LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1905, 25 May 1888, Page 11

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Education Board on Thursday finally resolved, od receipt of the reply of the Kaikorai School Committee to the consultation, that a change in the head-mastership of the school is necessary, and that notice be given to Mr M'Lauchlan accordingly. The members generally scouted the idea of calling in outside aid to inspect the school as requested, regarding it as a reflection upon the board's inspectors. The Hon. Mr Dick dissented from the decision arrived at. At a meeting of the committee appointed to collect subscriptions in aid of the Irish National League, held on the 17th (Mr J. B. Callan In the chair), it was resolved to forward at once to Dublin an order for £176, being the amount collected to date. The committee also resolved to keep the lists open for another month, so that an opportunity might, be given to all who are desirous of subscribing. We understand that collectors in the country districts are meeting with marked success. With reference to the fire at Crossans' Railway Hotel, Stirling, on the 15th inst., it appears that the owner (Mr Crossans) is at present absent in Melbourne. Mrs Crossans, on going to bed on Monday night, left everything, as she thought, safe. She was aroused by the tiro about 2.30, and succeeded in getting her children out of the house, but saved only a few articles of clothing. The fire completely destroyed the hotel, which consisted of 12 rooms, and spread to the hall adjoining, this being also destroyed. The hotel was insured for £400 and the hall for £100 in the Royal office. The fur niture, stock, and effects were insured in the National office for £450. The damage is estimated at £1400, or £350 above the insurance. At the monthly meeting of the Federated Seamen's Union, held on the 16th inst., at the Wharf Hotel, it was resolved to forward the annual donation of £50 to the treasurer of the Dunedin Hospital. A return giving particulars of the expenditure in connection with the Centennial celebrations in Sydney shows that the grant to the Agricultural Society absorbed £7350 ; the Centennial banquet cost £2854 ; the gifts and provisions to the poor, £2767 ; the illuminations in the public buildings and the harbour, £5084 ; advertising, &c, £2352 ; while the ceremonies of unveiling the Queen's statue at the opening of the Centennial Park, and the laying of the foundation stone of the new Parliament House, cost less than £2000; the total outlay being £25,839. The latest craze among the fashionable ladies in America, according to a Chicago newspaper, is to wear a diamond embedded in one of their front teeth • This remarkable development of feminins vanity is said to owe its origin to a favourite burlesque actress in New York, who thought it would be very delightful indeed to flash dazzling gleams of light upon her admirers every time she opened her mouth. The diamond— of coarse a very small one — is fixed in a false front tooth two-thirds the size of the natural incisor, a portion of which is cut away and the false tooth " pivoted " on to the real one. Were the gem embedded in a natural tooth, it would speedily cause it to decay. The tooth selected for adornment is always the most prominent, and the lady to whom the credit of this brilliant inspiration is due is said to have created a very great sensation upon her first appearance with a diamond in her mouth. The New York dentist who aided her to achieve this triumph says he has ju6t received half a dezen orders for front teeth set with diamonds.

At the beginning of -1853, just before the Crimean War broke out, the Russian rouble (says the Statist) was worth 38fd of our money ; in 1854 it fall to 25d, which was the lowest point touched during the struggle. From 1855 to 1863 it oscillated with some violent fluctuations about 36d, sometimes rising to nearly 33d, and sometimes falling as low as 32d, but generally oscillating about 36d. In 1866, during the Austro-Prussian War, it fell to 24§d, then rose to 32d, about which figure it oscillated until 1875. During the Russo-Turkish War it fell to 21|d, which was the lowest point touched during the struggle, and lower, as we have seen, even than during the Crimean War. From 1879 to 1885 it oscillated about 24d, and from the middle of 1885 it gradually declined to 20|d towards the end of last year. It has since fallen under 19d. The value of the rouble at present is, therefore, much lower than it was either during the Crimean or the Rus3o-Turkish war. The consequences to the Russian Government are very 6erious. The internal revenue is paid in paper, and that paper is now worth in international transactions only 50 per cent, of what it was worth up to 1863. Withiu 25 years, therefore, the value of the rouble has fallen 50 per cent. The