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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5414, 3 August 1878, Page 2

In accordance with practice, wo print to-day, for the information of our readers, several Gov eminent * advertisements lately issued relating to public woyks. We publish these advertisements gratis, the patronage of the Government being .reserved for those journals which,feupport them, or, “ things being-equal,” do, not find fault. Elsewhere we have quoted some’journalistic amenities on this subject from our Wanganui contemporaries. Ittia'uot, we think, a' question about which newspapers need quarrel, \evema"n. the country. It is the good fortuno^of,tlm' Herald to be in favor at present :'our contemporary the Chronicle should • follow our example, fos tho sake of supporters. Tho House of r Representatives had another short sitting yesterday. A few/questions were asked and several Bills introduced • there were two or three formal second readings, 4 an unopposed motion or two, aud the Ifouse then adjourned. Membersjfnlly expected an Imprest Supply Bill *■ to be brought down, but nothing was said about it. A meeting of tho Canterbury and Grey Valley members has been culled for this mornat 10 o’clock, to consider the best means of°promoting the construction of a railway between Amberley and Brunuafton. It ia proposed to form a deputation, and wait upon the Minister for Public Works at 1$ o’clock, to press upon lus attention the noc&sity for. the work.

The mainline of rail way bet ween Christ church anil Dunedin will be opened for traffic on Wednesday next, so said the Hon. Mr. Macandrew in the House yesterday. In the House of Representatives yesterday Mr. Sheehan announced that all but one of the difficulties in the way of proceeding with the survey of the Wairaate plains had been got rid of. That was the price to be charge d the surveyors by the natives for pigs for the use of the former. Four parties were now at work on the plain. Subsequently he said a letter bad been received from some natives, - which- would be trauslated, and laid on the table at the next sitting day. . Major Atkinton complaiued yesterday that in consequence of “ something being done to at he building ” its acoustic properties bad deteriorated. It was almost impossible to bear a Minister speak now. Several other members seemed to have the same opinion, judging by their requests to Ministers to “ speak up ” when answering questions. The fact is that Ministers have not yet got accustomed to their position in the House, and do not speak loud enough to be heard, except by those immediately around them. The Hon. Mr. Ballance and the Hon. Mr. Stout especially are sinners in this direction. They are scarcely audible in the gallery, and as both gentlemen are frequently dealing with technical subjects, the one with law and the other with finance, the reporters' work is made much more difficult. . Neither gentlemen can with reason complain -if they are raisreported occasionally. A coroner's inquest was held at Johusonville on Wednesday last, before Dr. Taylor, touching the death of Eudolph Klue, a foreigner, .lately employed on Mr. Holmes’ station, at Ohariu. The body of the deceased, it will be remembered, was found on the previous Monday morning suspended to a fence, with a rope round the neck, and life had been apparently been extinct for soma hours. The jury returned a verdict that deceased committed suicide whilst laboring under temporary insanity.

In consequence of the alterations to the Odd Fellows’ Hall, the Gospel meetings have been transferred to the Princess Theatre, Tory-street ; but for those who do not usually attend a place of worship at the Thoradon end of the city, the Young Men's Christian Association will to-morrow evening commence a series of Evangelistic meetings in their rooms at the Atheuteum, The Evangelistic choir will attend. Full details will be found in outadvertising columns. An error occurred in a paragraph which appeared in Thursday’s issue of the New Zealand Times in reference to a deputation from the Waiohine River Board of Conservators, who waited on the Hon. Mr. Macandrew on the previous day. In the paragraph referred to it was stated that Mr. 'Macandrew, on behalf of the Government, had promised to lend to the Board £SOO for the purpose of continuing the works. This statement,jwe are informed, is incorrect, Mr. Macandrew not having made such -a promise. An amateur concert in aid of the funds of the cricket club was held at the Athenaeum Hall last night. There was an excellent programme provided, and several new singers made their first appearance before a Wellington audience, and acquitted themselves very creditably. Mr, Raymond supplied the piano accompaniments to the vocalists. Amongst those who sang were Mr. Cary, who was in excellent voice, and was loudly encored. The concert on the whole was a great success. Mr. M. McCiedie, the well-known ironmonger on Larapton-quay, announces by advertisement in our advertising columns that his great clearing sale will only last for a short time, as his new premises at the old Club-house are being rapidly proceeded with. We have no doubt the public will do well to avail themselves of this opportunity of buying ironmongery at a cheap rate. Miss Jennie Nyo, a most deserving and popular actress', took a benefit at the Theatre Royal last night, when there was a good attendance. The curtain rose to Buokstone’s two-aot musical comedy, “The Daughter of the Regiment,” after which the burlesque of “Fra Diavolo” was played. Both performances were very creditably gone through, and Miss Nye. was on several occasions warmly applauded. To-night “Tho Idiot's Revenge" and the burlesque of “Fra Diavolo” will be placed upon the stage. On Monday Signor Duvaili, who is characterised in tho bills as the “demon wizard,” will make his first appearance here.

