STAR SATURDAY SUPPLEMENT.

AUCKLAND, N.Z., SATURDAY, JANUARY 39, 1884.

RANDOM SHOTS.

[By Zamikl.]

Some write, a neighbour's name to lash, Some write—vain thontfht!—for needful cash, Some write to please the country clash.

And raise a din. For me, an aim I never fash— I write for fun.

1' Zamiel "is enraptured ;ho is exhilarated ; ho is in momentary danger of becoming too big for his boots ! Ho has been deemed worthy of notice by the apostles ot Tleason— the preachers of the new Gospel which is to regenerate Auckland—and ho is conse quently overwhelmed with a sense of his own importance and thoir wonderful con descension. Even at the inaugural meet ing of this great movement the humble name of the obscure "Zamiel " was brought into glorious prominence ; and all for wlvat V Simply on account of some very mild remarks which he penned last week in reference to the foundation and aims of the Auckland Rationalistic Association. How "Zamiel " regrets that he was not there to be flattered in person by the delicate atten tions shown him! After the President's very eulogistic remarks on the local press, one gentleman, I am told, wished to make a speech in reply to my "random shot," and even proposed that an evening be devoted to a lecture on the subject ; but both propositions were waived in favour of the adaption of the Englishman's privilege of writing to the papers ! This he has done, and his letter now lies before me ; for the editor has graciously conceded me that little "liberty of the Press"—

freedom to reply to an antagonist imme diately. Let us hear what the champion of Rationalism has to say, then.

The letter is long, and I have not space to quote the first half of it, which is devoted to a discussion of my charge of imitation of Church methods brought against the Rationalists. The retort is of the " You're another !" class ; it amounts to this : Our Association no doubt adopts the Church's methods; but the Church borrowed them from some other body, or if it did not borrow these forms in that way, it bor rowed some things some way; ergo two blacks make a white, and nobody ever bor rowed anything ! My correspondent then descends to verbal criticism, and it is here he particularly shines. Ho says:—"Zamiel" asserts that tha Association intends holding occasional " tea-fights " and " tea-fuddles." "Where he got that information from is not quite clear, for it is not in the article from which he quotes, and I am not myself aware that the Society contemplates any such things. We are quite content to leave to the Church the right which it has exercised for so many ages of fighting and fuddling on every possible occasion. " Zamiel" most have been dreaming while in a state of fuddledom superinduced by something rlightly stronger than tea. Again, " Zamiel" asserts that the members of the Association, by calling themselves Rational ists, charge, by implication, all other people with being " votaries of unreason." "Oh ! most lame and impotent conclusion I" By parity of reasoning, Methodists accuse all other people of being unmethodical, and Deists assert, "by implication," that all others, including Roman Catholics, Presby terians, Episcopalians, Wesleyans, Baptists, &c, are Atheists. Funny "Zamiel!" Again, according to "Zamiel," "dramatic selections " can only bo representations of scenes from various plays. If this be cor rect, " Hamlet's Soliloquy," "Portia's Ad dress," "Othello's Apology," "Mark Antony's Oration," &c, when recited, are not dramatic selections. So, also, when singers at concerts render such pieces as, -"'ln Happy Moments," "Scenes That are Brightest," " Betray Me Not," " Ah ! Che la Morte," &c, they do not give " operatic selections." Funny "Zamiel!" Once more, " Zamiel " dubs the members of the Association—on what authority I know not —" disciples of Bradlaugh and lngersoll." The Association does not accept either of them or any other man as its master or teacher. For myself, while lam not afraid to avow a genuine respect for both the great English Radical and the no loss cele brated American Athiest, I am no more a disciple of cither than I am of "Zamiel."

