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The meteorological returns for the mouth of February hare been published. In Wellington the mean temperature in the shade was 60'4 ; Auckland, 63'8 ; Nelson, 601 church, 571; Hokitika, 59 ; Dunedin, 55’5. Wellington has had more than its fair share of moisture. There were ten days on which rain fell, the amount of inches being 5.080. There were thirteen rainy days in Auckland for 1-705 inches. Hokitika received 5130 inches in ten days, whilst in Dunedin there fell, in seven days, 1704 inches. February was a particularly dry month in Christchurch. The rainfall was 0‘620 inches. In Wellington the temperature was lower and the rainfall higher for February than the average for the same month during previous'years. .' There were two narrow escapes from serious street accidents yesterday afternoon. In one case a horse harnessed to a trap belonging, we are informed, to Mr. Daniel Mattheson, of Porirua, bolted from opposite, Mr. Barber’s shop in Willis-street, and rushed down the street with the vehicle, but'was fortunately stopped at the corner of the quay by Constable O’Farrell and two civilians. Mn the other case, a horse and cart in charge of Mr. James Mahoney, of Tinakori, were standing at the gasworks, when the animal bolted with the vehicle and came along Manners-street, Willis-street, and the quay at a fast pace. Several attempts to atop him were ineffectually tried by persons in the street, until reaching Kirkcaldie and; Staines' premises, when the horse, possibly becoming rather tired, and approaching the rough metal, somewhat slackened his pace, and Sergeant Ready and a man-o’-war’s-man, taking advantage of the opportunity, ran across the street, and the latter got hold of the reins which had slipped underneath the cart, and succeeded in pulling the horse up. : No damage whatever was done; but it is a wonder that such was the case, as there were a great many vehicles passing and repassing, as there usually is along the street at the time, in both instances. The Rev. Dr. Smith, representative from the British Wesleyan Methodist Conference, preached an eloquent discourse in the Mannersstreet Chapel last evening in aid of the Benevolent Institution. His text was taken from the Ist chapter of the Ist Epistle to the Corinthians, and upon it he delivered a very able and 1 earnest dissertation. During the evening the church choir sang some selections in excellent style. A collection was afterwards made, which amounted to £l2 11s. Id. In answer to an inquiry from the Foreign Ministers, the Chinese Government has very bluntly stated its determination so have nothing to do with a Mint or a civilised form of currency. ’The Viceroy of Nanking and .all the provincial Governments ai-e'said to have pronounced strongly againsk any 1 such pestilential ideas ; and the silver —if not golden—anticipations cherished in certain quarters are consequently disappointed. ’ - A meeting of the Ladies’ Benevolent Society will.be held to-morrow, (Saturday) afternoon, at Miss Greenwood's schoolroom, when all ladies wishing to become members are invited to attend, The objects of the society are such as to recommend themselves to everyone.; a,nd wo have.po doubt the ladies of Wellington will igladly join in. so ;good a cause.• -Such- an institution is deserving of all'the support and patronage’that . can be bestowed upon it by i the public generally, andit it is provided with, adequate means, and. well managed in detail, it is calculated, to do, an: immense amount of good in the community, when, as.'we : have had' occasion to remark before, there are at all times several isolated cases of distress and suffering, notwithstanding the general prosperity of the district, |

The fire brigades turned out this morning at half-past three o’clock, in response to the toll of both bells, only to discover ttat some scrub was burning in the” vicinity of a, house near the Catholic cemetery. The members of both brigades experienced some difficulty in getting the fire out as theybad to cut the scrub away, and so prevent any further damage. ■ ' A special meeting of the Teachers’ Association will be held to-morrow morning at XX o’clock. We have been favored with the copy of a telegram received by the Hon. IVIr. Macandrew, from Messrs, McMeckan, Blackwood, and Co. yesterday, stating that " the Alhambra had sailed for New Zealand with salmon -ova, ex Chimborazo, apparently in fine condition. Litigation is generally a costly luxury, and those who indulge in it would do well to pause before they enter* into it. The plaintiffs in a civil case—Pascoe and Co. v. Hooker—. which was reheard at the B.M. Court yesterday, sued for the sum of £24, and lost their case, the costs amounting to £3O. Mr. Stephen Massett’s drawing-room entertainment, to which we have referred in former issues, and which is very highly spoken of by the Press, will be produced at the Odd Pellows’ Hall for the first time to-night, when we expect to see a full house. We notice by advertisement that Mr. Tom Margetts takes a benefit at the Princess Theatre on Monday, the XSth inst., when all the amateur talent in the town will give their services; and on this' occasion there will be introduced a novelty .never , before witnessed in Wellington, namely, a singing bee, wuich is sure to draw a large audience. Count De Zaba delivered his third lecture yesterday afternoon in the Thorudon school- - room, to a very large audience, under the auspices of the Teachers’ Association. He,explained his system of teaching history more in detail than on a former occasion. The lecture, which lasted for an hour and a quarter, was very instructive and interesting, and was listened to throughout with marked attention. The next lecture will be delivered in the same schoolroom to-mcrfow (Saturday) afternoon. , The Salsbury Troubadours repeated their excellent bill of fare of the previous night at the Theatre Royal last evening to an excellent audience, who appeared highly pleased with the entertainment, which is one of a kind to grow in popularity as it becomes more generally known. In our issue of yesterday we expressed our own opinion of the performance, which appears to be highly appreciated by all who have witnessed it. Those who have net yet seen the Troubadours will do well to do so during their stay hers, which will not be of long duration, as they have other engagements to meet shortly in other parts' of the colony. To-night the laughable farce of “The Bights of Woman” will be produced for the last time.

