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Otago Daily Times, Issue 5276, 18 January 1879, Page 2

Our supplement today contains reports of the Presbyterian Synod and of tho Courts, our Auckland correspondent's letter, letters to the editor, and other interesting matter.

The Hon. W. H. Reynolds and R. Oliver, Esq., M.H.R., have been appointed members of the Otago High Schools Board.

The special jurora summoned in the case of Proudfoot v. the Harbour Board will not be required to attend the Supreme Court until Friday, the 24th of January.

A telegram from Wellington states that a petition ia favour of the condemned man Welsh haa been presented to the Government ; tbat a medical man has certified to the fact that he ia, and must have been for some time suffeiiug from mania ; and that a commission of three medical gentlemen has been appointed to investigate thia aapect of the caae.

The Rev. Mr Ryley, at last evening's sederunt of the Presbyterian Synod, referred to a paragraph appearing in yesterday's Timea, which, he said, demanded an explanation at his hands. The paragraph in question represented him to have denounced the preaent teaching of the University aa "full of the grossest materialism ;" whereas, according to the report of the proceedings, he explained that by thia he did not mean that the profeaaors held to the doc trine of materialiam; he had only been dealing with one expression of the letter from the Professorial Board, and one expression in it, namely, that physical science waa the basia of all acience—an expression which appeared to his judgment aa groaa materialiam.

The case Macdonaid v. Proctor, iv the Supreme Court, was brought to an end about G o'clock last evening, the Jury finding a verdict for plaintiff for LSO. It waa decided to go on with the next case on the Hat to-day, press of business rendering it desirable- to follow the unusual course of sitting on Saturday, and, a jury having been empannelled for it, the common jurors in waiting were discharged from attendance. Special jury cases are fixed to begin on Monday, although it is hardly likely the common jury case just mentioned will be over. The breach of promise case— Cayford v. Carruthers, to be tried by common jury—is set down for the 27th inst.

The Supreme Court sitting was delayed ha]

an-hour in opening yesterday morning, through two jurors being passengers to town by tbe train delayed at Burnside. The excuse on the part of tha defaulting jurymeu waa accepted as a valid one.

All the preliminaries for tbe public diacuasion, which ia to take place at the Queen's Theatre next week, between the Rev. M. W. Green and Mr Oharlea Bright, have now been arranged. The debate is to extend over three evening?, commencing punctually at 8, and terminating at 10. On the first night—Tuesday—Mr Green ia to have half an hour for his opening address, aud Mr Bright half an hour to reply; after which each gentleman ia to be allowed, alternately, two speeches of a quarter of an hour in length. The second night Mr Bright is to open in a speech of 20 minutes' duration, and Mr Green ia to have a similar time. This is to be followed by two speeches each of a quarter of au hour, and one each of 10 minutes, completing the two hours. The third evening is to be under the same regulation, with the exception that Mr Green leads. Mr A. H. Rosa haa agreed to preside, and he will be aaaiated in time-keeping, &c, by two asseasors —Mr Robert Rutherford on behalf of Mr Bright, and Mr David Henderson acting for Mr Green. Arrangements have been made for a fu'l report of the proceedings, to be subsequently issued in pamphlet form. The profits resulting from the meetings and sale of report are to go to the Benevolent Institution.

The Cup cricket matches will be continued to-day—Albion v. University on the Oval, Dunedin v. Carisbrook on the Caledonian Ground.

The south train which should have arrived at Dunedin at 9.50 yesterday morning, waa detained at Burnside for a little over 20 minutes, some hitch in the block system, we believe, having caused the delay.

At yesterday's sitting of the Presbyterian Synod, the Rev. Mr Watt gave notice of the following motion : —" That this Synod views with satisfaction tho steps recently taken by the Council of the University of Otago to secure for that institution an independent charter, and earnestly hopes that this action of the Council may be crowned with success."

Mr Varley, the evangelist, will, it is understood, make a stay of three weeks in Dunedin. He ia expected on Saturday, 25th, and will commence his meetings in the Queen's Theatre on the 26th.

