Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1872.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1258, 26 February 1872, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1872.

In the Resident Magistrate's Oqurt s\\% niqrning, one individual, chained with lunacy, who was shown to be only suffering {torn drink, was. dismissed, jjqsepl} Parkpr was brought up, on the information'of IVfr Faulknqr, chargecl with having unlawfully himself from his duties, being an apprentice. JVfr iee appeared for the acpuset}. The prqsecutor unable to produce jilje indentures, wjrich }\s alleged had jjeen stqien, and under oiese circumstances y\r objected to the case feeing gone intq.—Adjourned to 3 p.m., tp allow the prosecutor time to obtain jegal assistance.

A parage of the Napier Isifle Volunteers took place on Clive Square this morning. The attendance was small, only 14 members, including officeis, being present. The Rev. G. Morice, for the past five years minister of St. Paul's Presbyterian congregation, Napier, preached his farewell sermon last evening, taking for his text 1 Cor., ii, 2. After the usual services, the Rev. David Sidey was inducted to the charge of the congregation, tlje ceremony beingj conducted by Mr. Morice. IVjr. 0. D.empsey.'s new omnibus, tl],e *t to ply between papier and Taradale, ran fUr the first time toq!ay. Tfhe new vehicle is the manufacture of Mr, M'Leod, Port Ahuriri, and seems Uoth commodious and comfortable. The New Zealand Iferald says : " The Nebraska and Nevada, although s.plendid vessels, are insufficient for the thirteen mail per year service, and, so far, have never been up to time" Our Auckland contemporary's qwn files would form the best contradiction to \}\Q statement we have italicised. The firing of the Hawse's Jfoy competitors fpr the special militia prizes Quired by tfye General Government took place on Saturday nmrning. Twenty-three prizes are offered, amounting altogether to £35, the highest of which, £6 >t will he taken by the highest scorer in the Colony, were only five competitors. The ranges were 30Q, 400, and SQO five shots each, and the following scqres were made : —Ensign Wood, 50 ; Sergeant Williams, 49; Sergeynt Sebley, 44; Capt. Kennedy, 3,9; Sergt, 4rrQw, 37.

We understand that the Volunteer Pw'ze Firing is sxed for the inorning qf Friday next. A carbine match between eight men of the Armed Constabulary and eight of the Yeomanry Cavalry took place on Saturday afternoon—the ranges being 150, 200, and 250 yard*, five shots at each. The Cavalry made a total of 262, and the Taupo men, 255, the lat ter being thus defeated by seven points. Averages: Cavalry,, 32 J; Constabulary, 31| The highest score (44) was made by Constable Crossnian, A.C. Direct shipments of wool, flax, and gum to New York and San Francisco, from various ports in the Colony, are rapidly becoming large and more frequent, and our commercial relations with the United States seen) to be of a very satisfactory character. As our readers are aware, the Nevada will this trip be the bearer of a large cargo of wool, flax, butter, &c, for San Francis r co and New York; and we observe t)jat the barques Ferndale and Queens land, chartered by American houses for New York, were expected to leave Auckland to-day, with full cargoes of flax and kauri gum. The yacht race for the silver cup presented by Messrs Shaw, Saville ancj Co., of Lqndqn, will come off at Nelson tpT morrqw (Tuesday, 27th inst.) Sunstrokes, or grogstrokes ? (a*ks an Australian paper). There are no class qf labqrers mqie directly, and thereby more dangerously, exposed to the sun's hoc rays than our harvest laborers, and yet, since the practipe. of supplying grog in the harvest field has been discontinued, cases of sunstroke are almost unknown there. A large and influential meeting, comprising over 3,000 persons, convened under the auspices of the "Wesleyan Church, was held in the Town-hall, Melbourne, on the 29th January, for the purprse of considering the cause of temperance. There were present at the meeting most of the Wesleyan jytinisters who had been in attendance at the Conference, and the principal speakers were visitors from the other polonies. The main resolution submitted to the meeting was one affirming the expediency qf passing a Permissive Bill, which carried unanimously. 3?f}e Upper Hunter Courier (a Victorian jqurnal) in, qne issue recently recqrded no fewer tftan. five Iqcal deaths from sunstroke. The Yictqrian Government intend tq intrqduce a Fishery Bill next session. The deepest shaft in Victoria is 910 feet in depth, and is being sunk 30Q feet lower,.

The movement in favor of tbe Permissive Bill is gaining strength daily in the Australian colonies. On the Bth of last month the second reading of this hill was carried in the New South Wales Parliament by a majority of 26 to 10. The whole of the members of the Ministry appear to have voted in favor of it. There have been 70 petitions presented in favor of the measure, containing 26,600 signatures, being the largest namber of signatures that had ever beer; presented in that colony praying for any legislative enactment. At Timaru, a few days, ago, a man named J. Kennedy was lying asleep on a bed in a house of ill fame, when another man named D. Adam, having first tied Kennedy's feet together with a scstrf, procured an axe and inflicted some severe wounds on his, head. Fortunately for Kennedy he contrived to get his feet loose, and made his escape. Both the would be murderer and victim, it appears were drunk. It is anticipated that in about two months the line of telegraph will be complete between Auckland and Invercargill. Between the Thames and Coromandel a telegraph is also in course of construction. At the Wesleyan Conference recently held in Melbourne, the question of a separate Conference for New Zealand was gone into, and it was eventually decided that there should be a distinct Conference for New Zealand. At the half-yearly meeting ot the Auckland Whaling Company, held on the 31st ult., the Chairman (J. S. Macfarlane, Esq.), stated that the Company's whaling barque Albion had been spoken with lately, and was reported to have SQQ or 600 barrel* of oil on board. The return of tne Albion to Auckland is expected in 4p next. The Nelson Examiner saysi—The Customs returns for the year ended the 31st of December last, exhibit the same lamentable falling-off in revenue witnessed every year since 1866, except in 1869, which gave an increase of 4-39 per cent, on the year preceding. This steady decline in the Customs is the more startling, when we remember the several attempts that ha-e been made tp inci ease the revenue by raising the tariff, while at the same tyne there has. been a progressive and considerable increase in the population. A few figures, will tell a more powerful tale than any words we can w v|te :—-

