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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5080, 5 July 1877, Page 2

A heavy landslip occurred on the Hutt-road, at Kocky Point, about seven o’clock last night. Fully fifty feet of the road is completely blocked up, and Mr. Barlow, who passed there shortly after, informs us that the stuff was still moving. He told the tollgate-keeper at Kaiwarra of the occurrence, and also the railway officials, as the fallen earth is in dangerous proximity to the rails, in fact so close that the scrub which came down along with the earth is lying across the palings of the railway fence. The usual examination of teachers and persons desirous of qualifying for teachers under the Board of Education was commenced at the Thorndon school yesterday morning, the Inspector in person supervising. Four came up for first-class certificates ; two for third class ; thirteen for pupil teachers’ certificates, and an equal number presented themselves to classify in any of the classes—in all 41. The subjects examined in were :—First class—morning— Algebra and Roman history ; afternoon—English language and literature, and euclid. Third class— morning—English grammar; afternoon—Geography. The subjects were the same for pupil teachers. The examination will be continued to-day. Mr. R. J. Duncan yesterday held a land sale at his mart in Panama-street. He first offered the leases of certain sections in three town acres for the term of twenty-one years, renewable for a second period of twenty-one years at an advance of 50 per cent. Section No. 1, containing 37 perches, with frontages to Austin-street and Pirie-street, was purchased by Mr. M. Quin at a yearly rental of ,£33. Section No. 2, of an equal area, but with a frontage only to Pirie-street, was purchased by same buyer at £27, who also bought section No. 3 of the same area as the others, and having frontages to Pirie-street and Tutohenstreet, for £2O. Section No. 8, containing 1 rood 7 perches, and the adjoining allotment of equal area at £29 and £32 per annum respectively. No. 10 bought £24, Mr. Waters being the lessee. 12A was purchased by Mr. G. T. Love at £l6, and 128 by Mr. R. Collins at £l3. &. couple of sections in Palmerston North were sold to Mr. 0. W. Clayton at £2B and £45 respectively. The family residence in Tinakori-road advertised to be sold was withdrawn, the reserve price not being reached. A meeting of the Wellington Highway Dis.triots Board was held yesterday at noon. Present—Messrs. Mason (in the chair), Smith, Taylor, Dick, and Speedy. The minutes of last meeting were read and confirmed. Then attention was drawn to the necessity that existed for extra clerical assistance, and it was resolved that Mr. William Jones be appointed treasurer and assistant clerk, with an allowance of £SO per annum, and £l2 per annum for travelling expenses. On the motion of Mr. Dick, seconded by Mr. Speedy, it was resolved that a notice should be published to the effect “ that a rate of Is. in the £ will be made on the Ist of August, 1877, and the rate-book will be open for inspection in the different wards on and after that date. It was resolved that the overseer should be allowed the sum of £4O per annum for forage. Tenders were received for the formation of Uuderhill-road into Wainui ; and that of Isaac Smith was accepted, subject to the specifications being complied with, and to the approval of the overseer. Resolved that the warden of No. 6 ward be authorised to call for tenders (with power to accept according to his discretion) for falling bush at Whitemen’s Valley, Upper Mungaroa, the original contractor having failed to carry out his engagement with the Board. It was also resolved that the overseer be instructed to report next month upon the application of F. Ramsay for the survey of a line of road at Otari, near Wadestown.

A meeting of the Wairarapa West Comity Council on Friday was convened at the request of the Government, to consider suggestions for amending the County Council Act. The Standard reports that—The following resolutions, after a long discussion, were agreed to—lst, “That provisions should be. made in the Waste Lands Act, whereby in future no land shall be disposed of until such time as the necessary roads and bridges have been completed through the block.” 2nd, “A special provision shall be made to enable County Councils to open up roads through sparsely settled districts, by the Government making arrangements for the advance to County Councils of moneys for the above purpose, such moneys to be spent within certain fixed boundaries, and the unsold land in such districts if necessary held as security.” 3rd, “ That a large proportion of the subsidies now payable to Borough Councils and Road Boards should be payable to County Councils for the purpose of maintaining the through lines of road, and also the making of county roads in sparsely settled districts.” 4th, “ That the County Council shall have power to borrow money on the basis of rates collected by the Road Boards throughout the county during the previous year to the extent already authorised by the Counties Act, clause 139.” sth. “ That a fixed basis for valuation should be defined, so that the rates should in no case be less than 5, and more than 7 per cent, of the value of the fee simple.” 6th, “ That it is necessary that due notice shall be given by persons objecting to the valuation, to the taxing body, previous to being placed in the assessment court.” 7th, “That the provisions at the end of clause 102 of the Public Works Aet be struck out.” Bth, “The appointments of all valuators to be made by County Councils.”

