THE NORTH.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2368, 3 November 1870, Page 2

THE NORTH.

11l the Hokitika I'istrict Court, last week, his Honor Judge Ward, referring to the fee of two guineas required by the Provisional Trustee to be paid by each bankrupt for preparing the report in the estate, said he would decide in future that such payment was not necessary. In a ease reported in Dunedin, and which had been brought under his notice here, the judge had directed the bankrupt to pay the fee, and made the payment a condition of discharge ; but he (Judge Ward), after carefully reading the Bankruptcy Acts, felt in doubt whether the Supreme Court had power to impose such a condition. Those doubts were, however, now set at rest by the new rules, which, while making provision for the payment of trustees, did not give sanction to such a payment as the one referred to. It would be understood in future that the Provisional Trustee was obliged to file a report, as part of his duty. Te Kooti is attacking the friendly natives again, and has killed or wounded a large number of them. This report comes from a native at the Thames, who reached Shortland on the 11th instant. A Thames paper states that Te Kooti, with bis force, marched against a hody of friendly natives, consisting partly of Poverty Bay natives, and partly of Ngatikahnnguugu. Tho friendly natives were drawn up on eaah side of a gully into which Te Kooti marched by spe- , cial direction of bis god, Te Kooti, acting under direction, commanded his men to fire to the right, when the majority of the friendly natives op that side fell killed or wounded. Te Kooti then ordered them to fire to the Ictt, with a simi'ac result, and thus the victory was gained. Tc Kooti then left his former place, and went over to Tuhua, a settlement beyond Tokangamutu, and he has, it is said, made peace with the King, and come to some agreement with hipi as to the policy tq he pursued. An exceedingly valuable and useful gift has recently been made to the Wellington Atlicnauun by John Cumin, Esq., hamster? at-law, who is about to leave Wellington to return to England. The gift consists of about sixty volumes of Parliamentary and other papers, substantially bound, and including many documents which arc now. quite out of print. The books, indeed, form an almost, if not quite complete record of the Parliamentary history of this Colony since the introduction of the constitution. Amongst other things, there is a fac simile copy of the Treaty of Waitaugi, in English and in Maori.

The folio'.vine; paragraph from the Hew Zealand Herald furnishes but too true a picture of the result of many Auckland gold mining companies, which were once expected to prove mines of wealth to the lucky owners of scrip in them : —“Another call of one shilling per share has been made in the North Island Gold Mining Company, which the liquidators state will be sufficient to discharge all the debts owing by th'g company if the amount is paid at once. 'Sixty-nine cases have been taken into Court, most of which have been lost, and the legal expenses incurred up to the present time in liquidation of the company amount to no less a sum than L3SI S3 Mr Joumcaux, of Wellington, attended by invitation a recent meeting of the Canterbury Flax Association, to alibrd information as to his mode of preparing flax. A very excellent sample was exhibited in the room. Mr Joumcaux stated that he had effected an improvement on the process referred to in the report of the Flax Commissioners. His process was one of fermentation, with subsequent washing in cold water, but no chemicals whatever were used. He had endeavored to bring his process to the greatest perfection, and he believed that he had succeeded iu attaining the best process for preparing flax that had yet been discovered. He might say that he had found that strips ping machines destroyed the best or finest part of the leaf. One top of fibre oqiial to tlje fjampfo on tli(i table could be procured from liye toys of nice green leaf by his process. and he could bring it out as fine as if it had been Maori-scraped, The leaf had to undergo a certain milling;'which was done iustauteously. About LL4 would be the maximum cost of bringing a ton of fibre to

the stage of the sample produced ; but lie had little doubt that he could produce it at a cost of Ll2. A correspondent writes from Taranaki to an Auckland journal as follows : —lt is reported in town that Te Whiti had gone mad. It is said he has been buried and risen again. Te Whiti says he has been to Heaven, and seen the seven golden candlesticks. He maintains that he is appointed to be King, —that peace is to prevail on earth His natives look upon him as a prophet, and reverence him with superstitious awe.