A vei-y few words may dispose of this array of verbiage. It is well known that ."tea-fight" is a synonym for social tea meeting, and my friend cannot, by his quibbling, get out of the fact that such meetings were indicated in the preliminary article on the association by the term "social gathering" as distinguished from the other classes of entertainment that were specifically enumerated. He denies that Rationalists by implication charge all other people with being votaries of Unreason, and ho brings all his reasoning powers to the task of proving a reductio ad abmirdi.'.m. But analogy is at best a shaky kind of argu ment, and his analogies are false. The terms Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Baptist, otc, have their distinctive meaning, and they are not only inclusive but exclusive. When people speak of " Wesleyans " they mean all the followers of John Wesley, and they imply that all who are not Wesleyans are not followers of that great man. From nne standpoint there are only two classes in the world, say Presbyterians and non- Presbyterians ; from another standpoint, Deists and Atheists ; and from yet another Rationalists and Irrationalists. Deists are not so irrational as to accuse other Deista of atheism. I hope my hair-splitting friend sees the point. Again he tries a bit of sophistry with what I said about "dramatic selections;" he will pleane note that I did not say that these would necessarily be scenes from comedies and screaming farces, but that they might be so. He disavows Bradlaugh and Inger soll, but only on his own behalf, and not on that of the Association. 'Tis well; for the Society is founded on the rules of the English Secular Association, of which Bradlaugh is President, and the subject for next Sunday evening's meeting in the Lome-street Hall is the ribald " Bob" Ingersoll. lam glad that this representa tive Rationalist declines to follow these two mighty but prostitnted intellects; that sentence forms the most reasonable portion of his letter. He entertains.for both,' how ever, " a genuino respect;" by.delicate im plication he expresses a like sentiment towards "Zamiel," and the latter gentleman blushes to find himself even named in such company. In the .closing portion of his letter (which I do. not quote) my rational friend forgets his learning, his

logic, and his manners alike, by identifying "Zamiel " with Satan, and classing both as auxiliaries of tho Church.

Another correspondent whose communica tion is "rote sarkastik " goes further and suggests that I should have the letters F. D. placed after my nairui to distinguish me as the champion of orthodoxy. Both cor respondents are ogregiously wrong. I hope I shall never display tho execrably bad taste of in any way helping to arouse religious or anti-religious animosities. My readers are witnesses that the churches in their turn come in for a share of my weekly comments ; but nobody on their behalf makes the irrational jump of concluding that I am opposed to them ; no one purposes to take the "stump" in reply; or worse still, to write to the editor on the subject! If the Church borrows the methods of the world in her concerts, bazaars, and spectacles, I do not shrink from pointing out the incongruity, just as I did with regard to the Rationalists' Sunday-school, <fee

After all, wx I far wrong in holding up to mild ridicule the pretensions of this new Rationalistic Association ? By accepting the secular basis, the members profess to nave solved the greatest problem that ever en gaged the human mind. They avow that religion is neither true nor necessary, though hundreds of millions of human beings cry with one voice that in some shape or other it is. They discard, as childish fables, dogma and history which are firmly held all over the world as the most precious truths ; they call themselves by the Pharisaic name of Rationalists, which, if it means anything, means that they are the true reasoners—the rational people par excellence ; and they daringly compare their movement's origin here with the founding of Christianity. Human folly, ignorance, conceit, and pride can surely no further go than this ! And what, stripped of all fanciful colouring, did the meeting of last Sunday evening amount to ? Common place addresses, in which no high keynote was struck, no lofty aspirations aroused, no noble emotions stirred; followed by some second-class music and a few insipid and frivolous recitations. Be these thy triumphs, oh Rationalism ? Then let "Zamiel" live and die without the pale; and let those who are accused of believing " childish fables " take heart of grace to stand by their " foolishness " in preference to the wisdom of the wise and prudent Rationalists. I honour every man's con scientious beliefs; but I cannot sympathise with people who, professing they have found the key to a great mystery, spend their time in frivolity and jesting; such conduct too much resembles that of Nero, who fiddled while Rome was burning !