We have received complaints as to the condition of Hill-street. Some time ago the Corporation laid a drain down the centre of the street near its junction with the Tinakori-road, and in filling up the excavation, took no trouble to level , the street, which is now covered from footpath to footpath with miry elay a foot deep. As the footpaths are not in a much better condition, pedestrians who have to travel that way generally look sad before their journey is finished. On Saturday the employes of the Dunedin Star presented Mr. Bell, proprietor of the paper, with a group of portraits, representing the literary, commercial, and mechanical staffs, and in doing so intimated that the staffs were desirous of giving him something that ■would express, though inadequately, their appreciation of the valuable services Mr. Bell had rendered to the newspaper press of the city. The staffs had learned to regard him more as a friend than as an employer, and by reason of the intimate personal relations that had existed between them for so many years, it had been thought the gift would prove an appropriate and acceptable one, as in it Mr. Bell appeared surrounded by those to whom he had been a kind and generous friend, and in whose grateful memory he would ever have a cherished place. The respective merits of charring and tarring piles was the subject of discussion at the Bluff Harbor Board the other day. Captain Thomson was in favor of the former, because, he said, the tarring wore off, but charring remained. He mentioned as an example the broken hull of the Ocean Chief lying on the beach at the Bluff. In the portions of it, he said, which had been charred, not a single worm was visible, and where only tarred the timbers were quite riddled. Mr. Niohol bore Captain Thomson out, and stated that the two plans had been tried at the Hobarton wharf with satisfactory results in favor of charring. Effect was given to this opinion by it being made an instruction that the piles should be both charred and tarred in future, if the contractor agreed to do so on reasonable terms. , The Mirror of the World again drew a fair attendance last night, and was as usual warmly applauded.

; The Bruce County Council has realised £4OO by the dog tax.

We have received the Church Chronicle for July.

The ordinary fortnightly meeting of the City Council will be held to-day at the usual hour. At the Hutt market yesterday a number i of cattle arid some farming implements were put up to auction by Mr. J. H. Wallace. The attendance was limited, but sales were effected in different lines.

An adjourned meeting of the Board of Education was to have been held yesterday, but the transaction of business was postponed owing to the absence, through illness, of the secretary, Mr. Graham. At a meeting of the Wellington Football Club last evening, the team to go to Wanganui was pretty well arranged ; but as there was a doubt in reference to one or two names, we have been requested not to publish it.

A fatal case of Asiatic cholera has occurred near Brisbane. The person attacked died within a few hours. It is supposed that the disease was brought by the Chinese, who have recently made such a descent on the colony. There was a very fair house at the Theatre Royal last night, when the programme of the previous evening was successfully repeated. To-night a new piece, bearing the rather eddsounding title of “ Kernoodling,” will be placed upon the stage. A Wairarapa paper understands that a wellknown contractor has made an offer to the Government to form the road through the Mangaone Block, in the Forty-Mile Bush, payment to be made in land situated within the boundaries of the block.

A rumor was prevalent in town yesterday that the libel action Anderson v. Gillon, Kent, and Waters had been settled. On inquiry of the plaintiff last night, we were informed that such was not the case, and that the action was certain to come before the Court. Messrs, W. and G. Turnbull and Co. have, we understand, disposed of their steamer Xapier to Messrs. Fell Bros., of Blenheim, who intend placing her in the Wellington and Blenheim trade. She will run, however, inker trade to Foxton under Turnbull’s flag till the end of the present month. In yesterday’s issue allusion was made to an assault upon a constable at the Upper Hutt, the offender being a man named Moran. At the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday Moran was charged with the offence, and a conviction being obtained, he was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment.

