THE The Otago Daily Times. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1875.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4267, 21 October 1875, Page 2

THE The Otago Daily Times. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1875.

ling, . _ = A wide field still lies open for B Bradshaw and those who thiuk wi Mrs him that it is the business of the Sta Low > to legislate for the hours, food, wag< dress, of factory hands and miilinei John \y e certainly do not wish to underra ri, to the very great importance of caring i ; the welfare of those good people, w are, after a fashion, the very bone a sinew of the country. Nobody, " suppose, but sympathisers with t Son member for Wakaia in his desire tf at 3 the girls who fit on mantles, or w stand at frames, should wax fat a ld t0 happy, even to the point of kickii There is a merry, good nature in t honourable gentleman which caus him in his good heart to wish the woi N ' were all cakes and ale, that he coi 2j banish sorrow, and give everyone t

amount of leisure and jmoneys they would want. And, after all," the Assembly is so much occupied with the* regulation' of >the governing machinery, that ,the -member who introduces some question of deep personal interest is in his l way a benefactor <f his kind.- W© shall deplore the day wh'en Mr Bradshaw finds be has exhausted his little rill of pleasure, when his protege's have got' " all that they wanted," and are content to sit apart like the gods and enjoy themselves. Dulce:estdisipe7'e in locd; —-we all know the phrase, and it is impossible to regret it if Mr Bradshaw prefers to "dissipate in the Assembly. "We "contemplate, therefore, with some dismay, a future when his mind shall be distracted with thought, and the wakeful nights shall bring him no hints of some new measures to be introduced by him into the Legislature for the benefit of the sex; and yet that prospect seems to us to be approaching the honourable gentleman but too swiftly and surely. In the visions of his head upon his bed he now sees but few pieces of plate presented to him by gushing maidens in token of his prowess. It is already two years since he got even a teapot, and we are afraid not even a silver toothpick is looming up before him. An incomparable satisfaction, therefore, is ours in heing able to present him 1 with a new subject. The idea is not our own; but Mr Bradshaw, after the experience of the pleasure of givingl away the property of other people, and generally dealing with what does not belong to him, which he has gained while dealing with the Factory Act/ will not grudge us the poor pleasure of ■ giving him a second-hand idea. Dr: Fkrgusson, of Bolton, has been Certifying Surgeon under the Factory Acts of that town for the last fourteen years. He has lately made a report of his' acquired information, and he has come \to the conclusion that the physical condition of the manufactaring population !is degenerating. He has arrived at tbis result by the simple process of weighing the babies. The causes sf era to be easily summed up : The parents ' are degenerating because of their in- • temperate habits; the children because they use tobacco during growth, and because they get tea and coffee . instead of much milk. With an inconsequence common to philanthropists, the remedy suggested is that the children should not be allowed to work until they were healthy and thirteen. Need we say another word to suggest >to Mr Bradshaw the opportunity that [ lies before a man like himself? It is B notorious that our babies in Otago have r never been weighed, it is impossible to ' discover from the vital statistics whe--2 ther they are as a rule lean or fat, thread papers or chubby darlings. We g of course all want our babies weighed, ,f or if we don't what does it matter to a d reformer? Our extraordinary apathy a needs the interference of the State. We must be compelled to weigh them. The hour has come and the man. Armed with a pair of scales and a note book, the member for Waikaia may travel the length and breadth of the land, gathering maledictions and statistics in equal proportions. If he gets bis face scratched he can put it down to the intemperate habits of the mothers oi C the State infants, and he will have added one more fact to his scanty stock. Whether he will be wise to at- , tempt to put out the male parent's pipe z at the same time that he tastes the por- ), ridge of the babes may be doubted. f Too much popularity is not good for i« anyone—we do not care to see Mr l> Bradshaw the darling of the people. Having established the fact that oui little Jacks and Gills are growing thinner, we have no doubt whatever i- the calculation will come out right— this sort of calculation always does— the next step wilL suggest iiself ai once. The causes will be found in th< want of eggs and cream cheese, and the tendency of the parents to habits of in veterate joking—we beg pardon, oi smoking. Thereupon a Bill will be in ■c troduced prohibiting the exportation o eggs and cheese from any farm-house a _ while at the same time the Legis ed lature will be asked to pass ai Hi Act offering a bonus of £1500 fo the first man who buys