The humours of toast-di-inking have taken many shapes, but it has been left to the organisers of the Pukekohe luncheon at the cheese factory celebration to touch the climax of the ridiculous in this most sacred of British social cnstoms. After the tables had been cleared for the after-dinner speech-making, the guests discovered that there was not so much as a jug of cold water or a glass to put it in on the festive board, and when the Chairman arose, and with great solemnity requested them to drink to the health of Her Most Gracious Majesty, " God bless her," every man went through the performance in dumb pantomime. So easily, however, does the willing mind con form itself to the exigencies of its situa tion, that before the toast-list was half through, exactly at the stage where, under more favouring conditions, the company should have been mellowed and elated with good wine, they broke out into "He's a jolly good fellow" and "one cheer more" as spontaneously as if the whole affair had been en regale. When, however, one speaker, in the fullness of his heart, thanked them for "the very cordial way in which they had drunk his health," the force of imagination refused the flight, and a general "oh !" from parched throats be spoke an inward as well as an outward remonstrance. It was a topic of remark among Auckland visitors that where they had expected to find a land flowing with milt, not so much as would colour a cup of tea was seen during the day. To have taken tho toasts in brimming beakers of the lacteal fluid would have been in harmony with "the eternal fitness of things," and saved the Pukekoheans from the doubtful celebrity of making its invited guests become unwilling actors in this unrehearsed burlesque.

But if they have not earned a reputation for originality or inventive genius, the originators of the luncheon have, at all events, vindicated their claim to be ranked as coming from the true old English stock. If there is one custom more irre deemably stupid and inane than another, it is this practice of toast-drinking, in which an entire company of men endeavour, witli apparent earnestness and sincerity, to provo the measure of their respect for one of their number by the quantity of liquor they consume—being especially exhorted by the presiding genius of the feast to quaff extra quantities in honour of particular guests. In those days, happily gone, when it was deemed ungentlemanly to leave a convivial dinner-table sober, these convenient pretexts for passing the bottle had a significance and purpose, and the un happy man who became for the nonce the object of attention was conscious that in making an ass of himself when placed on his legs to respond, he was mercifully protected from thegall and bitterness of after-reflection by the mists of prevalent inebriety. But now that the "drinking" of toasts is a pretence, and the frugal sips of wine serve only to sharpen the wits and dull the sensibilities of the critical audience who have manifested their friend ship by placing the object of their affections in a peculiarly painful position—pretending to seek the health of his body by destroying his peace of mind—l can only view toasts as a barbaric and senseless survival from practices that are obsolete. If at the Pukekohe celebration the controlling geniuses had only dared to discard the sham altogether, and fixed up their programme of speakers so that only those who had something to say and wished to say it would be called upon, they might have posed as social reformers, and the business would have been got through in half the time, and with tenfold the wit and point. But when it comes to be a question between common sense and British pre judice and ancient usage, why perish common sense! Let it be said for the ordi nary tea-fuddle that it has demonstrated that an excuse can be found for social spouting without the plea that a man "has been provoked thereto by some other man who has done violent injustice to his own stomach and mental perceptions under the singular delusion .that he is thereby

contributing to the long life and general heartiness of his friend.

