on the testimony of unprejudiced witnesses, the most fruitful sources of vice and misery. When at Lyttelton he had asked the gaoler there how many total abstainers he had in custody, and the reply was "Not one." If it were not for the drink traffic most of the gaols might be turned into warehouses, or put to some other purpose than that which they now served. The amount expended in intoxicating drink in this colony was about £2,000,000 per year, and if the money had not thus been spent, there would, he believed, have been no reason to have gone out of tho colony to borrow money for our public works. Mr Harding also vouched, from personal observation, for the great success of the restrictive liquor 'laws in operation in the United States. The tenders received 'for the erection of a church for the Free Methodist congregation were all too high, and it has therefore been decided to make such alterations in the plan of the building as will reduce the cost. Tenders for the building as altered will be received by Mr Dugleby up to noon on the 31st instant. We have been favored with a copy of a pamphlet entitled "The Bible in Schools." Its author is Mr J. B. Park, and was read by him before the Otago Schoolmasters' Association as far back as the 7th September, 1572. The object of its present publication is stated to be "to help to call public attention to the all-important necessity of having the Bible re-instated in its proper place— the public schools of the colony." The fifth annual general meeting of the Napier Gas Company will be held in the Criterion Hotel to-day at 11 a.m. It will be remembered that some time ago, when Mr Berry, the Victorian Premier, was about departing for England on the so-called Embassy, some Melbourne politicians, by way of a joke, engaged a demonstrative negro named Henderson to go to England as a mock ambassador, to travestie the proceedings of Berry and his friends. The P. and O. Company received a request from the Government not to take the man, and, afraid of losing their contract for noncompliance with the request, did so decline. Writs have just been served upon James McKinley (proprietor of Punch), Andrew Rowan, and J. Strachau, at the suit of Henderson, claiming damages for breach of contract. The breach consists in the def endents not having carried out an alleged undertaking to send the plaintiff to England as an ambassador to the Secretary of State for tho Colonies on the subject of reform of the Victorian Constitution. The actions will be hoard at the civil sittings of the Supremo Court. Damages are laid at £300. Messrs Routledge, Kennedy and Co. will hold a cattle sale to-day at the Shamrock sale yards, at noon. The cattle are from the herd of Mr Lowry, of Okawa, and will include 20 three-year-old steers in good condition, five or six of which are fit for the butcher, and two working bullocks. We regret to learn that typhoid fever is becoming far too prevalent in Wellington. Although there may be no cause for alarm, we hope care will be taken to prevent the dread disease spreading. There are thickly populated parts of the city in which great havoc would result were the fever once to get a footing. — Times. A singular fatility is reported from Ireland. A man named Montgomery, of Eillincliey, County Down, recently dropped down dead. His wifo, xipon hearing the news, also fell dead, and on a messenger being despatched to his sister it was discovered that she too had died suddenly. All three inquests were held the same evening. A sensational story of love, devotion, and attempted murder comes from Sydney. It appears that a few weeks ago a dark, handsome girl, who gave tho name of Mrs Roberts, took apartments in Raglan Street, Waterloo. A gentleman, who passed as her husband, joined her. They had not been occupying the house long, when it was noticed that a Mr Kelly sometimes visited them, and his visits were generally attended with high words. One Monday, after the usual altercation, Kelly produced a doublebarrelled pistol, and aimed it at Roberts,

Mrs Roberts flung Herself between the two men, and received tlie charge . in her shoulder. Examination by a doctor disclosed the fact that the pistol Was loaded with com— not shot, and the devoted girl was not deftdUs]# injltred. A preliminary examination in the Police Court revealed the fact that the handsome Mrs Roberts was a barmaid, her' real' name being Mary Seymour. She is said to be welleducated, and very respectably connected. Tlie real ri/inie of Robb'rU te falter H. dooper, •s.n^fl|cofAas,.a wife and six children. The wife is said to be also dark and vei-v handsome. He deserted her at Manly; when she took up^herabode with her mother;, Kelly was,. a brother of Mrs Odb'p'er, and as he could not indiide her husband to leave Miss Seymour, ho determined to be revenged; Kelly seems to be possessed of a grim sort of humor, for after firing at Cooper, he explained that he " only wanted to corn his (Cooper's) ocefj" and that was the reason he did not put shot into the pistol. El |The Gazette of the 20th instant notifies the appointment of Constable Peter Byrne as Inspector of Weights and Measures for the Counties of Hawke's Bay, Waipawa, and Wairoa, and for the Borough of Napier, vice Constable Raymond resigned*. Thei'e^ is hiore than meets the eye (says the London Truth) in a Decent