A meeting will bs held at the Chamber of Commerce on Monday afternoon at 3 o’clock

of persons owning or occupying land fronting the Te Aro foreshore, or on Willis-street, who may be affected by the Te Aro Reclamation Bill now before the House of Representatives.

We hear that a man named Parsons, who was stated, at the trial of the case of Buckridge v. Wardell, in the Supreme Court, at the last civil sittings, to be dead, has written to say that he is alive. The evidence of this witness was said to be of considerable. importance.

The funeral of Hr. Joseph Harding, formerly of ' the Post-office Hotel, Grey-street, will leave his late residence, at the top of Plimmer’s steps, Lambton-quay, at halt-past 4 o'clock this afternoon, Friends are respectfully invited to attend. The brethren, of the Southern Cross Lodge, 1.0.0. F., are requested ’to meet at the lodgeroorn at half-past three o’clock, in order to follow the remains of the deceased to the grave. Visiting brethren are invited to’attend.

Haring the nine years it has been in existence the Camara Harbor Board has spent £120,000 on permanent works at a cost for supervision, &c M during that period of £9OOO, from which should be deducted the engineer’s commission of £IOOO. The actual cost of management is about £SOO a-year. [The dues, too, have been reduced nearly 70 per cent. Seven years ago the charge for shipping wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, flour, pollard, and bran, was 4s. 6J. per ton, now it is 2s. instead ; wool in 1871 was Is. 6d., now it is Is. per bale ; and general merchandise, which in 1871 was 4s. 6d. per ton, is now 2s. 6d. The landing charges exhibit a still more marked reduction. The Waikato Times, referring to the loss occassioned to settlers by destruction of sheep and cattle through the non-feucing in of the railway line by Government, says that accidents are constantly occurring, and so frequently as to render their notice a matter of no excitement all. It appears that to complete this work on all the colonial lines of railway would cost £3oo,ooo—a sum which Government can ill afford. There is a good deal to be said on both sides of the question. It is very annoying to a settler to find his cattle or sheep killed by the locomotive, but it is also equally provoking for a smart engine-driver, behind time, and anxious to keep his timetable, to find, just as he is getting into a good piece of straight running, some miserable apology for a cow straying on the line, and which is not to be cowed off the “ narrow gauge” either by ejections of steam or the screams of the engine whistle. Still, withal, it is hard lines for the owner, and still harder for the cow, when the latter has burst. itself running in front of a train, to have but the choice of being drowned in a lake or its ribs crushed in by the cow-catcher. The Auckland Herald has tho following on . Mr. Stout's views of taxation :—He then argues that a land tax should be hedged about by certain provisions. One of those provisions is that “ industry should not be taxed,” that “ if a man improves his land, you ought not to increase the tax as he improves the land.” But Supply th* 3 to the improvement of laud in town, by buildings and otherwise. There, the borough taxes improvements, taxes capital sunk, and tho rental therefrom accruing, and we arc disposed to believe that Mr. Stout will find it difficult, iu practice, to avoid applying to a general land tax, exactly the same principle which practice has found necessary in Borough and Road Board assessments. Mr Thompson, of Moray-place (says the Dunedin Evening Star of 30th ult,), reports on the samples of white stone received from the West Coast that they are “ of first-class quality, and suitable for any kind of ornamental work; are easily wrought, and take on a very high polish.” Mr. Monro corroborates the report of Mr Thompson, adding that he is ao confident of the superior, quality of , the marble that he is prepared to take an interest in the venture of opening up the quarry, and will provide machinery which ho has on hand suitable for cutting the marble out of the face In the quarry. He also offers, if the company will send him - some larger pieces by the next trip of the Maori, to saw and polish them at his own expense, and to forward the slabs to his agents iu London for a full report, which would be of vast benefit iu developing the enterprise. Mr. Cable, the i*opresentative.of the company, informs the TFcsd Coast Times that he was present at the works iu Dunedin when the marble was operated upon.- Flowers and scrolls were cut on several of the pieces, and each trial gave the utmost satisfaction to the workmen operating, who were experienced iu the trade.

The thoroughbred horde Patriarch, owned by Mr. Allen McLean, left by the steamer Southern Cross for Napier last evening, Nofciceisgiven by advertisement thata Bethel service for seamen and others will be held at the Athemeum tom*rrow (Sunday) afternoon. The Wellington Artillery Volunteers will drill at Mount Cook Barracks this afternoon at half-past 2 o’clock. A complimentary concert will be tendered to Mr. Id. W. Cary by the Working Men's Exhibition Committee on Saturday, August 10, at the Imperial Opera House. A meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society will held at 8 o'clock this evening, when papers will be read by Mr. J. C. Crawford, Dr. Buller, and others.

