NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4195, 31 August 1874, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

' SUMMARY FOR THE MONTH. AUGUST, 1874. [For transmission by the R.M.S. ria Melbourne and Suez, and the R.M.S. Lity of Melbourne, mt Auckland, Honolulu, and San Francisco .] AVf.LLisc.Tox, August 81. The fourth session of. the fifth Parliament of New Zealand will close to-day. Its history ■will not be the least interesting in the annals of the Parliaments of this Colony. It was supposed when the General Assembly was called together that the business to be transacted would be of less importance than usual; that members might be relegated to their ordinary places of residence within a couple of months ; and that the session would be marked in the calendar as one of the lightest. The result has not been altogether in accordance with the anticipation. On the contrary, the session has been, perhaps, the most important since the termination of the great war. The Colony, so far as internal troubles are concerned, has been in the most quiescent con. dition. There has not been a time for years past when the Colonial Treasurer has been able to meet Parliament with a budget so thoroughly satisfactory. No new taxation of any sort was necessary. No change was proposed in the fiscal system. And yet it has come about that the short session has been a stormy one ; and that from it New Zealand will probably take a new departure in her Colonial history. Two measures, at the beginning of the session, seemed to be regarded by the Premier as of special interest. There was nothing in the condition of the Colony to create anxiety, and the time, therefore, was opportune for the discussion of questions that had more than momentary interest. The Premier had indicated in speeches he made while visiting the Provinces, that there were two matter's which he regarded as of the highest interest to New Zealand—the first was the State Forests Bill, and the second was the trade of the Polynesian Islands. The object Mr. A r ogel had in view in the first of these measures was less for the day than for the time that has to come. He saw that an enormous waste of property was going on. - He saw that the great forest estate of the Colony was not being, taken care of as it should be; . and he saw no reason why the conservation of the natural wealth of the Colony should not receive the amount of attention it deserved. He proposed that a State Forest Department should be created after the model of the German system. 'He asked that 3 per cent, of the Provincial forest lands should be handed over to the General Government, for the purpose of establishing forests ; from the revenue of which, in the end, the liabilities of the Colony in respect to the railway system might be extinguished, while the management of those forests woidd in the meantime conduce to the health and welfare of the public. The proposal was not only fair, but statesmanlik e> and the high objects it had in view should have been recognised. But the jealousy of the Provincial authorities was at once aroused. The proposal that one-third per cent, of the public lands should be handed over to the Colony—and, after all, the distinction between Province and Colony is purely artificial —was received with extraordinary disfavor by the more active representatives of Provincialism in the Lower House. The Premier was disappointed with the reception his idea met with ; he modified his scheme of State Forests to the dimensions given in another column; both Houses passed the modified measure, and the Council did so with an expression of regret that the original scheme had not been submitted to it.

There is no doubt that the unfriendly reception of the State Forests Bill, added to the trouble the Premier has had with the authorities of the Province of Wellington, had much to do with the determination of the Government to put an end to Provincialism in the North Island. The Premier put it to the House that the existence of a double form of government, with impecunious Provinces, simply meant that the General Government should' finance not only for itself, but for the Provinces—that they should find the money, and other persona should spend it. All through the session this end seems to have been aimed at—that there should be no expenditure on public works, for which the General Government should not be responsible in so far that that they should see that the works which were to be undertaken were proper in themselves, and that the plans were such as they could approve of. Whether the Government were pressed on to the larger issue—the abolition of Provincialism in the North Island —by the petulant, the carping, and the dishonest spirit which appears to have characterised Provincialism in the North Island, there is no doubt that they have taken a right step. The Colony has been overgoverned. With nine Provincial Superintentendents, nine Provincial Secretaries, nine Provincial Executives, and nine Provincial Councils, besides a House of Representatives and a Legislative Council, it was pretty obvious that there was too much form of government for a Colony of less than three hundred thousand jjeople. The Government proposed that Provincialism should cease in the North Island; that Wellington should bo again declared the seat of the capital of the Colony ; and that the compact of 1850 should he once more ratified. Resolutions to that effect were proposed. They were carried by forty-one to sixteen. On a subsequent vote they were ratified by a still larger majority, and the Government is charged with the duty, during the recess, of preparing ft scheme, to be submitted to Parliament next session, of local r self-government to supersede that which has hitherto existed. Mr. Vogel has .explained that he will lay before the General Assembly a scheme of a thorough system of local self-government, operating upon fixed local revenues. Mr. Eitzherbert endeavored to persuade the House of Eepresentatives to insist upon an appeal to the country before such a scheme should bo entertained, but the House was not with liim. A Bill to amend the qualifications of electors was introduced early in the session—with a view to extend the franchise—but it did not become law. Parliament has sanctioned the borrowing of a further sum of £4,000,000, in connection with the scheme of Public Works and Immigration. It has also agreed to proposals

for the purchase of the Provincial railways of Canterbury and Otago.

