OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4451, 25 June 1875, Page 3

OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

! (from our own correspondent.) Auckland, June 19. So after all we are to have the £723 odd due to the province as the quarterly share of the proceeds of confiscated lands. There is hope for Auckland yet. But how about the capitation money ? We are all anxious to hear that the announcement of the stoppage of this is also a mistake like the other, but up to the present no such cheering news arrives. The position is getting very serious. Even the Da Hi/ Southern Cross, which usually defends the action of the Government, cannot stand this absorption of the depended-on income of the province : It speaks of it a 3 equivalent to an announcement of provincial bankruptcy, which is likely to lead to weighty complications. Yet we are assured by a telegram from Wellington that the Government are anxious to assist Auckland by every means in their power. If what is meant by this is that if we behave ourselves we shall have the £728 at once, it is really very magnanimous of the Government, and we thank them—for nothing. By-the-bye, everybody here wants to know more about the Audit Commissioners, whose names have been used so freely of late. The Evening Star terms - them " buffers to prevent rude political collision," and wonders whether they have consented to be used as such, or whether their names have been taken in vain, and they have just began to kick at it, the first indication of this being the contradictory telegrams about the confiscation money. The announcement that the Ministry—if the headless trunk calling itself so be correctly termed a Ministry—have prepared their Constitutional Changes Bill has called forth from the Herald a leading article of a very revolutionary' tone. Bather than the province should submit to such an arrangement as that involved in the ratifying of the famous resolutions of last session, it advocates resistance of any kind, and recommends as infinitely preferable the resolution of Auckland into a separate colony. Earl Carnarvon's indirect reply to the petitions of Sir George Grey provokes unfavorable comment. There is a tone of lordly patronage, and also of ineffable superiority about it, which makes one inclined to smile. We are all very glad to hear that his Lordship enjoyed the perusal of the " full and able" (does he mean these adjectives to convey a compliment to the reporters or the speakers ?) parliamentary debates on the subjects referred to in the petitions ; but for my own part I think there is reason in what the Herald of to-daj says, viz., that it takes more than such a perusal, even if ever so interesting, to make one well acquainted with the affairs of a colony 16,000 miles away. Yesterday the Star published another long correspondent's letter from the " King Country." According to this, his majesty is now willing to lease the land to Europeans if the Government will first give him a Crown grant for all his land south of the Puriri river. The letter is dated from Kopua, a place not many miles over the boundary. It gives a very favorable account of the country. Forty bushels of wheat to the acre are not uncommon, and in cases where new ground is broken up a much higher average is secured. The natives are talking about establishing schools at Kaipiha, Kopua, and Otorohanga. They have already purchased a larger stock of agricultural implements than in any former year. They are fencing their land and cultivating English grass and several kinds of crops. Many of the European settlers in the Waikato are, strange to say, buying seed wheat from the natives, especially near Kopua. They pay as much as 7s. to Bs. per bushel. It is quite funny to see how the papers here vie with one another in dogging the movements of the chief Kewi. Now he has just arrived at Cambridge; now the last heard of him was at Tauranga ; suddenly we get a telegram that the heel of his boot I am not sure whether he wears these useful articles of clothing—was caught sight of disappearing at the corner of a street at Hamilton. I suppose it is all very important, but upon my word I don't believe anyone cares two pins where he is, so long as he keeps quiet and behaves like a Christian. Then again, if he has a new gun, or a watch, there is another great hubbub, and mysterious whisperings are heard that bribery and corruption are afloat. Kewi was recently seen with two guns—one over each shoulder, I suppose, like the pictures of Robinson Crusoe. The Star correspondent, who saw somebody who saw this tremendous sight, says in the gravest fashion : — ""No doubt the Government have every political reason for allowing Bewi to have these guns, but is it not just as culpable for the Government to give or sell guns to the Hauhau natives as any other person ?" Tawhiao is at present engaged preparing ground for planting at Kopua.

