TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4379, 2 April 1875, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

. •, r ■ [Per Press Agency;] . ' Auckland; Thursday. ' The Star's special correspondent at the , great Kingite meeting successfully penetrated the country to Te Kuiti. He writes a long account of his journey, describing the King country and the opening proceedings. He says:—After passing Alexandra there is no road, only a track, along which travellers are compelled to ride in Indian file, which leads to Kopua, eight miles through a difficult country, the road twice crossing the river. by almost impassable fords, owing to swamps. There are two Europeans married to Hauhaus living at Kopua, and a miscellaneous population of whites and half-castes. Fourteen miles beyond is Lewis’s store, kept by a half-caste, in the vicinity sof which Mackay’s life was attempted. Between this store and Kopua three streams have to be crossed, and two swamps, the banks on each side of the river being nearly perpendicular. From the store is sixteen miles to Kuiti, over a rough hilly country heavily timbered. After penetrating a dense forest, the traveller comes out on open ground, and begins to see settlements which surround Kuiti on all sides for about seven or eight miles. About a thousand natives live around Kuiti, which is built on both sides of the river, and has a large courthouse capable of accommodating three hundred natives. The King 1 s tribe is a small one. AH his land lies at Kawhia. He has two sons and several daughters, and three wives, besides concubines. His eldest son is learning blacksmith's work with a European named Moifatt. Tawhiao and' both his sous are addicted to , drink, and it is generally understood that at his death a nephew will succeed him, owing to his freedom from that vice. A large tract of- land is under cultivation at Kuiti, under wheat, oats, tobacco, and melons. They have a large surplus of hops and wheat, which they will send to market as soon as sufficient water .is in the river to allow canoes to proceed. . The correspondent describes the whole country as a series of hills and dales, with some high mountains and extensive forests. Pheasants and pigs abound. They have a fair share of cattle and horses and a few sheep, but for sheep the country is not adapted, owing to the general growth of the fern tutu. In the river ironstone is always found. Only recently a seam of cannel coal was discovered. Alluvial gold was lately found on the Downs. The natives have resolved not to permit roads or telegraphs on their ground, or to sell or lease lands. Sullivan’s and Todd’s murderers and Te Kooti live there. The chiefs are now all for peace. The correspondent adds that tho King’s successor may bring on war, and if ho does so it will be the last; but before the natives are vanquished many Europeans will be slain, the natural features of the country offering great barriers to Europeans. The meeting commenced on the 28th March. 4000 natives were present—nearly all Hauhaus. 2000 more were expected. Those there include Smith, tho chief of Wanganui district, with 250 of his tribe. Disappointment was expressed at the non-attendance of Tawhiao. Ho will probably be sent for. The correspondent states that subsequent to McLean's refusal to go with tho Governor unless the meeting were held at Kawhia, he offered to go to Kuiti if tho friendlies were allowed to accompany them ; to which the Kingite chiefs replied, if the Governor could not trust their safe escort he had better stay away. Tho principal object of the meeting is said to be to stop tho Waikato natives from giving the Government, in return for presents, a lieu on tho lauds which the natives are permitted on sufferance to occupy and cultivate, and to which the Waikato tribe lias no title. This is alleged to have been going on a long time, the natives accepting Government presents, and giving in return a lion on lands not their own. A warm discussion is expected.

v the day ’tliQ'.Sun dt’raucisco. njail i laft a ,Btatcme’nt waavpiffiliahed in ling!and that two more .survivorß of _tlie Gospafrlck hi!("KjXn'ivc(l, ,The following- ajjpeara in,the ", lof j Rbni A ’ b n cy, T v-KxT I:in/!ad yesterday at Lrixluun. reports having on Saturday evening, off Torbay, .spoken a full-rigged, ship, the Coldstream, 'bdKu&hg an® Smiih|ol £a%hi|rchd i ’sfreet' i 'Londo£i , '?he informed. SalisburvAhut. he had come from -St.. " ancT 'Es<l - oir'Boaja‘two 6f~the crew of th J d"h(i had!been • ta~keh .to * Sti -Coldstream is‘ believed to be bonnd foirljondon,and is reportedTaS' Shaving passed Plymouth yesterday afS'pTiE” " ' Tommy Kanaka, a .native, has been fined' £IOO. for smuggling ten pounds of tobacco. Nelson, Thursday. :

Two dead .bodies have been found on the Sand Spit, oh which 1 an inquiry was held by Mr. Davidson, J.P. Several portions of a wreck were also found, and articles of clothing and ,the .body .of, a large , black and white, retriever dog. ' It is quite possible that these are portions, .of the same , wreck reported from West 'Wanganui' on Match 20th ; but the lighthouse-keeper at the Spit thinks the vessel to which they belonged must have been from 200 to 400 tons burden, whereas the other wreck was e.stirnate’d’afnot exceeding 100 tons. On the mqrning of March 19th the lighthouse■keeper saw a barque and two brigantines standing towards, the north, and, one, barque, hull downy 1 standingßlind Bay. The barque standing north was painted black, with a broad red streak.

