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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5638, 25 April 1879, Page 4

We are authorised to state that the telegraphic notice that appeared yesterday, to the effect that the survey and road parties on the Mountain-road, Taranaki, have been stopped by natives, is without foundation. Yesterday both road and survey camps were visited by an officer of the Government, and they had not been disturbed. The nominated system of immigration evidently continues to find favor, and it is equally clear that those persons who have emigrated are satisfied with the prospects of the colony. The list of nominations to be forwarded Home by the outgoing mail will be completed to-day, and will, we believe, be found to contain considerably upwards of 200 nominations. As was anticipated, the Royal Commissioners appointed to enquire into and report upon the condition of higher education iu the colony have found that it will be impossible to satisfactorily conclude their labors before July, and they have obtained an extension of time. A substantial interim report will, however, be prepared in time for presentation to Parliament during the forthcoming session. The commission is now again in Wellington, after spending a month in visiting Nelson and Canterbury, daring which sittings have been held daily, excepting on Sundays and ou Good Friday, and when the commissioners were actually travelling. This week there have been present the chairman (Mr. G. M. O’Korke), Eon. W. Gisborne, Dr. Hector, Rev. Mr. Mulgan, and Rev. W. J. Habeas ; and the following gentlemen have been examined— On Tuesday, Hon. Dr. Grace, on University Education and the Education of Chemists and Druggists ; Mr. Kenneth Wilson, M.A., Principal of Wellington College, on University Education. On Wednesday, Hon. O. J. Pharazyn, chairman of Wellington Board of Education, on Educational matters generally; Mr. David Peat, of Wanganui, on Wanganui Industrial School and its endowment ; Bishop Hadfield, on Wanganui Industrial School and endowment, and other endowments held by the Church of England for educational purposes ; Mr. Henry Jackson, late Chief Surveyor, honorary treasurer to Wellington College, on College Finance and the Education of Surveyors ; Mr, Robert Deo, Inspector of Schools, Wellington, on Educational matters in Wellington. Thursday, jMr. C. _O. N. Barron, secretary to the Civil Service Board ot Examiners, on University Education; Professor Kirk, of Wellington College, on Scientific Education, Technical Education, and the New Zealand Institute ; Mr, W. Clark, on the Wesleyan Educational Reserve, in Wellington ; Mr. James McKerrow, Assistant Surveyor-General, on the Education of Surveyors ; Mr. Justice Richmond, on Daw Candidates’ Examinations, Daw Degrees, _ and University Education. The commissioners will continue their sittings in Wellington for a time, and at the beginning of June will visit Otago. Mr. Chas. Oallis, secretary to 1 the Sydney Exhibition Committee, has in his possession a copy of the first issue of the Victoria Times, one of the early efforts at journalism in Wellington. It is dated Wellington, 15th September, 1841, is folio demy in size, and is issued at Is. per copy. The advertisements, leading article, and news were first written, two columns on a page, and then issued in lithograph, the fourth page of the paper being taken up with a lithograph map of Wellington. The leader makes it warm for a publication named the Neio Zealand Gazette, and correspondents evince a disposition to enter into a controversy with the editor of the said Gazette as to whether cow whales came into Port Nicholson annually in May for the purpose of calving. What may be termed a local paragraph seems to indicate the foundation of our present Athenceum, tor its states that “ an enlightened and respectable portion of our fellow colonists” intended waiting on the Governor to seek his aid in the establishment of a Mechanics’ Institute. If copies of the paper could be reproduced by photo-lithography, they would form an interesting exhibit at the'Sydney Exhibition. The Waste Dands Board had a special meeting yesterday, for the purpose of taking into consideration the expenditure of the Government grant ou certain roads. Mr. Maoarthur, chairman of the Manawatu County Council, wrote stating that he had been informed by the Under-Secretary for Crown Dands that the original apportionment of the vote of £IO,OO0 —to be expended on roads within deferred-payment blocks taken up prior to the Ist January, 1878 —had been adhered to as far as the Manawatu County was concerned, that was to say, a total of £IOBO was allowed to the county, £SOO of which was to be expended in the Palmerston North Block, and £SBO in the Kiwitea Block. Mr. Macarthur enclosed, for the approval of the Board, plana of the proposed roads, together with a statement of how it was proposed to allot the contemplated expenditure, special reference being had to the sections taken up on deferred payments. After due consideration, the Board confirmed all the suggested roads within the Kiwitea Block, but made certain changes in the Palmerston North Block.

