NEWS OF THE DAY.

Colonist, Volume XV, Issue 1532, 31 May 1872, Page 3

NEWS OF THE DAY.

FLOTTR. —Mr. Rutherford quotes flour at £16 per ton. Evening- Concert. —By advertisement in another column it is announced that Mrs. G Palmer will give a vocal and instrumental concert, assisted by an efficient baud, on Friday nest, the 7th proximo. Stoke Farmers' Club. —We call attention to the next monthly meeting of the above club. It will take place on Monday next, when important business will be brought before the consideration of the meeting. Me. Hoskins and Miss Fiobence Coltille.— An advertisement in this issue announces that these theatrical celebrities will arrive here shortly, and in all probability will give an entertainment at the OudEellows' Hull during the eti3iiing week. Good Ceushing at the Lykll.—Latest reports from the Lyell give very cheering intelligence. The last washing up by Zala and party realised 2160z3. of amalgam, yielded lOOozs. of pure gold from tho ripples alone, the plates being untouched. This was the result ot twelve days work, and yielding tho party ■febout £50 per man. They are at present sinking 400 feet below the highest pitch of the on the raaiu reef, and have struck richer which they are now paddockiug in readiness for a big crushing, A one-eighth share in this claim recently changed hands for £1000, and a parcel of thirty scrip found a purchaser at Nelson for £1500. — West-port Times, May 213t. Oeficial/ ' Changes in Mablboeougil—Some considerable official changes are, we learn, imminent in this neighborhood. 11. D. Church, Esq., the recently appointed Resident Magistrate, Eegistrar of Deeds, &c, ha 3 resigned those offices with the object of commencing practice in Blenheim. We have authority for saying that S. L. Muller, Esq., R.M., who is at present on leave, will resume his sent on the Bench, and fulfil all the duties of that offico; and it is understood that the appointment of Grown Prosecutor, vacant by the death of Mr. Nelson, will be conferred on Mr. Church. J. D. Baniford, Esq.. the Exaroinar of Titles, will be Acting Registrar of Deed?, and Mr. A. M'K. Wix will be detached fcorn the Resident Magistrate's office, and confine his attentions to the Land Transfer Office alone. It is also rumored that Mr. Barleyraun will be appointed Deputy-Registrar of the Supreme Court. We doubt not that these several arrangements will be satisfactory to all parties interested, as well as to the general public— Express, May 25. The funeral of the late Mr. Nehomiah M'Rae took place at Awalero on Sunday last, where he was interred in the family buriul-place. Deceased was reputedly the only man wno ever ascended Mount Tapafinuka, in the Kaikoura range, which he accomplished in 1864. He was greatly respected, as was evinced by the large attendance on Sunday, there being eighty horsemen present from all parts of the cMiritry, besides members of the family.— Express, May 25. Satjeian Remains is this Province. — Mr. Travers, who has lately been engaged in collecting geological and other specimens; has lately arrived from the Nelson Province, where he has beon very successful in obtaining some valuable and highly interesting Saurian remains. They arrived lately by a coaster to the Heathcote wharf, and were Irom thence conveyed yesterday to the Ohriutchuich railway station, to be forwarded by the first steamer to Wellington. — Grey River Art/us. Ekcotjkagemekt to Volunteers. —OnM'iy 2ith, £165 75., four silver cups, und two inkstands were distributed in prizes to th« Canterbury volunteers. Of the money, £57 15s. was given by the Gvneral Government "9 district prizes, the other prizes were raised by private und other subscriptions. _An exploring party, under the leadership of Mr. ■JfcsMF g of the Survey Department, hus been sent out by the Westland County Government, to explore the head waters of the Holtitika and Kokotuhi rivers, it being supposed that quartz reefs are likely to be discovered there. A gbeat raid has been made by the police on the West Coast goldfielcls upon the bakers, under the Bakers and Millers Act, and several offenders have been fined for breaches of the Act. Mb. It. W. Fkheday, solicitor, of Ohristchurch, in order to ten whether a receipt given for a cheque is liable to duty under the Stump Act, has given an unstamped rtjeeipt in a case of the kind to a person with the request that he would report it to the Government. This was done, and according to the Lytlelton Tunes, the Attorney-General's opinion having been obtained, Messrs. Duncan aiid Jameson have been instructed to commence an action against Mr. Fereday for a breach of tho Act. Mr. Feredny is very confident of being able to show that the Act does not render it compulsory to stamp receipts for cheques. Immigeation.