Population. Customs Revenue, ;566 ... 2Q0.000 ... £844,267 1871 ... 266,000 ... £732.000, Thus, while in seven years the population has increased 66,000, or 3,3 per Cent., the Customs revenue has decreased £112,267, or 15 per cent., notwithstanding the repeated imposition of new duties. Supposing the Colon,) 7 , at the end of 1871, to have been in the. same prosperous state in which it sioo«l in 1866, the Customs, -with our present population, instead of being ,£732,000, should, have reached £1,122,875, or nearly a third more than is, now, received, j Any man possessed of the slightest, claims to statesmanship can read as he runs the secret of New Zealand's frightful commercial depression. The sponge has been wrung dry; the springs of industry are crushed by over-taxation; and, instead of imposing more taxes, the way to augment that revenue is to lighten taxation, and relieve industry. The first and secontj officers qf the baique Lorton Vale, now lying in HobBay, have been fined for rope's ending the cabin boy. Mining affairs in South Wales continue to improve. Last year's gold yield exhibits an immense increase on that of any year since 1865. A ]\lrs BJackhouse, of Braidwood, presented her husband the other day with three sons, who have been christened Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The correspondent of the Argus in "Western Australia says there is not a single booksellers or news agent's sjiop }n the whole of that colony. There is a prospect of several of the Victorian meat-preserving companies, which lately stopped work for want of papital, resuming operations shortly. A Launceston telegram says :—" Commercial Bank has foreclosed on the mortgages it holds over the Quamhy estates, which, amount to upwards of

From the stormy mature of the weather in Auckland during the 19th and20th inst., combined with a low barometer, the New Zealand Herald predicts that some great atmospheric disturbances have been caused in the ti*opical regions further north, the outer eddyings from which we have felt the effects of. Next advices from the Islands will probably bring us accounts of some hurricane*, the season for which terrible species of visitation is now ra-< pidly drawing to a close. We take the following from the Sydney Morning Herald, }Qth Feb. : H.TH-S. Rosario arrived at Sydney on the Bth inst. On the 19tb October last she sailed from this port on a cruise amongst the various inlands in the Southern Pacific. At Cherry Tslands she remained two days, where comraunjcaftoii was established with, the natives and inquiries instituted respecting the reported murder of some white traders, but no satisfactory information was obtained ; she then for Nukapu, Santa, Cruz Group, arriving on the 29th November. Tfyis. was the scene of the murder of Binhqp, Fatteson and and the Rev. Mr Aitkin, but ajthqugh every inducement was held qi\\ the natives remained aloof, and would hjoM no communication ; she then proceeded to Cape Fatten-on, arriving on the (sth December; here the natives proves most friendly. On the following day the Rosario left for Espirito Santo, am\ made the island on the 15th, and the boats' crows landed at a village named Bassalai, where it was known that men belonging to the schooDer Wild Duck had been killed. The natives took to the fastnesses of the mountains, but their settlement was burnt. The next place visited was Manikolo, which was reached on the 24th December. Here, again, the natives proved most hospitable, and readily bartered such supplies as the island afforded. The cruise was then co,n,tinnes aniong the islands of the New Hebrides and Bank's. Group, and the Rosario finally sailed for New Caledonia, leaving Noumea on the 29th ultimo. The only casualties during the cruise have been the death, of one seaman and the severe wounding: of a second, caused by an attack made bv the natives ojf Havaunah Harbor on a landing party.

The Victorian mint wtfl commence coining operations i,n April. A young man living near Mount Clear, Victoria, has died from eating green apples. Heavy, floods, have taken place, in, Carpentaria, submerging a large extent pfcountry. Twenty miles of fencing haye been, burned by a, bush tire nea,r the Wagga Wagga. The annual expenditure of the Melbourne benevolent Asylum is over £II,OOO, A Waygunyali, chemist narrowly escaped being killed by the explosion of a bottle of* ammonia,. The Bosnian Catholic Bishop Ph,iel, of Adelaide is jn very create Health. Tn Adelaide a memorial to the Legislature is being signed, praying that the immigration of domestic servants may be promoted. The Tasmanian Parliament has voted £2SP to meet the cost of withdrawing defaced and worn coin from circulation in the colony. The Victorian police, numbers. 101 officers and 920 men, and cpsis in round numbers ,£200,0,00 annually, or nearly J£2OQ per man,. In Supreme Cou,rt at Jjaunceston, #ie clecree in the divorce suit, Hamiltpn (phrenologist) v. Hamilton, has. been made absolute. The inter colonial gig race at Hobart Town, rowed on tjie 30th January, was, won with ease by $ boat belonging to, the Sydney Rowing Club, The Victorian Church Missionary Society last year received £\ ds Id tor the promotion of Cluistianity au,iongst the Jews, A number of experiments. Ijiave beea made with giant powder in, Victpria, and the results are reported, lo be \&? satisfactory. The Melbourne larrikins, accotding to the telegraph, have got beyond i} nuisance—thev are a terror to the cpiui munity.