these dam ties, without their being sold. Twi pd kindred Acts will also be required lei the one prohibiting the importation o tobacco, under penalty ; the other re quiring it to be locally grown am m- used. The passing of these Acts wil occupy the remainder of the (political life of the member for Waikaia ; or, i 'S not, we shall be prepared with furtbe suggestions in 1885. We regard th question of the physical well-being c the people as so important, so essentia on» indeed, to the growth of the State, tha 3 \s, we make no apology for pressing o the more humane members of ou f— Legislature the desirability of carin * for the rising generation. It is all ver well to contend that, however desirabl it may be that our infants should I fat, it is no part of the State's duty t see that they have proper food. W !^> bf gto refer our readers to the Duke < Argyle's "Keign of Law," writte some years after the decease of Quee t Anne, for information on this pom '-— In Russia, Siberia, Kent, and Brittan; it has been found that the neglect < He. the children results in swift degrad; tion to the State; and Liebig has lai ). it down that no food contains so mm nourishment in proportion to water s lat asses' milk. We think we have no iith found an occupation for Mr Bradshay =■? The evidence given in the case Bkisc< and Co. versus Captain Harvey, of tl Altcar, heard in the Resident Magistratt M Court on Friday last, revealed a very r IP* markable state of affairs in connects with the responsibility of the m astern — ships before the latter are despatched sea from London. Until certain fac — were elicited during the hearing of tl Mr above case, we had always imagined th itfi from the day the master was appointed . a vessel his responsibilities commenci —that he was invested with, authority >es» regulate all matters appertaining to h ;rs- appointments and to the stowing of h ate cargo. Making due allowance for the i for terferenoe of owners and the niggard rho parsimony by which they are too oit md influenced, to the disregard of the safe of the ship and her freight—living ai T e dead —we yet imagined that the mast had the power, and, what is more, w hat prepared to use it, in remedying a: rho gross oversight or culpable carelessnx j.nd on. the part of owners, stevedon n g or riggers, to whose tender mercies shi the are» as a rule» committe<i during tin stay in home ports. We had ever ; S<m garded the master of a ship a* a pers '"** elected to his position by virtue of ] uld experience, skill, and general capabili the That, in fact, he was a man compete:

iat all points, not only to conserve bis owner's interests, but also to conduct, from first to last, the,.-movements of the marvellous piece"- of "mechanism of which he had been elected "the supreme head. These ideas, which, we once regarded as substantially correct, have been dissipated into thin air by the statements made by the master of the Altcar, in the case in. whicli he Mas defendant. 'From these statements', it would appear that the master is not master after all until his vessel is clear of port, and that, so long as her anchor holds the ground, she is liable to be boarded by agents of charterers and charterers and owners, and be treated by them in any manner .they might think proper, the captain meanwhile standing helplessly by. We use the sentence '; in any manner they might think proper" advisedly, for if, the agent of a charterer or charterers has the power to do as he. thinks proper in a matter so vitally affecting the safety of a ship as that of stowing powder on board her, we naturally conclude that, having gone to the greater length, there was nothing to prevent him playing any lesser pranks that might be dictated by a mistaken zeal for the interests of his principals. We contend that although at first sight this view of the question seems far fetched, it is in the main just and reasonable, and raises the issue of to what degree is the master responsible for the condition of his ship before she leaves port. According to the law of the Colony, as expressed by the decision given in the case abovequoted, the ship is liable through her master, and with this judgment we very heartily concur, for it virtually sets at naught the self-assumed authority of charterers, and casts the onus upon the shoulders of the person to whose keeping the safety of the ship and her contents is committed. Ifc is, however, very evident that a most dangerous and reprehensible custom has been established in the port of London ; and if there, very probably it has found footing in others. We opine that this custom is the outcome of undue complacency on the part of masters of ships in permitting the assumption of undue authority on the part of owners and char- ' terers ; and as we are aware that the relations of owners as masters, and masters as servants, rest upon a somewhat peculiar footing in the old country, we think that after the expose in the Kesi- , dent Magistrate's Court on Friday last, it is high time that the Imperial Legislature interfered to place those relations upon a better footing, by restraining charterers and owners from mischievously meddling with matters with