The bankruptcy case of George Thome, jun., terminated on Wednesday. I told you tin my last that McCormick brought up ten reasons why he should not get his discharge. This was on Tuesday. Well, on Wednesday Mr. Whitaker replied in the morning, and his Honor gave his decision in tho afternoon. The bankrupt's certificate is suspended for twelve months. This, Mr. Justice Gillies observed, he wished to be understood as two years, but ho allowed tho time to be counted which the bankrupt has spent before tho Court. His Honor characterised the bankrupt as having been guilty of high-handed defiance of the law in openly making preferential payments, though he was not prepared to

say that some persons might not pronounce his procedure morally justifiable. McCormick does not mean to leave the case yet if he can help it. After the judgment he made an application for Thome to be examined as to some transactions with his father, with a view to further proceedings under another section of the Act. Gillies, however, refused this, stating that the application must be made upon affidavit. Following upon the wet and stormy weather of the week before last, we hear of heavy floods up north. A correspondent from the Wairoa (Kaipara) district, writes to the Cross as follows : —" We experienced one of the heaviest floods we have ever had in the Wairoa river on last Saturday night. About 2 p.m. the river began to overflow its bank, and steadily rose until about 10 p.m., when all the alluvial flats on both banks were covered to a depth of from four to seven feet, heavy logs being carried over the tops of the fences ; but in many cases the heavy logs and the force of the current earned away part of the boundary fences all along the valley, commencing at Mr. Sutherland's, where the river emerges from the hills, to the bridge where the high lands are contracted and act as a barrier to dam back the water. The flooded land would average half a mile across, and to see such a body of water come rolling over the falls ten miles up the river, and ninety feet high, was a sight to be remembered. Most of the settlers got their stock up from the low land in time, but the flood came down so rapidly that in some cases the stock had to swim before reaching a place of safety. Mr. Thorpe neglected to look after his sheep in time, and he got between twenty and thirty drowned. At Hokianga the same state of affairs has prevailed. Mr. Yarborough, of aquatic renown, who has taken Webster Bros, business and store in that district, was in town a day or two ago, and reports horses, sheep, and cattle swept away in great numbers ; in one instance a settler lost a whole team by the flood. Mahurangi, and other places, have been just as bad. The inundation subsided on Sunday. The death of Charles Padon in the police cell, alluded to in my last, has been made the text for homilies by the Press here. Much surprise is manifested that there was no post mortem examination made. The Cross thinks it possible the miserable man may not have died from drink at all, and advocates more careful treatment of incapables taken to the Jock-up. Here are the words : "We are far from being disposed to pet a drunkard, but we \ think that thrusting him into a cold cell to lie there in what, according to medical testimony, is practically nothing more nor less than an apoplectic fit, till nature restores his faculties or he dies, is scarcely ' everything that can be done' for him. If necessary, increase the amount of the fine for drunkenness, double the amount of hard labor the drunkard is to suffer in expiation of his fault, but do not expose him to probable rheumatism for life or to possible death. Besides, in this case of Padon's, it is perfectly possible that actual apoplexy, not induced by drunkenness, may have been the cause of death. In London police-stations cases of a mistake of this nature have repeatedly occurred." The New Zealand Agricultural Society's ploughing and draining matches on the 16th were a success, both in point of entries and the interest taken in them. They came off at Papatoitoi, and were well attended. Prizes were given for single-furrow ploughing, doublefurrow ploughing by boys, drain-making, aud also for several special competitions. At the dinner at Otahuhu in the evening, Mr. Andrews, who proposed the "Agricultural interests of the province," spoke in terms of warm congratulation upon the progress Auckland has made in'point of cultivation of the soil during the last twenty years. Mr. David Bum, a well-known old settler, died at the 'North Shore a few days ago, and was buried on Friday. He leaves nearly all his property, which is said to be extensive, to his young widow, whom he married about twelve months ago. She was formerly his • housekeeper. The old man left some strange directions about his funeral, which were implicitly carried out. He was buried with a Union Jack round his coffin, which was placed close alongside and touching that of his former wife.

