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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5390, 6 July 1878, Page 2

The unusually long voyage made by the s.s. Australia from San Francisco to Auckland is due to the vessel having a very foul bottom, although she wa£ docked at Sydney when last there. The captaiu states that he has observed that during the.months of Hay and June vessels get very foul while lying at the San Francisco wharves. When at Honolulu he engaged divers to scrape the ship’s bottom as far as practicable, but they reported that there was so great an encrustation of shells that it was impossible to clear the vessel without going into dock. Consequently he had to continue his voyage without having the condition of the ship improved. The Hon. Hr. Fisher, Postmaster-General, and the Hon! Hr. Burns, Postmaster-General of New South Wales, have been actively engaged in considering matters relating to cable ‘communication with England. They are working amicably together, and have made a proposal to Colonel Glover for a readjustment of the charges for using the New Zealand cable, and the latter has telegraphed to the directors of the Eastern Extension Cable Company. An answer maybe expected very soon.

The Minister of Education has not, so far, determined upon a site for a girls’ school at Thorndon, but one will be granted, the difficulty being as to the piece of land to be cho:en, It is thought that half an acre on the reclaimed land would not be the best locality for a girls’ school at which a large number would attend, and the land is likely to have so high a commercial value that it would be well to secure a piece elsewhere. Some allotments have been under consideration, and it has been suggested that a portion of the largo area upon which the Premier's residence stands might be made available for the purpose.

Mr. P. Galvin, President of the Working Men’s Club, has handed us for publication the following letter received by him from Mr, Geooge Hunter, M.H.R. ; “ Exchange Buildings, Wellington, 4th July, 1878.—Dear Sir, —I regret it was not in my power to aid in making up the exhibits I had the pleasure of inspecting on Monday, and feeling that I ought to assist in some way the good work you and others have taken in hand; and carried out in such a satisfactory manner, I beg to wait upon you with a cheque for £lO 10s., to be placed to the credit of the general fund of the Wellington Working Men s (Jlub. — I remain, &c., George Hunter.” The Telegraph Department have erected a glass case outside their office, in which is posted the notices of the arrivals and departures of 'the various steamers at the several ports of the colony. This is a great Improvement on the old system of having the notices posted in the passage. A still further improvement might be effected if a lamp were kept burning over the front entrance, throwing a light upon 'the glass-case referred to. At present it, is difficult at night to decipher the contents of the notices, even by the aid of a lighted match, especially on a windy night. In future a stringent regulation will be enforced as to tho admission of members of the Civil Service and extra clerks into the Government Buildings after office hours, or on Sundays ami holidays. Hitherto tho practice has been to lock all the doors excepting tho centre one facing Lambton-quay, and persons had to pass through it. This acted as a check upon the admission of strangers, but it has been found that some clerks have been in the habit of showing the offices to friends, and tho rooms of Ministers have been entered, and papers scanned by curious eyes. This was bad enough, bub it waft said that a supernumerary, or extra clerk, got very tipsy lately, and in some way or other contrived to reach a sofa iu tho Premier's room, where the elevated atmosphere caused him to become so exceedingly unwell that a house-cleaner with a mop and bucket had to be sent ior. A worse case of offending than this is reported, but tho truth of it is not substantiated beyond doubt. In this matter the culprit was also one of those whom the “ Marchioness” characterised as “ casuals,” and the remarks which that sage little woman made as to “casuals” giving themselves greater airs than “perraanencys” would appear, to apply, for they 'are said to be, as a rule, the worst offenders against official decorum. Of course this does not refer to all temporary clerks,.but of late some men with a rather Bohemian turn of miudjhave been taken on as “casuals,” and they have, in certain instances, caused no little annoyance to the regular members of tho Civil Service. A circular has been sent to tho various departments stating that clerks and others visiting the buildings but of office hours must sign their names in a book to be kept for that purpose by a messenger oh duty. , Mr. O. O’Neill has been instructed by the Rev. Father McGumoss to call for tenders up to the 11th inst. for fencing tho Wellington Catholic Cemetery. Plans, specifications, &c., can be seen at Mr, O’Neill’s office, Lambtonquay,

At hia own request, ‘Williom O’Connor, convicted of attempt to murder, has been remanded for sentence until Monday,morning next, to enable him to call witnesses as to, character. ' . ■

The hearing of the case against Lawrence Salmon for alleged fraudulent bankruptcy will be resumed at teu o’clock this morning.