The Polynesian scheme has not been persevered with by the Government. Had the other business of the session been of less interest no doubt this matter would have been pressed. A commencement has been made in the encouragement of the trade by the subsidy of the steamer Star of the South, which now makes a voyage once a month between the New Zealand ports and Levuka. Mr. Von der Heyde, who was lately elected to represent AVaitomata, in the Province of Auckland, has been unseated, on petition, on the ground of non-naturalization. Since then letters of naturalization have been granted to him, and it is anticipated that he will bo reelected without opposition.

The AVard-Chapman inquiry has ended. The evidence taken by the joint Select Committee is understood to be of a somewhat curious character. The post and telegraph operators at Oamaru seem to be in some way involyed, but the joint Committee has reported that they should be lightly dealt with. The evidence will not be published, but will be placed in the hands of the Government, for them to deal with. It is probable that one result of the inquiry will be an arrangement for a shifting Circuit Court in the South Island.

Great regret has been felt at the temporary disarrangement of the San Francisco mail service. The steamer City of Melbourne, we learn, will take out a mail from New South AVales to San Francisco this month, and will call at Auckland on the 4th Sept, for New Zealand mails, proceeding direct by way of Honolulu. It is hoped that the representatives of the two Colonies in London will be able to arrange with the owners of the four new steamers now nearly ready for sea, and built expressly for the 'service, to take up the contract.

Another immigrant ship, the Euterpe—sonic time overdue —was signalled yesterday from Mount Victoria. Her people will be gladly welcomed, and will find employment readily. SOCIAL. The want of domestic servants in AVellington is still unsupplied, and girls who are in any way fitted for the work, readily meet with engagements. The following is the official return of the traffic on the Hutt section of the AYellingtonMastertou railway during the month of July: —Coaching—Passengers, 8118, £335 18s. 2d ; season tickets, £2O ; parcels, &c., £l2 3s. 7d. ; total, £368 Is. Od. Merchandise—Freight, 179 tons, £35 17s. ; rents, &c., £l7 11s’. Id. ; total, £53 Bs. Id. Total, £421 9s. lOd. An exceedingly pleasant social gathering was held on Friday evening at the Panama Hotel, the occasion being a complimentary supper to Mr. AVm. Samson, on his departure for Dunedin, to enter into business with Mr. AVeir of that city, under the style of AYeir and Samson, glass and hardware merchants. Between forty and fifty gentlemen were present, including Mr. Turnbull, of the firm of AY. and G. Turnbull and Co., Messrs. O'Shea, McDowell, Harcourt, E. J. Duncan, T. McKenzie, T. Kennedy Macdonald, and many others well known in business circles in the City. The health of Mr. Samson was drunk with enthusiasm. Mr. Turnbull bearing the most flattering testimony to Mr. Samson’s abilities and worth, and his deep sense of regret at that gentleman’s departure from AYellington and his own employ. Mr. Samson, in responding to the very kind wishes expressed for his welfare and success, spoke of his connection with the firm of AY. and G. Turnbull and Co., referring warmly to Mr. Turnbull’s kindness and consideration to his employes, and the universal esteem in which Mr. Turnbull was held by them. At an adjourned meeting of immigrants, held at the Odd Fellows’ Hall on Tuesday, on the subject of promissory notes to the Government for amount of passage money to this Colony, it was resolved that a petition should be presented to the House of Eepresentatives