Interprovincial Items.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 814, 18 August 1870, Page 2

Interprovincial Items.

THE LOSS OF THE TAURANGA.—FURTHER PARTICULARS. [From the Daily Southern Cross, August 13.] The revenue cutter Ringleader, which was despatched by the Government a few days back for the purpose of searching for any remains of the lost steamer Tauranga, returned to harbour yesterday morning. By the courtesy of H. S. McKellar, Esq , Collector of Customs, we have been enabled to compile the following from the log of the vessel: —The Ringleader left Auckland on August 5, with a strong N.W. by W. breeze, arriving at Kawau at 530 p.m. Weighed anchor again next Hay; and on arriving at Takatu Point, Parker (one of the men who had voluu teered) was landed in the dingy, after several unsuccessful attempts, as there proved to be a heavy surf on the shore. He walked round to Big Omaha, where he was taken on bo .rd ; having been four and a-half hours walking round. The only portion of the wreck found was the bridgeladder, port side, which was stove in on the outer side. Thy Ringleader anchored at little Omaha for tljo night; and at 7'30 next morning sailed again, with light N. N.W. to N. winds. About noon it came on to blow a strong gale, compelling the cutter to run back again in company with the schooner Leonidas, and cutters Alarm :»nd Speedwell, for shelter. Next day (Monday, Bth) it still continued to blow heavily. The men went round the shore as far as Rodney beach, but only discovered a portion of bulwarks ; no traces of any bodies. Next morning, at 7 a.m., Parker and Cummins went over the ranges to the Pakiri beach, where (after a tedious walk) they arrived at 11/30 am. They there found, in the possession of a settler named Uwyer, a large white ship's boat, 18 feet long and 5 feet Bix inches beam, painted white with black top-streak. In it there were found three pairs of thole pins, shipped for pulling, and close by was found her rudder, an oar, and companion doors and slide, which were immediately recognised »8 having belonged to the s.s. Tauranga. The boat seemed to have had some persons in her, as there was no damage done to her otherwise than her being bulged on the sand. M>'« Dwyer states that he has been a resident for 14 years at Pakiri, and has known se/eral mea to be drowned therein the surf, and that he knows of no single instance where any of the boaies have been washed ashore, or have ever afterwards been found, as the under-current is so great. He strongly suspects that persons must have been been in the boat, and that she has capsized. Mr Dwyer's sons go as far as Te Arai Point every day in the hopes of finding some of the bodies. The men then returned to Little Omaha. Oi: the 10th anchor was weighed, and the ivingleader steered for the Little Barrier, which was coasted within 40 or 50 yards. Parker and Cummius were put on shore, and they learned from the inhabitants that no portions of wreck had been seen. From thence they proceeded to Wellington Head, Great Barrier. Very heavy N.W. wind. Anchored at Tryphena Harbour for the night. Next day, at 2 p v m., made sail again, and arrived yesterday morning.

GREAT FLOODS IN THE WAIKATO. fSputbern Qross, August 1 •>.]

Our Hamilton correspondent's letter, in another column, refurs to the floods which has been Caused in the Waikato by the recent heavy rams. In addition to this, however, we have gathered some information from a gentleman who arrived in town from tho Waikato on Thursday evening. We learn that at Axmitage's, on tlie other side of Kaagiriri, the country adjacent to the river is inundated over an area of a mile aud,.a half. Quick's coaches, still contrive to get along, but only by dint of pluck and skilful driving. Tho Bridge Hotel (Leonard' s), at is partly submerged, and is surrounded by a complete lake, the river having overflowed tne low lands on its banks, extending up to the base of the hills. The settlers have been obliged to flee to the high ground, and the only tenants of the hotel when our informant passed were a nuin.ber of fowls, which

were roosting on the rid go of the roof. Jenkins' mill, at the foot of Meremere hill, was also partially submerged, and surrounded by the inundation. The flu* which had been spread out upon Iho wiredrying stage, was floating about in the water, and there is no doubt that a considerable amount of damage has been dono by the flood. The heavy rain yesterday, if it prevailed, in the IL'per Waikato, will have increased the volume of water in the Waikato river ; and we fear that the cattle and homesteads of the settlers will 6uifer considerably.

