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Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1607, 1 September 1874, Page 342

An additional section of the Southern railway, eighteen miles in length, from Wakaia to Ashburton, was opened for general traffic on Wednesday.' The total length of line now open from Christchurch is fifty miles. The following is taken from an English paper of the sth January :—A very old woman, named Susannah Stephenson, died on Friday at her residence, St. Benedict's Church-alley, Norwich. Her age is supposed to have been 105 years : at any rate she was baptized December 24,1769. A ll her children died before her. Her youngest daughter died last year, at the ripe age of 79. The miners of the Colony are distributed as follows, as shown by an appendix to the annual report on the goldfields : Otago, 7,222; Westland, 4,424 ; Nelson, 4,229; Auckland, 2,182; and Marlborough, 85. The European miners number 14,039) and the Chinese 4,103. Sixty-five steam engines are employed in winding and crushing at quartz-mines. They have an aggregate of 1,979 horse-power, while only two engines are at work in alluvial mines. The Wanganui Chronicle, 28th August, reports a case of attempted highway robbery. A gentleman returning from escorting the female portion of his family to a neighbor s house noticed a suspicious-look-ing character slinking along under cover of a gorse hedge. Before long, the strangerconfronted him, and with sundry threats and oaths, endeavoredto obtain his money; but disappeared with marvellous celerity on the gentleman producing a pistol from his pocket. The Grahamstown Evening Star's correspondent at Whakawatai gives the following quantities of food distributed by the Ngatipaoa to their guests at the meeting now going on :—59 tons flour, 7 tons sugar, 1000 kits, potatoes, 5000 dried sharks, 77 large pigs, 16 head cattle, 1 dozen boxes tea, and 2 large boxes tobacco. Besides which they presented the Ngatiawa with a largo canoe and five meres from Pounatna. The talk at the native meeting has commenced, but is not likely to lead to any important results. The Sydney Evening Post says:—"A fiend named Dyer, a New Zealander, but certainly not a Maori, had a wife whom he vowed not long ago to love, honor, and cherish. The other day he saturated her clothes with kerosene oil and then set fire to them. She died. In ten years probably Dyer will visit Hongkong at the expense of the public, and drink champagne with Mandarin Christie." Our Sydney contemporary is in error on one point. Dyer had lived with the unfortunate woman for years, but she was not his wife. The Auckland Evening Star's correspondent at Whakatiwai states that at the Icorero, during the past few days, nearly all the principal chiefs spoke. They wanted Government advances placed on Cape Colville and other blocks of land. They denied having received money on the Ohincmuri and the Aroha land. Mr Mackay mentioned the names of several leading chiefs who had received an advance. Tehara denied this, and Mr Mackay showed that he had received money and goods through his relations, and told the old chief he could keep his ©wn pieces of land at Ohinemuri and Te Aroha, but could no longer hold tribal lands. No one, says the Auckland Evening Star, will accuse us of any disposition to flatter the Eev. Samuel Edger, but we cannot refrain from referring to a most coarse and impertinent letter addressed to him by Captain Casey in this morning's " Cross." The reverend gentleman had written a temperate and sensible letter respecting Captain Casey's outrageous claim for compensation as giving " a shock to all right moral feeling " —a sentiment in which Mr Edger has with him the sympathy of almost every man in Auckland. So far from offering any insult to Captain Casey he had spoken of "the deserved respect in which Captain Casey is held." To this Captain Casey, not a bit mollified by the balm received from the hands of the arbitrator, or perhaps uneasy in conscience and irritable, replies demanding " payment of your little freight account." There is a meanness and a coarseness in such a conduct that will not tend to conciliate to Captain Casey the present outraged feeling of the public. We would recommend Captain Casey to just keep quiet till public indignation has blown over. In the House, on the 13th August, Karaitiana moved — <l That it be an instruction to the Native Affairs Committee to ascertain the area of land from time to time granted or otherwise set apart in the vicinity of Te Aute, for support and maintenance of the native schools at Te Aute, and the precise terms of the various trusts contained in such grants ; and to report to the House upon the best and most convenient method of causing inquiry to bo made as to the manner in which such trusts hare been fulfilled." He' said he had put this motion on the Order Paper because the conditions in the grants had not been properly carried out, and he wished to know how the matter stood at present. He understood that land had been set apart for educational purposes in other provinces, and he thought the best course would be for the Governor to administer such lands as these. The question of the education of the Maoris should be general, and not confined simply to educational endowments upon separate pieces of land. He would leave the matter in the hands of the House, and begged to move the motion of •which lie had given notice. Mr M'Lean said there would bo no objection whatever to the matter being referred to the Committee* Motion agreed to.