praying that the amounts of the promissory notes held by the Immigration Department should be remitted to those by whom they were respectively signed, on the grounds that free immigration ensued shortly after the arrival of those paying for their passages, and that house rent and’necessaries of life were at a very high rate. About sixty persons attended the adjourned meeting of the Co-operative Cattle-dealing and Butchering Society (Limited), at the Odd Fellow’s Hall on Tuesday. The report of the Provisional Committee was read and adopted. Messrs. George Crawford, John Martin, and Arthur Hayward, were appointed trustees; Messrs T. McDonald and Charles AVhite, auditors; Messrs. A. Hayward, N. Valentine, AY. Mitchell, John Smith, G. Firmin, AY. Ebden, John Astill, D. Tothill, and S. Levy, committee of management,; and Mr. Moody, secretary. The rules as certified by the Kegistrar were read and approved, and the meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the chairman.

Mr. Andrew Young, mail contractor, has been officially apprised of the opening of the Oroua Boad, between Palmerston and Bull’s. Eegular coach communication will now, therefore, be kept up. A meeting of those interested in the formation of a Hibernian Catholic Benefit Society, was held in St. Mary’s Church school-room, on Tuesday, August 4, when about fifty persons were present. The formation of the Society was resolved on, and about twenty-five members were immediately enrolled. Mr. C. D. Barraud, of this City, proposes publishing a collection of chromo-lithographs and wood-cuts of New Zealand scenery, with descriptive letter-press, to be executed in the best manner by a London firm. The quantity of gold exported from New Zealand in the quarter ending on the 30th of June was 91,1780z5. The total quantity shipped from the Ist of April, 1857, to the 30th June last, was 7,423,7100z5., valued at £28,873,351. Several friendly merchants and importers in Wellington, recognising the able manner in which °Mr. Haekworth, lately Collector of Customs at this 'port, but recently removed to Dunedin, had carried out the duties of his office, collected the sum of sixty guineas, and forwarded a cheque to him for the amount, receipt of which has been acknowledged. A valuable addition to the thoroughbred stock of this Colony has arrived by the s.s. Omeo, in the fine chesuut colt Gladiator, imported from England to Melbourne, where ho was sold as a yearling for 450 guineas. He has since been bought for Mr. John Shield, of Wanganui, where he now goes. Notice has already been taken of a collection of water-color views of New Zealand scenery, painted by Mr. W. M. Cooper, and now to be seen at the Colonial Museum. The collection has been referred to as containing views of the Mount llochfort coalfield, but these form but a small part of the series. They include pictures of the scenery in nearly every Province of the Colony ; but the illustrations of the West Coast are especially numerous, and Mr. Cooper has selected some of the grandest scones from Cape Farewell to Milford Sound, while faithful drawings of the centres of settlement have also been made. The births registered in Wellington Borough in July were forty-five, the highest number for any month since January, when they amounted to seventy-seven. Mr. T. A. Bowden, of this city,- has just published a very fine and elaborate wall map of all the Polynesian Islands, which shows the situation of New Zealand relatively to the shores of Asia and North America, with the intervening islands, the scale being two degrees to an inch. _ A. considerable accession to the German population of the Province was made on August oth by the arrival of the ship Beiohstag, from Hamburg, with 350 immigrants on board.

