Local and General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 696, 16 August 1870, Page 2

Local and General.

New Justice of the Pkace. — Mr J. W. Mallock was sworn in before Mr Justice Gresson, this morning, as a Justice of the Peace for the colony of New Zealand. Bubgess List. — His Worship the Mayor has fixed Thursday next on which to hold a court of revision for correcting the city burgess list for the ensuing year. Theatre Royal. — Last night's programme was the same as that performed on Saturday. There was a good attendance. Tonight's performances will be for the benefit of the orchestra, and an attractive bill will be submitted. • j Militia Excuses. — Few people, remarks the Wairarapa paper, would credit the excuses that enable Militiamen to Bhirk parade. One gets off because of "incompatibility of emper," another because of " a pain in s big toe !" and the last we have seen is ' a slight derangement of the stomach ?" Fibb Police. — The term for which the present members of this force was sworn in expires on the 20th inst., and his Worship the Mayor has signified his intention of attending at the City Council Chamber, at 3.30 p.m. on Friday next, for the purpose of swearing in members for the ensuing year. . BEMEVOLtNCB. — Upwards of £60 was collected yesterday in Christchurch by Captain Wheeler, of the steamer Taranaki, in aid of funds which are being collected for the widows and orphans of the crew of the steamer Tauranga. The amount collected in Dunedin and Christchurch by Captain Wheeler and Mr Moss, purser, amounts to £228 Is. Bankruptcy.— Mr Richard Davis sat in the Registrar's Chambers yesterday. Re Stephen Brooker— No creditors attending, the meeting was adjourned until Monday next at the same time and place ; liabilities,: £197 ; assets, £349 14s. Ec Henry Beecher — No creditors attending, the estate was declared vested in the Provisional Trustee. Re Thomas Harris Parsons, Mr Cowlishaw, solicitor — No creditors attending, the estate was declared vested in the Provisional, Trustee. Total Abstinence Society. — The usual fortnightly meeting in connection with the above society was held in the Temperance Hall Gloucester street last evening. . There was a good attendance. Dr Florance presided, and in a neat speech called upon Mr Bennetts, who next addressed the meeting. Melodies were sung by the Misses Cutler and Bennetts; and Mr J. G. Baker, who has just returned from Melbourne, spoke at some length on the Temperance question in that city. At the close of the meeting, the Secretary announced that the general committee would meet on Wednesday evening next. The Late Accident at Akaroa. — The body of the unfortunate man Duerden who was killed on the Little River Road, was found on the 11th inst. by the party who were searching for him. When found, his body was fearfully mutilated, both legs being broken in several places, bis ribs smashed and numerous other injuries, which must have caused instantaneous death. A man named Walker, living at Little River, had a narrow escape, he was conversing with Duerden, and saw the slip coming, but was overtaken by it and buried up to his hips, fortunately receiving no injuries. An inquest on the remains was to be held at the Traveller's Rest, Head of the Bay, Akaroa, on Saturday, the 13th, Mr W. H. Pilliet, R.M., of Akaroa, being the coroner. The Permissive Bill. — Mr Fox, in reply to a communication from the Secretary of the Drury (Auckland) auxiliary of the United Kingdom Alliance, on the subject of the Permissive Bill, wrote as follows:—" I found in the Middle Island a strong feeling awakened on the subject, and a considerable number of colonists whose views appeared to be sound on the question of the remedy. But it pained and surprised me to find many more who looked on the promotion of the abstinence cause as a harmless eccentricity, or, at least, an innocent amusement. It would be a better sign if it met with a violent opposition, which might indicate that the opponents of the cause considered their stronghold in danger. I cling to the hope that if the British Alliance succeed in carrying a Permissive Bill, we shall follow suit in the colonies of the Pacific."

