Local and General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 366, 16 July 1869, Page 2

Local and General.

English Mail. — The s.s. Phoebe arrived in harbour this morning at eight o'clock, bringing the English mail. The mail was landed, and sent through to Christchurch by the nine a m. train. The Thames Goldfie__ds. — We notice that sbarebroking in connection with these fields has commenced in Christchurch. Two of tbe new companies have agents in the city, and upwards of forty shares iv one of them, " The Victoria," were disposed of yesterday. The shares are £5 each. The Gourlats. — These performers continue to attract large audiences, notwithstanding that their entertainments have extended over so long a period in Canterbury. The programme will be varied to-night, and to-morrow will terminate their present season in Christchurch. \Charitablu. — Ihe sympathy and subscriptions of the public are solicited on behalf of James George M'Donald, late trumpeter to No. 2 Company under Von Tempsky. M'Donald fought in the engagement in which Von Tempsky was killed, and in that engagement he fell from the effects of a tomahawk wound, which completely severed the nose and the whole of the upper lip. He was left by the Maoris for dead, and lay concealed for two days and two nights on the field, when he was discovered by a party sent out under Sergeant Hogan in search of the missing mcaj* M'Donald's face was so much lacerated that the wound has never since healed, and he is anxious to get to Melbourne to have the advantage of the best medical advice. He received what it is usual for disabled men of the force to receive —three mouths' pay — that being the only allowance made by the Government. M'Donald is altogether incapacitated from work, and has a wife and two children. Subscription lists will be opened at the banks and merchants' offices. Ancient Order of Foresters. — The half-yearly meeting of the Canterbury United District took place on Tuesday, July 13, at the Foresters' Hall, Lyttelton. The following officers were present : — District G.C.R. Br. Carroll ; District Treasurer, P.D.C.R. Crooks; District Secretary, P.D.C.R. Allison. The district CR. was prevented by illness from being present. Past D.C.R. Br. H. Allwright presided in his place. After opening Court in the usual form, credentials were- handed. in by the following delegates :— Court Star of Canterbury,P.C.R, Br. W, B. Hobbs, and P.C.R. Br. J. Hughes ; Court Queen of the Isles, P.D.C.R. Br. Willcox, and P.C.R. Br. Carroll, several members of Court Queen of the Isles being present. The minutes of the last meeting being read and confirmed, the following correspondence was read : Letters from the Executive Council of the High Court of England, also invoice of goods arrived by the Caroline Coventry ; letters from Court Pride of the West, Hokitika, and Court Good Intent, Ross Town ; also, from Court Star of the Dunstan, Clyde, Otago. District D.S. Br. Crooks, reported that with D.S. Br. Allison, they had compared the goods with the invoice now before the meeting, and had' found them quite correct. The D.S. was instructed to supply the various courts with goods as ordered. The sub-committee elected to revise the district laws brought up their report, which was considered and passed, with instructions to have the alterations printed and circulated through the district. After some minor business had been transacted, a vote of thanks ; was tendered to the presiding officer P.D.C.R. Allwright. The Court was then close 1 in the usual form. The next district meeting will take place on the second Tuesday in January, 1870, at the foresters' Hall, Christchurch. ... oi . . ..:,,..- •... . • ■ ■■■ ■•_ •_

Legal— Hia Honor sat in the Court Chambers, at 11 o'clock this morning. In bankruptcy — Orders of adjudication were made in re Sampson, Henry Rogers, William Pogson, Henry Barton, and William Weston, (on petition of Mr Matson); creditors to meet in the three former cases on Monday, the 26th July, at 11,2, and 3 o'clock respectively, and in the latter, on Wednesday, the 28th July. The last examination was fixed for Thursday, the 26th August, in re Edward Dillon Hepworth, Archibald Moore, and Joseph Batchelor. Re David Nairn— The order of adjudication was annulled. .Main v. Robinson — In this case, the demurrer was alk>wed with costs ; leave to amend. JThe Gold Prospkctino Company. — The managing committee met^in Cobb and Co.'s office yesterday af ternoojyat four o'clock, all the members, except Mr Craig, being present, and Mr J. Ollivier in the chair. The minutes of last meeting were read and confirmed, after whichJMr Mitchell brought the following regulations as prepared by the sub-committee for the . guidance of prospecting parties the working department shall consist of a mining manager and four prospecting parties of three in each party. That an equipment, to consist of the following, be provided for each party— Tent and fly, 10 x 8, 2 tin dishes, 2 driving picks, 1 four quart billy, 1 three