Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5015, 20 April 1877, Page 2

His Excellency the Governor and Commodore Hoskins left for Dunedin in the Government steamer Hinemoa at noon yesterday. The Hon. Mr. Ormond left for Napier yesterday, and the Hon, G. McLean left for the South in the Hinemoa, as Minister in attendance upon his Excellency the Governor. Supplements to last week’s Gazettes were issued yesterday, containing Orders in Council proclaiming new by-laws on the Now Zealand railways, and fixing sittings of the Native Land Courts.

The following tenders were received at the Public Works Office, Wellington, for the Mungaroa contract No. 1, permanent way, on the Welliugton-Masterton line of railway Ac-cepted—-John Robinson, Upper Hutt. £2663. Declined—P. Johnston, Wellington, £2678 ; W. H. Topham, Wanganui, £284 ; J. McLean, Wellington, £3461 ; J. McLachlan, Upper Hutt, £3816 { 0. McKirdy, Wellington, £3931,

A cricket. match will be played to-day (Friday) between elevens chosen from the Postal and Telegraph Departments. Wickets will be pitched at 11a.m. The following are the names of the players : —Post Office team —W. Gray, Lauham, Glasson, Jessup, Gannaway, Duncan, Beswiolc, Bannister, Buck, Painter, McKenzie. Telegraph team —Henry, Gell, Hawke, Hill, Kirker, Gannaway, Gray, Orowther, Mountain, Gordon, Smith,

We are in receipt of the “New Zealand Jurist ” for April.

We have to acknowledge the April number of the “ New Zealand Country Journal.”

Mr. W. A. Ford ham, of Bouloott-street, wishes us to state that he was not the Mr. 'Fordham who was one of the deputation in reference to wharfage rates. The performance of “Namaan” by the Choral Society promises to be a brilliant success. The banol and vocalists had a final practice at Messrs. Bethune and Hunter’s rooms last evening, which went off with magnificent success.

There was a very good attendance at the Theatre Royal last evening, when “ Conrad and Lizette" was again successfully repeated. To-night will be the last performance but one of this excellent drama. The chess match between Messrs. Hullett and Green, which resulted in a draw on Monday night, was played over again at the clubroom last evening, the same odds being given as before, Mr. Green winning. A meeting of St. Paul’s parishioners to decide the hymnal question is called for Monday evening next, to be held at the Sydueystreet schoolroom. As some of the parishioners have not seen “ Hymns Ancient and Modern,” copies have been left at Mr. J. Hughes’, Bambton-quay, for inspection. As the mail-bags were being placed on the Wanaka yesterday, one of them fell between the wharf and the steamer. They were being thrown on board, and this one fell short, and went down. Immediately the accident was seen there was a great rush to the side, but it appeared that the bag was stopped by one of the fenders, and it was soon placed on board. A cricket match will take place on Saturday afternoon, the 21st iust., between the employees of E. W. Mills, Esq., and J. Nathan and Co., in Mr. ‘Whitehead’s paddock, Ingestrestreet. The team of the former consist of Messrs. Wills, Fish, Bead, Marks, Carpenter, Gibbs, Donovan, Kutchen, Moran, Murch, and Grimes ; emergency men, Nicoll and Birch. Wickets to be pitched at 1.30 sharp. Mr. J. H. Wallace at his land sale yesterday sold 15ft. Gin. to Bambton-quay to Jacob Joseph, Esq, for £4BO ; 76ft. to I’asmanstreet and house, sold to Robert Miller, Esq., for £485 ; town acre 835 withdrawn at £7OO ; sections 184 and 185, Fitzherbert, withdrawn at £2 per acre ; part of acre 817 and leasehold. Upper Hutt, withdrawn at reserved price. All fears of a short supply of feed during the ensuing winter (says the Wairarapa News Letter) have now vanished, the favorable weather which has prevailed during the last three or four weeks having given a splendid start to the grass. On the coast there is abundance of feed, and the runholdera are looking forward to a most favorable season. If the weather does not turn unusually cold, there should be a large crop of wool, for the weight and quality of the staple naturally depends upon the supply of good food. The regular weekly meeting of the managing committee of the Wellington Benevolent Institution was held on Wednesday afternoon. Present—Rev. J. Paterson (in the chair), Ven. Archdeacon Stock, Rev. B. W. Harvey, Rev. Father McGuinness, Rev. W. H. West, Rev. A. Reid, Messrs. B. Bevy, J. Wood, and J. G. Holdsworth. The following subscriptions were received ;—Rev. B. W. Harvey, £1 ; Rev. J. Paterson, £1 ; T. Whitehouse, 10s. A deputation,’consisting of the Ven. Archdeacon Stock and Messrs. Woodward and Holdsworth, was appointed to wait on the Government, for the purpose of ascertaining what amount of help can be obtained.

