INTERPROVINCIAL TELEGRAMS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 177, 29 March 1878, Page 3

INTERPROVINCIAL TELEGRAMS.

(From the Press Agency.) Wellington, March 28. Market quotations—Flour, £13 to £13 10s ; hams, 8d ; bacon, 8d : cheese, ; potatoes, £i 15s to £5 ; butter, lOd. It is reported that the appointment of Commissioner of Constructed Railways for the North Island has been conferred upon Mr Lawson, now General Manager of Canterbury Railways. Christchurch, March 28. The Selwyn County Council, at a meeting to-day, unanimously agreed to the resolutions passed at the recent Conference of Mayors and Chairmen of County Councils. A letter was read from the Colonial Secretary, stating that the whole of the funds accruing in the County up to June 30, would be apportioned to Road Boards, as though the County Council had brought the whole Act into force, they cannot legally assume tac control of the funds till July 1. « The Board of Governors of Canterbury College to-day decided to enlarge the college buildings, by erecting another wing.

The Pall Mall Gazette relates the following :—Thirty-two years ago, the French laid claim to the South Island of New Zealand, to which, however, they had no rightful title. They landed immigrants at Akaroa, and despatched a war frigate to wait on the Governor at the Bay of Islands in order to prefer their claim. The French corvette lay one evening in the harbour near an old British 10-gun brig. In the night, however, the commander of the brig put to sea, and in the morning the Frenchman, guessing his rival's purpose, followed in pursuit m a race of 700 miles. It was too late. " The French corvette was superior in every respect to the English ship, but Captain Owen Stanley, in the old Britomart, like a true and gallant British sailor when the welfare of his country was at stake, did his duty in such a good style that he reached Akaroa harbour, at Banks Peninsula, in the South Island, landed, took formal possession of it in the Queen's name, hoisted the red cross of St. George and the union jack on a flagstaff, and fired a salute of 21 guns in honor of the etfent, before the French corvette, although in sight, could come to anchor." We may add that Captain Stanley, who thus gallantly secured to his country " one of the finest islands ever annexed to the Crown of England," was the eldest son of Bishop Stanley, and brother to the Dean of Westminster, Unhappily he died at an early age. .The boy should have known better at his age than to let but family secrets, bnt he felt grateful to the other boy for the

use of his stilts, and he softly remarked, " Father wasn't home last night, and he hasn't come home yet." " Gone off ?" queried the owner of tbe stilts. " He's down town somewhere, we expect, and ma says she ain't going to run after him if he don't come back for a month." "Did they have a fuss?" "Kinder. You see we had to let the coachman go, 'cause it's hard times. Yesterday afternoon ma wanted pa to black up and drive her out in style. He kicked at first, but when she got mad, he caved in, and fixed himself, up so you couldn't toJl him from a regular darkey. When |c drove round ma called him ' Petef,' and ordered him to back up asd go ahead, and haw and gee around, and he got upon his car and drove back to the barn. Them duds came off'n him like lightning, and he was so mad that he didn't stay long enough to wash the black off his ears." " And what did your mother say ?" asked the other. " Nothing. She looked a little sad around the mouth, but she'll fetch him to it if it take all winter. He might as well come home and begin to learn how to burn cork.