Tho orrangeraents for tho opening of th. Invoroargill lino aro that tho special train will loavo Onri-iohtuoh At 8,40 a.m. on tlie 21st, and Dutiotfui at 10. ID it. ra. on tho 22nd. A mooting of tlio Caversham Cricket Club was hold on Wednesday evening, and much onthuainsm was displayed by thore present. Tho principal business was tho election of office-bearers. Mr J. If. Hoy waa olocted a fJ captain, Mr .1. Coombe as vico-captair, Mr M. M'Leim aa troaauror, and Mr J. Wise aa secretary of tho club. The following wero appointed the committee, viz., Messrs Halo and Rendle. Persona wishing* to join are requested to make oarly application to tho secretary, Mr J. Wise. The annual meeting of the parishioners of All Bainta' too!: place laafc evening. Tho balance-sheet presented showed a falling off in tho ordinary receipts of L 233 9a Gd, and an iucreaao in the ordinary expenditure of LSG 16a ld, as compared with the previoua year. The roport attributes the former to the exceptional circumstances in which the parish has been placed. Tho schoolhouse adjoining tho church ba 1 boon purchased for L 215, and tho section on which it stands has beeu presented to the church by Mossrs J. and C. Allen, while the adjoining section has been sold by them to the Vestry e,t LGOO, which tho report considers a low prico. The parsonage had been sold for L 1520, and a section in King street, subject to conveyance by tho trustees, at L 975. After paying oil mortgages amounting to L7OO, and certain charges, L 790 reraainod in band from sale of parsonage towards building a new one alongside the church. The appointment of the Rev. A. R. Fitchett waa alluded to, and approved by the meeting. Mr J. Aalicrof t was appointed clergyman's churchwarden, anil Mr A. D. Lubcokis parochial churchwarden, Mr\V. H. Quick, troaaurer, and the following gentlemen vestrymen for tbe ensuing year: — Mossrs Graham, Hodgkins, Sydney James, 11. M'Laren, Doughty, W. 11. Quick, J. Watson, Eliott Eliott, J. Allen, and \V. Greig. A very hearty vote of thanks waa accorded to Rev. L, Moore, M.A., who had kindly taken charge of the parish during the temporary vacancy, for the very efficient manner in which he had performed the duties of hia office, and was suitably acknowledged by Mr Moore. Votos of .tanks were passed to the retiring hon. treasurer, II H. Leary, Esq., to Mr Doughty {hon. secretary), to Messrs J. and C. Allan for their very generous gift of land, aud to the organist and choir. A second meeting of promoters of the Roslyn Tram Company was held last evening, when a report from the Committee appointed at the previous meeting waa submitted and approved. The line of route decided upon starts from Maelaggan street, opposite, tho Shamrock Hotel; from thence proceeds up Rattray street, crosaes the Town Belt on the line of Rattray street to ita intersection with the diatrict road, beyond the old toll-gate; from thence it turns to the right, and proceeds along the main road to the Kaikorai Valley, stopping meantime opposite the church, cross-line will also be made along the road from Biahopscourt on the north to the top of Ross street on the south. A committee waa ap pointed to prepare articles of association, &c., and issue prospectus. The nominal capital was fixed at L 50,000, in 10,000 shares of L 5 each, of which it is not intended to call up more than 30a per share. Tbe shares have beeu fixed at this low sum in order to put them within tbe reach of all classes. It ia estimated that tbe ; work can be completed fcr L 17.000. ' The Presbyteriau Synod got through a good > deal of business yesterday. The overture on 1 the reading of the Bible in schools was, after a discussion occupying about a couple of hours, postponed for further consideration, and a com--1 mittee was appointed to frame a resolution cxl pressive of the mind of the Synod on the subc ject. The reports of the Committees on Temperance and on Church Erection were adopted, as also was the Mission Report. Th e Susrtentation Fund Report waa brought up for f discuaaion late in the evening, and was deferred , till Tuesday evening next for further conj sideration, it being of too important a character to dispose of before it had received full ventilation. On the motion of Mr Ryley, it was rej solved that inquiries be made of the Chancellor of the Otago University as to the earliest opportunity at which he would be able to receive a deputation from the Synod iv reference " to the institution of a new Chair of Moral Philosophy aud Political Economy, and the division of the subjects at present allocated to a Professor Macgregor. The Synod adjourned a till Monday next at 1 o'clock. ; In a recent number of Te Wananga there t ia a leading article setting forth how advani. tageous it will be to the Native laudowners iv a the North Island if they permit railways to 1 be constructed through Native districta. The leader says : —" Good roads and railways aro . required before land can be of value for what a, can be clone with it. It is not going much i f too far to say that road 3 and railways give s absolutely a value to land in the same way J as the labour and skill of the Maori or of the f European manufacturer gives a value to the - flax mat or a coil of rope. There i 3 a certain c minimum of value to land independent of the i facilities for using it, but that minimum ia very low. Beyond this there ia in some caaes g a speculative value to land in particular locali- . ties, owing to conjectures aa to its future value ;, when certain other probable conditions come f about. But these other condition, in all cases, s except perhaps where rare minerals are expected to be found, are the probabi'itio3 of c speedy railway or road construction near the land which the speculator has cast his eye -. upon. In the South Island railways have 3 made rich men of bankrupts, and have ~ brought comfort and independence to pleuty N who never hoped to ba anything but hewers I of wood aud drawers of water for others all c their days. Railways have enabled corn to be ,1 grown iv such profusion as to be sufficient for d the wants of New Zt-aland and for an overflow v into Australia and Great Britain. The Lon-