At the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Lower Hutt, on Wednesday, before Messrs. W. Beetham and E. C. Clifford, J.E.’s, the following cases were heard :—Karene, a Maori, for drunkenness, was fined ss. and costs. John McKay, Michael Hogan, and Charles Upton, had been arrested for drunkenness, and liberated on depositing £1 with the watchhousekeeper ; as they did not appear their bail was forfeited. There were several civil cases, but judgment was only given in two of them, viz., Mabely v. Shearin, claim £2 75.; and Eiohavdson v. Hannah, claim £7 6s. ; in each case judgment was given for the amount claimed and costs.

At the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday the business was as follows:—Thomas Reynolds, George Pottinger, Jane Harrison, Thomas Hamilton, and Thomas I.unthey, were each fined 65., or 21 hours’imprisonment, for drunkenness. William Nelson was charged with vagrancy. It appeared that the unfortunate man had lost one of his hands, and could not get employment, being reduced to the necessity of begging for a few pence with which to procure food. Mr. Evans, saddler, who was in court, offered to give Nelson some light employment, and the case was therefore dismissed. Ann Norah Spoor was charged with unlawfully wounding her husband. It appeared that Spoor discovered that his wife was unfaithful to him, and when he remonstrated with her she made three stabs at him with a knife, and afterwards tried to stab him with a scissors, but was unsuccessful. Mr. Olivier, who appeared for the prosecution, stated that he had been instructed to withdraw the case. Mr. Allan (for defendant) had no objection, and the case was accordingly struck out. Mr. Colder, the spokesman of the deputation which recently waited upon the Hon. D. Reid in Dunedin with reference to sly grogselling and other matters, said:—lt is considered by the members of the trade in which we are engaged that the time has arrived when something should be done to conserve the interests not only of the trade, but of the public, in the way of protecting the revenue by preventing the sale of pernicious drugs that detract from the character of those legitimately engaged in the sale of liquor. It was stated quite recently from the Licensing Bench, that in and around Dunedin there are about 103 public-houses ; and as an old policeman, I am in a position to prove that there is an equal number of unlicensed houses selling stuff unfit for consumption, the consequence of which is, that the licensed vendors of alcoholic liquors are charged with innumerable offences of which they are not guilty. I will state one or two facts which will show the necessity for something beiug done. About four years ago I was detailed by the Commissioner of Police —I being then in the police force—to collect samples for analysis by the General Government of all the liquors sold in and around Dunedin. My attention was particularly directed to one sort of brandy which was supposed to be got up with drugs, and not the genuine juice of the grape at all. After searching the whole of Dunedin, I failed to discover that a single drop of this poisonous stuff was sold by any publican ; but I found there were many shanties in Dunedin where it was sold wholesale. It is by such places that our lunatic asylumns are filled. At the same meeting, Mr. Reid speaking of Sunday selling, said;—l would not like to say that I would be prepared to support any measure that would open public-houses on Sunday. The argument of course is, that the public are absolutely prohibited from purchasing liquors on Sunday, I think that, as a general rule, if well-couduoted people require stimulants on Sunday, they can provide themselves with what they want on Saturday. It may be said that some people have not sufficient forethought to do that. But the more we give such people facilities, the more will we encourage their want of forethought. However, I am not speaking in this respect on behalf of the Government. lam simply giving my own opinion.

Respecting the presentation to Pooley, the Lyttelton Times very properly says:—Testimonials are nice things. Sometimes they reward merit; occasionally they only flatter vanity, not unfrequently they soothe ruffled feelings, and instances are upon record in which they have been, used as pure braggadocio. To which of these categories belongs the testimonial presented the other day to our distinguished visitor Mr. Pooley, it is perhaps useless to inquire A testimonial is a reward for some service done, or some duty well discharged, but in this case there was not much, if any, of these things. The story is very different. Pooley entraps an innocent with a specious bet, assaults the in-

