Local & General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5551, 24 February 1886, Page 3

Local & General.

At the meeting of the Ly ttelton Harbour Board, held yesterday afternoon, the Hon J. T. Peacock was unanimously ' elected Chairman. The Hon Mr Ballance was to visit the Maori settlements at Waikouaiti, Waibaki, and Kaiapoi, on his way from Dunedin to the North. Since the retirement of Mr Back, the office of Traffic Manager 1b held by Mr Hannay until the arrival of Mr Garstin from Wellington. The Colonial Treasurer last night, in the course of an interesting address to the citizens of Auckland, very clearly indicated the policy of his Government. The ordinary meeting of the Linwood Town Board on Monday evening last lapsed for want of a quorum, the Commissioners present being Messrs Toomer, Hale and Barns. Yesterday 1000 young salmon were taken to Medbury by train in order to be placed in the river Hurunui. At Medbury Mr W. H. Barton, with a trap, met the train and conveyed the fish to the upper waters of the river, where they were liberated. The Timaru Harbour Board have appointed Mr F. W. Marchant, C.E. (of the firm of Meaßon and Marchant), their Resident Engineer. Mr Goodall, C.E., of Napier, the designer and constructor of the breakwater, was offered the post of Consulting Engineer, but he has declined it. The excursion trains from Christchurch to Dunedin for the races were extremely well patronised both on Monday and yesterday. On Monday the train consisted of eleven carriages, with an average of about thirty passengers each, and on Tuesday there were twelve carriages with a still larger average of passengers. The night train whioh left Christchurch yesterday evening, though not crowded, was fairly well patronised. Yesterday afternoon Mr Burnett addressed a meetingof ladies in the Theatre Royal. In the evening a number of supporters of the temperance cause mustered in Cathedral square, and formed a procession, which, headed by a brass band and the flag of the "Blue Ribbon Army," marched through the streets to the Theatre Royal, where Mr Burnett addressed a large audience, giving some " vivid pictures from real life," and concluding with a sketch of the life of the celebrated J. B. Gough. This evening at 8 Mr Burnett will deliver one of his popular lectures in the Oddfellows' Hall, Sydenham. Mr Corrick, with the Christchurch Mission choir, will be present to lead the singing. A largely - attended meeting of a devotional character was held in St John's Church schoolroom, Wookton, on Monday evening last. The Rev C. J. Morton presided, and, in the course of a deeply interesting and impressive address, invited the co-operation of all present in the coming mission to be held in this parish between March 17 and 2-L. It wa3 announced that the Rev John Holland had kindly consented to conduct a similar meeting on the following Monday evening, March 1, in the Woolston Church schoolroom, at 7.30 p.m., when all interested in this really great work were earnestly invited, the meeting on last Monday having been exclusively for " church workers." It is stated that certain persons, fired with an excess of zeal to secure convictions against hotel-keepers for selling liquors after hours, have adopted a rather questionable method of securing their object. They have, it is said, misrepresented themselves to be travellers, in order to induce the barmen to supply them with liquor, and thus have " the pull " over the licensee. It may be as well to state, for the benefit of whom it may concern, that there is a clause of the Licensing Act which provides penalties for those who try to induce hotel-keepers to commit a breach of tte Act by asserting themselves to be travellers when they are, in fact, residents within less than three miles of the hotel. Last evening the friends of Mr ' William Erown, a member of the St Albans Borough Council, met at the Cale- < donian Hotel for the purpose of bidding < him farewell at a dinner to which they had i invited him. Councillor Rountree occu- < pied the chair, and after the good things provided by Ho3t Neill had been disposed of satisfactorily, the usual loyal toasts were duly honoured. Councillor Neato, in proposing the health of the guest of the evening, referred to the earnest and faithful manner in which Mr Brown had discharged his duty as a Councillor, and the high respect in which he wa3 held in private life. He expressed the wish of all present : that Mr Brown and his family would prosper in the United States of America, the new home which he had chosen. In responding, Mr Brown very heartily thanked hi 3 friends for the honour they had done him, and in a few well-chosen remarks bade them farewell. Several I other toast 3, including that of the Borough \ Council, proposed by Mr Cooper, sen., and ■ j responded to by the Councillors present, . were duly honoured, and the party I ' separated shortly before 11 p.m. While ■ s the dinner was in progress a few of Mra { ■ Brown's lady friends assembled elsewhere

