PROFESSOR DANTE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11199, 23 August 1898, Page 3

PROFESSOR DANTE.

After a short and successful season in Invercargill, Professor Dante returned from the south yesterday, and re-opened in Dunedin— this time in the Princess Theatre—in the evening. The weather was anything but inviting at theatre-going time, as the rain was falling heavily and steadily, but Professor Dante was, nevertheless, greeted with a large audience, and an audience, moreover, that was from the commencement of the programme in the best of good spirits, and determined to enjoy itself, which it did—in some measure at the expense of thfc committee which, chiefly composed of j well-known members of the athletic community, j supervised, and vainly attempted to get at the bottom of the entertainer's very clever cabinet trick, wherein, as he claims, time is virtually annihilated. The programme ' that was presented followed to some extent the lines on which . Professor Dante's previous entertainments in Dunedin had proceeded, and proved quite as successful and in every respect as mystifying as any of those "If this is trickery," the professor remarks at one stage of the performance, "you will at teast give us credit for being very quick," and credit for that must be ungrudgingly accorded to him, his feats in necromancy being performed with marvellous smartness, as well as with remarkable neatness. Two illusions which wore given in Dunedin for the first time were of a sufficiently startling character to demand special mention. In one of these—the illusion entitled " Mdme. Sans-Gene"—Mdlle. Edmunda, who, as' on tho occasion of" the entertainments in the City Hall, rendered valuable assistance during the evening, was suspended in a cage in full view of the audience. At a signal from Professor Dante the curtains wore dropped from tho cage, but there was nothing except, a lady's dress to be seen there, and at that moment Mdlle. Edmunda, in the flesh and wearing a different dress, was to bo seen in the auditorium. The bullet-catching feat, which was the other novelty in the programme, was more thrilling and not less remarkable. A squad of one of the local companies of volunteers armed with their rifles took up a position in tho dress circle, and fired on Professor Dante, who stood on the stage, holding'aloft a dinner plate. The audience awaited with breathless interest the crack of the rifles which, were fired upon a signal being given, and were intensely relieved when the professor stepped forward along the platform extended into the stalls with four bullets on the. plate, and handed these to members of the audience to satisfy them that they were hot. " A good act" was the verdict that this feat justly secured. Professor Dante will appear again in the Princess Theatre to-night, and as this.will be the last opportunity—at present, at any rate-^-that there will be of seeing him a bumper house may be said to be assured. HON. J.MACGREGOR'S MOTION. TO THE EDITOR. Sib,—^Your report of the" Education Board meeting has the following:—"Mr P. B. Fraser said: The motion fordering Mr Kerr to advance the pupils] was moved by Mr Snow, but it was not his motion; it was Mv MacGregor's, and he (Mr MacGregor) gave it to Mr Snow. When they came out of committee Mr MaeGregor dissented from the motion. "Mr MaeGregor: He is repeating misstatements. If he continues it I shall have to call them lies. " Mr Fraser: Mr Snow will be able to bear me out whether this was his own motion or whether he received it from Mr MaeGregor. "Mr MacGregor: It is untrue." Now, Mr MaeGregor was drawing on his recollection and I was drawing on mine. I heard Mr MaeGregor in committee, and his motion in committee, and I heard Mr Snow's, and as a result I said at the board's table and I repeat again what is reported above. I know that words are the counters of wise men and the money of fools, and that fools fight about words and men about things; and if Mr MaeGregor can show that the thing in his motion is not the thing in Mr Snow's, '" only more so," I shall offer him an ample apology. , . Agreeably to my request, Mr Snow has sent me from his home, the . very motion handed,.to him by Mr. MacGregor, and from this motion Mr Snow framed the one Mr MaeGregor repudiates. Mr Snow says: —" When Mr MaeGregor handed me the enclosed I was fully under the impression that he agreed with tile contents. Little did I think when we went into open board that he would vote against it as he did." I now place in parallel columns the two motions: — Hon. J. MacCtrf.gor's Motion. Mb Snow's Motion.. "Resolved, that Mr "That Mr Kerr be Ken- be informed that ordered to advance the the resolution of the pupils he was requested board passed at the May to advance at the May meeting and communi- meeting, and be incited to him is regarded formed that a refusal by the board as an order, to do bo will be treated and that refusal to com- as an act of disobediply with the board's re- ence." quest shall be treated as wilful disobedience and gross misbehaviour." I need only add that the intention of the motion first and last was, and tho understanding of the board first and last was, that failure to comply would be met with " summary dismissal"; for the act was consulted, and the words of section 47 are quoted in the motion. On, one other point was I contradicted. I said the motion was "passed unanimously." It is but the incontrovertible fact that this motion _ implying " summary dismissal" stands in the board's record without one single note of dissent. Everybody knows that if a division is taken on an important motion in any public body the division and names are recorded. This is the universal practice of the Education Board, and all the divisions and names stand recorded in this Waipori business except on this motion—the most important of all for the simple reason that no division was taken. The standing orders of the board declare that one member may call for a division, "when the voting shall be recorded in the minutes." In all my experience on the board this has never been omitted. The record then hero too stands with me. Moreover, I have. my recollection, which recalls to me this fact—that I actually expressed my satisfaction to the board before we came out of committee that, although the i board had been divided at every stage, it was i imanimous at last in upholding its dignity. I I wig not contradicted then. That was surely I a challenge for a' division; but none was | called and none is recorded. "We were ; unanimous at the time," says Mr Snow; aye, and Mr Sim too. We came into open board, and not a word was said beyond Mr Snow formally moving and Mr Sim seconding the motion. Mr MacGregor then said, to my amazement, that ag he dissented from the board's first action, as he certainly did, he mttst "dissent from this. The chairman asked if he wanted a division, and he said iio. I sit by the ear of the chairman, and have good reason to believe that mv memory is correct. Now, Sir, whatever explanation Mr Macj Gregor can give, consistent with his honour, i will be heartily received. At all events, in j view of his motion now produced, in view of 1 the teatimony of at least three members of the board and of the records, v is not competent for him to characterise the simple facts related by me in your report as either "untruths " or " lies." Bringing this matter ur> with much reluctance and regret, and thanking1 your for space.—l am, etc., Lovell's Flat, August 22. P. B. Fjraseb.