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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1156, 26 October 1871, Page 2

We have been requested to intimate that the Rev. Mr McGregor will (D.V.) conduct divine service in the Port Church on Sunday evening next. In the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, two drunkards, who wei e shown to have abused the police in the execution of their duty, were fined £2 each. The Volunteer Artillery Band gave one of their popular open-air concerts on the green opposite the Herald office at 7 o'clock last evening. The attendance on the part of the public was not so good as on some former occasions. The night was beautifully fine, and the rendering of the different pieces was characterised by the same taste and care as heretofore. We are glad to observe by a telegram in this morning's Herald that the schooner Crest pi the J » ve > hence for Auckland on the 23rd Sep£, has arrived safely at that port. She was windbound for fourteen days at Hicks' Bay on the passage up. —From the same source we learn that the barque Ballarat, frqm London, had arrived at Auck land. Rain is now anxiously looked for, both in town and country. The late westerly gales, which dried up the ground to a great extent, have been followed by a succession of hot calm clays, which, unless a speedy change takes place, threaten serious injury to the crops. Heavy dews have fallen every evening, but they are insufficient to counteract the effects of the heat. In town, the water supply is getting short, the tanks and cisterns are very low, and an interval of rainy weather would be welcomed by all. We learn that the s.s. Napier will, on her arrival from the North, be placed upon Mr Days' patent slip. The Napier left Tauranga for this port via Poverty Bay at 12.30 p.in to-day. Not the least important of the many valuable returns laid upon the table of the House of Representatives during the present session of the General Assembly is one giving trip acreage of provincial waste lauds yet unsurveyed; the acreage surveyed and ready for sale or settlement; and the acreage of lands sold or otherwise disposed of, but qf which surveys have not yet been completed. The return is made up to the 31st December, 1870, so that the information afforded is of comparatively recent date. The return is divided into three divisions : waste lands not surveyed, waste lands surveyed and ready for sale or settlement, and lands sold of which the surveys are not completed. Each of these divisions is again subdivided intq tqwn ? suburban, and rural lands. The. whole acreage of town lands under the above three heads or divisions amounts to 47,614 a. 3r. 2p. ; of suburban lands, C3,587a> lr. 32p.; and of rural and pastoral lands.

31,826,499 a. lr. 18p.; making a total of 31,937,701 a. 2.12 p. To this has to be added 163,^517a. which are accounted for in remarks made in the footnotes attached to the tables, 56,000 a. of which are " surplus lands " reverting to the Crown for old land claims, .so that there was, on the 31st December last a grand total of *32,G95,318a, 2r. 12p. available for settlement and purchase in New Zealand, not including the many millions of acres over which the '" native title " has not vet been extinguished—for of course the return includes those lands only over which such title has been extinguished. This large acreage is variously distributed amongst the different provinces, those south of Cook's Straits of course figuring the highest—they having had the advantage of the native title being extinguished years ago. Otago has the largest acreage at present available for settlement, amounting in all to 12,169,765 a. Canterbury follows next in order with 7,844,991 a. 3r 33p.$ Nelson has 6,023,991 a.; Southland, 2,210,825 a. 2r. 33p.; Wellington, 1,679,491 a. ; Auckland, 1,200,232 2r. 2p.; Hawkes' Bay, 792,659 a. lr. 22p.; Marlborough, 80,540 a.; Wesland, 78,428 a. ; and Taranaki only 20,200 a. on which she can plant an increase $o her population. Comparing the two islands, we find there are in the Norlh Island at present available for settlement 3,692,576 a. 3r. 24p., while in the South Island there are no fewer than 28,4Q2,741a. 2r. 28p. of similarly available land A few years, however, will without doubt considerably alter these figures, as it is a well-known fact that a veiy great portion of th§ land in the North Island is at present in the hands of its native owners.

We have heard of a mail drinking a good many things, but were not aware that yeast could be enjoyed by any person. On the 29th ult., as we read in a Melbourne paper, a baker named Johnson was summoned to the police court in Geelong for assaulting his journeyman, when in his defence he stated that the man had accused him of drinking the yeast, and this had caused his temper to rise. We should rather think it did, if the yeast was any good at all.

A late Yictorian paper contains the following: —At about 6 o'clock on Monday evening, Sept. 25, the paddlewheel steamer Nebraska passed through the Heads, and nearly every glass on the Cliffs was brought to bear on her. The general opinion was that she was no beauty, and her beam-engine, although a novelty in these waters, was not admired. She stood a great height out of the water, and appeared to possess an immense beam. Whether she could go twelve knots an hour or not was freely discussed, and one gentleman wdio had been on board of ber questioned her speed. Few such rusty, or at any rate, dirty engines could, he said, send such a big hulk, along at that speed.