A meeting of the scholarships committee of the Education Board was held ou Wednesday, far the purpose of appointing an examiner and fixing the dates of the examinations, but nothing was decided, the matters being left over for the consideration of the Board at its next meeting to be held on Wednesday. The first annual meeting of the Colonial Insurance Company will be held in the Athenreum to-day. We believe this company —the only one which has its head-quarters in Wellington—will show a very satisfactory business for the past year.

By means of prison labor the leased sections of the Hospital reserves on the Terrace have been supplied with excellent roads, rendering them easily accessible. The work is nearly completed, and certainly has been done very well. The trustees still have a large gang of men at work near the new Hospital, and are likely to keep them there for another eighteen months. To those interested in prison management it may be stated that after the gang is set free from work at road making on the Terrace, they will be put to work enlarging the cricket ground at the Wellington College, and will next proceed to lower the level of the street between Willis-street and the Gaol, a work much needed to be done.

The Australian Mutual Provident Society is an institution whose progress is so thoroughly illustrative of the history of the colonies that its annual report is always eagerly looked for even by others than members of the society. The thirtieth annual meeting was held at Sydney on Wednesday, and the report then presented was of a most satisfactory character. The directors reported that the new business transacted in the year just closed has exoeded that of the preceding one. During the twelve months ending 31st December, 1878, there have been received 8864 proposals for sums amounting to £3,273,087, of which 2655 were declined, withdrawn, or not completed, amounting to £1,097,145 ; leaving 6209 proposals accepted and completed, assuring £2 175,942. This business includes 310 nonparticipating policies, assuring £72,186. The new premiums amount to £74,816 6s. 3d., of which £1684 13s. represents single payments. Claims have arisen under 239 life policies by the death of 209 members, amounting to £llß 953 9s. 7d., including £13,278 9s. 7d. for bonus additions. Sixteen endowment assurances have also matured, amounting to £/807 18s„ including £1757 18s. for bonus additions. The accumulated fund nowstands at £2,D1y,107 17s. 9d., showing an increase of £349,295 15s. 9d.' the balance of receipts over disbursements during the year. The number of policies issued since the establishment of the society to the 31st December, 1878, is 46,314, assuring £l7 570 063, of which 11,096 have been discontinued, leaving 35,218 existing policies, assuring £13.392,121 The annual, income from premiums amounts to £457 } 079 ISs. od., from interest to £164,278 11b.j making the total annual revenue of the society £6-1,908 9s. 6d. The actuary is proceeding with the sixth quinquennial investigation of the society s affairs preliminary to a distribution of profit amon" the members. Although there arc in force more than double the number of poUoies that existed at the close of the fifth quinquenmum, the work is so well advanced that tho directors anticipate being able to declare the result quite as early as on the former occasion. Instructions have been received in Fiji from the Imperial authorities recalling the few remaining members of the Royal Engineer corps at present stationed in the colony. The mea have received intimation of the fact, and by the next mail the last representatives of Britain's military power will have hade adieu to Fiji.

The business of the Resident Magistrate’s Court had to be adjourned yesterday through the illness of Mr. Mansford, R.M.

Forty acres of the upper harbor, Dunedin, are about to be reclaimed at Government expense.

It may be as well to remind those gentlemen who are acting as auctioneers in town that the annual term of their licenses expires to-day. In our telegraphic news yesterday, under the heading Balclutha, instead of reading that Mr. McAra “ declined ” a call from Gisborne, read that he declared h>s acceptance of it. The girl Annie Pietersen, who is charged with stealing £5 from Miss Bella Strong and £8 from Mr. W. Wilson, will be brought before the R.M. Court this morning.

We beg to remind members of the Athemeum that proposals for members of the Committee for the ensuing year must be made on or before Saturday next, in accordance with Rule 13 of the Association.

