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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 932, 1 February 1871, Page 2

George Dyer, the self-accused murderer of George Wilson, at the Loddon, Victoria, in 1857, whose arrival in Melbourne we recently noticed, was before the magistrates at Castlemaine, and committed for trial.

A Scottish clergyman happening to go. into the churchyard while the beadle was employed, neck deep, in digging-a grave, thus accosted him, " Well, Saunders, that's a work you're employed in well calculated to make an old man like you thoughtful. I wonder you don't repent your evil ways." The old digger restetj on his spade, and taking a pinch of snuff, replied, "I thocht, sir, ye kent there was na repentance in the grave." . It is stated that an officer belonging to. the U.S. ship Plymouth, lying in the Southampton Water, received a letter from a brother officer belonging to the Shenandoah, which was reported lost, stating she has arrived at Lisbon dismasted, and with loss of one or two of her boats.

Ten dead bodies, part of the crew of the ship Sidney, lost on the Donegal coast in a late gale, have been washed ashore on the coast of Derry. A large portion of her cargo has also been washed in thirty miles from where the wreck occurred.

The Emperor of Austria has ordered Baron Kubeck, the Austrian Minister at Florence, to ask for a special audience from the King, with the view of congratulating his Majesty upon the election of the Due d'Aosta to the Spanish throne.

A few days ago a marvellous race of a deer took place in the parish of Latheron. The animal was first started about Munsary, from which it ran to the neighborhood of Lybster, whence • it pursued its way to towards Lathornwheel, when a chase against it was attempted in right earnest. Running along the seashore, it reached the headland known as Port Ormine, which is about 180 feet high. There the startled animal-with one bound precipitated itself into the sea, and .instead of being killed or even stunned by the leap, it at once swam seawards, and, at a distance of two miles, was picked up by a Dunbeath crew, who fastened a rope round the animal's neck, and towed it ashore quite as lively looking as. when it bounded over Port Ormine.

A Southern contemporary writes :—r " The natives employed in the erection of the telegraph line between Tauranga aud Taupo. are receiving pay at 10s to 15s per day. This, too, when hundreds of idle men are almost begging for bread in the streets of Auckland. 13ut then —they are only white people."

The Aberdeen-built clipper Thermopylae, which left Foo-chow lor London on July 30, passed through the Downs on Nov. 11, thus making the passage in 104 days. The Greenock-built and owned clipper Sir Lancelot, which left Foo-chow for London on the 2nd August, passed through the Downs ou Nov. 11, thus making the passage in 102 days. These are the two first sailing snips of the season from Foo-Chow with this season's! teas; aud it is notable that the Sir? Lancelot, which last year beat the Thermopylae by two clear days on the same voyage, should again this year have carried oil the blue ribbon from the same competitor.

The death of Mr John Fraser, of In* verness, Scotland, is announced. Pie will be remembered by all Invernessiaus at home and abroad as the " Black Sodger." He came of a rare old fighting race of Highlanders.

Two tons of quartz and stone brought from the Never Despair Gold Mining Company's claim was crushed at Makara on the 23rd January, but the result is, not known, as the amalgam has not yet been retorted. The two tons were crushed in four hours. This is quick work for a small machine, and if the amalgam should yield anything like what would expect from its appearance, the one shareholders in the Never Despair would have reason to be joyful. —Wellington Independent.

STEAMSHIPS AND STEAMING RULES. g IT cHELL's Maritime Register of 23rd Sept., in aK article under the above head- . jt comments at some length on the case Jvhich was heard at the Police Court at Auckland some time ago, and in which (he master of the p,s. Williams was fined £IOO on the information of the master of the p.s. Royal Alfred for a breach of the regulations for preventing accidents at s ea" After reviewing the evidence, the Register proceeds :—" We do not see what object the master of the Williams could have in coming across the bows of the Koy al Alfred, where the space was equal to the whole Frith of the Thames, when the latter was a meeting ship in an opposite direction. Had the steamers here mentioned been pursuing the same course, and one overtaking and passing the other, we could understand the force of the observations; but unless it could be proved that the larger ship, by standing across the bows of the other, did so for the purpose of retarding the latter's passage or disabling her, the comments were not applicable. There may, however, have been some animus existing between the masters of the rival ships, prohably known to the colonial authorities, and, if so, it was their duty to protect the lives of those who took passage by the vessel of either line. To us at the Antipodes the report reads like a plain straightforward case, when divested of antagonistic views. Taking the evidence of the ships' crews as oiir guide, we find that two steamers in a broad channel were approaching each other in opposite directions at night. By an Order in Council of the 30th July, 1868, the supplementary expiations of Articles 11 and 13, the simultaneous action of port helm is held not to apply by night to cases where the red light of one ship is opposed to the red light of another, or where the green light of one ship is opposed to the weeu light of another, or where a red light without a green light, or a green light without a red light, is. seen ahead, or where both green and red lights are seen anywhere but ahead. The rule of port helrj 3 at night, to two meeting ships, applies only when the green and red lights are both visible. According to the evidence adduced on behalf of the Williams, the green light only of the Royal Alfred was discernible ; and had this point been firmly established, by independent testimony, the Court could not, consistently with the rules, have pronounced against"her master. There must have, however, been some prevaricating evidence to discredit the defendant's case, though we fail to see it in the minutes. The seaman who was on the look-out on board the Williams averred the Royal Alfred was seen on the starboard bow, and that, if she had held her course, she must have passed from 400 to 500 yards off. The red light of the Royal Alfred —if the ships were positively on a line of keel—may have been obscured from some object, or badly screened; if so, the master of the Williams is punished for paying too much attention to the strict fulfilment of the rules. When Captain Marks, the pilot of the Williams, saw the Royal Alfred coming round to starboard, under a port helm, he thought, it is said, the lattei* needed assistance, and so brought the ship round to render help, if necessary. Taking for granted that the rival antipathies did not extend to the bench, we fail to reconcile the judgment with the Regulations. We have always condemned the indefensible practice of running across another ship's bows, but Captain Marks, it appears, did not starboard until the other vessel's helm was ported. In the first instance, the Williams, having the Royal Alfred to starboard, was bound to give way, and the last should have held her course. _ If, however, those on board the Williams should have seen both side lights of the Royal Alfred, and could not, from some unexplained cause, see but one, then the master of the former was clearly in fault. Starboarding, however, to a red light is nut good seamanship, except under circumstances of emergency."