marriage. The bride; who, by-the-bye, was married under her real name, although she bore another, was the divorcee of a corporal in the Guards, from whom she was disjoined in 1875. The bridegroom is a youth fresh from college, the master of an enormous allowance from trustees, and the further master of a still more enormous fortune, and, before this strange step, was> supposed to be a lad, quiet, refined, and with High Church proclivities. Love alone, one would have supposed, would have brought the two together, but love does not seem to have been the cause of the marriagej for the bridegroom resides at a hotel, and the bride at her house. A mysterious being, who appears to exercise a wondrous influence over the bridegroom, and who is supposed to be a corporal iti the Life Guards, frequently visits him, arrayed in civilian garb, and it is said that bills for a largo amount have been put into circulation, although where the proceeds have gone is not clear. Under these circumstances, we should advise the trustees of the bridegroom's fortune, who receive a large annual salary for looking after his affairs, to investigate the mysteries of this extraordinary marriage. The Home News is responsible for the following: — "Lord Beaconsfield, it is said, warmly advocates the idea of the Duke of Connaught, after his marriage, regularly settling in Ireland, taking up his residence at Dublin Castle, and superseding the Lord-Lieutenant, not as the nominee of a political party, but as the direct representative of the Queen. There is no doubt that such a stop would be intensely popular in Ireland. How loyal at heart the Irish are may be seen frem the tone of the addresses of condolence to the Queen on the death of the Princess Alice which have come from the other side of St. George's Channel. But the Irish have always felt more or less neglected in comparison with Scotland. A royal residence in Ireland, a GovernorGeneral of Ireland who was a son of the Queen of England, would be received with an enthusiasm which would probably deal a death-blow at the Home Rule movement." The Magistrates and Council of Edinburgh agreed, by twenty-four votes against twelve, to a petition to Parliament in support of the Bill for legalising marriage with a deceased wife's sister ; and by twenty-five votes against ten to a similar petition in favor of the Colonial Marriages Bill. On the same day the U.P. Presbytery of Edinburgh passed the f ollowing resolution by twenty-two votes against twelve : — " That the Presbytery recommends the Synod that marriage with a deceased wife's sister being a matter in regard to which the law of Christ is a law of liberty, shall no longer be a bar to membership in the United Presbyterian Church." The last novelty in London thieving is rather a peculiar one. A young lady was, in company with her brother, looking in at a shop window in Pall Mall, when she felt a slight touch on her shoulder, and turning round saw an illfavored fellow moving away from her. She thought nothing further of it ; but on returning home, she discovered that the loose knot of her hair had been nearly cut through, and on removing her bonnet half-a-yard of her hair fell off. The scoundrel had evidently been disturbed, or he would have carried off his spoil. The young lady had a profusion of beautiful brown hair — a fashionable hue just now. This occurred in the forenoon, about eleven o'clock, when few passengers were about. Surely the bitterest comment, says an English paper, on the inadequacy of the "great unpaid." is to be found in the account of the proceedings of the Durham Sessions, reported in the Newcastle Chronicle of the Ist instant. A man was tried for stealing a satchel : — " The prisoner was an incorrigible thief, and he was sentenced to seven years' penal servitude. On hearing his sentence, the prisoner protested and urged that the law only allowed the Court to sentence him to two years as the maximum of punishment for the offence he had been found guilty of. The Chairman, after a consultation, found this to be the case, and the sentence was reduced to one of eighteen months' hard labor." When a prisoner has to correct the magistrate's law, and is able to prove that he is only liable to two years' hard labor instead of seven years' penal servitude, it would seem to be time that the Home Secretary's attention should be invited to the case. A telegram in the Times, dated Jan. 26, says: — "The Madrid correspondent of the Temps telegraphs that the negotiations between London and Madrid relative to the treaty of commerce are making little progress. The Spanish Government demands a modification of the English duties on Avines, so as to enable those of Navarre, Arragon, and Catalonia to compete with the French, which the Spaniards maintain are favored by the present scale. They propose to raise the limit of low duty from 26 to 34 degrees. They likewise demand the establishment of a custom-house at Gibraltar, with a view of putting an end to smuggling between it and the mainland. In return, all that Spain offers is a change in the differential duty on foreign vessels and of the duties on English imports into the West Indies, and a return to ilio treatment of the " most favored nation." The Spanish vine-growers, the Temps' correspondent adds, have been more than ever urging the Government to