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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3480, 1 September 1882, Page 2

The vital statistics for the past month of August registered at Napier show births 41, marriages 5, and deaths 14.

The Revenue collected at the Customs, Port Napier, during the past month of August amounted to £3407 2s 7d. The duty paid on account of beer stamps waa £134 13s 9d.

For the following Hospital returns we are indebted to Dr. Menzies :—Patients at last date, 20 males and 7 females; admitted during the past month, 9 males and 3 females; discharged, 8 males and 7 females; died, 3 males; remaining in hospital on September 1, 18 malea and 3 females.

The suggestion thrown out by us last week in reference to emptying the silt traps at night has, we are glad to observe, been carried out. For the last two nights the men have been at work with the aid of lanterns and the moon, and townspeople have derived the benefit consequently of fresh air during the day.

In the Resident Magistrate's Court today Solomon Black pleaded guilty to a charge of drunkenness, and was fined 5s and costs, or the usual alternative. Flora Somners was charged under the Vagrancy Act for being in an enclosed garden without lawful excuse, and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment with hard labor.

The Collector of Customs has received instructions to remove his office from the Spit, and to occupy the room in the Post Office building that is now the Stamp Office. The " Stamps " will go into the rooms that were occupied by the Property Tax Commissioner. We understand that the Collector will be the only officer who will remove from the Spit, and that he will be assisted by a cadet.

In these days of free communication with all parts of tho world, and when nearly everyone who travels publishes his experiences and impressions of foreign lands and peoples, it is no easy matter for a lecturer to cay much that is new concerning his wanderings. It is to the credit of Mr Isaac Sharp, therefore, that his lecture last night in St. John's school-room on " Northern Regions" was not only interesting but contained a good deal of information with which many in his large audience were not, perhaps familiar. The Bishop of Waiapu presided.

Our cablegram from Sydney states that the Australian football team left yesterday by the Rotomahana for Auckland. A cable message from the secretary of that team to the secretary of the Wellington Rugby Football Union, published by the N.Z. Times, states that it is the intention of the visitors to land at Auckland, and, after playing at that place, to visit Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, paying a second visit to the capital should it be found convenient to do so. Mr Fletcher alao requests that arrangements may be made for matches, and also for railway passes for the team.

"Householder," writing on the subject of the frozen meat trade, says that he does not share with the Chamber of Commerce its gratification at the prospect of the export of refrigerated beef and mutton from Napier. The only thing that he can see in the distance for himself and other heads of families in connection with this trade is increased butchers' bills. He altogether disbelieves in the notion that there is sufficient surplus stock in the province to support such a trade, and he thinks that spasmodic shipments, while failing to enrich graziers, will only tend to increase the cost of living in the town.

A correspondent signing himself " Over Forty-five" finds much fault with the management of the " Winter Dances " in so far as relates to the absence of means of amusement for those of both sexes whoso dancing days being over have yet to attend balls as the guardians of young relatives and friends. Our correspondent, who has subscribed to the winter dances for many years, disapproves of the private and wholly gratuitous self-election of the committee, and thinks that the glaring mismanagement—more particularly conspicuous in the series cf the past season—calls for another method of appointing a responsible committee.

"We remind ratepayers that the time for the nomination of candidates for the three vacant seats in the Municipal Council closes at the Town Clerk's office at noon on Monday next. We understand that it is not the intention of Dr. de Lisle to offer himself for re-election, but, in the absence of any public notification to that effect, the ratepayers may discover when too late that they have either no candidate to represent them, or that they have nominated some one in opposition to their old member, with whom they have no cause to be dissatisfied. Crs. Lee and Cotton have not published their intention to stand again, but we believe they will accept nomination. It is not fair to leave ratepayers in the dark.

At a committee meeting of the Agricultural and Pastoral Society, held to-day, rules for the forthcoming trotting match wore laid before the meeting and adopted. It was resolved that a letter be written to the Canterbury A. and P. Association asking them to take in hand the compilation of a N.Z. Herd Book, and offering to assist in collecting information, and suggesting: that all similar societies be requested to furnish information of pure-bred stock in their district, and join in a subsidy should such be necessary to ensure an early publication. Mr Shritupton gave notice of

motion to move at" the next general meeting, " That all prizes given by this society at; any show must be claimed in writing before the next general anuual meeting after such prizes have been awarded." It was resolved that a general meeting of members should be called for tho 19th instant, at 11 a.m., for the election of new members, and that a committee meeting should be held immediately afterwards.

The Masterton Star says:—"Mr Arbuthnot, a very rich Anglo-Indian, and a partner of Arbuthnot and Co., the celebrated Calcutta merchants, is about to visit New Zealand shortly with a view to settling some relatives on sheep farms. His party propose leaving in September. Mr Reginald Northcote a brother of Sir Stafford, also contemplates vieitingNew Zealand shortly. .

The Wairarapa natives have held a meeting at Gladstone, at which they protested against the passing of the Native Reserves and Crown and Native Lands Rating Bills. In a sort of manifesto issued by them, the nativee state —" We are going to send delegates to all the native tribes of New Zealand to petition the Government to have the Bills thrown out. We will resist them to the death, whatever the consequences may be."

