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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4609, 29 December 1875, Page 2

The official declaration of the poll for the Wellington City election was declared at the Court-house yesterday, by J. C Crawford, Esq., Returning Officer. He stated the figures to be as follows:—Pearce, 662 ; Hunter, 648 ; Travers, 502 ; Moody, 43. Messrs. Pearce and Hunter were both present, and in a few words expressed their thanks for the honor again conferred upon them. Mr. Moody said no one was better pleased with the result than himself at the return of such representatives. It had been a defeat all round. Pearce and Hunter beat Travers, Travers beat Moody, and Moody had beaten the Evening Post. (Laughter.) A vote of thanks was then given to the Returning Officer, and the forty or fifty persons who had assembled dispersed. The election for the Hutt will take place to-day. Mr. Crawford, the Returning Officer, being unwell yesterday, appointed Mr. E. Baker to act in his stead. Mr. Baker will take charge of the booth and the principal, polling place at the Lower Hutt, Mr. S. M. Baker will act as Deputy Returning Officer at Wainuiomata, Mr. F. K. Williams at the Taita, and Mr. William Thompson at the Upper Hutt. We have several letters to hand re the Ohariu school controversy. The subject has been sufficiently discussed, our columns are closed to a continuance of it, and communications concerning it can only appear in the form of advertisements. St. James' Church, Lower Hutt, was very tastefully decorated this Christmas with suitable inscriptions in floral and stellar work, and skilfully arranged monograms. Wreaths of ground fern and flowers ornamented the pillars, altar, and font, ha vingafineeffect. Christ Church, Taita, was adorned in a similar manner. A new flower, interwoven in one of the crosses at the Taita church, and called the " Sir George Grey geranium," is said to have elicited the remark that " Sir George Grey was the heaviest cross the country had at present to| bear." < Owing to the weather the attendance at the Pahautanui races on Monday was not so good as could be desired. The Hurdle Race was won by Mr. Whitehouse's Dick, the Hack Hurdle Race by Mr. Bromley's Tommy, the Maiden Plate by Mr. Bromley's Raupiri, the Pahautanui Stakes by Mr. Murtagh's Phoenix, the Hack Race by Mr. Judd's Polly Watkins, the District Race by Miv Galloway's Minnie Grey, and the Consolation Stakes by Mr. Whitehouse's Hauhau.

Oa Christmas Day 400 persons travelled on the Hutt railway line, and on Boxing Day there were 901 passengers. • We are requested to call attention to the sailing of the Hawea for Picton, Nelson, &c, this afternoon, at two "o'clock, she having been unavoidably detained. Last evening there was a very large attendance at the Theatre Eoyal to see the pantomime. Improvement in the scenery.had been effected, and the performance was even more successful than that of the first night. The adjourned annual meeting of the City Council was called. pro fovma yesterday afternoon; but it was understood that no meeting should be held till Thursday afternoon, when the accounts for the year will be gone into. The. New Zealand Tablet of last week has a leader upon the Dunedin election, in which it rejoices over the victory of the Anti-Central-ists, but deplores the position of the Catholics as regards education. The opening of the extension of the Hutt liae to the Silver Stream has proved to be a great boon to the settlers around that locality. Wool and timber have poured in continuously since the line was available, and abundant evidence is given of the great utility of the railway in future. A bazaar in aid of St. Mary's Convent School will open in the Odd Fellows' Hall on the 4th, sth, and 6th of January. The bazaar will be opened by Dr. Redwood, Roman Catholic Bishop of Wellington.. The list of ladies taking an interest in the affair guarantees its success. A cricket match was played at Karori yesterday, between the Karori and Makara clubs, resulting in a victory for the latter, who scored 64 runs as against ,49 scored by Karori. After the match the players adjourned to a lunch, which was provided by. Mr. Anderson, and in the evening a soiree was held. Yesterday morning the man Franz Smat was brought up at the Resident Magistrate's Court. As might have been anticipated the court was crowded to excess, and there was a throng of people around the police gates, eager to get a glimpse of the fellow as he was conducted from the cell to the court. He was charged with having maliciously cut and wounded Harry Young with intent to murder; and while the charge was being read over to him he maintained an almost stolid indifference. Subsequently he asked the interpreter the effect of the information,.and on being again informed that he was charged with an attempt to murder, he voluntarily said he had no intention of killing any one. Mr. Inspector Atchison applied to the Bench to order the conveyance of prisoner to the hospital, so that the injured men might have an opportunity of saying whether he was the man who had cut them down. The Court granted the request, and the prisoner was driven to the hospital Inspecter Atchison went in to Young and enquired whether he would know the man again, and whether, he could bear to see him. Young replied " Oh yes," and prisoner was taken in. On seeing him Young became much excited, and said " Yes ; that's the brute ;" and half turning to Paul, continued, " Look at the brute William." Paul was too weak to move. The further depositions of Young were then taken ; and being in a more sensible condition than he was in when his statement was taken the previous day, he made some slight corrections. He stated that when he first saw Smat, he called him a thief, and asked him for his money. Smat denied that he hid any money, but offered to try and borrow a pound. Young insisted that he had money in the bank, and Smat then admitted it, and promised to pay the £B. Mr. Crawford told prisoner he might put any questions he chose, but he refused to put any, merely remarking in correction of Young's statement of what took place at the hotel, that he (Smat) had had five or six pints of beer. He was then remanded till Monday for the production of evidence. The men are all in a very critical condition, and the slightest change in either may result in immediate death. Of the fourth, nothing more hiis been heard ; but Inspector Atchison visits the Hutt this morning for the purpose of getting information, and more of the sad affair will probably be heard to-night. The attack must have been meditated the whole day, for since morning there had been no words between the parties, who, just before the occurrence, were singing in the tent. Young's employers and those who were his superior officers state that he is a particularly inoffensive man, and as it is known he has at least £IOO in the bank, it is not probable he had threatened to be harsh with Smat.

