Local and General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 342, 18 June 1869, Page 2

Local and General.

The Gourlays. — These talented artistes appear this evening at the Colonists' Hall in their celebrated entertainment, " Mrs M'Gregor's Levee." The English Mail. — The mail arrived this morning by the s.s. Phoebe. It was at once landed, and sent through to Christchurch by the 11 a.m. train. Avokside. — The first of a series of winter entertainments will be given in the schoolroom this evening. An excellent programme is advertised. Kaiapoi Annual Ploughing Match. — A meeting to make arrangements for the above will take place this evening at the Kaikainui Hotel. The match will probably be fixed for an earlier date than that of last year; Concert at Eangioka, — Mr Merton and classes gave a.concert on Wednesday evening in aid of last New Year's Day sports fund, the committee of -which are indebted to the extent of about £12. The programme comprised sundry selections by the Brass Band, glees, choruses, &c, the whole of the music being well and carefully rendered. . V Union Rowing. Club.— A meeting of the committee was held last evening, at White's Hotel, Mr J. O. Gilchrist in the chair. A code of by-laws was agreed upon, and the revised rules ordered to be printed. A special general meeting was then held, for the purpose of receiving the treasurer's report. Messrs Gilchrist and Crosbie were appointed auditors ; the resignation of Mr H. Thomson as treasurer was accepted, and Mr R. Allen was unanimously elected to fill that office. Mr F. Pavitt was elected an honorary member of the club ; and after a vote of thanks to the chair, the meeting adjourned sine die. A Story of the Late Earthquake. Founded on Fact. — Shortly after the last earthquake, three men, rather fond of their morning nip, from which they had been disturbed, were standing together. One said, " I say Bill, did you hear that ?" " Yes, I did, and no mistake." A minute or so passed, when Tom again spoke. " I say Bill, "Do you smell the sulphur ?" " We'd, Ido smell summat queer, and no mistake — don't you, Jack ?" Jack admitted he also smelt the sulphur. They stood staring at each other I in the greatest fear, and gave the impression, as one told a friend afterwards, that the nethermost pit had suddenly opened, and j they had nothing to look forward to but an instantaneous headlong rush into it, and among its inhabitants. Suddenly Jack clapped his hand to his breeches pocket, and, connecting his. feelings with the earthquake, screamed—" My God, I'm |burning," and he was undoubtedly, for in his fear he had put his lighted pipe in his pocket, and ignited his wooden matches, which of course accounted for the smell of sulphur. Bill and Tom expressed great comfort when they found that their sojourn in the pit was to be delayed for some time, and that Jack was the only one who had a foretaste of its quality. Board of Conservators. — The Board met on Wednesday at the usual hour. Present all the members, except Mr Peacock. The chairman reported that he had received the return of assessment from the Courtenay Road Board, and that all the returns were complete, and also, that he had ordered the stone piles for permanent bench marks from Gadd and Co., to be delivered in Christchurch. The tenders for the proposed loan were considered, and an arrangement proposed by the Manager of the Union Bank of Australia, for providing the accommodation which the Board may require to an amount not exceeding £3000 was approved, and acceded to. yj?he question of the threatened breach of the river about three miles above Mr Brabazon's, wa3 considered, and the Board decided that tenders should be at once invited for the erection of an embankment, the engineer to provide the necessary specifications ; tenders to be sent by Wednesday, June 30th. The work proposed by the engineer for the protection of the river end of No. 2 embankment was approved, and the Board decided to as soon a3 the specification is readjA Tenders to be sent in by July 7th. The following accounts were ordered to be paid : — Press Company, printing, &c, £1 19s lid ; Mr Nottidge, £2 2s ; Engineer (one month's . salary), £25. The Board then adjourned.

