NEWS OF THE DAY.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 656, 27 July 1876, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Colonial Bank. —Mr A. W. Morris was elected director of the Colonial Bank at the meeting yesterday. $ Street Crossing. —The work of forming and asphalting the crossing at the intersection of High and Cashel streets, between Milner and Thompson’s music warehouse, and Cuff and Graham’s office, is to be proceeded with at once, as all the necessary subscriptions have now been received. The crossing has long been required and will be found a great convenience to foot-passengers. False Alarm —About eight o’clock last evening the bell at the Market station rang out a furious alarm at intervals, which was quickly taken up by the Lichfield street bell. Both engines were quickly turned out, and the street soon lined with people, but no trace of fire could be seen in any direction. It was first reported that a chimney was on fire at the rear of Mr Hargreaves’ rooms, then at the back of the Criterion Hotel, and afterwards at the White Hart Hotel ; but in neither instance was the report correct. As these false alarms have lately become somewhat common, it is supposed to have been the work of a practical joker, whom, it is to be regretted, was not caught in the act, and made an example of. If the policeman on the beat nearest to the bell first rung were instructed to make for that spot, and remain there a little while, it might be the means of saving the citizens unnecessary alarm, and the brigade much trouble and annoyance. Another Massacre in the South Seas. —The following telegram from Sydney appears in the Argus : —“ Commodore Hoskins has received a communication from Consul Layard, at Noumea, dated June 17th, to the effect that he had just heard from Captain Lind, owner of the Laura Lind, that he fell in with the Rev Mr Inglis, in the missionary vessel .Dayspring, who reported that an English vessel called the May Queen, or Mary Quinn, a labor vessel from Queensland, had run ashore at Tanna, at a place called Vagoos, that the crew fired at the natives, who attacked them in return, burned the vessel, then killed and ate the crew. Captain Lind had been in Port Resolution, and 'states thao all the natives who came in agreed as to the destruction of the vessel and her crew, but are not certain of the precise locality. A young man named Midustrod is said to have been on board instead of the Queensland labor agent, who was drowned previously. Captain Lind is the person who rescued the surviving crew and passengers of the Isabella, lost on Brampton Shoals, and he fears that there are now more castaways on the same island belonging to three British vessels whoso remains he found there.’’ Titanic Steel Company. —A meeting of persons representing eighty shares in the above company was held last evening, at Hiorns’ Central Hotel. Mr Hiorns said be had called the meeting in consequence of a letter received from Mr J. Davis, of Dunedin, saying that 1500 shares were held by persons there; that he himself held 100, which had cost him £745, and that he should feel obliged if a meeting of the Canterbury shareholders were called to consider whether steps should not be taken to wind up the company. He (Mr Hiorns) had telegraphed to Mr Davis, asking for some definite propositions to lay before the meeting, and had that day received a telegram in reply, wishing the meeting (to be delayed until receipt of a letter from him containing full information. A shareholder observed that a gentleman had arrived by the Arawata who was fully acquainted with the process of working the Taranaki sand, and who put posed visiting the company’s works. Another shareholder stated that similar sand, obtained from Spain, was now being utilised in England, and that a paper accounting for the failures of previous experiments had lately been read before the London Iron and Steel Institute, by aMr Larkin. A discussion of a conversational nature followed, the feeling of those present being that no further steps should at present be taken, until the letter had been received from Dunedin, and further information obtained from the works. The fire bell here rang out, and the meeting broke up, Mr Hiorns promising to call the shareholders together again by advertisement if necessary,

The Auckland Islands.— With reference to the expedition to the Auckland Isles, the Sydney Morning Herald of July 4th, says.— “ It is reported that an expedition left here on Saturday for the scene of the General Grant’s wreck, with appliances for obtaining the gold which was aboard that vessel when she was lost. The party left here on Saturday in the schooner Flora, and we are informed that a member of Parliament, at whose expense the vessel was fitted out, has gone with them to superintend the operations. A seaman who was in the General Grant and is to act as guide, stated before leaving that they intended blasting a sufficient quantity of rock off the top of the cliffs to form a breakwater at the mouth of the cave wherein she was engulfed, and then sink a shaft down to the head of it. However absurd this may appear, it has some claim to credence, from the fact that heavy drills and powder formed part of the outfit.” The Mount Alexander Mail writes:—This is not the first attempt made to recover the lost treasure. A Mr Wallace, of Winter’s fiat, Castlemaine, essayed to get the gold. He left Victoria with a party of men, on board a ship he fitted up for the purpose. They neared the spot of the wreck, and Mr Wallace put off with some of his men in a boat to observe the shores of the island, in the hope of finding the precise spot where the gold went down. His ship, and those on it, waited several days for his return, but he was never seen again. The ship with the remnant of his crew returned to Melbourne, and his widow after some time obtained letters of administration, the Court considering him dead. The expedition must be a highly perilous one; and if the enterprising men who have set out to this Eldorado at the bottom of the deep, deep sea, have taken enough dynamite to blast sufficient rock to make a breakwater at the mouth of the fatal cave, no doubt many persons would prefer letting the gold—estimated at half a million pounds sterling—lie undisturbed, rather than be one of this novel prospecting party.” ___________ Bret Harte’s opinion of newspaper men “I have a taste resembling Ben Butler’s. I would trust most of them with cash ; but anything that could, by the remotest possibility, be tortured into news I would guard as carefully from them as I would my watch from pickpockets,” That isn’t half as bad as the opinion some newspaper men have of Bret Harte.