"Well, Mr Zaraiel," said Miss Bowers, " our minister has made a very pretty sermon out; of 'weddings.' Do you think Lav. Sterne could have made the subject more sentimental ? I don't think he could, do you ?" "Don't know," said I; "it was speckled with wit of a kind like a Christmas pudding dotted with sultanas." The little church in which this spicy, sugary sermon was preached last Sunday, lies westward in a churchy situa tion, that is to say, on a green knoll among a cluster of cottages, quiet and serene. The sermon was attractive, rather serious, as a matter of course, but withal instructive and, according to Miss Bowers, "very well applied, but it did not bring the husbands." The saying, " Marriages are made in Heaven," has been credited to Swift, but I don't believe the caustic old Dean ever said anything of the sort, or he would have taken unto himself some pretty English or Irish girl lor a wife, and have taught her to cook potatoes. Swift did not make the assertion, but it pro ceeded from the empty stomach of some nameless old fogey. Miss Bowers says if marriages are made in Heaven it is strange that in the majority of instances they should so soon, like ■winter cabbages, be frozen up and all the ■warm blood of affec tion be congealed into Greenlandish ice. Miss Bowers (no one knows this lady in Auckland) is a lover of flowers, and worked as a tailoress, but that was before she re ceived her grandmother's bequest. Well, she has the hardihood to differ from her minister, and affirms that marriages are mado in neither of those places to which Byron refers in his enigma on the letter H. She is what is termed an old maid, but shn is not quite miserable; she knows that Hope still lives at the bottom of Pandora's summer bonnet - box, and while the blessed influence remains, her time may yet come, as the time of another Mount Eden lady came, at the ripe and comely age of fifty. " Ah, see, 'Zamiel,'" she said, "My friend prayed long, and at last caught a genial, fine old man of sixty-three." "No, Miss Bowers," said I," there is hope yet. ' Despair ! thy name is written on the common roll of men !' " " And of women too," sighed the lady, as she took out her smelling bottle ; " that was a Heaven-made marriage. I sometimes feel," she continued, "that I am left out in the cold, and when I feel sink ing, as I sometimes do, I take a dose of magnesia. It has a cooling effect, and re gulates one's temper. This," she said, sar castically, " is a free-thought antidote to the throes of temper when one is inclined to sing, ' Why Don't the Men Propose ?' Still I like some of our minister's sentiments on the sacred tie, especially his heavenly views cf the marriage state, which is pleasant to a clergyman's taste when such unions ' bring the welcome fee.' "

Mr Moncure Conway, the unorthodox parson, who has been puzzling our Australian cousins with his lectures (made up of equal parts of inaudibility and unintelligibility) must be in some respects a perfect " cure." Though he only spent a few hours in Auck land, he does not hesitate to write to the Home papers summing upmost sapiently the leading features of the place and people. It seems he ?aw half-a-dozen scraggy-looking Maoris, whose woebegone condition he deeply pitied. Then in the next breath he adds : —" The Aucklanders, largely Scotch, are no doubt good people, but one may have too much of a good thing," and with this oracular utterance he leaves the people, and goes on to discourse of the scenery. Prom inent features in the landscape are groups of Scotch thistles, which the writer states are the result of Scotch enthusiasm. .Ml this, to people who know Auckland and her people, must have looked rather queer, and leads me to wonder what on earth could have led to Mr Conway's unaccountable fit of Scotophobia. Did he sit down on a thistle ? Or did our Scottish Mayor ad minister an unintentional snub by not giving him the same cordial welcome that ho gave to Lord and Lady Rose berry ? Or — horrible thought! — did the Scotch whisky, dispensed by a too lavish hospitality, disagree with him ? The latter hypothesis, if correct, would account for that curious clause about "having too much of a good thing." Anyway, all the world and his wife knows that the Scottish people do not form more than one-fourth of the population of Auckland ; so I can only conclude that they were magnified by Mr Conway's fears. It is barely possible that in writing as ho did the parson thought he was getting off a "good thing," but if so my readers will agree that he decidedly gave too much of it!

Happening to stroll up to the Domain one line afternoon during the progress of the recent Interprovincial Cricket Match, I became the witness of a scene at the gate that I should otherwise have hardly credited. A spruce young blade of the law had sauntered up in front of me, and essayed to pass by with an indifferent air the men who were taking the admission fees. One of them mildly ejaculated, '^ Ticket, sir," but as the legal luminary was apparently unconscious of any remark, the reminder was repeated in a louder key and firmer tone. It was answered this time by a prompt and defiant refusal to part with any money for the privilege of seeing the match. "Then," said the receiver of coin, "you must come back; you can't be allowed in." The man of law, however, stood his ground, based hia claim to entrance upon the fact that the place was a public recreation reserve, declined to admit any consideration for the cricketers by reason of the expense in which they were involved through preparing a wicket or.providing for the match, and in the end dared the gateman to "chuck" him out, as ho euphemistically phrased it. He was allowed to follow tip the mean advantage he had taken, but I had the satisfaction of knowing that the story of the incident spread like wildfire over the reserve, and that by the public in general, and his pro fessional brethren in particular, his conduct was rated in no measured terms. I was in formed, however, by the man who received my willingly-spent Robert, that such things are not of unusual occurrence, but that there are a set of monied in dividuals in the community who make a practice of taking their families gratis to the Cricket Ground on special occasions. lam positively assured that the working classes never demur to the chargo for ad mission, and that the only people with whom there is any trouble on that head are men in comfortable positions who on gala occasions lead in their sisters, cousins, and their aunts as well as their wives and families, and then stop to haggle at the

