LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Colonist, Volume XVII, Issue 1869, 30 January 1875, Page 3

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Fancy Dkess Bali,.—A fancy dress ball was held in the Provincial Hall last night. Ifc was got up by some philanthropic gentlemen for the purposo of raising money wherewith to form a recreation fund for the new Lunatic Asylum, and tbev musfcbe congratulated on the success which has attended their efforts. The ball of last night was the most brilliant affair of the sort that has ever been given in Nelson, many of the dresses, both ladies' aud gentlemen's, being exceedingly pretty and well chosen. The dances were interspersed with short dramatic scenes, opera choruses, tableaux vivants, &c, which were excellently managed by Mr H. Rawson. Dancing began at half past eight o'clock, and was kept up with much spirit I ill an early hour this morning. It b hardly necessary to state that the dresses wor.n by the dancers had a very striking efface. There 'were nearly one hundred couples present. 1 Shrbp Sale.—Mr J, R. Mabin "notifies that he will sell a number of pure bred Lincoln and Leicester rams and ewes by auction, on the arrival of the Waihopai from Wanganai. The boat is expected early next week.

Death by Drowning.—lt is reported that a child named Win. Biggs, aged four years, was drowned on Tuesday last in the Upper Motueka river. " A Serious Charge.—A case which was one of indecent assault by (James Thomas Smith) an old man, seventy years of age, upon his grandchild, aged about eight years, was heard yesterday by the ResiJent Magistrate with closed doors. The result of the investigation was Ihafc (he acou-ed was fully eom>. mitted to take his trial at the Supreme Court. Bail has, we understand, been taken in the gum'of £250 for his appeara cc. , CLO3ED Doobs.—With , regard to the [caie heard with closed doors in the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterddv, wo must say that we should not have printed the evidence given in that case if it had been unfit for publication; at the same time we never heard before of the representatives of the Press being excluded from a Court of Justice. In fact, we happen to know that an Auckland Justice of the Peace was reprimanded by a former Minister of Justice for ordering the reportera to leave the Court on a similar 1 occasion.

n Prosecution pob Perjury.—We hear that there *, is a likelihood of the Crown instituting a prosecution for perjury against one of the parties to a civil suit V tried recently before the. Resident Magistrate at !• Motueka. An example or two is badly wanted, loose swearing being far too common in our summary tribunals. t The Loyal Marine Lodge, I.O.G.T.—At the 9 meeting of this Lodge at the Port on Thursday evening, the following officers were elected for the ensuing

term :—C. Jefford, W.C.T.; W. Adams, P.W.C.T.; > W. Duckett, W.V.T.; W. Akersten, W.S. 5 E. 1 Piercey, W.T.; J. Pilkington, W.F.S.; T. Freeman, W.C.; F. Atkinson, W,M.; W. Dayman, W.1.G.; , 'W. Emms, W.O.G. ; Sister Ambrose, W.A.S.; > Sister L. Freeman, W.R.H.S.; Sister A. Freeman, W.L.H.S.; and D. Allen, W.D.M. Citt Council.—We remind those who are interested, that if they wish the members of the Council to resign their Beats, a requisition tothat effect, signed by a number of ratepayers, must be presented to the Councillors. The resolution passed at the late

meeting wbb to the effect that the Councillors should be requested to resign at the next meeting, but as no requisition has been got up, we fancy the arrangement has fallen through. From what we have heard we lave no doubt Mr Jamea Hooper will be eleoted Mayor on Tuesday evening next. Ancient Obdeb of Forestebs. — The annual district meeting of this Order took place on January ( 15th, District Chief Banger Brother John Pratt in I tiie chair. The number of members good on the books on the 31st December, was 536. During the year £373 6s 7d had been paid in eick pay ; and £427 16s 7d had been paid for medical attendance. The total worth of the funds of the district was £3754 Is 6d. Brother D. Slater was elected D.C.TI •

Brother J. M. Vivian, D.S.C.R; Brother J. w! Wifrzell, D.T; and Brother R. Burn, D.S. Enteepbise.—Those of our readers who have perused our reports of the City Council meetings recently, will have remarked the fact that Messrs N. Edwards and Co. were about to lay a telegraph line from their town office to the wharf, for convenience in conducting their business. A number of the posts have now been placed on the ground and we may hope that before many days have elapsed the line will be at work. If all the merchants of Nelson were as energetic and enterprising as Messrs Edwards and Co the city would soon be in a more prosperous

condition than at present. Mails.—The s.s. Mikado, with the San Francisco Mails, waadue at Auckland yesterday, but did not arrive. We are informed that she letfc.San Francisco three days behind time, and consequently it is possible that we shall not hear of her arrival till the early part of next week. The s.s. Ladybird will probably be de ained at Auckland to bring on the Southern portion of the English mail. Me. LucKrE, M.H.E.—It is reported in Wellington (says a telegram to the Taranaki Budget) that Mr. Creighton and Mr. Luckie are about to change places —Mr. Luckie assuming editorship of the New Zealand Times, and Mr. Creighton going back to the Southern Cross.

