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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4773, 10 July 1876, Page 2

Eight sailing vessels and twelve steamers arrived coastwise at the port of Wellington last week. The gross tonnage of the former was 432 ; that of the latter, 3905. Four vessels arrived from foreign ports, whose tonnage was 1637. There cleared outwards during the past week for ports in New Zealand thirteen steamers, whose carrying capacity was equal to 3295 tons, and eleven sailing vessels, whose tonnage amounted to 713. The circuit sittings of the Supreme Court open this morning at the courthouse, at 10 o’clock. r The calendar is a heavy one. The following prisoners await trial ; —Elizabeth Jane Williams, stealing from . a dwelling; William Henry Williams and Eliabeth Williams, receiving stolen property; John Osborne, arson ; James Shennan, rape ; James Calder, stealing greenstone ; Carl Iversen and Auni Iversen, stealing from a dwelling; Albert Horner, assault and robbery ; Joseph Handley, stealing from a dwelling ; James Kelly, stealing from the person ; John Buchanan and Francis Coyne, larceny ; Nicholas Johnston, violent assault.

The usual monthly meeting of the Wellington Teachers’ Association was held in the Sydaey-street school - room on Saturday, at eleven o’clock. The following members were present:—Mr. Mowbray in the chair, and Messrs. Holmes, Willis, Sinclair, Newlyn, Thomson, Young, and Mrs. Wilkinson. The minutes of last meeting were read and confirmed. The President read a letter from the Secretary of the Board, in reply to a resolution forwarded from the association, suggesting the desirability of founding more scholarships. The letter stated that in the present transitional state of educational matters, and in the absence of funds at its disposal, the Board could not entertain the proposal at present. Mr. Mowbray announced the result of the deputation to the Superintendent of the province, seeking help for an invalided teacher. It was also resolved that the Secretary be instructed to send subscription lists to all head teachers in the province, requesting them to exert themselves in their respective localities for the furtherance of the above object, and that the editors of all newspapers be requested to receive subscriptions. The debate on savings banks in schools was adjourned until the next general meeting. The leader in the last number of the Educational Gazette was brought under the notice of the association, and caused considerable discussion, the members expressing their disapprobation of the article. The editor defended himself at considerable length. Never during the present winter has there been so sharp a frost as there was on Saturday night or Sunday morning. At Te Aro in certain places where water had remained on the ground from the last rain there was ice quite half-an-inch in thickness, and the sun was up for some considerable time yesterday before the effects of the frost 'began to disappear.

According to the local paper, on Thursday evening at about five minutes past ten a slight shock of earthquake was felt at Grey town. The usual meeting of St. Paul’s parishioners, for the purpose of receiving accounts for the year and electing office-bearers, will be held at 8 o’clock this evening, at the Sydney-street schoolroom.

An emergency meeting of the Loyal Orange Lodge, No. 16, will be held at the meeting room, on Wednesday evening, 12th inst., at 7 p.m. sharp. The banquet takes place at 7.30 p.m. 1 The Isabella, the Wellington whaling schooner, is at last happening upon luck. An Auckland telegram states that she secured a humpback cow and calf off the Bay of Islands.

The number of passengers reported as having arrived at the port of Wellington by sea during the past week was 280 from ports in the Noath Island ; 94. came from the South Island, and five from Australia. A man named Smith was arrested on Saturday, charged with stealing certain tools from a carpenter named Mann, He was taken before B. Pearce, Esq., J.P., and the charge having been read over to him, was remanded till to-day. The Hibernicoa Company appeared to a large audience on Saturday evening. They will perform again this evening; and to-mofrow evening Mr. C. Wallace will take a benefit, a specially attractive bill having been prepared for the occasion.

The annual meeting of the Wellington Jockey Club will take place this evening, in the Empire Hotel, at eight o’clock. The business to come before the meeting is the receiving of the report of the retiring stewards and election of stewards and office-bearers for the ensuing year.,

The usual lecture to the young was delivered in the Terrace school on Saturday afternoon. The lecture was the sixteenth of the series. The subject was “ The Mechanical Powers." The lecturer spoke of the various kinds of levers, the wheel and axle, the pully, &c., illustrating his subject by diagrams and experiments.

