Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER- 24, 1872.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1437, 24 September 1872, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER- 24, 1872.

The new Colonial Treasurer, Mr. T. B. Gillies, will, it is believed, deliver }iis Financial Statement in the House of Representatives this evening. The nomination for the representation of Egmont takes place on the 26th |BBt,j and \ihe polling on the 3rd Qcr,

The bone-dust dealers of Auckland are accused of having been addicted to giving short weight. The Southern Cross mentions the following instances —" Onfi case was an order for 2 tons 2 cwt. This order was found to be 5241 b short. Another order for one ton was found to be 2241 b short. The third order we refer to was one for five ton", and on weighing after delivery this was found to have a deficiency of 1,200 pounds" The Wairarapa correspondent of the Independent states that lecently, in the space of a week, three persons have died in that district whose united ages amount to 242 years.

"We learn from Melbourne that the education question is attracting a good deal of attention ohroughout Victoria. Conferences of ministers have been held lo consider the subject, the schoolteachers have assembled to discuss it from their point of view, the newspapers teem with correspondence, many pamphlets have been issued advocating the views of the various writers, and education leagues, mainly in the interests of .secular education, have been formed in different places. By Ihe time that the Government bill is introduced, public opinion should be sufficiently informed on the merits of the question as to treat it in an enlightened and decisive manner.

The Evening Post says : —The very small reliance which is to be placed upon the oracular utterances of some of those newspapers which have so unscrupulously bolstered up the late Government must by this time be apparent to the country. During the whole course of the debate on Mr Stafford's resolutions, papers kept assuring the public that "the Government were safe" —that they had the House with them, and that the attack of the Opposition would be triumphantly foiled. Some of them even had the audacity to speculate on the increased strength which the Ministry would acquire from the failure of the attempt made to dislodge them, and the facility with which they would dispose of the business after their victory ahould have cowed their enemies.

A prospecting party is being organised at Wanganui for the purpose of prospecting the Tuhtia country.

The Victorian Government have under consideration the advisability of that Colony being represented at the Vienna Exhibition. A well-known wholesale firm on Taupo Quay, Wanganui, (says the Herald) in the course of business passed entries for a case of tobacco. On the the same being weighed by the Custom House officer to ascertain the amount of duty chargeable, and to check the weight given by the owners in the entries, a somewhat startling difference was discovered. The tobacco weighed nearly half as much again as described. Such things as "salted" invoices have been known, and here was certainly a very suspicious case. The: usually urbane Custom House official sternly demanded an explanation. All in yain : did the firm produce their invoice, the scale bore undeniable testimony to the discrepancy in weight. What was to be done—the entries bore one weight, and the scale showed another, thereby establishing a clear case. Before communicating with Wellington, one of the party more inquisitive or perhaps more practical than the r«st-, examined the scale, and lo and behold the mystery was explained A rat had chosen to take up its abode inside, and was found coiled up in a carefully arranged nest, said nest interfering with the working of the scale. JVlrs Rat was in an interesting condition, but managed to evade several well intentioned blows, leaving the party to congratulate themselves on the satisfactory conclusion ot the affair.

The WelliDgton Independent states that a seaman belonging to the p.s. Nebraska accidentally broke one of his legs a few minutes before the steamer left the wharf on the fKUh instant. A large balk of timber had been rigged up so as to keep the steamer from swaying over against the wharf. Part of this temporary fixture was a piece of scantling, and some strain coming upon jt it snapped in two pieces, and one of them flew against the leg of a. sailor and broke it

Several of the mad wags of the Opposition (says the Evening Post) have endeavored to crack jokes for the last day or two at the expense of the Minis« try. The highest flight achieved has been to characterise it as a Super abundant Ministry. The "next best" attempt was made at the Opposition dinner on Tuesday, when allading to the honorable member for Parnell, Mr Stafford was congratulated on his ingenuity in constructing a Cabinet without Wood. These are specimens of that " wut," which, as Sydney Smith said, " is so infinitely distressing to people of good taste. The Melbourne Argus says:—So many lives have been lost lately by persons filling overboard at sea, that a feeling of relief is experienced when a case is recorded of escape from a watery grave. Such an instance occurred on the voyage of the ship Asia, from this port for London, via the Cape of Good Hope. When off the Cape, one of the apprentices fell from the vessel, and on the cry being raised " Boy overboard," the second mate, Mr John Niven, whose watch it was below at the time, rushed up on the poop, and made a leap towards the drowning lad. It was feared that he might fail to reach him, but fortunately he was successful, and with the help pf a buoy kept him up till the boat which had been lowered picked them up. This was half-an-hour aftei the boy fell over, and the two heads could barely be descried from the ship. To add to the suspense on board it was known that a large shark had been seen about the vessel during the fore part of the day. A presentation was got up amongst the passengers for the second mate, as a recognition of the bravery he had displayed. At Blenheim, a man named James Pearce has been committed foi trial on a charge of perjury. He swore in a suit tried before the Resident Magis i rate's Court that he had no money in the bank, whereas he had j£3o and in fc««rest to his credit in the Post Office Savings Bank at the time. The Dunedin papers report an inquest held on Thursday, August 29, on the body of a man named William Charles Roberts, who it appears committed suicide by hanging himself in his house in Grange-street. It appeared from the evidence given by his wife that he had been for some time past in a desponding state of mind from being unable to obtain a situation. He had been idle for about four months, having for some time previously been maltster for Mr Sfcrachan. She thought that that employment and drinking beer heavily as he did while there had affected his mind. After being out of employment he became ill and. very low spirited On the day in question he came home after an unsuccessful search for work, and shortly after was discovered by his wife hanging in the bedroom. She not presence of mind to cut him down, but called in a neighbor, who also did not thirjk of cutting him down, but went for further assistance. Deceased was uot destitute, having been able to save money while in work, and it appears left £305 in the Bank of Australasia,, which he desired by letter to be paid over to his wife. A verdict of "temporary insanity" was returned. Mr Cuthbert, of Sydney, has obtained a contract to build four schooners for the Imperial Government, to be employed in the suppression of the Polynesian slave trade. The vessels are to be completed by the end of the year. The Masterton correspondent of the Independent states that a bullock driver named Draper, in the employ of Messrs. Beetham, at Waiuuione, attempted suicide on Sunday, the 15th inst., by cutting his tin oat with a sheath-knife. It would appear that he was deeply in love with a young lady at Waiuuione, and her repeated slights of his overtures so affected his mind that he was led to commit the foolish act. The loss of blood seemed to bring him to his senses, and he made for the nearest house, holding his throat tightly with one hand. The gash was a fright ful one, and. strange to say, was vertical. Dr. Smith was promptly in attendance, and sewed up the wound. It is believed the man will recover. I have just heard that the man's mind was deranged some days before committing the above act.