quart do, 3 pannikins, 1 frying pan, 1 iron bucket, 2 long shovels, I short do, and 1 American axe. That the mining manager be provided with a horse and saddle that can be used for packing ; that he be paid the sum of £4 per week, but furnish his own provisions and horse feed. That the working prospectors be supplied with provisioos, and receive the sum of £1 5s each per week! That an agreement be signed by the worfffftg prospectors with the Company, to the effect that they will use their best exertions to ascertain the localities of probable auriferous reefs, or deposits, and open and work such ground as they may deem advisable ; and if any discovery be made, to report upon the same, privately, and with good faith to the mining manager or the directors, upon the following express conditions : — " That in the event of any goldbearing reef or auriferous claim bein<? found, the party making such discovery shall in conjunction with the mining manager be entitled to one fourth share in area or value of such claim. That in the event of the reward offered by the Provincial Government being paid over to the company, the same shall be distributed amongst the prospectors making the discovery; that from the date of any such discovery (if claimed), the party shall cease to receive the wages and provisions as working prospectors, but shall be considered as shareholders in conjunction with the company in such reef and claim ; that they shall be subject to dismissal at any time for incompetency or other cause, by the directors or mining manager, upon payment of wages due to the date of such dismissal ; !that they shall not leave the locality appointed to be prospected without leave from the mining manager, except in the case of accident or sickness, and that in each party of three one man be elected by the party whose duty will be to regulate the working arrangements of the party, and report any complaints to the directors." That the duties of the mining manager shall be to keep in communication with each party of prospectors, to provide provisions and to assist in removal or other- ! wise by the use of the horse ; to define localities to be prospected with the consent of the directors ; to report from time to time the. progress made by such working parties, giving them all the assistance necessary for faithfully carrying out the object of the company; to keep an account of all monies expended in the purchase of provisions or repairs of tools; to furnish receipts for all such payments, and to keep an account of the time of each mau, to be employed by the company. — W. R. Mitchell, Chairman of Sub-committee. The report was discussed at great length, and was ultimately adopted without a dissentient. The articles of association, as prepared by Messrs Garrick and Cowlishaw, were submitted, and signed by the- members of committee in attendance. The secretary was directed to advertise that the deposit of £1 on each share must be paid on or before the 31st inst., and that the number being limited to 200, a preference would be given to thoso applying first. Some other business of no public importance was transacted, and the meeting adjourned. Concrete Sugar. — We {Overland Mail) have received from Antigua a prospectus or advertisement relative to the discovery by j Mr OKay of a process by which the whole of the juice expressed from the cane may be consolidated and transported in a convenient form to the refiner. The nature of the agent employed is not explained in the paper before us, but we infer that it is a chemical compound of which the constituents are innoxious, and it is ascertained that it can be used without the necessity of any alteration in the ordinary works of a sugar-estate. The advantages of converting cane-juice into concrete instead of into ordinary muscovado, or vacuum-pah sugar, are, however, so obvious and generally understood, that it is unnecessary for us to explain them here. Thelatest experiment, it is said, gives an average bf about two pounds of concrete to a gallon of cane-juice, which d.Q_3.s not greatly. vary.irom the results of Fry's concretor, according to information with which we have been favoured as to its actual .forking on a .first-class estate in Demerara, .where the yield is shown to be fully equal in value to that from vacuum-pan machinery. The_ choice between the two systems would therefore seem to depend upon the relative cost of ' bringing each to bear upon the manufacture ; the economical features in other respects being apparently Common to both. * How ro Kill Mice and Rats.— There are many modes of trapping mice and rats,' but the.b est of them, the Gardeners* Magazine states, are seluom .^effectual to? clear a place Qf these vermin. v Havihg'"frequently been

