LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1974, 19 September 1889, Page 1

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Principal Rainy had to submit to a.n interview at Auckland. Speaking , of- New Zealand, he said he was especially pleased with Dunedin and its institutions, and 'enjoyed his visit. He preached and lectured there to large audiences. Although the Presbyterian element dominated , there he was just aa kindly and heartily • received at other, oities where the Presbyterian element was not potential. While in .Wellington he visited Parliament, and listened to some of the debates, with which he was pleased, and also witnessed the presentation of diplomas to the university, students at * Wellington. He was gratified with the coiiapletenessjandeffieienoj of the appliances in connection with higher education at the i Dunedin arid .ChristTchurch > universities.- , The trip "overland from to New Plymouth proved , a most "delightful one, ' and he was much pleased with th 6 country and the scenery through- -which he passed. He thought .Dunedin the, prettiest j place in, the colony till he came to Auckland, and he hoped before he left by. the ; outward "'San. Francisco mail steamer to see more J of its surroundings and of the adjacent scenery It was his intentionte take three or four weeks in his tour through the : United States, so as to see the various places of interest. , '„ ' ;In .the report submitted at the annual meeting of., the. ,<Qta.gO' Underwritera- Association , the, .flawing /remarks.,- > occur : — '

,Owing to the unsatisfactory state in which, flax and tow came forward for shipment at' 'the early .part of the season, the committee deemed inexpedient to issue. a circular to the, mill proprietors and their agents, pointing out that each bale • would be examined, and any found in a damp condition would not be permitted to be shipped. The shipping com-/ panics assented to this course ; the result was , that after refusing shipment to a' number of bales found in a wet, condition, greater care appeared to be exercised by the millowners, and we have very little difficulty now. The number of claims lately coming to hand on frozen meat arriving in London pointed to the necessity for greater vigilance in seeing that the carcases were thoroughly frozen before going on board, and. the committee! noted with satisfaction that a circular had; been issued by the chairman of the New) Zealand Marine Underwriters' Association,) directing the different surveyors' attention to i this matter. So far the meat from Otago had; turned out very satisfactorily. j

It is 50 years ago this month and the beginning of next month since the New Zealand Company de' patched the first five ships with settlers for New Zealand. The Tory, with the preliminary expedition under Colonel William Wakefield, according to Mr J. H. Wallace, of Wellington, left England on sth May 18,39, the Caba, with the surveying staff, following on Ist August. The Aurora, the first vessel with' passengers,reached Wellington on the 22nd January 1840, the 50fch anniversary pf .which event will no doubt bo fittingly celebrated at ourexhibi-

tion. The Edinburgh Exhibition of 1886 included p rounds to the extent of 16 acres, but the building covered only six acres. It is interesting to note that though the exhibition at Dunedin, the modern Edinburgh, includes ionly an area -of 12 acres, there will be from 7$ toiB acres covered by buildings, ' , , < , i An' 'old New Zealand resident, Mr Francis Woorell Stevens, described as late of Dunedin, and now of Boston, England, has o 'petitioned the Imperial -Parliament claiming that he, and not Rowland Hill, was the "real inventor of the penny postage system. 1 The petition was presented in tha House' of Commons by the Marquis of Carmarthen onfthe 17th of June last. It sets oat that the petitioner isnow ; 83 years of age, and that in the' reign of "William, TV, when Lord Althorpe was. Chancellor of Jthe Exchequer, tie devised the" scbome^ and submitted it to that statesman. • Petitioner was then 26 years of age, and kept' a school ' at Lang ton, in Esses, and Rowland Hill,' who was 10 years his senior, was engaged by him as teacher of French. He communicated his ideas on the penny postage scheme to Hill, and showed him the official correspondence, and Hill asked permission, to write a pamphlet on the subject. It was not till after the petitioner had been , many years, m ' New Zealand that he learned Hill had' published the pamphlet claiming the scheme as his own, and that he had been rewarded by Parliament and the Cr,own for the invention which was, really that bf jbhe petitioner.

