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Evening Star, Issue 3742, 19 February 1875, Page 2

On dit that the Eev. Father Coleman ha? instituted legal proceedings against the * Daily Times’ for the publication of a letter in that paper signed “J. 5.,” relative to collections at St. Joseph’s. Death appears to have been pretty busy of late among the old colonists resident in the City of Auckland ar.d the suburbs. In V'.ry recent obituary notices w® observe the names of Major Lbbetson, for many years ireputy-Commissary-General of her Mai® tv’s (forces m this Colony, and of the Rev. Chas. baker, who for forty-eight years was assomted with the Church Missionary Society of New Zealand. J

The entries for the Oamaru races are For the handicap hurdle, Banjo, Medora, Maid or the Mill, Unknown, Mistletoe, and Thcociore. For the North Otago handicap, Medora, Ringleader, Maid of the Mill, Blackbird, Ada (LU, Unknown, Seletion, Ivoro, Merry man, and Exile. l i Bathgate, "8. Al., presided at the Resideiit Majnstrato’s Court to-day, on 1 hued George Rutherford 20s, in default six for drunkenness, On the civil sni’.' of iLie 0 urt Mr Lewis app Ld for professional costs in Gregg and Co v. Sinncinond, a cl dm ot LG2 3s lod fer goods supplied, and ia which defendant had that morning consented to judgment. The application was graiTed.

fhe men employed by the sub-contractors for the reclamation work-! at the new jetty, Port Chalmers, commenced on the 11th inst to put down a shaft on the top of Flagstaff hill, have sunk down forty feet, and are now engaged putting in the two headings, and expect to be ready to fire the blast on Monday evening, when it is expected that sufficient material will be obtained for filling in the vacant space alongside the new pier. There is a paper in Melbourne remarkable principally for the fact that it is published on Sunday. It has been endeavoring to add to its reputation by imitating the sensational hoax of the * New Zealand Herald,’ and very recently had in its columns a long account of a pretended “awful calamity at Ballarat,” which was that one-half of Ballarat had fallen in, owing to the undermining of the streets, that the gasworks had exploded, and that 2,000 lives had been lost.

A rather novel means of extorting money has been brought under our notice. One day last week a man engaged two rooms in a house In Stafford street, staling that they were for “ a party by the name of Johnson,” obtained possession of the keys, and next morning took a female to the house. The landlady becoming suspicious of the character of the woman, ordered her iustanfc removal, and on the man declining to accede to her request, the police were sent for. The latter, however, could not interfere, and the man holding that possession was nine points of the law, would only consent to leave on receipt of a pound. There was not a vestige of furniture in the place, and the landlady, to get quit of him, was obliged to satisfy the demand of her unprofitable tenant, who doubtless went his way rejoicing at his own smartness.

During the hearing of a recent case in the Sandhurst Police-court, a girl named Hogan, aged fourteen years, who was found in a brothel, could offer no other explanation to the bench for being found in such a place than that she was out late one night, and went there at the request of a young man because she was afraid to go home. The owner of the house, a woman who lived next door, when pressed by the magistrate to say what was the character of her tenant’s house, impudently replied that “it was none of her business.” It is no wonder that the indignation of the man was stronger than discretion of the magistrate, and that he told the sordid-minded creature to put down the Bible that she held in her hand, and never defile it with her touch again. 3. he liability of house-owners for notoriously immoral conduct in premise-* owned by them, is a social matter that may profitably engage the attention of Parliament.

The Mr Sutton who has succeeded in bringmg the Auckland iron sand into notice will be remembered as having created a little noise a couple of years ago by his iron sand smelting operations at Onehunga. According to the 1 Cross,’ by the last mail he received a letter from his brother, who is the manager of the Blistonbrook Ironworks, bt ifiordsbiro, whoro thirty tons of metal are turned out every twelve hours, recommending the scheme Mr Sutton is quite sanguine of the advantages which Auckland poyses-e* as a coal and iron producing district He states that the iron and sand can °? T'\ med m , the Manukau, on the surface Ol jotter quality than the ironmasters iu England can obtain by sinking 200 yards. having made practical experiments with the iron s -nd Sound m Auckland and with that found m larauaki, he is of opinion that the Auckland sand is of equal quality with the l aranaki j-tand, and that there is a better prospeoc before Auckland for iron manufaofcure than before Taranaki, on account of the fuel being cheaper and more abundant in Auckland.

A resident of Livingstone,” writing to tbe Oamnru paper, presses the claims of the Maorewhenua upon the attention of the Government. “ Some of the mining claims are giving steady and satisfactory returns, while the proprietors of others complain of the ground being poor, and of a scarcity of water. Several of the claims, where water is available, are said to yield from L 6 to L 8 per man per week. I have heard much higher returns mentioned, but decline to put them down, as very often such expectations are realised; but ths foregoing figures are correct. There is some talk here about a township being surveyed at Harris’s, near the river, and a large wool store is to be erected at the same place before many months are over. If a dray road were cut through Dansey s Pass as far as the Mount Ida district, it would prove a great boon as an outlet for produce and stock for this district. |There are said; to be slate and coal quarries near Dansey’s Pass, and copper is believed to exist in the vicinity of Mount Domett. The distance to be cub is eighteen miles, and the cost would probably no 1 ; exoesd L 7 00° Surely, wbeo thh Strict u entitled to a large share of the revenue, such a sum of money should not deter the Government from undertaking the work,” “ Servantgaliam in Auckland ” is the title ot a communication to the ‘Star ’ by a resident in that City, who, in the short space of two months, had occasion to hire immigrants d l ff T r l nt 8hi P 8 5 and ho elates JS? A V hlred from the de P 6fc WM a middle-aged woman. The day after her arrival, she disclosed to her fellow-servant the circumstance that she was in the fair way of presenting the Colony with a young colonist not entered on the passage ticket JfIVT M Wl u°f V ane Baid 5 ter husband had died shortly befme she left; she had mislaid her wedding nag, and her marriage ctrtmeate had been accidentally burned. Next ship, I went to the depdt to engage a successor to the ‘widow.’ I sent an express to biing her and her luggage, for which I paid three-and-sixpence. She came, and so did her luggage, little shoit of a dozen huge chests, which were lifted in and stowed away. J Inn our servant, without taking off tier hat, desired to see her employer, whom she informed that she had just had a letter t. om her friends in Napier, to whom she intended going by the first boat three days after. he left next morning. By the Inuireue, I got Letty—a woman who could, iu tbirty-six hours, stow beneath her belt eleven bottles of beer, a bottle of port, another of gineer-vvine, and half a bottle of n lirflo* a l ad yet tbe worse, only a little sleepy and oblivious of the dinner-

The excursionists by the s.s, Easby are to ao down by the ten o’clock train to-morrow morn on g M U ' i “k® ex P® oteti to leave Lyttelton on Monday evening, her passengers will have a good opportunity of seeing the many places and objects of interest in Christchurch. * frln # A rea i t l W ? rW Circus, which arrived in h ,°v r tried to keep faith with the public as to the opening night, could not do V> oa account of their not having sufficient time to erect their marquee

and get the public comfortably seated. Tonight, however, they open, when we hope to see their efforts rewarded by a crowded house.