Local and General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 243, 22 February 1869, Page 2

Local and General.

Theatre Koyal. — There was again a numerous attendance at the theatre on Saturday evening to witness the sixth representation of the drama " Under the Gaslight," which will be repeated to-night. Wednesday evening next is fixed for the joint benefit of Miss Mathews and Miss Jenny Nye. Bankruptcy. — Messrs Coker and Heath, of Christchurch, hotel-keepers, have filed a declaration that they are unable to meet their engagements with their creditors. Mr Joynt is solicitor for the debtors.— George Berry Johnson, of Kaiapoi, bridge-keeper, has also filed his declaration under the Bankruptcy Acts. vi yjLocAi, iKiycsTßY. — We have been shown 4ome beautiful samples of jewelry, manufactured from greenstone by Petersen and Co., of High street. The articles comprise earrings, studs, links, and breast pins, all set in gold. They have an elegant and unique appearance, whilst the workmanship displays excellent finish and taste. y f* Horticdxtukai, Society. — A prize oi»s (the gift of Mr Wynn Williams) will be awarded on the Ist of April next by the above society for the best kept pleasure garden, not less than a quarter acre, nor more than two acres in extent, ard within a radius of five miles of Chrislchurch. Entries are to be made with Mr J. Greenaway not later than the Ist of March.

The English Mail.— The foilbwiri&vis a detailed return of the mail despatched by the Omeo on Saturday* For England ;yia Suez -7* letters, 830; bojb£i£i'3o; newspapers, 1420:: for England via? Marseilles— letters, ,160;: books, 1; newspapers, 3 : for the Australian colonies— letters, 309; ; books; 3; 193 : for the Northern Ports, of JSTew Zealand. — letters, 191; books, 2; newspapers, 183 v Total for all places— letters, 1490; books, 16; newspapers, 1799. Another opportunity is offered by which letters can-be forwarded to England. : A Post office notice announces that letters can be posted up to 6 p.m. this day; via Hokitika. New Letter-Stamping M achine. —Mr Pearson Hill, a son ot Sir A. Rowland Hill, has invented a machine for facilitating the stamping of letters in post-offlcea. It is selfinking, and impresses the two requisite stamps at once, to obliterate the postagestamp and give the time and place of stamping. As many as 218 letters have been single stamped, and 180 double stamped, by help of this machine, in one minute, test time. to Find Him. — A few days since/r gentleman, residing in Ipswich, receives a letter which was posted to him in Ipswich in January, 1866. It had followed him to Auckland, New Zealand, thence to Sydney, New South Wales, and thence on to Melbourne, Victoria. Following his track it next went to Hokitika goldfields, in the middle island of New Zealand. From there it followed the traveller to Melbourne and from Melbourne to Callao. Then it went to Melbourne once more, and from that place it returned to Ipswich, reaching that town safely after a journey of two years and nine months, during which time it travelled the astonishing number of 48,300 miles, a fact which speaks volumes for the excellence of our postal arrangements. What adds somewhat to, the interest of this protracted trip is, that the letter contained a photograph of the gentleman's wife. The Reporters' Gallery in the House op Commons.— The following is from Chambers* Journal : — As you sit in the back seats of the gallery, and watch the occupants of the first row of boxes at their work, you see that at regular intervals the man in the front row is relieved by a colleague, who takes his place, and catching up the speaker at the very word where he was left by the last reporter, continues the report begun by his predecessor. This system- of short "Jturna " v one which is absolutely necessary in order to secure those full reports of parliamentary proceedings which appears in. each morning's paper. A regular plan is drawn out weelflv for the staff of each newspaper, according to which every reporter has fixed hours at which to begin his work, fixed hours at which to leave it, and fixed hours at which to resume it. He enters the gallery, say, for the first time at seven o'clock in the evening ; and according to the plan adopted by most newspapers, he leaves the box at half-past 7 o'clock. He immediately retires to one of the rooms behind, and there writes out his notes for the printers., For. this work of transcribing his notes from shorthand into longhand, a certain period is allotted to him, at the end of which, whether he has completed his task of transcription or not, he must resume his seat in the gallery, and take another "turn " of half an hoar or twenty minutes of reporting. In general, the time given to the reporters for writing out is more than sufficient for that purpose; and it is during the intervals of leisure which they thus enjoy that they resort to a little cabin,, and to another room at the bottom of a flight of stairs — said to be the original Star Chamber — where every accommodation for smoking is provided for them. The length to which the reporters have to extend their notes, however, varies greatly, and is seldom the same upon two occasions. A man taking his first " turn" in the gallery, may find the House in tbe possession of one of those speakers who are the recognised bores of Parliament. On such an occasion he would receive instructions from his leader to make as little as possible of the speaker's remarks, so that his work might be completed even before he left the box. But his next " turn "might bring him face to face with Mr Gladstone, Mr Bright, Mr Disraeli, or Mr Lowe, and in this case his strength and ability would be taxed to the utmost to complete the transcription of one "turn" before the next commenced. Should he not succeed in doing so, he mußt resume his " turn " in the gallery at the appointed time, and when it is brought to a close, he must finish the transcription of his shorthand notes taken at the first " turn " before he commences to write out those taken at bis second. Such instances occur, however, very seldom — the time given to each reporter being sufficient for all ordinary occasions. Should a man be frequently behindhand, he would no doubt soon receive an intimation ftom the chief of his staff that his services were no longer required. A Wholesome Change. — The following is from Blackwod's Magazine : — There was a time, not so Tory long ago that it is a strain on the memory to recall it, when the advent of a British fleet, in all peacefulness, to a foreign port, called up precautions not unlike those against a bombardment. Men alone were seen in the streets— women kept within doors — ahop9 were closed and the shutters stoutly barricaded ; the police force was doubled ; patrols paraded the thoroughfares, and every detail that could insure safety to life and property was canvassed with care and skill, showing how the inhabitants regarded their blue-shirted visitors. From my window where I sit I can now see a British squadron at anchor. Two of England's { roudest ironclads are " sleeping on their j shadows" in the first line, and beyond these lie frigates which combine the finest lines of ' the yacht with the grand proportions of the liner. The glorious flag that ever grows dearer to us as we grow older, is waving softly in the summer wind, and flashing many a crimson and blue tint in the tideless water below ; and as I look, I like to lapse into a dreamy reverie over all the glories England has won at sea ; how her great name first came, borne over the wide ocean,

