Untitled

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7626, 25 December 1886, Page 2

On the fourth page will be found an article entitled " Horrors of the Middle Passage."

Tho shops in Hastings were very ]iref lily decorak'd last night lo celebrate the festive .season. There were also dispUys of iircworks, and a performance by the band.

There was a doulilo iillownncc ot waits last ni^lit ami oarly this morning, lioth tlio Napior hands lieiu,^ out. Kucli band played appropriate music in a capable niaimoi-.

The suliject of (ho lluv. J. 0. Paterson's sermon 10-nionow inonun^' -\v 1 1 1 lie "licom-ftcil at l'hilli])i." 'L'ho sulijeefc of tlio ovoiiing lecturo will bo "A ]jlazin<[ Fiery Fiinmce,"

At the licsident Mngisl rate's Court yesterday, liefoio J\Vr (f. A. IVeeee, 1J.11., two inuViules named Thomas Murray and Robert Emerson were brought up and discharged with a caution.

We nro rcc(ncMoil io wlalc that the ilopartuio of (ho Uuimi Stcuiiishlp Company's Ohau for North, previously advertised for to-morrow, is postponed lo next Tuesday at ."; p.m.

Thu choir of ,St. John's Church wont out carol-singing last evening, lioing conveyed" from point to point aliout the hills in Mr Jxeilsl'one'a 'hiissep. Soveml portions of the llalri were also visited. Tlio singing sounded vory sweetly on the still nigli}uir, the voice's of the singer.-* being beautifully Mended.

The privileges in connection with tlio Napier i'ark J'acing Club's •ineelinjj on Now Year's J)ay wore sold yesterday by Mr Jl. Montoith. The following prices were realism! : — Lawn liar, Mr Lord, ;C?.O ; outside luncheon and confectionery liootli, Mr Jcflfires, X.i; hooks of races, Mr Jsn>lley, £17 1(K Tlie other privileges wore 'passed in for private sale.

Mr Scavfc lias sent (0 ,'lhis office one of tlie most artistic presentation almanacs wo havo seen. The subject is a. portrait of Mr W. K. Gladstone, ami the execution is liei-fcot. The features of Jinglanil'H {jTUiit KLatusnln.ll stand out in llio most lifelike fashion, ami thu picture is really worth framing. It is ;i triumph of litho»rtinliic color printing.

Tho following is a statement of the losses sustained by the various insurance companies in connection with the late (ire :— South Uritish, £2950; Union, £2/00 ; Colonial, £2650 ; Victoria, £2050 ; New Zealand, £ISIO ; National, £1100 ; Standard, JE76O ; Northern, £G10 ; Norwich Union, £550 ; United, £550 ; London and Lancashire, £400 ; Liverpool, London, and Globe, £210 ; Australian Alliance, £170 ; Equitable, £100. Total, £10,G10.

The town bore a very lively appearance last night, the streets being thronged with townspeople, and a largo number of the shops being decorated and illuminated. Emerson-street looked a bit forlorn, in consequence of the big gap made in it by the late tire, but even here there was a great amount of "liveliness " displayed, Some of the shops in Hastings .street had magnificent displays in their windows, which were contrea of attraction to admiring crowds up till a late hour.

That even the aged and poor in the Refuge shall have the wherewithal lo rejoice and make merry to-day, the authorities have arranged for a substantial Christmas dinner, wliieh will be served at noon. In the hospital also arrangements have been made for the due celebration of the season. Visitors are invited to pay thfc Refuge and Hospital a visit — and it thoy carry a-. few f lower.-; or sonic more substantial luxuries they will not bo less welcome, and they will not enjoy their own Christmas dinner the les?.

The Kisk Jubilee Singers have arrived in Napier, after a season of splendid business in Auckland, (unl will open in tlio Tlioalrc Koyal on Monday oveninjx. Those who want fo enjoy a. musical heat of the highest order will do well to lio present. The company in one that can be mo:<l unreservedly commended, ils member.-; being highly trained singers, and the solos and concerted pieces rendered living of Hie most attractive kind. The . l ubilce Singer.s created quite il/iiivrevA Australia, their concerts being crowded nightly. This indeed has been the cane wherever Iho Jubilee Singers have appeared, and from the manner in which reserved tickets have gone oil' Napier will prove no exception lo tiic rule.

