OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4486, 5 August 1875, Page 3

OUR AUCKLAND LETTER.

(from OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) The necessity which exists for a reformatory in Auckland was very strongly exemplified, on Friday last, when two infamous little girls aged nine and eleven, convicted of stealing from a till, were sent—one to the Industrial Home, and the other to St. Mary’s Orphanage. It is looked on as a crying shame that respect able children should be contaminated by contact with such arrant little sinners. Juvenile depravity would seem to be on 'the increase here, for on the same day two boys of about corresponding ages were proved guilty of stealing firewood, and were only let off imprisonment on account of their age. The constable’s chase after these young urchins was, I believe, as good as a play, for they led him a dance of about a couple of hours, till one would have thought they had taken lessons from the Artful Dodger. Some of the hoys at the Training Ship are giving a great deal of trouble by continally running away. The Herald has come to the conclusion that it is because they don’t get enough playtime. A movement is being made to induce the General Government to have a lighthouse constructed on Cape Brett. There is no doubt that the increasing trade of the Bay of Islands renders such a protection to vessels entering the port highly necessary. During the year, it is now computed that thirty whaling vessels and nearly 460 coasting craft visit the harbor of Russell, and the traffic will be further extended as the Kawakawa coal mines become more fully developed. The light is therefore much required, and no doubt the Government will give the petition, which I believe is to be presented on the subject, due attention. Both the Moneywick and the Derwent have turned up at their respective ports safe and sound. The first named was thirty days reaching Hokianga owing to the continuous gales, and the crew had to suffer many privations owing to the supply of provisions running short. The Derwent had been blown away to sea, and turned up at Mongonui after eighteen days’ knocking about. The arrival of the Llewellyn, the steamer purchased in Australia by the A.S.P. Company, caused some excitement in shipping circles on I riday last. She is a very common-looking wooden boat, with nothing but her carrying capacity and good engines to recommend her, The general .impression is that if as is reported the company gave £13,000 for her, they have made a very bad bargain. However, she is to be very largely altered, and may be made to do very well for the Fiji trade. She Is only a little larger than the Star of the South. Messrs. Sims and Brown sent off a very pretty little schooner for the Bay of Islands trade on Thursday. Two serious shipping disasters are reported within the last forty-eight hours. The cutter Hero has been found abandoned on the West Coast, and a telegram, received yesterday, conveys the sad intelligence that the master,

Captain Doble, and all the crew, except a boy named Hunt, were drowned while attempting to cross the Mokau River bar in a boat. Captain Doble leaves a wife and seven children totally unprovided for. The brig Syren, belonging to Mr. Joseph Howard, has gone ashore at Tairua bar, but it is expected she will be got off. She is insured for £llOO in the South British, but £BOO of this amount is reinsured. The barque Robina Dunlop and the ship Dutterworth have arrived from London during the week. The Lutterworth brought thirty-one passengers, all well. She had a narrow escape on the voyage, owing to an outbreak of fire in the saloon on the 20th June. The passengers were terribly frightened, as there were no less than forty tons of gunpowder on board. The flames were luckily soon got under. The week’s obituary contains the name of Mr. Win. Stone, a son of Mr. C. J. Stone, who died of typhoid fever on Saturday morning. Deceased will be recollected as being among the Rifle Representatives who went to Victoria the year before last, when he won the Ladies’ Prize. Mr. Charles Davis, an old settler, is also numbered with the dead. He was formerly well known in mercantile circles here, but has latterly been in retirement. The work of opening up the reefs is steadily progressing at Tairua, but there is .no news of importance from this or the other goldfields. The Thames people are dissatisfied with the terms of - the agricultural leases at Ohinemuri.