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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4386, 10 April 1875, Page 2

Sir George Grey arrived in Auckland 31st of March, for the purpose of commencing his duties as Superintendent. The next meeting of the Provincial Council of Nelson is fixed to commence on the 10th of May. Mr. McLean has resigned his seat in the Council. The honorarium of members of the Provincial Council of Hokitika has been fixed at £SO for the session. A match will be played to-day between the Colts and the Victoria Cricket Clubs, on the Basin Reserve. The following members of the club will represent the Colts : —Lowe, Lynch, Lublin, Locket, France, Hadfield, Barraud, G. Bishop, Webb, Waterhouse, and Mackay. Captain Underwood, of the steamer Albion, who is usually so fortunate with his fine vessel, yesterday met with a slight accident as he was leaving the Wellington wharf for Lyttelton. The Phoebe and the Albion were announced to leave at 2 p.m., the former for the North aud the latter for the South. The Phoebe left punctual to time, and got clear away on her voyage. The Albion followed immediately, backing a little to the southward to get away from the wharf, the vessel's head being turned to the east. A short distance to the northeast of the wharf was moored the hulk Eli Whitney—but she appeared to have escaped Captain Underwood’s notice, in his anxiety to clear the wharf. After the steamer’s head had been turned, she went full speed ahead, and whilst under full way it was found impossible to clear the hulk. The engines were smartly reversed, but too much impetus had been gained, aud the Albion struck the hulk on her starboard side a little abaft the fore rigging. The shock was considerable, the steamer’s bow cutting the hulk’s covering board aud water-ways, smashing her bulwarks, and turning her almost round. The Albion appeared to ride on the Eli Whitney for a couple of moments, when she dropped with a souce, the engines backed her clear, and she steamed away in chase of the Phoebe. Had the hulk been deeply laden, and consequently offered more resistance, she must have been almost cut in two. As it is, the damage is by no means small. An unusual treat may bo expected at the Manners-street Wesleyan Church to-morrow. Anniversary .sermons in connection with the Sabbath School are to be preached—in the morning by the Rev. W. Morley, aud in the evening by the Rev. W. J. AVilliams, from Otago. Mr. Williams is little known in Wellington, but has made himself a universal favorite wherever he has been located. He is quite a young mau, but is one of the most eloquent and impressive preachers the Wesleyan body possesses. As the school numbers considerably over 400 scholars,- there will be quite that number singing to-morrow. They are to occupy the gallery facing the congregation, aud among other suitable hymns, will sing several of Sankey’s, which they have been practising for the past two months under the leadership of Mr. C, Godber. Mx\ John Knowles has consented to deliver an address to parents and scholars in the afternoon, and on Tuesday next a public tea and meeting will be held.

The members of the Wellington Athletic Club have decided on holding an afternoon’s sport on this day week, the 17th instant, when several events which were unavoidably held over from Easter Monday’s meeting will be got off. No charge for admission to the Basin Reserve will be made, and the sporting portion of the public wall doubtless attend in considerable numbers.

The arrival and departure sheet at the Tele-graph-office was yesterday frequently scanned by persons interested in the arrival at Wanganui of the steamers Egmont, Mauawatu, and Napier, which left Wellington for that port on the previous evening. But no notice concerning any of the vessels was posted during the day. However, the respective owners of the Manawatu and Napier received telegrams yesterday, which stated that the former vessel had arrived at 10 a.m., and the latter an hour later. As the Manawatu left Wellington at 5 p.m. on Thursday, and the Napier at 7 p.m., the small screw boat reached her destination in an hour’s less time than the large paddle boat. On the 12th instant, the new regulation, by which agents are required to notify at the telegraph-offices of the several ports the arrival and departure of their steamships, comes into operation, when the public may hope to be more faithfully posted up in those matters. It is high time an alteration was effected. In the Resident Magistrate’s Court, yesterday, Michael Murphy was charged on remand with using threatening language to Mr. S. S. Downes, of the Pier Hotel, and with committing a violent assault on Sergeant Price. . The particulars of the case were stated in full in a former issue, and therefore need not be repeated. The Bench sentenced the prisoner to two months’ imprisonment for the assault, and bound him over to keep the peace for two months towards Mr. Downes. About fifty persons were charged with being owners of unregistered dogs. In a few of these cases fines were inflicted, despite urgent disclaimers as to ownership and other like fruitless excuses, and the others were either dismissed or withdrawn.

“ The Man in the Iron Mask ” was repeated last night at the Theatre Royal very successfully. There was an excellent house, and the play—arduous as it is—went very smoothly, and was extremely well received. This evening “ Richard the Third ” will be performed, with Mr. Bates in the part of Richard. His performance of this test part by Mr. Bates in America was highly spoken of by the journals wherever he appeared, and we have no doubt that the play will be brought out in first-class style. “ Richard ” is always a popular play, and we anticipate that Mr. Bates will prove himself, in this very difficult part, to bo a thoroughly capable interpreter of Shakespeare.

