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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5185, 3 November 1877, Page 2

The following ire the railway traffic returns for the provincial district of Wellington for the quarter ending 22nd September last : Wellington District—Number of passengers, 7985 ; receipts, £661 9s. 9d. goods, £3Ol lis. 9d : total, £963 Is. 6d. ' Foxton and Manawatu—Number of passengers, 1242 ; receipts, £220 7s. 5d.: goods, £309 6s. 2d.; wharf dues, £95 os. Id.: total,£7l4 13s. Bd. Wanganui— Nnumber of passengers, 535 ; receipts, £6l ; goods, £lO5 15s 9d.: total, £166 15s. 9d. The following candidates were nominated yesterday for the vacant Beat in the City Council for Lambton Ward :—Henry William Diver, nominated by Peter Laing and Lewis Moss ; Ebenezer Henry Hunt, nominated by John Howard Wallace and Thomas White Young. The poll will be taken on the 13th instant. The centre lamp at the top of the Martin Fountain was blown over yesterday by the high wind, and left hanging to the framework in a dangerous position for a few minutes, when some men fetched a ladder and took it down. Beyond the breaking of some of the glass panes, the lamp, which is a handsome one, was not materially injured.

A cricket match will be played this afternoon, weather permitting, between the Telegraph and Wellington College Cricket Clubs. A long list of licenses for carta, carriages, drivers, &c, issued by the City Council for the year commencing let October last, is published in our advertising columns. Upwards of 1000 live trout were recently sent from Christchurch to Wanganui without the los3 of a single fish, and were supplied from the fish-breeding establishment of Mr. Johnson, at Opawa. Captain Peak, of the Waimate, is announced to preach to-morrow morning in the Wesleyan Church, Manners-street, and in the evening at the Molesworth-street Church. The sermon will be based on the loss of the Avalanche. An application was made to his Honor the Chief Justice, sitting in bankruptcy yesterday, for the discharge of William George, of Featherston, blacksmith. There being no opposition, the application was granted. '• The following tenders for the Halcombe contract (permanent way) were received at the Public Works Office :—Accepted : A. Nathan and J. Wilkie, Wanganui, £4607. Declined : W. S. Bassett, Wanganui, £4697 ; W. Brown and Co., Wellington, £4937. A meeting of the Hutt County Council will be held on Monday next at 1 o'clock, for the purpose of confirming a resolution passed at a special meeting on the 2nd instant for the adoption of by-laws regulating the business of tha Council. .We received yesterday from the agents of the Union Steam Shipping Company, Messrs. Levin and Co., a very well-arranged timetable, neatly printed on cardboard, of the arrival and departure of the company's boats for the month. Louis Dougleaux, who was arrested in Christchurch and brought here yesterday in the Wakatipu, will be forwarded to Masterton, in custody of Constable Connor, this morning, on the charge of obtaining £ls on false pretences at that place. The funeral of the late Mr. Charles Keeley will leave the National Hotel at half-past one o'clock this afternoon. The members of the Theatre Royal Company and of the St. G-eorge's Hall Company have signified their intention of following the deceased's remains to the grave, and will be accompanied by the St. George's Hall Band. " Behind the Curtain" was repeated at the Theatre Royal last evening to a fair House. To-night there will be represented for the first time " Oliver Twist," a drama adapted from Dickens' celebrated novel of that name, and abounding in pleasing, sensational, and comic situations. At the termination of the piece a number of gifts will be distributed. We expect to see a full house on the occasion. The demand for seats for the Choral Society's concert still continues, and the committee have been compelled to erect another row round the dress circle. From a notice in our advertising columns it will be seen that these seats can be secured upon application at Mr. C. Bonnington's after two o'clock this afternoon. —We are requested to remind performing members to be punctual at rehearsal this afternoon at the Theatre Royal. Mr. Cary, the manager of the St. George's Hall, has started a subscription in aid of the widow of Mr. Charles Keeley, and the proprietors and the company playing at the hall have headed the list with £2O. Mrs. Keeley is left unprovided for, and much sympathy is felt for her. We shall be happy to receive subscriptions, and any amounts left at the New Zealand Times Office will be duly acknowledged. The art union of £IOOO, which was started some time ago at St. George's Hall, is announced to be drawn on Monday next. The manager requests any gentlemen wishing to act on the committee appointed to superintend the drawing to meet at St. George's Hall on Monday next at half-past 1 o'clock p.m. It is particularly desired by the management that as many gentlemen as possible Bhould form such committee.

