Untitled

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume II, Issue 184, 10 June 1874, Page 3

Mr James Bodell and Mr. T. J, Henshaw, of Tsaranga ; Mr William Kelly and Mr H. W. Penny, of Opotiki, are Gazetted as Auctioneers for the year ending 14th April, 1875. The Rev Mr McKee, Presbyterian minister, was a passenger by the Southern Cross, from Auckland, on Sunday last. The celebrated Auckland divorce case of Carpenter v. Carpenter, JEL P. Barber, corespondent, was before his Honor the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Johnston, Mr Justice Qreason, aud Mr Jus ice Chapman, sitting in divorce jurisdiction at Wellington last week, when the Chief Justice said that the Court had arrived at the conclusion that the petitioner was entitled to a decree nisi —the co-respondent to be condemned in the whole of the proceedings including the costs the petitioner had or should have to pay to the wife.

Captain Turner, District Engineer; and Mr Hopkins Ciarbe, of the Civil Commissioner’s office, left for Motiti by the Southern Cross on Monday night, to settle some land boundary disputed by the natives resident on that island.

V 9 e are informed that the Good Templars of Tauranga are contemplating erecting a hall somewhere within the land formerly known as Fraser’s paddock. Two Lodge meetings have recentiv been held to discuss the subject, when it was at last decided to commence operations—the land to be secured in the first instance. The Tanranga Pioneer Lodge now numbers upwards of 50 members.

Several civil oases are set down for hearing at the Resident Magistrate’s Court this morning.

We have hut little native news in this district. The Land Purchase Commissioners have recently returned from Te Puke where a large meeting of the resident tribes was held regarding native country. The owners of Puke have determined to sell that valuable block to the Government, and Messrs Mitchell and Young will shortly proceed thither to inspect the section, and mark boundaries for reserves, &c. A great Runanga to discuss land questions will be held at Te Teko this month. There was a gathering of Maoris at Galatea last week, it was, however, of little importance, and no topics of political significance v,, _ were Introduced!

The cheapest material of which to make brandy, whisky, and alcohol is at present sawdust. We mentioned before that sugar is now made of it, and a direct consequence of this is that this sugar, by proper fermentation and distillation, can be made into alcohol, and this again fay rectification and flavouring, into any of the mixtures known as gin, whisky, rum, arrack, cognac, brandy, ect. This manufacture of alcohol from sawdust is now carried on in Sweden very economically and on an extensive scale. We rejoice, because if the great staples, such as corn, wheat, rye, barley, etc., are used for this purpose, there is a destruction of material valuable for food; a breaking down of more complex valuable organic compounds into simpler ones, and if these same simpler compounds can as well be obtained from sawdust, which neither animal nor man can eat, there is a great saving in valuable material. The only objection thus far, is that in tbis operation a portion of the product is not the ordinary ethylic alcohol, but methylic alcohol, or wood spirits, which is less palatable and more unwholesome than ordinary alcohol ; but that there is no doubt that improvements in this respect will soon be made, if this is not already the case, and that, as people must have alcohol, it will in the future not be produced at the cost of the destruction of a great portion of the staples of food otherwise adapted for the nourishment of millions, and which are now continually being destroyed by tbe distillers over all the world. —Manufacturer and Builder.