There are some very bad tracks on the West Coast. The Grey .River Argus of Monday says : — '• James Maher, , one of the men in the Roaring , Meg, Water-race Company, mot with an accident on Friday, evening while felling a ,tree. The tree fell on his chest and ankle. The injured man. was brought to town by the Brunner train 1 on Saturday evening and taken to the Grey River, Hospital., It took -46 men from 8 o'clock in the, morning till 4 o'clock in afternoon to take him from the scene of the accident to the Grey river (a distance of seven miles). The. track is simply abominable, and the proposed foot-track will < hardly improve inattera."

The following extract from a letter to the Press by the Very Rev. the Dean of Christchurch, should set at rest the question as to Lord Salisbury having visited New Zealand :—: — '• Sir, — I was not aware that the visit of England's present Premier, the Marquis of. Salisbury, to New Zealand was a matter of doubt. Had I known this I could readily have cleared up the doubt. Lord- Robert 'Cecil stayed for some days (in the year 1853, I think) at Casterton, in the Heathcote Valley, with the Rev. R. B. Paul (afterward* Archdeacon Paul), and at that time joint commissary of the BishoD of New Zealand with the Rev Oct. Mathias (afterwards archdeacon). Mr Paul brought Lord Robert to see me, and I had the honour of entertaining him at dinner in what' was then the grammar school, a bouse which is still 1 standing opposite St. Michael's Church, at the eorn'er of Lichfieldstreet and Oxford terrace. - One characteristic incident occurred which I have not forgotten in the coarse of his brief visit. I took him across to see the, old church, the mother tehurch of Christchurchj now, St. Michael and All Angels. My little dog followed me unnoticed up to the altar rails. Lord Robert, who was 'not used, as we were in those days, to the intrusion of dogs into sacred places, having suddenly caughb sight of the intruder, was shocked at the profanity, and with a vigorous kick sent him howling down the church."

Under the heading of,~Mereantile Relations with New Zealand the ' Australasian Trade Review (Melbourne) remarks :~" An important point is raised by the increased duty on oats and barley, and that is the complete want of consideration shown to New Zealand in oar -tariff alterations. The aeglecfe to study our relations with New Zealand is felt by the mercantile world to be a grave' mistake New Zealand has entered into a new period of prosperity, ,which is evidenced by the fact that she is now .exporting far more per head of population than Victoria. During the past half-year, indeed, the absolute amount of her exports,irreapective of population, was largely in excess of ours, the figures comparing as follows :~-New Zealand, £5,622,283; Melbourne (the export trade of which , forms nearly the whole of .that of

.(Victoria), £4,429,123. , The recovery, of , New i Zealand, by means of her enhanced productiveness, from depression will greatly enlarge her import' trade, and would possibly increase her connection with Victoria under favouring con- . ditions. The exports from Melbourne to New Zealand have become so shrunken that no encouragement offers for shipping enterprise, and it results, therefore, that ifc costs more to send goods there than it does to bring them from the United Kingdom, which is a severe handicap for the Melbourne merchant. But if intercourse were , fostered there would be a larger trade between the two colonies, which would be further promoted by a consequent reduction of freights. To the Victorian manufacturer New Zealand offers a market at present only second' to that of New South-Wales, and probably in the near future it will' be a better one." ' At 1 the weekly 'meeting' of the Federated Stewards' and Cooks' Union of New Zealand, held at Port Chalmers on the 13th inst., it was resolved to forward the sum of £200 to the Dock Labourers' Strike Fund.

, A,t a meetingof Wakatipu electors convened by i the mayor of Queens town on the 11th to consider; the position of the Hon. T. Fergus, member, for! ( the district and Minister of Justice, a resolution was passed — " That in view of the harassing; attacks of the Opposition and of a, hostile press; on our representative, we, in. public meeting, assembled wish to record oar high sense of,Mrj Fergus', integrity! and services , to the qolpny,jatl large,, and oqr continued uu3haken confidence! in- him, as our representative." .