i Ma job Eeddell, of Coromandel, has been ordered Lo hold himself in readiuess to proceed to Ohinetnuri t.ot»ke charge of that district as magistrate and warden. Sophia.—This noted Maori lady (king Tawhiao's sister) died at'Te Kuiti, Waikato, on January 21st. A. laiga number of natives have mustered there to take part in her funeral rites. Buna-way Teams.—Two wagon teams ran away on Turakina Hill, Marton, Wellington, on January 18. Both were heavily laden. One fell down the hill, and killed two horses j the other fell over the bridge. The shafts had.to be taken out to extricate the horses. The drivers narrowly escaped.—JV. Z. Times.

Ope Auckland correspondent writes as follows :— "The Hon S. D. Hastings is here to recognize the Good Templars. He is a tall, thin, and evidently well educated gentleman. He speaks well and in excellent taste, while full of concentrated energy. ' The G-ood Templars here are giving him a cordial reception, and you will have an opportunity of doing 1 the same'in the South. $£r Hastings's mission is to , organise Provincial lodges here, so as to avoid the . delays in reference to the head-quarters, in America whence the charters to, all the lodges all over the , world emanate under the present system.'— o. D. Times. ! Constable versus COboner.—As illustrative of , the state of things on the banks of the Waikato, we are informed on reliable authority, that on Dr Corbet,Mie coroner, entering the room for the purpose of holding an inquest on the remains of the late unfortunate young lady, drowned at the Mercer, the constable ordered him to lake off hii hat, and on the coroner hesitating, the constable knocked it off with his hand.— Auckland Star. Devoid of , Bbains.—The Auckland Echo of January 23rd, states :-." We learn from a private letter received by Mr Casey, and written by a passenger on board the Lady Bowen on her last trip from Auckland to the Hot Springs, that a cutter made signals of distress to the steamer when passing on Thursday last. The steamers head was promptly turned to the cutter, but on approaching her it was found that the signals were a hoax perpetrated by a party of larrikins. It is to be hoped that the perpetrators of this questionably funny proceeding reckoned the cost of the amusement, as we believe that Captain Casey will call upon thorn to give an account of their extraordinary conduct. Of course no man would be so unfeeling as to refuse assistance to a vessel in distress at the cost of any inconvenience to himself; but when he is called out of his course merely to gratify some one's propensity for playing pratical jokes, it is too bad. Assaults on Women & Childeen.—The Southern Cross of January 25th, after giving half a dozen cases of recent assaultß committed in Victoria and this Colony on women and girls, says:—" We talk of our chivalry and our Christianity. . True chivalry seeks the protection of the defenceless, and practical Chrisr tianity i finds its best human exposition in succouring those who are ready to perish from the hands of cruel and violent men. To legislators and judges of the land, we earnestly 7 commend the practice of this principle." Our contemporary forgets to notice that the majority of the perpetrators of those barbarous outrages were at the time of committing the crimes either drunk or under the influence of drink ! These blots on our boasted Christianity and civilisation will continue so long bs the law neglects to punish with greater severity those who make men drunken. i

Sports.—On Monday neat, the anniversary of thii Province, the Friendly Societies toil hold iheir au'iu/il fele. By referring to our advertising columns, it will be seen that a really good day's sport will be provided, and as no other amusements are advertised to take place on that day, it is expected people will come from the north, south, east, and west, and that th«m will be an imnvnee gathering at the Botanical Gardens on tho occasion. i'uuß Sympathy.—We learn that ■ the Artizans' entertainment for Mr. Brooker's benefit realised £18, besides which they generously voted him £5 from the Society's funds. Tho Good Templars have ehown their brotherly feeling by contributing a sum approaching £10, and the public have subscribed jome£lo or £11. The complete subscription list, with a letter of thanks from Mr. Brooker, will appear in our n«xt issue.