gates. Their names deservo to be published for general information.

We have heard a great deal about the Salvation Army from time to time, and almost every day we have something fresh and startling. On Tuesday evening last, for instance, I happened to glance over the Star advertisements, and my surprise was great when the following item came under notice: "Wanted, 10,000 Salvation Army men to collect empty bottles.—Bones anil Bottle Depot, Hobson-street." Now, I hope my readers will refrain from suggest ing at this stage that I am merely writing to give the Bones and Bottle Depot a cheap advertisement, for it is not so. I merely wish to reason for a brief period on the above text. In the first place, then, why is it required that the applicants for engage ment in this lucrative business shall be Salvation Army men 1 Is it because the proprietors of the Bone and Bottle business belong to the Blood and Fire congregation, or is it because they consider that Salvation Army men know best where to find "empty bottles?" Base insinuation ; it could not be so. Then, possibly, it will be right to conclude that the proprietors of the Bone and Bottle Depot simply ask for Sal vation Army men because they will work better than other men, because they are honest, industrious, sober, and—stay, how about sobriety? Now, would it be consistent for a member of the Army who has sworn to live " teetotal " to be employed in the "bottle business !" \A c may safely assume that they are not wanted to collect ink-bottles, hair oil bottles, scent-bottles, and such like ; in deed, fancy very little ese except wine and beer bottles are required. Therefore let us consider the consequences. In the first place, it appears to me that- even a Sal vationist, when he has resolved to " ab stain from all intoxicating liquors," should not be constantly employed hawking for "wine and beer bottles." He would be subjected to temptation in two ways. There would be a tempting odour, perhaps, proceeding from the " dead marines," and there would be an almost constant contact with those who emptied them. And still further, could a Salvationist conscientiously gather together these bottles to be re-filled, while he all the time believed that they were to again be scattered over the world containing " the worst of all'poisons V" I fear the objections cannot be overcome.

But, there is another point. Why does the Bone and Bottle Depot want 10,000 Salvation Array mnn ? where will they get 10,000 from ? and when they get them, who is going; to empty sufficient bottles to keep them employed ? The effort is too great for Aucklanders, and although [they, no doubt, would do their best if convinced that the cause is a good one, the probability is that they will fail in the vain attempt to empty bottles as quick as 10,000 Salvation Army men could pick them up; that is, of course, supposing that these men are just as good or better than other men when employed in the " bone and bottle business." But why are " 10,000 " Salvation Army men wanted? Surely a smaller number would suffice. Does the Bone and Bottle Dep6t wish to monopolise the " business," and also the working ability of the whole New Zealand "Army?" The subject, I find, is too great for me. I fear the printer's imp must have put two or three noughts along side of the original figures, and thus made a riddle which no fellow can unravel.