Christchurch, Thursday. 1' ■The' Acclimalisatioii Society’have received advices of the shipment, per Tintern Abbey, of 1010 insectivorous'birds and 500 leeches.

The Clydesdale colt imported by Mr. Walls yesterday, cost £750, and one of the mares £350, in Scotland. Walls was offered £I2OO for the former in Melbourne. Another valuable consignment of imported Lincoln and Leicester sheep, arrived via Melbourne, in the Omeb yesterday. I ‘’ ' Mr. 11.-R. Webb, , member of the General Assenibly, ' Lyttelton,' addressed - bis constituents last night., Deferring to the abolition ' of‘provinces, he said he would vote for the Bill based on the resolutions of last session, and hole! himself dpeilto vote for its application to the whole polony if.-he thought .such were desirable, but' would’oppose its application to Canterbury unless the land fund and .local control of local affairs were preserved intact. A vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Webb for his speech. ’ ! , Tiro following are the,reasons.given by, Jus : tice Gresson,' when taking leave of‘the Bar yesterday, for his. .retirement ;r— 1 “You are aware that the ‘Joint Committee of both Houses of Assembly upon the Ward-Chapman-inquiry appen'dedto their report a recommendation that- Supreme and District. Court Judges should ■change’circuit occasionally. I supposed at the time, as did many others, that it was merely intended to invite the Judges to exchange circuits, in uniformity with the practice of Judges of tile United Kingdom. Such .an exchange,had been often talked of, and to it the only possible' objection could be that it might be attended with some slight additional cost to the country, 1 "but the General Government .interpreted the suggestion to mean that Judges should 'lie 11 required to ’ change their judicial districts atpptervals, and remove from time to time from" bn'e part ofi the colony to another. I, venture, to doubt. that this could have been*'the : meaning of the"committee, or intention qf the .Legislature, because it would have implied an imputation against the Judges, •and because it, .would .have been at variance ‘with’ the ‘course of legislation of the last six-. ,feen culminating jn . a. statute which secured ’the independence' of Supreme Court; Judgev by, [Waking them removable only by her Majiity upon address of both Houses of .the Legislaturg.; Byt, what becomes of the independence' of the 1 Judges if they may be ordered by the r the day, as often as he pleases, to remove to whatsoever part of the colony he pleases ?It. is obvious that such a [iower is open to gross abuse, and that if these be the terms, under which they hold office, Judges are no better iff than when their commission was only during pleasure, a form which was wisely altered by the Legislature to a good-conduct tenure so long ago as 1858. In conformity with what Government supposed to be the intention of the Legislature, I received a letter from the Colonial Secretary, informing me this judicial district had been assigned to Justice Johnston, and inviting mo to remove to Nelson ; this I did not feel called upon to do, under circumstances which appeared to me to convey imputation against the impartiality of, the Judges, If the Legislature had by statute expressed its intention that they should reside at the Seat of Government, I should unhesitatingly have accepted a change which might be fairly assumed to be for the public interest, and not inconsistent with the independence of the Judges, although in my opinion the colony is not sufficiently advanced for such a movement, but viewing the matter as I do, no alternative remained for me but to retire.” Dunedin, Thursday. At the meeting of the City Council last night, it appeared that the cost of the proposed gasworks would bo probably from £28,000 to £30,000. The crops in the Mount Benger district have turned out heavier than in any previous year. A field of oats has yielded as high as seventy bushels to the acre, and in some instances a little over eighty. Mr. George McLean will not have a walkover for the vacant seat at Waikouaiti, as Mr. I’. D. Kich, of Bushy Park, a local candidate, will contest the seat. Groves v. Somerville, the social landau case, was tried in the District Court by District Judge Bathgate yesterday. It lasted until a late hour. Judgment reserved. There is no sign of the Jessie Nicol, the vessel sent to search for the missing schooner Euphroayne. Poet Chalmers, Thursday. , The, following verdict .has been arrived at by the jury in the inquest touching the death of George Smith, who was killed in a cutting on the Port Chalmers railway, on tho 31st March :—“ That George Smith was accidentally killed while working in a cutting at Port Chalmers;” to which tho jury added the fallowing rider—“ In our opinion tho face of the cutting (19ft. din.) was too high, and we would recommend the Government to pass an Act restricting the height of earth to be fallen to say ton feet; also, that contractors bo requested to provide, efficient supervision over works of this kind.” '