The Thames correspondent of the Daily Southern Cross writes under date August 12:—Touching the late lynching case, I h?ar that the victim is in a progressively favorable state, and also that he will scarcely be able to identify his tormentors, who, it seems, were carefully disguised. Of course the police, under indefatigable Mr Bullen, are doing all that lies in their power to unravel the mvstery, but I have not heard that anything has come of it. From the Auckland papers wo observe that*the sum of £475 had been collected towards the Tauranga Belief Fund up the 12th August. n Two disastrous landslips have recently occurred at the Thames, one at Hape Greek, and the other in the Kuranui Chilly. The latter was all but attended by results fatal to human life.

The key of the entrance to the reporters' gallery iu the House of Representatives having been lost, the door had to be broken open. The Post says ; —" Some hon. members from the North imagined that an earthquake was coming, but the general impression was that the building had succumbed to dry rot." Another awfully sudden death occurred in Auckland on the moaning of the 11th inst. An old man of sixty-nine years of age was found dead in his bed in a house off Vincent street. He had been for many years employed by the City Board as a street cleaner, arid appears to have been conscious of suffering from some internal disease, for he repeatedly cautioned the neighbors, that if he were not iistir at about eight o'clock any morning, they need not be surprised to find him dead. An inquest was held on the body on the 12th inst., and a verdict returned that deceased died by the visitation of God in an apo* plectic fit. The Thames Advertiser publishes the memorial to His Excellency the Governor, praying for a remission of the sentence passed on Mr H. Hadfield, late owner of the ketch Enterprise. It is being very numerously signed. At Grahamstowrl, 300 names were attached to it in a few hours. From the Grahanistown Evening Star we observe that, a singular accident occurred a few days ago near a place called Shoal Bay to a man who was occupied at gum-digging. A wild bullock rushed him unavyares, and in his endeavours to escape the beast, he stumbled, and the point of his gum spear pierced his body just below the ribs, and entered fully five inches. He was shortly afterwards conveyed to Auckland and placed in the hospital, where we hear he js slowly improving. The Nelson Examiner gives figures which show that the North Island, with a population of 97,800, returns 32 members; while the South Island, with a population of 152,200, returns 42 members. Auckland is worst off amongst all the provinces, having only one member to every 4,133 persons, while Taranaki has one to everv 1,600, and Wellington one to every 2,277. Otago and Southland have one to every 4,118 persous, and Hawke's Bay one to every 3,000.

On the 9th instant, the ps. Williams brought up to Auckland 3,355 ozs. of gold from the Thames, and oh the 12th instant, the same vessel brought up 4,855 ozs. From the Thames we learn that a sort of tremor is affecting the mining world just now. One of tlie periodical fits of doubting has fallen upon speculators, and in, consequence transferring right and left has been the order of the day. Recent wet weather has stopped work iu many of the claims.

The Thames correspondent of the Daily Southern Cross writes to say that on the 12th inst. " an information was laid against. the master of one of our models of marine architecture, for neglecting to keep a light burning last night on board his craft, when she was at anchor in the fairway." We observe that one of the most daring acts of burglary which has for some lime past been perpetrated in Auckland was committed at the Queen's Hotel, Upper Symonds street, about 3 a.m. on the 7th instant. The following is from the Evening i\ows : —<' It appears that some persons eiiected an entrance into the hotel by taking wut one of the large panes of glass which face Grafton road. The thieves helped, themselves to the contents of the till, which, fortunately, however, were small, —and as. mucti of the stock as they could conveniently carry,—and then made their exit by the front door. The pane of glass was replaced, but the door was left open. Aa yet there is no clue to the miscreants, but the police arc making diligent search, and we trust they will be shortly brought to. justice, and receive the reward merited." Under the heading "Oysters," tue .New Zealand Herald of a recent date makes, the following remarks : —" If steps are not taken, and that speedily, to stop the wholesale destruction of rock oysters, afc present being carried on on tlie neighbouring coast, tne inhabitants of this city will iu a few years iind the price of those delicious bivalves at a height hitherto undreamt of. The oyster is just the kind of native whose disappearance would be universally regretted, it is alike a luxury to the poor niau and the rich, and is a dish