The late fire in Wanganui (remarks the West Coast Times), was reported as having “ originated in the premises of Thomas Anslow, draper. It is a circumstance worthy of record at the present time, that the large fire which took place in Westport about five years ago, originated in the premises of Thomas Anslow, thou a draper and storekeeper there. With the number of fires which have recently taken place, insurance companies and the public also should make searching inquiry as to the origin of these conflagrations. The fire to which we refer as having taken place in Westport, was said to have arisen from the bursting of a kerosene lamp as Anslow was leaving his premises late on Saturday night, and no further particulars were elicited at the inquiry. The event was the cause of several good men being ruined, and of the host block of buildings in the town being totally deetroyed.”

“ Atticus” remarks in the Melbourne Leader-. improved by the entrance into public life of Sir George Grey, llis candidature for the position of Superintendent of the province of Auckland will be the first instance upon record of a man who has held the position of Governor entering the Australian political arena, and Sir George Grey has been five times a Governor.” The same writer also contributes the following comments on a late incident of the social life of Wellington :—“ The people of New Zealand seem very thinskinned. A young gentleman recently lost £IOO at 100 in the Wellington Club, whereupon there was quite a commotion. The youngster resigned his membership. So did his father ; and the Marquis of Normanby,_ who was an honorary member, was asked to interfere, although there was no imputation of unfairness ; and people who take miss out of their turn, and play on single trumps, are apt to lose money at 100. I wonder what would become of the Melbourne Club if every loser made such a fuss as the young Wellingtonian, who certainly ought never to go out anywhere except to a tea-party, unless he takes his nurse with him ?”

One of the latest reports from Ohinemuri, circulated on the Thames, is the following ; “A miner named Stuart brought down 221bs. of soft pipeclay-looking stuff, which yielded 57ozs.' of gold. He declines to point out the place where he found it, as he is still engaged in toeing out the reef.”

Last week, says the Wairarapa Standard , a settler in this district driving a team of four horses over the Rimutaka, had a very narrow escape. Two of the four were young, and at a dangerous point of the road they shied, one of them getting right off the road, and hanging over the verge from its harness, while at the same time the wheel of the brake was also suspended over the side of the road. Fortunately the other two horses were staunch, and the driver succeede’d in recovering the vehicle and team from their perilous position without an accident. The increasing traffic on the Rimutaka road now makes it more dangerous to travellers than formerly, and too much care cannot be taken to avoid accidents with young and spirited horses. _ Great regret is expressed by the Hokitika hveuing Star that the Government of Westland is not in funds to open up a track immediately to the Taipo reefs, trial crushings from which have given from live to six ounces of gold to the ton. “ Without a track to the reefs,” the Star very truly observes, “it is utterly impossible to convey crushing machinery, oven of the simplest description, to the ground, and thus large mineral wealth remains virtually locked up. We have no hesitation in saying that if a good passable pack-track was made, many parties of miners would be glad to take advantage of the chance of working the reefs. We know of no place in New Zealand where payable quartz can be obtained so easily as in the mountain ranges of the Taipo district. The surface stone on a number of reefs is thickly studded with gold, and although the reefs have not yet been proved to be of great thickness, their richness should offer encouragement to miners to commence operations, provided always that a track was constructed.” A rather important case was beard in the Melbourne County Court lately, when a Mrs. Naomi Parsons sued Henry Sims, of Footscray, for .€IOO, under the following circumstances :—During her husband’s life-time a policy was effected, by which the assurance company agreed to pay Mr. or Mrs, Parsons £IOO on the death of either of them. This policy the husband deposited with Sims, as part security for the payment of a debt of £2OO, and Sims very naturally declined to pay the widow £IOO. For her it was argued, and successfully so, too, that her husband had no right to dispose of her property. Judge Cope agreed that under the Married Women’s Propeaty Statute such was the case, and returned a verdict for £IOO, with £l4 14s. costs, the damages to be reduced to Is. on the policy being given up to the plaintiff. In the letter of our special correspondent at Te Kuiti, says the Auckland Star of the 2nd instant, it was stated that alluvial gold had been found on the downs near the king’s chief settlement. In making this statement our correspondent no doubt relies on what he has been told by natives resident in the district, and, therefore, the statement cannot be accepted as unimpeachable. But it is wellknown that alluvial gold has repeatedly been spoken of as existing in the large and broken country beyond the confiscated boundary, now closed against Furopeans. A year or two ago it was positively stated that the chief Rewi had received a bag of gold from the interior. The locality then indicated was Tulma, which lies south of Te Kuiti. Other testimony is in favor of the existence of gold in the district, and it may he that the pressure brought to bear by a larger mining population will in the end (as in the case of Ohinemuri) be the means of expediting the progress of European civilization against Maoridom. We learn from the Grey River Argus of the 30th ultimo, “that Hr. Justice Johnston is engaged in the codification of the New Zealand Statutes, in pursuance of a motion carried in the Assembly of Mr. D. M. Luckie, M.H.R. We believe no attempt has been made to publish the Acts of the New Zealand Legislature in a connected form, easy of reference, since the ‘Provincial Statistics,’ compiled and edited by the late Mr. Wilson, barrister, whose untimely end must still be fresh in the memory of our readers.