" Holiilay makers will have a wide range of choice on Monday. J/irst and foremost tliore will be the ;it tractions of tho Jockey Club's race meeting at Hastings, for which Hjiecial train arrangements have been made. Then conies the meeting of the AVaipawa Athletic Club, always an enjoyable one, and in connection with which a special train will run from Napier. At l J etane there will he the meeting of the Ifawke's 15ay Hide Association, at which a number of cash prizes and trophies willboiircd for. At night there will be the inaugural performance of the Jubilee Singers,' winch will afford a pleasing means of finishing up Boxing Day. On Tuesday tho open tournament under the auspices of the Ilawko's Tsay Lawii Tennis Club will attract a large number of visitors to Farndon Park.

Glaciers, the ice-rivers of lofty mountains, have been found to move downwards from one or two inches to over CO a (lay, from 10 to 20 inches a day in summer being most common. Tho rate in winter is about half that of summer.

The British Auslrulasinn, which published a series of special illustrated editions dealing with tho Indian and Colonial Exhibition, gave some prominence to Mr J. y. Largo's exhibits of cabinet work in fancy woods. The exhibit selected for the greatest commendation was ft benuliful voneered writing table.

A giant is appearing in London, He is an Austrian. He calls himself Winkelnieir. He is Bft Gin in height, and is one of the tallest men who have lived since the days of Anakin. He is said to have nothing to recommend him to notice except liis size, being like most giants, without any particular intellectual energy.

Dress on the stage has reached a remarkable pitch of display and extravagance nowadays, but it has been left to an American actress to invent an arrangement by which all her grand toilette should bo seen at once, without giving her tho trouble of changing her costume; In ■a forthcoming piece at Boston, the actress has introduced a scene in a dressmaking establishment, where twenty ol her gorgeous costumes shall bo arranged on .milliners' dummies.

A policeman in the Sth arrondisscwenfc of Paris married hi ISS3 a young Hill who had just an orphanage, but who had known nothing of her parents. A fow flays ago, shortly after the birth of a child, the ollieer received a cheque for 100,000 francs, together with a letter asking him to kiss his wife and child for the donor; the communication being signed, "Your Wife's Mother." On the eve of her marriage • the supposed orphan roceivnd a trousseau anil a 15ank of France note for 1000 francs, and a short letter urging her to bo always good and virtuous, and iidding that it was her mother who begged it.

The German papers announce the suicide by poison of tho learned naturalist, Carl Ploctz. He was 78 year.-) of age. A letter was found on his person explaining his conduct. " I consider myself justified," ho writes, " after my long career, in putting an end to an existence which, threatened as 1 am with complete loss of sight, would be insupportable to me, if, as would be the case, I could no longer devote it to the cause of science, and to my usual and favorite studies," Seldom has a great man perished under circumstances more pathetic. Carl I'lochs leaves a widow and two children, and it is expected that th^ German Government will grant the unfortunate family a pension.

In the evidence recently taken boforo the Vegetable- Product Commission, a nurseryman not far from Melbourne stated that, in cultivating peppermint, he obtained in the second year a crop of three tons to the acre, and in the following year that ho got an average of nearly four tons, and in some parts five. Then, it seems that by the simplest process of distillation, from fiveto seven poundsofoil is obtained per ton, for which they pay in Melbourne £1 15s per lb, The same-wit-ness stated that lavender can itlso be grown in the colony, and that the essential oil is worth in England £5 per lb. Camniomilo llowors would bring £S 8s the hundredweight.

One ot the heroines of a famous historical escape from prison has just died in Paris — the Baroness do Forgot, formerly Josephine de Lavaletto, who helped to rescue her father on the eve of his execution. Few episodes in French history are more familiar than the pathetic story of Madame Lavalette disguising the condemned lionaparlist in tier own clothes, and sending him out of the Coucic'rgerio on (he ami' of young Josephine, then a girl of thirteen. In her nervousness Josephine forgot her instructions to keep on her father's- right, so as to prevent tho turnkey from handing out the supposed Madame Lavalette, and thus ran great risk of the plan failing. Josephine nursed both her father and mother until their death, and has now followed them at the age of ninety-three.

In tho Registrar-General's annual report reference is made to the striking difference botwen the birth rates of the North Island and Smith Island cities, Auckland and Wellington having respectively 41 and 30 births per thousand of population, as against tlio 2S and SO of Christclmrch and Ihinedin, but it is suggested that this may bo due to " tho departure of the younger of the married people lo tho suburbs for economic reasons." Ona triplet and 101 pairs of twins were born in New Zealand last year. Tinproportion of illegitimate births is increasing, and is now B '2 per cent, of births, as against 'V 7 per cent in England. The proportion of marriages performed before liegistrars is also increasing, and last year was 23 per eont.

