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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 218, 15 September 1870, Page 2

Embezzlement Case at Auckland. — A true bill has been found agaiust Innes, the Deputy-Commissary-General at Auckland, for embezzlement. John Gray, a timber merchant at Dunedin, has friled for £12,000._ He offers a composition of 11s. 6d. in the pound. The Wae. — The Ceylon Observer of the 6th of August says that the number of prisoners taken by the Prussians in the action with the French was 7,500 instead of 500. German telegrams say that after the battle of Wieasenburg the Prussians followed the French army into France. Everywhere there are proofs of the battle having been a great defeat to the French. Napier. — The following Napier telegrams are taken from the Evening Post : — Bruce, a managing contractor, has been lost between Taupo and Eununga. His horse, minus saddle and bridle, has been found. Native tracks, supposed to be those

of Hau Haus, have been discovered crossing Bruce's tracks. The snow is lying from one to two feet deep. The purchase of "480,000 acres of the geventy Mile Bush, for the purposes of immigration, is nearly completed. At Greymouth several persons have been fined for selling coal by measure, instead of by weight. It is reported that auriferous ground has been discovered near the Brunnercoal mine. No particulars are to hand. In the Upper Grey district there has been a heavy snow-fall. At Napoleon Hill snow fell to the depth of thirteen inches. An Insolvent, named Joseph Graham, has been charged, afc the Greymouth District Court, with omitting property to the amount of £25 from his statement of affairs, and has been committed for trial. Sergeant Lambert, who has been connected with the Nelson police since the earliest settlement of the South- West Goldfields, has tendered his resignation, and proposes sailing the schooner Woodquest, recently purchased by him in Nelson. Wi Tako Ngatata, in the course of au examination before the Petitions Committee at Wellington, wanted to know why the Maori members are allowed seats in the House of Eepresentatives. Says Wi Tako : " I have never heard them say a word. I suppose they sit there as specimens of carved images." Public Works Loan Bill. —Ou Monday a message was brought down from the Governor proposing certain amendments in the Public Works Loan Bill, the object being to render more clear and distinct the power of the Government; to enter into an arrangement with the Imperial Treasury, for availing themselves of the Imperial guarantee on the one million loan. Mr. Yogel stated that in order to avert the necessity of prolonging the session the Government had drafted a bill giving power to guarantee a higher rate of iuterest on the sum of £500,000, which was urgently required for various purposes. It was very probable that the European war would materially raise tha price of. money and in order to prevent another session of Parliament being almost immediately called, ifc was desirable to allow the sum raised at a higher rate of interest if necessary. With high interest ifc would not, of course, be desirable to go on with railways, but surveys, goldfields' waterworks, extension of telegraphs, roads in the North Island, and other matters would have to be carried on to a limited extent. Defence alore would require £180,000 during the year. The act he proposed gave the Governor in Council power to fix the rate of interest. The power was a large one, but ifc was the only meaus of avoiding another session of the House. Even with that bill another session might be found necessary, aud the Government would take care not to dissolve the present Parliament until all the preparations for the fresh elections had been made. Of course, if the war in Europe terminated suddenly, there would be a re-action, and the whole of the loan already authorised might be raised afc very low interest. The Bill was brought in. In Committee, Mr. Stafford said he thought that as full powers had been given to the Government to raise the million guaranteed loan, he thought it unnecessary and undesirable to authorise borrowing at a high, rate of interest of any further sum beyond that required for defence. Doing so would have a very prejudicial effect on the credit of the Colony in the London money market. He would support any measure required to enahle the ordinary business of the country being carried on, but he would not sanction auy measure for entering ou new works to a greater extent than the year's proportion (£200,000) of the million loan for immigration and public works. Mr. Yogel explained that the power was intended to meet the case of the negociations about the military guarantee falling through. It might probably be necessary to raise money before those negociations were concluded one way or the other. No contingent engagements involving the raising of large sums of money would be entered into unless tbe Government was sure of obtaining the money at a low rate of interest. Mr. Richmond opposed going one inch further into financial speculations at the present than could be avoided. The financial position of the colony was extremely grave, and he thought it the duty of members to stay as long as might be

