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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5578, 13 February 1879, Page 2

We leam by a Press Agency telegram that there was no sign of the English mail steamer having arrived at Auckland this morning at one o’clock. The commission to Mr. Bryce to inquire into the Bay of Islands electoral roll stuffing has been issued, and Mr. Bryce will start on his mission directly. We believe we are correct in stating that it has been settled by the Ministry that Mr. James Mackay will take Mr. H. T. Clarke’s place as Under-Secretary for Native Affairs. The girl Nichol, who was so badly injured by the accident on the Horohiwi-road on Sunday last, is still in a very low condition, but remains sensible. Mrs. Nichol has pretty well recovered.

It said the Hospital trustees are to a certain extent cornered for funds. The Government “ part” with money very hardly, and though the House voted £30,000 last session, and the reclaimed land has been sold for the purpose of meeting the liability, the trustees have as yet seen no sign of the money, notwithstanding that inquiries have been frequent and anxious.

The water supply will be shut off the mains from Thursday night at 10 o’clock until Saturday at 10 p.m., during the cleaning of the distributing basin. The water will be available for the purpose of extinguishing a Sre if one should break out, but will not .be sufficiently clean for domestic purposes. Housekeepers throughout town will do well to lay by a store of water for their use during the next two days. A general meeting of the Cricketers Association was held in the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel, last night. A considerable quantity of business of interest to cricketers was transacted. A report will be found elsewhere.

The 20th and 21st o£ this month have been gazetted bank holidays in the county of Patea. At the coroner’s inquest held yesterday at the Morgue touching the death of John P. Jones, a juryman named Wm. Eames was fined XOs. for non-attendance.

A supplement to Friday’s Gazette declares certain lands in Taranaki open to free selection. The sections vary in size from 22 acres to 275 acres.

The only business at the B.M. Court yesterday was the disposal of one inebriate and the remanding of a man named Thomas Bard, charged with lunacy. Mr. Holdsworth and Dr. Diver, J.P.’s, were on the Bench. A new engine, built by Messrs. Robertson, of the Phcenix Foundry, was erected at the Te Aro turning mills on Tuesday. It is a powerful and well-finished eight-horse power engine, and gives complete satisfaction to the owner, Mr. Owler. We understaud that the mill is in full work.

We hear that Dr. Hector is exercising his influence in Auckland with regard to Sydney Exhibition matters, and is meeting with ready responses on all sides. Auckland and the North will contribute largely in produce, but wool must come from places further south, as the best grown up there has found its way out of the colony. A meeting of the Drainage Committee of the City Council will be held to-morrow at 4 p.m. to decide on the City Surveyor’s reports as to sewage outfall, so as to enable him to give effect to the resolution of the 16th January. Plans showing the various outfalls are now lying in the Council Chamber for the inspection of councillors. The Wairarapa races commence on the Tauherinikau course to-day, and continue tomorrow. There is a very good programme and excellent entries, and no doubt the sport will be good. A number of Wellington sportsmen went up by train last night, and as special trains are to run to-day and to-morrow at reduced fares, it is probable there will be a good many visitors from this side of the hill. We understand that Messrs. Levin and Co., the Wellington agents of the Orient line of steamers, have received a telegram that the whole of the Garonne’s saloon accommodation is taken up, although she does not sail till the middle of next month, which shows conclusively what a strong hold this service has taken of the travelling public, and how highly the splendid boats and the admirable accommodation they give are appreciated. “Dearer than Life” was repeated at the Theatre Royal last night. There was not so good a house as the piece merited. Upstairs there were a few, but downstairs there was a very fair attendance. The cast, like “ Our Boys,” is a small one, but one and all have good parts to impersonate, and we must say that the company made the most of what they had to do; particularly so Miss Lizzie Lawrence, Miss Marie Wilton, and Mrs. Thornton. Mr. Herbert was very good indeed as a drunken man in one scene during the last act, and the acting of Messrs. Haygarth, O’Brien, and Reid added greated greatly to the success of the piece. The audience were most vociferous in their applause, and at the conclusion of the performance were well satisfied with the bill of fare provided. To-night another play, by H. J. Byron, entited “ £100,000,” will be placed upon the boards. So large a measure of success has attended the performances of Byron’s plays in all parts of the world that we have no doubt that in the hands of Mr. O'Brien’s company it will prove a great attraction.

