General Intelligence.

Clutha Leader, Volume IV, Issue 188, 15 February 1878, Page 6

General Intelligence.

' ■ Plentiful rain has 'now fallen in Victoria. ...... ■ "_." An Intercolonial Exhibition will be held in Sydney -in August in. 1878. Donoghue, and Parr, coach-builders, Wellington, have been committed for trial charged with fraudulent bankruptcy. The upset price of land sold at auction in New South Wales has been increased from 5s to iOs per acre according to value. A telegram from London dated Jan. 28, states that the Rev. Mr Staunton of St. Giles' has accepted the Bishopric of Brisbane. Mr W. Norrie, late Rector of the High School, has commenced a private academy at St. Paul's schoolhouse, Dunedin. Mr James Smith, of Greenfield, has given a handsome donation of LIOO towards the Tuapeka, G.oldfields Hospital Building Fund. 'Mr '"Howard, the Curator of the Southland Acclimatisation Society, has been instructed to proceed ' tp^M el bourne to „take,- charge" of ' the'' shipment of salmon ova expected by the s.s. Chiuaborazo. The result of the political crisis npon Melbourne is said to be that all building operations are suspended, and trade is. completely paralysed. Capitalists are unwilling to invest, and prefer taking their money elsewhere. A Lawrence telegram of Monday ' says : — Mr Darton's house on his deferred-payment section, adjoining M '•Comb's, was destroyed by fire during last Friday night. Strong suspicions of incendiarism are entertained. A Wellington telegram says : — The Hon. W. J. M. Larnach is. going home very shortly in connection with floating the last new loan. He will take his wife and family with him. It* is reported that after the loan negotiations are completed he will succeed Sir JYogel as Agent-General. At a public meeting at Auckland to consider the disposal of the surplus Indian Famine Relief Fund returned by the Government, the Mayor presided. About twelve persons were present, and a resolution was adopted that the Committee should dispose of the money in the following way: — Auckland Dispensary, L 10 0; Ladies' Benevolent Society, L 100; Industrial Home, LGO; Orphan Home, Parnell, L4O ; Orphan Home, Ponsonby, L4O. News from Fiji to January 26', says that the drought has been severely felt there. Good water is said to be sold by one trader at a shilling per bottle, and by another at a shilling for a small cask. Governor Gordon will visit Samoa in the Sapphire next month. Lady Gordon ancl family go to Sydney until May next. Accounts have; reached Levuka ot sad havoc made with the nut trees by the imported Norwegian rat, which builds in the trees and preys upon the young nuts. ■ Trials were made with the telephone at Christchurch on Monday, when communication was established with Lyttelton, nine miles distant ; Southbridge, 32 miles ; Dunedin, 250 miles ; Cromwell, 350 miles. Questions and answers were exchanged with each station, Cromwell being*, strange to say, clearer than at Dunedin. Singing and rapid reading by Mr Mai*, at Dunedin, were clearly heard, while every note of a tune played on a flute 'at CromweJl, and a cooey were observed with marvellous distinctness. During his address at Waikouaiti the other day, Mr M'Lean said when the Hon. Mr Reid was placed in the Government, he thought the time had come when he could retire from it, as he had not the strength that others had. He might say, with regard to that hon. gentleman, that he was about to retire from' politics. During his career, and during the time he (the speaker) had been associated with him, he had fell his straightforwardness and ability, and was only sorry such a man was leaving politics. " " • . , Melbourne cablegrams say: — Mr Graham Berry's motion to pay money on the vote of the Assembly alone, without an Appropriation Act, was carried on division 1 by 52 to 23. — The inferior Civil officers may expect reappointment, but none of the. higher officers. — No further dismissals are in-tended.-—lt«is rumoured that the Legislative Council will .take up the past payment of members under protest.--— The Legislative Assembly has adjourned till Tuesday. The Ministry hope in the meantime to receive an approving* telegram from the Home Government. Referring to the anticipated visit of tbe Premier to the West Coast, the Inangahua Times says the time' of Sir George. Gx-ey's visit has been fixed for the 15th February. The Premier will land at Westport, and will "be driven thence to Reefton by Mr Warden Shaw The members of the County. Council at Greymouth have been appointed- a reception committee, and it is the intention to give the ex-viceregal visitor a reception worthy of- the occasion and ' the t community , : Whatever may have been the representations iri' the- House as to the state of public feeling on thie West Coast regarding the policy ; of the: present" Government, we' venture tp think that the premier^^ vyill receiVe^ such", a -reception -on ; his "visit to 'this part of 'the* -polony; as will at once chhYmcehimA that hW administration ' has '[ the jmost h-^rty 'support of tHer inhabitants ; as ; J a? '"Whole; ;* ri \'"*' : ''" ' "" Ayy '"A'l A'"-'*' ■"'■•'■'

v-v The ■population-of • New-South Wales at the end of the. year was 662,212. The jurisdiction of the Timaru Resident Magistrate's Court has been extended to LIOO. Mr' John Thomson of Dalkeith has been re-appoin fed Sheep and Cattle Inspector' at Port Chalmers. Writing of Mr Barton's committal for contempt of Court, the N. Z. Herald refers to the brow-beating of witnesses by counsel in a similar strain to our article of last week. The Herald say :-— "We hope this example will do good, not so much as regard to the Judges, for with them this system of irritating brow-beating, for such it is, is fortunately rare; but as respects, witnesses, there are often in cross-examinations a system of aggravating questions intended to trip up a witness, who is often greatly disordered- by what is little else than an imputation of perjury made airainst him by a hostile "counsel. Everybody rememhers Sydney Smith's mot, that until a railway company killed a bishop the public safety would not be properly looked after. Now that* the Judges have themselves had a taste of the brow-beating* accusations which are often brought* against simple-minded witnesses, unaccustomed to the atmosphere of Courts, perhaps they will see the propriety of more readily interposing the aegis of the Court's protection between a bewildered testifier in the wit-ness-box and the worrying questions of a too-clever cross-examining counsel.