ENTERTAINMENTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10599, 20 February 1896, Page 2

ENTERTAINMENTS.

A very successful concert and dance was held at Moeraki oh Friday evening in aid of tbe school funds, The hall at the pott was very tastefully decorated with evergreens and flags. The programme was a long and varied one. Mr D. Munrol chairman of the school committee, occupied the chair, and, after a few appropriate remarks, called upon' Miss Booth and Miss Andrew to open the concert with a pianoforte duet. Mr, Mrs, and Miss Handle, of Shag Point, Kave valuable assistance with songs and pianoforte pieces, as also did Mr and. Mis* Booth, of Hampden. The school children and their teachers (Mr Bell and Miss Andrew) rendered several items. Mr Bell and Mr St. Clair with songs and tbe chairman with a recitation supplied the comic element. The other performers were Messrs Hoani Tipa and Joe Kahu, who sang solos, and, with Miss Ruby Rehu, a Maori chorus. Miaa Ri-.hn also executed a very graceful sword dance. Miss Annie Culling played a piano solo, Miss Katio , Hull gave a recitation, and Mr Dnbson gave a ' flute solo,, all in very.nice style. After votes of thanks and the National Anthem the floor was cleared for dancing. The inmates of Seacliff Asylum and the surrounding Settlers were afforded a genuine treat on Tuesday eveninu, llth innt., when the Ohio Minstrels gave a performance in the Asylum Hall. - Tho coroer men were Messrs Peake, I Griffen, Isaacs, and Bert Hanlon. The comic songs, jokes, and antics of these four kept the audieuce in roars, while ballads were nicely aung by Messrs Swan, Bailey, and Burt. In the ; second part Mr Allen Kerr astonished the audience with his bicycle tricks, as did Mr Griffen in hia i contortion act. Mr Bert Hanlon sang a comic j sons in his well-known style, and received a i hearty and well-deserved encore. The M'Donald ' Bro3. played a mandoline and guitar duet, and ', were heartily applauded. Mr Isaacs and Mr . Swan received hearty applause for tbeir songs, ' -.and the concert waß concluded with the farce

"Black Justice," and the audience, particularly the patients, were in convulsions through the doings of Jim Swan and Bert Hanlon. The entertainment proved a great success, and a future visit by this company will be eagerly lofiked forward to. Great credit is due to' Mr Bailey, the stage manager.

,j at the cattle show for exhibition, 1; for illtreat ! ing dogs, 4; for overcrowding and improperly : ■ conveying poultry by train, &c, 11 ;—total, 94. . | j I have visited Oamaru. Ngiipara, Totara, Shag • Point, Palmerston, Waikouaiti. Seacliff, Waitati, ■ Purakanui; Port Chalmers, SSawyers' Bay, Burkes, . Otago Peniusula, Leith Valley, Mount Cargill, > • Halfway Bush, Kaikorai Valley, Green Island, I Mosgiel, Outram, Taieri, Milton,- Clarksville, | Waitahu'na,- Greenfield, Lawrence, Stirling, ICaii tangata, Balclutha, Clinton, 4c. ' A considerable amount of my. timo has been • taken up with the duties of .truant officer to the I , Otago Educatiou Board, but the society's work i has not been neglected. i j Tho inspector adds a list of prosecutions ■ . during the 12 months, from which it appears i : thab he brought nine oases at Clinton of worki j ing plough horses with open sores under the ' j harness, and ineaoh case substantial fines were ■; inflicted. Two cases were brought at Outram,' Ija fine being imposed in one case, while the | oth«r was dismissed. Two cases were brought i at Lawrence, oiife being dismissed, and a line I imposed in tbe other case. A fine of £5 was [ imposed in a esse brought at Naseby. and Ss in j a case at Hyde. -Seven cases were brought at -j Dunedin; three were dismissed, aud fines imi I posed in the four other css»s. The total , < amount of fines aud costs was £10 8. lOd.