Among the items on the Supplementary Esti-i mates is a vote for £1000 to allow of • the; Governor entertaining visitors during the Dunedin Exhibition. '

. The monthly meeting of the Social Reform Association! was held in the.ColJe^ Palace, on Friday, the president (Mr A. Batngate) occupying the chair. It was decided to, divide, the work! of the association into sections of land, labour, literature, cooperation, monopolies, and education, and a committee, pf .three members was appointed to organise those, septions. ' The large two-storey" buildiflg at the rear of Bunting's Half-way Bush. Hotel was destroyed by 'fire on Friday afternoon. How the flre originated is not known, but it is surmised that a lighted candle which Mrs Bunting used while vibi ting the cellar i accidentally came, in contact with a loose piece of the wall paper or other inflammable material. Mr Bunting's buildings were insured for, £750 in the National Office, £250 of which -was reinsured' in the Norwich 'Union Office. : The furniture wad insured in the Equitable Office for £200.

A Wellington telegram Btates that it is understood the tender of Mr David Law, of Dunedin, has been accepted- for the erection of .Messrs Sargood, Son, and E wen's new warehouses in "Vy,ellingj;pn. The price ,is £10,100 exclusive of a large amount of material supplied by the proprietors. • >

Extensive prospecting operations have been carried on by the Kaitangata Railway and Coal Company for some time past (says 1 the Bruce Herald), with. the pleasing result of <two fresh seams having been struck 1 - the one at a distance of 16"76 ft or 590 ft from the present workings, and the other ac a total distance of 1987 ft from the surface. The former seam is 18ft in thicknessj and the latter 25ft, and both are of excellent quality. - '

A Fatea Maori (says the Hawera paper) was relating his, experience of the law and its peculiarities the other day. He said Jrr" My lawyer come to me and said he could get, me some land, l claimed, by Maori title, from an ancestor, and which the pakeha knew, waa in dispute. I told him all about it, and he said, 'It is a very good case ; you ought to win.' I thought that was all right, bo I said, ' Go on quick, and get me my land.' He said, • Very good.' By»and-bye he came to me and said he wanted one of my pigs to pay expenses, and I caught the pig and gave it him. Very soon he came for another pig, and I had it caught for him. In a few weeka he had taken all my vine pigs, but he had given me no land ! , I said nothing, .but I did not like this. In about a fortnight he came and took away my horse, Then I said to him, • I have had enough of law. If I let you go on you will eat up the land too. You have-taken all my pigs, and my horse; that is enough— enough law for me and enough pay for you/"

American papers give accounts of the executioo, at Philadelphia, on June 25, of a woman named Mary Jane Whiteling, for poisoning her husband and two children', by means uf arsenic. The motive <f or the shocking deed appears to have been to obtain the money for which the murdered persons were insured. The husband died in March 1888, a' d the doctor who attended him gave a certificateof death from inflammation. At the end of April, the daughter,' Bertha, nine years old, died from supposed gastric fever, and a month later the son, a child of three, also died. _Suspfcion being' excited, the bodies were exhumed' by the order of the coroner,' and nrsenio was ' found,' and," upon Mrs "Whiteling being taxed with' the crime, she admitted having murdered the two ehildren/bufc alleged that her husband poisoned himself. The amount of insurance" money realised by the murderer was £80.' The prisoner walked unsteadily to the gallows.' This was the first execution of a woman in Philadelphia.