Mr. Rush, of the Hutt, has written to us in reference, to some remarks of the Returning Officer at the recent nomination, and makes explanation regarding the . same. Mr. Crawford is reported to have expressed his regret that Mr. Hush was not present at the ceremony in question, at which there was a laugh. Mr. Rush considers that Mr. Crawford/was in bad taste, and travelled quite outside of his official capacity in his remarks. Mr. Crawford was paid to be present at the nomination, Mr. Rush had private business demanding his absence, and it was his own private choice whether to attend or not. If Government will give Mr. Rush Mr. Crawford's office, and reverse their positions, Mr. Rush will promise to discharge his duties diligently, and never allude to Mr. Crawford's absence. Messrs. .Crook and Harrison, boatbuilders, have, in starting business, supplied Wellington with that which it has long stood in need, namely, a local boatbuilding establishment which can supply the wants of the town and country without putting intending purchasers to the trouble and expense of importing what they want. Messrs. Crook and Harrison are determined to establish themselves permanently in Wellington as boatbuilders, and appear to have high hopes of success ; for they have taken [and built upon a large piece of ground on Te Aro beach, with a lease of twenty years. ', They have already built a number of pulling boats to let on hire, and with these 'they-are doing a good business; but the supply of boats, being insufficient, they are now engaged building more. They are also building a skiff for Mr, Harry Wood, to pull in the sculling snatch at the forthcoming regatta. This boat does them great credit, being Btoutly built of kauri, but beautifully modelled. To build racing boats of kauri is a novel thing, but Mr. Crook has found it answer well. Now that we have in our midst a firm who can make these racing boats, there will be no need to send to Melbourne or elsewhere. ' The Wellington correspondent of the Auckland Star telegraphed to that journal on nomination day that Mr. Travers' chances of election were improving daily, in consequence of "the persistent misrepresentation and falsehood of the New Zealand Times." This was pretty strong certainly, but can be easily forgiven, as it was this very kind of persistent misrepresentation and falsehood regarding the attitude of the New Zealand, Times that improved Mr. Travers into being beaten by a hundred or so votes more than he was beaten by five years ago. By the Quardian-we notice that a special meeting of the Otago Typographical Association was held at the Provincial Hotel, Staffordstreet, lately. The attendance was the largest ever seen in Dunedin—between CO and 70 being present. The meeting was called to take into consideration what steps should be taken to prevent the proprietors of the proposed new evening newspaper from carrying out their intention of importing from Auckland men to work at a lower rate of wages than obtains in Otago. It was stated that five men were already in Dunedin, to fulfil six mouths' engagements at £2 10s: per week, and that Messrs. Reed and Brett (two of the proprietors) wore on their way "down with several more who had been engaged at the same rate, and also a number of boys. It was resolved that members of other Otago societies should be invited to co-operate with the Typographical Association, with the view of discouraging support to a journal worked by such unfair means. It was also stated that Reed, Brett, and Co., who are proprietors of the Auckland Evening Star, have eleven girls at work in that office, and that the engaging of hands at £2 10s. per week (10s. under the current rate) was only a prelude to further reductions, as in