to be found on every table. From the enormous quantities weekly landed at the wharf we should gues9 the consumption to be immense. How widely would the ces fiation of supplies be feit, let the consumers judge. At the present moment the islands between this port and the Thames, as well as the Coromandel coast, in many places are completely stripped. Many of the men who bring up oysters act in such a reckless manner in their method of loading their boats that they desolate whole beds of fish, and render them utterly unproductive for years. The instrument used by these id lows is a spade, and thus armed thry go down to an oyster bed at low water, and shovel off the fish wholesale. The large, saleable oysters are then picked out and the smaller ones left to perish, for when the rock oyster is removed from his natural hold, he is bound to die. The proper method which is employed by most of the men who have fished here for years, is to pick off the saleable oysters only, with a small hand pick, without disturbing the young shells, which thus get room to grow .and rapidly become fit for use. In 1866, an Act was passed for the protection of oyster bods, but that act does not apply to rock oy ters. Some steps, however, should at once be taken to put a stop to the pre* sent wasteful svstem, which will soon .bring oysters to 12s and 16s per bag. Even now it is not easy to get large fish in any .quantity nearer than the Barrier, and as the town enlarges, the demand rapidly outruns the supply. We would suggest that every fishing boat should be compelled to pay a license, which should be liable to forfeiture in the event of any case being proved of improper fishing. Eegulations .should be made, as to the size of *he meshes of nets, and other matters to which at present we have no space to refer. We believe that the mere fact of the license would be a sufficient' protection to the .oyster beds at present, since we are credibly informed that the wilful destruction to wuich we have referred, is carried on by others than the professional fishermen of Auckland."

Speaking of the San Francisco Mail route, the .New Zealand Herald, in its monthly summary, published on the (kh instant, says; Auckland to Sydney on the subject of the Port of Call for the steamers on the San Francisco Mail Route has returned, with the news that the Sydney Chamber is strongly in favour of Auckland—one member stating that more business was done with Auckland in a year than with all the rest of the colony in twenty years. The Government of .New Soutti Wales has, therefjre, been urged to subsidise Mr Hall's line to the extent of £IO,OOO, and there is no doubt that this will be done. One thing is certain ; Mr Hall is estab hilled in the line, and has got, or will get, as targe subsidies as are at all likely to be grained by any of the Australian Colonies to any line of steamers. Tne fact is, that the t. and O. Company's vessels fulfil all the real requirements of Melbourne, and even Sydney is disposed to look upon the American route as rather an expensive luxury. New Zealand is the only colony .that receives a (considerable benefit from tne lino at present. j>ew Zealand inaugurated it, and pays a larger subsidy than any otrfer colony ; and we are, therefore, inclined to look upon the line as peculiarly our own."

The Balla ra j; Star contains an advertising announc eme nt of a reward of £IO,OOO iur the discovery of the agent who inserted certain adve r ti se rnents in the newspapers some years back respecting one Greorge Huston M u j rj of Kirkwall, Orkney. We are inforin e( j that the person offeiing this large reward claims to be the veritable <Greorge Huxton Muir referred to in those old advertisements, and that he further claims to be beir to large estates both in Italy and Scotland, and also to very large accumulations of money, and what is more wonderful still, to a dukedom in Italy and a baronetcy in Cheat Britain. The claim is made through his mother, whose maiden name was Huxton. The matter seems to •be enveloped in some little obscurity, in .consequence, as Muir asserts, of his long residence (about 25 years) in the Colonies, having left Kirkwall when he was sixteen years of age, and from his whereabouts being unknown to his friends at home. It £3eins, however, that Muir was long resident and well known in the Smythesdale .district, carrying on business as a storekeeper there, and was much respected as a shrewd and honorable man. In 1803 -i tie went to Queensland, and whilst there heard from different quarters that he had been advert sed for in the Melbourne papers. It seems that he was so advertised fur by the Jestimouy of several of his acquaintances who saw the advertisements.

The House of Lords has rejected the bill to legalize marriage with a deceased wife' s sister, by the narrow majority of 4—77 lion-contents to 73 contents. Lord Houghton, Lord Lifford, Lord Luiisdowne, Lord Xiinberley, Lord Westbury, Lord Grranvi)le, and the Bishop of Bipon, supported the Bid; the Duke of iVJ.a>jburough, the Puke of Argyll, Lord Harrowby, Lord Lyveden, Lord Hatherley, and the Bishops of Ely, Lincoln, and Peterborough, opposed it The most graphic incident of the debate was a Scriptural exegesis by Lord Westbury, who dearly loves to lecture the Bishops oil their own themes, partiy, perhaps, from the consciousness that he is held lighter vanity itself by the Episcopal Bench, He improved the occasion to them on then* Joo.se methods of juterpreting Scripture, and especially refuted a view ol the Bishop oH Ely's as to a marginal reading forbidding polygamy, which that prelate prefers to ttie text of Leviticus as it stjjucta. Lord Westbury grew very elo-

