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Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2881, 10 May 1878, Page 2

The skating season has now fairly commenced, and loters of this exhilarating pastime will have an opportunity of engaging in it at the rink on Monday next to the enlivening strains of a good brass band. Those who do not skate will find it a good investment for one shilling,' the graceful evolutions of the experts being well worth witnessing, while the ludicrous efforts of the beginners are an unfailing source of amusement.

Mb H. M. Stanley's new work on discoveries in equatorial Africa is announced. The title will be' "Through the dark continent; the sources of the Nile, around the Great Lakes, and down the Congo.'' The work was to be readyin May, and published in two volumes, demy 8vo.; to contain about one hundred full page and other illustration? and eight maps, and sold at two guineas. In the prospectus it is stated that the illustrations are from photographs and sketches taken by Mr Stanley, the photographs having been taken on Rouen's dry plates. We would suggest that the Mechanics' Institute Committee take steps to procure an early copy, as the book will no doubt be much sought after, and prove to be "the book of the season."-

It is notified in another column that Mr C. J. Hutchinson has commenced business in Auckland, at No. 7 Lower Queen street, as a shipping and commission agent. We can aver that Mr Hutchin* eon is a gentleman of business habits, and has.been long and favourably- known, in the gum trade, north. We have no hesitation in recommending Mr Hutchinson to persons requiring business transacted in. Auckland, feeling sure that the interests of clients will be faithfully looked after. , "

In the House of Commons on Feb. 28, in reply to a question from the Marquis of Hartington as to whether there was any truth in the statement that a Gqjn-mander-in-Chief and a Chief of the Staff of an expeditionary force had been appointed, and when the appointment was made, the Chancellor of the Exchequer replied that it was not quite correct to say that any appointment"had been made. Two officers had been selected ten or twelve days ago, in case of an expeditionary force being required. Lord Napier of Magdala had been summoned home to be in consultation with the military authorities and to be in readiness if needed. '

"The sassyost man I ever met iz a hen peckt husband when he iz away from home. —Billings.

The Port Darwin line is interrupted north of Powell's Creek.

( " The man wlio went for the doctor" when Patrick Sullivan was taken to the Hospital the other day has forwarded the following statement for publication, which we give insertioriVithout comment:—"l went for a doctor. Not knowing what doctor, I went to Dr Payne. He said that Dr O'Flaherty was the doctor, and I went for Dr O'Flaherty. He was not ia. 1 returned to Dr Payne, asking him to come, as the man was badly hurt. He said that he had nothing to do with the Hospital, and that he had his own business to look after. So I said, " You won't come ? " He said, "I am going to look after my own business." When I returned to the Hospital Mr Sullivan asked me to go and look for Dr O'Flaherty. I went, and when I got to the corner of Mary and Pollen streets I stopped a cab. Mr Mcllhone was in it, and he said that he had arranged with Dr Payne to come. I then said that I had asked Dr Payne and he would not come, and that I waß going to look for Dr O'Flaherty. He said, " You had better stay here and I'll go on to Grahamstown." I said I was going to look for Dr O'Flaherty as Dr Payne would not come. —I am, <fee, William Allen Connon."

The man- who engages in a contest, heavily handicapped from the first, and deliberately provokes some one besides his original opponent to go against him, is a fool; Martin H. Payne has done this ; therefore Martin H. Payne is a fool. He has a very pretty quarrel on already, and whatever we may have thought about the matter of his refusal to attend the man Sullivan until " officially " invited, we did not say anything. JN'ot a word of comment did we offer on this matter or the discussion which ensued at the special meeting of the Hospital Com* mittee. If, therefore, Martin H. Payne had been blessed with the smallest amount of discretion, he would not have imported the Evening Star into the discussion with William McCullough. He has done so, however, and that in a most offensive way. When he writes about Mr McCullough's " spiteful and scurrilous paper," and asserts that " he prefers filling his paper with sensational trash, without caring whether he is writing truth or falsehood," Martin H. Payne simply lies. We claim to be as competent to do what we have to do as Martin H. Payne is to follow his profession, and if we in these columns had ever told him that he was going about administering " trash," instead of legitimate medicines, he would have felt aggrieved—probably threatened -us with an action for libel. We should be sorry to do anything of the kind, yet Martin H. Payne—whose taste in literary matters is not very elevated if we may judge by the few productions of his we have seen—presumes, and even goes out of his way to condemn the Star, which has nothing whatever to do with his quarrel, and has shown him considerable forbearance in refraining from comment on the particular case which has just elevated Martin H. Payne into undue prominence. We give him one word of advice—not to meddle with the Star until he has cause. Many of Martin H.Payne's acts have been looked over on the ground that he was — well, eccentric. Let him stick to his pills, and not try to drag us into a quarrel with which the Star has nothing to do.

