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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3918, 9 February 1884, Page 2

Captain Hume, Inspector of Prisons, was in town to-day. Eight lunatics left by the Waihora today for Wellington. There are thirty-one civil case* to be dealt with on Tuesday next. - The subject of Mr Paterson's lecture on Sunday evening is "Off the Track." Young men are cordially invited. At the R.M. Court this morning, before Captain Preece, R.M., James Gardiner, for drunkenness, was fined 5s and costs. Alfred Taylor was similarly dealt with for a like offence. Mr Goodall's estimate of cost for the breakwater and harbor improvements does not include,the three piers, though the Chairman of the Board, in his speech yesterday, seemed to think such expenditure was included. A meeting was held at Petane last night to appoint cemetery trustees. Mr A. T. Haultain in the chair. There was a good attendance, and the following gentlemen were appointed to the position : —Messrs C. Villers, W. Carswell, W. A. Richardson, A. Tuxford, and A. T. Haultain. A general impression is abroad that tho next session of Parliament will be very short, to enable members to obtain the honorarium at the least possible cost oi time and lodging money, that they may take something in their pockets to covoi the expenses of the general elections. Tho Congregational Union of Now Zealand meets at Wellington on the 20tli instant. Tho Rev. Mr Robertson, M.A.. of Auckland, chairman of the Union, will deliver an address. We copy the above from the N,Z. Times, which adds in all gravity, " Several other clergymen alsc take part in the proceedings." Of whai does our contemporary think the Union i; composed ? Mr Ross, Chairman of the Otago Harboi Board, left to-day per Waihora foi Dunedin, so as to bo present at an important meeting of the Board on Thursdaj next. On his way down he will interview the Governor to see if the new plans of th( Board moot with his approval. Mr Rosj has been on a visit to Hawke's Bay, and before leaving inspected the plans and report of Mr Goodall on the proposed Napiei harbor and breakwater. We have received the first number of the "Little Pink 'Un," a sporting journal published at Auckland. It contains som< very good original articles, in addition tc sporting news, racing fixtures, &c., looked for in such publications.- To sportsmen the "Little Pink 'Un " will supply a want. By tho same mail we have received the first number of "Labour," published also at Auckland under the auspices and authority of the Dunedin and Auckland Trade and Labor Councils. Sheep owners in Poverty Bay, says the Gisborne Herald, have lately suffered from sheep stealers. A nunibor of sheep have been stolen from the flocks of Messrs Locke, Ewen Cameron, and others, the practice being to kill the animal, taking away tho ' carcase and leaving tho skin on the ground. It is inferred that, happening at this season, the native grass cutters from other districts aro tho depredators. It is needless to say that in the event of detection the punishment for such an offence would be very severe. . It is necessary creditors should know that they are required to have their proofs of debt prepared before tho meetings or examinations of debtors to be held before the Official Assignee. Hitherto some inconvenience has arisen from the circumstance that creditors wore wholly unprepared for tho meeting or examination, and consequently there was considerable delay in the proceedings. Forms to be used for proof are being printed, and will be in circulation probably in the course of a few days. In what manner they are to be obtained by persons requiring them has not as yet been stated. The San Francisco correspondent of the Otago Daily Times, writing to that jonrnal on the 21st December, makes fhe following reference to Mr Griffin's reports upon the trade and resources of ' the colony :— " Several vessels have taken coal charters, there being a coal famine just now. It would pay the Grey River and Buller coalmine owners to ship coal here during tho winter months. - Cargoes might bo very easily placed at paying rates. But I suppose the out-*put ; does not begin to meet home consumption. Consul Griffin, in Auckland, has given your coal-fields a grand "send-off in the United States consular reports. I really do not know a man who has done so much good and efficient work ■for the colony of New Zealand, without forgetting his responsibility to his own Government, as Consul G. W. Griffin ; and I think some steps should bo taken to testify the appreciation of its inhabitants for his noble and disinterested efforts in favor of the 'Britain of the South.'"