SPOUTING. The programme of . the Wellington Jockey Club for the ensuing meeting, now issued, is one which that body may be fairly proud of. Compared with that of last meeting, it is as great an improvement as that was on the preceding one. In fixing upon the month of December for their meeting, instead of March as heretofore, the club have taken a most judicious step, and one which must inevitably have a beneficial result. The alteration acts in concert with the Canterbury Jockey Club, whoso meeting takes place in November, so that horses taking part in the meeting South may be kept up for AYellington without inconvenience. It will also suit the proposed AVanganui and AVairarapa meetings. The bill for the 3rd and 4th of December, is almost attractive one, commencing with a Maiden Plate of 100 sovs., which should prove an inducement to the numerous Platers that do not often have the chance of such a nice picking. The principal item of the bill follows, and a capital prize it is—The AYellington Cup, a handicap, sweepstakes of 10 sovs. each, with 200 sovs. added, the second horse to receive 25 sovs; two miles. This is a prize which should draw together all the best horses in New Zealand; and an excellent field should face the starter’s flag, if the handicappers ai’e fortunate in their adjustment of weights. Last year the added money to the Cup was ISO sovs, so that we now have an improvement of 50 sovs. A selling race of 50 so vs. is next offered ns a nice little prize for those nags that might find the Cup and Jockey Club Handicap company a cut above them. A hack race of 10 sovs. follows, and the first day is wound up with the Provincial Plate, of 100 sovs, for all horses owned for six months prior to the race by bona fide settlers of the Province of AYellington, weight for age, one mile and a half: another half mile would have lent an additional interest to a weight for age race. The ball is opened on the second day with a handicap hurdle race of 75 sovs, two miles, over seven flights of hurdles, 3ft.. Sin high—why not 3in. lower, which is the recognised height for hurdles, and which would make a deal of difference in two miles at racing pace. The hack hurdle race which follows is badly placed on the programme, and might be advantageously changed with the selling race of the first day. To have two hurdle races in immediate succession is a most unusual and awkward arrangement. The Derby, 100 sovs., with 10 sovs. sweepstakes, comes next, and for it eighteen nominations have been made, out of which ten should cpme to the post, comprising the best blood in the Colony, consequently a good race with the three-year olds may be looked for. The Jockey Club Handicap, pf 100 sovs, added to a sweepstakes of 6 sovs., will be a soothing morsel for the unsuccessful competitors for Cup honors, and as the handicap will be made after the nags have shown their form iu the great race, the handicappers should succeed in putting them well together. Besides the distance is half a mile shorter, and those whose want of staying powers may fail to bring them home the last half mile—which finds the weak spot in so many—will have a show of finishing nearer the front in the shorter race. A Consolation Handicap of 50 sovs., and a Hack Kace of 10 sovs., wind up a very excellent programme of what should prove a most successful meeting. MINING. The extent of the Greenstone rush, which seems to be raising the hopes of the AVeatlanders, is thus described in the columns o the Grey Hirer Argus, by a recent visitor:— “ There are at present 300 men, and the population is being daily increased by new comers. Although the influx of population is not rapid, there is scarcely a day passes without some addition. There are sixteen claims now on gold, and several other parties are expecting to strike the wash-dirt in a few days, which will prove more fully the direction and extent of the lead. There is also a large number of claims pegged off in which preliminary work is being done. From couver-sations I had with several parties now engaged on the ground, I found the general conviction to be that while they do not think it will be a pilemaking rush, yet they all appear to be of opinion that there is a large area of ground that will pay wages. On inquiring what they regarded as wages, I was informed they considered from £5 to £6 per week per man to be fair wages. Although there is little or no excitement manifested, yet there is a spirit of cheerfulness pervading the whole which is pleasing to witness. There is a track, and there is water, and the ground both in the tunnels and in sinking is quite dry, which, on the whole, will make the working of the ground comparatively inexpensive.” The Wealth of Nations Quartz Mining Company, Beefton, Inangahua, are reported to have cleaned up on Friday week, it being the end of the month; the boxes were also cleared out, resulting in 4770 z. 16dwt. of amalgam, which were retorted, together with what was scraped from the plates previously, producing 3830 z. 17dwt. of retorted gold. The directors, at the meeting held on Saturday, were enabled to declare a dividend of Is. 6d. per scrip. This dividend completes the paying back of the whole of the called up capital of the Company. £3250 has been distributed in dividends during the last five months. A private telegram to AYellington lately reported the discovery of some rich quartz in the Monte Christo claim, at the Lyell. The Grey River Argus, in giving some'particular's of the discovery, says a first-class leader, averaging six inches in thickness, was cut through in the uprise which was being driven from the end of the new low level tunnel. Some stone taken from the leader contains more than the average of coarse gold, and the loader presents a very favorable appearance. It was met with 65 feet above the floor of the tunnel, which is in nearly 700 feet. The leader is thought to bo a continuation of the Mamia Smithy Leader. Should this surmise prove to be correct (about which there is little, if any, doubt) the leader in question must run through a large area of the Long Drive and Central, as well as the Monte Christo Company’s ground ; and iu that case it will prove a most valuable discovery.

