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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4926, 6 January 1877, Page 2

By a Gazette Extraordinary issued yesterday, Parliament has been further prorogued to April 13. The proclamation does not say anything about the Parliament meeting for the despatch of business, so of course there will be a further prorogation. Parliament will not meet for despatch of business till July. We hear that the Hon. George McLean will ■be'the New Zealand delegate at the cable conference to be held in Sydney next month. It is understood that the Government are averse to any large expenditure on behalf of a second cable, and at all events will decline to commit the colony to any outlay until .Parliament shall have had an opportunity of expressing its will. At the Resident Magistrate's (Jourt yesterday the business was trifling in extent and unimportant hr character. There were three Cases; of drunkenness, two of ■ the offenders being' fined ss. each, with the usual alternative, and the third was fined 10s., as he had been disorderly in addition to being drunk. On the civil list there were five cases, four of which were adjourned, and in, the fifth the parties did not put. in an appearance, and it was consequently struck out.

Henry Davis, of Wellington, has filed a statement of his inability to pay his debts. The Town Clerk intimates that the general T Jr ® tj 36 c % for the half-year ending on 31st March is now due. Ihe summer exhibition of the Wellington Horticultural Society will be held on Thursday, January 18. e 6 ?PP° intmen t by the Municipal Council of Mr. J. H. Marriott, as Registrar of Dogs, is notified. ° . Petty jurors summoned to attend the Supreme Court on the 10th inst., are by advertisement this morning relieved from l attendance. A meeting of the Karori-Makara District Highway Board will be held to-day, but we understand that there is no business of importance to be transacted. A transfer, of the license of the Palmerston Hotel, from Mr. Moore to Mr. Sylvester Coleman, has been refused by the Palmerston Licensing Bench. The application was opposed by the police. A cricket match will be clayed on the Basin Reserve this afternoon between the team chosen to gov to Nelson and a team selected from the town. Play to commence at halfpast one o’clock. The number of passengers which arrived at the port of Wellington by sea during the past seven days was 212. Of these 117 came from the Northern ports, 87 from the South, and 8 from Australia. The Government steamer Stella left Napier for Wellington last evening, having Dr. Grace on board. Several members of the Ministry will proceed to Napier in the Stella, for the purpose of attending Sir Donald McLean’s funeral A man named T. 0. D. Hodgers arrived in Wellington from Wairarapa yesterday, having been convicted on two charges of larceny, and sentenced to four and two months’ imprisonment. He was taken to the goal during the course of the day. The excavation on the ground on which the new Athenaeum building is to be erected, is almost completed, and the contractors will soon commence the work of building. The terms of the contract make it imperative that the work must be finished by the month of June next. *