Kaiapoi Institute. — We are requested by the Secretary to the Institute to acknowledge the receipt, from the hon E. W. Stafford, Colonial Secretary, of a copy of Hochstetter's " New Zealand." Avonsede Wesletan Chubch. — The fifth of the series of select readings, the proceeds of which are devoted to clearing off the debt on the above church, will be given in the School-room, Durham street, this evening. The Duke of Edinburgh. — The following letter, addressed to his Honor the Superintendent, has been handed to us by the Provincial Secretary. It is dated Auckland, June 2 : — " Sir, — I am directed to inform your Honor that the Duke of Edinbargh took his final departure from New Zealand yesterday, after expressing his deep sense of the loyalty and heartiness of the reception given lo his Royal Highness throughout this colony, and his warm wishes for its future welfare.-AJSis Royal Highness has left a sum of £150, to be given in equal shares of thirty pounds (£3O) each, through the respective Superintendents to the public charities of the five provinces that the time allotted to his stay in New Zealand, has enabled him to visit ; yiz., Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury, Otago, and Auckland. The Duke expressed a Avish that his donations should be given in preference to Orphan Asylums or other local institutious for the education of poor childrfilaJ I request your Honor to have the goodness to acknowledge the receipt of the enclosed cheque for £30, to bjj-appropriated in the above-mentioned manaSi I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant, Henky D. Pitt, Private Secretary. We find the following in an Auckland contemporary : — " His Royal Eighness the Duke of Edinburgh, before leaving Auckland, dispensed with a most liberal hand certain little mementoes of his sojourn in our city. To Lady Bowen he presented a massive gold bracelet, studded with diamonds; to Captain Pitt, R.A.A.D.C., a haadsome diamond breastpin, surmounted with a crown ; to Captain Smith, private secretary, also a diamond pin ; to Colonel Elliot, commanding the 18 th R.1., a signet, with a crown on the top; Captain Montgomery, H.M.S. Blanche, a diamond pin ; Miss Jones, of Dunedin, who kindly gave up her house for the Prince's accommodation, a gold locket, mounted with pearls. Mr J. Christie of the Melbourne Detective Porce, who, at his Royal Highness' request, accompanied him on his tour, and who is returning to Victoria per Phoebe, has received a handsome gold and pearl pin, I a gold watch and chain, and a gold mounted cane, together with several other presents. Mr Christie seems to have stood well with all the officers of the Galatea, most of them having given him some token of their esteem and regard." Scientific. —We publish the following letter by the Rev. W.B. Clarke, of New South Walps, an eminent Australian geologist, concerning the discovery of huge bones, resembling those of the Dinomis of New Zealand. However, we cannot agree with his inference from this fact, that New Zealand was ever connected with Australia. In the first instance, we may point out that as the kangaroos have had gigantic predecessors at the close of the tertiary period in Australia; the emus may have had similiar huge ancestors, without concluding that they, as we can only understand it, must have came from an intermediate tract of land bevween both countries. If such had been the case, we should certainly still possess some marsupial quadrupeds allied, or identical with, Australian species, or at least should have marsupial fossil bones. Also, our flora shows directly that if ever such a connection existed, it mußt have been long before the Dinornis appeared on the globe. It is true we possess several plants in common with Australia, but they are either of an Alpine character, aquatic, or they are cosmopolitans, and all the large and peculiar Australian genera, such as Eucalyptus, Acacia, &c, although, when introduced, they grow luxuriantly with us, have not a single representative in our flora: — " Sir, — I am glad Mr Krefffc has announced the femur of Dinornis, as too many of our discoveries are first made known in England. The bone in question is a very important discovery. But it is not mine, it was brought to me by a gentleman who states that it was found in sinking a well on Peak Downs, between the heads o£ Theresa Creek and Lord's Table Mountain. Two or three years since I forwarded to Professor Huxley, for examination, some bones of a Trionyx and teeth of crocodile, found in Crinum Creek. That- district is, therefore, of a very interesting character. The Dinornis bone was found under thirty feet of alluvial clay and mud, covering 150 feet of drift, and rested on what is said to have been a granite rock, which, however, was pierced in the hope of finding water, but of which only a little was reached. I am enabled to state, from having broken up many hundred pebbles and boulders, that, besides any tertiary deposits in that region, there is an enormous amount of fragments, some only partially rounded, of Silurian, Carboniferous, and Secondary ages, as well as those belonging to local igneous rocks, among which I detected two of an unusual character, containing gold, which was proved on analysis at the Mint. These Pleistocene pebbles led to Mr Henley's announcement of what he called his ' Tertiary River,' which was explained differently by me in a correspondence I had on the subject with the lute Gold Commissioner at Clermont. The Dinornis bone leads to the inference thai views long ago expressed by me, of the former connection of New Zealand with this country, were correct. But I am bound to say that this bone is vot the first evidence of the existence of birds in Australia in Pleistocene times, for on reference to the catalogue of Industrious Products of New South Wales, exhibited in the Australian Museum in November, 1854, and aftewards in Paris, you will find enumerated in the list of geological specimens exhibited by myself on those occasions, among other quaternary relics, the following : — " No. 49, Osseous Braccia Bird Bones \Coodradigbee