An advertisement appears in another place calling for applications for a doctor for Beefton Hospital. We are in receipt of a letter from the secretary, stating that the committee have arranged with the various friendly societies so that the appointment of hospital surgeon will also include these societies. The Oddfellows, about 108 strong, and the others will give £1 per member ; altogether the different societies number 278. There will be no other medical man in the district, and, in the opinion of the secretary, a practice worth nearly £IOOO a-year couldbe secured by a good man. Any furtherinformation which may be required by intending applicants, the secretary, Mr. Maclean, will be glad to forward by wire. The letter referred to can be seen on application at this office. The Wanganui Herald says:—“On Tuesday, the 7th instant, a native found the dead body of a newly-born male child wrapped in a copy of the Wanganui Herald, floating in the mouth of the small creek just above Mr. Keid’s Bed Lion Hotel. The body was shown to a large number of the natives, and eventually buried by them in a kind of natural hole in the Eiver Bank below the stockyard at Oampbelltown. This information only reached Sub-In-spector Goodall on Saturday last, who at once made search, but found the body of the child had been removed from its place of burial and cannot now be found, although a reward has been offered for its recovery. Theie is great doubt among the natives as to whether it was a European or native child. Strange rumors are afloat concerning it. In the meantime the police are trying to fathom the mystery. The Argus, in any article on “Berryism,” says :—Constitutional politicians would do well to give heed to the warnings given by two correspondents whose letters we published on Monday. “A Working Man” complains in terms which have the true ring of earnestness about them, of the “ apathy which prevails.” He says :—“ Thinking men know that the interests of all are best conserved by justice to all, and that prosperity is the product of peace, order, and security. The stump orator has ready dupes when he tells working men they are slaves. . . . They shut their eyes to the fact that there is no country on earth more free than this, none where labor has so many advantages, where there is such general com-, fort, and where so large a proportion of workers emancipate themselves themselves from the ranks.” But somebody is wanted to enforce these truths. As our other correspondent, “ Vis,” says very truly, “ the person is bordering on madness and blind to the teachings of history who expects to gain a victory without exerting himself to conquer.” This, however, is apparently the expectation which supports numbers of our friends in these troublesome times.

The New York papers recently to hand announce that a new invention has been patented for the sub-division of the electric light by two electricians, named Sawyer and Man, of New York. The invention is said to be a very simple one, consisting of a small pencil of carbon, little larger than a pin, and connected by wires with an electric machine enclosed in a hermetically-sealed glass globe filled with pure nitrogen gas. The new invention is known as the electric-dynamite light, and it is stated to emit a brilliant white light. The company assert its ability to fit up lights equal to 30 gas, and state that by a very small switch in the wall the current of electricity can be divided so as to supply any number of burners. The meter difficulty has been overcome by an invention which will register the number of burners and the number of hours they are lighted. A company has been formed for the purpose of working the patent. The annual meeting of the Canterbury Marble Quarry Co. was held on the 7tb inst., at Christchurch, when the only business transacted was the re-election of two directors, and the passing of a resolution to forward specimens of marble to the forthcoming Sydney exhibition. Captain Davis, of the barque John Knox, had kindly consented to carry over the specimens free of expense, and any expense he was put to to get them polished would of course be defrayed by the company. Captain Davis took a great interest in Canterbury, and would no doubt feel a pride in getting the specimens as well polished as possible. After this had been done they could be handed over to the commissioner representing New Zealand, who would find them a place. An Australian paper says :—During the recent trial of safety mining cages before the board of inquiry at Sandhurst, it was generally recognised that the invention which successfully withstood the severe tests applied would be almost certain to perform all that could be expected in cases of ordinary accident. Of the seven cages fitted with safety inventions then tested, two went straight to the bottom without catching at all, while only two held at the point where the severance from the rope was effected. The fact of a heavily-weighted cage being sent down at full speed and the rope being allowed to run off the winding drum was looked on as a test of extraordinary severity, but nevertheless two of the cages so tested were brought to a standstill the moment the rope parted from the drum. The cages belonged to Mr. Seymour, of Sandhurst, and Mr. Allan, of Ballarat. One of the latter cages has been at work for a long time in the Band of Hope and Albion Consols Company’s shaft, at Ballarat, and it is somewhat singular that soon after the trial at Sandhurst an accident should have occurred in the mine which afforded it another opportunity of working satisfactorily. On the 18th inst. Mr. Sergeant, the manager of the company, addressed the following letter to Mr. Allan;—"Your safetycage now in use in our No. 6 shaft underwent a severe test this afternoon. When winding at

ordinary speed the truck got adrift, caught in the shaft, and snapped the rope. The cage was carrying a full truck of dirt, also a 30gallon tank of water. It caught instantly, without damage.”

This afternoon Mr. W. H. Trapp (for the New Zea* land Loan and Mercantile Agency) will hold an auo" tion sa e of wool, aheehakins, hides, and tallow, at the company’s warehouse, Custom House-quay. An extensive sale of Government land scrip will be held this day by Mr. J. H. Wallace, at his saleroom, Hunter-street. This scrip is in lots of £IOO, and is exercisable in any part of the Wellington provinda district.

Mr. F. Sidey will sell by auction, at the Arcade buildings, this day, at 11 a.m., the whole of the stock-in-trade of an ironmonger, who has retired from the business. The goods will be disposed of without reserve.