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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5322, 17 April 1878, Page 2

Sir George Grey arrived at Nelson yesterday, and will he in Wellington this evening. The Hon. Mr. Sheehan is expected on Friday. All the Ministers will be here in a few days, and it is probable that they will remain until the session, and will soon be busily engaged in preparing the more important Bills embodying their policy. These will doubtless include a Representation Bill, Native Lands Bid, and a Laud Tax Bill. • The depth of water in the new reservoir is nominally 4 feet; but this means nothing at all, for the pipe leading under the dam is about 4 feet above the bottom of the reservoir, and the running stream flows through the pipe as fast as it comes into the reservoir. The measures taken to prevent a too free use of water and to check waste have been so far efficacious as to cause the. depth" in the distributing basin to increase slightly, and yesterday afternoon it contained a little over 20 feet of water.

Yesterday his Honor Mr. Justice Richmond delivered judgment in the application for a writ of attachment in re Gillon v. Macdonald and others. The rule was refused. We publish the judgment, which is of interest, in another column.

Last night, about ten o’clock, it commenced to"! rain, and some tolerably copious showers fell at intervals during the early hours of the morning, for which we ought to feel very thankful, as the want of rain was beginning to be much felt in Wellington. A telegram received from Wanganui ou Monday evening stated that Mr. Valentine, of the Hutt, had bought a boat-coach. People wondered what a boat-coach could be. It arrived this morning by the Stormbird, and it turned out to be a well-built square-stern boat placed on a sort of skeleton drag, and the whole affair looked very neat. What it was meant for was ,a puzzle to most. Some thought it was intended for crossing flooded rivers, so that when the water got above the wheels the boat would float and carry the carriage ; and others said it was meant to be used in this way : when a river was reached the boat would be lowered, and the passengers ferried across, while the horses dragged the framework over. Last evening a use was discovered for the boat-coach, and it took passengers to the Circus. On a trip one of the horses jibbed in Willis-street, aud the driver was quite unable to go ahead. After some minutes’ delay the passengers became discontented. Two seized oars, and tried to shove the boat along, but the horse was too strong for them. A third found some steps, and having lowered them over the side, disembarked. Then a four-horse coach was seen approaching, and a nautical man, who sat in the stern of the boat, and seemed to think he was steering, called out “Hard a port!” and the coach passed safely. When most of the crew had landed on the footpath, a constable thought it would be well to prevent the crowd from becoming larger, and coaxed the horse to make a start. This it did suddenly, and several of the passengers, .were left cast away in the gutter. At Mr. Duncan’s land sale yesterday, lot 1, Hospital reserve, 0a 2r’sp, was knocked down to Mr G.. V. Shannon at a rental of £35 per annum, and all the other lots were withdrawn. A piece of land at the corner of Courtenayplace and Tory-stfeet was placed at an annual rental of 45s per foot, and: a piece having a frontage of 40ft to Tory-street , brought a rental of 35s per foot. The Grey town and Kilbirnie properties were withdrawn, and there was not, a bid .for .properties offered at Feilding and Pahautanui.

It seems that on the west coast of the Middle Island there are two lawyers’ clerks who are famed for the neatness of their engrossing, their writing being beautifully regular. It is said that Judge Weston has publicly announced that one bears tiie palm for combined neatness and illegibility. Yesterday Mr. Justice Richmond referred to a brief written by the other, and while acknowledging the elegance of each sheet as a whole, said that writing in such a style was a serious nuisance to anyone having to peruse a long and difficult case. The characters were described as backhanded and arrow-headed. Perhaps these two engrossing - clerks-will in future seek legibility at the expense of angular uniformity. At about a quarter past six yesterday evening a pipe opposite Mr. Bishop’s house in Ingestre-street burst, . and the force of the water, which had just been turned ou, formed an improvised fountain. Some little time elapsed before the water was turned off from the broken main, and the quantity wasted must have been rather serious. The supply was quickly cut off at the corner of Willis-street, but for some minutes the water continued to reach the broken pipe by way of Ouba-street. The right to. booths at the sports to be held by the Athletic Club on the Cricket Ground, on Easter Monday, was sold yesterday by Mr. Isaacs. The buyers were as follows ; —No. 1, publican’s booth, £5 155., W. Lonbere ; No. 2, £1 10s., W. Wheeler. No. 1, fancy stall, £1 7s. 6d., Mr/Barnard, and No. 2, £1 7s. 6d., Mr. Rothenburg. A meeting of the owners of property at Kilbirnie was held yesterday afternoon at Mr. Charles White’s offices, and a resolution was agreed to confirming the action of the trustees in accepting Colin McDonald's tender for the fofniation of the road to Kilbirnie.