A man named Cunningham, alias Emerson, who has been bound over to appear as a witness in a case of burglary now pending at Timaru, was arrested yesterday in Wellington, as he was on his way to Sydney in the Wakatipu, on the charge of absconding from his bail. As he was not able to find sureties for his appearance he was detained in custody, and will be sent back to the South by the fir.it opportunity. One of the passengers to Wellington by the Wairarapa coach yesterday informs us that there was a [narrow escape of an accident in crossing the Kimutaki owing t« the violence of the wind, which would hare blown the vehicle over the precipice but for the skill and presence of mind of the driver, " Ike," who succeeded in pulling up his team, putting on the bre-ik, and gettirg the coach close up to the jj,nk almost instantaneously. People in town who felt the strength of the gale in the streets yesterday can form some 'idea of what it must have been on the Rimutaka.

St. George's Hall will be re-opened to-night, when Byron's burlesque " Ali Baba " will be produced, with Mr. John Howe (who has been specially engaged) in the character of Ali Baba. New scenery has been painted, and the cast includes the whole strength of the company. The finale to the burlesque will include a performance by the Ziugari Minstrels. The leading prizes will be a cradle, a bag of flour, and a silver watch. "Ali Baba" will be preceded by the musical comedietta entitled " The Day after the Wedding." With such a strong bill there is sure to be the usual crowded house.

Two prisoners were brought into town yesterday in charge of Constable Connor from the Wairarapa. One of them is charged with a criminal assault on a little girl at Masterton. This man is an. old soldier of the 65th Kegiment, and his real name is Joseph Hart, although he has . lately been calling himself James Macdougal. He is about fifty years of age, and is well known in town and in., the district where he was arrested. The other prisoner is a younger man named Frank Murray, who has been sentenced to a month's hard labor by the local magistrates for wilfully and maliciously injuring property belonging to a hotelkeeper at Greytown.

The Southland Times, referring to Sir George Grey's speech of the 26th October, says : " To the vast inajo ity of the people of the colony the speech will appear in the light o£ an addition to the many ridiculous exhibitions to which the whilom Governor periodically treats the public—the pity being that in this case it is so costly to the country and calculated to draw from disinterested lookers-on contempt upon her political institutions. . . . The man who signally failed as a Viceroy, who as Superintendent of Auckland could not avert the ruin that threatens it, assumes the direction of the affairs of a young nation at a period when, more than at any other, experience, wisdom, calm deliberation, and firmness are required." The Jlawke's Say Herald denies the statement as to the frequency of earthquakes in Napier made by some of its contemporaries, and especially by the correspondent of the Outgo Daily Times. The Herald says : " The correspondent of the Otago Daily Times must have been hoaxed as to the prevalence of earthquakes in Napier. He states that five years ago there was a shock here that shook chimneys about the ears of the startled householders. It must be more than ten years since a shock as severe as that has occurred here, and as to minor shocks, they are not more frequent in Napier than in other parts of the North Island." The Chinese question in California seems likely to be solved by a wholesale departure of the Celestials from that State, where they have been so kicked and cuffed about that they can bear it no longer. A deputation of leading Chinese merchants waited the other day on Senator Morton, and after representing that their property had been destroyed, that they had been subjected to personal violence, that their rights under the treaty had been disregarded, and that they had not been afforded the protection to which they were entitled, stated that they did not blame the American people for this state of affairs recog-

nising the fact that it was the foreign element that so stoutly opposed them; but, having borne this treatment for many years with no prospect of relief, they wished to adopt measures with the view of checking Chinese immigration, and therefore requested the Senator to introduce a Bill at the next session of Congress providing for a modification or abrogation of the Burlinghame treaty, and for levying a poll-tax of lOOdols. on every Chinamen landing in America, the proceeds of the tax to be devoted to paying the passage back to China of those Chinamen who desire to return but lack the means of doing so. The deputatior also expressed their intention of endeavoring" to induce the Pacific Mail and Occidental and Oriental Steamship Companies to modify their rates of steerage passage so as to make the rate of coming to America 75d015., while reducing the price of the voyage to China to 30dols. Senator Morton expressed his readiness to introduce the Bill as proposed, and California may thus attain its object cf " cutting off iti nose to spite its face." A discovery of alluvial gold has been made on the Hellyer, in the neighborhood of Mount Bischoff. A prospecting party was fitted out at Mount Bischoff some weeks ago to examine the Hellyer, and it is believed that they have made this new discovery. Indications of auriferous reefs have also been found in the same district. The mining manager of the Leura Beefs Company has written to Mr. William Ritchie, informing him of an interesting discovery made at the Australasian Slate Company's Works, Tarn O'Shanter Bay. While sinking to a considerable depth to prove the quality of slate belo.w, the miners came upon a deposit of copper ore, and there are good indications of a rich lode in the locality, which is what is termed " congenial country" for copper. The Perth Inquirer (Western Australia) of the 28th ult. mentions that the French barque Europe, which was chartered by a number of enterprising young Victorians, has arrived at Champion Bay from Melbourne with a further shipment of sheep and stock for settlement on the Murchison. So satisfied are the young pioneers with the suitability of the country for pastoral purposesthat they have expressed their intention of introducing about 100,00 ft sheep from Victoria. The next lot, numbering over 3000, is expected daily per Collingwood. The Europe made the ruu from Melbourne to Champion Bay in 20 days, and only 70 or 80 sheep out of 1000 on board perished on the voyage. A correspondent writes to the Coohtown Herald: —" I think it but right to draw the attention of the authorities to the offence of ' sweating,' as practised amongst the Chinese in Copktown. It is well known they are adepts at this kind of thing, but it may not be generally known that it is practised in our midst. The writer had an opportunity of witnessing the modus operandi recently, in Chinatown, whiLfc in company of a friend. There was noattempt at secrecy ; the " sweating' was performed openly in one of the Chinese opium shop», the operator manipulating the bag containing the coins with a dexterity that would have put any Brummagem or Sheffield hand to the blush, and showed at once that he was no novice at the work,"

