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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 899, 22 December 1870, Page 2

Intelligence was received in Auckland on the 16th instant of a boat accident, by which two Europeans are supposed to have met their death. It appears that the two men, who were sawyers, left Ngururu for Matapou, a short time back. The boat has since been picked up near Ngururu, but nothing has, from the time of their starting, been heard of the two men,"who it is feared have been capsized, and so met a watery grave. The Moniteur Beige "contains the following : —" The powder magazine SantoSpirito, at Venice, containing no less than 300,000 kilos (fully 300 tons) of gunpowder, was struck by lightning the other day. The electric discharge fortunately fell on the lightning conductor, the platinum point of which was molten and the rod split, and twisted, but no other damage was sustained. The quantity of powder present, if exploded, would go far to lay iu ruins tea cities of the size of Venice." The Wellington Independent records the following freak of nature as having occurred at Wairarapa : —Last week one of Mr T. Keinpton's cows calved, the calf having one of its ears marked as if by art; and last year the same cow dropped a calf similarly ear-marked. The matter, though a trivial one, is worthy of the attention of the naturalist. The road-steamer in Duuedin recently drew a wagon filled with men and boys at a speed of seven miles an hour. It also drew seven large trucks, each weighing 2 tons. Notwithstanding that the trucks were crowded with people, the steamer moved over the natural surface of the ground even more steadily than if no load had been attached. A curious petition has been presented to Queen Victoria, signed by more than 2,500 women and girls, employed in the art of bookbiuding, setting forth the great loss and privation they suffer by the stoppage of the trade in prayer books and church services, in consequence of the withdrawal of the Table of Lessons bill last session. They pray her Majesty to cause it to be introduced into Parliament at the earliest possible moment.

The Wairarapa correspondent of the Wellington Independent, under a recent date, writes: —Our mountain ranges are now covered with snow, and on Saturday night a mingled storm of rain, hail, and sleet, swept over the valley. Such weather at Christmas tide in the Southern hemisphere, is surely unusual; but it is accompanied with one advantage, for it gives no chance to the mosquitos, which are usually the most numerous and busy at this season of the year. At Melbourne, a man named Thomas Battey, a currier, died a few days ago from excessive drinking. Deceased had a three weeks' indulgence—first in excessive quantities of brandy, followed by the consumption of at least a gallon of colonial wine per day. A fortnight of the time mentioned, deceased spent in bed, but his wife, who appears to have acted in a callous and unfeeling manner, supplied the unfortunate man with the liquor up to the moment of his death. The Waitakere correspondent of the Southern Cross writes the following, under date Dec. 16:—The native womap Kitty, who some few weeks since eloped with a Hauhau, has been captured, and is now doing penance for her misdeeds. The mode of punishment adopted by her husband not being without some interest, as showing the manners and customs of the natives in such little amatory mishaps, I will relate it: Kitty and her favoured lover had travelled as far as Kakamatua, and had been there some weeks when they were discovered by some of Thompson's friends who had been in chase. The Hauhau, who seems to have tired of the lady, quietly acquiesced in the wishes of the pursuers, who proceeded to. tie her with a stout rope, and brought her back to Waitakere, taking three days to do the journey. Kitty, who stoutly resisted, was sadly damaged, and presented rather a melancholy picture on arrival, her treatment by the captors not being such as would meet with the approval of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Thompson was delighted at her return, but Kitty, with many expressions of hatred, refused to have anything more to do with him, saying he was only the ghost of a man. He retorted by calling her a devil of a woman, and proceeded to exercise his martial authority by giving her a sound ihrashiug, answering the expostulations of a pakeha by saying he did it out of pure love and affection. Since then she has been a close prisoner, the monotony of her existence being only relieved by the application at short intervals of a decent-sized tea-tree stick. At night, to prevent her escape, she is securely fastened with rope, and presents an appearance more resembling a welltrussed chicken thau a pretty Maori girl. Her objection to Thompson on the ground that he was only the ghost of a man was not out of place, as the old fellow is worn to a shadow; and it is about even betting Which event comeß off fit st, the death of the old man from grief, or that of the woman from the severity of the measures taken by him to regain her affections. The Gladstone (Queensland) Observer says: —Within a mile or two of Calliope diggings there is a watercourse, which in ordinary seasons has a well-filled hole of clear, cool water, in tempting proximity to the road. Many a thirsty traveller has turned aside here to moisten his parched lips with nature's purest beverage. A few weeks ago, a lady equestrian stopped at this spot, dismounted, and took a beaker of the refreshing liquid. But through the pellucid water there glittered something, which at once diverted the lady's gaze from the reflection other own beautiful (of course) eyes. What is this —yellow, heavy —it must be gold. And such it proved—a handsome seven-ounca nugget. The poor fellows who drank so ofteu at the same spot, and failed to see this nugget, have not failed to apostrophise, in sanguinary and withering terms, their defective visual organs. Who can wonder at their chagrin when talking of their ill-luck to each other; or at their forced congratulations while in the company of the lucky lady ? Dame Fortune is a fickle jade, but not usually credited with the disposition to favor her own, sex. The Southern Cross says that the Arawas and the Ngaiterangis at Tauranga had a quarrel recently. It would appear that several of them had contrived to prime themselves with stimulants to such a degree that they were •' fit for treasons,