Monstbb Hoxs Trips. — A correspondent of a Melbourne paper suggests the formation of a society on the plan of a building society to enable young men to visit the home country, for the purposp of visiting the scientific institutions and manufacturing districts of Great Britain. He says : — By conducting excursions on a large scale, Cook, the monster excursionist at home, has managed, at a comparatively small cost, to convey a number of persons to America and back, to the Holy Land and back, and on many other journeys. The Bottle.— An Auckland publican has been fined 50s and costs, for tearing down a theatrical cartoon. The cartoon had been specially got up for the occasion of the representation of the drama, " The Bottle," and delineated a drunkard under the influence of delirium tremens, " blue devils." One of these cartoons was placed opposite the publican's door. Some of the evidence was very amusing: — John Copland (defendant) deposed that the picture was about eight feet square. It represented a man knocking down a woman with a bottle. There were three invisible spirits— (laughter) — and a Maori with a pipe in his mouth There was a rat on his hind legs with a pipe in his mouth, and a pig under the table. There were a great number of flourishes which contained the ideas.— (Laughter.) I told the man before he put it up " that if he put it up opposite to my private rooms, I would pull it down again." Mr Sheehan: How did you come to see the "three invisible spirits ?" Witness: They were under a cloud. — (Loud laughter.) The picture was indecent; a man knocking a woman down with a bottle isau indecent act. A rat on his hind legs, with a pipe in his mouth, is not fit to be seen in a public thoroughfare. — (Loud laughter.) — Judgment was given against Mr Copland for £2 10s, with costs. Abb Thistles a Nuisance ? — ln the House of Representatives, on July 28, Mr Cracroft Wilson brought up the report of the Public Petitions Committee on the petition of thirteen inhabitants of the province of Canterbury, praying for the repeal of the Canterbury Thistle Ordinance, 1866. Mr Rolleaton moved that the report be printed. In the debate which ensued on this motion, Mr Stafford said that he believed it was absolutely impossible to prevent the spread of thistles, and that a great deal of money was spent in doing only what would be like a drop in the ocean. He had perhaps, pecuculiar opinions on the subject, but he believed that thistles were really no injury to a country, but were a great improvement to second and third rate land. So much so, that a friend of his had, in reclaiming thirdrate land, actually sowed thistles on it as fertilisers, and valuable grasses were induced to grow when the thistles died out, which they did in a short time where the ground was not ploughed. Mr Kerr, in referring to this statement, said that he knew that at Panmure, in the province of Auckland, the thistles had taken complete possession of some very rich land, so much so that nothing else could grow where they were. Mr! Fitzherbert, after stating that the ex tirpation of thistles was, in his opinion, absolutely impracticable in a country like New Zealand, abounding in waste land, and whose cultivated farms adjoined millions of acres owned by the natives, said he thought the cutting down of thistles on the waste lands was a great mistake in reference to pastoral lands. He could state from experience that during certain portions of the year the thistle was an excellent article of food— that period when there was a lack of rain. At that time sheep fed with great advantage upon the flower of the thistle, and it would, in his opinion, be a disadvantage if the thistles were destroyed upon the waste lands. In addition to that, the thistle, by boring down into the soil with its tap root, loosened it and rendered it thereby much more capable of improvement. Where these immense beds of thistles grew, they gradually gave way, and in time the place became covered with a thick growth of grass. He had paid considerable attention to this question, and in the eradication of thistles he had seen great errors committed. Where, then, was the remedy for the complaints made ? In England, there were cases where farmers brought actions against their neighbours who allowed thistles to grow, to the detriment of the farm land in the vicinity, and damages were recoverable at common law, where neglect had been proved ; but to have an inspector, and penalties laid down, would be, to his mind, a mistake, and would prove, to some extent, an act of oppression. Mr Bolleflton's motion was eventually adopted. This is one side of the question. The following, from a Hobart Town paper, gives the other: — A meeting held at Clarence, was attended by a number of practical farmers, men who were largely interested in the adoption of such measures as would probably tend to the removal from their land of that plant which was baffling all their efforts and ingenuity to get rid of. The eradication of the thistle to them was a matter not to he trifled with, for their land was, through its growth, becoming impoverished; their crops of wheat, corn, &c, gradually growing leas; and their prospects, as a natural consequence, getting gloomy in the extreme. It was no imaginary grievance; no mere party squabble, which was immaterial to anyone but those who were foolish enough to allow themselves to be mixed up with it; but was, as Councillor Maum observed at the meeting referred to, " a nuisance and a plague, that unless means were discovered to stay it, would prove the ruin, not merely of the Municipality of Clarence, but of the entire colony" of Tasmania." Instances were given by those present at the meeting of the deterioration in the value of property in the district through the ravages of the thistle. In one case it was stated that a farm, which a few years ago was worth £40 or £50 per annum, had recently to be altogether abandoned by its owner, through the crops being rendered useless after mowing, in consequence of th«

