Untitled

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 1030, 31 May 1871, Page 2

The English Mail via Suez came to hand last night per Rangatira. Yesterday's proceedings in the Provincial Council were unimportant. Our report is unavoidably'deferred. Tlie v< Empire City'' was illuminated on the Queen's Birthday. For the first time, all the streets in the city were lighted. Following up the Permissive Bill, it is now proposed in Auckland to attempt to obtain a law prohibiting persons under age from smoking. A "commodious hotel" has been erected at that place of evil omen, Nukumai'u. Titokowaru will have some thing to loot when he makes his next raid. The flaxmills in the province of Marlborough, which had stopped during the spring and summer months, have now resumed operations. A man in Kansas City, Mo, is said to have a full set of furniture made of the tree on which his father was hung ten years a«o. The receipts on the Canterbury rail-* ways during the month of April last show an increase of ,£l3l 16s Bd, as compared with the corresponding month of 1870,

No sign of the mail telegrams via California up 10 the time we went to press. Early this month Mr H. Parkes, of Sydney, paid a \ isit to Hobart Town, and had an interview with the Government relative to Mr Hall's line of Californian steamers. His proposals were not favorably received. A Nelson journal states that the last crushing at the Culliford battery resulted in not 0110 particle of gold being obtained from twenty tons of quartz. In Nelson there was a *oice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning. The two half-caste youths, Albert Isaiah and William Wakefield, whose transmission to the industrial School after committin <; a criminal assault on a little girl near Invercargill, excited considerable indignation some time since, were, tried before his Honor Mr Justice Chapman at Invercargill on the 17th inst The jury found Isaiah guilty, but recommended him to mercy on account of his youth. Wakefield was acquitted, being under 14 years of age, but pleaded guilty to a charge of common assault. On the following day Isaiah was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labor (not on the roads), and Wakefield to six months' imprisonment without hard labor. The " oldest inhabitant," with one exception, of the colony of Tasmania has just died. The Hobart Town Mercury of the 16th in at, says : - " Our obituary notice records the decease of Mrs Martha Williamson, at the residence of her son in-law, Mr Thomas Devine, of Brown's- River. In the year 1803, sixty eight years ago, when this colony wa-s founded, the deceased, then Miss Hays, was the first white woman—or rather English young lady, for she was only seventeen —that set foot on the island, and this she effected after a playful contest for the honor with a less fortunate rival of her own sex, on the flat where it was at that time intended to establish the capital just below, the residence of Mr T. G. Gregson at or * Restdown,' as they named the spot in those days. With the exception of one lady who still survives, it is supposed that the deceased was the last of the immigrants who formed a first British settlement in the land we live in." It seems hardly credible, says the Argus, in these days of robbery and sharping that a lunatic could travel from Tasmania to Melbourne by steamer, and about the streets of Melbourne in a cab, with nearly £2OO in sovereigns loose in Ids pockets without, being robbed , yet such an experience occurred to a man in an unsound state of mind who was landed at the wharf yesterday. He asked a cabman to drive him from the wharf on which he was landed by the steamer Derwent, to the Melbourne Hospital, and on arrival there, after an examination, he was found to be a more lit subject for the Lunatic Asylum. The cabman, who had been waiting on the chance of getting his fare, drove the man at last to the watch ho use, where he was locked up on a charge of lunacy, caused, it was supposed, by drink, and on his being searched it was found that he had loose in his pockets £l7O in sovereigns and half sovereigns, and something more in silver, after the cabman had paid his fare- From papers found in the man's possession it was surmised that his name was Samuel Erdis, and that he had kept a public house in New Zealand, and had al*o passed an exam ination as engineer on board the Wonga Wonga. He said he came from Otago to Launceston, and i hence to Melbourne by the Derwent, but his mind seemed quite gone, and he was unable to give any coherent account of himself. He was examined by doctors, and being pronounced insane, was sent to the Yarra Bend Asylum by Mr Str.rfc, P.M., his money being sent with him. The agents of the steamer were communicated with, and informed that if warned within seven days of the lauding, the captain of the steamer is subject to. a penalty for bringing a lunatic iiv.o the colony if he does not take the man back, and to do this now it will be necessary to get him out of the asylum, at considerable trouble and expense. The agents agreed that the n»an should be shipped back again,