stratagems, and strife;" and an Arawa and Ngaiterangi having got into bigh words, the former struck the other. This was of course the signal for a general weUe, in the midst of which Mr Swan, of the Armed Constabulary, was knocked down and severely injured. Several natives were also injured, and it is feared that more than one case will result fatally. Ultimately the contending parties were separated. Amongst the discussions on the question of England's mediating in the present European struggle, the expressed opinions of Sir Henry Bulwer, as a trained and eminent diplomatist, have attracted a large share of attention. In a second letter to the Times, advocating English mediation, Sir H. Bulwer thus defines the present situation :—" Two millions of human beings are to be starved or bombarded, and the works which it has required the art, tne wit, the genius, and gradual civilisation of centuries to produce may be lost to mankind. And for what ? To obtain the assent of five or six gentlemen, whose authority to give it is disputable, to the cession of some distant territory and fortresses which have been taken, or are being taken, or will probably be taken without this dreadful tragedy to desecrate the deed." Sir H. Bulwer has clearly in his own mind the form which mediation should take, but is loth to state it, because he is convinced that you often mar a negotiation by stating crudely and broadly in the first instance the result you desire to arrive at. " Still," he continues, •« I do think that I see a position in which the neutral powers might place themselves —a position sufficiently advantageous to both the belligerents to obtain from each some not unwilling surrender of conflicting pretensions. But (Sir Henry proceeds) this is not the time for entering into details, nor will I now presume to prescribe any particular course conceruiug them to the able men to whose judgment we have, in -a certain degree, confided the conduct of England at this crisis. If they think, on their terrible responsibility, that peace can be attained without our interference ; if they think it can be arrived at by our interference, exercised iu the most mild, invisible manner; if they think that the .present moment is not the best to speak, And see through the gloom which obscures the public view the moment when our voice may be more advantageously raised, though every minute that is lost with the dreadful prospect before our eyes seems to me an eternity, still even up to this point I will defer to their authority. But if, on the verge of horrors at the mere thought of which Christianity and civilisation shudder, it is deliberately determined that the morality of Great Britain is to be that of a man who will see a fellow creature drown rather than run the risk of wetting his feet to save him —if, standing in view of an immeasurable calamity about to afflict the worldj»we are wrapped up in an unchangeable resolve to remain mute and motionless, without making an effort, without saying a word, to avert it —then, indeed, I cannot refrain from expressing my mournful apprehensions that the day is not far distant when God will withdraw from us a power we have not known how to use worthily, and that a policy so calculated to excite -disgust by its selfishuess, and contempt by irs cowardice, will be as fatal to our future interests as to our past renown." The Wellington Daily Advertiser says that the abolition of the Native'Office is a step urgently required. Its use may be questioned —though we scarcely think many will see the -necessity for considering that point—its expense is-undoubted ; and the iH-fovor wiih which it is looked upon by the Middle Island should be a very stroug reason in favor of its being swept away. The time is passed—if indeed it -ever came—when distinctions between loyal natives and European settlers should be recognised, and with disloyal natives, we should have nothing to do. Keeping them quiet and in.a state of quasi friendship by means of presents ana bribes is alike useless, expensive, and deragatory to the supremacy of the white .race in the Colony.