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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5457, 23 September 1878, Page 2

A memorandum received from the Telegraph Department on Saturday states that the AmoyShanghai cable is broken. A meeting, convened by his Worship the Mayor, will be held this evening at the Provincial Hall for the purpose of taking steps for celebrating the inauguration of railway communication between the city of Wellington and the Wairarapa District. As previously announced, the Chamber of Commeioo will hold a meeting for a similar purpose at 3 o’clock this afternoon.

A prominent item of the week’s telegraphic news, says the Australasian of the 14th inst., is the rumor that the Duke of Buckingham, the Governor of Madras, is to he the next Governor of Victoria.

A number of the windows in Mr. Haynes's hotel, at Newtown, were smashed last night. Information of the disturbance was given to the police, and two constables were sent out to keep order. A complimentary dinner was given to Mr, Richard Wakeliu on Saturday night, at the Occidental Hotel, by his brother journalists and a few friends. The chair was occupied by the Hon. J. Martin, and amongst those present were the Hon. Mr. Ballance, Hon. Mr. Sheehan, Messrs. Bees, Vincent Pyke, DeLatonr, and Hamlin, M.H.R.’s. The dinner was a great success, and a very pleasant evening was spent. A meeting of Vogeltown owners was held in the Exchange Laud Mart on- Saturday night, when Mr. Wright attended, and explained his position as regards the closing of the road. He stated that he would be able to give a more definite answer in about a fortnight. Mr. Wright then withdrew, and after some discussion it was agreed to adjourn the meeting till Saturday, the sth of October. Mr. Wm. Barton, of St. John's College, Cambridge, and late of Wellington College, was head of his year in law in the college examination held last May. He obtained an exhibition of £2O, besides some valuable books. Mr. Barton is a son of Mr. Barton of the Taita.

There was not a very largo attendance at Mr. Eastwood's benefit at the Opera House on Saturday night, and ono or two of tho performers who were expected to take part in the entertainment did not appear, which somewhat detracted from the success of the affair. Who was the winner of the silver service for tho best conundrum was not stated, but we understand it will he announced to day. Mr. Eraucis Sidey’s weekly land sale of city and country properties, was as usual well attended ou Saturday. Bids were brisk and competition good. Tiie following properties were sold : Dwelling-houso in Leeds-street to Mr. Wingate for £350 ; 40 acres near Bunuythorpo to Mr. John Gray at 755.' per acre ; 45 feet freehold land in Pine-street to Mr. Knowles at 120 s. per foot ; the lease of buildings in front of the Rechahite Hall to Mr. Gray for £BOO ; a cottage in King-street to Mr. Easby for £245 ; and 12 sections of land in Midhir.-t to Mr. Crease for £7O. Mr. Hedger’s property in Vivian-street was bought in at £950, and is now tor sale privately at the auctioneer’s office.

■?£Mr. Rockeil, one of tho guests at the dinner tendered to Mr. Waltelin, on Saturday night, said that the railway through Wairarapa would prove to be the best paying One in New Zealand.

Mr. W. Hutchison, the ex-Mayor of tho city, announces his intention of again coming forward for election to that office, which will become vacant in November next.

Mr. J. B. Steele, with a small but compact company, arrived in Wellington by the Taupo on Saturday. Mr. Steele intends, we are informed, it he can make suitable arrangements, to play for a season here. It is not often in these days (says an English paper) that ono meets with such rancorous religious bigotry as seems to have inspired one of the' testators whose disposition of his pro. perty is recorded by the illustrated London News. This gentleman, Mr. Jacob Yallowley Powell, merchant, has left a personal estate sworn under £160,000. His first object in death seems to be the disestablishment of the Church of England, for he bequeaths to the Society for the Liberation of Religion from State Patronage and Control no leas than £SOOO. A number of missionary and charitable societies get £IOOO each, the minister of the Baptist Chapel which Mr Powell attended £SOO, and the societies connected with the chapel a like sura. Two nieces get £20,000 between them; but it is provided that if either of these ladies shall marry a minister of the Established Church, or a person holding any office or commission in her Majesty’s army, her interest in snob bequest is to lapse, and to go among the charitable societies or hospitals enumerated. Einally, tho testator directs that he shall ho buried in unconsecrated ground. •;