which they are not competent to deal. Meddling on the part of incompetents simply means '' jeopardising the safety of, perhaps, scores of lives and thousands of pounds' worth of property. For the sake of the first i philanthropy may interfere, whilst insurance companies had better be on the alert to preserve the second. ' Gushing philanthropy had it all its own ' way at the meeting about the Female J Refuge on Tuesday. A resolution was 5 carried, leaving it to the discretion of the > ladies who manage that institution - whether elderly women should be admitted or not. Notwithstanding the 1 effort made by Archdeacon Edwakds to " have the age limited at which applicants ' might be admitted, it was fairly left to 1 the Committee to exercise a wide discre--7 tion in the matter. We have no hesita- . tion in saying that if the same mistakes continue to be made that the past has shown, the sooner the Refuge is shut up j the better for the cause of morality. As J Archdeacon Edwards pointed out, the V association of a yirl of fifteen with aged c prostitutes; of fifty-three is in itself an I evil of very great magnitude. Classification i. of criminals is the great desideratum in i our gaols, but the benevolent ladies 3 who have bestowed much time and atten- -- tion upon this Refuge are ready enough to neglect all teaching and precedent, and c try a new fangled device of their owr 7 which hag already brought forfch bitter r fruits. We were much struck by the c fact that one of the few instances of moral •- reformation ia noted in the report as having been accomplished in the case oi a girl who ran away from the Refuge. Wo believe that she showed by so doinj r that her moral sense was not entirelj '• gone, but that she had still g- ocl feeling r enough left to avoid the contamination g she would have otherwise suffered. Th< r question at issue is simply this : Is th< Refuge a temporary home for young un fortunates or a domicile for aged anc hardened. prostitutes I The meeting oi -t Tuesday decided to all intents and pur c poses that both classes were to find i c refuge there. At the present time mor< i- than half the inmates are of an age a )f which, it has been found that reformatior is extremely improbable if not impossible f Wecordially agree with those speakers wh< said that, after all, age by itself was n< c'e ' sure test. Certainly not, but it is th s' nearest approach, to a test that can b n arrived at. We have to express a douh >r whether the public will give its help t< i. support au institution which, is simpl; rQ putting a premium on vice by offering * home to those worn out in sin, whie1 ' they prefer to the Benevolent. The ex 3t ctedingly injudicious counsels which hay c- hitherto guided the Committee, receive lcl only too much support from the gushin II philanthropists of Tuesday. To them, i \\ seemed nothing that the public and th if Provincial Council should, have give their money under false pretences to ?r Refuge originally intended for the younc 16 but which has been turned into a horn °f for the old. The institution has got th il, money and spent it; it only remains fc at the public to decide whether furthi m, supplies should be granted while tli Refuge is managed on the preset : system. *»; ========= 1 y In yesterday's issue we stated tliat tl : Eingarooma might be expected at the B!u c \ on Wednesday, and we based our calcul *° lions on the fact of the mail steamer i?e; c ' having left Galle two days before contra °f; time, and that she would make her ordinal en : passage of 20 days. Last evening we receivt en a telegram from Captain Underwood, of tl it.' Albion, at Hokitika, to the effect that tl ty, ■ ftingarooma would probably leave Melboun of on Sunday, the 17th. She may thereto la- be expected at the Bluff, with anything HI del fine weather on the passage, late this evenii eh or early to-morrow. as Our Auckland correspondent informs >w that the Tairua golilfickl continues to yie W. good prospects. The battery belonging the famous Shotover Company at £ Thames has been purchased for the Prospe OE tors' Company. At the Tairaa, busines ,c which has been frightfully dull, lately shoi c S some signs of improvement. The Tham or^ goldfield is still very dull. of The Macandrew Banquet Committee ha to experienced some difficulty in their endt cts yours to secure a suitable hall for the pi ;lie posed banquet. We understand, howev< la** that the difficulty is likely to be removed, Mr Henry Tewsley, the resident partner jG. Messrs Sargood, Son, and Eviren, in 1 , er usual public-spirited manner, has kind ier placed at the disposal of the Committee t in- splendid hall in the firm's new premises ily High street. fc* 3U The case of Hogg and Hutton v. Som< e^ veil was decided in the Supreme Court day. A verdict was givea for the defends yag on every issue. my A man named Anthony Guffie was kill .ess yesterday at Naseby, by a slip of snow a *es, i C6j while driving a tunnel through the sn L'P S at Clark's diggings. ieir A little boy of Mr G. M. Aldrich's, sewn ~q~ machine agent, died suddenly on Tueac hi a afternoon. The cause of death is si [ty. posed to have b«ea suffocatdoQj, produced >nt, choking.

