TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 231, 6 March 1875, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

{Press Telegraph Agency.') Auckland, March 5. A circular has been received from the General Government by the Highway Boards ffiroughout the province, supposed to be either in connection with the proposed constitutional changes, or as the basis of a property tax. It refers chiefly to the amount of rateable property in the district and the taxation raised. Geahamstown, March 5. Major Palmer, Mr Knowles, Under Secretary, and other tourists from Australia, have arrived here overland from Tauranga. Considerable litigation is impending. A number of retaining fees have been paid on cases to come before the warden’s court. Tauranga, March 5. Sir Donald McLean has arrived here by the Luna. He was enthusiastically received. He has been busy all day receiving deputations from various public lodges, and transacting native business. He leaves by the Luna at midnight for Whakatana, to attend a monster native meeting, and returns here on Monday. Geahamstown, March 5, A deal of sickness is prevalent amongst children. The death rate for February was unusually high. Twenty-two deaths were registered for the district, nineteen being children under one year. The causes of death were dysentery, convulsions, and diarrhoea, Napier, March 5, Two other fires have occurred in the Poverty Bay district. Poulgrain’s sevenroomed house was burned and nothing saved, and Mulloley’s hotel at Tologa B ty was also burned. The fire occurred in the day time, The steamer Pretty Jane, which was stranded at Rig river, Poverty Bay, has been got off and safely towed into the bay. A libel action has been threatened by Mr Johnstone, proprietor of the ferry at the Western Spit, against Mr H. Elliston, surveyor, Napier, re a letter in the Herald, accusing Mr Johnston of gross mismanagement of the ferry; but it has been settled between the parties, Mr Elliston paying the preliminary expenses. Wanganui, March 5. Mr Scheriff’s dwelling house on No 2 Line, three miles out of town, has been burnt down. Nothing was saved. The inmates escaped narrowly. It is insured in the Liverpool, London, and Globe for £BOO. The fire was accidental. Wellington, March 5, To-day’s Gazette contains an order in Council assigning the Westland district to Mr Justice Johnston, and also an order in Council assigning the Nelson district to Mr Justice Gillies. Dunedin, March 5. Mr A. Armstrong has been appointed railway manager, vice Mr Conyers, resigned,

The Clntha Leader has been informed that he intends to visit Clutha next week for the purpose of completing arrangements for opening the through line from the Chain Hill to the Molyneux river. He intends to ran a train from Dunedin right up to the mouth of the tunnel, and from the upper end of the tunnel to the Molyneux river, providing for the two miles break over the Chain Hills by a coach. Mr Conyers is sanguine of being able to make arrangements whereby passengers to Balclutha can reach their destination in three hours.

THIS DA TS TELEGRAMS.

Auckland, March 6,

The inspector of sheep announces that no case of scab exists within thirty miles of Auckland.

• The New Zealand insurance company have received a telegram stating that the steamer Pretty Jane has been successfully floated, and that the cost of repairs and recovery will not exceed £IBOO.

There is an unusually full supply of fat cattle, prices being 25s to 26s per 100 lbs ; inferior, 20s per 100 lbs; fat sheep, 3d to 3|d per lb; inferior ewes, 8s to 12s each. At a meeting of citizens, to consider the Williamson memorial, resolutions were passed First, acquiescing in acknowledgment of Mr Williamson’s services to the colony, and especially to the province ; second, that the most suitable means of giving effect to the foregoing resolution will be the purchase of an annuity for Mrs Williamson, A committee was appointed to carry out this scheme.

(Wellington, March 6. The Council of the New Zealand University have been sitting this week, Mr H. J. Tancred has been elected Chancellor of the University for five years, and Mr Hugh Carleton, Vice-Chancellor, for a similar period. A series of resolutions relating to certain endowments of land in the Waikato and Opitiki districts, have been drawn up, and the Vice-Chancellor was instructed to transmit a copy of them to the Colonial Secretary, with a view of preventing the alienation of this land. Another resolution asked the Senate to urge the Colonial Government to take immediate steps to secure other blocks of land (twenty thousand acres) in the Tauranga district for educational purposes under the New Zealand University Act of 1874. The following resolution was ordered to be embodied in the regulation—That the final examination, as provided for by the Otago University, of certain students who are about to complete their course in that University, and who matriculated previous to the affiliation of the said University, be taken as the examination for B.A. degree, to be granted by the New Zealand University, on the passing of such examination anything in the statutes and regulations of the New Zealand University to the contrary notwithstanding ; and that for this purpose the examiners be appointed by the Chancellor on the recommendation of the Otago University.

[FROM OUR AUCKLAND CORRESPONDENT.] Auckland, March 5.

Fiji news states that the gales have destroyed a large number of bread fruit, cotton, and other trees. It is now the hurricane season, and one of these unwelcome visitors is daily looked for; A Solomon Islander, labouring under fever delirium, cut down with a tomahawk a fellow-passenger by the schooner Daphne. A Good Templar lodge has been established at Levuka.

Steps are being taken to have Fiji represented at the N. S. Wales exhibition. Ohinemuri news states that most of the men who have pegged out are very sanguine of the auriferous nature of their claims.

The shipwrights’ society celebrated their anniversary by a monster picnic. Mr Passmore put them in high dudgeon by refusing to allow a special train to run, which they had arranged for with the traffic manager. The Oraki Maoris are busy at the wharf to day packing a large number of dried sharks to send as a present to the King. The present is supposed to be on Government account. One hundred ounces of alluvial gold have been brought into Coromandel from Mercury Bay, but previous explorations of the district have led to the conclusion that any deposits must be of small extent. [FROM OUR DUNEDIN CORRESPONDENT.] Dunedin, March 5. The barque Sunlight is ready to sail for Boston with 2407 bales of wool. Mr Reid, of Elderslie, thrashed out a field of black Norwegian oats, the seed for which he got from Australia two years ago, with an average yield of ninety -six bushels to the acre. Mr Conyers gives up the management of the railways at the end of this month. Next week he proceeds to Balclutha to complete arrangements for opening the line from the Chain Hills to the Molyneux. The intention is to run a train from Dunedin up to the mouth of the Chain Hill tunnel, and another train from the upper end of the tunnel to the Molyneux ; the break of two miles to be coached, and the whole distance to be done in three hours. It is contemplated to make provision to enable the passengers for Invercargill to coach from Balclutha to Mataura, and thence by rail, doing the through journey in a day. The preliminary survey of the branch railway to Catlin’s River will be commenced immediately, the Government ask the Provincial Council, next session, to sanction the commencement of the work.

There are already fourteen prisoners for trial at the April sessions of the Supreme Court, viz. One for rape, one for attempted rape, one for arson, two for manslaughter, one for wounding with intent, two for murder, and six for felony. At Tapanui a party of deer-stalkers shot a buck weighing 210 lbs.

The Kaitangata Coal Company have associated with the branch Railway Company. Over half the capital has been taken up in the district, and four contracts for formation are already let.

March 6. The opening of the Supreme Court session is postponed till April 12th. The racing at Naseby yesterday was very indifferent. Wild Manx Boy won both events.

This morning Mr Bathgate sentenced a man named Fogerty for assaulting the police to a 'nonfch’s imprisonment without the option of a line. The press uphold him for his endeavours to put down larrikiuism with a hand.