f Bbautifci, CRBATUBES.--The Otago Daily Times . of a recent dote gave the following from its Auckland , Correspondent :—" Within the last six months, , three immigrants, insane on arrival, had to be removed to the Lunatio Asylum.—On Wednesday, a young woman named Ellen Bragg, % recent arrival, was taken from the Immigration Depot to the Lunatic Asylum insane. y Another young woman, Emma Naylor, subject to epileptic fits, was sent back to her friends in England.—By the ship City of Auckland, four single women recently arrived' who were reported to be far advanced in pregnancy, and are now bning cared for at the Old Women's Refuge. Mb. Ogilvte, a settler at Pukekohe, Drury, Auckland, has been arrested on a charge of stealing fifty

sheep from a fellow-settler, named Scott. Ibon in Tasmania.—At Launceston," 0^ January 18th,the first load of iron from the, Tamar'Hematite Works has arrived for transhipment to Melbourne. * Fatal Fight.—At a Btand-up fight, which took place ne.ar the oemetery, Adelaide, South Australia, between two Irish laborers, one, killed the other. The survivor has been committed for manslaughter. A Warning to Boxs.—A son of Mr T. J. Mitchell, of Port Adelaide, South Australia, has had an eye destroyed by a dart shot by his brother. A new powder magazine has been erected at Foofcsoray, near Melbourne, at a cost of £40,000. Mb George Dunmobe Lang, son of Dr Lang, late editor of the Gulgong Argus (New South Wales) i» dead. , ,

; The Qeelong Advertiser (Victoria) says :—" We , may state on undoubted authority that Mr Gaunt has accepted the position of Chief Justice of Fiji, and , that his appointment has been telegraphed to him." A telegbam from Port "Darwin, South Australia, reports the crushing of 30 tons of stone as yielding 197 tin of/gold. A Singer's Grief.—The Melbourne Herald learns that Signor Orlandini, the splendid barritone of the Agatha Stataa troupe, is reported to have gone mad in San Francisco. The death of hia wife, Madame States, to whom he had been married after a divorce from her former husband, William States, who had drank himself into insanity, ia stated to be the cause. The Palmes Diggings.—The Queensland papers state that recent arrivals fromCooktown describe the heat as almost unendurable. Seven perspns died from sun-stroke in one week, and the deaths from dysentrj are also numerous. The body of a man, supposeed to be that of Mr Scanlan, murdered by the blacks, has been found on the Leichardt River by the native police. The body was tomahawked into several pieces, enveloped in sheets of bark, and

buried in boles in the sand.— Argus, January 19. Thb Boy and the Governor.—According to the Brisbane Telegraph of the 9th instant an impression had prevailed in the city that Mr Cairns, the newlyappointed Governor, had died at Bea during his voyage out.from England. Says our contemporary : —" The explanation of the manner in which the sinister rumor aroseis somewhat amusing, considering the gravity of the subject. It appears that on the arrival here of the Adelaide telegram, at the inconvenient hour of three o'clock this morning, the telegraph boy was instructed to carry it to Govern-ment-house. Here he appears to have had some little difficulty in attracting the attention of the household. His efforts were at last rewarded by the appearance at one of the upper windows of a female | domestic, who, as was natural to one roused from a sound sleep, inquired with some acerbity the reaton of such untimely disturbance. The boy evidently chafing at his reception by the household/determined to ' fetch them' —which he undoubtedly did, by impoverishing the startling news that "Governor Cairns was dead. This ominous announcement having been overheard by a watchman, was at once carried further, and by daylight it had'gone the rounds-. 1 Unfortunately through the absence of the Acting-Governor at Saudgate, it was not until nearly the middle of the day that the true contents of the telegram were known in Brisbane."— Argus. Thbib Dro-NITT Insulted.—Some one blundered considerably at Adelaide on a recent occasion. The

Pera, which brought the last Suez mail, also carried to South Australian shores,'the Hoa W. W. G'airni (the Governor of Queensland), Mr F. A. Weld (the Governor of Taimama), and Sir William Stawell, the Chief-Justice of Victoria, who was on his way to Melbourne to be sworn in as Acting-Goveruor until the return of Sir George Bowen from England. Tko illustrious trio landed at Glenelg, with the intention of visiting the Governor of South Australia, but on landing at the pier of Glene>)g they found neither his Excellency Anthony Mulgrave/ Esq., nor any one representing him or the Government, to receive and welcome them. The three Governors, under those circumstances, at once re-embarked in the captain'g gig, returned on board ship, and shook the dust of the inholpitable soil of South Australia from their shoes.— X Z. Times. Holloway's Pills—Bilious complaints and irregularities of the system, produced by depraved or over abundant bile, can always be corrected by a feyr doses of these inestimable pills, which are everywhere admi«-ed for their rare combination of mildness and power; lor though they conquer with ease and rapidity the most obstinate disease, they never weaken the stomach or necessitate any interruption of ordinary duties or amusement. On the contrary, they increase the appetite, strengthen the organs of digestion, givo increased energy and life to all the animal functions, and. fit both hand and brain for fresh exertions. The pick and enfeebled may by a single trial speedily discover what a happy revolution these pills have the power to effect in the human system.— Adot.