pestered with mice and rats,y we have beeii compelled to search for cheap and effectual means of destroying them, and have found carbonate of baryta the surest and swiftest poison available. It must, however, be used with great caution, as it may be the means of destroying birds, poultry, dogs, cats, and other animals not included in the same condemnation as the rats and mice. It is a dry, white, tasteless powder, not adapted to mingle with auy liquid, but may be beaten up with the flesh of a raw bloater, or with gooi dripping and oatmeal, so as to make a tasty and a deadly paste, portions of which may be thrust into the holes and runs of the vermin, or placed under broken flower- pots in such a way that small game can find it but cats and dogs can be kept aloof. In places where cats abound so as to become a nuisance, they may be speedily reduced by tlie preparation of a bloater with a smearing of the powder ; split the fiah and rub the powder into the moist meat with a piece of clean stick, and place it only where cats, rata, and mice are likely to find it. In using this deadly poison be careful every morning to look for the baits that were put down the night before, and burn what remains of them, for rarely will any surviving vermin eat what has been mtuled about by those that have feasted on it and gone to their doom. An Anti» ote for Tobacco. — The following is from the New York Tribune : — As to curing men of their addiction to tobacco, it seems to us very much like urging the resumption of specie payments — the difficulty is not at all want of power, but want of will. This is an obstacle very hard to overcome. The Rev. George Trask bucks against it as follows : — " In our anti-tobacco labours, we see thousands whose wills are paralysed by tobacco, who struggle to be free, but give up in despair. They need an antidote for an insatiable appetite. Resolution must be armed, and hope inspired. We have such, and gladly publish it to every sufferer and to the world. To such as are utterly stupifled by the drug, and such as revei in saliva and smoke — glorying in their shame — we make no appeal ; but to such as 'groan, being in bondage,' longing to be free, we say, • Here is our antidote, friend; try it. We ask nothing for it.' 1. Make the most of your will. Drop tobacco, and resolve never to use it again in any form. 2. Go to an apothecary, and buy ten cents worth of gentian root, coarsely ground. 3. Take as much of it after each meal, or oftener, as amounts to a common quid of * fine cut ' or ' cavendish.' 4. Chew it well, and swallow all the saliva. 5. Continue this a few weeks and you will come off conqueror ; then thank God, and thank us. Reasons. — I. Gentian is a tonic, bitter in taste, and will do much to. neutralize and allay your taste for tobacco. 2. Gentian is .a nervine. It will brace up your relaxed and flabby nerves, and save you from the ' awful goneness' under which victims agonize. 3. Gentian, for a short time, is an innocent substitute for the quid or pipe. It employs the month, beguiles attention, and gives a helping hand to a drowning man. Despise not our antidote. Moneymaking men give us to understand that, should we fill millions of little boxes with gentian, mark them 'Trask's Infallible Tobacco Cure,' price one dollar, we should soon fill our empty coffers and become a millionaire. We shall do no such thing. We shall continue to spread tracts over the nation, showing that tobacco tends to ruin the body and the soul, and ruin the nations ; and beg enslaved men to try our antidote — Resolution, Gentian, and the Grace of God. Thousands will try it,. and be frea." Goob ahd Bad Handwriting. — The following is from the Gentlemaii's Magazine : — [ have heard illegible writing justified as a mark of genius. That of course is a very flattering theory. I wish I could think it true. But, like most of these flattering theories about disagreeable eccentricities, it has one fatal fault. It is consistent with notorious facts. Men of genius do not, I believe as a rule scribble. Thiey write legibly. Thackeray we all know, was a beautiful penman. He prided himself on h ? s writing. He could write the Lord's Prayer in a legible hand on a bit of paper not bigger than a sixpence. I never heard that Charles Dickens had a contribution returned because it was illegible. " Douglas Jerrold'a copy was almost as good as copperplate;" and my friend, who, in his own graphic style, is sketching the career of " Christopher Ken rick " in these pages in a masculine, clear, and flexible hand, tells me that one of Jerrold's friends, "Shirley Brook, writes plainly and with very little revision." Lord Ly tton's manuscript is written in a careless scrawl, but it is not illegible, though from interlineations and corrections, perhaps now and then puzzling to printers ; and Mr Disraeli writes a large and angular hand, legible enough if not particularly elegant. And most of our leading politicians are excellent penmen. Mr Gladstone seems to write as he generally speaks, in a hasty, impetuous manner. But with all his haste and impetuosity his writing is perfectly legible. It is an Oxford hand. Lord Derby writes, what I may perhaps call, an aristo tocratic hand at once elegant ahd legible. Lord Russell writes a