A murder was committed recently at Hongkong by a Chinaman, who went to a friend one afternoon and asked him to take a walk with him. The invitation was at once accepted, and the two left together, and seemed to be on good terms. When they got near the lighthouse, the murderer took a knife and stabbed his frfend three times in the neck without saying a word, and then ran away. The wounded man dragged himself to the nearest police station, made a statement embodying the facts recorded above, and then fell down and died. • The police went to look for the murderer, and found him at home. On seeing them he jumped iuto the water, but he was brought up with a hook by his tail and safely-lodged in gaol. A correspondent sends us the following translation of a communication to a -b’reuch newspaper, in which the writer seeks information as to the relationship in law which he bears to his family:—“ A few years ago I married a widow who had by her first marriage a grownup daughter, with whom my father fell violently in love, he eventually marrying her. Thus my father became my son-in-law, and my stepdaughter my mother, because she had married my father. Some time after my eldest son was born, who was the brother-in-law of my father, aud at the same time my uncle, because he was Hie brother of my mother-in-law, My father’s wife, in her turn, gave birth to a boy, who became my brother, and my grandson, since he was my daughter’s son. Thus my wife was my grandmother, because she was the mother of my mother ; as for myself, X was my wife’s husband and grandson as well ; and since the husband of a person’s grandmother is his grandfather, I have become my own grandfather.” In the event of the writer’s decease leaving assets, it would be a difficult matter to say how they should be distributed.

In reference to the Australian cricketers (who recently paid a visit to this colony), the Melbourne Telegraph of the sth instant says:— “ The mettle of the Australian Eleven has been tested a° ainst the, best fifteen cricketers of New South Wales and Victoria) and the result is highly gratifying. The team which is to represent us in the cricket-field at Home has proved that it is composed of the proper sort of grit, and we have every reason to believe that the cricketing reputation of the colonies will not suffer at its hands. The fifteen which have just been defeated at Sydney are equal in every respect to the men who were opposed to Lillywhite’s team, and the fact that the Englishmen were shamefully beaten, whilst the Australians won their match, is the best evidence that our representatives may be relied upon to achieve an honorable distinction in the mother country. Noi- is this assumption grounded upon a chance victory. Throughout the whole of their colonial tour they have played against longer odds than the All England Eleven, and they have not sustained a single defeat, if we except the match at Christchurch, where the condition of the ground rendered the game one of chance rather than skill. The Englishmen, on the contrary, were frequently beaten on the best grounds in the country, and on one occasion they had to succumb to even numbers, so that, after making every allowance tor the fortune of war, the Australian team is a long way ahead of them in actual results. The constant practice which the colonial representatives have had has, as a matter of course, enabled them to work much more efficiently than any eleven selected from separate clubs could be expected to do, and this advantage in no small measure accounts* for their uniform success. This, however, is an advantage in which all travelling teams share equally, and in no way destroys the comparisons which we have drawn with Lillywhito’s Eleven. The career of the Australians has been opened under the most favorable auspices, and their last victory over the most skilful opponents which are to be found in the colonies may be taken as a cheering omen that there are laurels in store for them in the English field.” An invention (says an American paper) has recently been perfected and patented in Boston, Mass., which certainly deserves the notice it is getting from the foreign and American Press ; we refer to “ Mason’s Charts.” The instrument consists of a frame which will fit upon any piano or organ, with four movable charts attached to this frame. It is as simple as a child’s story book, and enables everyone, even if they have no taste for music, and no musical education at all, to play almost at sight ; in fact, a child ten years old could understand them, so extremely simple and practical are they. They have been called by one of our most popular musicians the greatest musical invention of any age ; and they are highly endorsed and recommended by the highest musical authrities in this country and abroad. The shareholders in the Ladies' Serioultural Company (says the Melbourne Aye) deserve credit for the persistency with which they have carried'out their enterprise, despite the numerous adverse circumstances with which they have had to contend during the last five years, ; The land allotted to them on which to grow their mulberry trees was so unsuitable for the purpose that out of 35,000 trees planted only 5000 survived sufficiently to be removed to a locality just over the Murray in New South Wales, 1 possessing the-proper soil, light, friable, and abounding with limestone. They have also had to contend with the want of laborers skilled in the industry, but they have now secured the services of some natives of France who;are thoroughly acquainted with

