Local & General.

Mr W. H. Pilliet, ex-member for Stanmore, died at Wellington on Saturday night after a short attack of fever. There will be no sitting of the District Court in Christchurch this month, all the cases set down having been postponed. In future his Honor Judge Ward will open the Court here on the eighth of each month. The following was the result of the polling on Saturday at the various plares mentioned for the Timaru Harbour Loan : — Geraldine : For, 34; against, 8; informal, 1. Woodbury : For, 12 ; against, 3. Hilton : For, 15. The first session of the Timaru Technical School closed on Friday evening last with a prize distribution. Mr R. Turnbull, M.H.R., presided, and Mr Daweon, Rector of the High School, delivered a closing address- Other gentlemen also spoke. The meeting was largely attended and enthusiastic. The Amateur Athletic sports, which took place on Saturday afternoon last at Lancaster Park, passed off as successfully as the unpleasant nature of the weather would permit. The Ladies' Challenge Cup was won by F. W. Ford, and the School Challenge Cup by Christ's College. At the Cathedral yesterday afternoon j about 000 of the children of the Church of England suburban Sunday schools attended ' service in the Cathedral, where they were addressed by the Rev Canon Stanford. The schools present were the following : — St Mary's (Merivale), St Matthew's (St Albans), the Good Shepherd (Philipatown), the Holy i Trinity (Avonside), and St Maf/3 (Addin gton).

A Church parade of the Kaiapoi Rifle Volunteer Company took place on Sun- ■ day in St Bartholomew's Church, I Kaiapoi, A full muster was present, under the command of Captain Whitefoord and Lieutenants Wilson and Millar, and a most impressive and suitable sermon was preached by the incumbent, the Rev J. W. Stack. The church was crowded. At the meeting of Directors of the New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Association on Saturday, it was unanimously resolved to appoint Messrs T. Bruce and W. Henderson as representatives at tbameeting of the Amuri Sheep Farmers' Association to be held this evening. The CbairiaanxMr C. Ensor, regretted that he would be unable to attend. The proprietress of the Theatre Royal (Mrs Beatty) has offered Messrs M'Mahon and Leitch a handsome sum to induce them to prolong the stay of Mr Dion Boucicault in Chri3tchurch. This, however, they have been compelled to decline, as they are Tinder contract to commence a short season in Wellington on Friday, Nov. 13. Mr Boucicault and the company will sail by the Manapouri on Thursday. Their farewell appearance in Christchurch will be on Wednesday in the " Colleen Bawn." ' On Saturday evening last one of the oldest settlers in the Province, Mr j Jacob Twigger, joined the " great majority." He was well-known for many years as a successful farmer on tin! Lincoln road, and his name was brought prominently before the public on account of his generous gift of a section of land, between five and six acres in extent, to the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association, to form a portion of their new show grounds. From the cabled account of last Saturday's racing in Melbourne, it will be seen that Mr D. O'Brien's horse Trenton has undoubtedly proved himself the champion of the Victoria Racing Club's Spring Meeting. He began by winning the Melbourne Stakes, a mile and a quarter, weight for ago, beatinp Sheet Anchor and others. In the chief event of the meeting— the Melbourne Cup — he ran third to Sheet Anchor and Grace Darling, being beaten only by a head and a half, and on Thursday he won the Royal Park Stakes, two miles, weight for age. On Saturday, however, he eclipsed all his performances by carrying off the Canterbury Plate from the crack of the three-year-olds, Nordenfeldt. That the popularity of the addresses being given in the Oddfellows' Hall by the Rev J. Holland is very great was proved last I evening, when a very large number at- [ tended. The address, the subject of which was " Industry and Idleness," was delivered by the rev gentleman in his most impressive manner. Work was held up as man's greatest privilege, and man's [ greatest glory. Gambling was condemned 1 as unworthy of a gentleman, and more especially of a Christian. It was best to have some worthy object in life, and good, honest work was conducive to happiness. The addresses will be continued at the j Cathedral on Friday, when the subject will be " Christianity above reason, and not contrary to it." At the Oddfellows' Hall next Sunday the subject will be "Doubt." Mr J.Crewes had another large audience yesterday to listen to his concluding lecture on " Darwin and the Deluge." The lecturer stated his adherence to the theory that the deluge mentioned in the Old Testament was universal, and not partial. In support of his belief he quoted passages from the writings of