The Muvlhorow/h Times draws attention, lo sonic remarks recently made at a mectiug of the Education lioaril in Blenheim. Air Connolly .stated that be recently looked into 11 geography and was informed for the lir.st lime that Cook Strait divided New Ulster from New Minister, names \y]iieli had been abolished over thirty-live years iipo. Ho also met the statement that Mount ligmont was the highest mountain in' Australia and that the mountain was ]],COO feet high. The statement that Mount Kgmont (Taranaki) is 11,000 feet high is inaccurate, the mountain being olllcially put down at 5270 feet, though BiilenlKiuh, a very early explorer, and probably the first European to reauli the summit of turnout, gives the height of the peak at JJOOO feet in bis early works on New Zealand, The geography referred to by Mr (Joimoly is used in the Marlborough Stale schools.

IJefdi-e (he days of breechloader:; the ju'csuiit Sir Vincent Corbet oni'o shot on his estate in Shropshire seventy brace of birds in one Held of turnips to Ms own gun. IJnt it resfeil with the i\luli;ir;ij.a!i Dliuluop Kingh (o fur surpass nil previous records of partridge shooting. 'I'liis he did on liis famous sporting estate of l''ivo(loi), in Suil'olk, when, on Sept. 4, 1560, lie killed 7SO partridges. This bag is, of course, unprecedented, and far abovo whatever lias been dono ( or is likely to lie done again. On this occasion the Maharajah" fired just a thousand shots, and it is notorious that lie was one of the very quickest shots in England as well us one of the best. It is said by many a competent judge that no shooter now living can get his gun up to his .shoulder and Jire it in such .1 short sjjace of time as can the Maharajah, and this power when combined with very straight aiming, will of course add up ti'Mg bngyevy rapidly.

Some of the Uonlcvard newspapers (writes ihc Paris correspondnnt of (ho Daily Tflcgitiph) are fond of making fun of Ihc athletic habits which young Frenchmen of (lie higher classes are now cultivating. The jcum'Hsa, dnric of to-day is too fond, say I lie Aujjlophobist writer's, of

dispensing with the daily help of the coijf'cur, wearing its short hair quite straight, donning tho stoutest of thick boots, and, greatest insanity of all, actnally walking all the way from the races at Aut'euil or at Longchamps to its club near the Grand Opera. These pernicious habits have all been imported from England, and it is needless to add the} 7 exhibit a terrible state of decadence ; nor is there any sign of such barbarous customs being abandoned. On the contrary, the passion for athletics has grown to such an extent that an association for the encouragement of foot-racing and jumping has been started, under the lii-lingual title "Le .Racing Club do France."

The change that is fast taking place in the view with which the Scotch Presbyterian clergy regard Sunday observance is strikingly shown by the remarks made by the Hey. Principal Cunningham at a harvest festival at Criotl' Parish Church on Sunday, October 17. He said that his parishioners were in a great measure to blame for the present disastrous harvest. On a recent Sunday, when all the crop was in a fit state to be gathered in, the farmers and their servants wore either in church or in bed when they should have been in the fields. Tho country would sutler ill almost every respect ou account of the bad harvest. All this was caused by the too rigid and puritanical observance of the Sunday in question. In conclusion, the reverend gentleman said that, the late -disastrous .seasons would work good in the end. They were on. the verge of a revolution both in regard to the land laws and agriculture in general. Everything in connection with agriculture must be greatly changed, and a, season like the present would greatly hasten that dav.

The death of the Marquis of Aileslmry raises to the. peerage one of, perhaps the mosL extraordinary .specimens of hereditary rank that even recent days have seen (writes the London correspondent of the Liverpool Post). Lord Savernakc, who now becomes the Marquis of Ailosbmy, distinguished himself a few years; ago by constantly appearing in public as a eostormongor. He wore the usual still" cloth, cutaway, Hash coat, with rather large pearl buttons; tho tight corduroy breocli°s, with bell bottums; the gaudy gipsy neckerchief, and the small-peaked Cap in which the well-known London character disports, and he also drove a small cart of the coster type. Among his other idiosyncrasies was his marriage, when he selected as the future Marchioness one of the young liidies whom Mr John HoUingshead used to produce in the burlesques of the Gaiety Theatre.