necessary, or to come back at any moment, rather than go an inch beyond the immediate necessities of the moment. It might be necessary to re-consider the whole appropriations of the session. He asked for) a few hours' consideration before proceeding with the bill. Mr. Yogel said the Government would be only too glad to keep the House together under the present circumstances, if it was possible to do so, but they did not think that it was possible to keep members in Wellington any longer. It would be extremely mischievous to entirely suspend public works, especially the North Island roads, surveys of railways and waterworks, purchase of native land and extension of telegraphs, even if a little extra interest had to be paid. Mr. Kolleston urged that time should be given to consider the bill. Opposed as he had been to the magnitude of the financial schemes of the Goverment, those schemes having been endorsed by the House and country, he intended to devote himself most earnestly to carrying them out, but he did not think tbat bills such as the present should be hurried through. Mr. Yogel expressed his willingness to adjourn the further ther consideration of the bill for a couple of hours. Several members opposed the motion for adjournment, and the motion for reporting progress was negatived. In committee, Mr. Stafford obtained a limitation of the currency of the debentures of the bill to not exceeding four years from date of issue. Mr. Richmond moved the reduction of the amount to be borrowed from £500,000 to £250,000. Mr. Stafford suggested £400,000, but as Mr. Yogel positively refused to accept any reduction, Mr. Stafford refused to accept the responsibility of pressing his amendment to a division. Mr. Richmond's amendment was negatived, and the bill passed. — Posi. For remainder of News see Fourth page.

Thirteen Rooks have arrived by tbe ship Aboukir, afc Auckland, for the Acclimatization Society. The Government, having no doubt seen tho likelihood of a dear money market at home in consequence of the war, hail the Immigration and Public Works Loan Bill sent down by the Governor yesterday for the purpose of having an amendment made in ifc, allowing the Government to cuter into any arrangement with the Lords of the Treasury for tho loan guaranteed by the Imperial Parlinment. They also introduced a Temporary Loan Bill, enabling them to raise the sum of £500,000, ia anticipation of the ot.h-.-r Loan Bills, should the rate of interest be above that allowed by those Bills. The sum is to be devoted to the inauguration of the different schemes passed during the session. — Advertiser, Sept. 13. The Grey River Argus relates the following occurrence as having taken place at a meeting of shareholders at the Thames, for the purpose of electing a legal manager : — The choice of the evening was so evenly balanced between two candidates, that the two shareholders who were the last to vote, finding that a dead heat must be the result, agreed to "go Yankee-grab for it;" and the needful tools in the shape of three old dice and a pewter pot — having been provided, the operation was successfully performed, aud a legal manager duly elected. The party then liquored-up, amidst mutual congratutions at having devised so original an experiment. Sporting. — The writer of turf gossip iv the Australasian of August 27 says : — Mr. Dowling is more fortunate with his horses than those on this side of the Yarra, havirig Caulfield to work on, and Manuka and Prcetor are looking first-rate, especially the latter, who has thickened and grown wonderfully muscular. The Maori has not the appearance of having gone through the same preparations, but there is lots of time yet, and he is not one to bear hurrying. There is nothing doing on the Cup. Glencoe is rising in public estimation, and his price cannot be quoted at less than 100 to 7. Warrior, however, is decidedly at the head of the poll, at 10 to 1, aud the Duke of Montrose has received a most decided quietus, as his name is never mentioned now. The others are in statu quo. A rumour — canard, the Argus calls ifc, was spread that Manuka bad broken down after a severe gallop on the morning of August 25. The intelligence was quite new at the stable that same evening. Ifc may, therefore, be justly surmised that there was not much foundation for the report. The Elko Independent says : — Several times of late the trains on the Central Pacific Railroad east of this place have been stopped by crickets, and delayed sometimes over an hour in a place. Mr. Gidney, of Ruby Valley, who has just returned from the East, informs us that afc one point near the Wells, where there was a slight rising inclination in the track, they had to back down half a mile and raske three trials before they could get over that particular point, where crickets had piled themselves to such a depth on the rails as to render the track so greasy that the driving-wheels flew round on it as if the locomotive were suspended in the air. Parties unacquainted with the facts, and who know nothing of the numbers, siz?, and fatness of the black crickets of Utah, Colorado, Nevado, and Idaho, can have no conception of the appearance of ian army of crickets or of the vast heaps !i;*:(o which they mass themselves when ;>i oy meet with an obstruction. To such, !*■;•!'- idea of crickets stopping a twenty-ton jt :-.;."iiie must appear ridiculous, yet such things happen in the sage brush country without exciting any special wonder. The Japan correspondent of the Otago Daily Times reports unfavorably of matters iv that country. He writes: — " Things are going to the bad fast. I hear many colonials — especially Duuedia ones — say they would like to set foot on shore there once more amongst civilized beings, never to enter a heathen country again. The s.s. Albion is in port, but her destination is uncertain. The s.s. Otago is still in the harbor with little chauce of doing anything in this quarter, the place being over-stocked with steamers."