Local & General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5549, 22 February 1886, Page 3

Local & General.

The annual gathering of the North Canterbury Caledonian Society is to be held at Amberley on Wednesday, March 17{ next. A boat belonging to the ship Pareora capsized on Saturday last, off tbe breakwater. The crew held on to the boat till rescued by one of the steam launches. Owing to the visit of Bishop Barry, Primate^of Australia, it has been decided to postpone the farewell gathering oh the occasion of the departure of the Rev A. C. "Wright from Christchurch. The annual picnic of the Canterbury Freethought Association took place yesterday at The Pines, New Brighton. The members of the Association and their friends, to the number of about 150, assembled at their Hall at 10 a.m., and proceeded in vans to the scene of their outing, where the day was spent in amusements of various kinds, and in discussing the contents of wellfilled luncheon hampers. On Saturday afternoon last, the employees of Messrs Twentyman and Cousin assembled at the office of the firm to bid farewell to Mr A. Clarkson on his departure for Melbourne, and to present him with a token of their esteem (a gold locket, set with diamonds and suitably inscribed). Mr J. W. Twentyman spoke in eulogistic terms of the manner in which Mr Clarkson had conducted himself during his connection with the firm, and on behalf of his fellow employees wished him every success in his future undertakings. Mr Clarkson feelingly responded. On Saturday evening, when the farewell performance of the St Leon Circus company waa given, the tent waa very densely crowded. The programme was gone through in the same excellent manner as on previous evenings, and the audience w.re evidently well pleased with what they saw. When thanking the public for their liberal patronage, Mr Gus St Leon on Saturday night made the pleasing announcement that the company would probably appear here again in a few weeks' time. The circus will open this week in Dunedin. Mr S. C. Farr, the Honorary Secretary of the Acclimatisation Society, has been requested by Sir Julius Yogel to proceed to Auckland, in order to receive the American whitefish ova expected to arrive by the s.s. Alameda on March 5, and the English salmon ova coming in the s.b. lonic, which ia due on March 12. He haa also been entrusted with the task of distributing the ova to the various Acclimatisation Societies throughout the Colony. Mr Farr, whose long experience in such matters renders him peculiarly fitted for the work, has accepted the task, and will leave Lyttelton by the Hawea to-morrow for Wellington, whence he will proceed by the Hinemoa to Auckland, where he will meet and confer with Sir Julius Yogel. The idea of instituting Sunday lectures of a popular character, in which subjects of a social, scientific, and religious bearing are treated with greater freedom than usually obtains in the pulpit or the hall of the professor, is an idea which meets with the appreciation of a large number of intelligent people. Mr John Crewes, who inaugurated the idea, aa far a3 this city is concerned, delivered last year nearly twenty lectures to large and increasing audiences. After an interval of a few weeks, occasioned by the holiday season, the lectures, which had previously been delivered in the large Oddfellows' Hall, have been resumed in the Lecture Hall of the V.M.C.A. Yesterday, the third and concluding lecture, on "Shaftesbury and Stead," was delivered to a large audience. The Morning Oregonian, in reviewing the history of the State of Oregon, mentions the character of the immigrants to that State. When shall we be able to boast such desirable settlers ? " The general character of the newcomers, as it ia revealed by the statistica of the Board, is an interesting study. Average age, 34 years ; married men, 85 per cent ; able-bodied, 98 per cent ; able to read and write, 99 per cent; men with ready cash to purchase, S9 per cent ; from the Northwestern States, GG per cent; farmers (practical), 87. per cent ; merchants, 5 per cent ; labouring men, 7. per cent ; American born, 50 per cent. Among the other nationalities the Germans predominate; after these come the people from Norway and England. Out of the 89 per cent with ready means with which to purchase land, fully one-half brought each 2500d01s and upwards. In tho list there are 4SO who brought each 5000dols or more. In the same list 18G are each credited on their own statement with the possession of 10,000dols or more. It is well enough in • passing to remark here that during its existence the Board has not been called upon to render financial aid to immigrant;., except in two cases ; these during the early part of the year. The amount involved was in tho aggregate less than . lOdols." In tbe police reports of London, a man was recently sent to prison for six months for savagely beating his two children, one < aged seven years aud the other eighteen months, with a strap. This was hia second * offence, ancl the ruffian pleaded that his temper had got the better of him.

, I Wine ia of course forbidden to all ! good Musßulmans, but in Persia it !ia freely indulged in by the men :of the upper classes almost without ! disguise, and secretly by about a fourth ;of the rest of the community among ; the inhabitants of large towns. In villages it is rarely if ever seen. Unfortunately, the drinking Persian is nearly always a drunkard ; he does not take wine from any j I idea of its cheering influence. He holds I orgies and drinks till he drop 3. Drinking | ' in Persia always culminates in drunken- j ness, and consequently arrack, which is j spirits of wine more or less pure, is the ! favourite drink. As well as being more j potent, it is more portable, and in a country ! where there are no wheeled vehicles, and j where casks are unknown, this ia a serious consideration.—-*-. James' Gazette. j Those who are wont to " observe "in the ' domain of journalistic literature will, perhapß, be interested in the follow- ; ing extract from an Oregon journal, ; which we publish as an illustration jof the peculiar style of American newspaper record : — Sublimity ia excited by a report that George Miller, who disappeared from that vicinity about four j years ago, did so at the hands of Joseph Blodeck, the man who suicided Friday last. It was told that Blodeck stated to several a day or bo before he suicided that he murdered Miller, and that the body waa hid on the Blodeck farm. After the Coroner'a inquest this all came out and caused a heavy excitement, and yesterday morning the citizens of that quiet hamlet started out to prosecute the Bearch. It waa said that some person dropped a fishhook into the well near Blodeck'a cabin, and on pulling it up the hook caught and brought up something that resembled the hair from a man's head. A further search will be made. The friends of the amiable Matthew will read with interest the following, clipped from a South Australia* i paper: —Mr M. Wood Green, an evangelist belonging to the Christian Disciples, who was formerly a member of the New Zealand Legislature, has been lecturing in antagonism to spiritualism. He has given a courseof six lectures, and the attendances have been quite phenomenal, averaging something like 1000 persons at each lecture. Mr Green's general contention waß that spiritism is pronouncedly irreligious and antagonistic to Christianity ; that it ia dangerous to meddle with the system; that good men are by it obfuscated and sometimes driven mad ; and that spiritual literature is full of the insidious and seductive doctrineß calculated to undermine the very foundations of morality and virtue and lead to the most unbridled licentiousness. Mr Christian Reimers, a noted musician, and an equally noted spiritualist, and Mr George Barrow, who calls himself an "investigator," essayed to canvass Mr Green's statements, but he was too wily a debater for them, and they came off second best. The reporters of one of the dailies were a little hard upon Mr Reimers, for they reported him aa saying "he had had ten years of the free love doctrines, and was disgusted with them," whereas he Baid "he had heard ten years ago of the doctrines, and was disgusted with them." At the termination of the course the audience testified by vote that Mr Green had demolished hia opponents, but Mesars Reimers and Barrow protested against the decision.