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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5072, 26 June 1877, Page 2

Chamber business will be taken at the Supreme Court to-day ; and to-morrow las Honor the Chief Justice and his Honor Mr Justice Richmond will sit iu banco. Mr. W. J. Sweeney will take a benefit tonight at the Theatre Royal. Hull particulars as to programme, to which we have already referred, will be found in another column.

It will be seen by an advertisement in another column that Messrs, Robertson, Sellar-, ami Co. will commence business as money lenders and commission agents in Featherston on the 3rd July next. We observe that Mr. E. Mills (son of Mr. E. W. Mills) who has for the past year or so been on a visit to England, is a passenger by the Arawata, which will be due here to-morrow morning.

The Speaker of Victoria is about to initiate a new feature in Parliamentary hospitalities. The intention of Sic 0. Gavan Huffy is to give regular Saturday evening dinners, which will bring hen. members together in friendly intercourse, and will perhaps help to smooth the inevitable asperities of political life. This custom has been, to a limited extent, observed by New Zealand Speakers.

The adjourned meeting of the Licensing Bench takes place at noon to-day.

There were ten thousand spectators at a •ecent football match in Melbourne.

A meeting of the Board of Education has been convened for to-morrow.

The adjourned meeting of persons interested in the formation of a working men's club will be held at the Foresters’ Hall this evening.

The Queensland Parliament has read a second time a Bill to amalgamate the two branches of the legal profession.

A typographical error occurred in the article published yesterday on the subject of an analysis of New Zealand soil. The soil was taken from “ Karere,” not “ Karori,” as printed.

We have been requested to state that Mr. Bryce, treasurer of the Wellington Cricket Association, will be glad to receive information for insertion in Mr. Conway’s proposed “ Cricket Annual.”

We observe that the “Hermit’s Bell,” the new opera, is being performed very successfully in Melbourne, Mr. Florence sustaining the leading character, as he did in Wellington, and being supported by Miss Minnie Fischer. By a late telegram we observe that the proposed football match between New South W ales and Victoria has been deemed impossible, because of the radical differences between the rules in the respective colonies. The chess match, Town v. Civil Service, was continued at their room, Willis-street, last night, when the following games were played;—

The total number of games played is 28, of which the Civil Service have won 19, and the Town 9. There are 45 games to be decided. Play will be resumed on Monday next. A respectable young man, name unknown, hired a boat from Mr. Grainey, waterman, on Thursday last, with the intention of paying a visit to Somes Island ; but since then nothing has been heard of him. On Sunday Mr. Grainey went over to Somes Island to look for the boat, but could find no trace of boat or man. He also searched the beach as far as the Heads, but without success. The police have been made acquainted with the circumstances of the case.

A private letter from Jerilderie, New South Wales, gives a deplorable account of the condition of the country there- The writer says :—“One station here has lost 90,000 sheep from want of food—not water—and we ran horses in that were nothing but skin and bone, though on the best pasturage in the district. This part of the country is in a desperate condition for want of feed, bnt we hope to have it in a fortnight, when the now grass springs sufficiently high.”

