Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4327, 1 February 1875, Page 2

The Mikado, with the San Francisco mail, arrived at Auckland at midnight on Saturday. The Southern portion of the mail was conveyed across the portage yesterday morning and put on board the steamer Ladybird,'which was waiting at Onehunga to receive it. The latter sailed for Taranaki at a quarter past three o’clock yesterday, and may therefore be expected to arrive here on Wednesday morning. The Mikado was to leave for Sydney at midnight. An address by Mr. C. Moody to the ratepayers of the Te Aro Ward will be found in our advertising columns. So far there are but two candidates in the field, Mr. Moody and Mr. E. T. Gillon.

The Bishop of Wellington held a confirmation service at St. Paul’s Cathedral yesterday, at which 23 male and 9 female candidates presented themselves for confirmation. Ashton’s challenge to walk any man in the province three events at certain distances—the winner of two out of the three events to be the victor —is likely, we understand, to be taken up on behalf of Purdy. George Ruddock, who on Saturday last was brought before the Resident Magistrate under remand, on suspicion of being a lunatic, and was further remanded till to-morrow for the purpose of being examined by two medical gentlemen, cut his throat in the gaol on Saturday afternoon. ,He was immediately conveyed to the Provincial Hospital, where the wound, which it is hoped will not prove fatal, was properly attended to.

We remark that Messrs. McMeokau, Blackwood, and Co., have altered the date of sailing of their regular steamers from Hobson’s Bay to New Zealand from Saturdays to Wednesdays. They will thus be due at the Bluff and Hokitika respectively every Monday morning. The Alhambra began the running on the new arrangement, and the Otago, which would follow, will perhaps be heard of from the Bluff in the course of the day. The Albion, which will bring the monthly Suez mails, will be the exception to the rule, A correspondent informs us of an act of wanton mischief, which deserves reprobation. It appears that Mr. Lucas, of Greytown, having planted and trained some beautiful vines around his dwelling-house, these were broken down and destroyed on Friday last. The noise made by the perpetrator of this outrage awoke Mr. Lucas, who was just in time to see a man decamp, but too late to identify him.

Few of the German immigrants who arrived by the Humboldt on Friday last will he landed in Wellington. It is the intention of the Immigration department to despatch, as steamers may offer, batches of immigrants to Napier, Taranaki, Wanganui, and Manawatu. The first lot will probably leave for Wanganui today. The ship Berar, which was released from quarantine on Friday last, sailed over to an anchorage off the wharf on Saturday. A writer in the Auckland Echd suggests that the interprovincial regatta for 187 S be held on the waters of the Waitemata.

Barron, the runner, explains that the talked-of match between himself and Delaney fell through in consequence of indisposition, which prevented him being present at the appointed hour on Friday night. Barron announces in an advertisement which appears elsewhere that he will be prepared to run Delaney on Thursday next, on the terms originally proposed. John Yink, late third mate of the ship Avalanche, was brought to town yesterday by Constable Lyster, of the Upper Hutt, charged upon warrant with embezzling a large quantity of ship’s stores, consisting of porter, wine, and brandy. When arrested, Vink was employed in a railway cutting, at the Mungaroa. An inquest was held on Saturday at the Criterion Hotel, Upper Hutt, on the body of John Evanson, who was killed on the previous day, on the new line of road to Waikanae, by the falling of a tree. The evidence of two witnesses went to show that while they were falling one tree the deceased was falling another twenty yards away. As the tree was about to come down the two men called out to deceased to get out of the way. He did get out of the way of the falling tree, but the tree lodged in another one, and snapped it off half-way down. This second tree hit the deceased and killed him instantly. A verdict of accidental death was returned.

Baker’s Hibemicou troupe arrived here per Rangatira late on Saturday evening, and will give their first performance this night in the Odd Bellows’ Hall. Wo have already quoted the opinions of the press of Auckland and Napier where only, in New Zealand, the troupe have appeared. We have no doubt they will justify the good name that has preceded them ; and the subject of the panorama is so interesting that it would be treason to the warmth of the Irish heart to suppose that there will be any other than a very full house. A telegram to the Queensland Government, from their Agent-General in London, Mr. Daintree, states that the news of the burning of the Cospatrick had operated injuriously on the prospects of emigration to the colonies. This was to be expected, but it may be hoped that the “ scare” will not be of a protracted character.

We have been favored by the Hon. the Commissioner of Customs with a copy of a telegram from Mr. •J. Warburton, the mail agent on board the Mikado, which gives the following few particulars of the voyage of the mail steamer :—Auckland, Sunday.—Arrived here on Saturday at midnight from San Francisco. Arrived at Honolulu on, the upward voyage at 10 p.m. on the 11th December ; left on the 12th at 5 p.m., and arrived at San Francisco on the 21st December at 1.48 p.m. Left San Francisco on the return voyage at 11.10 a.m. on Jan. 6, the mails being four days late in reaching that city. Arrived at Honolulu at 9.30 a.m. on the 14th, and sailed again at 6.30 a.m. on the 16th inst. On the passage to San Francisco the wind was generally unfavorable. aud especially from Honolulu. On the return very little assistance was obtained from the winds until after leaving the Sandwich Islands. The engines have worked without stopping both passages through. On Saturday morning the use of one boiler had to bo discontinued in consequence of the burning of its tubes, thus causing the voyage to bo lengthened by about eight hours.