hasten the negotiations with England since the denunciation of the treaties with France. A San Francisco journal says : — " Ten years from now, if this island colony continues its immigration policy, and California remains without an immigration bureau, New Zealand will be the more populous country of the two." A minister in the south of Scotland had a parishioner, we are told, who, to show her affection for her pastor, sent him every morning, by the hands of her daughter, a couple of what she wished him to understand were new-laid eggs, for breakfast. Tho eggs on being delivered were generally warm, as if just taken from the nest ; but one morning the minister's maid, on taking the eggs, observed, "The eggs are no warm the day, Jeannie; are they no' fresh?" "Ou, ay," said the girl, "they're quite fresh, but my mither couldna get the cat to sit on them this morning,"

Th^Londo'n correspondent of the Atfelffiw Obsepvisv writes as follows with refererfifc tosj|e health of the Premier' and e^i-Pr^aliier of England, Lord Beacohsfielo^&iand Mr Gladstone : — " During theipast fortnight both political parties have'risalized the slenderness Hi the thtferfti on wfcjoH their future hangs. The Conservative&are dependent oh the' life of an old man in his severity-f ourth year, and beginning, to be frequently troubled with gout. The Nonconformists see" their oattso in the hands of one who last December entered on. his sixty-ninth year. Both the rival ieaders have suffered frdm the recent severe weather', and one clay they were laid up together — not., on the same premises, but simultaneously". 1 Tlio Priin'o Minister seems to ; havo had tho wot'st Ming. Sinco he went down to Hughenden for Ch'ifetm'aS he has been taking a great deal of open-air exercise, and may have overtaxed his strength; For several days last week he was confined to his bed, and Mr Corry, his private secretary^ went down to see him. The Standard alarmed its readers one morning by announcing that the most precious life in Europe was in jeopardy. The announcement was not palatable at Hughenden, I understand, as few of the Standard's performances are. It was disclaimed the same day as greatly exaggeraitdd; and to falsify it the Premier rose the f ojlo'wing day and came downstairs. But all the same he has had an awkward shave with the ' other one,' only he has a physical horror of the thought of dissolution. Lord Beaconsfield has for years been a methodical valetudinarian, and his retirement to the Upper House was mainly dictated by physical motives. You may remember that in the last session or two he was in the Commons the Government had a knack of falling into scrapes after midnight. It was through being leaderless, for their chief had either dozed out where he sat, as Pam used to do ; or he had retired altogether. For years it has been his principle to be in bed by 10 o'clock, Or as soon after it as he can. He has avoided dining out and all evening engagements, except Parliament. Thanks to the "good guiding " as the Scotch would say, and to his migration upstairs, where there are no late hours, he has physiologically outlived the natural age of his constitution, which has no unusual tenacity. Mr Gladstone is a prominent example of a constitution which can stand almost anything. He possesses the immunity fro m colds and small ailments enjoyed by some very fortunate actors — Mr Irving, for instance. Night after night he oan speak for several hours off the reel, run all the risk of draughts, condense his sleeping into four or five hours of the fag-end of the night, and travel two or three hundred miles during the day if he should be wanted in the provinces, or work like an editor in his library if he should not. But even Mr Gladstone is not indestructible. He has had a warning or two lately, and more than once his condition has caused anxiety to his friends. His recent illness was not an important affair — only a chill caught at a servant's ball at Hawarden Castle. It prevented him addressing his tenants as he had promised to do on the following day ; but he is all right again. No doubt he is fitting on his armour for Midlothian. It is expected that he will enter into a general defence of his whole life and its variations. There is some talk just now of inviting him down to a preliminary banquet, when the standard of the campaign might be hoisted and the cartel definitely thrown down. "A smart thing was done the other day by the County Court bailiff," writes the G-eelong Advertiser. ''He wanted to serve a fraud summons on a disciple of Esculapius not 100 miles away. To show himself would be of no avail, and his presence would be objectionable, and always caused tho gentleman wanted to make himself scarce, and ' not at home.' The bailiff's messenger tried to get at the debtor, but failed, and a stratagem had to be resorted to. The messenger bandaged a white cloth stained with blood around his face and head, and sought advice of the doctor. The medico, anxious to relieve suffering humanity, admitted the messenger to his surgery, where he was duly served with the summons and conveyance fee. The doctor, although a little bit put out at first, admitted that he had been * had this time.' " As they passed a gentleman whose optics were terribly on the bias, little Dot murmured, "Ma, he's got one eye. that don't go."