The Auckland tram cars have arrived. Sydney levies a sixpenny sewerage rate. A plague of locusts is infesting the western districts of Victoria. Auckland boasts now of a steam laundry on the American principle. It is proposed to institute cookery classes at the Girl's High School, Dunedin. " Zulu " Thompson has been fined £5 at Sydney for distributing gifts at his entertainment. Mr G. W. Russell has announced his intention of contesting Manawatu at tho next election. A birth takes place on an average every three minutes in London, and a death takes place every five minutes. The Mayor of Auckland has sent a cheque for three guineas to Mrs Hughes, who recently gave birth to triplets. The New South Wales mint coined last year £1,352,065. and issued £1,352,665. It also issued £39,600 in silver coin. The Academy of Music at Adelaide, which was recently destroyed by fire, is to be replaced by a grand coffee palace. The New South Wales Government have appointed a Board to inquire into tho sanitary condition of public school buildings. Mr Fennelly, the trainer of MartiniHenry, has been presented with a handsome gold Waltham watch by the New Zealand Stud Company. The Brisbane Hospital is so crowded with patients that it has been found necessary to erect tents in the grounds to afford further accommodation. A century ago but 1,000,000 out of 27,000,000 souls forming the population of France could read and write. Now education is universal. The Dunedin Herald Saj's:—"Mr Sydney Taiwhanga is a public nuisance, and it is a pity that some means cannot be found of suppressing him." ! The timber trade is veiy active at Auckland. The Auckland Timber Company of late havo been delivering a quarter of a million feet weekly. The foreign trade of the United States last year reached the grand total of £301,449,376. This is exclusive of tho movements of specie. It has been decided that a scholarship shall be founded in Tourguenieff's name at the University, as well as a district school in tho Russian capital. During tho year 1883 there wore 6282 proposals for insurance made to, tho Commissioner for Government Insurance for sums equal to £1,463,632. The Princess Dolgorouki has purchased one of the most charming villas at Nice, with lovely gardens, and will take up her residence there this winter, A new Thames tunnel, to cost £1,400,000 has been sanctioned by the Metropolitan Board of Works. It will be situated ono | mile east of London Bridge. In West Virginia they have unearthed a human skull having a circumference of forty I inches above the eyes. Physicians say its owner must havo been fifteen feet high. There are in New Zealand 235 officiating ministers of tho Anglican Church, j 138 Presbyterian, 123 Methodist, and 86 Roman Catholic. Other sects have in all 56 ministers. - • In Canterbury tho salaries of the school teachers are paid first to the committee, and teachers are not permitted to communicate with the Board except through tho committees. The Fielding Star says:—" The buyer for tho Wellington Meat Preserving Company went down by train last night carrying with him 30 head prime fat beef from Waverley." Rather a load. Ostriches (says a Cape paper) are paying some farmers exceedingly well. A farmer on the Buffalo invested Jt*o in birds a year ago, and has cleared £400 from his feathers in the first year. Last week a " prominent citizen" of Tauranga was prosecuted for bursting open the door of the Court-house lately in order to hold a meeting for the election of a School Committee. An Irish newspaper publishes the following item: " A deaf man, named Taff, was ran down by a passenger train and killed ou Wednesday morning. He was injured in a similar way about a year ago." Tho scarcity of labour in some country districts of Victoria has been remarkable. Parties have been out on horseback endeavouring to pick up a stray hand here and there so that they may gather in their crops. Mrs Gilkinson, who did very suddenly in the South the other day, was a daughter of Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, one of the heroes of the " Noctes Ambrosianae,," as well as tho best of all the purely Scottish poets Burns, alone excepted. Mr S. C. Hall, in his recently published autobiography, tells us that he was "christened "by a clergyman who was so deeply in debt that ho had a tunnel made from tho church to tho rectory to save him from falling- into the hands of the bailiffs. Heine, the banker, who recently died in in Franco, left nearly a million of francs to be employed as the capital of a loan fund for tho uso of deserving who require a temporary small loan, without formalities and excessive interest. In the way of big gooseberry stories Tasmania takes the palm. There were lately shown in Launceston some remarkable large British Queen and Marguerite strawberries, tho largest being throe inches in length by fivo and three quarters in circumforonco. As an experiment—which is likely to prove of great importance to this district (Gisborne) —the Loan and Mei'cantileshipped 500 sheep yesterday per the Wairarapa for Wellington, for freezing purposes. They will be sent Home per direct steamer, and if proved successful large numbers will follow. It is a hard thing to please everybody. Miss Mary Anderson, the actress, has been criticised by a London paper for pronouncing " forgive " as " forgeeve," which was solemnly declared to be an Americanism of tho basest