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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 833, 5 October 1870, Page 3

The boating season commenced in Lyttelton on the 25th uit. Nearly all the clubs in the province were represented, and about one hundred oarsmen ttok part. We learn from the Wanganui Chronicle that the flax mill recently erected at the Duck Ponds by Mr Ritchie, was totally destroyed by fire a few davs ago. A spark from the flue of the chimney was carried by the wind into some i flammable matter, igniting the same, and the flames soon spread all over the premises. The portable engine was saved, but the value of the other property destroyed is estimated at £2so.—From a later issue of the Chronicle we learn that the mill was again in working order five days alter the fire. Every branch of industry has at times to battle against adversity, and farming forms no exception to the rule." At present complaints ai-e coming from all quarters about the low prices of farm produce, the comparatively high rates of labour, and the bad roads, with no present indications of any change for the better. Under the existing circumstances, the farmer naturally asks, " How are we to make ends meet ? " The reply is, to adopt better xn thods of culture, and concentrate the labour on fewer acres, plough deeper, and manurj more, so ts to produce maximum crops, and by this means lessen the cost of producing. The expeise-i'f cultivating will be the satne, whether the yield is 15 or 300 or 50 bushels per acre,

We observe from the Auckland papers that a young man named George Marshall was accidentally drowned in the Kanwaeranga creek on the 23rd ult, through his horse getting into a hole in the stream, and throwing his rider.

Mr James Osgood, licensed victualler, Melbourne, and formerly of Dunedin and Wellington, has filed a declaration of. insolvency in the former citv. Liabilities, £1,473 16s 7d; assets, £1,043 lis 3d ; deficit, £430 ss-4d. A Northern paper says another triumph for the Bay of Islands coal is to be found in the result of its use at the Freeman's Bay Glass Works. Mr Wiltbew says that by using Kawakawa coal, he can fuse his materials in 15 hours, whilst with the English coal (in England) a period of from thirty to thirty-six hours is required to effect the same object. We (Timaru Herald) regret to report the death of a man named John Brown, a shepherd in the employ of Messrs. Dark Bros., Mackenzie Country, who was found dead in the snow on the run of his employers on Lake Pukaki on the 4th ult. It appears that the deceased went away from his nut some time towards the end of August for the purpose of getting some sheep out of the snow, but was not missed for days afterwards. His body was found near the Wild Irishman bush, and it is supposed that the poor fellow died from exhaustion. Mr J. E. Fitz Gerald delivered a lecture in the Presbyterian Church, Willis street, Wellington, on the 26th ult., which the Independent describes as being " the most philosophical and eloquent we have ever heard on the subject of ' Government' " ; and expresses a hope that "the talented lecturer will take some way of giving a larger audience the benefit of it than even his well-known ability attracted last night. Such a lecture demands the attention not of a meeting but of the colony." As some curiosity has been expressed as to the provisions of the new Bankruptcy Act Amendment Bill, we may state that they are of a purely formal character, merely providing for the transfer of insolvent estates from one trustee to another. As the bill passed thiough the Council, it was a very elaborate measure, altering the whole system, and providing, amongst other things, that no certificate of discharge should be granted under ordinary circumstances unless the estate paid ten shillings in the pound. In the House, Mr H aught on characterised the bill as one purely for the protection of creditors, and remarked that as the late bankruptcy returns to the conclusion that there were very few people in the Colony who had not passed through the Court, it would be unfair to deprive them of a fair chance. Apparently the House agreed with Mr Haughton, for it stru k out all the clauses except fjur, intended to meet a difficulty which had arisen in Auckland, where, on the official trustee being removed from office, it was found that,the estates vested in him could not be transferred to the management of his successor, and so some seventy or eighty insolvents were left without any management at all. The new act simply remedies this.—Evening Post. A coarse, ill-natured man died one day, and his friends assembled at the funeral, but no one had a good word to say for the deceased. At last a kind-hearted German, as he turned to go home, said, " Veil, he vas a good schmoker."