There were 16 steamers and 12 sailing vessels entered at the port of Wellington during the past seven days. The tonnage of the steamers was 2727, and that of the sailing vessels 484. During the same period there cleared out 11 sailing vessels of a combined tonnage of 441 tons, and 15 steamers of a carrying capacity of 2854 tons. The burlesque “Robin' Hood” was repeated to a good house last night at the Theatre Royal, and the various artists being more partperfect the piece went more smoothly. Mrs. Bates was, of course, all that could be desired, and Mrs. Stoneham caused considerable amusement. There was no farce. Miss Morgan takes her benefit on Monday, and considering her well-deserved popularity, doubtless there will be a large attendance.* ■ His Worship the Mayor gave a dinner at the Empire Hotel last evening, at which there was a large attendance. Hjs Excellency the G ivernor was prevented from attending through illness, and the Premier and other members of the Ministry would have been present had it not been for the receipt’of the sad intelligence of Sir Donald McLean’s death. The City members, Messrs; Pcarce .and Hunter, the ex-Mayor, .Mr. Moorhoiise,and the members and officers ofthe. Corporation were present. After the dinner, provided by host Lichtschendl—by many declared to be the best ever laid in Wellington —had been disposed of, the cloth was removed, and various toasts proposed and responded to, proceedings being enlivened by music and singing. The company separated about midnight after a very pleasant evening. ! The annual district meeting of the Primitive Methodist Church is about to commence, and most of the ministers deputed to attend it have arrived in Wellington. The official. sermon was preached last evening by the Rev. J. Dumbell, who delivered a fervid and deeply impressive address from 2 Cor. ii., 16, “To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to, the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things 1” The address, which was principally on the subject of the Christian'ministry; its aims, its privileges, and its responsibilities, was listened to with the very greatest attention. The course of services fixed in connection with the-district meeting appears in another column. A largely attended meeting of the working committee of the Anniversary regatta was held at the Pier Hotel last evening. A good deal of important business was transacted; arid as will be seen from the following description of what was done, the regatta promises to be a great success, the committee evidently having determined at anyrate ■to insure its being so. The Secretary stated that he had received a communication from the Private Secretary to the Governor, to the effect that: his Excellency had been' pleased to give his patronage, and that he would be present at the meeting. A letter was also received from the Secretary of the Customs, stating that' the Government steamer Luna would be placed at the disposal of the committee to attend on the flagship, and that the: steam launch would be told off to convey his Excellency to the flagship. A telegram from Lyttelton was read, inquiring as to the amount of the entrance fee for the coasters race, thus forcibly showing the interest taken in the Wellington regatta meeting by those- outside the province. The. Secretary informed the committee that Messrs. Beauchamp, Campbell, and Co. had presented a cup valued at seventeen guineas to be competed for. The committee then proceeded to the consideration of the events to be placed on the programme, and the following were decided upon First and second class yacht races, coasters, open boats ; senior and junior four-oar, and senior and junior pair-oar gig races ; four-oar outriggers, and scullers races. It was also decided that in the event of their being sufficient funds a prize should be given for a maiden fonr-oar and a maiden pair-oared race, and that if there should not be time on the day of the regatta they should be rowed during the same week. The day for closing entries was fixed for Wednesday, the 17th inst., due'notice of which will be given by advertisement. The committee then resolved upon the disposal of the cups to the winners in the various events as followsFirstclass yacht race, N. Z. Shipping Company’s cup; coasters race, Shaw, Savill, and Co.’s cup ; four-oared outriggers, Beauchamp, Campbell, and Co.’s cup; second-class yacht race, Cohen’s cup ; four-oared inriggers, Theatre Royal prize ; scullers race, Mr. J. R. Brown’s prize, a silver scull. It was also resolved that two small cups should be bought out of the regatta funds, to be competed for in the senior pair-oared race. The distances for the pulling races were fixed as follows :—Senior four-oared and four-oared outrigger races, 3 miles straight away; Junior four-oared,seniorand juniorpair-oaredandships’ gig races, 2 miles straight away; whale-boat, 3 miles, circular race ; scullers,- one mile and a half straight; maiden four-oared and pair-oared, two miles straight away. The distances for sailing races are to be the same as last year. The Wellington rules for pulling races were adopted, and the Lyttelton rules for sailing races. It was resolved to call for tenders for the right of catering for refreshments on the Luna, for issuing cards, and for erecting refreshment booths on the wharf. The names of Messrs. L. Blundell and H. Lyon were added to the list of the working committee. It was resolved to request Mr. George Hunter to accept the office of Commodore, Mr. C. H. Snow that of Vice-Commadore, and Mr. Hutchison that of President; Nothing was decided on as‘to the money prizes, it being deemed advisable to leave that matter in abeyance until the committee knew exactly what position they would occupy in respect of funds. Subscription lists were given to members, and it was requested that they would use their best endeavors to get the lists in (well filled, it is to be hoped) as soon as possible, in order to avoid delay. The committee meet again on Friday next.

Louisa Smith and her daughter were sis-. missed yesterday, the circumstances of their acquittal being as follows:—The girl wad placed in the dock, charged on a separate inand Mr. Bell then addressed the jury, telling them what evidence he should bring forward for the prosecution. The Chief S ave it as his opinion that the proof which had thus been opened to the jury did not amount to proof that the child found on the side of the road was the child of Louisa Smith. This being the case, Mr. Bell stated that he would not call any evidence for the Crown, and the girl was therefore dismissed, the mother being allowed her freedom also, as the charge against her naturally hinged on that preferred against her daughter.