don Cockney eata New Zealand bread on London Bridge. Besides thia, railways bave enabled other railways to be made by the riches they have poured into the pockets of private landowners. What railways have done for the South Island, Sir George Gray's Government hope to tee done by the same ag-nt3 iv the North."

In an article on the speech recently delivered by the hon. member for Geraldino, the New Zealand Herald says : —" When we come to the details mentioned by Mr Wakefield, we are compelled to agree in a considerable measure in hia censure of tho Government for their action. They undoubtedly did many unreasonable and imprudent things. We differ, however, in considering that a sufficient Cass is made out for going from oae side of the House to the other, and probably if it were not for the dazzling vision which rises before Mr Wakefield's eyes he also would not be convinced that a change was expedient. Mr Wakefield finds much fault with the land tax, and, no doubt, in establiahing a new branch of taxation there are many difficulties of detail which cannot be overcome ; but ia there no credit due to the pre3ent Administration for miking an attempt for tho first time to cause the property of the country to contribute to the general taxation, and bo re lieve taxation upon articlea of general consumption ? Are they worthy of ejectioi because, while doing a right thing, they did not do it in a perfect manner ? Had they not en deavoured to redress a glaring evil of our taxation, they would not have fallen into what Mr Wakefield considers serious mistakes. As to the beer tax and companies' income tax, wo concur in all that Mr Wakefialdsaya. AYe repeat, however, that hia case ia altogether too weak to excuse desertion, and by showing such a ready facility in going rouud—such ease in changing hia coat—Mr Wakefield haa not by any means aug- j mented his chances of attaining a seat on tbe Treasury Bench, or even of being re-elected for his present constituency."

Under the heading " A Champion Assassin" the New York Herald gives the following account of the career and execution of a miscreant named "Bill Longley," who received the richly-earned reward of hia crimes at Gaddings, Texas, on the llth October:—" Texas has been a sort of happy hunting-ground for desperadoes for well-nigh half a century, but this fellow seems to have been the worst of all the scoundrels who have haunted it. He was only 26 years of age; yet from the time be was 14 years of age he was a murderer, and this not always from provocation, but more free.uemly from sheer love of wickedness. He seemed to lead a charmed life. When only 15