atulwhat a humble and obscure part ours would have been amongst nations but for -these>?{ tall admirals" that visit every sea, and proclaim us in every tideway. But from thesejiigh musings I am diverte^ by a small, : a veryVsmall slip of" paper, which has just beeii3aid before me, and tells me that though M "eight days several hundred men — British ors, mind you — have been on liberty through the town and its neighbourhood, there have been no riots, no outrages, not even a passing rudeness has been committed. Pioin the authorities of every kind there has been but one testimony to the peaceful behaviour of our blue-jackets— their genuine good-humour, their cordial pleasantry, and their racy enjoyment of shore life, never for a moment degenerating into orgy or excess. The Beer Gardens — that paradise of German life— have been filled with our people' who have imbibed much good music and a considerable quantity of very tolerable beer, tea-? tifying to the love of both . heartily—noisily,; too, but never offensively— never once to shock the good feeling or invade the comfort, of others less enthusiastically given than themselves. If their hoarse cheer has made the oak leaves tremble, it has not been in auger ; and their hearty voices haye,,been' loudest when "Rale Britannia" has up amidst the lieder of the Vaterlaria. , Are not these t thingß to be proud of ? Was there, ever any other 'quality of our service we, had more to blush for before foreigners than the drunkenness of our men, and their consequent insubordination and recklessness ? And if this exist no longer, or only to such an extent as may seem venial or half excusable, what may we not expect from our navy thus reformed ? Poisonous Mushrooms. — It is to be hoped, remarks the Lancet, that the ardent fungologists who are seeking to popularise the mushroom tribe as an article of food will, do their utmost to spread as widely as possible a knowledge how to discriminate between those species that are safely edible and those that are poisonous ; otherwise, we may anticipate a great many mistakes with very serious results. An inquest has lately been held in South London on the body of. a waterman who ate mushrooms at Gravesend, returned to his home in town the same evening in apparently good health, but before the next night died, with all the symptoms of mushroom poisoning. The verdict of the jury on the medical evidence was that death resulted from eating poisonous mushrooms. Botanical distinctions of species are not as yet familiar to a very large proportion of the population, and it is as well that it should be known, as regards the mushroom family, that it contains some species which, however. " pleasant : to the eyes" of a f ungologist, are certainly not "good for food." , flow Presidents abb Elected.— The modus operandi. of electing a President, after the Presidential electors have been chosen, may not be familiar to all, so we condense from the Philadelphia Ledger an account of the. process. The Constitution provides that the electors, chosen in such manner as, the Legislature of each State may prescribe, shall meet in their respective States and vote by ballot for President and Vice-president. At the meetings, known as " electoral. colleges," the electors are required to make lists of the persons they vote for, and the number of votes cast for each, which lists they are required to sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the President of the Senate of the United States, at the seat of Government. That officer is required to open these certificates in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and the votes 'are then to be counted, and the person having the greatest number of electoral votea for President, if such number be a majority of the whole number ,of electors appointed, is declared to be President, and so of the Vicepresident. An Act of Congress of March/ 1, 1792, wlnVh fixed a uniform time for the holding of this Presidential election throughout the country, also provides for further details. It requires the executive authority of each State to cause three certified lists of the electors chosen by said (State to be made out and delivered to the electors on or before the first Wednesday of December, next after the election; and that said electors shall meet and give their votes on the said first Wednesday in December, at such place as the Legislature^ of the State shall direct. In this State Albany is the place designated. The electors vote by ballot, and are required to make three certified lists, which shall be signed by all the electors, with a certified list of the electors attached to each. These are then to be sealed up in three separate packages, and a further certificate indorsed on the envelope of each, signed by all the electors, stating that the package contains a list of the votes of such State for President and Vice-President. The electors are then required to appoint and commission a person to take charge of and deliver one of the said certified packages to the president of the Senate at the seat of government, on or before the first Wednesday in January next ensuing ; they are further required to forthwith forward another of said certificates by the Post-office to the i>resident of the Senate, and the third is to be delivered to the judge of the district in which the electors are assembled. These and other minute provisions are made to guard against the possible loss or failure of a certificate. In order to have certainly as to the counting of the votes so forwarded, Congress is required to be in session on the second Wednesday of February succeeding every meeting of the electors, on which day the certificates are to be opened fn the presence of both Houses, and the result declared as already stated.