THE DEFENCE MINISTER, SIR DONALD McLEAN. The latest telegraphic nows from England contains one item of intelligence which will be gratifying to the colonists of New Zealand generally, inasmuch as it conveys intimation of a well-deserved honor having been conferred upon a good and faithful servant to the country, the Hon. the Minister for Native Affairs. Already a companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, the Hon. Donald .McLean has been raised to the higher grade of Knight Commander of that most distinguished order, as a special mark of his Sovereign’s approval of the manner in which, as member of the present Ministry, he has aided in preserving peace in the Colony, and in promoting friendly relationship between its European and Native inhabitants. There is, perhaps, no man in the Australasian Colonies upon whom suchhonor could havebeenmore justly conferred;' throughput his life as a colonist, and especially during his tenure of office as "Defence Minister, Mr. McLean has been to the Colony and to the Crown of greater service than might have been the expenditure of millions and the presence of an armed host ; and upon his elevation to the dignity of Knight, he will, no doubt, bo congratulated by his fellow Ministers, by the members of both Houses of Assembly, and by the people of the Colony generally. Of the character of Sir D. McLean’s services in the past, a fair estimate may bo formed from the following, which we are able opportunely to quote from the Otago Daily 'Times, in the columns of which journal there has lately appeared a series of “ Political Portraits" from the pen of a writer who possesses peculiar acquaintance with his subject, and deals with it in a stylo which is-rare in the columns of the Colonial Press ; Though it is of comparatively late years, that the name of Donald McLean alone has been sufficient, like the whisper of Coeur-de-Lion’a name, to quell the pukings and wailings of would-bo Native critics, ho has not sprung all of a sudden on to the stage. Almost from the beginning wo find his name on the rolls of the Native Department, picldng up the first of those ideas and conceptions of the future of the Maoris, what it might be made, and what

it might he made again, which he has since, after many years, assimilated into a powerful whole. So far hack as 1857, which we can call to mind at the moment, his name appears as the Native Secretary, and even at that early time commanding the respect and admiration of the dusky .nation whose affairs he had all control of, and which he administered -with a blunt straightforwardness which covered the many defects that experience had yet to correct. Then we meet him as Chief Land Commissioner, where his clear views of the nature of land tenure, and his power of separating those principles which are very well in the matter of a land transfer or change of land laws in a long established and civilised community, but which are useless and out of place in so intricate a question at that of the Maori land, from the consideration of a disputed claim, caused him to be looked to as a sound authority on all land disputes, where the true perception of the Maori interpretation was often the essential of a peaceful settlement. Passing over the intervening years up to recent times, we find that in all the important places which Mr. McLean filled, he was gradually working himself more clearly before the Maori mind, until at last the Natives began to look upon him as indispensable in securing to them their rights, and in advocating then* cause, as he was determined to do even justice by Maori and Pakeha. There were, in the days when we doated on Mayne Reid, and slept with our finger and thumb between the leaves of Pennimore Cooper, a class of persons whom these fascinating writers called ” renegades ” white men, as far as we can recollect —who, on an average, scalped ten times as many foes as the bravest Indian chief, and were more Indians than the Indians themselves. That is where the shoe pinches in the policy of most of the preceding Native Ministew. Some were too much Pakehas ; some ; were too much Maoris—renegades, if we abolish tire objectionable half of the word’s meaning. It is here that Mr. McLean differs from them all. He is a Pakeha-Maori and a Maori-Pakeha; and he is equally just, fail', and