The Macandrew Banquet Committee held another general meeting at the Provincial Hotel last evening,-Mr~James Brown in the chair. The following, telegrams wero read : —From Mr Macandrew : " I propose leaving by the Albion on Sanday. Sir George Grey, . Fitzherbert, and Rolleston, will accompany me." From Sir J. L. C. Richardson : " I thankfully accept your kind invitation.' From Mr Rolleston : " Please convey my best thanks to the committee for the honour they have done me. I have much pleasure in accepting their invitation." The banquet was definitely appointed to take place on Wednesday next. A-daughter of Sergeant Dean, five years of agfl, met with a frightful death on Tuesday. She was carrying a shovelf all of live lignite ashes out of the house, when her drcsss, coming into contact with them, burst into a blaze, and before assistance could be rendered she was severely burned about the body; and, though Dr Burns did all in his power to allay her sufferings, she died in the evening. During the examination of Mr A. R-. Hay in the case of Hogg and Hutbon v. Somervell, in th«? Supreme Court, he adduced one of the reasons given by Messrs Hogg and Hutton for declining to accept five years' lease of their business premises, at the time when the cause of action arose. The reason was, that they declined in consequence of Mr Vogel being at the head of the present Government, and that the Colony in the course of five years would be ruined. Several important matters bearing upon the deferred payment system were freely discussed by the Waste Lands Board yeafcer-; day. Mr Bastings was very happy in his Scriptural quotation. A special meeting of the Deutseher Verein, for the purpose of considering the formation of a Liedertafel, took place at the European Hotel last evening, when there was a good attendance. The President {Mr Win. Nees) occupied the chair. What should prove one of the most attractive cricket matches the season will be commenced on the D.C.C Ground on Saturday, when the representatives of the newly-formed South Dunedin Club will measure their strength against the picked men of the D.C.C. That a good game will be played there can be no doubt, judging from the strong array on either side ; and we understand that two or three new comers will exhibit their skill upon this occasion. To infuse more interest into the match, the Vice President of the D.C.C. (Mr John Eva) has intimated his infcentioa to present the highest aggregate scorer with a handsome bat. The Artillery Band will also discourse some excellent music during the afternoon, and doubtless there will be a large crowd j attracted to witness the match. An official enquiry into the circumstances attending the wreck of the s.s. Bruce at the Heads wiil be held in the R..M. Courthouse to-day. Twenty-seven horses, brought by the Omeo, were landed at the Port yesterday afternoon in capital condition, and sent to Dunedin by road. They were all of the draught class, and appeared useful animals. A child was received into the Hospital last evening with a piece of glass in one of its eyes. ' The first practice of the newly-appointed Fire Brigade was held opposite the station ( last evening, at which there was a good . muster of members. Through the scarcity of water, the practice was confined to t manoeuvring with the apparatus, and gaining a knowledge of the same, under the 1 tuition of Captain Johnston. 1 There was a brief sitting of the Polioe Court yesterday. Johanna Wilson, for i drunkenness, was fined ss, and Thomas L Cross was fined £5, in default, 14 days 1 • imprisonment, for being drunk whilst in i charge of a cab. Messrs Brown and Fulton *■ presided. I Those persons who are so. ready in pro- [ claiming that the climate of Ofcago is so un_ healthy will be perhaps astonished to hear ' that a gentleman who has recently arrived r here from Victoria for the benefit of his t health has been completely restored in the j course of a fortnight. To form some idea of i the state he was in when he arrived, we may - add that he had to be carried out of his buuk, so thoroughly prostrate was he. Two 1 weeks, however,[out at the Ocean Beach have completely set him up. We are in a position \ to state authoritatively that he is able to I walk about, for we have seen him hanging ! round with a big poe<et-book, and a number of unpaid tailor's bills in Victoria for some o of his friends here. The fact is the place is o too healthy—for Melbourne tailors. c Mr Bathgate displays implicit confidence c in some witnesses who come before him. In a case yesterday, w3ien the plaintiff stepped into the box to give evidence, His Worship quietly asked him to " consider himself h upon oath." - The Gsvernment are losing no time