I suppose you have come across our new Northern journal the Man.ga.rei Comet. . It is likely to he a success, as it supplies a want keenly felt by the settlers, and appears to commend itself to those to whom it has to look to for support. The district is excedingly rich in coal, minerals, and other natural products, which will be stimulated into development by the new enterprise. Our Sabbatarians are in high glee. The Sunday trains on the Mercer line have been stopped from to-morrow. We do not know what the reason is. If it is because they are not paying, the whole line might be closed for the same cause. It is somewhat suggestive of the management of the railway that a report has found currency in print, that Quick intends putting his coaches on again between Mercer and Auckland. The old drillshed on the Barrack Hill has been pulled down. In connection with the demolition of this building a curious complication has arisen. The Improvement Commissioners say it was their property, and that Major Gordon, who gave the order for the removal, was not entitled to dispose of it. They had up Mr. Harker, the contractor, at the Police Court, and charged him with stealing the shed. The case has been adjourned for a few days. Of course it is understood that the real defendant is Major Gordon, representing the Government. A notorious burglar, named Dunne, has been arrested on several charges. In 1871 he was convicted of either six or seven clear cases of larceny, and only got four years for the lot. It is supposed he began his old tricks as soon as he came out of gaol. We were nearly having a fire the other day in Wyndham-street. A child playing with matches set the wall-paper in a blaze, at Mrs. Schmidt's, a "closed-upper" warehouse; but the flames were happily extinguished before much damage was done. Your flogging-case has been much discussed here. I think the balance of opinion is against flogging in school altogether ; but there is no feeling against Mr. Pilkington, who, I suppose, thought if the boy deserved a thrashing he should get a good one. j The Tairua Prospectors' Claim dispute has been amicably settled. The case had been partially heard at the Warden's Court, at the Thames, when suddenly the contending parties came to terms, by which the objectors—Millar, Bergin, and others—get thirty-three and a half acres out of eighty. This leaves Neeves, Preece and Graham, Crippen and others—the original prospectors—forty-six and a half acres. There was a rumor the day before the settlement that the Government intended to withdraw the disputed ground from the goldfield ; and it is probable that the report had much to do with the sudden reconciliation, which took everybody by surprise. An uneasy feeling is manifested at the news that the further investigation of the Ohinemuri miners' rights difficulty is to be held with closed doors, and the result forwarded to Wellington. The general opinion is that there might as well be no inquiry at all. [ A fine new barque of 333 tons, arrived from Nova Scotia, via Boston and Melbourne, a short time ago, for Mr. D. H. McKenzie, one of our most enterprising shippers. She is named the Cabarfeidh, and is classed Al for eight years in British Lloyd's. The same gentleman has an agent at present employed abroad, negotiating the purchaao of another vessel.

The Auckland Steam Packet Company expect their new steamer, tho Llewellen, 290 tons, from Sydney shortly. Capt. McGregor, late of tho s.s. Kowena, is forming a company to build a screw steamer, to cost ! j£6<loo, for the Wangarei trade. Captain Casey will soon be launching his new steamer for Mahurangi, while the three-masted schooner Estelle, newly owned in Grahamstown, has not been long up from Dunedin. You will see that in shipping enterprise wo are not standing still. A nice little story to finish up this long yarn. It shows how circumstances alter cases. A resident at the Thames expected a case of goods out by the ship Dunedin. He requested a certain Custom-house agent to pass the necessary entries for quitting the case. " You will have to pay some duty ; what shall I put down as

the value ?" said the agent. " Oh, it is not worth £5 altogether," replied the gentleman : " The only thing of value [in it is an old silk dress, worth about £%" A few days passed. The case is missing, and as the ship is not going to remain long the agent is requested to send in his claim. He telegraphs to the Thames, "What amount shall I claim for? Case missing." Back comes an answer sharp, " Claim £SO. Proceed at once. Further particulars by letter." But the point of the joke is to come. The claim was no sooner sent in than the case turns up at the back of a wharf store, and now the fortunate owner lias to overcome the scruples of the Custom-house officers to receiving duty on the £5 former value. The mail steamer Cyphrenes keeps up the present good conduct reputation of the San Francisco steamers by her appearance two days before contract" time. Miss Christian, who had a crowded house at her farewell concert last night, went on to Sydney this afternoon.