At the assizes at Leeds (England) on July 27, a solicitor named Myers was 'sentenced to fifteen years’ penal servitude for forging what purported to he the will of an old man named Hatfield, by which property worth upwards of £15,000 was alienated from the children and left to a second wife. The eldest son discovered the fraud, and established tho children’s rights’by the aid of a pencil draft of tho original will. A manufacturer named Joy, and a butcher named Welham, who attested the forgery, were severally sentenced to fifteen and seven years’ penal servitude.

New South Wales (says tho Sydney Morn, lug Herald) in regard to her exhibits of wool at the Paris Exhibition has been victorious in competition against tho whole world. These welcome tidings are conveyed in a letter from Mr. Jules Jonbort to Mr. P. N. Trebook, of Sydney as follows : —“Paris, July 2, 1878. My dear Trebook, —Wo have the juries at work nearly all day long. They consist of ono from each nation represented at the exposition. The wool jury has been now twenty, two days at it, and every day they have coma to us. The contest in that section has been tho most severe, and I am proud to tell you we have beaten the whole world, not by favor, not by’majority, but by the unanimous verdict of twenty of the best judges in tho world. Hungary has run us close; Wilson, of Victoria, has also made a show at the winning post; but B. IC. Cos has decided the race. Not satisfied with the gold medal, which the judges say is not adequate reward, they have recommended a prize which is not in the schedule, and which they have named ‘Le Grand Prix.’ It is, indeed, a glorious day for us to have won a perfectly unanimous verdict of unparalleled excellence in our principle staple. The judges are delighted with the way the wool was shown; the cases which so many have criticised are tho wily really-practical ghow-caees wc

have in the building. They show the wool well, are easily got at, and, I think, have materially helped us to get at the top of the • tree.”

“ iEgles” (in . the Australasian) writes : The healthy climate of Tasmania conduces to longevity. It is never safe to call any one old across the straits, although there are a great many who, anywhere else, might be considered of advanced age. .Quite recently a Tasmanian resident, aged 75, was about contracting a matrimonial, alliance with a giddy young thing some ton years his junior. The event was imminent, when a difficulty arose, which stopped the nuptials. She was a Roman Catholic and he was a Protestant, and the hitch was a failure to agree a? to the religlou in which the children of the marriage should be brought up.

Messrs. .T. 11. Bethune and Co, will submit to public competition, at their rooms, corner of Fealherstoa and Brandon streets, this day, at two o’clock, a splen did collection of plants and ornamental shrubs, received ex “ Wakatlpn," from Sydney, from the wellknown nursery of Messrs, F. Ferguson and Son, Camden, New South "Wales. The shipment, we understand, includes some rare and new camellias and heaths, and tlie plants have arrived in excellent condition.

The sale to be held at the Exchange Land Msrt by T. Kennedy Macdonald and Co. to-day at 2 o’clock should be well attended. A large and varied catalogue of valuable properties will be submitted to public competition, amongst which are the following: —ll sections in Carnarvon; this is a township newly laid nnt by the Government, near the month of the Rangltikelißlver, and promises shortly to become the port of the Rangitlkel district. Section 1017 in the townshiit of Palmerston, one of the best business sites in the Lower Hutt, together with the commodious shop, warehouse, and dwelling, formerly occupied as a general store by Messrs. Mullens and Son. Ten sections in the, township of Halcombe, which Is no “ bogus” township, but is a flourishing town on tbo main trunk line of railway from Foston to "Wanganui; the sections to offered are near the bank and general store, and are in the very centre of the township, as can be seen by reference to the plan. A farm of 830 acres near FeUding, light bush and partly laid down in grass. A comfortable cottage property in Brougham-terrace; a first class building allotment in Queen-street, quite flat; and two cottages in Douglas Wallace-street. Mr. Wallace requests attention to the furniture sale at his rooms to-day. Mr. G. Thomas will sell to-day, in the estate of Beck and Tonks, the Young Dick, with her cargo of coals.