NEW ZEALAND.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1540, 24 January 1879, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND.

[special to globe.] Dunedin, Januai-y 2i, Mr Conyers passed an easy night, making satisfactory progress. [pee pekss AGENCY.] Wellington, Januai7 21. The Benevolent Institution in discussing the que-tion of charitable aid, which lately has been taken out of the hands of the police, resolved that the Mayor should be requested to undertake the distribution of money for charitable aid, and that if he refused, a letter should be sent to the Government, showing the evil results of taking the matter out of the hands of the police. Hons. Whitmore and Fisher visited the new hospital yesterday, and inspected all the completed portion. They expressed great satisfaction with the arrangements. The sum of -£59 was collected as admission fees on the wharf in aid of the regatta. The Britannia Lodge of Oddfellows, M .U., paid away last quarter .£216 as sick funds and doctors’ fees.

The Mauriceville settlers having demanded permission from the Waste Lands Board to take up additional land on deferred payments, the Board said that they had no power to grant such a request. The Wellington trust, loan, and investment society paid a twelve and a half per cent, dividend for the past year. The D’Urville Island Copper Company have insured a cargo of copper which they are shipping to New South Wales to be smelted, at ft premium of ,£IOOO. It is expected that the mine will ba properly opened out in the middle of February, and arrangements have been made for sending regular shipments to New South Wales and thence forward.

Queenstown, January 21. A number of visitors from Christchurch, Dunedin, and Balclutha arrived at Queenstown at six o’clock last night, and started at six this morning, went to head of the Lake, and most of them return to Invercargill to-night. Th® weather has been delightful. All were enchanted with the magnificence of the scenery. Taupo, January 24. A large meeting of natives is being held at Orakokorako, twenty-four miles from here. The principal subject is the sal® of a large block of land. Government officers are present on behalf of the Crown, while the land speculators’ interest is represented by C. 0. Davis and Mr Reed, a brother of the lately appointed immigration agent, now on his way to England. Although the block is proclaimed as under negotiation on behalf of her Majesty, Mr Reid is offering higher terms to the natives, and the negotiators for the land on behalf of the public are delayed in consequence. A. good deal of surprise is expressed here at private speculators being allowed to frustrate unchecked the intension of Parliament by making the natives dissatisfied, and by sowing dissension amongst them. WiLLiNGTON, Jami«ry24. It is understood that in consequence of Lord Normanby’s commission as Governor of Victoria only having been sent from England on the 2nd January, via San Francisco, it will not arrive here until the middle of February, and that therefore his Excellency will not go right on to Melbourne in the Arawata, as originally intended, but will probably leave her at Christchurch and remain in the South Island, travelling overland to the Bluff, so as to embark on board the Eingarooma on the 20th February. Mr Le Patourel, the private secretary, will go on to Melbourne in the Arawata, so as to arrive a few days before Lord and Lady Normanby. Mr Andrews, who is in charge of the Wellington Waterworks, was riding near the large receiving reservoir this morning, when he was thrown from his horse and killed instantaneously. Gore, January 124. Mr Conyers is still in a semi-conscious state, but Drs. McCapper and Skae say that a decided improvement has set in since yesterday. Invercargill, January 24. John Henry Smith, of Invercargill, an old friend of Mr Conyers, who stayed at Gore with him from the time of the accident, came in to-day and reports that Mr Conyers passed an easy night, making highly satisfactory progress. 'lhe Dunedin express returns here with Messrs Ballance and Stout, M.H.E.’s. Next week they will go on a tour through Southland, the lakes, and central Otago. There is a movement on foot to get Messrs Stout anil Ballance to address a meeting. Several visitors returned this morning. The weather has been lovely all through. [from oub own coeeesrondknts.] Dunedin. January 24. James Oman, cook of the steamer Antrim, who poisoned himself with strychnine last week, died on Sunday. A love affair was the cause of the act. At Lake Hawea, a party of six left the head of the lake with a boatload of timber. On their return they indulged rather freely, and shortly afterwards James Murray, who had gone into the cabin, was found dead. There is not the slightest cause for suspecting foul play. Wellington, January 24. The City Schools opened yesterday. Several hundred were refused admittance. At a low estimate there are three thousand seven hundred children of school age in the town, while there is accommodation for only twe thousand five hundred. At a liberal calculation, private schools do not absorb five hundred, thus leaving seven hundred to be provided for before lh« compulsory clause can bo put into operation. The Board is, meanwhile, quarrelling as to whether the architecture of the new schools shall lie Grecian, Gothic, or Irish.