Local and General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 371, 22 July 1869, Page 2

Local and General.

,*, Meetings of Creditors. — Adjourned meetings of creditors were to have been held yesterday in re Charles Lezard and Harriett Bright, but both lapsed, aud the estates were declared to he vested in the provisional trustee. Okain Bay. — A very interesting entertainment, consisting of magic lantern views, &c, accompanied by appropriate readings and recitations, was given in the school-room, Okain Bay, on Thursday, Bth inst., by Messrs Chas. Wiggins and W. Watkins of Akaroa. At the close, a vote of thanks was unanimously accorded to the above gentlemen for their kindness in endeavouring to provide healthful recreation for the young, and to relieve the monotony existing in the bays at the present season of the year. Board of Conservators. — The Board met yesterday at 12 o'clock. Present : — The Chairman, Messrs Anderson, Fisher, and Tosswill. The minutes of last meeting were read and confirmed. A letter was read from Mr S. B. Stiffe, bringing under the notice of the Board a threatened stoppage of the Carlton mill-race. It was decided that the consideration of the letter should be post-j poned until the opinion of the Solicitor of the | Board could be obtained as to the character j of the water-course in question, and the powers of the Board, and the propriety or impropriety of their taking action in the matter. The following accounts were ordered to be paid : — Win. Hall (on accouut of contract for No. 1. embankment) £60. Taylor and Co. (Engineer's portable house), £18 17s 6d. Ward and Reeves (advertising) £6 7s 3d. J. Hughes (stationery) £2 13s 6d ; Montgomery and Co. (timber), £12 12s 6d, the last account to be checked by the overseer. 3. Denham and E. Ford were approved of by the Board as the sureties for Widdowson's contract for the pile work at the end of No. 2 embankment. It waa resolved that gorse seed should be sown on all the embankments, and that as an experiment in protecting the embankments, strips of land, three yards wide, should be ploughed in several places at distances of one chain apart, sown with gorse and broom seed, mixed in the proportion of one part of broom to three parts of gorse, and that the entrance to the Halswell channel, should be one of the experimental sites. The Board then adjourned to Wednesday, August 4. S. John's. — Last night's entertainment at S. John's schoolroom was entitled "An Evening in Italy," and in * great measure was the most enjoyable that has been spent so far as the series has proceeded. It was opened in a manner different from that by which entertainments are usually commenced, namely, by a reading descriptive of Rome as the city now-a-days presents itself to the eyes of the traveller. Tbe reading was exceedingly interesting, and every credit was done to it by the Rev. J. 08. Hoare. The part song, " Fair shines the moon to-night," was well appreciated, and the song by Mr F. Hobbs aud chorus also received a fair share of favour. A chorus which was accidentally omitted from the programme was sung by the S. John's choir, and this was followed by a reading by Mr W. J. W. Hamilton, which described, the markets of Rome from a Yankee point of view. Mr F. Thompson sang " When this Wasted Form shall Slumber," and was loudly applauded. There was an unfortunate break down in the duet from " II Trovatore," by Messrs J. and R. Parker. It was the first appearance of the younger gentleman, and his self-possession was hardly sufficient for the occasion. Dr Turnbull was to have favoured the audience with a reading, but he begged to be excused, as he was suffering from the effects of a severe cold. If the audience desired it, however, he would recite a piece of poetry which had an incidental connection with Italy — namely, " The Bells of Shandon," composed by the Rev Francis Mahony, better known under the nom-de-plume of " Father Prout." This he recited with much feeling, and was rewarded by a well-merited outburst ot applause. The part song " Who shall be Fairest," by Mr F. Moore, and chorus, was also applauded. The solo (harmonium) " Cujus Animam" was exquisitely played by Mr Parker, and in resj ouse to a universal demand for au encore, he gave a selection from " La Fille dv Regiment," which was even mote highly appreciated than the first performance. Miss Hunt sang "La Mia Letizia" very creditably. Mr McCardell read a piece entitled " The Iron t-hroud," and the entertainment , was brought to a close by a chorus from " Norma. 3 *'