We regret to say that the Bishop of Waiapu has been obliged, in consequence of ill health, to resign his see. The Right Reverend Dr. Williams, who came to New Zealand as a mis-, sionary in 1826, was consecrated at Wellington in 1859, being the first bishop consecrated in New Zealand. It would thus appear that he has been actively engaged in the work of the Church in this country for half a century. On Saturday a football match was played on the Basin Reserve. The contest which had been arranged between seventeen members of the Football Club against twenty-seven allcomers did not come off, owing to the absence of most of the twenty-seven, but a scratch match was got up and some good play was shown. ■ Mr. Rees, M.H.R., was amongst the players, and proved a great help to the side on which he was chosen.

Some money and valuables having been missed on the ship Oamperdowa during the voyage, Captain Baton, on arriving in port, at once communicated with the police, and Sergeant Ready and Constable Buchanan went on board and arrested two men suspected of the theft, namely, James Webb and William Mansell, seamen. They will probably be brought before the Resident Magistrate today. At the theatre on Saturday night the “Angel of Midnight” was repeated to a very good house, the pit and stalls being numerously attended. The performance of the drama was in every respect successful, each member of the company engaged in it being letter perfect in their parts, while the capital situations which occur very frequently during the progress of the piece were worked up most effectively, the necessity for attention to the character of thescenery not being lost sight of. The “ Angel of Midnight ” will be repeated to-night. In the Resident Magistrate’s Court on Saturday Thomas Jones was brought up on remand, charged with assaulting Constable Buchanan who was endeavoring to arrest him. Ample evidence was produced to convict defendant, not only of the assault, but of unseemly conduct in the Bank Hotel at an earlier part of the evening. His Worship inflicted a fine of 60s. and costs, in default of paying which, defendant would be imprisoned for 14 days. The only other business before the Court was the dealing with two cases of drunkenness, Samuel Fraser and John Buddie.

The arrival of the ship Camperdown discloses a singular circumstance. As the ship was approaching Nelson she spoke the Edwin Bassett in the Strait. Now, it happens that Captain Baton, of the Camperdown, has a brother whom he had not seen for nineteen years, and with whom he has not corresponded for nine years ; and having heard that his brother was in command of a New Zealand collier, he hailed the Edwin Bassett and inquired if his brother commanded her. He was answered “No ; that his brother was in command of the Robin Hood.” Well, the ease with which information was obtained at sea, struck the first mate, Mr. Woods, and he also has a long lost brother, of whom all he could ever learn was that he was on a collier in New Zealand ; so, on speculation, he hailed the Edwin Bassett, and asked if his brother was there ; and the answer was, “No ; that his brother was first mate of the Robin Hood," of which Captain Baton’s brother was commander. It would appear that New. Zealand offers pecu--0 liar facilities for discovering relations, since the first mate, Mr. Woods, has a brother-in-law also on board of a New Zealand collier, being captain of the brig Neptune, “Suffering at home from the joint attacks of influenza and rheumatism, the editor of this journal (Wairarapa Standard) was not able to make any comments on the late Binancial Statement, nor to prevent the attempt which was unsuccessfully made to put the contents, without any process of condensation, of a quart measure into a pint pot.” The editor, apparently recovered, then devotes himself to a review of the Statement, which he does rather unfavorably. The Government of Tasmania recently corresponded with all the Australian Governments and the New Zealand Government, asking each to spare an engineer to form a board in Tasmania to report on the manner in which an English company had carried out its contract to construct a railway in that colony. An engineer proceeded from each colony except New Zealand, and the report of the engineers has been published. It is to the effect that the general conditions of the contract, as far as the construction and maintenance of the line are concerned, had not been complied with, and that the speed stated in the timetables at which the express trains were to run, viz., 23 mil san hour, is, in the present condition of the permanent way, dangerous.

