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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 240, 7 November 1876, Page 2

Still more Vuhgltbg: in. connection with the second ..Cook $traits cable. The Post of yesterday/says: — Tlie laying . ot the Cook Straits cable is likely to turn out rather expensive in the end. A few days ago we called attention to the amount- paid by the Telegraph Department to the ship Zealandia for ; demurrage, -but it appears now that this f will not be all. There is not. a sufficient quantity of the elag&jpf cable; required on board the ehip^ealaiidia, and the cable steamer will have to lie up here in harbor until the. remainder comes put from England. ..The. name ; of the ship which is to bring it is not even known, and there is no more satisfactory information as to when it will arrive than that it may be in the middle of December. Detaining the cable steamer will, of course, involve considerable liabilities, and that the Telegraph Department wilt have to pay . dearly for the. laying, of the Cook Straits cable is quite evident. In the whole transaction wo fancy that there has been a good deal of mismanagement. If the necessary quantity of cable had been forwarded at first by'the ship Zealandia, ahd she had been met on arrival hereby the Agnes, the cable would have been- now laid, and all this extra expense saved. But this ha_ hot been done, and the result will' be lan unnecessary waste of public money, The associated ; banks in- Melbourne have presented Mr D. C. M'Arthuryjon his retirement from the Bank of Australasia, with an address and 600 sovereigns for the purchase , of a piece of plate. Mr M/Artbur retires on a superannuation allowance of £1500 a year." .... '„ ' '" V' A Taiiranga telegram of Saturday says: — " A wonderlul meteor was seen here' lasfcnijght.- It exploded with a Hash as light and a report as loud as that of a cannon. Tbe noise was heard distinctly all over the town.'* •- „ . The West Coast Times of, the Ist instant states that a telegram, was received on Monday from London to purchase 240 shares in the Mount Eangitbto Silver Mining Company. Unfortunately for the sender of the* message, his price was too limited, he probably not anticipating that they w-3uld have reached so high a premium. The instructions were to secure that: number at or about par. The price, asked at present, however, is 60s to 70s! premium, and it is a question if a tenth of the number required could be ob- [ tamed even at that price. One of the Maori members of the House in illustration of the mode in which native land is occasionally pur j chased, said land at the Thames had been procured/not for money, but for damaged fiour, rope, soap, and sardines. Native assessors had addressed him, asking him not to complain of that mode of purchase, but to comply would, he thought, ba altogether too forebearing. It is stated (says the G. It. Argus) that come ol tbe leading merchants and importers in Dunedin have expressed their determination to pay duties to whoever may be appointed by Mr Macandrew to receive them instead of to I the General -trovernment Customs }' gate?* I