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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 1061, 6 July 1871, Page 2

During the past sixteen months the mining claims, occupying about 38 acres of Jones' Flat (West Coast) have paid in drainage i*ates more than £9OOO, and are now paying about ,£2OO a week. It is reported that the son of an English M.P, aged 19, who, for family reasons had been residing in the Isle of Man, recently fell in love with the granddaughter oi a publican in Douglas, and after a short courtship arranged for the wedding to take place at Kirk Braddan. Sunday morning, the 23rd ult., was the time fixed. All was ready, but it did not come off. The young sprig's guardian pro tern. — a police officer—telegraphed to England for instructions, and at eight o'clock on Sunday morning received a short telegram that the intended wedding should be stopped. The policeman guardian hurried off to Braddan Church, met the clergyman, to whom he handed the telegram, the vicar refused to tie the knot, and the M.P.'s son and the publican's granddaughter had to go back to Douglas two instead of one. The next morning the insulted bride elect left Douglas by steamer, while the bride-groom-elect left by a sailing vessel. The annual banquet of the Royal Academv was held on Saturday, April 29. The Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, and Mr Gladstone were present. The Commander-in-Chief referred to the Brighton review, and remarked that the confusion and mistakes arose from the volunteers attempting to do too much. On the general subject of army reform, His Royal Highness said the problem of the day, which he trusted would be satisfactorily sohed, was how to make our good and compact army sufficiently expansive, without being unduly expensive, A good deal (.says the Nelson Examiner) has been said by the friends of Government, who seek to palliate if not justify the reckless expenditure of Ministers, concerning the great benefits the colony would derive by opening up a trade with America, in return for the .£50,000 a-year lavished on the postal service to San Francisco. A gentleman in Auckland, an old colonist, who lately paid a visit to the Pacific State and has returned to the colony, in a letter to the New Zealand Herald, gives a list of duties levied in San Francisco on those articles of produce which New Zealand would like to ship :—Wool, first class, 5d per lb., and 11 per cent, ad valorem; washed wool, 6d per lb,; potatoes, Is per bushpl; sheep, 20 per cent, ad valorem. In fact, says the writer, all New Zealand and Australian produce, except coal, may be considered prohibited. With such duties, the trade between New Zealand and San Francisco will have little of reciprocity in it —except what is styled " Irish reciprocity " —all on one side. No wonder the scheme is popular in America, and our Postmaster-General gets patted on the back. We open new markets for American produce, we subsidise with £50,000 ,a-year American steamers, which can find no employment at home —and, in return, anything this colony can supply is shut out of American markets by a prohibitive duty ! This is one way of helping an impoverished countrv.

John Mann, a servant in the employment of the Caledonian Railway Company;, died at his residence, Motherwell, Scotland, on April 12. He was the first locomotive engine-driver in Scotland, having come from the north of England to drive the first engine on the old Monldand and Kirkintilloch Kailway about thirty-seven years ago. It is further said that he was the oldest driver in the wgylcj,

A. South American correspondent of the Otago Daily Times furnishes the following ; —« On the mainland, opposite the Chinchas, a remarkable curiosity is to be seen. The steamer was only about two miles from the shore, so that it was very distinct to the naked eye. On a large smooth hill of very gradual ascent there appear two immense crosses of nearly a mile in length, between which is a huge object, something like candelabra on a large scale, there being on a square foundation, one long line, judged to be about a mile and a half long, ending in filigree work on the top. Across this line, rather lower than the centre, is another of about three-quarters of a mile, this, supporting at its extremes two. more of equal length, crossed towards the ends with strange devices. The lines appear to be about six feet wide, and am said to be about ten to fifteen feet deep, dug in the earth, and filled up by the sand that sweeps over the hill. Tradition ascribes it. to the work of the Jesuit priests two and a half centuries, ago." The Bay of Islands correspondent of the Thames Advertiser writes, under date June 6th :—Yesterday, between twelve and one o'clock, a prisoner, named Flynn, cut the fingers off his left hand with an axe. It appears that two deserters from the American barque Hadley had been confined in the gaol at Russell until the arrival of the ship from Mongonui. The vessel arrived yesterday, and the police sent for the Consul to hear complaints against, the captain and mate, made by the two prisoners. They made their complaints, and narrated some very cruel treatment they had been subjected to on board the ship, The man Flynn, ho had been cooking, deliberately put his hand on a block of wood > and cut the fingers off his left hand with an axe before the constable had time to prevent it. I leave the public to form &ome idea of the treatment men receive on board American whalers when a man will maim himself for life to get clear of the ship. Among the princesses of Europe, the Empress of Russia and the Princess Frederick Charles are the best the Princess of Wales the best performer on the piano, the Queen of Holland the beet poet and author, the Crown-Princess of Prussia the best manager of fairs and public festivities !l the Empress of Germany the best conversationalist, the Empress of Austria the best-looking lady, and the Queen of Denmark the best housewife, So says Madame Ratazzi in one of her recent novels.

At the Central Criminal Court, Lon* don, on May 2nd, Michael Torpey was. placed at the bar to receive judgment. The prisoner was originally not only charged with the robbery but also upon two indictments with having administered a noxious and stupefying drug in order to enable him to commit the robbery. The more serious charges were not pressed against him, and he was on Monday afternoon found guilty of the robbery. The Recorder, in passing sentence, said it was a robbery of a very serious, and daring, and premeditated character, and he telb it his duty to sentence him to eight years' penal servitude. We may add that it was clear from the earlier accounts in the papers that the prisoner and his wife had been surrounded by what are called " respectable *' associations. What then led to the execution by them, not only of a serious robbery, but also of a most daring outrage ? Torpey, are told, had become deeply involved in betting transactions, and it was absolutely necessary for him to raise a large sum of money, JB7OO it is believed. Torpey owed ,£7OO to his sporting confederates, but he was hardly woi'th so many pence, and he seemed to have looked upon robbery as the only means of escape. The other element in the case now comes to the surface. He and his wife had been reading some *' sensation novels," in one of which was a description of a pretended jewellery robbery similar to the one they subsequently carried out. We are not made acquainted with the name of this work of faction, bqt doubtless the author will not be insensible to the nature of the influence he (or she) is exerting upon. Society,