sort. And now comes an American paper, which criticises Lord Chief Justice Coleridge for the same pronounciation of tho same word, which it declares is a British vulgarism of the most pronounced kind. International criticism can hardly yet be numbered among the exact sciences. The Sydney Morning Herald records a feat accomplished last week at tho Liverpool paper mills (New South Wales) in tho manufacture of news printing paper, a manufacture of considerable importance to the press in Australia in cases of emergency. An order was issued to the paper mills for a quantify of paper measuring over 300 miles long. In less than 24 hours from the time the order was given the 'first instalment was made in reels of four and a half miles length, and placed in the railway trucks for delivery. From the Lake Wakatipu Mail wo glean that "MrF. Evans, of Frankton, being convinced, like many other settlers, that tho present means employed for exterminating tho rabbits has proved a failure, has decided on'introducing one of their natural enemies—the ferret —a number of which he has just procured. He states that this method has been found admirably successful by Mr Bullen on his run at Marlborough, where another 3000 ferrets havo been.introduced. Mr Evans also intends to enclose his land on the upper side of the Frankton road with a rabbit-proof fence, and will bo joined by Mr F. M'Brido in similarly enclosing land on the lower side of the road, for the purpose 'of testing the efficacy of ferrets in exterminating the pest," , Tho Thames Advertiser, iv an article on the Board of Education, says :<—" In regard to officialism, there can be no doubt but that the Auckland Education Department—from being tho unpretending but practical thing which, after tho passing of the present Education Act, it was — has gradually evolved into a complex and over-officered affair, making work for itself through tho 'zealousness.' of its 'heads'of departments,' until it fairly rivals the old Provincial Government for cost and cumbrousnoss. Tho Board, also, instead of being composed of men imbued with a thorough belief in the genuineness of the system they are called upon to administer—men who seek the position of members because of this belief—has of late dogeneratod, wo are sorry to think, into a Tittle knot, mainly consisting of individuals with 'fads'in all their heads, or Of men so bigoted'in all they say or do that thoy can see no wisdom or even straightforwardness in the ideas or doings of their fellows."

Tho Scotch are, of course, a very righteous people indeed, and their rcverenco for the "Sawbath" is a matter of common notoriety. One Sunday lately a barque arrived at St. Andrew'sßay, flying a fiagf or assistance. A fishing boat put off, and it was discovered that the captain and crew were in a state of semi-starvation, having been reduced for several days to a diet of one biscuit a day per man. But tho godly people of St. Andrew's are so strongly opposed to anything approaching Sunday trading, that provisions wcro only procured with the greatest difficulty, and tor some time it appeared as though the unfortunate sailors would have done better to remain on board with their one biscuit until tho next day. The largest steam yacht ever built is now in course of construction at New Xork, and will probably bo finished in time to mako her trial trip next summer. This " yacht " is tho first built of steel in America, and is for Mr William Astor, a gentleman who ovidently desires to own a floating palace ; for the yacht is to be built and fitted regardless of expense. Tho dimensions aro 227 feet long, 30 feet, extreme breadth, and depth 20 feet, with engines capable of developing at least, 1400 horsepower, and masts to carry 7000 square feet of canvas Tho electric light will be fitted throughout. Such a vessel is something mure than a yacht; it is a cruiser capable of steaming or sailing all over tho world, and quite eclipses in point of size all tho largo pleasure vessels or yachts owned on either side of tho Atlantic. A light railway system, driven by electricity, and running at high speeds, has been devised by Mr F. IJuhu Douchell, C.E., whose object is to effect tho rapid transit sif letter parcels by electrical mean?. The distinguishing feature in its construction is that, it has'only one rail for the train to run on, instead of two, and that it_ is balanced by another rail overhead, which at tho same time performs the functional' conducting the electric current, and also prevents the train leaving the metals, as it is embraced by side-friction pulleys, placed in pairs, and connected with the roofs of tho carriages. The railway ia circular, and about Bft in diameter, the motor being about 12in. long, Sin. high, and deriving its current from an ordinary bichromate battery. This motor or engine has a pair of grooved driving wheels of large diameter, and placed in a lino witlj each other. The object of this construction is to reduce the friction to a minimum, and thus facilitate tho production of high speed. Mr Datichell proposes a speed of from 150 to 200 miles por hour, the railway being specially designed for tho transit of letters, parcels, and light goods, thus appealing to tho necessities of our postal system. Experiments on a large scale have been carried out by Mr Daiichcll at Maidstone, which have demonstrated the practicability of tho invention for its intended purpose.