The Tauranga Guardian, of August 19, Bays :—" Wi Peri, a native connected with, the diiectorate of the East Coast Land Company, is at present in Tauranga, endeavouring to induce the natives to place their land under the care of this beneficent company. Wi Peri called a meeting of natives across the bay this week, and waxed eloquent on the subject, but the natives begged to excused, remarking that they could ta.be' care of their own lands quite as well as ihe Land Company, and with more results." Mr Arthur Ford, mechanical engineer, of Coromandel, has invented an improved beer engine, for which he ia now seeking to obtain the necessary patent. It does away with the use of brass and lead, inasmuch as the working- barrel is made of glass, white metal, or marble ; it prevents the loss of the liquor which in the case of of the ordinary engines has to be thrown away every morning; and it ie so constructed that, in the event of a valve being choked by hops or any other substance, a tap may be turned that will put the choked ono out of use and bring another into service in its place. Beer can be drawn from it in a moment's notice from one or more valves, by merely turning a small tap placed under the counter. The machine is cheaply made, is easily managed, and is thoroughly serviceable. It has been shown to some of the local publicans, and they have expressed the greatest satisfaction with it.—Star.

An important case with reapeofc to the construction of contracts—Ware and Jones v. the Lyttelton Harbor Board— wae argued before His Honor Mr Justic Richmond, at Christchurch, on Monday, in Banco. Plaintiffs are the contractors for the Lyttelton graving dock, and in the contract entered into there was a proviso that the Board would pay £100 per week bonus for the completion of the work prior to 7th April, 1882, and on the other hand, if they exceeded that time, a penalty of £100 per week waa to be imposed. The contractors., were called upon to execute a number of extra works, which took up a period of seventeen weeks, and the whole work, extras and all, was completed six weeks prior to the contract date. The plaintiffs applied for twenty-three weeks' bonus at £100 per week, alleging that the extras were so interwoven with the original work that they were prevented from completing the latter, as they otherwise would have done, twenty-three weeks prior to the contract date—April 7. The defendants, however, declined to pay more that £600, alleging that the contract meant the completion of all works, original and extra, within the period, and that plaintiffs were only entitled to recover bonus for the period saved after the completion of all works, both extra and original. His Honor took time to consider. —Press. The P. A. O'Farrell mentioned in our cablegrams recently as having attempted to assassinate the Eoman Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne was, many years ago, a prominent " swell "in that city. On one ocoablou he was driving a dos-a-clos, when the vehicle came into collision with a dog-carfc, occupied by a Mr Bearfoot, who was killed by the accident. An action for heavy I damages against O'Farrell, bronght by the widow of the deceased, was amongst the I causes ceUbrbs of those good old days. O'Farrell was a solicitor in the enjoyment of a lucrative practice, and was the legal adviser of Bishop Groold. A large number of Catholic servant girls and others in a humble position entrusted their savings to the bishop to invest for them,and the latter entrusted them to O'Farrell, in whom he had implicit confidence. Suddenly the dashing solicitor was missed from his accustomed haunts in the city, and it was discovered that he had levanted, taking with him a big , sum of money belonging to hit clients. Hβ was heard of from time to time in the interior of Ceylon and other remote places, but eluded all attempts to arrest him. He has now returned to the scene of his former glories, and made a daring attempt to murder his erstwhile patron. He is a brother of the O'Farrell who tried to shoot the Duke of Edinburgh. The night before the bombardment of Alexandria (says the Home News) will lon# be remembered in England. In London and in all the great cities of the United Kingdom many persons, in their anxiety to receive the earliest information, did not go to bed at all. Clubs were crowded, and the possibilities of the morrow were the subject of universal conversation. There is no doubt that the opinion of the country is favorable to the action of the Government, and that if Ministers are condemned at all, it is because they deferred action so long. It does not indeed follow on that accouDt that the policy which has resulted in this neceseity is unanimously approved. On the contrary, it ie felt strongly, and in many quarters, that the Government have blundered in allowing themselves to be involved in a quarrel which is exclusively financial in its origin and due to the influence exercised by the bondholders. First, it is argued by those who are of this way of thinking, welendEgypt our money at < 10 per cent. Then in exchange for our guna she returns us our money ; then we quarrel r with and demonstrate against her; then in reply she begins to mount guns ; then when her guns are duly loaded and laid we send her an ultimatum; then she shivers our timbers and destroys our people. Finally, when all is over, we wonder whether.it • would not have been better to have lent hef— *■* no money to buy our guns. Had, it is sefa, Admiral Seymour been instructed to "ftiltimate" before our guns were pointed a^our heads, not a life probably would have been lost. It is to b8 regretted (says the European Mail) that the House of Lords has not seen its way to accepting the Duke of Argyll's Bill for amending the law of Parliamentary Oaths, but on the contrary rejected that measure by a crushing weight of hostile votes. Nothing could well be more diegraceful than the scenes which have occurred and threaten again to occur over the Bradlaugh business, and the country would be glad to be relieved from all fear of a repetition cf them in the future. But tne very fact that, as Lord Carnarvon remarked, the proposed measure was a " Bradlaugh Relief Bill," proved a fatal obstacle to its successful passage through the Upper House. The attempt, however, to keep irreligiously, minded people out of the House of Commons by the imposition of religioos tests ia an antiquated absurdity, for as a matter cf fact the plan does not work, and everybody is aware that such is the eaee. The Duke of Argyll's Bill would have allowed any member to substitute an affirmation for the ""*""*■• customary oath, if the former were more binding on his conscience than the latter, and that ssems about the best way out of the difficulty. Gradually it will come to bp acknowledged that some such solution of the vexed controversy is really demanded quite as much in the interests of religion itself as in those of public and Parliamentary decaruiu.