About a dozen gentlemen interested in t e proposed concert in aid of the Benevolent Institution met last evening at Mr. Hunter’s rooms;: Mr. Isherwood in the chair. ■' After some discussion, it was resolved to appoint a provisional committee, with power to add to > their number. The committee was named as follows:—Messrs. J. C. B. Isherwood, C. A. St. G. Hickson, Mclntosh, Mowbray, Aplin, Herrmann, Bryan," A. Waters, S. Waters, Whittaker, Davis, Cemino, J. Plimmer, Putnam, Hammerton, Spreat, Sewell, Pilcher, Page, Widdop, Sorrell, and Bilman. The meeting then resolved itself into a committee to arrange a programme and appoint conductor, secretary, and other officers. A meeting of the Caledonian Society Sports Committee was held last evening at the New Zealander Hotel for the distribution of ■jthe prizes won at the New Year’s sports held on the Basin Reserve. There Were present— Messrs. George Crawford (in the chair), Duncan, Young, Lockie, Mclntyre, McDowell, > Pollock, Captain, Bose, and , Mr. Kerby, the hon. sec. Prizet were" paid away to the ' amount of £155. No protests had been entered, and everything passed off most satisfactorily. It will be remembered by those who take an interest in such matters that some objections were made to Mr. Pollock acting as starter on the day of the sports,' In connection with that we may mention that Mr. Pollock received the following' letter, signed by twenty-three pedestrians, which he presented to the meeting last night : “ We, the undersigned amateur pedestrians of Wellington, offer yon our sympathy for"the unmerited insult that a few; runners intended for you at last New Year’s Day meeting, by presenting a petition against you acting in the;position of starter, their stated reasons being ? of so mean and contemptible a nature that we ... sincerely hope you will take no it whatever. We can testify not only to your fair and impartial judgment in starting add,' handicapping, but also feel that we. ire in-" ' debted mainly to you tor the healthy impetus' ' given to athletic sports during the .last three years you have occupied the honorable position , as one of the directors of the Caledonian .Society. We are glad that the president; and the directors treated the matter with the contempt ’ it deserved, and sincerely hope that you may long be spared to perform the same, duties as efficiently as you did on January .Ist, 1877.’’,

Commentiug on the report of a select committee appointed by the Queensland-Parlia-ment to inquire into the alleged continuedexistence of Polynesian kidnapping; jthe Brisbane Telegraph says :—“ In order to disprove the statements made in ‘ the Press and elsewhere, in regard to islanders being brought to Queensland, either against their will or in ignorance of the nature of the ‘ agreements into which they have entered,’ the committee examined some of the recruiting, agents appointed by Government. Their evidence was ‘ singularly corroborative of the willingness of the islanders to come to this colony.’ Are we then to understand that the murders of sea-' men, master mariners, a bishop, and a commodore have had nothing to do with this labor traffic? The whole, world believes that the contrary is the fact, and that those lives have been sacrificed to the iniquities of a traffic on which Fijian and Queensland planters and squatters are growing wealthy. There cannot be any dispute about the motives which led to those massacres. Were they unjustifiable? No, they were the natural. action springing, from' the human instinct of retribution for injuries received. They were righteous but indiscriminating revenges for cruelty, kidnapping, and murder;, Our select committee does not deny these facts, but it shirks the responsibility of sheeting them home in its report, and transfers all blame to the recruiting cap- v tains who have procured labor for Fiji and, Noumea. It is the old, old trick which first occurred in the primeval family—transfer culpability.” A correspondent of the Wanganui Chronicle writes as sfollows. respecting the . manner in which the New Year; wag ushered imat Turakinar—Between the bouts of 12 and 1 o’clock , on Monday morning the good people of Turakina had their sleep suddenly broken into by a most startling uproar. The cause of the tumult was soon apparent, as it took bnt'a moment’s thought to discover that it was the dawning of a new year, and that the local larrikins were proclaiming the fact, by creating the most bewildering uproar that could possibly be made by the showering of stones on the iron roofs, the frantic hammering and pounding of tin pots innumerable, and the giving vent to the most diabolical, yells ever capable of production by the united throats and lungs of half-a-dozenßedlamites. Itsoon became evident that this sort of thing would last until exhaustion should compel the operators to desist, and the only alleviation that could be found was in plugging both one’s ears with cotton wool, and stifling oneself beneath the bed clothes. At one period of the performance even this desperate resource became a failure, hut a further trifling relief was obtained by the liberal distribution of cold water, administered from, a bedroom jug. But this relief was indeed but temporary, for the disturbers’ forces were now augmented by the arrival of a crowd of small boys, a monster drum, and explosive crackers. The roof-clattering,kettle-poundingi and drumthrashing were now renewed with:' increased* energy until they were Bimply maddemng. The protector of the public peace bravely tried to quell the hubbub single-handed, but his excited vociferations were totally disregarded, and he was treated to a double-distilled agony of crackers, kettles, and drums. It is with great regret, says the Hawke's Bay Herald of Tuesday last, that we have to record the death, at * the earljj-. age of twenty years, of Mr. OctaviW; Hadfield, second surviving son of the Bishop of Wellington, and- accountant in the Napier branch of the National Bank. It is not:two years since he first came to reside amongst us, ’ and during this short period he had so completely won the esteem and regard of all who . have had any intercourse with him, that we ’ may safely say that there is hot one of bur' - young men whose loss will be so universally" deplored. It was not till last Thursday that his friends noticed anything amiss,with him. Though evidently unfit for work on that day, he would not leave his post until absolutely obliged to do so. On Friday evening'he was removed from his lodgings to the residence of Bishop Williams, where he remained till he died, between 9 and 10 o’clock yesterday morning. ,