in the c matter of starting the excavation of the <* school ground for the Port Chalmers Gram & mar School. Yesterday, Mr Caldwell relt curved instructions to set the prisoners to 6 that work. The gang put on the work will a be those who made the road towards the r Heads. As the hulk they occupy requires c repairing, she will be put in the dock, and c the prisoners will be sent to Port daily and •r back by train. ir At the Port Chalmers Police Court yesterLe day, Jasper Saltner, a seaman on the ship Taunton, was charged with embezzling a bottle of champagne from the cargo. The : case was remanded till to-day. tc On Sunday morning last, as three men, named Burt, Wilson, and Bourne, were walking along the Ocean Beach, they dis- .+ covered a seal upon the saud. Two of them getting between it and the water, to pre. J( j vent its escape, the third went for a gun and ie put a bullet through its head. It was about ten feet in length, and of the sea leopard species. Captain Hutton has secured the skeleton for the Museum. On Tuesday, the same men shot another, still larger, and this one Captain Huttoo, we believe, intends to ° have staffed for the Museum. A new hotel has lately been erected in j! Princes street South, at the corner of Princes . : street and the Anderson's Bay Road, near , ° the Cticket ground. The new building is c called the Southern Hotel. It is a substau- [ ' tial brick and stone structure and its host is '*' ; Mr P. Fagan, who for the l»st five years has conducted the now closed Carriers' Arms Hotel. The contractors for the Southern Hotel were Messrs Ewen and Gracie, and ye they appear to have faithfully done their Ja' work, the building being well finished, and, °" although the foundations were laid on 3r> ground not very suitable for the purpose, as no signs of cracks, not even of flaws in the of plaster, are apparent. A commodious hall 1!S runs through the house on the street level, lly ou which floor there are bar, bar parlour, c proprietor's private room, a commercial la room, and a dining room. Upstairs there are twelve bedrooms and a good sized sitting W- room. The kitchen, pantry, &c, occupy a to- detached blue stone building at the back. Mfc The hotel is not a very large one, but it is a building of a clai-s which is needed to meet ied a*' felt want " in that locality. nd We observe by advertisement that the ow subscribers' presentation work for 1876 of the Art Union of Glasgow, so long localised it. in Dunedin, ia hung on this occation in i [ay Messrs Fergusson and Mitchell's. It con.ip- sists of a chromo lithograph, beautifully by executed, from an oil painting valued at I £220, which forms the first prize of the

! Association for the year. The subject is ; an exceedingly pleasing one. and everyone mast ;be strnck with its strikingly characteristic points), and the naturalness of the two blooming Scotch lassies, the gleaners. This Society has been very liberal to Otago. There have fallen to the subscribers of last year three prizes, two of them being oil paintings, one an artist's proof, and we are told by the hon. secretary, Mr Jas. Barr, that for a period of seven or eight years there have frequently been more, but never a smaller number of prizes than that. The leading Australian papers, recognizing the importance of the communication addressed by Captain-Harvey, of the ship Altcar, to the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce on the storage of gunpowder, have reproduced the same. There will thus be every opportunity now afforded of the sabject being well ventilated, and of obtaining proper attention at the hands of the authorities at Home. Some idea of the extent to which coaching traffic has developed under the new mode of locomotion provided by the railway (says the Times) may be gathered from the fact that no fewer than 36 coaches arrive at and depart from Lawrence during the week, viz., thirty running in conjunction with the tram, the other six going to and from the interior in connection with the through line to the Dunstan and Wakatipu. The earliest departure is 5 a.m., and the last arrival 10 p.m., so that it is now pretty well coaching the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. The drivers, who are closetimed, are provided with bugles, with which ; they annouace their approach. By that means everything is got in readiness for their arrival and no unnecessary delay is incurred. On the night coaches these musical operations are particularly lively, the effect bringing to mind old times when mail coaches l and their red-coated guards were institutions of the day. The Sydney Evening News of October Ist says:—"Yesterday morning a well-known comedian was arrested, and lodged in durance vile