Local & General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5361, 14 July 1885, Page 3

Local & General.

« : The City Council last night decided not to grant permission for the opening of any licensed public hall on Sundays, in cases in which it . was purposed to charge for admission. A youth named Frederick Page was arreßted in Lyttelton yesterday on a charge of smuggling about 300 cigars and a quantity of tobacco from the steamer Glaucus. An arrangement has been made by which Dr Nedwill is to present a monthly report on the health of the Christchurch district to the City Council. The first of such reports was laid before the Council last night, and is published in extenso elsewhere. At a meeting of the City Council last night it was decided, by G votes to 4, to form and gravel footpaths 6ft in width through Cranmer square, in line with Montreal and Cheeter streets. The whole of yesterday was occupied at the Supreme Court with the trial of one of the caseß of alleged conspiracy to defraud, the Government at the Lyttelton Railway. The case was not concluded when the Court adjourned at 5 p.m. till 10 a.m. to-day. iA stable and a storeroom at Geraldine, the property of Mr Charles Waller, was burnt down on Sunday morning, about two o'clock. Mr Waller was awakened by hearing the crackling of the flames. When he got up, he discovered the stable and storeroom were on fire. He estimates his losa at about £GO, and is uninsured. A soirt-e was held last evening in the Durham street schoolroom, which closes the first half of the Wesleyan Mutual Improvement Association's session. The President (Eev J. J. Lewis) occupied the chair, and in his opening address informed his audience that he was thankful for the vitality of the Association, and looked forward to a yet brighter future to reward it« efforts. He congratulated them upon what they had done, and the merry way in which they did it. He also gave a recitation, " Death of Marinion." Musical selections followed, and the Doxology brought the meeting to a close. Chang, the Chinese giant, who will be well remembered in this city, has married an American Ift dy, who is reputed to be worth .£40,000. He himeelf hns a share in a valuable tea plantation in China. Mrs Chang reaches the respectable altitude of 6ft 3in, but says she shall always look up to her husband. A Parliamentary correspondent says : — "The whole of the Maori members were present at the tariff meeting. Wi Pere spoke, also the new member (Pratt). The former spoke well. He objected to the nceessarie3 of life being taxed, and recommended higher taxes to be put on spirits, wines, and tobacco, also on silks, satins, &c. He recommended the reduction of the armed police force, and j said if riots took place that the loyal Maoris would put them down. It is unusual to see all the Maoris on one side. It points to their satisfaction with Mr Balianco/s administration." The decreasing gold production of the world has been contJiuous since 1801. Taking the world's productions in periods, in the five yeai'3 including 1861 it was .£139,000,000. In the next five years it dropped to .£130,000,000; in 1871 to .£128,000,000; in 1870 to £118,000,000; in 1881 to £107,000,000 ; and in the current five years to 188G, unless the Transvaal or some other mines add considerably to the yield, the amount will have fallen to about £85,000,000, or some £50,000,000 less than was produced tn-enty-five years ago. A daring and successful robbery was lately committed at the Vote Office of the House of Commons. The office was entered, a drawer was broken open, and a'• cashbox, which contained about £GG, was ! stolen. The money had been locked up ready for the payment of wages, and was in an official cashbox, upon which the letters " V.E." were printed. The approach to the office is from the inner lobby of the House of Commons, and it is a mystery how any thief conld have entered it during the sitting of Parliament without being observed either by members of the House or by the police and detectives, of whom there is an extra staff in attendance at all parts of the Palace buildings at Westminster. It is equally difficult to conjecture how an inner room so guarded could have been broken into whilst the House was not sitting, and when the buildings would be under the charge of numerous ! constables and night watchmen. No trace J has been obtained either of the thieves or the stolen property.

A mail route to India and Australia, & Herat, is a somewhat startling and novel idea. Yet the correspondent of the Daily News, writing from a Busßian station on the eastern bank of the Caspian Sea, calls attention to the probability that before long the quickest available route to Calcutta from England will be by way of Russia, the Caspian Sea, Turkestan, Afghanistan, and the Valley of the Ganges. It follows as a matter of course that the quickest route to Australia would likewise be by the same line. The Russian authorities feel that in possessing the control of the Caspian Sea and of the country between that sheet of -water and Afghanistan they hold a key of communication between Europe and the East. This advantage they mean to use primarily for strategic and warlike purposes. But there are also a party who see in the advances of railway communication towards India a necessary means of opening up friendly relations with vast nations who might do a considerable trade with Russia. The military idea, it is to be feared, predominates. The distance to be travelled on this route from Calcutta or from Madras to London would be about 5000 miles by rail, and close upon 1000 miles by water. The journey across America, from San Francisco to New York, is 3380 miles, and it occupies six days, so that on a rough calculation it may be estimated that the time occupied in railway and steamboat travelling between Calcutta or Madras and London would be between eleven and twelve days.