ha was pursued by a detachment of United .States Cavalry, who discharged, in vain, 40 shots after him. A soldier .closed with him, but his pistol went off, killing the soldier, and he escaped. He was hanged by a body of regulars, and as he did not seem to die quickly enough for their taste they fired two revolver shots at him. One struck a belt lined with gold pieces, the other cut two strands of the rope > and a lad coming up soon after, cut him down and rescued him. More than once he made sham surrenders to enable confederates to obtain rewards of lOOOdol and 1500dol offered for his capture. When the reward was secured, he contrived with their connivance to get off. Of course, he could never settle anywhere, aa much because of his own restless disposition as on account of the pursuit of justice. Ho wandered all over- Texas and the^ adjoining States, travelling into the wild regions of tho West, robbing, plundering, and murdering as he went along. Once, while koeping a bar-room for miners in the Big Horn Mountains, he and eight companions wont out on a hunting excursion and were caught in a snow-storm. Three of them wero frozen to death, and he had to keep his bed for five months, but finally recovered. His last performance was the shootißg of a man named Anderson, who, he heard, had killed his cousin. He walked up to the man as he was working in a field and shot him dead. This was hia thirty-second well-authenticated murder. It was committed on tha 31st of March, 1875, but various delays and legal artifices have prevented his execution till the other day, more than three years and a-half after tbe crime. On the scaffold he conducted himself with some bravado, but he accepted the assi3tatioe e.f a clergyman, and made a short speech which may be interpreted as expressing wire* for hia awful deeds. He acknowledged that ho deserved his fate, and aaked all to for-

give him."

Speaking of the £*reivous neglect of attention to comtn-.n things and common employment as I a means of education, the Philadelphia Public Ledg. r sensibly remarks that " it is in the study of cc.mmc n things, that are co plentiful all around us, but so little understood, that an education may be gained of which at present we bave only begun to conceive. Schools are numerous, books are abundant, eveiy child is now made master of the elements of learning, yet there- is a lack of practical education ; the effcots of the school are apt to fade away on the farm and in the factory, and a separation, if not an antagonism, often takes place between study and daily life. We need a bridge which will carry the scholar with his habits of ttudy and inquiry safely into the life of profitable labour, without obliging him to drop what he has taken so much pains to gain. Sach a bridge may be found in the Btudy of common things. Ordinary life pursuits furnish abundant material for such study. Every object we see or handle in every-day life has a history well worth perusing, a composition well worth analysing, a future well worth conjecturing. However common it may be, it has that in it, and about, which will for ever prevent it from being commonplace. Every employment we engage in, however mechanical or insignificant it may seem, will escape from all such odium if it is pursued with an active brain as well as a busy hand—if it g resources are examined, its history studied, its methods compared, its best purposes followed. Such education will make labour far more valuable by introducing into it the element of thought; it will increase the power of observation, and stimulate the curiosity, which is the germ of all knowledge; it will invest the world of common things with richer meaning and keener flavour; and best of all, it will give continual occupation to those higher faculties of man which are apt to rust in the tame routine of every-day life, when not thus lifted out of the region of commonplace."

Karamea appears to be going from bad to worse. The Westport paper remarks: "As long as there remained any chance of Government money being spent on the settlement, the people there had some hope of tiding over bad seasons, but now that is wholly withdrawn, they are dependent on what their bits of cleared land will produce, and their early crop 3 this season are a failure. The long-continued wet has rotted the potatoes, and all other crops, except in a few favoured localities, are looking sickly. This has been as the last straw on the camel's back to, many of them. It ia not unlikely that some of the Motueka settlers may ceme across and take up some of the nowdo39rted holdings." What puzzles many people ia this—How can the Motueka people live there if the Karamea people cannot ?

A marvellous electrical storm passed to the south of Melbourne on the night of the 4th instant. It ia described by the Argus as one of the grandest and most magnificent electrical phenomena ever witnessed outside the tropica. The sky appeared to rain lightning of diverse character, and parti-coloured " a feu, d'enfer dazzling and dreadful." Sometimes tho light-, ning shed a marvellous glow upon the bellying surfaces of the clouds, " and in the inde. scribably brief interval between flame and flame it seemed as if a gigantic hand were suddenly drawing a black curtain over the heavens, and as abruptly withdrawing it. Underneath the clouds, upon the horizon's furthest verge, torrents of water appeared to be falling." The storm passed round, depositing no moisture on parched fields and gardens in and around Melbourne that stood so much in need of it.