“You must not judge a man by his coat,” says the Tapanui Courier, and in support of its observation it submits the following ; “A dilapidated-looking individual, hailing from the Emerald Isle, attended the late land sale. From his appearance, you would not give 7s. 6d. for all his effects; and this opinion of his poverty was strengthened when he went to one of the stores, and drawing out a dirty, greasy, old chamois leather purse, produced three coppers, and asked for an equivalent in biscuits to that amount. The good-natured storekeeper, thinking he was ‘hard-up,’ and unable to pay for a dinner, gave him at least a shilling’s worth of biscuits for his coppers, and was rather disgusted to see the same lone orphan bidding up to £BOO and £IOOO for sections at the land sale. He was a careful man.” Some time ago we mentioned that the settlers on the Opaki Plain intended to take some steps to suppress the rabbit nuisance. The News Letter reports a public meeting which took place on Saturday. There was a good attendance, Major Smith occupying the chair. The various provisions of the Rabbit Act, passed last session, were carefully considered, the general opinion being that the measure was quite useless. After a long discussion of a conversational character, Mr. H. Welch moved and Mr. Duncan McLean seconded, —That in the opinion of this meeting it is advisable not to bring the Act into force. This was carried, there being only two dissentients. There was no other business before the meeting. During the discussion, Mr. H. Welch mentioned that he had employed a man with ferrets, and that the results were most satisfactory ; for where the ground was formerly thick with rabbits there were none to be seen now, and the man had told him he would have to move to some other place, as he could not catch any more. Mr. J. Harding informed the meeting that a Wellington firm had offered him a good price for as many as 600 per week, and that he had determined upon getting a break and some ferrets for the purpose of taking up the contract. He believed he could make a good thing out of it without considering the real point to be gained, viz., getting rid of the nuisance. Such statements as these tend to prove that it is not impossible to get the better of them on places of limited extent, and that, too, without any direct loss. The Otago Times notices, as a revived local industry, the manufacture of cod-liver oil. Years ago it reported erection of cod-liver oil works at Mr. Innes’ fishery, Port Chalmers, and the success that had attended the introduction by him of a local oil. But owing to the scarcity of fish one season and other causes, the oil works fell into disuse, little or no oil being produced for two or three seasons. The industry has, however, been revived within the last three months, and Mr. Innes is once more busily employed producing an article potent in its healing influence, if repulsive to the palate. The oil now being produced at his works is almost tasteless and odourless. The liberal demand for the oil keeps the boilers in constant operation ; in fact, the demand is in excess of possible supply. Herr Krupp, the celebrated ironfounder, of Essen, Germany, has issued a memorandum to his workmen, dilating on the present stagnation of business, and the short hours necessitated by the restriction of the market. Herr Krupp exhorts his men to submit with patience to the passing slackness and reduced wages, and points to the conduct of the laboring classes in England under like circumstances as an example not to be followed. England has had its period of industrial activity and prosperity. England has grown great and powerful by her industry. Then the working men have formed trades unions, and struck work for the purpose of enforcing higher wages. The consequence has been that the work of England has to a great extent been carried abroad. German industry has benefitted by this mistake of the English working men. That ought to be a warning to us. Were we to follow their bad example, our industry would, like theirs, be transferred to other countries.

■ The Sydney Evening News publishes the following -. —“ A man, who for many years resided in New South Wales, died lately in New York at the great age (according to his own account) of one hundred and eleven years. His name was Lahrbush, of German parentage, but an English subject, and for some time in the British army. He came to the colony, if we are rightly informed, as a prisoner of the Crown, and at one time resided at Windsor, and afterwards filled some petty office in connection with the convict establishment, in the old lumber yard, at Bathurst. When he left New South Wales he proceeded to America, where he lived until the time of his death, on 3rd April last. His statement of his great age attracted much attention there, and his story being generally believed, he was befriended in his old years by many wealthy and influential people, and after he had, according to his own account, passed the age of 100, his birthday was annually celebrated by a dinner, at which, beside his personal frierds, several prominent public men were generally present. The reports of the speeches at these dinners in the New York papers attracted some attention in England, and particularly that of Mr. W. J. Thoms, the editor ot Notes and Queries, who had paid much attention to accounts of cases of great longevity, and afterwards published a work embodying the results of his inquiries on the subject. The result of his investigations at the Horse Guards and elsewhere was that old Lahrbush’s statements about his age were found to be gross exaggerations, and his story generally respecting his military services and adventures a tissue of fabrications. The date of his entering the army and his age at that time were matters of official record, and therefore there could be no possible doubt about his real age, which, in-

stead of being 107 at that time, as he alleged,, was in reality about 87. Captain Lahrbush, as he was called in America, died on .3rd April last, and it appears that the story of his great age—notwithstanding Mr. Thoms’ exposure of its falsehood—continued to be credited by his New York friends to the last.”

The term “sheepist,” says the Telegraph, has become so common in some districts around Napier, by which to designate the occupation of a sheep-farmer, that, the other day, one of our large wool-growers, being called upon to witness the signatures to a deed of conveyance, signed _ his name, and wrote sheepist beneath it as a matter of course."

Bast Friday the Canterbury draghonnds met at Bangiora, and (the Press states) a very pleasant run took place over about six miles of good country. The jumps were mostly post and rail, and had to be jumped, which caused the field to be rather select, the master (F. Brittan), who showed himself worthy of the position he has been placed in, always showing in the front, ably supported by Mr. Barker, Mr. Pearson, and a few others. Of course, the customary number of spills took place, but no one was in the least hurt, all who turned out—both spectators and followers —being very well pleased with their afternoon’s sport.

We are requested to state that Mr. Duncan’s salethis day of Mr. VenneU’s stock will commence at 11.30, and that luncheon will be provided at 1 o’clock. In consequence of Mr. Venneli’s ill-health, and the unfortunate necessity of his relinquishing business for a time, the sale is, of course, a totally unreserved one.