In our report of the handicaps for the Easter Monday sports which appeared in our issue ! of Monday, an’ error occurs. Simpson, in the mile handicap, receives sixty instead of eighty yards.

‘ 'A ‘wir&nt was' ’granted yesterday for the apprehension, of, G, E. Toop, a Napier hotelkeeper, who is believed to "be in Sydney, on a charge of defrauding his creditors. ..

Mr. J. F. Hargetts has made an assignment of his.estate for,thq benefit of .Ids creditors to MessrsTß. W)rt aiid" R. M. Duncan. The first meeting will bo held ou the Cth of May: 1 * ; A woman died recently at Oinderford, in the Forest of Dean, England, in the 105th year of her age.

At the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday Owen Cameron was brought before the Court aud remanded until to-day on a charge of obtaining £lO from Messrs. Wilson and Richardson by means ‘of a' valueless cheque. The accused, it is stated, has defrauded Mr. Sinclair, of Waiuuiomata, aud several other persons in like manner. Information was sent in to the police from Wainuiomata of Cameron’s doings, and he was arrested by Sergeant O’Connor yesterday as he was passing along Manners-street in a cab.

The Kaiwarra Volunteers mustered about 40 strong last evening on the occasion of an inspection by Major Stack. After the parade the annual general meeting was held at the Rainbow Hotel, Captain Thompson in the chair. Some routine business was transacted, and it was then agreed that on Tuesday next the corps should visit Wainuiomata, in response to an invitation from the local company. There will be a picnic, a rifle match, aud various sports, so that a pleasant day out may be expected. ■ At the meeting a letter ■from the City Rifles, with reference to holding a review on the Queen’s Birthday, was discussed, and it was decided that the corps should take part in it.

Abdul Hamid 11., the present sovereign of Turkey, is the twenty-eighth Sultan since the conquest of Constantinople. By the law of succession, obeyed in the reigning family, the crown is inherited according to seniority of the male descendants of Othman, the founder of the Empire, sprung from the imperial harem. The harem is considered a permanent state institution. All children born in the harem, whether the offspring of free women or of slaves, are legitimate and of equal lineage, but the Sultan is succeeded by his eldest son only in case there are no uncles or cousins of greater age. It has not been the custom of the Sultans of Turkey for some time to contract regular marriages. The inmates of the harem come, by purchase or free will, mostly from districts beyoud the limits of the empire, the majority from Circassia. From among these inmates the Sultan designates a certain number, generally seven, to be Ladies of the Palace ; the rest remain under them as servants. The superintendent of the harem, generally an aged Lady of the Palace, has to keep up intercourse with the outer world through the guard of euuuohs. The actual expenditure of the Imperial Court is calculated, on good authority, to have been 23,000,000d015. annually in the latter years of the reign of Abdul Aziz.

The Stewart palace, says the. New York correspondent of the Utica Herald , has thus far rather a strange history. The lot was purchased by Townsend, the sarsaparilla man, who made a fortune out of that nostrum and built what was then (1851) the finest house in the city. Such was its beauty that it was exhibited before the family took possession, at 25 cents admission, for the benefit of a charity. Townsend afterwards failed, and Stewart bought the property at sheriff’s sale. He pulled down the house and planned the present palace. This was done before the war, when prices were low, and the inflation so increased the cost of labor and material that the contract became a heavy loss. Stewdrt held the contractor to the letter, and the unfortunate man suffered to an almost ruinous degree. It is seldom that a building constructed under such circumstances avails much to its owner. Stewart was eleven years preparing a palatial home for his old age, but he died soou after taking possession. The grandest place in America is now occupied by a childish old wonisnan.l her servants. The gorgeous parlors, (he picture gallery, and all the luxurious interior are now a silent waste. The lofty ceiling renders the staircase a labor, and the mistress being lame from a fall, is unable to meet such a difficulty. A person in such a condition must be contented with the limits of a bedroom, and hence the largest part of the palace is useless. Such is the condition of an establishment which cost a round million, and on which the taxes alone are 7000 dollars a year.

