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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 1019, 17 May 1871, Page 2

As the English mail was due in Melbourne on Thursday last, 11th instant, telegrams may now be looked for here at any moment.

The Herald this morning published a summary of the month's news for the benefit of Home readers. We read that at Te Haupapa, a settlement of Te Kooti's, the expedition under liapata and Capt. Porter "found some guns, watches, and other curiosities." "We fancy the surprise of English readers at this singular discovery. Will they not picture a horde of barbarous colonists descending upon a village of highlycivilized rebels, and gazing with amazement, for the firso time, upon Much " curiosities" as guns and watches ! The last joke of our morning contemporary is really too good. "We have much pleasure in calling attention to the fact that the first reading of the recently-formed " Napier Reading Club " is fixed for Friday evening next, in the Masonic Hall.

The steamer Wellington, it will be observed, is announced to steam for Auckland to moirow.

A new way of paying old debt* lias been discovered in Wanganui. A Mr. Chad wick, an auctioneer, in announcing a sale of stock, incited his creditors to attend, and make purchases to the amount of their accounts.

An exchange records the following singular phenomenon :—Two gentlemen recently met in the street, and for some unaccountable reason immediately began walking into each other / Numerous passers by witnessed the miraculous performance with the utmost astonish ment.

As an instance of the value of land in Otago, we may mention that, some few days ago, a block, coutaitfing 11 acres, 2 roods, being section 5, block 1, Upper Kaikorai district, was sold by auction at Dunedin for £1,065, or ,£92 an acre.

The sea is making rapid encroachments again on the north beach at Westport, and many arc of opinion that the north end of Gladstone-street will be washed away this winter. The Presbyterian Church on Lambton Quay, Wellington, had a narrow escape from destruction a few nights ago, through a lighted chandelier falling to the floor, and the consequent ignition of the kerosine. Prompt assistance rendered by the police enabled the man who was lighting up to extinguish the flame.

The Wanganui Herald of a recent date has the following interesting para graph :—The late gale caused a gieat deal of injury to vegetation by carrying with it salt spray, which has withered up the leaves of plants. Mr Williamson, of St. John's Nursery, noticed its effects on the ilax leaf, and found that it produced a chemical effect which enabled him to bare the fibre with his hand, leaving it in that silky and glossy state so much desired by those engaged in the trade He has communicated the result of his discovery to Dr Hec tor, and we may soon expect to hear the test hay been applied, and the result,

A writer in the Nelson Mail says :—■ Those portions of a newspaper that are devoted to news are not the only ones from which information of an interesting nature is to be derived, and I had occasion last Saturday to revert to the advertising columns for a topic on which to discourse, where I found a notification that a carg© of corn and other farm produce had been imported into the province, while our own agriculturists complained of the difficulty they had in getting rid of that which they had on hand—nnd hare I may mention that the whole of that cargo has been disposed of—and now I see another advevtisment which is singular and unaccountable, to say the least of it. Here it is—" Tvveniy-six shillings per ton for Newcastle coals; thirty shillings per ton for Grey coals," from which it will be observed that this very necessary article can be transported something like 2,000 miles, and sold here at a considerably lower rate than that which is to be found in abundance and of equally good quality, within our province. I called the attention of a friend to this yesterday, who, with an ominous shake of the head, replied, " There's something wrong somewhere." 1 think so too.

Comment has frequently been made on the claws of persons to whom Her Majesty's Commission of the Peace is entrusted in this Colony, and the ease with which people iv thus favored clime can shuffle off their liabilities by passing through the Bankruptcy Court. In most countries bankruptcy is thought to unfit a man for exercising the duties of a magistrate or tilling any political office, but that this rule does not applyhere may. be judged from the following caption to a notice to creditors clipped from the Bankiupicy columns of the Otago Daily Times :—"ln Bankruptcy : In tie Supremo. Court of New Zealand, (Jtngo and Southland District. In the Estate of Edward M Glashan, Esquire, one of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the Colony of New Zealand, and at present a Member of ihe Provincial Council of Otago."—Evening Post.

The Melbourne papers recently noticed a new invention patented in Victoria, and called the " Patent Syruping Pump and Gravitating Bottle Stopper for iErated Waters" The pump supplies the required quantity of syrup into each bottle at the same time that the bottle is tilled with aerated water. The stopper is the principal part of the invention; it is self acting from within the bottle, closses the bottle when it is full by the pressure of the gaseous liqid from within, and is opened by giving it a tap on the top, when, being made of heavy wood, it sinks to the bottom of the bottle; it never -wears out, and does away with cotk, wire, string, &c. The right of using it in New Zealand has been purchased by Messrs. Thompson and Co., of Dunedin and Oamaru.

The Canterbury Flax Association have resolved to publish in a pamphlet form the information collected by them with reference to the Hax industry.

According to the last Census, the 'population of the Province of Marlborough was 5,235 —3,235 males and 2,000' females.

A voter of retiring habits in the Wairarapa district thus state? hi-* experience of the ballot system at the late iSupeiintendencj election: —"Eh man! I was fear'd till vote by this new fancied ballot system until I found out that a' a body had to dae w-as to scait oot the hindmost name on the bit paper."

The late Secretary to the Treasury in the United States gives the following unexceptionable testimony as to the iil effects of protection upon wages. He shows, from data collected from an* theniic souicet- in all parts of the Union, tha f while under protection, the average advance in wages had not exceeded 60 pti cent., the cost of living to the working man had been enhanced to the extent of 90 per cent. "Tn other words," said he, " the workmen of the country obtaining the mere necessaries and none of the luxuries of life, were in a worse condition by 27 dollars a-year in 1867, with receipts of 9 dollars 54 cents per week, than they were in 1860-1, with receipts of 6 dollars 4 cents per week,''