—Tho Otago Daily Times, writing on the abote mbject, speaks of tho danger likely to arise from too large an influx of the classes dependent entirely on manual labor, without efforts being made to induce a corresponding importation of employers and capitalists. Tho Times condemns the action of Dr. Ftatherßlon in principally devoting his attention to procuring emigrants from Scandinavia, and reiterates a widely-held opinion that the labor market of Great Britain has not been fairly tried on our behalf. Without in any way attonpting to disparage the Scandinavian immigrants who have already reached our shores, or those who are now in course of transit, we cannot help saying that an equal number of men of our own blood and race would litive baen far more euitablo for our requirements. There were never finer or bettor organised bodies ol emicrants than tho*e who, under the auspices of the New Zealand Land Company, and tho Oingo and Canterbury Associations, colonised Ne .-.• Zealand. We doubt much if they could be matched in any part of Scandinavia. The supply of such emigrants —such bone and mußcle lor our iufant sfcute—is by no means exhausted, and it only requires ». wise system of management to secure a steady influx of desirublo population from Britain. The 2imp-v points oub the lurge yearly emigration to America and Canada, and assigns ~s a reason for these countries being preferred to New Zealand and Australia, the difference in the expense of reaching them, and that did the Government offer to equalise this difference, making the passage to New Zealand as cheap to the intending emigrant as the passage to America, a large portion of the living stream now settling across tiie Atlantic, would be directed to our shores. The Queen's Birthday festivities at Wanganui ■were a great success. The schooner J. B. Taylor ■wa9 launched, having been named alter the la c townsmm. 180 were present at the Volunteer review. There was also a regatta, and some excellent races^ A./ Volunteer ball concluded, the programme,

The Cromwell (Otago) Company's crushing has turned out 345 ounces from 240 tous. The sou of Topia Turoa, a chief of the Upper Wanganul has been thrown from a trap at Putiki and killed. A geeat fight has taken place between Chinese rival companies at Big Beach, Otngo. Ugly wound 3 were inflicted, but there was no loss of life. G-eorge Peter Niutu, a Maori, has been ordained a deacon of the English Church at Christchurch. The Punedin Acclimatisation Society has ju&t received a very valuable parcel of seeds, obtained from the garden at the Taj, Agru, The seeds are fresh, and comprise sixty-five sorts of trees, shrubs, and flowers, selected as being suitable to the climate of this country. Novel Peizes tor VoTiUNTEEES. — Mr. Robert Graham, of then Thames, has given a somewhat novel prize to be competed for by members of the Thames Rifle Association. It is a freehold section of land at Tararu, and it has to be won three times before it becomes the property of any individual. A Mr. Roberts has given a child's feeding bottle, and some teething powders ; while the proprietors of the local papers offer prizes in the shape of a half-year's sub scHption to their journals. — Post. Colonial- Enterprise.—A Southern paper says : —" A stenrii locomotive of 10-horse power, the first made iv the Colony, is being constructed for a Wellington contractor, by Messrs. Sparrow and Co., founders, Drmedin, who undertake to supply the ordinary railway locomotive at 10 per cent upon English prices, this being a much less cost than they can be imported for. A PuoLiFic Co' .— A. cow, belonging to Mr. Moffat, miller, Lincoln. Canterbury, has given birth to (ive calves within eleven months —three at one birth nnd two at the other. A man named John D.-utnniond has been killed by the overturning of a horse and cu-t, which he wus driving from Wallingfordto Porangahnu, Hawke'sß vy. A new Masonic Lodge, under the Scotch Constitution, has just been op-annd at Ounaru by a deputation from the Provincial Grand Lodge. Suicide. — The inhabitants of ftwigiora were shocked the other morning to hear of ihe death of Mr. Edwin Pearce, a gentleman of independent: mean?, who has resided at Rangiora, Canterbury, for the last five years, and who hung himself in his own house. The other cay an accident, fortunately unattended with fatal results, occurred at the stores of MessrsBennett and Saunders (formerly of Nulson), Taamstreet, Christchurch. Ifc appears that a grain store had been recently erected at the re ir of the stone stores, and the men were engigel in storing grain on the flo.)r. They had got in about 200 bags of grain, when the man underneath was called away into the yard. He had not been gone but a few minutes, when the whole floor gave way, the walls bursting out, the hags, with the man who was storing them, being precipitated to the lower floor. Fortunately the man fell amongst the bags and was unhurt. On inspecting the premises we found tbuit a porfciou of the front wall, with the joists and stud 3, had been carried right away, breaking the uprights, these being of very slight construction, and not at ali fitted to snstain heavy weights. Exportation of Sheep froji Otwjo to America—We have cf lato had occasion more than ones (says a late Otago Daily Times) to mention the exportation of sheep i'rom this Province to the Uaited States of America. This week, twenty Leicester rams have arrived in town, en route per mail