prsvalency of the thistle. Another instance of the decrease in the value of property traceable to the inability of farmers to eradicate this nuisance, was that of a farm seven or eight years' ago worth £1000, but which would not now realise £100. Presentation.— On Sunday afternoon the teachers and children belonging to the Holy Trinity Church Sunday School, Lyttelton, presented Mr Joseph Ward (who has been superintendent of the school for eight years) with a very handsome testimonial in recognition of his services. Master Walter Knowles read an address, and presented Mr Ward with a handsomely bound book — " Chambers' Book of Days " — which bore on the fly-leaf the following Address : "To Joseph Ward, Esq., this volume is respect* fully presented by the Scholars of the Trinity Church Sunday School, in grateful acknowledgment of his constant labours and unvarying kindness for several years past aa their Superintendent." The Rev. F. Knowles also presented Miss Bunker with a book, as an acknowledgment of her services as teacher of the first girls' class. Import Doty on Cereals. — The following petition signed by thirty-one farmers and others of Leeston and Selwyn districts, was presented on Aug. 10, in the House of Representatives by the hon. member for Akaroa: — To the Honorable the House of Representatives, in Parliament assembled — We, the undersigned inhabitants of the province of Canterbury, having learnt with the deepest regret that on the 23rd August, 1869, your honourable House did throw out hy a majority of three a resolution proposing " that there should be levied, after the Ist September, 1860, Customs duties to the amount of ninepence per cwt on grain and pulse of every kind not otherwise enumerated in the Cus-toms-Tariff Act, 1866, or the Customs Tariff Amendment Act, 1867, and one shilling per cwt on grain and pulse of every kind not otherwise enumerated in the Customs Tariff Act, 1866, or the Customs Tariff Amendment Act, 1867, when ground or in any way prepared or manufactured," pray that your honourable House will again take the Bubject into your consideration, and provide for the levying of the said Customs duties as proposed in the above resolution, and your petitioners will ever pray. • A petition with a similar object .was presented by Mr Birch from 175 inhabitants of Waikouaiti and Shag Valley in the province of Otago. Bernard do Guesclin. — In reviewing af new life of the great French hero, by M. Bonnechose, the historian, the Spectator aays: — " Bertrand dv Gueiclia was chivalry incarnate. If Arthur was "the flower of king*," Dv Guesclin was the flower of knights. He was representative of the best characteristics of his age, and what faults he had were almost inseparable from his qualities. Without impetuosity, he could hardly have been so brave ; without passion, he could hardly have been so enthusiastic; without the power of hating wrong, and of punishing it relentlessly, he could not have been poiaessed of such a firm and intense love for the right. Mild approbation for the good is generally accompanied by a feeble and wavering opposition to the bad : to both these virtues of modern times, Dv Guesclin was a stranger. He was violent, and he punished treachery with what seemed cruelty. But he was never vindictive. An honourable enemy might become his friend. He had pity on the poor and helpless, wherever they were to be found. To children he was gentle; to women, respectful. He was very ugly; but they forgot that, in the thought of his achievements. His gratitude was a vivid appreciation of services past, not of services to come. He had never been instructed in the necessary lesson of " how to take care of number one," and to his dying day he never learnt it: for he gave away his money aa recklessly as he endangered bis almost charmed life. Before he died he had passed through a hundred vicissitudes, and lost everything but his honour. He directed that he should be buried by the Bide of his first wife ; but King Charles V., whom he had served with untiring energy, decreed that he should be laid in the great Abbey of Saint Denis ; and he was followed to the grave by men who had been his enemies, but whom his nobleness had turned into friends, and by friends whom his prowess and his kindness had turned almost into adorers. Such a man's story, though it " pertains to feats of broil and battle," is a splendid one to bri ng before the middle-class boys and girls of our generation. It is of a high and sacred morality. It is frse, at all events, from the enervating compromise of " how to make the best of both worlds;" and may say something to men who 'seek position without honour, and to women who think of fortune more than of ability. It is in the following words that M de Bonnecbose sums up the character and influence of his hero : — To the qualities absolutely compulsory in a general in the times in which he lived, he also united others which have rendered him one of the precursors of the art of war as it has been practised in all succeeding centuries. As prudent as be was brave, not less skilful in the conception and preparation of his enterprises than prompt and impetuous in their execution, bis perception was quick, his judgment correct, bis mind inventive and fertile in 'resources ; in critical situations his composure was perfect, his perseverance unequalled. He despised old prejudices and routine, and knew how to turn the inventions of others to account, as well as to invent ways and means for himself. He was the Qfst to introduce, in the Middle Ages, entrenched camps, after the Roman model ; the first to employ artillery in sieges; and understood, as if by instinct, and especially in his later campaigns brought into use, some even of the tactics and strategic movements of modern warfare. Although himself the perfect model of an accomplished knight, Dv Guesclin nevertheless, more than any one else, contributed to the downfall of the institution of chiva'ry, by substituting military science for the power of superior numbers

tod personal strength, by extending the use of firearms, and by organising regiments of permanent troops, upon a footing which eventually was adopted generally in the composition of the royal armies."