TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4819, 1 September 1876, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

_ » (per press agency.) Grahambtown, Thursday. Alexander Mackay committed suicide this afternoon in the Pacific Hotel. He arrived from Auckland to-day, was missed for some hours afterwards, and found upon his face on the floor of his bedroom. A Bmall penknife was beßide him, with which he is supposed to have cut his throat, literally from ear to ear. He was quite dead when found. The deed must have been done early in the afternoon. Mackay was formerly accountant in the London Chartered Bank of Australia, Sydney, also, manager of the bank, Ballarat. Lately he had been a shareholder at Coromandel. He w»b a trustee in the estate of the late Arthur Anthony. New Plymouth, Thursday.

Tho furnace of the Titanic Company on examination was found not to have been left perfectly clean, there being more than ten inches of metal and cinders in a crucible, and a piece of solid iron nine inches by twenty inches on the hearth. It will take at least a fortnight to clear. Hokitika, Thursday. Good gold was struok in the drainage Bhaft of the Kohinoor claim, Boss, yesterday. Sections leased at Kuraara at £5 per annum have changed handß at a premium of £2O to £25.

Donbdin, Thursday. Tenders for the street tramways are to close in three months.

Mr. Tarbridge, who saved the lives of the crew of the Dagmar off the coast recently, has been presented with a gold watch. The committee of the late pablic meeting have roßolved that weekly meetings of the committee shall bo held till the close of the session, in order to watch the course of events, and take further action if found necessary. Also resolved to open communication with committees in the country districts, and in cocoperation with them, promise combined action as occasion arises and in such direction as may bo found desirable. A house in Albany-street was destroyed by fire last night. It was insured the in New Zealand for £l5O and for £l5O in the Royal. The Guardian has an article on the retirement of Sir Julius Vogel, as a comment upon the remarks of its Wellington correspondent, to the effect that " the most ardent Vogel worshippers in Wellington city condemn him, and think no name harsh enough to call him." It concludes a complimentary reference to his labors, without agreeing with their results, thus:—That the late Premier labored in the service of the colony with unweariod and unflagging zeal, that he devoted to this great ability and the whole energy of a most energetic mind, are facts that no one will gainsay ; and if the highest reward in the gift of the Government is open for bestowal, before all

"other men in New Zealand it has been fairly ! won by Sir Julius Vogel. If the harshest names are hurled against him by his most ardent whilom worshippers, it is not to r his dishonor but theirs, and to that of the frailty and fickleness of human nature. There is something moving, and the more so from being true, in the reference of the retiring Minister to his private concerns. Seventeen years of public service had shown him that public life was not conducive to one's own interests, and the expression of concern for his family will, we think, disarm much hostility—for one touch of nature makes the whole world kin. His worst enemy never charged him with avarice. An expensive Minister he has been, bat he has not profited by it. Reckless in relation to money, he has been as regardless of his own as he has been of the colony's; and making all allowance for temporary chagrin among his party, and the remnants of hostility among his old opponents, if there is one rich prize open in the service of the country, New Zealand will not grudge it to Sir Julius Vogel. This will be the verdict of the whole colony when our temporary little partisan excitements pass away, and when a fairer and juster spirit will review the strange eventful history of the ex-Mraister. The following resolutions are to be submitted at the Caversham meeting to-night: —That those representatives who passed the Abolition Act were not elected to do so, and had no right to make any radical change in the Constitution of the country, and the people of New Zealand are justified in resisting its being carried out. That the abortive attempts of the Ministry to provide measures of local government have failed. That it is not proper to apprehend a great constitutional change which has been impelled to its present course by ft desire to pawn or sell the waste lands of the provinces. That the sudden change in opinion which Wellington has often produced in some of our representatives convinces us that one central government, with a large place dispensing power, tends to corruption. That our representatives, Messrs. Seaton and Burns, be thanked for their action on the separation question, and be requested to advise the other Otago members, in the event of their failing to preserve for us the independence we enjoy under provincial institutions, to return to the province in a body, and we will support them in preserving our rights at all hazards.