! CORRESPONDENCE CONDENSED,

j Observer, writing on the Harbour Board's i suction dredge, says that the return moved for ' by Mr Robin some weeks since showiDg tha j expenditure ou it bas nob been furnished, aud I thinks it is not unlikely the information will be ! hidden from the public in committee, as with other matters recently before the board. Our correspondent considers ■" thab the public through the press, have a right to the information. It would not be out of the way, either, if some information were given of the working expenses and results of the dredge's operations, for, so far as a" casual traveller down the harbour can "observe, the- former must be enormous and the latter microscopic. The whole result seems to be the pumping of clean wafer from one part of the harbour to another." ' No Extra Rate criticises, the mayor's inaction over the conversion scheme since his asj sumption bf the civic chair, and urges him to | be up and; doing, not only with respect to that, i, but also in connection with the abattoirs, otheri wise our correspondent would add, ." Vacate : the chair to soma person who will," on which J subject he " will have more to say later on." ... Leith Ward considers "we have got'a very curious lot of men as city councillors, and some—indeed, the most—of them are rapidly, bringing themselves into contempt, They seem like a lot of, sheep without a shepherd, and wander about in a most haphazard, foolish, and, indeed, mischievous manner. Some seven or eight months ago complaint was made to the council as to some houses at the bottom of St. Andrew street, which were alleged to ba in a ruinous and filthy condition and utterly unfit for human habitation. The then mayor and some of the councillors visited the places, aud found the allegations made were true in every particular. The council, on the committee's report, took the statutory steps in the matter, appointed two medical experts to examine and report—st a cost, I think, of 12 'guiness, which, with legal ' charges, no doub1; reached 20—and their report utterly condemned the places as fit for human habitation. The report was adopted and, in accordance with the law, due notice was given the owner cf- the laud (who lives in Tasmania) to immediately pull them down. After considerable delay, caused by the distance of the owner fr'cta Danedin, he, it appears, complies with the request by giving instructions to sell the land. Tbis is apparently done, with a proviso tbat the buildings aro all to be pulled down. The land is purchased by one of our townsmen, who thinks—and, apparently, rightly so—that by buttonholing one or two councillors he can get permission to repair them or some of them, and thus practically perpetuate the evil that has existed so long, and to abolish which the council "had spent so much money and taken so much-trouble in the interest of the citizens' health and comfort. One would have thought that any such application would have been instantly scouted by every member of tbe council, but no, Sir, although it is hßrdly believable, a resolution was actually carried -referring the application to the Works Committee with power to act, which meant granting the request, especially as there are only four members on the Works Committee, and three out of.'the four voted for the motion. It might be said that the Works Committee, although having the power, would not do it, but that has nothing whatever to do with it. After what bad been unanimously done by the council in the matter, the application Bhould not have been entertained at all." Ten akd Six writes as follows on the Athenseam question:—"'Many mtn, many minds,' ' Let us get all we can without paying' ia tbe jaundiced way ' Truth' regards those who seek an entry to the privileges of the Atheuamm. A more liberal spirit animates those hard-headed business men Carnegie and Passmore Edwards, who have spent a mintful of money in dotting public libraries all over Great Britain. The only return for their money, is the satisfaction of having given those unable to buy literature the inestimable gitt of free access to the acquirement of knowledge from the perusal of the. best authors, past and present. Nor did the Washingtonians make any stipulation when they opened the superb Congressional Library in the capital free to tbe people of America, containing, a3 itdo?s, priceless shelves of books. It amounts to about j this: that 'Truth' and his party would class I reading papers and magazines as a luxury to be withheld from anyone not able to stump up the ariitocratic guinea. ' Truth's' letter is a model exposition of nineteenth century selfishness." Pax writes that the meaning conveyed to his mind by the words commented upon as not I yery intelligible in our leaderette—"that the influence of the departed statesman (Johu Bright) was never more sorely felt than at ; present"—was the entanglement England had got into over the Venezuelan question, and the i possibilities ot war between England and j America, the latter of which was enough to j make the venerated statesman turn in his grave. , John Bright being a strict Quaker the word war j was abhorrent to his whole nature. He weuld ! not allow that war Was justifiable under almost any circumstances. ' All disputes between