A curious fact ia connection with Protection in Victoria has come under notice. In Tasmania an iron smelting company has been established with Victorian capital, is managed by a Victorian board of directors, and Victorian shareholders receive the' benefit of its success. But Victoria is also the market into which the pig iron is taken, and upon the pig iron a protective duty is levied, so that, under the specious guise of protection to native industry, a heavy impost is placed upon Victorian capital. The absurdity of the tax is aptly illustrated by the incident, but the operation of protection on any article would be found to be equally pernicious, if people would look" a little beneath the surface.

The Masterton correspondent of the Wairarqpa Standard reports that the Masterton ploughing match on Thursday was in every way a success; the weather being fine and the attendance numerous. The following were the winners of the respective prizes. (Reid and Morris worked admirably, and deserved especial mention) ;—Wheel plough, seven entries— W. Morris, 1 ; F. Exell, 2 ; A. Taylor 3. Swing plough—John Morris, 1 ; Reid, 2. Double furrow—Winter, 1 ; Percy, ,2. Mr, Exell is ploughman to Mr. Lowes, Mr. Reid to Mr. Cockburn, and Mr, Winter to Mr. D. Donald. Mr. 0. Gundy acted as judge, and his decisions gave general satisfaction. The ploughing as a whole was better than that

done at Tauherenikau last year, but there is still room for improvement. In the evening about eighty gentlemen sat down to a capital dinner at the Club Hotel, at which Mr. Lowes occupied the chair and Mr. Wardell the vicechair. The usual loyal and local toasts were duly honored, and the whole affair passed off in a very pleasant and enjoyable manner. Speaking at the meeting at Shoreditch lately the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is President of the Church of England Temperance Society, congratulated the association on its project of having a conference between its members and the brewers, distillers, and licensed victuallers of East London. “He was afraid,” he said, “that at times some harm had been done by the way in which all persons engaged in those branches of trade had been spoken of. at some of thtyxr.cetings held in favor of temperance. It was his fortune to know personally some of the most estimable and religious men in the United Kingdom who were engaged in that trade. In that particular neighborhood he supposed that every clergyman living within the region of Spitalfields knew what works of charity and beneficence and Christian kindness had been done by persons engaged in the trade. Therefore it seemed ,to him only right and proper that they should hold, as was proposed, a meeting with those persons, and talk with them, as Christian men with Christian men, as to the way in which they could co-operate in this important movement.” If all the leaders of what is called the temperance movement were as charitable as the Primate here showed himself to be, and were endowed with wisdom equal to their charity, they would be able to do much better work than they have hitherto done. Their language and temper are generally very different.—London Licensed Victualler's Gazette.

The Rev. Lorenzo Moore, who was in Wellington some time since, and frequently officiated in the English churches here, is now stationed at Port Chalmers. He delivered a lecture in Dunedin recently, in which he gave some account of his rather remarkable life. He said that just fifty years had elapsed since he first set foot in India, not as a chaplain or missionary, but as cornet in a Native Cavalry regiment. . His remarks would refer more to India as it was half a century ago, than to India as it is at the present day. For upwards of an hour the rev. gentleman then entertained his hearers with an interesting narration of men and manners, referring to the moral condition of the Indian army at that period, the policy of the East India Company with respect to the Christian religion, the character and peculiarities of the men with whom he had come in contact, the means that had led to his conversion, the difficulties he encountered in carrying on Christian work amongst his companions. One incident will give an idea of the whole. While his regiment was at Meerut he was 'acting adjutant, and on one occasion two missionaries paid them a visit, one of them being the late Dr. Wilson, of Bombay. They spoke to the men (all natives) and distributed some Christian books. Upon the commanding officer learning what had been done, he ordered the adjutant to collect all the tracts and have them burned, and in addition to. threaten the missionaries if they did not at once leave the place. This he did through his apprehension that such proceedings would cause a . mutiny among the men. A native soldier, who became converted to Christianity in another regiment, was, after a court of inquiry had been held, ■ struck off the roll. In after years it was at Meerut that the dreadful Indian Mutiny broke out, and the fearful and Anti-Ohristrian policy pursued by a professedly Christian Government was to a large extent the cause of it. Incidentally he narrated the circumstances which led him to give up military life, and, after graduating at Cambridge, enter the ministry.