Those dreadful birds, the sparrows, are reported to have " sacked dry " live acres of vines near Melbourne, " having waited until the fruit was ripe to commence their operations." A preliminary meeting has been held in Melbourne with the view of forming a Vacuum Process Meat Preserving Company. 11 was not well attended. Jamaica, the fortification of which, has been ordered, is, it is announced, to be made the"chief British naval station. in the West Indies. The belief is genera] that the strengthening of the defences of Jamaica has been prompted by a fear of the United States acquiring San Domingo as a naval station. We learn from the Canterbury Press that a tine trout was found dead a few days ago in the river Avon, near Riccarton, close to where a number were liberated by the Acclimatisation Society more than two years ago. An examination of the fifth, was made by Doctora Powell and Nedwill, in order to ascertain the cause of death. The examine ation revealed a slight wound in.one of the gills, the supposition being that the fish was killed by a shag. The Evening Post, May 22, says : The remains of William Taylor, late warrant officers' steward on board IT.M.S. Virago, and who was drowned by the upsetting of one of the ship's boats on the 4th inat., were interred with military honors yesterday. The bocU r , when found, was removed to the Clyde Hotel, and it was from thence that the funeral started, Shortly after 2 o'clock, the various volunteer corps fell in on the green near the Albion Hotel, and inarched from there to the Clyde Hotel. The coffin, covered by a

Union Jack, was thence placed upon, the carriage of one of the Artillery Co.'s. guns, drawn by a detachment of the corps. The Artillery, No. 1 Company W.R.V., and Veteran Corps were drawn up in. two lines, facing inwards. The Veterans furnished a tiring party, and the Garrison and Artillery Band* were present. The filing parly, of course, headed the procession, hi arching with arms reversed, then came the g:\iu. carriage with i*he corpse, and then the bands playing the Dead March. Aa these pas-ed through the lines, the men faced inwards, closed up, and followed, the Veterans first, No 1 Company next, then the Artillery, and in the year theofficers and noncommissioned officers, juniors being in front. Marching two deep, the various companies being in strength, the solemn procession was a long one, and marhing in slow time it took something upwards of an hour to reach the cemetery. The streets along the line of march were thronged with people, and every available spot of standing room in the cemetery, commanding a view of the grave, was occupied. At the gate the coffin was removed from the gun can iage and carried by some of the Artillery. The Ven. Archdeacon Stock performed the funeral service, and the small mortuary chapel was crowded to excess. After the service was concluded, the customary volleys were fired, and then the volunteers reformed outside the cemetery, and marched back to the reclaimed land, where they were dismissed. The whole of the proceedings were exceedingly well managed, and the way in which the volunteers and public turned out to take part in them, showed how highly esteemed the officers and men of the Virago are by the people of this city. Everyone deeply regretted that the last day of the ship's stav in our harbor was marked by so sad an accident as the drowning of two of her crew, and the recovery of William Taylor's body, after the departure of his shipmates, yesterday affoided the citizens of Wellington an opportunity of showing their respect tor the service to which the deceased belonged, as well as their friendly feelings towards the men belonging to the Virago in particular. The funeral yesterday was in every respect a public one, and it meant more than such funerals generally do —From the same journal we learn that the body of the boy Smith, who was drowned at the same time as Taylor, was found on the morning of the 22nd instant, on the beach near the Maori Pa, Te Am. It was in a very mutilated condition, thehead, arms, and limbs being missing. 'J he remains were interred on. the afternoon of the 23rd instant with militarv honor."-.