Meetwgs of Creditors. — Meetings of creditors in re James Clarke, Richard Knowles Parkerson, and William Henderson Meikleham were to have been held to-day, but were adjourned until Thursday next. Kaiapoi Borough Council. — At the ordinary meeting of the body on Tuesday eveni ing last, there were present only the Mayor, Councillors Birch, Oram, and Hall. This number being one short of the number necessary to form a quorum, the meeting lapsed till Tuesday week. Gold. — There are few new facts to communicate. The Prospecting Company sent out two prospecting parties yesterday morning. Their destination is not definitely known, but it is believed that one will make for McQueen's, and the other for Gebbie's. Several private prospecting parties are also about to start for these and other localities on the Peninsula. About sixty diggers are prospecting in the Malvern Hills district, but we have not heard with what result. Some of these men are understood to have come from Otago, aud some from the West Coast. Dr Haast, it is believed, has gone on a prospecting expedition to the Hurunui district, or to that portion of it where goldbearing quartz was recently reported to have been found. There is a decided difference of opinion as to the quartz brought from Gebbie's country. On the one hand, it is positively asserted that the substance resembling gold, which it contains in very considerable quantities, is really not gold. This assertion is made after repeated and severe tests, conducted according to the pre- J scribed methods. On the other hand, it is very firmly believed that Gebbie's quartz does contain gold. The question will shortly be decided one way or the other. Favourable opinions have been expressed, by persons who are competent to judge, about the specimens brought from the second reef tried by Mr Deßourbel's men. Altogether, the existence of payable gold on tbe Peninsula, or elsewhere in the province, yet remains to be proved. The indications generally are considered sufficient to encourage further and more complete search on the part of those more actively engaged. Timaru. — Our Timaru contemporary of July 2nd says: — We were yesterday shewn a small nugget, by some supposed to be gold, recently found not many miles from Timaru The specimen has been tested with aqua-fortis and other liquid tests, which made no impression upon it. It certainly to us did not look like gold, being of too steely and metallic an appearance. We are informed, though, by a gentleman to whom it was shewn, that gold would have that appearance if mixed with but a very small psrtion of platinum. The piece of metal was of a cube shape, and it did not have the appearance of being water worn. Where it was found — in a rotten slaty rock — the discoverer says the crevices of the slate rocks are full of the metal. The locality is kept a secret. We were also shewn a piece of quartz taken from the reef alongside which Thew and party are now sinking at the Opuha. The specimen was taken from the reef about 20 feet from the surface of the ground. It appears to be, however, barren quartz, and not of a character likely to be gold-bearing. A correspondent of our contemporary, signing himself Crosier Raine, writes : — As there have been some yery exaggerated accounts circulated with reference to the reported goldfield on the Opuha river, one of them stating that several ounces of gold had been obtained here, for the benefit of intending diggers who might be misled hy them, I wish to state that they are entirely without foundation. It is true that the party so often referred to in your paper have found gold in small quantities, but the public may not be generally aware that several other equally experienced parties have tried the same country within the last five years, and have none of them obtained more than a few specks, but nothing payable. The New Explosive. — The following is from the Lancet :— The recent disastrous explosion m' Paris in a manufactory for the preparation of picrate of potassium, coupled witli the fact that there are many other such establishments in which the accident may any day recur, gives a peculiar interest to details simply chemical in their nature. The picrate of potassium is the potassium salt of an acid to which the names trinitrophenol, trinitrocarbolic acid, picric acid, carbazotic acid, piuranisic aCid, chrysolepic acid, &c , have been given. The acid, a frequent product of the action of nitric acid on organic substances, was discovered by Hausmann in 1788 ; has been the subject of investigation by Liebig Duruas, and Laurent; and was first accurately described by the last-named chemist, who proved it to b_* curbolic acid in which three atoms of hydrogen have been replaced by three atoms of the group No. 2. Tin's constitution at once explains the explosive character of the acid and of its salts, ft will be seen that the oxygen, of which there is a large quantity, is nearly all combined with nitrogen. Now, compounds of oxygen and nitrogen are very easily decomposed, especially in the presence of substances having a powerful attraction for oxygen, such aa carbon and nitrogen. Gunpowder, for example, is a mixture of a substance containing oxygen united to nitrogen (saltpetre), and a Bubstance having a strong attraction for oxygen (charcoal); while in gun cotton, nitroglycerine, picric acid, ' and tbe picrates we have the two united in one compound. Stored up in all these substances is a potential energy which betrays its presence by explosion when oxygen leaves the " ni- 1 trogen to unite with the carbon " and hydrogen. The picrates differ a good deal as to the rapidity and violence of this decomposition ; the picrates of mercury, silver, and copper on the one hand burning quickly, , like loose gunpowder, and on the other, the picrates of calcium, lead, and especially potassium, expiodina? with a loud detonation when heated on a flat plate, oi when sharply struck by a hard body. The first to. make , practical application of this, property of picrate of potassium was Mr

Whitworth, who used the salt to fill the shells to be directed against the armour-plating of ships. While picric acid may be prepared by tbe action of nitric acid on many organic substances, such as indigo, aloes, silk, c:ir bolic acid, or salicin, tbe most convenient and economical material is the so-called " yellow gum," or resin of the Xanthorrhea haslilis. which yields, according to Dr Stenhouse, about 50 per cent, of the crystallised acid. The substance is chiefly used as a yellow dye for silk and wool, and as a means of distinguishing animal from vegetable fibres, the former being coloured yellow by it, the latter remaining unchanged. It is employed in the laboratory to distinguish salts of p )ta<siui« from those of sodium ; the picra'e of potassium being very sparingly soluble in wator. while the picrate of sodium dissolves readily. Indian Hdmour. — " I ?ra glad," said the Rev Dr Young to the chief of the Little Ottawas, " that you do not drink whisky, but it grieves me to flud that your peojde use so much of it " " Ay, yes," replied the chief, and he fixed his eyes expressively upon the doctor, which communicated the reproof before he uttered it, " we Indians use a great deal of whisky, but we do not make it." Irish Natural Philosophy. — At a Kerry college the senior-class was under examination for degrees. The professor was badgering in optics. The point under illustration was, that, strictly and scientifically speaking, we see not objects, but their images depicted on the retina. The worthy professor, in order to make the matter plainer, said to the wag of the class, " Pr.ddy, did you ever actually see your father f " Pat replied promptly, "No sir." " Please explain why you never saw your father." " Because," replied Pat very gravely, " lie died before 1 was born, sir." Where to Study. — " Think and write as much as you like in your library, but when action is necessary get into the saddle," w.-is Palmerston's motto. I lis best speeches were made on horseback ; and often on the eve of great party fights did the wind blow back to his groom bis master's high Parliamentary tones in excited rehearsal. When the trot became a canter, the groom supposed that the cheers were fast and frequent ; aud when the canter ended in a gallop, he knew that the great Minister was delivering his peroration, and was bowling over his adversaries like ■inepins.