A correspondent sends to the Auckland Star a sickening account of a milkman's place at the Three Kings, which, induced by a powerful stench perceptible- a hundred yards away, he took the trouble to examine. In a small building, partly used as a dwelling and partly r- a cow-shed, l.iy the dead and putrifying body of a cow, which had, apparently, died in calf ; the body of a calf, cut, was hanging up, as if being used for food. ' The cow was so rotten as to be scarcely recognisable. Near at baud were the milk-pails, and the whole place was in a state of indescribable filth. The Minister of Public Instruct : on in Victoria is disseminating a knowledge with regard to reptiles to be avoided in a way worthy of imitation elsewhere than in Victoria. He is causing printed forms to be hung up in every State school, giving instruction how to proceed in cases of snakebite and drowning. These forms will be accompanied with lithographs of the poisonous snakes, properly colored., of the natural size, and also three times the natural Bize. The Australasian of the 13th October has the followlng regarding two well-known New Zealand racing mares departed some time ago to the sister colonies:—"The fact of Lurline and Calumny having produced colt foals to The Peer has proved quite an interesting feature in the turf world, and I presume we may attribute this to the circumstance that these mares were only recently distinguished heroines on the race track, and their names in the mouths of everybody. Mothers and sons have been interviewed daily by many who take an interest in turf affairs." We learn from the Argus that, at a meeting of the committee of the Victorian Humane Society, the silver medal was awarded to Francis Dixon Kite, Blair-hill Station, Glen Innes, New South Wales, for saving, on the 19th July, 1877-, the lives of two steerage passengers by the s.s. Whampoa. On a very dark and stormy night he jumped overboard with all his clothes on, and succeeded in swimming with the two men to the piles under the wharf, and then placing a rope under them. The following particulars of a fatal gunaccident, which resulted in the death of the eldest son of Mr. William Tupper, of Launceston, are given in the Bcndv/o Advertiser: — Young Tupper and another youth named Barwick were under the tuition of the Rev. Mr. Tennant, of Oatlands, Tasmania ; and it being I the occasion of the school holidays, the lads 1 accompanied.their tutor ou a shooting excur--1 sion, and on Saturday evening, the 29th Sept., 1 when about to camp out, Mr. Tennant went 1 down to a creek for water, and while returning heard a gunshot, and shouts from Barwick. On reaching the camping-ground he found Tupper lying on the ground unconscious, and bleeding from the head. On inquiring what had happened, Barwick said he had laid his gun against his swag, and was about to sit down alongside of Tupper, when his dog, leaping over hia swag, knocked over his gun, which discharged its contents into poor Tupper's head. Mr. Tennant despatched Barwick to the nearest shepherd's hut, six miles distant, for assistance, but no help came till 5 p.m. on Sunday, the 30th Sept., when a police escort arrived; and had the body conveyed to Oatlauds. The poor boy expired within an hour after the fatal shot, and remained quite unconscious" till he died. A correspondent writes to the London Time S from East Cosham, Hants :—" It may be interesting to some of your readers to be informed that on a small piece of framework underneath a third-class smoking carriage on the London and . South-Western Railway a water-wagtail lias built her nest and reared a young and thriving family of four. Tt e train runs regularly from Cosham to Havant five times a day, in all about forty miles, and the stationmaster informs me that during the absence of the train the male bird keeps close to the spot, waiting, with manifest interest and anxiety, the return of his family from their periodical tours."