attendance at the various classes of the university during the present session is as follows:— Latin, 42; Greek, 5; Biology, 20; Biological Laboratory, 19; Physics, 26; Mechanics, 25 ; Chemistry, 44 ; Chemical Laboratory, 41 ; School of Mines, 12 ; Mental Science, 28 ; English, 20 ; Constitutional History, 8 ; Political Economy, 16; Mathematics, 47; Anatomy, 31 ; Practical Anatomy, 34 ; Physiology, 21 ; Practical Histology, 13 ; Surgery, 15 ; Practice of Medicine, 10 ; Medical jurisprudence, 4 ; Pathology, 7. The King of Dahomey has considerably embarassed the invalid King of Portugal by sending him a present of a consignment of half a dozen negro girls, with a message that they have been selected from the prettiest and plumpest damsels in his dominions. On reaching Lisbon these nymphs were attired much after the fashion of the Garden of Eden, but they have since been decorously dressed by order of King Louis. They were first sent to the Marine Barracks, where they were kept for a few days in a care-fully-guarded wing, but this arrangement caused both scandal and inconvenience, so they were relegated to a house in the Botanical Gardens, where they still remain. It was deemed expedient on Friday to amputate the right foot of William Halligan, a shunter, who met with an accident on the 15th, and accordingly the operation was successfully performed at the hospital. A man named Henry Wilmot was received into the institution on Friday with his left arm broken, the injury having been received by being thrown from a horse he was riding near the Botanical Gardens. At a meeting of business people held on Friday in Christchurch to consider the totalisator question, it was resolved that the totalisator is a great evil and a serious nuisance to business, and that its abolition be recommended to Parliament. It is proposed to get up a petition and hold a public meeting on the subject. Over 1800 signatures have beea obtained in Auckland to the petition against the property tax. The prisoner Jonathan RobertH, who escaped from Timaru Gaol three weeks ago, is still at large. His prison clothes were found on the 16th in&t. beyond Saltwater Creek. It is said that he has been working for some days at a threshing machine to raise a little money, and that on receiving his first week's wages he cleared out. According to the Auckland Star, Mr Simon Fraser, of Point Chevalier, the discoverer of the Mullocky Gully goldfield, has gone to Wellington to do some " lobbying " in support of his petition to Parliament claiming a reward for discovering a goldfield in the old Provincial days. The better to draw attention to his grievance, Mr Fraser has taken his Highland costume and his bagpipes with him. The imposing spectacle of the Burns' Club piper, arrayed in sporran and kilt, strutting about the lobbies, alternately playing the national wind instrument, dancing the Highland fling, and flourishing a formidable " skene dhu," is calculated to strike conviction to the heart of Mr Vincent Pyke, who i 8 almost the only present member of the Houpo who is conversant with the facts of Mr Fraser's cafae. It will be a sort of counterblast to windy Wellington to have a "blaw" from the pipes, and if the powers of music to soothe the savage breast have not been overrated, Mr Fraser should prove successful in obtaining his long-deferred reward. A Nelson gentleman suggests a very simple method by which the influx of Chinese could be stopped — namely, to prohibit the exportation of the bones of their dead. He says that the Chinese will not risk dying in a country from which they cannot get their bones back to their own land, and will not therefore come to it. The Fifth English German Empress is the rank assigned to the Princess Royal, the present German Empress, by an industrious diver into historical antiquities. The first (says the Newcastle Chronicle) was Eadgyth, daughter of King Eadward tho Elder, who became the wife of Otto I. The second was Gunhild, the daughter of Cnut ,or Canute, who was married to the Emperor Henry 111. The third was Matilda, daughter of Henry I, our last Norman king, who married Henry V, Emperor of Germany, and became subsequently, by her union with Geoffrey Plantagenet, Earl of Anjou, the mother of our first Plantagenet king. The fourth was Isabella, the daughter of King John, who became the consort of the Emperor Frederick 11, surnamed "The Wonder of the World." Isabella's daughter married Albert the Degenerate, Margrave of Meisson and Thuringia, and their son Frederick with the Bitten Cheek was the direct male ancestor of the late Prince Consort, and in consequence of the present Empress Victoria. The following was the state of the Dunedin Hospital at the end of last week : — Remaining from previous week ... ... 108 Admitted during the week ... ... 19 Discharged ... ... ... ... 