The Wanaka left Auckland with the San Francisco mail at 10 o’clock on Thursday night. We are authorised to state that nothing has yet been definitely decided as to Rewi taking a seat in the Legislative Council, but he is inclined to accept it. Thu cabin passage fare from Wellington to San Francisco has been reduced from .£46 to £4O. Travellers can also now book through at Wellington to Liverpool, the fare being £76. The Museum will be open to-raorrow (Sunday) from 2 till 4 o’clock in the afternoon. This is the first time the experiment of opening the Museum on Sundays has been tried here.

The lad William Duffy, convicted of stealing a cheque for £2O 16s. Bd. from the. Parliamentary Buildings, was discharged from custody yesterday. A report of the proceedings appears elsewhere. . Thomas Ray, the second mate, of the barque Firth of Forth, who arrived in confinement through temporary insanity, ran away from the ship yesterday morning, and has not yet been hoard of.

A meeting of members of fire Church of England residing in the diocese of Wellington is convened for Tuesday evening next, at 8 o’clock, at the Athemenm, for the purpose of taking steps for the erection of a new residence for the Bishop. His Excellency the Governor has kindly consented to take the chair on this occasion. The Exhibition at the Working Men’s Club was well patronised yesterday. During the week a very large number of persons have visited the Exhibition, and it seems likely that in the next week the attendance will be’ even larger. The catalogue was circulated yesterday, and was found very useful. This evening, in addition to the other attractions, there will be a band of considerable ability. Mrs. George Cotterell intends to give a concert on the 23rd instant, at which she will be assisted by several of the best amateurs in Wellington. Consequent upon tire great success of the last concert at which she sang, Mrs. Cotterell has felt justified in securing the Theatre Royal, in order that a large audience may be accommodated, and we have no doubt that there will be a full house. Full particulars will shortly be announced. The following are the teams who will play in the football match between the Wellington and Athletic Clubs on-the Basin Reserve this afternoon:—-Wellington: Pollen (21, Davy,, Kerr, Cowie, Galbraith, Fitzgerald, Thomson, Webb, Bishop, McLaren, Kemble, Kreeft, Grant, Nixon ; emergency. Black and Fitzgerald. Athletic Club : A. Campbell, Dumbell, Taylor, Welsh, Berry (2), Cooper, Burnes, Wright, Reekie, Hickson, Lockett, Connal, Blacklock, Churton; emergency, C. Webb and Kane. The Wellington men are much heavier than their opponents, averaging a stone and a quarter per man more. This places the Athletics at a disadvantage, hut they hope that greater activity and staying powers, if not skill, will enable them to pull through against their weightier antagonists. The Imperial Opera House was well attended in all parts last evening, the performances being under the patronage and in the presence of his Excellency the Governor and the captain and officers of H.M.S. Nymphe. “ David Garrick ” was the piece to which the curtain rose, Mr. Sothern supporting the title role in a manner that stamps it as one of his very best impersonations. The drunken scene was very good, and the sudden changes from passion to pathos were admirably simulated. Mr, Howe deserves great credit for his excellent assumption of the part of Ingot, and Miss Stoneham played Ada with a considerable amount of sucsess, especially in the last act. The parts of Jones, Brown, and Smith displayed too much buffoonery to be entirely commendable. Mrs. Stoneham made a capital Mrs. Smith. The farce entitled’" A Regular Fix,” which was intensely amusing, brought the performances to a close. To-night a grand double bill will be produced, comprising “ Our Boys ” and the burlesque of “ Aladdin,” introducing local hits and songs. To-night is announced as the last performance.