A pathetic story comes from Rockford, Illinois. Mr and Mrs Sussmjlch, each more than 70 years of <>ge, have lived happily together for nearly half a century. Recently they have been worrying over the idea .that, as,they were so old, death must soon tike one or the other, of them. They did not fear death, bat they dreaded the separation which -death would bring. The loving old conple talked the matter over from time to • time, < and finally decided to anticipate -matters by committing suicide. On .Saturday the pl<i man,

having disposed of his property, which was considerable, and the venerable dame having compassed her worldly affairs, the couple walked arm in arm to the Bock river. There the busband elapsed his beloved spouse in His arms and jumped into the swollen waters. Both bodies have been recovered, and in accordance with their expressed desire will be buried in one grave. The couple left a written statement explaining that their sole reason for committing suicide was an overpowering desire to die as they had lived, together.

News has been brought by mail to New York that the Corean Government has recently made a dead set against the Christian Missionary propaganda in that kingdom. One of the first victims of the new policy is reported to be Mrs Heron, of the American mission. ' She was arrested on a charge of making converts to Christianity,' and, after what is described as a trial, was actually sentenced to death. America is, however, diplomatically represented in Oorea, and it is considered impossible that such a sen» tence can have been carried out. There was n very carious little incident at the Archbishop of Canterbury's garden party the other day. Professor Flower showed the tortoise of Archbishop Laud, which he brought from Fulham to , Lambeth when. ,he became archbishop, and whicli lived 130 yeare, and during that time saw out eight archbishops. It would have lived probably many years longer but for the carelessness of the gardener, who dug it out of its hole one winter and did rot find it another. Its shell had been preserved, and was in the palace, but from being much knocked about had lost spine of its parts. Professor Flower got the archbishop's permission to look it up, and have the description, which wa« a'inost obliterated by time and ill-usage, deciphered, and have it placed under a glass case, with its history properly engraved oa a silver plate. The tortoise at Peterborough 'Cathedral wns a still more wonderful fine even than its Lambeth brother, for it was known to be over 180 years old' when it died, also from an accident, and ' Bishop Jeune had its e hell preserved, with an inscription narrating its age and history. ' ! ' ', The, new French Army Bill, which makes 'military, service obligatory for ecclesiastics, is t (writes the Paris'. correspondent of a morning contemporary) a terrible, blow at the Church in France. Here are some of the consequences of the new bill ; — Not only ecclesiastical students, but priests are amenable, Ijo the " conscription " ; and .until they have attained the, age of, 45 all ordained priests who > are not occupying posts or administering parishes wherein their continual presence shall be deemed necessary by the Government, will be obliged to tarn out whenever called upon for service in the reserve or the Territorial Army. Moreover, clerical professors, chaplains, and members of religious orders, who are qualified by age for 'service and have pot been drilled while students, will now be compelled to remain two year's with the colours. In,. time of war the ecclesiastical recruits and soldiers, will serve in the hospitals and ambulances, bnt in time of peace they will be placed, according to M. de Freycinet's promise to the Republican majority of the Chamber, i ia regiments.

Some 19 patients wer/a admitted into the Dunedin Hospital daring the past week and 26 were discharged. William tears'on die d. There are at present 104 patients' in the institution, or eight less than at the beginning of last week.

. The Brunnerton miners, the Cape Foulwind Labour Union, and the Denniston Coal Miners' Association have, amongst them, raised £250 for the London dock labourers' strike fund.

The body of John Waters, who met his death by the collapse of ,a wire suspension chair at Roxburgh about a mouth ago, was fonnd by some boys on Friday on one of the beaches of the Clutha river, at Horseshoe Bend. ;At the inquest a verdict of " Accidental death" was returned.

Since his arrival at Warrnambool.the Rev. Dr Macgregor, of Edinburgh, who recently visited this colony, has been seriously indisposed, and was unable to preach in consequence of general prostration. He has Jcancelled his Sydney engagements, being unable to undertake the journey. Dr Scott forbids him to travel in his present state of health. It is expected that as soon as he has sufficiently recovered he will return to the old country.