The hon. treasurer to the Kaitangata Relief Fund acknowledges the receipt of the following further amounts:—Royal Oak Cricket Club, £1 ss. ; per the New Zealand Steam Shipping Company, £4 3s. Auckland papers think it was a great mistake to direct the hop-growers who came out in the Stad Haarlem to the Southern districts instead of to the Northern ones, which are more suitable for their special occupation. A man named William Clark was charged at the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning with stealing from William Davidson a watch-guard, valued at 7a. fid. On the application of the police the accused was remanded until to-day. Mr. J. G. Holdsworth, J.P., was on the Bench. The Executive Commissioner for the International Exhibition, Sydney, has forwarded the following reply to a telegram dispatched by the Royal Commissioners here:—“ Congratulate New Zealand on his Excellency the Governor consenting to act as President Commission.”

The walls of the Parliamentary Dibrary have just been graced by the photographs of members of the House of Representatives during last session, with one notable exception. They are nicely mounted within a frame, and are excellent pictures of the honorable gentlemen. The exception alluded to is that of Mr. Richard Turnbull, member for Timaru, who, it may be remembered, declined to sit for his photograph and also successfully evaded the enthusiastic artist who endeavored to “ take ” him from the strangers’ gallery of the House. At present Timaru is represented in the collection by an ugly blank, and no doubt Mr. Turnbull will at an early date cast aside his “ ain’t going to be took ” resolution, if only to rob the appearance of the collection of an unpleasant suggestion as to the character of Timaru’s representative. The photographs are by Messrs. Clarke and Hamilton, of Dambton-quay. The direction of his Honor the Chief Justice to the jury on the 10th issue in the case of the Wellington Athenaeum and Mechanics’ Institute v. Henry Mace and John Arkell, tried yesterday in the Supreme Court, took the jury, and perhaps we should say some of the profession, greatly by surprise. The jury evidently thought, and indeed said, that the plaintiffs were not entitled to recover, inasmuch as they had neglected to retain the stipulated percentages from the progress payments made to the contractor. If the architect had only certified for the sums properly due from time to time plaintiffs would have had ample funds in hand to secure themselves from loss, in which case there would have been no occasion to fall back on the bondsmen. We do not venture to dispute his Honor’s law, but seeing that the architect was in no way under the control of the bondsmen, and could easily have been brought to book by the plaintiffs with regard to these excessive progress payments, it certainly appears a hardship that the latter should escape from the consequences of their own neglect by making the bondsmen responsible. If the plaintiff had no check on the architect it is quite clear that gentlemen of that profession have a dangerous power in their hands, and for the future we fancy contractors may find it difficult to procure bondsman. Some of our play-goers in Wellington complain that stage-acting is not a bit like real life; people do not rant and rave and go on like that now-a-days, they say ; neither do lovers make love in well-rounded periods of Johnsonian English in the second person singular. It should be remembered that Englishmen are known to men of other nations as phlegmatic, or, as the Germans say, vermekte folk. A Maori in ordinary conversation will grow as earnest and eneigetio as an impassioned actor ; an Italian, a Frenchman, or even a stolid German will gesticulate and move hands, arms, and shoulders after a fashion that no colonial or Englishman would ever dream of. The question of which is most natural, or most nearly represents the habits of the time, would generally be decided in favor of the actor. The English unmoved and placid style of behavior of the present day is quite exceptional, and in respect to the moderation of language required in ' modern good society, certainly a recent innovation on the practice of former days, A fearful disturbance took place yesterday morning between some Italian fishermen. One man had his nose bit off, and another had his stomach cut open with a razor. It appears that three of the men had been drinking together, when a disturbance took place relative to the leasing of some fishing boats, when one of them, named Betoci, had his nose bit off by Bernandez. A woman, the wife of the third man, then made her appearance on the scene, and struck Bernandez below the ear with a stone. Betoci, who had lost his nose in the affray, made a rush at Bernandez with an open razor in his hand, and inflicted two terrible gashes across his abdomen. The man was conveyed to the Hospital, where he had his wounds sewn up and attended to. Warrants have been issued for the offenders, but from what we can learn they have succeeded in getting away from Wellington. A warrant was also issued for the unfortunate man now in the hospital, but of course it will be some time before he will be able to leave his bed. The New Zealand Gazette, dated April 24th, contains notifications of the following appointments by his Excellency the Governor Jackson Keddell, Esq., 8.M., to be the Judge of the Assessment Court for the district comprised within the County of Coromandel. Harry Eyre Kenny, Esq., to be District Judge for the District of Hawke’s Bay’; a Resident Magistrate for the District of Napier and Waipukurau, with jurisdiction to £100; and a Visiting Justice to the prison at Napier; these appointments date from the 22nd instant.Edward Shaw, Esq., to be District Judge for the Districts of Taranaki and Wanganui; a Resident Magistrate for the District ot New Plymouth, with jurisdiction to £SO; a Visiting Justice of the prison at New Plymouth, and chairman of the Dicensing Courts for the Districts of Egmont, Waiongona, town of New Plymouth, and Waitara, vice H. E. Kenny, Esq., transferred ; these appointments date from the Ist proximo. Andrew Turnbull, Esq., to be Registrar at Nelson of the Supreme Court, from the Ist proximo, vice E. Bamford, Esq., transferred. Arthur Sandys Brooke Forster, Esq., to be clerk at Palmerston North of the District Court ot Wanganui. Andrew Thomas Maginnity, Esq., to be Assistant Secretary for Telegraphs; appointment to date from the Ist April, 1877. Gerhard Mueller, Esq., to be a School Commsssioner for the Provincial District of Westland, vice B. Patten, Esq,, resigned. A peculiar point arose during the hearing of the case Committee of Wellington Athenaeum v. Ranson, in the Supreme Court yesterday. The trial had been proceeding for about an hour when some point of practice arose, during the discussion of which his Honor the Chief Justice observed that he did not kaow whether he could properly hear the case, for although he was not a member of the Athenasum Corporation Mrs. Prendergast was, and if the members had any liability he was really an interested party. Counsel on either aide at once disclaimed any objection to his Honor sitting, Mr. Travers remarking that had he had any objection on that score he should have applied for a change of venue. His Honor laughingly observed that many of the jurymen were in a rather worse predicament than himself, for they were absolutely members of the institution. To prevent any future mistake he would make a note that any objection either to himself or to jurymen was waived by counsel. A very pretty specimen of patent flagging has just been completed at the porch forming the entrance to the residence of John Moore, Esq., J.P., Wellington-terrace, and consists of flags about 12in. square, laid diamond pattern, of three colors, red, white and blue, and may be said to be imperishable. The flags have been manufactured truly square, so that the joints fit perfectly close. This artistic style of flagging certainly seems admirably adapted for any kind of flooring, combining the useful with the ornamental. The work has been executed by Mr. George Greenfield under the direction of the patentee, Mr. Charles O’Neill, C.E,

