Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4479, 28 July 1875, Page 2

We have been shown a private telegram which states that the Tararua, the steamer about whose fate grave apprehensions have been felt, was to have sailed from Melbourne on the 23rd inst., one day earlier than usual. His Honor the Chief Justice is expected back from Christchurch on Friday, and will hold a sitting in Banco on Tuesday, and commence to dispose of the heap of business that has accumulated.

It has been decided by the Irishmen of this city to celebrate the O’Connell centenary by a dinner. The arrangements are being carried out by an influential committee, and no doubt the affair- will pass off with eclat. The girl Eliza Smith was arrested yesterday afternoon, and charged before the Resident Magistrate with having committed wilful and corrupt perjury when giving evidence at the trial of James Cameron. By desire of Mr. Allan she was remanded till Thursday. A meeting of the committee of the cricket club was held at the Hotoi loot evoking,"When certain communications respecting the Intercolonial Match were considered, but nothing of a sufficiently definite nature to be made public was done. The City Corporation has recently disposed of three-quarters of an acre of tho reclaimed laud to Messrs. W. and G. Turnbull, of this city, in consideration of the sum of £BOOO and a piece of land at the rear of the Provincial Government Buildings. This latter piece of land was sold to Messrs. Turnbull and Co. some time ago for the sum of £3OOO, but it is now estimated to be worth quite £OOOO, so that the value the Corporation acquire in exchange for the threequarters of an acre is £l-1,000, or at the rate of about £19,000 per acre. This is a price, though said to be below the real value of the land, which completely proves that the scheme of reclaiming laud is more than merely reproductive, and the transaction demonstrates the great value of the Council’s endowments.

We have to chronicle a circumstance that happened yesterday, corroborative of the fact that the Government are pushing forward the railway works between Poxton and Palmerston, namely, the shipping per Luna of two colonial made locomotive engines from our local firm, Mills and Co., of the Lion Foundry. These engines are constructed after the same model as those now in use on the Wellington and Masterton line. Their weight respectively is six tons, and their traction power is reckoned at twenty-horse power. They are capable of working up to 1 OOlbs. to tho square inch, though at considerably under this pressure a speed of fifteen miles per hour can be attained. The cost per engine is £6OO. A third engine is in process of construction, and is expected to be finished in a week’s time.

At the meeting of the Athemeum Committee Mr. James lb-ice Kennedy was unanimously elected Librarian, out of thirty-six candidates. The gentleman selected is a recent arrival from England, and is, we hear, well qualified for the position. The Bill to incorporate the Athenaeum has been prepared, and will be brought before the House of Eeprcsentatives in a few days. We are informed that the Typographical Soiree Committee have made a final settlement of the accounts. The total receipts wore £53 95.; the expenditure £5 95.; leaving the handsome sum of £4B for the member on whose behalf the entertainment was got up. The committee inform us that they received the sum of £1 ss. from Dunedin, generously contributed by some members of tho craft in the southern city.

There was a fair attendance at the Theatre Royal last evening, when the sensational drama “ The Tower of London," with a farce, was reproduced. This evening the performance will he under the patronage of Captain Chapman, R.N., and the officers of H.M.S. Dido. The programme has been chosen with regard to the occasion, the amusing new comedy, “Young Husbands aud Mother Carey’s Chickens,” and “Naval Engagements,” forming the bill. We have no doubt there will bo a full attendance.

A fancy dross ball under the auspices of the Star Boating Club was held last night at the Odd Bellows’ Hall. Some 300 tickets were issued. The costumes wore very diversified, and in the mazes of the dance presented to the eye a mosaic of brilliant colors. Many of the ladies and gentlemen wore the costume of the nineteenth century. Amongst the fancy costumes wo noticed shepherdesses, military men, Swiss peasants, naval officers, Neapolitan ladies, aud volunteer officers. A Maori chief in full costume excited much observation, as did a gentleman in the powdered wig and costume of the middle of the last century. The supper was spread in the ante-rooms, and the whole affair passed off with great eclat. _ The dancing was kept up till early this morning.

Wo hear that an enthusiastic admirer of football has offered to give twenty guineas as a prize to be competed for by the members of the various clubs, provided they adopt the Melbourne rules. The object is to introduce the Melbourne rules, so that the game may be played with less violence, and consequently less risk of permanent injury to the players than k: to be apprehended with the rules at present in vogue.

Last evening a lad named Frederick George, who had absconded from the service of Mr. Evans, saddler, to whom he is an indentured apprentice, was brought into the police station, having been arrested so far away from the city as Masterton.

A meeting of the committee appointed at the late public meeting of pioneer settlers was held yesterday afternoon at Mr. Wallace’s commercial rooms, George Crawford, Esq., J.P., in the chair. The memorial to be laid before Parliament was agreed to, and will in a few days be before the public. The document is a brief history of the struggles of the early settlers up to the tei-mination of the colonising operations of the New Zealand Company, when the Otago and Canterbury settlements were founded.

Under the heading “An Awkward Fix,” the Bendigo Advertiser publishes the following : —•“ Some weeks ago there appeared in the columns of this paper the details of a rather remarkable case of bigamy. A woman married a respectable well-to-do farmer in the vicinity of Sandhurst, in the absence of her lawful lord and master in New Zealand. The second husband has just received documents from the first husband proving his marriage, and the deluded second husband is now most anxious to sever all connection with the woman. With that object in view, he called at the lock-up, and asked Captain Balfour for advice as to how he should act. It appears that the woman is encicntc, and refuses to go until she has left him a pledge of her affection. The poor man finds himself in a regular fix, and thinks he has now had enough of matrimony to last him for the remainder of his life.”