ladylike hand. It is like everything else about the Earl, small, and occasionally puzzling, but not inelegant. Mr Bright's letters are as distinctly and regularly formed as this print. Lord Stanley's despatches are as legible as large pica. You may run and read them. Every character is fully formed ,- every "i " is dotted, every "t " crossed. You will find no sign of hasto or slovenliness in his MS. I might go on in thiß style through a dozen more names. But it is not necessary. I have cited enough cases to prove my point, that illegible handwriting is not a mark of genius, or even of superior intelligence. I know on the other hand, that there are many men of genius who write and have written execrably. Sir John Bowring is one of these. It is said that Lord Palmerston once sent back an important despatch of Sir John's to. China,, with a request that, ijniigbt.be oojn&Lln ;. a readable handwriting 'j

and Lord Cowley, our late Ambassador at the | Court of France, wrote so hastily and so illegibly that Lord Granville, I believe, once asked his Lordship to keep the originals of his despatches for his own information, and send copies to the Foreign Offlce. « Lord Lyttelton, who moved a clause to the Reform Bill that nobody should have a vote who could not write a legible hand, writes so illegibly that the clerks at the table could not read the resolution which he handed in "; and Christopher Kenrick adds, that " Tom Taylor writes as if he had wool at the end of his pen." And these men are tbe types, I fear, of a far larger class than the first set of politicians and authors whom I have enumerated. An Important Commercial Discovert. — We extract the following from the Globe : — A discovery has bean made which is of vital interest to an important industry in Italy. M. T. Gandolfi, of Mondovi, states that after some years of study he is able to ascertain, by means of chemical analysis, whether the eggs of the silkworms are healthy and can be safely reared, or infected and useless. The practical success of M. Gandolff's discovery will be seen in the ensuing season, when the value of his analyses, now being carried on at Turin, will have been tested by their results. A simple reference to the decline in the production of silk in Italy and the Tyrol in the la9t few years will show to how great an extent the industrial interests of the Italians are dependent upon the result of this experiment. Before the outbreak of the silkworm disease there were nearly 3| million kilogrammes of raw silk produced ; this declined in 1863 to 2£ millions, in 1867 to 2 millions, aud last year the total produce was only 1,900,000 kilogrammes. The future of the silk crop of Italy gives great cause for anxiety, especially since the silkworm disease has reached certain parts of Japan, whence the Italians have obtained the largest portion of their best cocoons ; and Mr Consul Coluaghi reports that all attempts to root out or even to palliate the malady have hitherto been ineffectual. The germs of tho disease are said to be found in the mulberry trees, similar to the oidium affecting the vine. A trade of some eighteen millions in value in the present unfavourable period, and capable of indefinite increase should the silkworm disease be stamped out, is no small element in the industrial resources of a country like Italy. Adulteration of Beer with Cocculus iNDrous. — A German periodical has drawn attention to the fact that a very large quantity of cocculus indicus is annually imported into England, which would suffice for the adulteration of no less tban one fifth of the beer consumed in this country ; and it is suggested that this fact gives considerable probability to the prevalence of adulteration* of beer — especially London porter and stout — with that material. According to the statement of Lord E. Cecil, in the late discussion on the subject of adulteration in the House of Commons, the quantity of cocculus indicus imported into England in 1857 amounted to 68 cwt; in 1867, the quantity had increased to 689 cwt.; and last year, it amounted to 1064 cwt. This latter quantity is more than three times as much as the German authority above referred to has taken into account, so that, upon his view, it would be sufficient for the adulteration of three-fifths of the beer consumed in the United Kingdom. According to a statement of Professor Dragendorff, formerly chemist to the St. Petersburg police, picrotoxine — the active principle of cocculus indicus— is largely used for adulterating beer in Russia ; and it is a frequent occurrence that brewers are fined on this account, and the beer confiscated. Schubert of Wurzburg also states that Bavarian beer is very often adulterated with cocculus indicus. It would appear, therefore, from these statements, that the use of cocculus indicus, for giving fictitious strength to beer, is a very general praotice, and oue which, if it prevails to any extent in England, is not by any means peculiar to this country, as has been stated by some persons.