Darwin, which went to show the possibility of all the animals referred to in the Bible having been accommodated in the ark. The tendency of much that Darwin had written went to confirm the account given in Genesis of the flood ; and whilst he did not agree with the great naturalist in his descent of man, he still believed that Darwin was a sincere Christian, and one who had done much to clear away a great deal of the ridicule which had existed concerning the Biblical version of the deluge. Mr Crewe3 announced, in conclusion, that after an interval of a month or bo, he hoped to be able to inaugurate a new series of Sunday lectures. It will be remembered that some time ago the City Council's Inspectors reported that the building in Manchester street south, formerly known as Green's Temperance Hotel, was of bo frail a character as to be unsafe, and the authorities went so far as to prohibit the upper storey being used at all. Shortly after the order closing the upper floor was carried into execution the lessee sold off, and the house has ever since been altogether unoccupied. Recently, however, the owner, having become tired of seeing his capital unproductive, has set to work to make the premises not only habitable but in every respect safe and suitable for the purposes it was originally intended to serve, those of a large and cheap boarding and lodging house. The house has been completely renovated from foundation to roof. All the walls, which formerly were of scrim and paper, are now of lath and plaster ; the passages have been widened to a little short of double their previous width 5 the rooms have been increased in size by lessening their number from about 100 to 63 ; fire escapes have been provided for each floor; a most complete cookingrange, by Crompton, has been fitted in the kitchen; and numerous other improvements, wherever possible, have been made. Altogether Mr Coulter, who has taken the house, has left nothing undone to secure from the City Council the permission necessary to enable him to re-open the house for the accommodation of visitors, of whom so large a number may well be expected during the coming holidays. Relative to the New Zealand Court at the Colonial Exhibition, the London correspondent of the Lgttelton Times says : The ferns sent out from New Zealand for display at the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, and for j decorating the exterior space in your Court, have reached this country. They have been placed in one of the large buildings of the Royal Horticultural Society at Kew, and the head gardener reports that they have reached here in very good condition. Mr S. W. Silver, of York Gate, Regent's Park, an owner of property at Wanganui and Canterbury, will co-operate very cordially with Dr Buller in the latter's ornithological ornamentation of the exterior of your court. The position of the New Zealand Court has been very much improved since Sir Francis Bell concluded an exchange with Canada. Your AgejitGeneral has now obtained 15,000 square feet in an excellent position, and admirably adapted for the purposes of display. The appearance and success of your court are now simply a question of outlay ; and if the Colony is disposed to be liberal, you have obtained a position certainly second to none and superior to most, which, with | a little judicious expenditure, might be made one of the most attractive features of the Exhibition. A Boulogne correspondent states that the sailors on board the French transport France recently quarrelled with a number I of time-expired and sick and wounded men who were being brought home from Haiphong. The seamen out of revenge determined to destroy the ship. Some of them cut away the cable, cast the lifeboat adrift and threw the fire-engine overboard. One of the mutineers was discovered in the hold, hatchet in hand, attempting to cut a hole in the ship's bottom. The commander of the vessel, however, placed the offenders in irons and landed them at Algeria, where. a court-martial sentenced them to be shot. Certain naval experiments carried out in August off Simon's Town are not calculated to increase confidence in the ability of our ships and sailors to repel a night attack upon them by torpedo boats. The Raleigh steamed out&ide the harbour at dusk, and a target made to resemble a torpedo boat was moored some five or six miles away. The target was discovered, when about six hundred yards distant, by means of the electric light, and a terrific fire from rifles and Gardner and Nordenfeldt guns was opened upon it. But although the bombardment went on for hours, it w&s ascertained the next morning that only two rifle shots had struck the target ! The men, of course, got excited and fired at random ; but if such be the result in an ordinary manoeuvre, what would happen in the ease of a real attack by genuine, and not j dummy, torpedo boats ?