My attention was drawn the other day to an instance of the gross injustice which is frequently perpetrated in our colonial courts of law, and which has often been satirically described as " justices' justice." An indi vidual whose face is not unknown in the Free Library was detected in the act of appropriating a newspaper, but as he was believed to be a respectable man, or had respectable connections, the matter was quietly hushed, until some inquisitive Councillor unearthed it during a sitting of the city fathers. Then the law was allowed to take its course, and as is usually the case when the interests of the better class of people are concerned, it did so very slowly, but I cannot say that it ground ex ceeding small. He was fined 10s and costs, which he paid. Just at the same time, a poor old working jeweller namod Mielotz, who has been a resident of Auck land for fully twenty years at least, and who has hitherto borne a good character, was observed in an equally forgetful mood appropriating a periodical. Now, mark the difference in dealing with him. Xo cumbersome details of reporting to the City Council and instructing solicitors to take action. Nothing of the kind. He was simply hustled down to the Police Station, brought up next day without a soul to say a good word for him, and sentenced to a lengthy term of imprisonment by careless magistrates, whose only thought perhaps was in hurrying through the morning's charge sheet, and getting back to their business haunts. The whole affair was so heartless and unjust that I am surprised that it has not aroused a storm of indigna tion from some quarter or another.

Moslem Females.

The women in Turkey have been ordered by an imperial irade to show as little as possible of their faces. They are hereafter to revert !to the traditional costume of Moslem females, and go about the streets like bales of cloth, without oven openings for the eyes. In one respect, however, this may be called an improvement, for it is better for the impressionable tourist that he should see the houri of Stamboul or Cairo atumblingalong like a ridiculous chrysalis or rag doll, and bo left entirely to his own imagination as to the personality that may be concealed inside, than that he should be tormented by the glimpse of large black eyes laughing at hie hopeless scrutiny, and be made miserable by the translucent veil that suggests a faultless face. Not that those who have been admitted to the con templation of Turkish beauty bear out cur rent legends on the subjey£, for every de scription of the imperial or.noble harem yet published assures us that the favourites of the Turk are neither "graceful, pretty, nor young ; and, of course, if this is the uni versal rule, the veils cannot bo made too thick or the swathings too voluminous.

An American paper states that J. X, Emmet used to bo a boot-black in St. Louis.

Gounod's " Sappho " is being actively re hearsed at the Paris Opera, and the com poser has added an entirely new act to the three composed in 1858. It is stated that Herr Pollini, of Ham burg, has offered M. Rubinstein £25,000 for a series of a hundred concerts next year in the United States.

GOSSIP FROM STAGE AND STUDIO.

[BY EUTERI'K.]

The " Youth " Dramatic Company a?ic3 tho Polks are playing to fair " busiiu-.-d " in Dunedin.

In the course of his insolvency examina tion at Melbourne, Signor Verdi admitted the soft impeachment thatGuglielmo Verdi was but a rough Italian rendering of his proper name, William Green, and that he was born at Baltimore, U. S.

Mrs Dr. Potts has just concluded her second season in Sydney, and is en route for Melbourne.

Miss Pomeroy was so strongly inclined to abruptly conclude, her profitable season here, and leave for Sun Francisco by the mail stenmer, that she had actually given her Company notice. At the last moment, however, she changed her mind, the season ends on Wednesday, when, after " doing" Wellington, the Company will probably " do " Tasmania.

On October 29th, at New York, Manager Abbey opened his .C 250.000 opera-house with his £2,000 a-night Company, to a £19,000 audience.

Herve's new comic opera, "Vertigo" at the Paris Renaissance, is a failure. Some of the melodies are pleasing, but the music, as a whole, has not met with approval, while the libretto is about the most sultry thing ever heard even in Paris. The death is announced of the celebrated composer, F. 11. Volkmann. lie was born at Lommarch, in Saxony, on April G, ISIS. Into his overture, " Richard III." produced at the Crystal Palace eight years ago, he introduced the melody of " The Campbells are comin'," and a note in the score blandly explains that this was " an ancient English war song." • While playing at Bristol, as Cinderella, Kate Vaughan is said to have been a per fect blaze of diamonds. It is estimated that as she appeared before the Bristol audience her value must havo been close upon £10,000.

An order has just been issued by the French Government forbidding actors the privilege of wearing tho army uniform when personating officers on the stage.

Among the "hangers-on" of the Irving troupe is a gentleman possessed of a line tenor, who is paid no less than £20 a week for the American tour, to sing in those comedies in which polos are introduced.