The funeral of Mrs. Light, wife of Mr. William Light, of Barrett’s Hotel, will leave that house at three o’clock this afternoon. Friends are respectfully invited to attend. A scratch football match will be played today on the Basin Reserve should the weather prove favorable. Play will not begin till half-past three, as the ground will not be available until that hour.

We hear that the Mayor of Wellington intends entertaining the other mayors and delegates now attending the Municipal Conference at a banquet to be given on Thursday next, to celebrate the opening of the new Town Hall. The delegates from the various boroughs are particularly requested to attend the meeting of the Municipal Conference to be held this morning at ten o'clock, as questions of importance are to be discussed. We are glad to hear that the family of the late Mr. Joseph Harding are not, as it was feared, left totally unprovided for, Mr. Harding having, we understand, effected in the Government office an insurance for £IOOO on his life, about fourteen months ago, for their benefit.

Out of 2500 shares (new issue) in the Wellington Public Hall and Theatre Company (Limited) only 678 remain unapplied for. For these shares, or any portion of them, written tenders will be received up to noon on Friday, the 9fch instant. No tender will be received below par. The company’s affairs appear to be in a very satisfactory condition. The Bruce Herald of Tuesday last contained the following :—Mr. 15. Menlove, of Windsor Park, near Oamaru, has refused the sum of £200,000, which was offered for the purchase of his estate, containing 17,000 acres freehold, with stock, &c. —A son of Mr, Walter Miller is to bo proceeded against for personating his father at a recent election for the Mount Stewart Road Board.—Mrs. Bruce, aged sixty, while milking a cow yesterday slipped in some way and broke one of her legs.—lt was currently reported in Dunedin business circles yesterday that the Supreme Court action, Chalmers v. Clark, has been settled privately by the defendant paying over to the plaintiffs' the sum of £75,000 sterling. Referring to au attempt made by the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce to raise a private periodical to the dignity of a Government Gazette, the Dunedin Morning Herald says : “ We trust that the Chamber of Commerce, at its meeting to be held to-day, will pause ere it adopts its committee’s recommendation re petitioning Parliament for an amendment of the Debtors and Creditors Act, 1876, in the direction of compelling all bankruptcy notices to be advertised in the Mercantile Gazette. The Gazette is a private circular. From the nature of its contents it cannot be published .as an ordinary newspaper. The other provincial districts in New Zealand have their own mercantile gazettes, of which they think as highly as we do of ours. Should the Chamber persist iu confirming the recommendation of its committee, it will only succeed in making Dunedin the laughing-stock of the whole colony."

In reference to the incarceration of Dr. Bradford for contempt of the Supreme Court in marrying Misa E. M, Ware without the permission of the Court, Mr. Justice Molesworth, on the 22nd inst., intimated the terms which he wished made before releasing Dr, Bradford. These terms (says the. Argus) were that the income of the property should be paid to Mrs. Bradford daring her life; that she should be at liberty to divide the property among her children as she pleased by deed or will ; that if she died intestate, and without having made any disposition of the property, and if her children died, the property was to go to her next of kin, excluding Dr. Bradford ; in the event of her surviving her husband she was to dispose of the property as she pleased. As soon as a settlement has been prepared on the basis of this direction, an application will be made for Dr, Bradford’s discharge. The Grey River Argus contains the following observations on the “Hochstettsr Water-race,” a work of considerable magnitude and importance :—lt would be idltf now to discuss whether the large expenditure on this work was wise ; it is sufficient for the present to view the fact that something near one hundred . thousand pounds of public money has been expended for the purpose of furnishing a permanent supply of water by which the auriferous terraces of the Nelson Creek district could be worked, and which the natural watercourse could not command. It*would be contrary to the truth to say that even if the water so supplied was given gratia, the expected results of the race would be realised. As an engineering feat, it is in many respects unique, but the object of the work was not that wonderful aqueducts should be constructed, or that the skill of mechanics should be displayed, but that a sufficient quantity of water should be furnished for working ground otherwise beyoud the reach of the miners. In some respects this great water-race is a marvel of skill—in others it is a failure. It is a failure inasmuch as it ’ has not preserved the original elevation, thus making it useless for some of the purposes for which it was expressly designed; but leaving this aside it is now of the utmost importance that the very best use shall be made of it as is possible. That the race will ever pay directly the interest on its cost and the expenses of management, cannpt be expected. *lt is useless to disguise the fact, well-known to every miner in the district, that the Government might as well shut off the water altogether as expect that by any set of regulations the race can show a direct profit.