Last evening $ service of sacred song was held in the Primitive Methodist Church, Syduey-street. The Rev. Mr. Dumbell and the Rev. Mr. Dean each gave an able and instructive address illustrative of the life of St. Paul, which were listened to with marked. attention by the large congregation gathered together on the occasion. During the evening the choir rendered some choice musical selections with good effects The proceeds of the tickets sold will be devoted to defraying expenses incurred iu repairs to the harmonium. *

This evening Messrs. Webb’s “Royal Marionettes,” whose performances in Wellington some two years ago were received with much applause, will make their re-appearance at tho Theatre Royal. The programme will be found in our advertising columns. The entertainment is said to be one of the best of its kind. To-night, for the first time iu the colonies, the “ Animated Skeleton,” a most ingenious piece of mechanism, said to be 100 years old, will be produced. If the weather prove favorable a large house may confidently be expected. We understand that the question of extending railway communication to Karon is likely to asmme a tangible shape, and that practical results will ensue. A meeting of influential gentlemen owning property in the district has been held, and an engineer has been requested to go over the route, and give an estimate of the cost of a preliminary survey. Upon ascertaining this a meeting of the settlers will be called to take the matter into consideration. The work will be carried out under the District Railways Act of last year, and we learn that the settlers will be ready to tax themselves to an amount sufficient to pay the interest on the outlay. The amount required annually for interest is estimated at £1500; and it is stated that this will be readily guaranteed by the residents and others interested in the progress of the district. The route of the line cannot of course be known until the survey has-been made, bat from a casual inspection of the country it is understood that it will follow the road Tine to the foot of Baker’s Hill, thence in a north-westerly direction, passing through the properties of the Hon, Mr. Pharazyn and Mr, A. Maginity, and thence to the summit of the hill on the other side of the Karori Bridge ; it will then follow the line of the present road, passing the property of the Hon. John Johnston, and on to tho junction of the Karori and Makara roads. This point, we understand, is to be the terminus. We wish the undertaking every success, and hope that the spirited movers will receive the hearty sympathy and co-operation of tho settlers and the public generally. His Honor Mr. Justice Johnston (says the Press of the 2nd insb.) had quite an exciting day at the Supreme Court yesterday. There were no less than four serious interruptions to the conduct of the judicial business during the day. The first was by a woman who is known as having often interrupted the business of tho sessions by appeals for justice, which she claims has been denied to her. Two other interruptions were by two .witnesses iu a case, who got so excited that they could not restrain themselves; and the fourth and most serious of all was by an individual who was suffering from tho effects of a severe over-dose of something stronger than water. He interrupted the Judge in tho course of his summing up by making a comment upon his speech to the jury, and the effect of this unexpected interruption coming iu at a time when the Judge had tho closest attention of the jurymen, was to distract attention fx’om his review of the ■case, and to completely stop the current of his Honor's thoughts. It was no wonder that his Honor remarked that ho did not know what Courts of Justice were coining to, and that in his five-and-tliirfcy years’ experience of Courts of Justice he had never seen such things as occurred to that Court during tho day. It was quite new to him, and he could hardly think that ho was in a civilised country. To add to his Honor’s annoyances, he had to act as court crier, and call in his loudest voice on ono occasion during the day; and at another time when, despite the hosts of officials all round, no one appeared to know what was proper to be don?, his Honor had to ask, “Do you think l am to come down from tho bench to put that man out of Court V* His Honor, under protest, performed the duty of crier, bub evidently drew the line at the' duties of bailiff.

The Taranaki Herald of the 19th ult. says : —“Yesterday afternoon some of our local pig iron was * run down’ at Vivian’s foundry, with a view of testing its adaptability for use as water-pipes for the borough. The experiment, of course, created considerable interest, and many of our prominent townsmen were present, including in their number some members of tho Borough Council. It is but fair to state that the testing operations were carried on at considerable disadvantage, as the furnace, used on the occasion was a very old one; never-

theless, the -result of the trial proved most satisfactory, exciting, the admiration of all interested, the metal running with great freeness. At 3.55 p.m. the ore was placed iu the furnace, and in twenty minutes from that time the whole operation, including the, placing of the metal in the mould, was concluded. Only ten pounds of steam was used during the process. A pair of model * railway disc wheels’ and a four-inch waterpipe were the subjects of this experiment. Mr. Smith’s zeal and assiduity were of groat service in bringing the matter to such a successful issue. We are informed that a pair of railway wheels from the same material are about to be prepared at Mr. Vivian’s foundry to the order of the Engineer for Public Works.”