The Princess Theatre was very well attended last night, on the occasion of the benefit of " The Only Leon." A special programme was presented. In the opening part, one or two charming ballads were rendered by members of the troupe, while the closing scene by Mesars Kelly, Courtwright, and Lester was highly amusing. Japanese Tommy having repeated hia original prima donna impersonation, Mr Beaumont Read sang " The Maid of Athens." This well-known air was rendered in Mr Read's very best style, and in response to a very decided encore, he gave " Beautiful Bells," in which he equally delighted hia audience. " The Rose of St. Flour" brought Leon himself on the stage, and a hearty welcome was afforded him. The humour of the piece, in which Messrs Kelly and Lester also appeared, ia of a somewhat rough charaoter, and a better selection might have been made. A quartette by Messrs Read, Fredericks, Surridge, and Ball, " Come where my love lies dreaming," waa the next item, and the audience demanded the repetition of the last verae. Indeed, this quartette, and the former solos by Mr Read, were the gems of the programme. Mr Courtwright next contributed .a song and dance, for which he received a double encore. " Galatea," the concluding item, ia one of the light comic pieces in which Mesars Leon and Kelly are particularly happy, and it went off with every success. The drinking song from " Girofld'' was introduced, and was extremely well rendered, Leon's singing being heard to great advantage. Tbe curtain fell amidst loud applause, aud the company bad to respond to a hearty call.

The Dominican Convcat High School will resume on the _7th instant.

A correction of an item of detail in the G.zatte notice re tho Danedin Corporation Water-Supply, appears in our advertising columns. Alterations in the uuie-'ablo of tlie trains to Port Chalmers and Invercargill are to be made oa the 23rd instant. Particulars ol the changes are given in our advertising columns. All who desire to obtain ad eundem degrees in the New Zeiland University must tend their applications io tlio Registrar, Chriatchurch, ou or before the 15th p.oximo. A cric-cet match will bo played at Monteoillo to-day between tho Ilea I-quarters Band and City Guards Baud, play to commenco ..t -30 sharp. F Honing are tlie names of the players :—lleadquartars Baud : Bevan, Little, I), (captain), Hogg, Gritf.n, Smith, Robertson, M'Beatti, Johnston, Alaricliri, schrcd-', Cooke, Bel, Oliver. City Guards land: Stratton, Chapman, fieseforJ, ICrull, Wells, F. (captain), baker, Davidson, GUI, Bailey, Williams, George, Stoneham, Yates.

A match will be played to-morrow between a team from the Ravensbourne and Rothesay CC. and the Britannia. The following will represent Britannia :— Bock (captain), Smith, Gi.'mour, Stephens, Palmer, Moll son. Cook, Gregg, M'Lean, Wallis, and Bentley. lhe Bay View Ustato wid be offered for sale by auction by Mr Montagu Pym to-day. Particulars are given in our advertising columns.

Mr Charles Bright's lecture at the Princess Theatre to morrow evening is entitled " Klisha's Meas; o , Tne Synod and the Sons of the Prophets." The evangelistic meeting in the Queen's. Theatre tomorrow evening will be addressed by th* Rev. John Ryley, of_,Otepopo, and Rev. Mr Paterson, o; Invercargill. Tenders are invited by the National Mortgage and Agency Co. of New Zealand for the conveyance of railway plant from Port Chalmers to Oamaru.

You ask me, my dear patient, if the use of Grimacm AND Co.'B MATicoCAPSOL-aisd-ngerlesß to the stomach, It. ia just because this preparation is altogether inoffensive that it primes all the copaiba and cubebs medicines, which irritate the digestive organs. Use it without fear, and your cure is certain.—Williamson, M. Doctor of New York Hospitals.— [ \dvt..