steamer to Ban Francisco, thence to Oregon—and perhaps a better or purer lot have never left the Colony. They were selected from the New Zealand Land Company's stock on the Clydevale Station, by Mr. Cameron, who has beon manager on thufc station for the p>ist four years, but who has now left and goes to America, where ha intends to commence sheep-breeding. Mr. Cameron carried off a silver cup aud three medals at the last show ot the Tokomairiro Agricultural and Pastoral Societies ; and the whole of the prizes for Leicester sheep at the previous Olutha Show. Spikits AS Teachehs. —Mr. Smith, late editor of the Australasian, is a great spiritualist, and has recently been lecturing in Dunedin, and discussing the subject with Dr. Copland of that city in the newspapers. Fere 13 a quotation from one of Mr. Smith's letters, which has justly been characterised as ' most extraordinary" : —" As to the evidences in favor of Spiritualism, they are far stronger than any that Dr. Copland could adduce in favor of the genuineness of every word of tlio Now Testament. His religious belief rests upon the contents of a book 1800 years old; mine rests, not on the inspired and uncorrupted portions of this book only, but on the testimony of spirits with whom I have conversed face to face for many consecutive months, in the presence of a dozen people, and which spirits are educating four of my children in every branch of liberal instruction, including music, drawing, the Latin language, Greek and Roman history, chemistry and botany, geology and arithmetic ; and this, magnetically, and without the utterance to them of a single word, except in correction of new lessons alter they hitve been written by the children by tho children. These are facts which can be testified to by many witnesses, and of which I shall be prepared fco give Dr. Copland ocular deinoastration if he should ever visit Melbourne." Dr. Copland explains tho wonders in this W!l y:—" The fitets which Mr. Smith presents as evidence of spirit-work in the education of his children are quite capable of explanation without the intervention of spirit agency at all. In all probability they possess intellectual power beyond ti'any others of similar age. It is quite possible, too, that Uiev may have been encouraged, as some children are (I think prejudicially), to exert their mental powers to tho utmost. They prepare lessons by themselves on tho various subjects of their studies; their exercises, when prepared, are corrected, and the mistakes pointed out to them. Is not that, I ask, just what every teacher does ? The pupils miiy be more apt than others; they may even be painfully precocious; but all this is no proof that spirits have anything more to do with them than those who have never seen them." A meeting of nonspiritualists was to be held at the London ilutel, to raise funds to send Dr. Copland to Melbourne to witness the spiritual teaching to Mr. Smith's children." It would be well also if Dr. Copland could ascertain what Mr. Smi'h means by conversing "face to face" with the spirits. Ha?e spirit faces bodily form and substance ? An Australian Exchange states that a " Blasphemy Fund" has been established in Adelaide by a firm having a large number of employees. By general consent fines have been for some time rigidly enforced upon those persons who indulged in remarks of a profane or objectionable nature, and the proceeds go towards forming a general fund for defraying the expenses of an annuul entertainment. Peetentive os Small-pox.—Phonic acid is stated not only to be a euro but, a preventive of small-pox. According to observations made in France no person has been attacked with emall-pox, whether vaccinated or not, who had taken phenie acid. This remedy is not only efficacious in cases of small-pox, but for any contagious epidemic. Ih is to be taken in the follow inn manner:—Put a tablespoonful of phenie acid water (of 4 per cent, acid strength) into half a tumbler of sugar and water, and drink it every morning ; the doae may bo repeated in the evening if necessary. It i 9 also stated that the mixture is a good antidote in cases of cholera. A singular old lady was tho late Betsy Williams, who recently died, and left her whole estate to the City of Providftnce, the value of said estate being estimated at §2,000,000. She was so tidy, that she compelled all her visitors to take off their shoes. She thought George Washington aud Roger William* —the last-named being Her ancestor —the greatest men that ever lived ; and none of her guests were permitted to sit iv the presence of uny of her numerous portraits of the Rev. Roger, not one of them being, presumably, in the least authentic. The religious belief of Betsy was extraordinary even iv this age of miscellaneous faith. She maintained h family-altar, upon which, every morning after breakfast, three inverted cups v ero placed, which blic called " The Trinity ot Holy Tea-Leaves," and these she consulted for an hour daily as oracles. Not clearly of "a sound and disposing mind," most people would say and so aay her heiwat-law, — Neio ' York 2V#wne, Marqh 6.