TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4421, 21 May 1875, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

[FROM OUK OWN CORRESrONDENTS.] Auckland, Wednesday. In the Provincial Council this afternoon the following resolution was carried :—" That in the opinion of this Council the time has arrived when some change should be made in the dual system of government at present existing in the colony. That the whole of the Provincial Governments of the colony at present existing should be abolished, and a more effective and local form of self-government instituted." The motion was carried by 19 to 15 on a division. Mr. Sheehan gave notice of motion : " That it is not expedient such change be made in next session of the Assembly, but in a new Parliament, and that any such change should be general throughout the colony." DUNEDIN, Thursday. It is thought the new Executive will consist of the following :—Bastings, Provincial Secretary, Secretary for Goldfields, and Secretary for Public Works ; Wood and Sumpter will hold office non-officially ; and the offices of Treasurer and Commissioner of Railways (the latter a new office) will be held by Fish and Green respectively. The Guardian to-day states that two young fellows (one a Government clerk) went out to the ocean beach yesterday morning to fight a duel with pistols, both being in love with the same young lady, but on arrival at the spot found their seconds had split on them, and friends and relatives were on the beach and prevented the affair going any further. • The first sod of the Kaitangata railway will be cut to-morrow. Mr. A. J. Smyth is the contractor.

A meeting of cricketers takes place to-night to consider the question of meeting an Australian team.

At the adjourned inquest on the man Borland to-day, a verdict of accidental death was returned, with a rider that it was the duty of the Government to have gates at all crossings, and lights kept burning at same at night. The Middle District School is to be pulled down next week. PRESS

[Per Press Agency.] Auckland, Thursday.

The Provincial Council last night carried a motion in favor of levying an export duty of £5 per ton on all gum sent out of the colony., the proceeds to be devoted strictly to education ; and resolved that the Superintendent memorialise the General Government to give effect to this resolution.

Padden, against whom an indecent offence was alleged, was brought up and only charged with drunkenness.

The Auckland and Mercer railway was open to the public to-day. The Williamson memorial fund is expected to realise £450.

Mr. Bagnall, Thames member, moved in the Provincial Council this afternoon a resolution in favor of abolishing provincial form of government, and substituting in lieu thereof an efficient system of local self-government. At the close of the mover's speech proposing the resolution no one rose to speak. After a pause, no member rising, the Speaker called on the mover to reply, which he declined to. do. He was - then putting the question, when Mr. Swansori and others asked leave to move an amendment. The Speaker ruled they could not do so, as he had called on the mover to reply. Question then put, and carried by 19 to 14. The sudden termination of the expected debate took the Council by surprise. The Provincial Secretary at once gave notice that he would propose a motion, rescinding the resolution, to-morrow. Plans and specifications of the Auckland dock, to enable English contractors to tender, were in the Mikado's mail. It is feared they have been lost in the Schiller. The Harbor Board sent a cablegram inquiring.; ■ • Alexandra, Thursday. ; Plenty of rain fell here during the last few days. The river is now navigable, but very few canoes are down as yet with produce. A number of Thames natives are expected here, en route to the meeting to be held at Kuiti. '. Gkahamstown, Thursday.

The Advertiser this morning declares that the Ministry will not live a week after the opening of Parliament without Mr. Vogel.. The- country can have no confidence in their ability to carry or deal with the constitutional questions which have been neglected by them. It says the choice must be between Stafford and Grey. .It declares that if Stafford is prepared to come forth from his retirement and form a party to go to the country.on the question of local self-government, he will not have much difficulty in disposing of the claims of Grey The South will have to choose between what provincialists there will regard as two evils. The people must either support Mr. Stafford in abolition of the provinces, and thereby secure their land fund for endowment of local boards, or else they must take Grey, with his peculiar opinions and his determination to make the land fund Colonial Revenue to be used for the- maintenance of provincial form of government generally, but the city of Auckland in particular. News just received here of the carrying of abolition resolutions in the Auckland Provincial Council, gives much satisfaction. Napier, Thursday.