We extract the following from, the--Evening Post, 18th September :— The Ministry gained their first victory yesterday when proposing the reduction of the duty on cheqnes to one penny. This the Opposition, headed by MessrsFox and Vogel, opposed, straining; every nerve and contusing arguments, with a most amusing result. Mr Fox did the light comic, but was extinguished by a little quiet ridicule lazily dealt out by Mr Webster. Mr Vogel took the high statesman tone, and talked of direct versus indirect taxation till the Premier reminded him and the House that a penny stamp on cheques, was as much a direct tax as a twopenny one, and that the matter was simply one of revenue, the smaller duty being productive, while the larger one defeated its own ends. Mr C. Parker tried somewhat ridiculously to act the poor man's friend, and Mr Swanson, in* his blunt way, pointed out to theHouse that the logic of Mr Vogel and; Mr Parker would lead to a five shilling, duty. Somewhat prematurely, Mr Vogel talked of a division, but a reminder was given him, and he altered his determination to the extent of not calling for it himself, but putting up. Mi Kelly to tako the chestnuts out of the file. One member said the present duty was rather liked than otherwise,, another considered that no opposition to it had been made, while a third somewhat inconsistently said there was a regular organisation against it. Mr Sheehan amused the House by an anecdote about a person asking in a shop for " a shilling's worth of Vogel," the article wanted being six twopenny stamps. He said the whole colony had spoken in plain terms against the tax, and a conviction that it would be altered this session was the only cause ot no present agitation on the subject, the question being put, a division was called for, but the late Government's "tail" has so reduced that the hopelessness of opposition was apparent, and the call for the division was withdrawn. A more complete Ministerial victory could not have been gained, and ifc shows pretty plain!) how parties stand in the House. Governor Weld has sent to Dr Hector, for distribution, a small quantity of the '* raspberry jam tree," s>o called from the soent of the wood—a species of acacia that grows about 20. feet high, is pretty, shady, and quick growing, sheep feed under it, as it grows on a single stem with a bushy top. Sheep greedily eat the fallen seed pods, and often in the dry season live on nothing else. It is short-lived, but seeds itself readily; it is most valuable for fencing, the wood being very durable. A trench is dug and sticks from the thickness of a man's wrist and upwards placed upright in it, and bound to a horizontal rail, like a Maori fence, and it will last for 20 vears and more. Dog and iamb proof fences are thus constructed for a mile in districts where it abounds. The wood, though never growing to anv size, is used for cabinet work, ifc is hard, dark, and odoriferous. The tree grows chiefly in light Foil, often where the soil is thin over rocks, but also in richer and deeper soils. Mr Weld thinks this tree would be a very valuable acquisition to New Zealand, especially if it will grow in the grass coumry of the South, as sheep carry about the seed, but fears that the cold" of the Otago winters will prove too severe for it.—Evening Post. The Ballarat Courier relates a singular occurrence as having befallen a miner engaged in one of the quarts mines near Boninvong, who, while suffering under some real or imaginary wrongs from one of his mates, gave ex* predion to his feelings in a torrent <" abuse, and concluded by wishing the drive would fall and smother the object of his fury. The words were scarcely uttered when a lump of earth, whicb t as described by his mates, was large enough to crush a horse, fell from Wj tween the cap-pieces on the shoulder or the author of the imprecation, crushing him to the ground, neck and ciop together. He was quickly extricated from his position, when it was found that no bones were broken. The man had received a flesh wound near tbe small of the back which had saturated his clothes ana filled his boots wilA blood. Although he is able to W° y * about, he is still very weak,