One of the. members of the Otago provincial Council, Mr Daniel, cracked a most unintentional joke at a meeting of that grave assembly recently. The question of sending a doctor to Stewart's Island to vaccinate the children there, was under discussion, when, said Mr Daniel—"l understand that any old woman can vaccinate, arid if this is the case, why does not the Resident Magistrate do it ?" In the House, on August 6th., Mr W. Kelly asked,—"lf it is the intention of the Government to make provision for the education of the sons of chiefs of the Native rac<a, as indicated by his" Excellency the Governor in his address at a recent examination of the Aucklaud Grammer School." Mr McLean replied that it was the earnest desire of the Government to further the education of the Native youth in the fullest possible way. First, by means of village schools, as being the least expensive, from which the most promising youths, the sons of chiefs, &c, should be sent to a better class of school. They desired to see the young and rising generation sent to institutions where the best education could be supplied. The subject was one that was receiving the fullest attention of the Government. His Excellency, when making- the observations referred to, was unaware there was already a boarding school in Auckland, where, notably, a number of Arawas, and a good many young men of rank, were receiving a better class education. There was a similar institution in Wellington, one of the pupils at which had passed a very creditable examination by the Wellington Education Board. It would be a great booh for the Natives to be able to mix with Europeans, and their learning the English language would be the best means of bridging over the difficulties between the two races. Titles and badges of honor, though sought after and venerated in Europe, do not harmonize with our liberal 'Colonial institutions. Colonists are apt to take a very similar view of these things to that which the independent poet Burns expressed in his stirring verses. Thus irreverently is the recent distinction conferred upon the Native Minister referred to by the Thames Advertiser:—We were scarcely prepared to hear of the further mark of distinction conferred upon the Hon. the Native Minister, Mr Donald M'Lean. It is no longer plain Donald, or the Hon. Donald, but Sir Donald. Surely his Maori companions will scarcely recognize their plain old acquaintance who used to barter for their pigs and potatoes. Our telegrams dignify him with the most ancient and ■ illustrious of the orders of knighthood, comprising only some twenty-three of the most eminent persons of the English nation and illustrious foreigners—chiefly Sovereign Princes. The Order of the Thistle, conferred upon the nobility of Scotland, would probably have been more appropriate than that of the Order of the Bath." It certainly comprises several classes, such as military and civil knights grand crosses, knights commanders, and knights companions, all of whom have their respective badges, but to which class Donald has been attached by this honor we are at a loss to conceive. The M.G. may have some reference to his status in New Zealand—a Maori God—as he would have us believe. He certainly cannot be said to possess the v r alor of St. Michael and St. George in combination, although the telegram announces that the honor of a Knight Commander of that Order has been conferred upon him—for what ? He is neither knightlike nor has he performed any knightly act that we have heard of, therefore we pause for an answer." A correspondent of the Otago Guardian, writing from "Vienna, thus narrates a recent tragedy in that city:—The general topic of conversation this week is of a fearful crime that has been' committed, and its speedy judgment—the murder of Theresa Bondy, a tradesman's wife, the mother of fire young children, by her servant maid. The victim had been only three weeks confined, and the murderess was only two days in her service. When Herr Bondy went in the morning to his business, he remembered that the girl, who was washing in the kitchen, asked him,—-would he be some time absent? On his return to dinner, he found some resistance in trying to open the door of his dwelling—it was his wife, lying dead in a pool of blood; his cries brought in the neighbors. The children were found locked up in the inner room, the elder crying bitterly for his mother. The servant had decamped with the washing, wearing apparel, and every small article; the value of the lot about £B. Of course the police made immediate search, but she had left Viemia and gone home to her native province. She was brought back, and tried at once. She confessed, and said her motive in taking service with Frau Bondy was robbery, knowing she was weak from her recent illness, and quite alone when her husband was at his work. I must remark that these dwellings or " dohnungen," though they may be four or six on every landing of these large houses, have a seperate door of communication, and when that is shut they are as private as a separate house Frau Bondy was in the inner room with her ehildren. She unfortunately came into the kitchen where the creature had her booty collected and was making preparations for departure. She called out, "Victoria, why will you rob me ? " The other caught up a heavy hatchet, and threw it at the poor woman, who fell. She then despatched her with seven wounds. The eldest boy of five years old had followed h : s mother, and began to cry. She pacified him with sugar and locked him up with the other children ; she went to the glass, dressed her hair in the fashion, and took her departure. She is only 20 ( and it is Said a perfect beauty, with golden hair and innocent expression. She is condemned to be hangedj but it is supposed; in consideration of her youth, the Emperor will commute the senteuoe. On leaving the dock she said, ''Hanging or locking up, it is all one." This week two of her victim's children, twins a year old, died.