Tenders for theProviucial Banking Accounts were received to-day. That of the Bank of Australasia was accepted ; terms, seven per cent, oa amount of daily balance, being two per cent, above what waa given last year by the Union Bank.

Sir Donald McLean is laid up unwell at Hastings. Illness said not to be serious. The Wairoa land negotiations have been brought to a close. The natives are leaving town fast.

Routledge, Kennedy, and Co. held a sale at Hobb and Morris's stables. Trap and saddle horses fetched from £lO 10s. to £l7 10s. ; traps from £25 to £65. Harness fetched good prices. The Herald, in view of Mr. Vogel's illnesSj recommends short Parliamentary sessionget the Estimates passed, and leave the abolition question to next Parliament.

New Plymouth, Thursday. The skeleton of a child, who was: lost in the bush twelve months since, has been found. The Herald says that over £6OOO advanced to immigrants leaving England is owing, and little has been collected. The single men are conspicuous in their not paying. ' Hoiutika, Thursday, i The resident agent at Jackson's Bay special settlement reports that an extensive deposit of limestone exists half-way from town, and says the quantity. is unlimited, and forwards samples to the Superintendent. He also picked up pieces, of coal shale, and observed patches of fire clay. The Government .survey party came across fine continuous belts of timber. i 81/ENHEi.ir, Thursday. Mr. Joseph Ward held a meeting last night at Grovetown. A resolution was moved that Mr. Ward was the most fit and proper person

to represent the constituency in the Assembly. An amendment was moved merely thanking Mr. Ward for his address, but was lost by a majority of thirty-four to thirty-three. The original resolution was not put, as the people were, kaving the meeting, under the understanding that the loss of the amendment carried the resolution. The meeting was very excited and noisy. Chmstchuroh, Thursday. In the Provincial Council last night the debate on the second reading of the Education Bill was resumed. After six hours' discussion, the second reading was carried on the voices being taken ; but from the general tone of the speeches there can be no doubt that the principal clauses in the Bill will be greatly altered in committee.

Sixty-seven boys and thirty-one girls have entered in competition for the Provincial examination, which commences on Ist June.

At a meeting of the promoters of the Veteran Rifle Corps last night, it was resolved to form a corps of old volunteers, under the title of the Reserve Corps. A prominent Christchurch estate agent, named E. Mainwaring Johnston, has been arrested on a charge of giving fraudulent titles to land.

Frederick It Pavitt, late steward of church property estate, was brought up again on remand at the Resident Magistrate's Court to-day, charged with embezzling £l6lO from Christ's College funds. The case was fully proved. The prisoner, who was defended by Mr. Joynt, - made no statement in defence,. and was committed to take his trial on all sixcharges brought against him. The total defalcations in the six cases are £5733, but there are other amounts which may not come before the Court, bringing the total up to. £6890. At a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce this afternoon a committee was appointed to consider the advisability of taking steps to have this province represented at the Philadelphia Exhibition. The Provincial Government have promised to pay all necessary cost of getting exhibits together and forwarding them.

The members of the Canterbury Operative Plasterers' Association have issued a notice to the effect that after the 31st of May they intend to demand an increase of wages of one penny per hour, and cessation from work at one o'clock on Saturday. Dcnedin, Thursday. The missing notes from the Treasury have been found. They were discovered in one of the gold boxes. The affair caused a lot of excitement and suspicion. It is generally believed that Mr. Reid will be a member of the new Executive.

Mr. Prosser, in a letter to the Times to-day, shows that the Princes-street widening could have been accomplished for £12,150, that being the amount asked for in December, 1873. Mr. Pish then asked £2OOO, and the arbitrators now awarded £3OOO. Mr. Moss asked £2750, and now was awarded £BOOO. Mr. Edmond asked, in 1873, £2700, and now was awarded £BOOO, and so on all through the piece. In point of fact, the arbitrators awarded considerably more than the tenants asked for.