In 1830, says a correspondent of the Philadelphia Times, two young folks living in Belleville, St. Clair county, 111.,- had a personal quarrel. It seemed to be impossible to reconcile them, and their friends determined to get up a sham duel between them, hoping that the ridiculous issue of the affair would biing them to their senses. One of them, Alphonso Stewart, challenged the other, William Bennett, to meet him with rifles. Bennett accepted the challenge, and the parties met near the village. It is said that Stewart was in the secret, and that Bennett was not, but believed it to be a reality. In any event, after the guns had been handed to the principals they turned to take their positions. Bennett, who claimed that he suspected some sort of trickery, rolled a bullet into his gun. The seconds, hardly able to keep their faces straight, concluded the arrangements, and at last gave the word. The rifles exploded almost simultaneously, Bennett, of course, remaining untouched. Stewart fell to the ground mortally wounded, and expired shortly afterwards in great agony. Bennett was at once arrested, put upon trial, convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to be hanged. His friends made the most strenuous efforts to have him pardoned. Bailing in this, they tried to have the sentence commuted. But the Governor remained firm against all entreaty. On the day appointed for his execution Bennett was hanged in the presence of an enormous crowd. This was the first and last duel ever fought in the State of Illinois. The hanging of Bennett put a stigma upon the practice, and it has been looked upon with abhorrence ever since.

Another terrible shipwreck has occurred on the fatal North Carolina shore. Near the spot where the United States steamer Huron went ashore, the steamer Metropolis grounded in the midst of a terrific storm on the morning of the 31st of January. She went to pieces very rapidly, and of the 220 people on board not more than 100 are knswu to have been saved. It was a dreadful case of reckless exposure of human life. The passengers on the vessel were workmen engaged to build a railroad in Brazil, and the cargo consisted largely of railroad iron and other heavy supplies. - The Metropolis was originally built as a gunboat for the Government, in the heat of the war, when quickness was more of an object than good material or good workmanship. She was about 16 years old, and for the very trying load she had to carry, and the weather to which she was exposed, she was less seaworthy than an open raft. She sprang a leak near the sternpost in open sea, under no very great stress of weather, and the water gained on her so fast that the captain, after throwing overboard some 100 tons of coal, made for the nearest harbor—Hampton Hoads. But the relentless sea rose so rapidly that the engine fires were nearly put out, and then, with disabled machinery, with such sail as could be kept up, the captain tried to run his ship’s head on the beach. But the vessel was unmanageable, and stranding broadside-to on a low bar about 300 yards from shore, she Ily at the mercy of one of the worst gales this coast has ever known. There was no material for signalling on the ship, and it was only by chance that the wreck was discovered. The watchmen of the life-saving station, seven miles distant, came to the spot promptly enough, but their apparatus was defective, they failed to get n line over the ship, and—bitterest fact in the painful and shameful story—they refused to venture out in a lifeboat, though the surf was not so heavy but that fifty of the crew aud passengers succeeded in swimming ashore. So before noon over 100 bodies lay strewn along the coast, or wero floating seaward, lashed to the fragments of the rotten ship. ~ ,

A German paper gives a curious account of some changes in a horse’s coat. TTp to four years old the horse had been brown, when round white spots appeared, first on the head, and then on the neck, after which they extended to the. back, ribs, &0., and finally to the belly and legs. A year later they spread and blended, till at last all brown had vanished, •and :the horse ? was a light ? grey, all but the mane and tail; which remained black. While the change was in progress the horse was subject to colds, and got into wretched condition, but as soon as it was fully completed he quite recovered his strength and spirits.