the. management of a magnanerie, and the;' cultivation of the mulberry. Their present location is, only temporary, however, and the company are anxious to remove .to; this colony, and thus make their industry Victorian. This they hope to effect shortly, and they are in communication with the Government for that purpose. "A quantity of silk grown by the company having been sent Home, they Lave just received it back, manufactured into a variety of very handsome articles of female and male attire, and these are now on view and for sale at the company's office,;. 30. William-street. There are Tight shawls, fichus, neckerchiefs, hoods for the opera, ties, bags, &0., of elegant design, and dyed in various brilliant colors. There is also a dress piece manufactured from what until lately used to be considered waste, and thrown away, but by the invention of proper carding machinery is now as valuable a material as any other portion of the silk cocoons. Silk stockings of fine quality are shown, one pair of the orthodox purple hue having been manufactured expressly for the Roman Catholic Bishop of Albury, and another of pure black for the Anglican Bishop of Melbourne. These, if imported, in the ordinary manner, would be charged 255. per pair, but the company can afford to sell them for ISs. This is the third consignment of articles made from Victorian-grown silk that the Ladies’ Committee have received. in return for silk sent Home, and this season they expect to send Home a bale of raw silk that will weigh at least 1001 b.” Russian spies, according to the Ballarat Courier, have found their way to Melbourne. It is said that there are two Russians renting a shop in Melbourne, who, in a boat belonging to themselves, go out in the bay every morning and take soundings, and generally act in a most mysterious manner. Their pretext, it is asserted, is fishing ; but they never return w ith any of the spoils of the deep, and hence it is thought they are spies who are obtaining information about the bay for the Russians, in the event of an invasion. Report even goes the length of saying.that arrangements have been made for laying down a line of torpedoes, and that the Cerberus will be blown up whenever war is declared with Russia. On Tuesday evening last, says the N. Z. Herald of March 7th, while a person named Richard Pascoe was leaning over the handrail on the Ferry T, watching the departure of one of the North Shore steamers, he unfortunately dropped from the inside pocket of his coat a small buckskin bag containing 150 American gold dollars and ten sovereigns. The place being marked an attempt was made yesterday at low water to recover the treasure. After several hours’ unsuccessful ' diving the attempt was given up. The case is one of peculiar hardship, as the loser is a miner from California, who by hard work had saved a small sum of money, and came on to New Zealand for the benefit of his health, being prostrated by sickness before leaving America. The whole of his hard earnings are now gone, and the man is left penniless, unable to do much. Pascoe is willing to give the sum of. £lO for the recovery of his money, and we trust that as there are one or two driving-dresses in the city they will be placed at the service of the unfortunate man. Mr. Sanders, wharfinger, informs us that it is exactly the place where £2O worth of silver was lost overboard many years ago. The troops were then stationed at the Miranda Redoubt, and a steamer was being sent away with stores, and a soldier attempted to throw pn board a small bag of coin to the above amount, but he failed in landing it upon the steamer, and it fell into the water, where it has remained ever since.

The Marton correspondent of the Wanganui Herald, writing under date March 7 says : The inaugural show of the Rangitikei Horticultural Society was held in the Temperance Hall, Marton, to-day, and resulted more favorably than was anticipated, it being considered by those who are well able to judge a very good show, and the working committee and all who have taken an active part iu the promotion of this institution, which must ultimately benefit the whole of this district, may congratulate themselves on' the success obtained at this their first show. The collection of fruit and vegetable's was exceedingly good, showing plainly that Rangitikei, one of the finest agricultural districts in this island, will be able to compare favorably with, if not surpass, many shows iu other parts of the colony. The show of flowers was not large, owing, no doubt, to the lateness of the season and the want of interest yet manifested; but there were some very good exhibits. The last escort from Cromwell carried SOOOozs. of gold.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18780315.2.9

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5295, 15 March 1878, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
2,870

Untitled New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5295, 15 March 1878, Page 2

Untitled New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5295, 15 March 1878, Page 2

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