to bid her good-bye, and to present her with a small souvenir of their friendship. According to a local correspondent of a London paper one of the "pretti-* est sights" of the holidays at Hastings has been the spectacle of "Mr Parnell on the promenade gambolling with two little girls." The same individual says that the uncrowned King of Ireland " recalled a modes b U9ber of a school frolicking with his master's children, rather than the moving spirit of a national rebellion." Did he now really ? They are not by any means mealymouthed in Dunedin. A correspondent of a journal in that city, recently commenting upon the utterances of a prominent resident, remarks that he had " always thought him a gentleman. He had now come to the conclusion, however, that when he ceased to be a drunkard he ceased to be a gentleman." A very interesting relic of the famous Sir Walter Raleigh was sold re- j cently in London by a well-known firm of auctioneers. It consisted of Sir Walter's original tobacco pipe, which is said on a certain memorable occasion to have so excited the disgust of Queen Elizabeth. At the same sale, a sword, which once j belonged to Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the leader of the rebellion in 1798, was also put up. They were the property of the late Rev Dr Neligan, who had formed remarkable collection of curiosities of all sorts. Lady Willoughby De Eresby has granted to the farmers on the Perthshire estates an abatement of 15 per cent on their rents for the pa9t half-year. For the previous half-year her ladyship allowed 20 per cent. These abatements represent a sum of .£SOOO. Since gaining poseession of these estates, in 1870, Lady Willoughby De Eresby has spent upon buildings, fences, and drains upwards of d 8115,000, while the gross increase of farm rents on the estates during the same period has only been .£ISOO. It may be added that the gross increase for forty years has been J248-40. To add to our horticultural troubles, Bayß the Adelaide correspondent of the Argus, another grub has been discovered among our orchards, and it is said to be far more j destructive than the codlin moth, mas- j much as it kills both trees and fruit, while the latter only attacks the fruit. An orchard : at the Hermitage, in the Gumercha district, having from 600 to 600 apple trees, j has been completely destroyed. Last year j the owner averaged 30 bushels per tree; j this year ho has not got a bushel. The j habitat of tho grub is supposed to be the silver wattle, but having discovered the j apple tree, it makes that its home. As bisulphide of carbon ia known to be destruc- ! tive to animal but not to vegetable life, an I experiment i 3 to be made of boring some of the trees in the orchards in the neighbour- j hood, and filling the holes with the bisulphide. The result of this experiment will be awaited with considerable interest. The " growlers " will soon begin to growl iagood earnest. The new "Devon hansom," to "seat four persons," has appeared in Piccadilly ; the cabbies were much excited by the unwelcome apparition, and it has no doubt been the subject of a smart article in the Cmlaur. The " Devon " is much lighter and more picturesque than the melancholy-looking tour-wheeler, but it seems to me rather heavy on the springs. By and by, when the Victorias and Broughams promised to us by a Birmingham Company ply for hire in the streets, the ladies, with one consent, will lift up their voices in praise of the city of screws. I cannot help thinking, however, that the Victoria is not very well suited to mnddy streets and a foggy atmosphere. It is a chaiming carriage for use in summer, but when the London mud lies thick in the streets, and the splashes are flying like hail, it io decidedly too low and too unprotected. — World. The question as to whether meetings are privileged has, to some extent at least, been settled recently in Melbourne. The Argus of Feb. 12 reports : — The Supreme Court gave its decision yesterday in the action of Gannon v. White, which involves the question whether the report of a public meeting called to diacußß a public question was privileged. The plaintiff had been President of the Shire of Buln Buln. A public meeting was held to discuss his conduct in relation to certain shire matters, and resolutions were adopted condemning him in very strong terms. These resolutions were published in a local paper, and