CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4676, 21 June 1893, Page 1

CURRENT TOPICS.

Reminding' us that thia year the Free Church of Scotland— the churoh of Chalmers and CandKah, of Dr Qathrio and! Hugh Miller—is celebrating its jubilee, Dr James Stalker cites in the Sunday Maga* zinc some striking evidences of its progress. It ib jußt fifty years since the Free Church separated from> the State after a straggle remembered as " the Ten Tears' Conflict." In 1843 • the number of its ordained ministers wa»4#&;. at present it via 1122. Meanwhile/ the income of the Church has steadily risen from .£300,000 per annum to over J6600i600: The missionary income of the undivided Ghuzch in the seven year* before the disruption was £16*000 a year; that of the Free Ghnroh during the first seven years of its- existence was £35,000 annually, andi&fe present it averages about .£IOO,OOO.

A Melbourne- contemporary reporter— The Fitzroy* Bench (Mr Perry P.M., Chairman), eat on Jane 8 to hear cases in which three' Chinese were to be prosecuted under ithe eleventh section of "The Medical Act, 1890;" for using the title "doctor " while unregistered. Tye Kee, of No. 24/ Nicholson street, was the first defendant called.. He was defended by Mr Best. Mr Josfce prosecuted, and produced evidence from the informant, Archibald Alfred Hardy, who related that after observing' the defendant's brass plate, which set forth the hours of consultation of " GvTye See, Chinese Doctor/ he paid a visit on Saturday last. He saw the defendant in the waiting-room, and asked him. if he was Dr Tye Kee. Receiving an answer in the affirmative, he handed him- & summons. An attempt was made- to produce a copy of the Age with the defendant's advertisement, but thiß was successfully resisted. The Bench dismissed the- case, as it was contended that. the. term " Dr " might have been applicable to law, music or divinity* No evidence' was adduced by the prosecution as to what it really meant. Two guineas costs were allowed the defendant. Ah Cheeong, of Victoria parade, defended by Mr Gillott, was next dealt with. Similar evidence- was given and a similar verdiot waa recorded. A case against You Hook, of 38] Nicholson street, was withdrawn. Madame ■ Antoinette Sterling (saya the Melbourne Age) while one of the recognised " queens of song," is a woman first, and a musician after; and in whatever town she may be singing she makes a point of visiting the gaols and most of the variouß charitable institutions. On Saturday afternoon, June 3, she looked in at the Melbourne Gaol, and the female prisoners, many of whom were "in seclusion '*' owing; to an unrestrained indulgencein the wine cup, were not alone permitted to hear Madame Sterling's magnificent voice in Borne of the songs? which she has made peculiarly her own, but afterwards were privileged to listen to a lee-w cure from the songstress on the advantages of temperance. The women iistened quite as attentively to the lecture as to theBongs; and, at its conclusion, when she offered to bring round come of the whitetemperance badges, one of which she herself always wears, if they would pro* mise to put them on and to observe th» implied pledge, the prisoners were unanimous in giving the required assurance* though whether they will observe the obligation as permanently»binding remains to be seen. In view of acts of genuine human kindness like these, one can readily understand how Madame Antoinette Sterling has come to be regarded* as perhaps the moßt popular, exponent of the musical art to be found, in th» two hemispheres.