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Evening Star, Issue 2810, 19 February 1872, Page 2

Mayor’s Court. The business transacted to day was unimportant. Henry Burton was fined ss, and Alex. Campbell 10s, for drunkenness.

Wesleyan. —The following alterations were made in the stations of the ministers in New Zealand on the second reading in the .Melbourne Conference : Christchurch : Revs A. R. Fitchett, and R. Martin; Kaiapoi : R vs. R. Bavin, ami H. Dewsbury ; Wellington : Revs. J. Buddie, and J. J. Smalley ; Auckland; dovs. C. M • lli'yff, and W. Oliver ; Wanganui: Rev. J. Retry ; Hokitika : Rev. J. Thomas, and H. Gilbert; Port Ohallniers : Rev. J. I. Shaw.

Too Smart. —The youth Christie', whose latest penchant is to act]ui! e notoriety as a horse stealer and daring equestrian, is now in Dunedin mi route for Invercargill, there to he tried for his misdeeds. He was brought in the Piuebe from Christchurch yesterday, in the charge of Sergeant O’Keefe. Christie who rode on borrowe.l horses from Winton to Mclwyn, in Canterbury, where his progress was stopped by the Canterbury police, representing himself as a detective in search of one Christie (who was himself) was close upon seven days in the saddle, hardly taking any sleep ; and brags of hj s exploit. He will he remembered as having caused a great deal of alarm hardly two years ago by going on the Taieri river in a boat, which he turned bottom upwards, in order to make his relatives believe he had been drowned- a ruse that succeeded for a time.

Public Works. —A Wellington contemporary says During Mr Ormond’s visit to Auckland a large amount of work lias been got through, the whole of his staff having been vigorously engaged in completing theldata of the various lines to be submitted to Messrs Brogden for tender under the provisions of the contract authorised by the Assembly. Yesterday (L*Vk G) notice was given to Mr Brogden by the Minister of Public Works that the data for the lines—Auckland to Mercer ; Wellington to Upper Hutt ; Napier to Pakipaki; Invercargill to Mataura ; aud Dunedin to Balclutha would lie supplied on that day mouth. Mr Brogden is allowed another month to prepare his tenders, and immediately on their acceptance the work of construction will commelce. The Auckland an i Kaipara railway has already been handed over to the Government, aud is in course of construction.

Water Supply to the Goldfields. Mr Warden Robinson was in town for several days last week, consulting with Mr Haughton on the subject of water supply for the Mount Ida district, The Chronicle does not think his visit resulted in any good, as it would seem there is no prospect of any modification being made in the recentlyprinted rules and regulations, and that no application will he entertained which is not strictly in accordance therewith. The applications already sent in are very numerous, especially from the Province of Nelson, from which Province it is reported there are already no less than 400. Mr • obinson was informed that there is a probability of surveys being mrde, to set at rest the question as to the practicability of bringing in the Manuherikia River at a high level, and of obtaining a useful supply of flushing water from the Little Kyeburn and intervening streams.

Serious Affray.—On Sunday, the Hth inst, a serious affray took place at ’linker’s Gully, near Blacks, between some Europeans and Chinese, in which one of the Europeans had an arm broken, and a Chinaman, named Ah Lpck, received a very severe wound on his head. Ope version of the affair is that a butcher sold a quantity of pork to a Chinaman, who, upon weighing it at his own tent, found the quantity to he considerably less than what he paid for, Upon going hack to the butcher with this complaint a dispute occurred, and Ah Lock is said then to have been struck clown by a blow with a shovel. Several Chinese and Europeans then came upon the scene, and a general row ensued, in* which a European of the name of Robert Scott got one of bis arms broken and three of the Chinese severe llcsh wounds, Dr Niven was called in to attend Ah Lock, aud the Mount Ida Chronicle understands that he considers the wound in his head to be a very serious nature. Frederick Morgan, butcher of St. Bat bans, has been arrested for wounding Ah Lock. “Teddy” Wakefield’s New Character.—Mr Edward Jorningham Wakefield, M.H. R. for Christchurch East, as he delights to call himself, is now added to the list of the Colony’s slanderer?.’ He has been writing in Lloyd's Weekly— a London journal, circulating largely amongst the workingclasses of England—warning the emigrating classes of England against coming to New Zealand, because the duties on cereals passed last session would have the effect of making the necessaries ,cf life so dear as to warrant people not to come out. We copy a portion of the letter for the benefit of opr readers : “ 1 trust you will, in your journal which attains so wide a circulation among the class of people likely to emigrate under encouragement from the New Zealand Government, and who would come in the hope of bettering their condition, which constitutes the natural and praiseworthy ambition of that class, warn them against the possibility of their meeting, on landing, with an unnecessarily dear loaf. Let them, at least, wait "till next mail, by which time you -will receive information from me and other representatives of the working men—whether in or out of Parliament of what has taken place, and what their feelings aye, with regard to the whole question. I am member of tho House of Representatives for the eastern laßlf of the City of Christchurch and its suburbs, with a population of six thousand souls,” &c. The Wellington papers do not let Mr Wakefield down easily for his gratuitous slander of the Colony. The Independent accuses liinj of cowardice in absenting himself, under circumstances which need not be described, from his place in Parliament when the cereal duties were under discussi.cn, and of neglect in failing to secure a pair when the vote was taken, and concludes a strong article on the subject in these terms :—“ But we protest in the interests of New Zealand against the wilful and gratuitous libels upon the Colony yliuffi obtain currency through the agency of detractors of whom Mr Wakefield has eminently shown himself to be one. Under the vEgis of a iwnia familiar as a household word in the his- ‘ tory of colonisation in New Zealand the unworthy descendant of a worthy ancestor seeks to throw discredit on the com munity that shelters him, ami upon the colony which it should he tho highest aim of his existence to advance in the public estimation. The mischief that is done in the old country by such effusions as that we have had occasion to notice is incalculable It is no fiction that the stream of emigration to Otago was most seriously checked by the 1 mendacious letters sent home by such characters as J. G. S. Grant and others.

The writers may be well known here, and people may be apt to pooh-pooh the idea that anything they may say will really have any efiect. But it is a fact that detractory Utters find ready credence in England, and if a man be able to put a handle to his name, the effect is all the greater.”

A committee meeting of the Saturday Half-Holiday Association will be held in the A theme nm to-morrow (Tuesday) evening, at 8 o’clock.