At the meeting of the Borough Council last night, in conformity with a resolution carried on the motion of Cr McGowan afr~a~preTiott3 —meeting,—Mr Thomas Bawdon, Foreman of Works, submitted to the Council a yoluminous statement of the various necessary works in the Borough, from which the Council would require to select those they intended carrying out during the ensuing municipal year. The total amount of metal required during the year is put down at 2650 yards, to cost £1126 ss. The more expensive- works are the metalling of the roads from Tararu to Albert-street, which is estimated to cost £148 10s, and the metallijg of Pollen street from Owen street to Shortland at a cost of £191 ss. At present the Borough have on hand £382 10s worth of metal, so that only the difference between that and £1126 ss, the total cost of metal required, will need to be procured. Several persons are at present breaking boulders on " spec." The estimate for the formation of new roads is put down at £1785 8s 6d. The more expensive works are the formation of Beach road from J. Bead's to Cochrane street, and at' a coat of £457 14s ; the formation of Queen street from Cochrane street to Mary street, £432, and the formation of Mackay street from Sealey to Grey streets, £300- The item " By-paths "is put down at £320 including £113 13s 2d for the construction of a footpath, on Beach from Mary street to Pulleine's. The cost of a road from | Shortland wharf to Mary street would be £5400 including retaining walls. The following is the average cost to the inhabitants .for footpaths, per running foot,: —Asphalt, 3s 4d; common filliug with water tables, 2a 4d ; common filling without water tables, Is 6d. The report recommends the making of water tables, (where not already made) and of footpaths from block to block along Pollen street from Shortland to Grahamstown. They would entail an expenditure of £937 Bs, and }f an asphalt footpath 3 feet wide were laid along side the tables the total cost would be £1406 16s. The total expenditure under the various beads tots up to £4639 4s Bd.

Mb Geo. Habcottbt, who has lately taken Spencer's tailings and test crushing battery, corner of Albert and Campbell streets, has taken out the necessary license under " The Quartz Crushing Machines Inspection and Regulations Act" to enable him to treat ores and their residuum. As an experienced mineralogist and assayer Mr Harcourt should be able to give every satisfaction to miners. He has a very complete little plant, consisting of single stamper, two berdans, melting and retorting furnaces and all other necessary appliances for the business.

" Eve's Geandmotheb," writing from London to the San Francisco Chronicle, says:—A consignment of quite a novel character is just about to be made to New Zealand. The wild rabbits have so overrun that colony, and the efforts at extermination on the part of the settlers have hitherto proved so unavailing, that an agent has been dispatched to the old country, whose mission is to collect five hundred stoats and weasels to be sent out as colonists to the antipodes. Now stoats and weasels are wary animals, not easily trapped, and it is thought there may be considerable difficulty in fulfilling the order for so large a number. Still the New Zealand farmers and landowners are hoping for the best, and meanwhile proved the genuineness of their grievance by subscribing £500 to defray the expenses of the consignment

A Herald, correspondent telegraphs the following from Dunedin of date Wednesday :—At a meeting of the City Council, held last night, the reply which will be giveu to the circular of the Thames Borough Council, regarding the Municipal Corporations Act, was decided upon. It is in effect as follows :—That the Council would prefer to give the Corporations Act a fair trial before making any recommendations for its amendment, and is not inclined to send a delegate at present to represent the Council at Wellington, as it is of opinion that no necessity has arisen for the appointment, which would necessarily entail considerable outlay.

We have received complaints of depredations being committed by night prowlers in the gardens on the Hape Road. From one place two or three valuable catnelias have been stolen, and injury done to valuable plants. It is a pity some of these gentry can't, be " tumbled on " by the police, and their Vandalistic propensities cut short by a month or two in "quod."