TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5496, 7 November 1878, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

(PER PRESS AGENCY.) Auckland, Wednesday. The Harbor Board refuse to pay four hundred pounds for Sir John Goode's inspection of the Auckland harbor, ordered by the Government. The contract for the new wing of the lunatic asylum has been let for £16,933 toKoane and Jenkinson. - - . - t Bates, who fell from the roof of .the Bank of Australasia, 30 feet, marvellously escaped injury. He only sustained a few bruises. He was able to walk home from the hospital. A man named Mahoney has been sentenced . to eight months for brutally ill-using a woman he had been cohabiting with. New Plymouth, Wednesday.. Some Europeans at Opuuake have been telling the natives they met there that it is the intention of the Government t>» bring an armed force to Parihaka to drive the natives from the district. A Mr. Coffee states that the uativ.es are quite uneasy about it, and notwithstanding all he told them to the contrary, they seemed scarcely to believe him. Coffee is engaged in making a road through the Parihaka district passable for the coach, and the natives told him that he was only doing it for the big guns to come over, as they were told that Sheehan and an armed party were coming in the Hinemoa, and intended to kill all the Maoris and drive them from the place. Gkahamstown, Wednesday. The evidence given by the police and others at the inquest on the late Captain Goldsmith, tending to show that the attacks of the Press caused'him to commit suicide, is fully refuted in a doctor’s affidavit read at the grave and published in this morning’s Advertiser , in which the charge of rape preferred against him is shown to be the exciting cause of his temporary insanity. He informed the doctor who had been asked to examine the child that ho could not stand against such an accusation.- Although it was false, that it meant ruin to him, —and he appears to have gone away and shot himself. . Blenheim, Wednesday. The police received information to-day that there was good reason for believing that a man named W. Newman, of Nelson, had been drowned in Wairau River. His horse was found on the Tophouse side of the river ; everything; wet on the saddle,' and both stirrups gone. A telegram from Tophouse says: “No trace of the body had been found up to 5 this morning, and no person saw Newman after passing the accommodation house at Manuka Island.” There is a good demand here for shearers and musterers, Hokitika, Wednesday. Owing to the difficulties of cattle travelling between the East and West Coast’, the meat supply is becoming scarce, and high prices are realised. The last sale of a lot of cattle from the South averaged 6Jd, to 7d. per lb. Christchurch, Wednesday. The town is crowded with people, and business of all kinds is suspended. There are large numbers of strangers here, particularly from Dunedin and Wellington. The attendance at the Agricultural Show on Saturday will probably bo the largest ever known. Dunedin, Wednesday. At a meeting of the directors of the New Zealand Waggon Company, held yesterday, it was resolved-to proceed with the construction of waggons. : A successful trial of Fowler and Coy’s steam cultivating machinery took place at the Taieri yesterday in the presence of 200 people. One thousand five htfndrcd pounds will be handed to the Benevolent Institution as the result of the recent carnival. In Cameron’s consultation sweep Calamia was drawn by a wool-sorter in Dunedin, Tom Kirk by an Oamaru publican, and Waxy by the wife of a Dunedin publican. At a meeting of the. Dunedin Presbytery to-day, the Rev, Dr. Copeland gave notice that at, the next meeting of the Presbytery he would move the following motions : —Whereas the Education Act now in .operation in New Zealand makes no provision for the reading of the Bible within school hours, and is on this account unsatisfactory to a. large body of the inhabitants: Whereas an• attempt has been made in some quarters to represent and to carry out a system absolutely secular, excluding any reference in public schools to God or to a future state of existence, and so weakening tho lessons of morality which the youth of the land should be trained to understand aa a necessary part of their education: Whereas in consequence of the godless character thus assigned to the present national system a feeling in favor of the denominational system has been gaining strength, so that the Bill of Mr. Curtis recently before Parliament was only lost by a narrow majority of six votes in a full House: Whereas if such a Bill had been passed into law many who would prefer a national system, in which the Bible was permitted to be read, would avail themselves of the provisions of such an Act in order to secure for their children a sufficient opportunity of becoming acquainted with God’s word—and in consequence the national system would bo in danger of being destroyed: Whereas a knowledge of the contents of the Bible is necessary for a right' understanding of a large part of English literature, and of many of the most important passages of history, as well as for understanding and confirmation of true morality: Whereas in Victoria, where the socalled secular system has been for some time in operation, it has proved unsatisfactory, so that there is a probability of its being soon abandoned: Whereas there is no ground for expecting in New Zealand any better results from the present system: ■ Whereas provision i for the reading of the Bible in public schools may be made without interfering with the just rights of any, by a clause being introduced enacting that the Bible shall be read at a fixed hour (the right being reserved to parents or guardians to withdraw their children during such a lesson, on giving notice in writing of their desire to do so), in all public schools, except, those where the committee having charge shall have passed a resolution (binding only during their term of office' dispensing with such reading; and whereas such an arraugemement would contribute in the highest degree to the intelligence and morality of the rising generation, would satisfy the desire of a great body of the inhabitants, and would remove the strongest ground on which denominational education is demanded by many, and would thus tend to tho consolidation * and permanency of the national system,—lt is humbly overtured by the Presbytery of Dunedin to the Synod of Otago, indicted to meet in January, 1879, to take the above premises into their consideration, with a view of adopting such measures for securing the daily reading of the Bible in the public schools as in its wisdom it may deem' expedient. ____________