Hia Honor Sir. Justice Richmond leaves to-day to open the Circuit Court at Wanganui, and will be away about a fortnight. ■ Bishop v. Maclean is the case set down for hearing at the Supreme Court to-day. It will cdme before a special jury.

The ever popular tragedienne, Mrs. George Darrell, will make her reappearance after an absence of nearly three years at the Imperial Opera House on Saturday evening next as Lady Macbeth to Mr. Wm. Creswick’s Macbeth,

Complaints have been made of th© Opera House being cold and draughty. Last night, although the weather was raw and damp, the seats even in the dress circle, which was not very full, were decidedly rather too warm. The Opera House is a well ventilated building, but such precautions have been taken to keep the cold air out that last night it was a trifle too close. Seldom does the '*purchaser for cash” receive any special advantage over the storekeeper’s customer who takes credit. This, on the face of it, ia unfair, for the cost of “ book-keeping, interest on money, and the loss sustained by bad debts," has to be made good by an increase in the profits generally, for which the cash buyer has partly to pay. We are pleased to learn that Messrs Robert Gardner and Co, ironmongers, of this city, have resolvrd to introduce a new arrangement into their system of doing business, which will correct this injustice. In order, therefore, to encourage cash transactions they propose in future to mark the following distinction:—That while they guarantee to sell on credit at the lowest ruling prices, to the cash ouyer they make a special concession upon goods of the value of one pound and upwards.