A Paris paper has just given some details of M. Thiers' family, to piove the habitual longevity of its members. His grandfather, the lawyer, who was sheriff (echevin) of Marseilles, died in 1795, at the age of 84. His lather and mother were 80 years old when they died. Two of his father's sisters died at Menton at more than 80 years of age. Finally his nearest surviving relative, a cousin german, has completed her 79th year. He himself is of an excellent constitution, and lias never had any serious illness. The journal in question, therefore, joyfully concludes that he may yet be spared many years to the country which so highly esteems his talents and his services ; and adds that he has only just entered his 73rd year.

The treaty of Washington, it is believed, has finally settled the one dangerous dispute between Great Britain and the United. States, and mast strengthen the growing harmony; while, as a precedent, it is perhaps the most desirable ever established on earth. If the two great Powers named persistently adhere to what they have done, there can be no more great wars, with their attendant waste and general demoralization. What an immense saving of lives, labor and capital will follow as the result 1

In answer to a correspondent, the editor of the .Daily Southern Cross gives the following explanation with reference to the origin of the word " teetotaller "; —The word teetotaller is said to have had lis origin in the year 1831, at Preston, Lancashire, where a man named Richard Turner, who had been a notorious diunkard, and who stammered badly, upon becoming a convert to temperance, in attempting io say that he was determined in future to be a total abstainer from intoxicating drinks, could not get out the expression as he wished, but stuck at t-t-t, anil at last ended by coining the word teetotaller. By the way of further information to our correspondent, we may ad 4 that the first teetotaller in Great Btitain is still Hying in the person of John, King a Quaker, seventy-five years old. He lias been for many years an employe on the Lancashire and Yorkshire railroad, but is now superannuated. Pie has received a silver medal for his merit as first teetotaller, and now it is. proposed that all the brethren„of that ilk in the United Kingdom should contribute a penny apiece as a testimonial to the old king of teetotallers, thereby providing liberally for his declining years. He has not been temperate in all things, having had four wives, and is now living with the last, a young woman.

Among the animals imported to Hobart Town by a late trip of the ship, Ethel, from London, were fair fine foxes, which had become general favorites aboard ship, and which ib was hoped would prove serviceable in abating the rabbit nuisance. The shipowners of Tasmania, however, did not regard their intioduction favorably, fearing that the foxes would prey on their flocks rather than on the rabbits. The result was that strong representations of their sentiments on the matter were communicated to Capt. Harms worth, of the Ethel, and in deference to the views of the sheepowners he resolved to destroy the " pets," which he had taken such pains to import. The four foxes were accordingly bound and cast into the. river, where three of them met with a watery grave—the fourth, however, is. said to have escaped.

The Duke of Edinburgh was one of Dr Guthrie's congregation at the Free Church, Lochee, on the 13th August, A local paper records that " the collection was the hrgest ever made since the church was built."

"Put upon their mettle by the audar city and secrecy which have characierised the late burglaries, our police (says tlie Newcastle Chronicle) have been, leaving no stone unturned, and have neglected no means which presented themselves, in order to the detection of the guilty parties. They have evidently fell that their reputation was at stake; they have denied themselves rest and comfort, they have thrown all personal considerations to the winds, in the hope, hitherto we regret to say a vain one, of ultimately discovering and bringing the. burglars to justice. Amongst others conspicuous for zeal and Constable , bent upon immortalising bis name, started one evening lately on a tour of detection, and this is what came of it. On this identical evening one of the police, lately arrived from Sydney, whilst going the rounds of his beat, discovered in the rear of the Northumberland Hotel, Hunter-sireet, crouching low and evidently bent on hiding his presence, a most suspiciouslooking character. To lap him on the shoulder and demand his business in such a locality, at such an hour, was the constable's immediate business. Ta the astonishment of the constable, the man placed his forefinger on his lips and replied, " Hisht! I'm Constable fronted with the gas-light in front or the hotel, so perfect was the disguise

had assumed that his captor, treating his statement with derision, totally discrediting his indentity with Constable , and fancying that he had got one of the parties "wanted,' marched his prisoner otf to the lock-up. There, opportunity being afforded, divesting himself of his borrowed pin meg, and standing revealed in all the glory of a guardian of the peace, mutual explanations, followed by a heartv laugh all round, ensued ; and relieved of the fearf'il halo of suspicion wliicfi

had surrounded him but a few minutes fcefore, took his departure, but whether to resume his occupation of watching the back premises of the Northumberland or not we are unable to say.