Untitled

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1149, 18 October 1871, Page 2

The Volunteer class-firing will, it is expected, commence early next month. One case of drunkenness came before the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning. A return match between seven, of the Napier Rifle Volunteers and a like number of the band of that corps will, we believe, take place on Tuesday morning next. We understand that a challenge to fire a match has been sent by the Greymouth Hangers to the Napier Rifle Club, which, has been accepted by the latter on certain conditions as to the day on which the event will take place. The weather has been extremely boisterous during the last few days—weeks, in fact—gale following gale (chiefly from N.W.) with but few and brief intermissions of really fine weather. As a result of these hot, dry winds, the country is regularly baked, and rain is anxiously looked for--by town, residents as well as by those in the country.

The English Mail via San Francisco j may be expected to reach Napier either to-morrow or the next day, by the Star of the South, from Auckland. In his report on the Marine nient, the Secretary of Customs says : The necessity for a light at the entrance of Tory Channel has been urged in previous report s of the Marine Department, and Parliament in its last session voted a sum for erecting this light, and also for placing one on Portland Island ; but no progress has yet been made towards ereGting these lighthouses, as the Government gave directions that they were not to be proceeded with for the present. T trash, however, that the Government will av an early date authorize thoJVJai'iue Engineer to take steps for erecting the Tory Channel light as it has been, admitted by competent authorities on all sides that this light js greatly needed for the safe navigation of Cook: Strait, and for guiding steamers entering Tory Channel at night. Ml- Balfour estimated that the cost of this light would be from £3,000 to £4,000 j the annual cost of maintaining ,it after completion would be £SOO. The cost of placing a light on Portland Island is estimated at from £5,000 to £6,000, and the annual outlay afterwards at about £6OO. The Nelson Colonist makes the following brief and pointed remark on the subject of the Permissive Bill ;-r-" The time is riot yet ripe for the measure, but it is coming, and, together with education, will bring the beginning of blessir.gs to many mothers and children." In the new Education Act (says a contemporary) it is provided that if any member of the Board die, he shall cease to be a member. And very proper too. We should think that a corpse would not be a very desirable member. After a man is dead, surely it is not necessary to state that he is not to live. Unless he could live how could he be a member ? Is there any legal or any other kind of good purpose served in informing a living membar that he will cease to he a member when he is dead? It is impossible lor a dead man to be a member —why, then, announce this foolish provision 1 The editor of the Tuapeka Times thus expresses himself on the M'Donald case :—Wangnnui has recently developed a choice specimen of the genus ruffian. A publican named M i l>onald, for the purpose of defrauding the Insurance Companies, deliberately set fire to his hotel, whereby he wilfully and ruthlessly destroyed the life of one poor man and endangered ihe lives of others. What added new horror to the crime was that the cruel wretch, instead of having been struck with remorse at the fearful fulfilment of his fiendish plan, actually seemed to exult over it, exclaiming with villainous effrontery, when speaking of his victim in language anything but choice, " Oh, he's but a common man, and there's plenty of his sort in New Zealand." Surely hanging is too ordinary a punishment for so extraordinary a villain. The impudence of the Melbourne papers (says the Evening Post) is really astonishing. This is how the Australasian speaks of one of our heaven-born statesmen ;—r-.YIr Vogel seems to have gone to England for wqql and to have come back *hora. One pf the objects of his mission was to negotiate a railway contract, and he has done it —with a vengeance. He has signed an agreement with Messrs Brogden k Sons, by which they undertake to construct as many miles of railway as can be made for £4,000,000, upon being guaranteed 5J per cent, interest on their outlay for a period of forty years. Not a bad bargain this, considering the current rate of interest in England, for—the contractors. But " there's pippins and cheese to come." Not only are these gentlemen to enjoy this substantial guarantee for four decades, by the expiration of wl}ioh lime the population of New Zealand will ha\e probably quadrupled itself, but they are to obtain a free grant of land to the extent of three quarters of an acre for every pound sterling expended on the lines it being stipulated that one fifth qf the land is to be suitable for settlement. Mr Vogel may be a shrewd financier, but he has evidently fallen, in with a firm very much shrewdey than himself.

It has struck us (Evening Post) with som*i little surprise that no member of the House of Representatives has as yet asked the Government how it comes that Faora—a native chief from Hau-. raki—has for several months been retained as a sort of adviser to the Native Office, at a salary of a guinea a day and the usual " allowances." What duties he performs, or what utility his services, are to the country--or whether the emoluments arising from them are confined to himself or shared by all his mysteries, the elucidation of which is only possible to the Great Mystery Man himself; but while retrenchment is the watchword of the Ministry, it is only proper that they should be reminded of these little matters. The managers of the Chinese Sub* marine Telegraph Company have solved the somewhat difficult problem of how to transmit telegraphic messages in Chinese, At first sight the difficulty of telegraphing in a language which is destitute of an alphabet, and is made up of about 50,000 distinct appears almost insurmountable; but the obstacle has been overcome, and A-fat at Hong Kong encounters no more difficulty in communicating by telegraph with A-chum at Shanghai than does Brown with Jones under similar circumstances. The plan adopted i& this few thousand of the more common Chinese characters are cut on wooden blocks after the manner of type> and on the reverse end of each is a number cut in the same way, A-fat having handed in his message written in Ohinese, the native clerk selects in order the corresponding blocks from the case, and prints off the numbers on the resen e. This he hands to his lish colleague, who telegraphs the nun> hers to the destination required. Here the re verse process is gone through, and the numbers having been taken from the cases, the characters are stamped on paper, and thus A-chum is put in possession of the cherished wishes of A-fat, through the medium of his native language. A Melbourne contemporary publishes the following paragraph :—Two highly interesting new companies are before a confiding and cheerful public. One is the "Syren Musical-Boat Company," and the other is the " Wafo-Karaka Quartz Gold-mining Company." TheVe is a charming halo of poetry around both; but, perhaps, the Musical-Boat idea gets the better of the the WaioKai'aka notion, for the reason that its realisation is a nearer, if not a dearer possibility. To get gold out of Jfesv Zealand is, at the best, a distant prospect; but to start an undulating barrel* organ on the Yarra Yarra is at least practicable. History records how, even at the famous Thames, the owner of an empty barn once made a hit by affixing to it the telling notice, " Scrip Stored Here;" and history repeats itself at Waio Karaka, wherever that wonderful spot may be, and elsewhere; but the Sirens (with an i, 0 printer) have never yet sung to us upon our polluted river, through the unhappy medium of a bar-rel-organ. That sensation is still left to us. Of quartz we have all heard ; concerning gold, in connection mainly with calls, we have listened to the voice of the phai mer; of the marvels of New Zealand Tookeydom the romantic sound has reached n* from the remote shade of the Veiandah , but a Syren—with a y tu say nothing of the wherefore—a Syren Boat Company is a veritable novelty, As the screw turns, so will the organ play. " Turn ahea.4 " will be the signal for a burst of organic minstrelsy; " Easy astern " may be expected to produce tender, andante muvemenK and w EJaao her, back her, stop her," a g^ nd and touching finale, as affecting as a winding-up order in any Court °f Mines. Would it not be possible to utilise Parjiameutaiy wind somewhat in this way, in connection either with the Town-hall organ or a monsteriEolian Harp \

Some of the Church papem state that the Kev. Richard Wilkin*, of j#agdaleft College, Cambridge, has just preached * sermon in the church of St. Michael anu All Angels, S*anmore, in which m stated as. his belief that there will M twelve women to one man who v?w enter Heaven. This, he added, was* calculation of his Q\vn, and **as ba*§H upon sacvamental confe^^Qft.