It is gratifying to learn (says the Melbourne that Melbourne is showing other Australian cities the way in the'direction of footpath making. The fame of our excellent tarred pavement, which we now make at a cost of 2s. a square yard, and which is in all essential particulars as serviceable as Caithness slate or bluestone flagging, which would cost 10s. a yard or more, has spread far and wide ; and some time since the Corporation of Newcastle, New • South Wales* wrote to the Melbourne Council, asking its assistance towards the introduction of the tarred pavement in their streets. To this application the City Council willingly assented, and a quantity of footpath material (all but the tar, which will bo obtained on the spot) has been prepared for export to Newcastle, whither it will be accompanied by a skilled Corporation workman, who will teach the Newcastle people how to lay it down. If the merits of our new footpath system were known in foreign countries, it would probably come into extensive use, nob less on account of its excellence than of its cheapness; and it would be for us an agreeable circumstance if the citizens of London and Paris and New York were to become gratefully familiar with Improved footpaths, which they would come to speak of as the “Melbourne side-walk.” The following extract from a letter received by the mail from an old Melbourne cricketer, now on a visit to England, who has witnessed most of the matches played by tho Australian Eleven, will be of interest :—“ I have, of course, seen a good deal of tho from Australia, and saw their matches at Lord’s and at the Oval, at which places wc had tickets for tho members’pavilion. Wo were also invited to the dinners to our cricketers by the M.C.C, and tho Surrey Clubs, A full account of the cricket, which has fairly astonished the Londoners, and, in fact, created a perfect sensation throughout England, you will have seen in the papers. Our men are much praised for their very proper and quiet conduct, and are very steady, and, not at all off their heads 01 legs at their success. Spofforth is the great gun; Allan Ims not yet come off at all ms a bowler. There are no end of Australians at all the matches ; in fact, it seems as if all the Australians not in the colonies were at these gatherings.”

The following are the particulars re iusur--ances, Invercargill- fire, says the Southland Ncks Mr. J. W. Bain, £I6OO on stock, viz,, £KOO in the United Insurance Office, £SOO in the South British Olfice, £4OO-in the Liverpool, London, and Globe, £2OO, in the Victoua ; and on building (on account of the proprietor, Mr. J. T. Thomson) £2OO in the* Northern. Mr. J. W. Mitchell, £IBOO. on goods, viz., £SOO in the Union office; £SOO in the United, £SOO in the South British, £3OO in the National; on building ; £250 in the Standard, and £2OO in the Liverpool,-Lon-

don, and Globe. Mr, Mitchell estimates his loss at £3OOO, and therefore is a lo«er to the extent of £750. Mr. G, L. Stevens, Club Hotel, whose loss is covered by insurances in the Standard and Liverpool, London, and Globe, estiniates the damage to his furniture at £2OO, and to building at £IOO. Messrs. Matheson and Smith have a small claim agaiuat the Northern Office, iu which they are insured for £4OO, and Norwich Union in which they are insured for £6OO, on account of damage to stock by breakage, &c., and Mr. Weir, bootmaker, who is insured for £l5O iu the Norwich Union, has a similar claim. Mr. J. L. McDonald has also sustained water damage to goods and building, but the amount when ascertained will be covered by insurance, he being insured iu the New Zealand Office for £IOOO on the building, and on stock in the Phcenix for £IOOO, and in the Standard for another £IOOO.

Mr. Francis Sliley will sell, in the Arcade Buildings at 1 o’clock to-day. a four-roomed cottage and laud, tho latter having a fiontago of 50ft. to John-stroet by a depth of 120 ft. Messrs. Beauchamp, Campbell, and Co. will offer for sale this afternoon, at the Nag’s Head yard, a well bred bull, five years old, also heavy draught horses, weight-carrying hacks, carriage, express, and cab horses, waggons, express, spring carts, &c. On Monday, as will bo seen by reference to our advertising columns, Mr. J. H. ‘Wallace will hold an important sale of city propertias. -Amongst the lots t) be submitted to public competition is that valuable piece of land in Willls-street adjoining the Empire Hotel, togethe •• with tho premises erected thereon, and lately occupied by Messrs. W. and G-. Turnbull and Co. This is one of thos.e valuable sites which are daily becoming scarcer in the market, owing to tho great demand for both wholesale stores and retail establishments on an extensive scale, suitable to tho rapidly growing wants of tho enterprising mercantile portion of the community. There can be very little doubt as to this being eagerly competed for and being secured by parties who are desirous of possessing a site that cannot be surpassed by any in the city. Mr. Wallace will also offer for sale at tho same time some choice allotments in Kenl-terrace, Sussex-square, and Nelson-street.