In the course of a discussion in the Legislative Council lately (says the Argus) on one of the clauses of the Publichouaes -Bill, Mr. Reid, one bf the members for the NorthEastern Province, said there was a; great ideal of talk about drunkenness prevailing here; but. when he was in Scotland, about three years* ago, he saw more drunkenness in one week in the town of Stirling than he ever saw-alto-gether in Australia. . The Fiji correspondent of a: Tasmanian paper, the Launceston Examiner,, writes : “ There are many rumors here about the mail service, whether it is going to call at Kandavan or not. It has been asserted that the boats are losing £3OOO every trip they riin,,and if. such is the case the sooner they stop running the better for themselves at all events, and *1 think for us too. Because if this lino omitted , to call at Kandavau there would be some chanceof getting a steamer to come to Levuka’ direct from Sydney. Having had some conversation with the manager of the A.S.N. Co., he informed me that it was useless running a boat to Fiji while the mail steamers were calling at any part of it; but if they ceased to call, , the ■

A.S.N. Co. with a small subsidy from the Governments would be able to make it pay to run a boat to Levnka monthly, but the attempt would be useless whilst the mail boats called at Kandavau ; thus, in my opinion, the Pacific mail service is an injury to Fiji instead of an advantage.—The statement of revenue and expenditure of the colony for the half-year ending June, ,1876, has just been published, and as usual shows a tidy balance on the wrong side. The receipts £15,438; expenditure, £32,266. —The question of the site of the capital is still in .abeyance, and causes a great deal of . discomfort and dissatisfaction, as people do not care to build in Levnka unless they know whether it is to be the seat of Government or not.” F renc h naval officer, M. Marchal, esti- ‘ mates the relative strength of the war navies of the Great Powers as follows : —lf England be represented by 1000, France will be represented by 767, Germany by 334, and Italy by 255. . The fleet of Turkey comes next, and ranks before that of Russia. The war navy of the Czar, as compared with ours, is as Ida is to 1000. Austria, Brazil, and t hill come last on M. Marchal’s list, and we find no mention of the United States. Tim seven strongest ironclads are the Inflexible, English, tlie Duilio and Daiidolo, Italian ; the Apx, English:, the Foudroyant, I ranch; the Dreaduough, English; and the Peter the Great*, Russian. Italy possesses in her cmrassed vessels the Duilio and the Dandolo, thanks to their powerful, artillery, the most formidable engines of destruction existing ; but t;> England is awarded the palm of having in the Inflexible the most perfect model of a ship of the new class yet constructed.