Cavern). Thus, New South Wales has preceded Queensland in the discovery of Bird Bones of Pleistocene age. — W. B. Clabke. P.S. The Dinornis bone is so completely filled in and mineralised by calc spar and iron pyrites, as to present a solid mass, resembling more the condition 6f a reptilian than an ornithic relic ; but the characters which I hastily compared with skeletons of birds, in company of Mr Krefft and afterwards, more leisurely with Owen's figures and descriptions of Dinornis, lead me to confirm Mr Krefft's opinion. And as I have since compared the bone with the bones of Dinornis in the Museum, there is no doubt as to the genus. — W. B. C." Elopement in High Life. — This event, which has been a subject of conversation, was j mentioned in obscure terms in a Loudon evening paper, but the absence of Captain "Vivian during the discussion on the army estimates, I on an occasion when of all others he might have been expected in his place in Parliament lent confirmation to the rumour that he was the victim in the unhappy affair. Captain Vivian was born in 1818, and is, therefore, in his fifty-first year, but to judge from his appearance no one would suppose him to be more than forty at the outside. He is n handsome and very gentlemanly-mannered man. He served in the llth Hussars, but retired from the army so long back as 1843. For several years he has given constant attention to his Parliamentary duties. He has not been a frequent talker ; but whenever he does speak he speaks well, and is listened to with attention. Ab War Lord of the Treasury much was* expected of him, but whether the terrible blow he has received will incapacitate him from official work for some time to come remains to be seen. The hon. and gallant gentleman's first wife diea in 1855. He was married to his present wife, the lady who has just eloped, in 1861. She is daughter of Major Rowley, of the Bombay Artillery, and it is stated that her age is about twenty-eight or thirty. The Marquis of Waterford, with with whom the lady has eloped, was born in' 1844, and consequently, is in his twenty-fifth year. He is son of the late Marquis, who was a clergyman, and uncle to that Marquis of Waterford so well known in the nighthouses of the Hayraarket, and who broke hie neck in the hunting field. It is stated that Mrs Vivian has carried off her children with, her. Much sympathy is felt with the hoD. and gallant captain. In many cases it is not easy to account for elopements. One would imagine that Captain Vivian was a husband of whom any wife might be proud. Some further facts in connection with the elopement of the hon. Mrs Viviaa with the Marquis of Waterford (says the Freeman's Journal) have become known. It seems that for some time past the lady's name has been mentioned in circles in connection with that of the partner of her flight, and that her disappearance was not wholly unexpected. She left her home on Monday morning, March 1, alleging that she intended to proceed to Brighton to see her mother, and wouli return tha same evening. As, however, she failed to make her appearance, Captain Vivian proceeded to the Victoria Station, and there ascertained that the Marquis of Waterford and Mrs Vivian had the previous morning taken tickets for Paris by way of Dover, accompanied by a friend. He followed them to the. French capital, and soon found the object of his search at a well-known hotel. Mrs Vivian heard of her husband's arrival, and locked herself up ia an inner chamber. Captain Vivian, however, succeeded in obtaining assistance,' and burst open the doors. He then ascertained that Mrs Vivian had attempted to commit suicide by swallowing chloroform. The quantity taken was not, however, sufficient to cause more than partial insensibility. Captain Vivian is understood to have implored his wife to return for the sake of her children, of whom there are four, but that she peremptorily refused, although her husband assured her that her escapade should be kept a profound secret. The lady, however, remained firm in her determination not to return to her home, but pleaded that she might be allowed to retain her youngest child. This request Captain Vivian declined to comply with, and returned to London without having encountered the Marquis of Waterford. The latter has, it is said, caused a communication to be made to Captain Vivian that when the Judge-Ordi-nary of the Divorce Court shall have dissolved the legal ties which now prevent his marrying Mrs Vivian, he will, as a man of honour, make her the only compensation in his power. Meantime Captain Vivian has left London, and will not return to his place in the House of Commons until his presence is required for the division on the second reading of the b'llfor the abolition of the Irish Church.