The September number of "The New Zealand Law Reports" contains a report of the case of Miller, v Davy (Registrar-general of Land ), heard at the Court of Appeal, Wellington, which is of importance to those who have business with the Land Transfer office. Through the negligence of the Land Transfer office at Napier a second certificate of title was issued for a piece of land, the first certificate being in force. The party to whom the second certificate was issued omitted -,by his agent to ascertain by searching, as he might have done, for the existence of the first certificate. This was held to be contributory nfgligence disentitling the plaintiff to any claim on the assurance fund, and his certificate was called in for cancellation. The registrar having subsequently discovered the mistake took no effective step to rectify it at a time when he might have saved part of the loss consequent on the original mistake, but it was held that this gave no cause of action, as the loss was caused by the original negligence of which the plaintiff equally with the registrar was guilty.

■ At the City Police Court on Saturday las*, Archibald Anderson was charged with feloniously atoaling on tho 27th of August last, two ducks, the property of Bridget Wallace, and valued at ss.~ Accused pleaded guilty, and was, then further charged with stealing on the .same date one hen, valued at Is 6d, the property of John Keogh. — Accused having pleaded guilty to thiß also, Chiefdetective Henderson said that he (accused) had been before the corirti before for larceny, and he

was then ordered to come up for sentence when called on. He was 14 years of age, and had given his mother, who was a very respectable, hard-working woman, a great deal of trouble. The lad was said to be a thorough expert at stealing fowls. He had " cleared out " when he knew he was wanted, and was arrested yesterday morning by Detective Walker. He was then in employment at Wingatui, and was giving entire satisfaction. — The Bench said accused had got himself into a very nice mess. He was liable to be sent to gaol for six months, fined £10, or to be whipped. — Detective Henderson said it might be as well if a sentence WBS bung over his head. He was only temporarily employed at Wingatui until a flaxmill started, arid then they thought that he would, be taken on' permanently^ — The mother of the boy, who was present, said she could get him employment; on one of the Union Company's boats. — The Bench said it appeared than kindness had not had much effect on the lad, and he would be sentenced to six strokes of the birch rod. This was instead of sending him away to gaol for six months.

Mr H. H. Hayter, the Victorian statist, has compiled a comparative statement of the manufactories, works, &c. in Victoria and New South Wales respectively. In Victoria he gives the number of establishments as 3154; hands employed, 56,271; horse-power employed, 25,486; value of machinery and plant, £5,565.325. In New South Wales the numbers are — Establishments, 3170, hands employed, 46,714; horsepower, 25,469; value of machinery and plant, £5,805,894.

On August 27th an impudent robbery of £375 was perpetrated at the Royal Permanent Building Society's office, Melbourne, by persons who called to inspect rooms to let. As soon as one had looked at the rooms, a second called to see them, and while being shown round, the first returned to the office and assisted himself to the cash in the drawer. The police have arrested John Lewis and William Lockhart for the offence. Both the young men were placed amongst a number of prisoners, and Mr Gilbert, the accountant of the society, picked them out without hesitation as the men who called at the office on the day of the robbery. The detectives ascertained that the prisoners arrived in Sydney by the San Francisco mail steamer Zealandia on July 27.

The third session of the 10th Parliament came to an end on Friday night. Both Houses adjourned till Friday, and in the meantime will be prrogued by a proclamation in the Gazette.

In reference to the call given to the Rev. C. H. Bradbury from the Congregational Church, Dunedin, after the service at the Linwood Congregational Church (says the Press), a unanimous vote waß given by the large congregation present expressing their appreciation of Mr Bradbury, and hoping that he would not leave Linwood.

A meeting was held in the Presbyterian Churcb, Ravensbourne, on Monday to moderate in a call for a minister. The moderator (the Rev. Mr Borrie) having addressed the meeting, it was pointed out that there were two questions before the meeting — the wine to be used at the communion table, and tbe call for a minister — and it was thought that it was desirable that the question of the wine should be settled first. After a slight discussion it was moved and carried unanimously — "That to facilitate matters, two sacramental tables be used for a time," after which a resolution was moved to moderate in a call to the Rev. A. 8.. Todd. A series of amendments followed the resolution, among which the meeting got somewhat "mixed," and it was finally decided that an open call be made, the matter to be considered by the presbytery a fortnight hence. It being thought desirable that the minority should give way to the majority in this matter, a motion was tabled to that effect and carried, Mr Henderson being the only dissentient. The meeting then terminated.