were republiahed in a paper published at Romsey, and owned by the defendant. Plaintiff complained of them as libellous, and brought an action to recover damages. At the trial the question was reserved for the full Court, as to whether the publication was privileged. The Court held yesterday that, while reports of judicial proceedings and of debates in Parliament were privileged, that privilege did not extend to reports of public meetings, and if defamatory remarks were reported as having been made at the meeting, the publisher of them would be required to prove that they were true. In this respect our law differs from that of England. In 1871 an Act was passed by the Imperial Parliament making reports of public meetings, called bond fide and for a public purpose, privileged under certain conditions. This Act had not been adopted in this country. Dr Corrigan, Archbishop of New York, at a recent interview, said that the amount of money sent from the United States to Ireland in small drafts was enormous. He estimated that it annually reached 25,000,000d01. The answers given to enquiries made at the foreign banking houses, and also at the offices of the Transatlantic steamer lines drawing bills, confirm this estimate. Their office 3 have been thronged by Irish persona buying small drafts. These buyers, says the Philadelphia correspondent of The Times, whatever may have been their character in Ireland, are generally industrious and thrifty workers, with a strong affection for their poor relatives in Ireland. Vast numbers of these connections at Home derive their chief support from American remittances. With the gijts of money are also sent many prepaid west-bound steerage tickets, thus bringing others to America. When to New York are added Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and other large cities having numerous Irish populations, it is probable that 40,000,000d0l of American money are annually sent to Ireland. Many of the Irish pinch themselves of every spare dollar to send over these supplies. Such remittances, taken in connection with the strong sentiments sent over with them, are, it is believed, the main source of support given to the Irish Nationalist party. These Binall remittances constitute a formidable factor in the exchanges. As the j Germans and Scandinavians are also becoming large remitters of Christmas gifts of money — though to a much lesß extent than the Irish — the enormous drain made on American resources is causing seme discussion among the publicists of this country. Horseflesh a3 food has grown in favour in Paris, France, since about 1865, when its use was first advocated there. Its usa has doubled since 1870. It is now a standard dish for the table. Lord Salisbury, in reply to a correspondent, states that there is no truth whatever in the statement that he refused to accept a Jew as a tenant on any part of his estates. The Infirmary at Sandusky, Ohio, has been burnt down. Of the 08 inmates all were rescued but five insaue women, who wore burnt to death. The superintendent was severely injured. A lady living in Rappahannock County, Ya., had twelve stands of bees which were very valuable until a distillery was started in the neighbourhood. Since it was started, however, the bees pay frequent visits to the still, get very drunk, and are of little profit. The following work performed by a late Lord Mayor during his year of office, showt that the duties of the office are not all pleasure. He attended !>SG times at meetings and committees, received 3G deputat tions, made 11C0 speeches, was present at 130 public dinners and So receptions and ballß, lie paid L'o state visits to churches, presided at SO meetings of Aldermen and Common Council, and attended 18 sittings at the Central Criminal Court. Besides all this* he answered more than 5000 fatten.

An unrehearsed incident, giving rise to much laughter, occurred at the Gaiety Theatre, London, recently. At the commencement of Act 111. Jack Sheppard is in the condemned cell, heavily ironed. Enter officer, who informs him that two visitors are without. After a little chaff, Jack bids the turnkey "show 'em in." Upon the attempted exit of the latter, the young lady who plays the part found to her disgust and perplexity that the door of the cell refused to open. After vainly trying for a few moments to get off she turned an appealing look to Miss Farren, who, as Jack Sheppard, promptly came to the reacue. The prisoner assisting to let the gaoler out was too funny, and the house roared. The door still remained firm, and at length Jack's friends had to make an entry from the sides, greeted with laughter and the gag from Miss Farren, " So you've come in the back way ! "