At the Victoria Hall, Melbourne, Colonel Ike Austin is giving exhibitions of fancy rifle-shooting in conjunction with tho Federal Minstrels.

Miss Kate Castleton, a popular American actress^ias signed a 15 months' contract with Mr Al. Hayman for a starring tour, embracing a visit to Australia. The salary is said to be 500 dollars a week. She will appear in her old piece, " All at Sea," and she will also sing a serio-comic song with which her name is now completely identi fied—viz., " For goodness' sake don't say I told you." Miss Castleton makes u« for this in the demure garb of a Quakeress. She sails from San Francisco for Australia in Juno next.

Mr W. E. Sheridan is playing a lucrative "star" engagement through the United States. He was last at Washington. Fred Maccabe is at Denver City, Ohio.

Mr Sydney Wolfe has organised an amateur opera company, which was to have produced Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance" at the Christchurcfa Exhibition this week.

Among the novel effects of the opera which is to open the now Alhnmbra will be an " electro dance," in which electro-magnet dynamo-machines, telegraph apparatus, and telephones will be actually introduced upon the stage and worked by the ladies of the ballet. The house is to be lighted by (in enormous sun-light burning 819 jets, under a grating which will let out all the foul air. All the wood-work has been coated with asbestos paint, and the place is supposed to be unburnable.

Madame Elise Wiedermann, prima donna of the Stadt Theatre, in Hamburg, and Miss Alice Sydney Burvett, the Australian pianiste who has been giving brilliant re citals in Sydney, have made successful debuts in Melbourne.

That there is much virtue in a name is exemplified in the case of Mr Haverley, the well-known American manager. One of the three "Haverley Minstrel troupes" pays that gentleman lOOdol. a week for tho privilege of using tho title.

The Majeronis have ended their season at the Bijou, Melbourne. On the last night of "The Wanderer," the part of Howard Mansfield, in consequence of tho " indis position "ofMr J. ii. Steele, had to be read during the first act by Mr George Dean, after which Mr H. N. Douglas, at extremely short notice, played it. Mr Steelo has since seceded from tho Company.

Mdme Bernhardt is reported as extremely anxious to essay Lady Mncbeth, and it is probable that she will appear in tho rule during her next engagement in London.

In the Melbourne Divorco Court, the wife of Mr H. F. Towlc (travdliuc us musical conductor for the Williamson Comic Opera Company underthe name of T. H. Harrison) has just obtained a judicial separation from her husband. The marriage took place at Christchurch on the 24th March, 1879, and according to the petitioner, matrimonial troubles commenced a week afterwards by her husband coolly informing her of his infidelity with another woman. She then sold her furniture in order to bribe this paramour to remain quiet, but her husband's cruelty drove her to the Court.

Messrs Rignold and Allison have offered the favourite American actress, Miss Georgia Cay van, £120 a week for a tour of thirty weeks through the Colonies, playinjr "La Belle Russe " and "May Blossom." The offer ig not yot accepter] or rejected.

Tho Montagu-Turner Opera Troupe, Mr Geo. Darrell's Dramatic Company and Clark and Ryman's Minstrels are playinft in Sydney, and Miss Jennie Le« nnd Mr Hudson'iSurprise Party are competing for public patronage at Adelaide, "the city of churches."

Mr Salinger, of Fitzroy, Victoria, whose son Herbert and daughter Lena are amongst the kidnapped youngsters of the Pollard Troupe, left for India on October 30 with a view of bringing to book the indi vidual who runs the concern, Tho follow ing extracts from letters received from the children toll their own tale:—One of the girls writes :" lam very unhappy. They treat me very harsh ; not like they used to at all. Whatever you do, don't write and tell them what I am tclling,you, or else they will make me still more miserable." Another says : "You can't be much more sorry about my being away than I am. I have not had ono happy day since I left home—nothing but misery and rows." A third writes in a similar*strain : "I am vevy unhappy. I wish to heaven yon would get mo home, but how you can I don't know. lam not the only one tWi happy. All of us wish to get home."