In the proposal that the ironclad Cerberus should run the gauntlet of the batteries at Port Phillip Heads, an exchange says that Captain Mandeville, the commander of the Victorian naval forces, only suggested that the batteries should practise at the vessel with smooth-bore guns'of small calibre—not with the 80-pouuder and 300-pounder rifled guns now at the Heads, Captain Maude villa states that the practice which he suggests is not unknown. Sister ships to the Cerberus, named the Magdala and the Abyssinia, are stationed at Bombay, and Captain Maudeville reports that it is a common practice there to take the vessels out, and for the local artillery to fire at them with smooth-bore gun*, with the result that the monitors always succeed in dodging their adversaries.

Three cases of more than usual interest to Highway Boards (says the Hew Zealand Herald) were brought before the Resident Magistrate at Otahubu, on Tuesday, 25th June. Mr. J. Wallace, Mr. C. J, Orago, and Mr. Freeman were charged, on the information of Mr, Shackell, acting for the East Taraaki Highway Beard, with having committed a breach of the Public Works Act, 1876, by allowing gorse to spread from hedges bounding land occupied by them # into the public road, and neglecting to grub up and remove such, after being served with an order from the East Tamaki Highway Board to that effect. The gorse having been for some years a serious nuisance in tbe district, the cases were brought to test the question of liability of occupiers." Mr. Alexander appeared for Mr. Shackell, on behalf of the Board, and Mr. Armstrong on behalf of two of the defendants. After the examination of wltnessess, proving that such gorse was au injury to the road, and the arguments of learned counsel on the legal points bearing on the cases, the magistrate, Mr. Barstow, gave a decision in favor of the Board, and inflicted a fine of 4Cs. on Mr. Wallace, with costs. The cases against the other defendants having been admitted, a fine of 20s. each was inflicted, with shax*e of costs. The magistrate warned defendants that they were liable to a fine of £5 a day for each day they neglected to obey the order of the Board. The wheat returns of the colony of Queensland for the year 1877, as compiled by tbe Registrar-General, show that there has been an increase of 3514 acres in the quantity of land sown with wheat during the year. The area reaped for grain shows an increase of 2220 acres as compared with that of the year 1876 ; but tbe yield of grain has fallen short of that of the previous year by 7870 bushels. The decrease is attributed chiefly to the severe drought which was experieucsd throughout the country during several months of the year, causing in some instances a total failure of the crop. The yield of grain unaffected by rust in 1877 was only 12 bushels 4(U pounds per acre, as against 20 bushels 28 pounds in 1876. .The average yield of wheat-grain free from rust in the eight years from 1870 to 1877 inclusive, is a little under 20 bushels to the acre. We notice also that of 2 acres sown in the district of Goodna, and 7 acres in that of Gympie, the whole was affected by rust, and produced an average of 10 bushels and 17 bushels 81b. of grain per acre respectively, Theproductofrusted wheatfell as low as 2 bushels 401 b. per acre in the district of Gatton; it was 4 bushels 361bs. in the Toowoomba district, and 7 bushels 4Slbs, in Warwick and Allora. The districts unaffected by rust were—Bey burn, where 182 acres were under crop ; Roma, 10 acres; St. George, 22 acres; and St. Lawrence, 30 acres. The returns from Leyburn gave the highest average per acre, viz., 22 bushels ollbs. of grain; Ipswich coming next with 17 bushels 541bs; Toowoomba gives 13 bushels 141bs. per acre; and Warwick and Allora, 12 bushels 131bs.

Mr. Sidey will sell this afternoon, at the Arcade Buildings, an eligible freehold dwelling-house, with garden, &c., having frontages to Jolm-street and Hanson-street, being portion of town acre 'No. 904, in close proximity to the tramway; also a block of land fenced in and desirably situated in Abel Smith-street, to which it has a frontage of 40ft. by a depth of 74ft., being part of town aero No. 131 ; and the following valuable propertiess3 acres freehold land in the township of Alfrecltown, Wairarapa, perfectly level, and covered with timber, principally totara ; freehold corner block, having frontages to Jlusscll-terrace and Waripori-slreet; freehold property in Leedsatreet, &c.

Mr. A. A. Barnett will sell, at 2 o’clock this afternoon, some valuable sections of land in the Hutt and rahnutanui districts, particu’ars of which will be found in our advertising columns.