Auckland compositors are often glad to get work at. from'Bos.-to £2 per week, little more than half the pay of a laborer in Dunedin. A fire occurred yesterday morning at about half-paM; 4 or 5 o'clock, in the premises of Mr. Aplin, musieseller. Captain Doile was thefirst to discover the fire and give the alarm. The fire brigades and Armed Constabulary were soon on the spot, and acted with their usual promptitude and energy, but their efforts could not save the property (the stock was a very valuable one). All they could do was to prevent the fire spreading. Indeed, it is highly probable that the adjoining buildings would have caught, but for the fact of Mr. Aplin's store- being walled with corrugated iron. The occurrence of the fire was most unfortunate, as Mr. Aplin had only just removed his stock into the iron store, prior to re-building in the front, having taken down the old shop. About twelve sewing machines were saved, butaquantity of musical instruments were lost, among them a number of valuable pianos, which were burnt to cinders. At present the fire cannot be accounted for. In all probability an inquest will be held to-day or to-morrow. Another glaring instance of the want of accommodation at the Queen's wharf occurred yesterday, on the arrival of the several steamers which came into port. ■ At No. 1 berth, to the southward, we noticed the steamer Otago with a hulk alongside her, next comes the tine steamship Kingarooma, then the s.B. Ladybird, and outside of her another coal hulk; thus making five abreast. And to the northward of No. 1 lay the steamers Hawea, Taupo, and a hulk—certainly this is a great credit to the Empire city—independent of .this all the other berths were double banked, Nos. 4 and 6 wore taken up by English ships loading for London. Why these berths should be taken up by vessels literally doing nothing, and occupying convenient places for our local steamers, is a question that requires answering. All the remainder of the berths were certainly occupied by vessels discharging. Had the Easby arrived, which was.clue on Saturday, there was no option for her but to anchor in the stream, and land passengers, &c., in boats. The Empire City certainly deserves great credit for the convenience and accommodation for passengers, and no doubt will carry a good name to other parts of the colony and the old country. "Terpsichore" writes as follows : —As a constant attendant at the periodical fetes held on the Wellington Recreation Ground I have, in common with many othei-s, unpleasantly experienced that the platform accommodation afforded to those who like to dance to the excellent music always supplied on these occasions, is most insufficient. On Monday last this want" Was more apparent than heretofore, and much commented on by the dancers. I feel sure this matter only requires to be mentioned in your columns to be rectified in future. A protest against the sale of Rangitumau block, at ten shillings per acre, as proposed, is being signed, according to the Wairarapa News. It states "that the land ought to be cut up into small blocks aud population settled on it, employment being given to them at first in road-making ; and it is proposed that in order to obtain funds \irgently required, it would be desirable to endeavor to induce the General Government to advance on the security of the land than to sacrifice such a block; the importance of settling which to the whole district, and to Masterton in particular, cannot be exaggerated." We (Tuapcka Times) hear that Mr. George Coombe intends to start a Barwon Produce Stakes, to be run for at the Tokomairiro races in 1878. This season's foals will then be two years old. Mr. Coombe will give £25 and the local Jockey Club £25. There is to be a £lO sweep—£2 to be paid on nomination, £3 on acceptance, and £5 on the day of general entry. We hope to see other owners of firstclass thoroughbred entires following the example set by Mr. Coombe. Next year Mr. Coombe will offer a prize for the Elying Dutchman's produce.

"The age of chivalry lias returned," says the Ararat Advertiser. "A few evenings ago there was an impromptu dance held at an hotel not a dozen miles from Ararat, at which a large number of working men took an active aud energetic part. Unfortunately, however, there was but one .lady present, who, with great good nature, honored as many as sbe possibly could with her partnership from dance to dance. The dance went on merrily, and the en.oyment was unalloyed, till the landlord intimated that the time for the departure of his guests had arrived, when the lady, who resided some 200 yards from the hotel, retired to dress herself, or, perhaps, more correctly, 'put on her things.' During her abseuce the question arose who was to take her home, when one who was foreman of a gang of workers, iutimated that as he had the pleasure of dancing with the lady last, the duty fell upon him. Hereupon all the lady's previous partners disagreed, each claiming a separate and individual right to be her escort. The foreman, seeing that no ordinary amount of argument could settle the matter, proposed to fight for the honor, the suggestion being hailed with acclamation. The foreman, who must have been a powerful man, tackled all his opponents singly, and the lady had not long to wait 'with her bonnet on ' before the room was cleared—foreman panting and triumphant, the master of the floor, and by all the laws of love and war permitted to escort the fair dancer to her homo without interference."