A labourer employed on a station in Southland visited an accommodation house in the district recently, where he got drunk. The licensee was absent, but his wife refused to allow the man to be put to bed, although two other men offered payment. One of them tried to get the man away on horseback, but he was too drunk to ride, and was left out all night, getting badly frostbitten. The police summoned the licensee for a breach of the act in refusing accommodation, and the magistrate fined him £5 and costs, holding that the man was a traveller, and that the licensee's wife was acting on behalf of her husband.

Mr Dillon, the Irish delegate, has written to the Auckland Reception Committee that he will leave Sydney by the American mail steamer on October 30, and that he will speak at Auckland on Wednesday, November 6th, Napier the 11th, Wanganui the 13th, Wellington the 15th, Christchurch the 20th, Timaru the 21st, Oatnaru the 23rd, and Dunedin the 26th. It is probable that Mr Dillon will visit the West Coast before coming to Dunedin, in which case his visit to Dunedin will be a fortnight later than that given above.

A sad fatal shooting accident took place at East Brunswick, near Melbourne, on the 7th inst. Thomas Maher, a carter, and his wife, a young woman 24 years of age, were returning home from a ball with a neighbour, when they picked up a small revolver wrapped in a silk handkerchief. After reaching home Maher took out the revolver which he had found and was examining it, and Mrs Maher was taking off her hat at the dressing table. She noticed that he had the revolver in his hand, and remarked that it was too small. She did not think it could be of much use. Without looking in what direction the muzzle was pointing, and not knowing that it was loaded, he pulled the trigger twice without any result. The third chamber happened to be loaded, and as the cartridge exploded, his wife cried out that she was shot. He hurried away for a doctor, and on examination it was found that the bullet, which was only about the size of a pea rifle one, had entered her abdomen and perforated the intestines. The bullet was extracted, but the young woman died a day later. Her dying depositions were a repetition of the husband's story, and she was emphatic on the point that the whole affair was an accident. Tbe Mahers had two children, one being little more than an infant.

The lectures on New Zealand which Professor Sydney Dickinson has been delivering in Melhave been most successful, and are suro to excite a desire on tbe part of 'Victorians to visit the scenes illustrated. The Argus says of his second lecture: — "The lecturer combines two important qualifications for the task he has undertaken — that of popularising a knowledge of the picturepqueness of New Zealand in the chief cities of Australia — namely, a retentive memory and good literary style. He sustains the attention of the audience for nearly two hours -without wearying them, and apparently without wearying himself, although the building is a terrible place to speak in. Mr Dickinson looks at nature with the eye of an artist and the^ feeling of a poet ; and he is fortunate in 'his theme; for a country which combines the most romantic features of Switzerland, Norway, and Scotland} with a flora and fauna peculiarly its own, offers a tempting subject to expatiate upon to a fluent and graphic

speaker, while there are little touches of hufaour and of homely narrative in the lecture which operate as pleasant diversions from the more serious subject matter. But Mr Dickinson is heard at his best when he gets among the mountain glaciers, the deep gorges, the boiling springs, tbe broad lakes, the tangled forest, and the marvellous sounds of the wonderland which he describes. Then he presents a series of word pictures, definite in form, vivid in colour, and impressive in effect, which lend additional interest to the tinted transparencies thrown upon the screen. He avoids the fault of exaggeration — but who could exaggerate either the grandeur or the loveliness of the best of tbe New Zealand scenery ?— -and he conveys his hearers from point to point so agreeably that few of them probably leave the hall at tbe close of the lecture without entertaining a sort of vague impression that they have just returned from an actual visit to the scenes portrayed."