12 Deaths (Mary Galliven and Bicnard Crawford) 2 Total remaining ... ... ... 113 The following appears in a recent issue of the Melbourne Herald : — " A rumour is current in circles usually well informed upon such points that agents of the Rothschilds, now in Melbourne, are prepared to offer to the Government £30,000,000 sterling for a 99 years' lease of lands west of the city, known as the West Melbourne Swamp, the approximate area being five square miles or 3200 acres. These can hardly be the correct figures as to the area, inasmuch as the whole of the district known as the ' West Melbourne Swamp,' together with the Sandridge Bond, does not reach to more than from 2000 to 2200 acres. Supposing the report to be substantially correct, and this offer to have been made, if there are 2200 acres the price per acre is about £13,636 for the lease of three genera- >

i tions ; if 2000 acres only, the offer is, of course, ! £15,000 per acre. Apart from the gigantic nature of the undertaking, the price does not appear outrageous when we remember that some time ago a block of six acres (certainly nearer ' the city) was sold to a syndicate for over £200,000, that is nearly £33,500 per acre." In the inaugural address at the opening of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference at Melbourne the Rev. J. H. Fletcher, of Sydney, said : — " The silence which has crept into our public worship instead of the soul-stirring responses of earlier days ; the decline of our class meeting — in consequence, I think, partly of the rarity of gifted laymen and lay women as class leaders, and partly on account of the unwholesome reserve which it is now the fashion to throw around one's personal Christian experience, and the paralysis of the prayer meeting, all demonstrate the necessity not only of a new power, but of new methods, if the Australians of 1988 are to be much indebted to Wesleyan Methodism. We need vitality enough not only to endure the clash and the crash of the years before us, but even to gain by them, as the art of navigation has gained by the rude manners of the ocean, until ships have towered up into mighty eastjes of the sea, which carry the population of a whole village at once, and keep their appointed time with almost the punctuality of the stars they steer by. We sometimes hear it said that we need a revival of old Methodism. Indeed we do not. The Methodism which within hah! a century of its birth was filling England not only with new churches, but with new charities, was not an old, but a new Methodism. It is old Methodism, stiff, querulous, and slow to adapt itself to new circumstances, that we want to speedily embalm in good books and pious epitaphs, while a new and yet newer Methodism, flexible, beneficent, and bold, waves through the world, full of new ideas, but setting them to the old music : — Oh, for a trumpet voice on all the world to call, To bid their hearts rejoice in Him who died for all. In doctrine and in government all the churches have wonderfully approached each other during the last 40 years. Watchnights, which were once considered by churchmen as dangerous to morality, are now common in the decorous services of the Church of England. Presbyterians have been heard to commend itinerancy. Congregationalists have longed for the class meeting, and Methodists have been heard to say, • Oh, that we had bishops !' Even Calvinism now, for the most part, lies like a massive boulder in the bed of a river, never seen except in dry weather. There is no such thing as the glory departing from churches which pro•laim and strive to fulfil a Gospel of Christian certainty, of Christian brotherhood, of personal Christian service, and of Christian perfectness through the perfecting grace of Christ's own spirit, and which also proclaim a Gospel of urgency, which, knowing no second probation, no supplementary Gospel, and knowing no purgatory, but the precious blood of Christ now and here only accessible, not only burn with zealous charity to' rescue men from a terrible hereafter, but to lead them into the present heaven of ' the Kingdom of God within them.' Our position is undoubtedly one of danger if our grpat Captain has no reserves to bring up into this battlefield of the world, in which, if He reigns at all, ' He must reign,' not asking the permission of His enemies." Mr Elsasser, the representative of Messrs H. H. Warner and Co., is at present in Dunedin. He arrived but recently from the Australian colonies, chiefly with the object of introducing the firm's new preparations, among which are asthma and rheumatic cures and a nervine—described asanerve tonic of great vigour — into New Zealand. In order to popularise these medicines the firm's representative purposes mailing and circulating 100,000 pamphlets in this colony. These contain medical matter explanatory of symptoms of disease and dietary regimen, with a number of