nooent savagely, and either he or his friends destroy the innocent’s property, and would further have mauled the innocent himself if he had not quickly betaken himself elsewhere. For this Pooley gets a testimonial and a gold ring, and his satellite gets a share of the good things. If the friends of these people like to comfort them with guineas, speeches, and social afternoons, let them do so by all means. It is a matter of taste. When indulging their taste, the less they say about testimonials the better. To use (the word in such a case is only to bring discredit on a good term. Lieut.-Colonel Reader, in his report on the prize-firing at Hokitika, said : From the return it will be seen that the average shooting throughout is very much higher than it was either last year or the year before, which I attribute in a measure to the representatives having this year been provided for the competition with new rifles of a uniform pattern, and first-class arms in every respect. The range, which was situated nine miles from Hokitika, on the Arahura River, was everything that could be desired, and contributed not a little to accurate shooting. Our only drawback was occasional heavy rain, which interrupted the firing, and spoiled the ground for a time. I cannot speak too highly of the work done by Assistant-Armourer Christy, who preceded usto Hokitika by a month to prepare the range. His was a very arduous task, for in addition to having to clear about 400 yards of brushwood and stumps, raise the butts and platforms, he had two bridges to build to enable us to get to the range, one of which had at least 40ft. of span. How he got through so much work in so short a time, doing it so thoroughly and well, was a matter of astonishment not only to myself but to everyone connected with the camp. The only suggestion I have to make is, that the mode of marking I adopted, of painting out every shot, should be adhered to at future meetings, as insuring accuracy, rapidity in marking, and general satisfaction to the competitors themselves. In conclusion, I beg to be permitted to record, on behalf of the representatives, staff, and myself, our grateful appreciation of the kindness and hospitality shown us by the inhabitants of Westland during our stay amongst them. The Auckland correspondent of the Otago Daily Times gives the following respecting the Moanataiari ; —There is one illusion connected with quartz mining which the Moanataiari may fairly be said to dispel. I refer to the idea that fortunes are made in this way suddenly and without risk. In the Caledonian, the lucky shareholders—the large ones entirely, and the smaller ones with very few exceptions—had paid heavy calls and stuck to their venture through depression of all kinds. In the Moanataiari there have been no calls, but the mine was heavily in debt, and liable at any moment to have the debt called in and the shareholders lose entirely what they had paid for their shares. Many feared this, and sold at 13s. to 15s. up to the eve of the recent discovery. Others sold at 20s. to 40s. eagerly, when the shares rose to that unexpected figure. The latter are now among the chief of the mourners, as might be supposed. The Moanataiari mine comprises 30 acres, and has a valuable crushing plant. It was formed by amalgamating, some years ago, the Homeward Bound, the Redan, and several small companies. It has never employed less than eighty men, on tribute and on shareholders’ account. Four years ago it had nine miles of drives and underground workings, and it then paid nearly £50,000 in dividends in a year. Its shares rose to £15 —fell to £lO and £8 as the dividends decreased, and finally went down slowly to 13s. There are some holders who have paid high rates, and have stuck to the mine rather than sacrifice the money, but the large holders are those who have held on from the first, and who are now reaping a rich reward. There are also cases of people who bought in just before the rise, but they are exceptional, and the shares held by them are comparatively few. Buyers of this kind do not generally hold long, but sell at the first rise as a rule.

In charging the Grand Jury at the recent criminal sessions at Nelson, his Honor the Chief Justice said that there was but oue case for trial, and this must be considered satisfactory, but it was not a matter of unmixed satisfaction that twenty or thirty grand jurors and thirty or forty petty jurors should be called together to try a very simple case, when there was a District Court sitting periodically, at which criminal cases could be disposed of. It so happened, however, that the Legislature in 1853 had fixed what he considered an improper and unreasonable rule limiting the jurisdiction of that Court according to the extent of the punishment the law allowed for certain offences. This was manifestly improper, as it did not at all follow that the Court would allow the full extent of punishment permitted. Dor instance, in the case now to come before them the term of imprisonment might be fourteen years, but unless something of a much graver character came out than was already known, it was not likely that the sentence would be anything like as severe as that. It seemed to him that the older rule should have been retained, which exactly followed the English rule, which was that all criminal cases were disposed of at the Quarter Sessions, except such cases as murder, libel, conspiracies, &c., which either from their heinousness or from involving points of law were sent to the higher Court. That rule, he thought, should be established here, and if they agreed with him they might perhaps make a presentment to that effect, which would have some weight with the Legislature. That the jurisdiction of the District Court should be limited by the extent of punishment that might be awarded was, he considered, a most undesirable rule, and one that should be altered as speedily as possible. These remarks, of course, were only intended to apply to those places where there were sittings of the District Court.