The following particulars of what appears to have been a most deliberate murder aro given by the Hobart Mercury as having taken place at Delornine :—" About 6 o'clock in the evening of the 2ndinst., Timothy Walker shot Benjamin Hampton dead. Walker had been living with a piece of Hampton's wife (a young woman, aged 23), .and her friends bad persuaded her to leave Walker. She did leave him, and went to live at Hampton's house. Walker took a doublebarrelled gun and called at the house for tlie young woman. Apparently he intended to shoot her, but Hampton came out instead and ordered- Walker away. Walker then fired tho contents of one. barrel at Hampton, and the charge tore away the fleshy part of the right arm and set lire to his shirt sleeve. Walker then immediately fired the contents of the second barrel, and the whole contents were buried in Hampton's body just below the heart. Walker was so close that the discharge actually ignited the breast of Hampton's shirt. Hampton fell down, saying, "My God, I am done ; go for Mr Lovejoy." Ho then expired. Walker, who is about 70 years old, shouldered his awn and walked quietly back to the township. On the way ho told some people what ho bad done, but they did not believe him. He was arrested before he reached his house." The promoters of some of the Queensland goldiuining companies which have attained so much prominence in London appear to have made great use of a report by a Mr Wardon.,Saur,veil, and secured insertion in the London Times of a glowing report made by that gentleman to the Queensland Government. Mr Sam well's description of the Etheridge goldfiold is very picturesque. He says : — " In March and April the animal rain passes away in gentle showers, leaving a landscape mi. surpassed in its beauty — cool glades with linjpid sheets of water, dusky dryads gliding through the emerald green forest, and the air. laden with intoxicating perfume from the blossoms of trees, shrubs, herbs, and ilowcrs — the scene almost realises the vision of an Oriental paradise. In May the climate simply becomes delightful, and remains so through the months' of June, July, August, and a part of September. The region named theEtheridge goldh'eld, with its vast outlying districts of gold-bearing and mineral country, will soon become of vast importance to tho commercial world, and its inuring industry will be one of the greatest factors in tho north in promoting tho settlement of a largo European population on tho soil of this portion of the colony of Queensland—a colony whose many resources aro inexhaustible, and whose life is still as young and fresh as a .sunbeam of the morning." 1

Mr Grant Allen, who has been visiting America, was interviewed on his return to England. Ho considers country life in tho States more barbarous than in Europe, especially for tho women. The farmers in the States (he says) are not capitalist farmers, but laboring fanners. The wife has to do all the cooking,' housekeeping, and washing for her husband and her sods, by whom the farm is tilled, and also for the hired man if the holding is sufficiently large to justify his employment. They have less leisure than the English laborer, and they dwell more apart. They have no books excepting religious publications of a low intellectual type and the newspaper. The result is that everyone who can live in tofrns flies from the country as from apest-sniitten city. Tho overcrowding of the great urban centres is one of the most dillicult problefns before American society. No one will remain on land longer than is necessary to enable him to get into tho town. The unending monotony and heavy strain of the field labor have produced two ugly phenomena, of which I lieard a great deal dining my sojourn in America. One is the prevalence of brutal murders. On this side of the Atlantic brutal murders are usually committed in towns ; in America it is the reverse. That is one phenomenon. The other is the fact that the women in a good number of cases become insane.

I'oremost among the sporting men ot eighty years ago was the Dukc'of Hamilton. He was frequently known to take a ■wherry at Westminster Bridge and give a waterman a guinea to pull against him to Chelsea, and would handsomely reward his opponent if the latter happened to get there first, which was very seldom the case. I>ut pugilism was his favorite amusement. As he was returning to town one day in his carriage from Kichm'ond, he saw a coachman Hogging a splendid pair of horses most unmorcifnlly. " Fellow," said the Duke, " I know your master, and I'll take good care to inform him how you treat his horses," "If you'll get down I'll treat you jnst the same," retorted tlieiufiian. very quietly his Grace stepped into tlio road, took oil' his coat, and handed it to one of his footmen ; down jumped the bully, exulting in the thought of spoiling the line gentleman, whom he did not know. JJnt scarcely had lie set-10, when he found lie had caught a tartar. He could not touch his opponent, whoso blows rattled about his sconce like hailstorms. In two minutes coachcc was so fearfully punished that ho laid hiinsolf down in the road and howled for mercy. "You shall have it,"' said the Duke, "(hough you showed none to your horses." Lut .so terribly mauled was (lie brute — who was forthwith discharged from his situation — that he had to take to his lied. His Grace, however, was generous enough to allow the wife a guinea a week until her husband was about again.