colonial testimonials. Mr Elsasser will remain during this week in the city, and then proceeds to the Northern towns. The deer liberated some years ago on the Otekaikerun, Oamaru, are said to be prospering. A settler informs the Oamaru Mail that he last week came across a buck and five does. The former had magnificent antlers. Had the settler not been accompanied by his dogs he would have I attacked. Mr Colin Allan's office was besieged on Monday by a number of men desiring work, but the gathering was not so large an previous applications would have led people to expect. The great majority of those applying were accepted (married men, of course, having the preference). About 40 were engaged, all but two being married men,- and they left town on Thursday morning, to bo put to work upon the Hindon road. It is understood that the Government intend to find more work for the unemployed on the Otago Central on Monday next. Many stories are current in London as to the smartness of Mr Justice Hawkins. One day before the Easter recess, Sir Henry Hawkins and Mr Reid, Q.C., a well-known barrister, were riding together in the Row. Mr Reid turned to go away, but Sir Henry pressed him to have one more canter round the park, saying there was plenty of time. " No," replied Mr Reid ; " it's after 10 o'clock, and I have a case before you in the courts at half-past," so he rode off, leaving the judge in the park. Sir Henry was not to be beaten, and he thought he would play his j friend a practical joke. So he slipped out of the park by another gateway, and made for his court with all speed. Mr Reid rode more slowly, thinking, as he had left Sir Henry in the park, he would not be in his court at the appointed time. When he got there, however, he found to his dismay that Sir Henry was on the bench. Ho informed him with a twinkle in his eye that the case in which he was concerned had been called on for hearing, but had been struck off the list because no one was present to appear in it. This is very funny (says the correspondent of a contemporary) as between Mr Justice Hawkins and Mr Reid, but how about the poor suitor who had to suffer for these forensic pleasantries? A meeting of creditors in the estate of Gilbert M'Diarmid, storekeeper, Maungatua, was to have been held in the official assignee's oftjc 3 on Monday, but the debtor was the only pereo i present. Mr D. D. Macdonald was present for the bankrupt. The principal creditors are:— Thomas Carson, baker, Berwick, £16 10s; Reid and Gray, £9 12s ; s Goodwin and Andrews, storekeepers, Oatram, £9 10s ; T. A. White, chemist, Outram, £7; Mr Drummond, draper, Mosgie), £6 14s; Dr;M'Caw, £5 15s; Stewart Peters, chemist, Mosgiel, £5; Otago Daily Times, £4 4s; Mr Cameron, draper, Mosgicl, £4 Is; Mr Dillon, £4. Two shocks of earthquake were felt at; a quarter pa6t 8 a.m. on Monda- at Wellington, Hawkes' Bay, Nelson, and Wtstl rad. At the City Police Court, on the 17th inst., Lena Wiseman (13) was charged with obtaining on the 10th inst , from Jtobi rfc Bowie. Albany street, two dozen eggs, valne 4s, by false pretences. — Accused s mother was present and after conversing with the child she pleaded guilty, — Sergeant-major Bevin stated that the girl went into Mr Bowie's shop and asked for three dozeri eggs. She stated that she had been sent

for them by Mrs Sale, and Mr Bowie not having three dozen eggs, gave her two dozen, all he had. The defendant went away and sold them at Thornton's shop, in Albany street, as three dozen receiving 4s 6d for them. To Mr Thornton she said that she had come from the country with the eggs. She was followed by Mr Bowie, who finding that she had sold the egga gave her in charge. - The case was deferred for a few minutes in order that the probation officer might make inquiries. Subsequently Mr Phillips reported that the girl lived at Fort Chalmers, and he had therefore not had time to investigate the case. He could obtain information that afternoon. — The accused was on Friday committed to the Industrial School, the probation, officer making an unfavourable report as to her past conduct. The meetings of householders to elect school committees for the following districts will be held on June 4: Flag Swamp, Eavensbourne, Waitahuna, Adams Flat, Blackstone, Oircle Hill, Crooks ton, Gimmerburn, Glenkenich, Moonlight, - Oamaru Middle, Tuapeka West, Tuapeka Mouth, and White Sow Valley. . -

" Rough on Cobns."— Ask for Well' " Rough on Corns." Quick relief; complete, permanent cure. Corns, warts, bunions. At chemists and druggists, — He Was Dissipated. — In the chemical laboratory : " Professor, what has become of Tom Appleton ? Wasn't he studying with the class last year?" — "Ah, yes; Appleton — poor fellow I A fine student, but absentminded in the use of chemicals — very. That discolouration on the ceiling. • • • Notice it ? "— " Yes."—" That's him."