The new Clyde. clipper ship Ben Voirlich has made the nrn from London to Melbourne in sixty-two days. Specimens of alluvial gold obtained in Waitekuri Creek, in the Ohinemuri country, have been shown in Auckland.

AVc are glad to learn that in Otago pheasants and partridges are increasing very rapidly. We observe that the Waihopai run, in the province of Marlborough, has been sold by Messrs. Sharp and Pickering, of Nelson, for £3960. It is stated in Melbourne that the office of Chief-Judge of the new Crown colony of Fiji has been offered to Mr. Gaunt, Police Magistrate at Ballarat, who is a member of the Victorian bar. It is also mentioned that Sir George Bowen will represent Mr. Gaunt in London in the matter.

We regret to notice, observes the Marllorongh Express of the 27th iust., that a cabal has arisen in the Wellington Education Board relative to the officers of inspector and secretary being held by.two persons. We do not say that the jealousy of a former inspector, who has taken offence at Mr. Lee, for acting as inspector of this province, is entirely the cause of this movement; but we certainly gather as much from what appeared in the Wellington papers. The Daily News remarks that the ivoryhilted sword worn by Sir Garnet on the occasion of the presentation of the freedom of the City of London afforded a curious illustration of the irony of history. On one face of its blade is the inscription “From her Majesty Queen Victoria to the King of Ashantee.” When the British force occupied Coomassie, it was found on the bed from which Koffee Caloalli had hurried in fight. Put up for sale at the auction held of the Coomassie “ loot,” it was purchased by the officers of Sir Garnet’s staff, and presented to him as a souvenir. The sword sent to the barbarian monarch by our Queen as a token of amity now hangs on the thigh of him who, holding the commission of that august lady, burnt the capital ’of the treacherous potentate, and made him a fugitive. On the reverse side of the blade from the inscription just quoted is this other inscription, “ Major-General Sir Garnet Joseph Wolseley, G.C.M.G., from the officers of his staff. Coomassie, February 4, 1874.”

The rising generation are becoming unduly inflated ■with notions of independence. A boy named Davis, aged thirteen, had a tiff with his employer, {a furniture dealer in town) one day last week, because they disagreed as to the proportion of cucumber he should be allowed at dinner. Davis thereupon threw off the tyrannous yoke and roamed away to fresh fields and pastures new. In due time he found himself at the Upper Hutt on his beamends, ' and being questioned by Constable Lyster related the story of the cucumber, and added that his father was rather given to stopping him occasionally. He was not averse to being brought back to town, and was placed in the lock-up yesterday to await the arrival of his friends, who stated that he had become rather unmanageable lately, was much given to attending the theatre, and returning home very late at night, for which he was sometimes chastised by his father. His absence had evidently upset their peace of mind during the past few days, and when questioned as to the cause of his running away he said “he couldn’t stand these rows.”

George Kane, a man of violent temperament, who has ■ frequently been before the Resident Magistrate’s Court upon charges of assault and suspected lunacy, was again arrested at the Upper Hutt on Saturday upon a charge of threatening to kill. It will be remembered that when last arrested the prisoner had in his possession a six-barrelled revolver, with all the barrels loaded and capped. Upon that occasion he threatened to draw the revolver upon the arresting constable, but was promptly prevented from doing so. Kane was then sentenced to a short term of imprisonment, and upon his release, the police, considering him a dangerous man, refused to give up possession of the revolver. A civil action was brought for its recovery, and the police were ordered to give up possession, although they stated at the time that it was positively unsafe to place such a weapon in Kane’s hands. This opinion is borne out by subsequent occurrences. Upon several occasions Kane has threatened the life nf a man named Buchanan, who will appear as prosecutor this morning.

We were the first, writes the Melbourne Leader, to point out that the benefits which the Government of this colony failed to perceive in a subsidised service via the Cape would ere long probably be taken advantage of by New South Wales, which had a brilliant opportunity, through our neglect, of making Sydney the great emporium of the passenger trade for all Australia and New Zealand. There is a chance of our prediction being verified. The difficulty experienced by the Government at Sydney with their Californian service has attracted the notice of foreign capitalist shipowners, and the representative of one of them in Sydney has been instructed to make an offer to run 3000ton boats (like the St. Osyth) from Sydney to San Francisco via Auckland, on the basis of a seven years’ contract, with a subsidy of £70,000, and a guarantee of six per cent, interest for the term upon a capital of £30,000. Mr. James Ewan (of the firm of John Fraser and Co.), through whom the offer is made, has creditably pointed out, however, that while such an arrangement might be of advantage to his firm, it would, on the other hand, be more conducive to the interests of the colony to subsidise a line of steamers by the Cape route for immigration purposes ; and the disinterested character of this proposal is likely to carry weight with the Government*and the public. The service would give Sydney merchants in forty-seven days consignments that in smaller ships would take nearly sixty days to arrive in Melbourne ; and Sydney, becoming at the same time the port of disembarkation of nearly all passengers to Australia and New Zealand, branch steamers conveying them to the other colonies, it would speedily make that city the New York of the southern hemisphere. We have warned successive Governments of the danger they incurred in ignoring a Cape steam service, and we are nearer now to be prejudiced by their laches than at any previous period of our history.