for a short time, at the suit of the agents for the Dramatic Authors' Society, who obtained judgment against him in an action for fees incurred by playing pieces the property of their principals. The debt was of long standing, and the arrest of the defendant was the cause of some consternation in the theatrical world. In this case the proverb that troubles never come alone was verified, for the same gentleman was summoned to the Water Police Court, for that he did 'assault and beat' a fellow lodger at his hotel with a bolster in the small hours of the morning. A settlement was effected, and the case was not heard. In the matter of the arrest, a compromise was also made." We (Armidale Chronicle) have beert informed this week of an occurrence which is rather remarkable, as showing what pluck can, under some circumstances, be displayed by a hen turkey. It appears that Mr Bwin, of Carlisle Gully, ! had a turkey sitting on a nest of eggs near his house. The bird, after one of her periodical visits for food, returned to her : nest, and found that, in addition to the eggs, it contained an enormous black snake, his snakeship having apparently watched his opportunity and taken possession of the prize at a most favourable time. The turkey, perhaps not unaccustomed to these adventures, at once reconnoitered the enemy, and prepared herself to put the intruder out. By a dexterous movement, she seized the reptile a few inches below the head, and dragged it forth into open ground, whore there would be a fair field and no favour. The snake was making desperate efforts to extricate itself from the powerful beak of its antagonist, and to give the bird an embrace i round the body or legs with its strong tail; but the turkey was just as active and determined that her deadly enemy should not succeed in accomplishing its wish, and gave it repeated blows on the ground in order to silence it for ever. After the fight had lasted 10 minutes, it was found that the hen had put the snake liors de combat, without receiving the slightest injury herself, the feathers no doubt effectually protecting her from, the reptile's fangs. The trial of a patent horse-clipper recently took place at Melbourne, and the Argus gives fee following description of this new invention : — The American horse-clipper consist of a stand of stout iron about 4ft. high, attached to which is an iron arm about sft. long, having another at the end of it about the same length. At the extremity of this arm is the clipper—a small round comb, with a cutter on the outside. The motion is obtained by working a wheel attached to the upright standard. The two arms give the greatest freedom of movement, and when once the workman is used to the machine, the clipping can be clone so rapidly that a quiet horse can be easily clipped under an hour. These machines are in general use in America, and have found considerable favour in England. The Age informs us that Mdlle de Murska has just completed a most prosperous season at Adelaide. A telegram was received by her agent, M. de Vivo, a few days ago, stating that her benefit on the 4th inst. was an unexampled success. More than 500 persons were turned away from the doors of the Town Hall, unable to gain admittance owing to the crowded state of the building. At the concert Mdlle de Murska received no less than 153 bouquets. Afterwards, she was serenaded by the Adelaide Liedertafel and the Theatre ftoyal band, and an illumi nated procession toek place. In response to repeated calls from the crowd who accompanied the serena-.lers, Mdlle de Murska sang the Last Rose of Summer from the balcony of the hotel at which she was staying. The cantatrice then threw the bouquets she had received among those in the street, and made them a short speech. At this time there were not less than 5000 persons assembled, and in the most enthusiastic manner they cheered the Hungarian Nightingale. No singer ever produced such, a furore of excitement in the place before. "Richelieu" was creditably performed at the Queen's Theatre last evening. Mr Bates's conception of the great cardinal appeared to give general satisfaction, and he was honoured with several calls before the curtain. The Julie de Mortimer of Mrs Bates was evenly played, and Mr Steele rather surprised many by the spirited rendering of De Mauprat. The gentlemen who represented King Louis and De Barradas too frequently indulge in drawling out words at end of sentences, and it was anything but pleasant to hear them pronounce "throne" as "throne-ah !" &c, &c. Mr Musgrave's Father Joseph and Mr Hooper's De Berringhen deserve commendation. The regular monthly meeting of Lodge Celtic, No. 477, S.C., will be held in the Masonic Hall this evening.