quent in demonstrating the Jewish practice of polygamy—so eloquent that it looked like admiration—asking, with almost the melancholy of a bon vivant in recalling a feast of other days, " was it not one of the rewards of David that he received the wives of Saul ia a lump?" Lord Hathorley was very bitter and earnest against the bill, insisting on the identification of the wife and husband, and the necessity, for the sake of the purity of domestic life, of their viewing each other's relatives as absolutely their own—to which Lord Granville aptly replied that in that case two brothers must not marry two sisters, as, after the first marriage, the sister of the wife and the brother of the husband must be regarded as brother and sister. The importance attached to the language of the book of Leviticus throughout the debate was to our minds something marvellous. ' That the regulations imposed by Moses ' on the marriages of a wandering Syrian tribe should be supposed to have incor- | porated an everlasting truth is to us hardly credible. We might just as well adopt, as political divinity the provisions for the Cities of Befuge.—Spectator. May 21.

The Melbourne Argus says:—We have news from the Cape of Good Hope to 7th June. The only item of interest in the papers we have is an account of a rather note-worthy ceremony, that of the Cape Mounted Eifles, now disbanded, depositing their standards in St. George's Cathedral, there to remain as honorable memorials of the gallant corps which had so long creditably borne them. The Cape Argus, referring in a leading article to the " touching ceremonial,' remarks : —" Other regiments strike their tents to pitch them again elsewhere, but the Cape Corps has ceased to exist, and the half funeral ceremonial with which they bade farewell to the Cape, and left all that remains of their old glory in the keeping of the Church, symbolizes more than anything the break-up of the whole military camp in South Africa. Henceforth the British army, wherever it may achieve glory, is to be nothing to the Cape, it may and will survive in the memory of the colonists much as the fading standards of the disbanded corps will be seen week after week by the congregation at St. George's. But that is all. Its work is done j and it was almost impossible to forbear the enquiry, as the tramp of the last soldier was heard in the Cathedral aisle, whether the disbanding of the corps did not forshadow the narrowing of British influence and the decline of British power. Kngland will not, like ancient Borne, be a prey to the power and discipline she herselt created ; but she may suffer from a too v.reat eagerness to withdraw her own authority from remote dependencies, and discourage the spirit of energy and enterprise which has planted her flag under every sky, and brought the members of almost every tribe on earth under her sway."

The locomotive drawing the train due at Poughkeepsie at 2 3D p.m., recently, met with quite an episode near Jfishkill, N.Y. The train was a Utile behind time, and was running faster than usual in consequence thereof. After leaving the " rock cuts " uorth of Fishkill, the engineer observed a strange-looking object on the track, some distance ahead, in a crouching position. Eyeing it cLsely, he observed it move and rise up till it assumed the form of a woman. He blew the alarm whistle, shut off steam, and prepared to stop, when four boys rushed toward the woman and dragged her from the rails. She tore herself from them, and again reached the track laying her neck on the rail. Again the lads pulled her away, and again she went back. A third time they dragged her away by her heels breaking the hold of her hands, which convulsively clutched the rail. The last time they pulled her away they held her fast till the train passed slowly by, thus saving her life. The most determined boy was a negro lad, who is employed by a Mr Collins. It did not appear who the woman was. She was aparently about thirty-five years of age. Her basket was left on the track, and was run over. She had nothing on her but a shawl.

The following instance of bad copy being a remedy for " a cough " is too good to be lost. The celebrated actor and manager, Macready, wrote a very illegible hand, and his free admissions to the theatre were extraordinary productions. He had one day given one of them to a friend for a third party. On the latter receiving it he remarked, " If I had not known what it was, I should have taken it for a doctor's recipe." " You are right," resumed my friend; "It looks exactly like it; Jet us try our luck with it." "Be it so ; let us get the draught made up." They go to '.he nearest apothecary's, and hand the paper to the assistant. He throws a quick glance over it, and fills a phial from various bottles; another glance, another ingredient, and the bottle is half full. Tnen a dubious pause ensues: the assistant is obviously puzzled, and scratches his head. Finally he disappears through a partition, behind which the proprietor is seated. The latter, a profoundly learned-looking man, appears at the counter. A short low dialogue takes place, in consequence of which the chief peruses the document. He shakes his head evidently at the ignorance of the assistant, fetches another bottle down, and finally fills the phial with an apocryphal liquid, corks, and labels it in proper form. Taereupon he hands it to the expectant gentleman with a friendly smile; "Here is the cough mixture, which is apparently very good. I'ifteenpence if you please." There is no country in the world where co-operation and mutual help among settlers are more wanted than in Mew Zealand, and none where they are so little practised.-—Weekly News.