A meeting of the Ivaiwarra Local Board was held at the tollgate house, Kaiwarra, yesterday evening. Present : Messrs. Wyatt (in the chair), Phillips, Cameron, Guilford, and Donald. The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. The first business before the Board was the striking of a rate for the ensuing year, notice of which had in due course been given. It was proposed by Mr. Guilford, seconded by Mr. Phillips, and carried, that - a rate be levied of Is. in the £ for the year, commencing the first day of April, 1877, and ending the 31st day of March, 1878. The Chairman then read a letter received from Mr. Pickering, concerning the encroachment of Mr. Phillips’ stable on Westminster-street, and it was resolved to request Mr. Phillips to remove his stable within six months. As to the request of the Colonial Secretary for suggestions from the Board as to the working of the Hoad Board laws, it was decided that the secretary, Mr. Thompson, be instructed to reply, suggesting that the Boards should be allowed to have control over all roads within the boundaries over which their jurisdiction extended. An obstruction having been caused in Westminster-street by some bricks and soil lodged there by Mr. Pickering, the Board resolved to communicate with Mr. Pickering, demanding the instant removal of the obstruction. Mr. Thompson was appointed collector of rates for the ensuing year. This concluded the only material business before the Board, which then adjourned sine die. In giving judgment in the action brought by the Mastcrton Neios against the News Letter, to recover damages for the defendant having appropriated a news telegram, the property of plaintiff, the Kesident Magistrate (Mr. Wardell) said the evidence completely established the fact that the telegram in question had been wrongfully delivered at the News Letter office. That point was fully established by the admissions made by Austin to the witness Bagg. Then as regards the appropriation by defendants of the information the witness Garrick distinctly swore that he had seen the telegrams sent to the defendants by the Press Agency, and that those telegrams contained no information such as that published in their issue of the following day. Then they had the evidence of the telegraphist that he read Mr. Garrick’s with those sent by the Press Agency; that was corroborative of his (Garrick’s) statement. His telegram was handed into the office about the same time as the Press Ageuoy telegrams. Under these circumstances the Court could arrive at no other conclusion than that the information published in defendant’s paper had been obtained from a telegram the sole property of tbe plaintiffs. The question, however, was, could the finding be made to sustain damages. The telegram was published by defendants to the plaintiffs’ prejudice, but then it had been delivered to them, and the question was, having been so delivered, could they be mulcted in damages for having made use of it? Under ordinary circumstances the person so delivering the telegram wrongfully would have been liable, but the Government had taken care to protect itself by a special Act from all such responsibility. Still an injury had been done to the plaintiffs in consequence of defendants having published the information even after they knew the telegram did not belong to them and was not intended for their information. Under these circumstances he wou’d assess the damages at £5, with costs. The Hon. ,Tolm Young, the Canadian Commissioner to the Australian colonies, was entertained at a banquet recently (says the Aryus) at Scott’s Hotel. In a political sense the event acquired unexpected interest. Mr. Young referred to the protective policy of Victoria, deplored that she should have surrounded herself with a Chinese wall, and urged the cultivation of more friendly relations with tlie other colonies. His address was replied to by the Hon. ,T. G. Francis, who with some warmth defended a policy of moderate protection. Ho stated, however, that it his Government had remained in power he would have reduced the present high scale of duties. Sir G. Gavau Duffy, in proposing the toast of “The Chairman,” made a statement which he said lie had not felt at liberty to disclose so long as he was actively engaged in politics, namely, that when in Euglaud he had consulted Thomas Carlyle, J. S. Mill, and John Bright, and that their views 04 the necessity of giving way to public opinion on tbe point in a new country had reconciled him to consenting to the present tariff.

A late issue of the Sydney Horning Herald says:—“ The two athletes who are to compete for the championship of the world, on the 30th inst., are both in active training, and in firstrate health and spirits. As yet it is impossible to foreshadow the issue of this important event, beyond the undoubted fact that it is likely to prove one of the most exciting and warmlycontested struggles ever witnessed on the Parramatta River. The friends of both men are equally confident, and the betting at 6 to 4 on Trickett is eagerly accepted by the friends of Kush. We are informed that Rush has finally decided not to use the sliding-seat, fearing lest he might not have time to acquire the necessary facility in the use of the more modern arrangement which would enable him to cope successfully with an antagonist so formidable as the one be will have to meet.”

We {Wanganui Chronicle) have learned the following particulars about the recent stoppage of a survey at Murimotu. It seems that Topia Turoa and his people claim as their boundary a certain line which was being surveyed, and that the claim is disputed by the Ngatiwhiti, Ngatitama, and Ngatirangi hapus, who reside on the plains near the head waters of the Rangitikei; and that it is these last, or some of them, who have stopped the survey. The question is one which ought not to be difficult to settle, for though the locality has been debateable land for centuries, all boundaries in it were arranged at a great native meeting (at which it isisaid 10,000 Maoris were present) held about thirty 3 T ears ago. The boundaries then agreed on were cemmitted to writing by the late Bev. B. Taylor, and certain chiefs, of whom the late Hori Kingi was one, were appointed as quasi-trustees to see the arrangement was adhered to. Now that they are dead, it seems that some individuals or tribes are trying to revive the old disputes, and hence the present difficulty, which, however, one would think the Native Lauds Court would deal with pretty readily.

The Nelson Colonist states that Lieut.General Sir John Simmons, who it is stated will be entrusted with the command of the English forces in the case of England going to war, is a brother of the late Bev. F, W. C. Simmons, of Nelson College. He occupies the post of Inspector-General of Fortifications, and is already well acquainted with the seat of war in European Turkey, where he took part in the defence of Silistria against the Bussians. It has always been understood that he holds the fighting capacity of the Turkish soldier In high estimation.

Of his “hostages to fortune” Sir George Bowen it seems is about to bestow at least one on Victoria. A Sandhurst paper of a recent date says : —“ It is said that the Governor will not take all his family away from Victoria when his time comes to bid us a fond farewell, and make his final deliverance of oleaginous nothings.” The Melbourne correspondent of the Warrnamhool Guardian says : —“The future husband of Sir George’s eldest daughter is seen in the son of a wealthy member of the Upper House;- and already tire happy pair are domiciled by the busybodies of the block in a mansion not far from the top of Collinsstreet.”

Town. Civil Service. Winner. Whittem v. Davies Whittem Worgan V. Brown Brown Helyer v. Anderson Anderson Willis v. Orbell Willis Alcorn v. Wright Wright Kennedy v. Kirk Kirk Earraud v. Hullett Hullett Beeves v. Brown (unfinished) Green v. Vondadelzen (unfinished)