true to one race as to the other. So the Maoris came to look up to him ; but they found that if they had an advocate of their rights, they had no less a judge of their wrongs, and one who would not palliate any open act of rebellion or disaffection. Par the greater part of Mr. McLean’s reputation and status is due to that one quality, or rather that combination of many qualities, which we call firmness. His wide experience of men and things, manners and customs, ways and means, enables him always to catch the real meaning and tendency of a speech or dispute, and his naturally shrewd Scotch intelligence combined with this faculty enables him to decide rapidly and surely where hesitation would be fatal. Once made up in his mind, the Scotch side of his character again comes in ; fox- though anything but bigoted and set against conviction, his decision is backed up by an intuitive feeling which a great deal would be needed to shake, that “ I’m varra weel near rioht, ye ken.” He has had no wavering or vacillation in his treatment of the Natives. No blanketclad miser of a Ngatiawa or Ngatiporou over came whining to him to get back his land for himself, his heirs, and assigns, for nothing, and got it; and no cunning Maori chief ever tiled to sell his land twice, when the Native Minister had an inkling of what was going on,' and sold it. Thwarted sometimes in their most cherished schemes, and forced almost against their own convictions to submit to the finn, strong pressure of a superior mind, it was not unnatural that enemies should have been made in some.quarters. Hut as- a rule, time put things in another light, and amicable relations were restored. The one same, invariable, unchanging policy which he adopted, had an attraction for the will-o’-the-wiap Maori and exerted an influence over him of which he was to a great degree insensible himself ; and so on the basis of strict impartiality, Mr. McLean built for himself among both Maoris and whites an equal approbation and confidence, which x-e----cent events have only strengthened. The last, the saddest and severest of all our Native struggles, a contest with fiends and devils incarnate rather than with human beings, stained ■with treachery, massacres, the blood of resistless women, and of tender infants, and adorned with the names of many brave dead in a warfare of snares and trails !instead of manoeuvres and battlefields, called for all the energy and all the mind power to check its hideous course, and none but the force of a strong and active mind could have fronted the danger successfully. It was found in Mi - . McLean ; blunders thei-e were, but the course of murder and rapine was stayed by careful planning and judicious negotiation, and the cessation of war in the land is to a great extent attributable to him. Of his populaxity and influence over the peaceful tribes, their willing and valuable bush service against their own race on behalf of a strange people abundantly testifies. Friendlies we had had in our ranks before the days of Mr. McLean, but hardly.anyone will deny that the aid of the Arawas and other friendlies and loyal Natives against Tito Kowaru, the man with the nine lives, and To Root), the übiquitous murderer, was given rather to Mr. McLean than to the Pakehas generally. When that series of battles was over, a peace descended ‘upon the land, which has happily not yet been broken, but which is rather receiving moi'e and more consolidation as time goes on. Many ax-e disposed to say : Peace, peace, when thex-e is no jxeace ; to say : What and where are the functions of the Native Minister ? to say : Why do we sweat and toil to keep an ornamental standing ax-nxy of 700 paid men ? But take the office of Native Minister away —abolish the Armed Constabulary—and leave the Maoris to play once moro, unmolested, with their toy-king; or, in a word, remove ME McLean, and it would require a wisdom which it would be foolish to say all our legislators possess, to keep things straight. It is not that Mr. McLean is the cleverest man in the House or the Government ; there, ax-e others who have quite as much, if xxot more, ability than he ; but he is, as it were, wedded to the position he fills, and anybody else would at the present time find it vex - y difixcxxlt to fit his foot to the Native Minister’s slipper. ■ That the great services, rendered by Mr. McLean have not been unrecognised at Home, is evinced by the fact that he wears the badge of the Companionship of St. Michael and St. George, like his colleague the Premier; and the speculative say that it will not be long before both the Premier aud the Native Minister are raised to a higher degree than mere companions ; a dignity which they well deserve, and which they would wear becomingly after their eminent services. What Mx-. McLean has done,in mox-e x-eoent times is well known to those who read the newspapers and Hansard. For one month in 1872 he vacated the office he had filled since Mr. Vogel’s accession to power, bnt the retu-onxent of Mr. Stafford’s Government caused him oxxce moro to become the head of the Native Department; and though occasional ..murmurs ax-e heard aboxxt the expense of this branch of the Government, the majority of people ax-e qxxite willxug to leave the abolition of the Armed Constabulary, which may ho taken as a sample of the kind of grievance alluded to, to the good time and discretion of Mr. McLean. Native matters are running smooth and unruffled under his management,and all fears of future war and Native troubles ax-e fast vauisbiixg from the catalogue of possibilities. Meanwhile, thex-e is no idleness in tho camp. Mr. McLean has a keen pex-cep-tion of the ameliorating effects of education and civilising arts upon a rude people; and, under his guidance a series of Statutes has been passed to bettor the condition of the Maori generally. It is in the peaceful ax-ts he is using now, no less than for the firnuxess of his operations in the time of war, that Mx-. MoLeaxx deserves, aud has earned, as a Native Minister, the sincere x-espeot and esteem of both the Maori and pakeha.

VITAL STATISTICS. The vital statistics of the seven principa towns in the Colony, for the month of July last, have been published by the RegistrarGeneral. They show, as statistics previously published have done, that Nelson is by many degrees the healthiest pax-t of the whole Colony. There, at least, the death-rate is lowest, while it is highest in Dunedin aud Christchurch. The facts x-eoorded are that in Auckland borough there were forty-three births and seventeen deaths in a population of 12,775 ; at the Thames nineteen births and seven deaths in 8073 ; in Wellington fortyfive births aud eleven deaths in 10,547 ; in Nelson sixteen bix-ths and two deaths in 6662, one of the deaths resulting from violence ; in Christchurch forty-five births and twenty-six deaths in 10,294 ; in Dunedin eighty-four births and thirty-five deaths in 18,499 ; and in Hokitika seventeen births and six deaths in 3352. The Auckland and Hokitika hospitals, it is stated, ax-e outside the boundaries of the respective boroughs. In all the boroughs mentioned the births were 269 in July, as against 246 in June. The deaths were six ixx number fewer than in June. Of the deaths, males contx-ibuted fifty-eight ; females, forty-six; foi-ty-six of the deaths were of children under five years of age, being 44-23 of the whole number ; twenty-nine of these were of children under one year of age. The deaths of children under five years of age exceeded those in June by foxxr. One female of seventy-five yeax-s of age died in Welington. GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS. The following tenders were received at the Public Works Office, Wellington, for theTimax-u and Waitaki Railway, Pareora contx-act; — Accepted ; Allen and Stumbles, Timax-u, £23,911 ss. 3d. Declined : Jas, Gibson and Son, Timaru, informal; Walter Fxxllex-, Ashburton, informal. The contract with Messrs. McMockan, Blackwood, and Co., of Melbourne, for a mail sex-vice between Melbom-ne and New Zealand, in connection with the Suez mail, extends to the end of August, 1876. The cost of the double voyage is £384 12s. 4d. The following tendex-s were received at the Public Works Office, Wellington, for the Westport contx-act of the Mount Rochfort Railway (formation and permanent way) : —Accepted ; John McLean, Greymouth, £16,795. Declined; Stephen Lowin, Westport, informal; E. B. Garven, Greymouth, £16,818 ; William Smith, Hokitika, £17,373 ; Walton Pell, Westport, £17,697 ; J. B. Eteveneax, Westport, £19,182 ; Keith Bros., Greymouth, £25,526 ; Alex. Stitt, Westport, £28,741.