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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5681, 14 June 1879, Page 2

A supplement to the Government Gazette, published yesterday, contains a notification of the resignation of Sir William Fitzherbert, K.O.M.G, for the Hutt Electoral District, and contains the signature of Messrs. A. de B. Brandon and Geo. Hunter, as “ members of a committee to act in the place of the Speaker of the House of Representatives in certain cases under the Regulation of Elections Act, 1870.” The Hon. Mr. Richardson addressed a meeting of bis constituents at Christchurch last evening, a careful summary of which we are enabled to furnish to our readers this morcing. He denounced in strong terms many of the measures of the Government, and characterised the Tharaes-Waikato railway as being something on a par with the Tapanui job, and he should feel it his duty to bring the matter under the notice of the House as soon as it mol. He strongly condemned the Government mode of advertising, stating that contractors had a rio-ht to know what contracts were be ng advertised, and the notification should not ha confined to the papers which supported the Government. Touching native affairs, be said that he approached the present difficulty with great uneasiness. Things were in a critical state, and it would take all the care and foresight of the Government to prevent future trouble. He considered that some of the members of the Government were to blame for the present state of things, because the natives had been led to believe that the policy of Sir Donald McLean would be reversed when Sir George Grey came into offiice. We are not surprised that the hon. gentleman received a uwmimous vote of confidence at tlie close of his address. There are few men who are more deserving of support from the people of New Zealand than the Hon. Mr. Richardson, who, as Minister of Public Works in Sir Julius Vogel's Government, labored with an uudeviating zeal for the welfare of the colony. A letter from a reliable authority in the Wanganui district states that the writer knew of a case where some Maoris had offered £lO for three pounds of gunpowder. This would corroborate the statement by the Post special correspondent in respect to a similar transaction. The writer above referred to states that the Maoris express a determination to insist the rights which they have claimed. A correspondent sends us the following land tax puzzle :—A. has a piece of land, on which are five shops and dwelling-houses, built by the landlord, let as under, all on lease for more than three years : —One to B at £25 per annum ; one to C at £7O j one to D at £9O ; one to E at £4O ; one to F at £6O : total rent, £285. The land tax valuation is in a lump sum, gross, £7700. Deduct value of buildings, as per valuer’s estimate, £2OOO. With the exemption (£500), the net value for taxing purposes is £5200. The question is, how is it possible to arrive at the proportion payable by the landlord and each of his tenants under section 50 of the Land Tax Act ? To arrive at a correct distribution under the Act, ought not each property in separate occupation to be separately valued ? An obvious error crept into our report of the City Council proceedings, when the Mayor was made to rule that Councillor Maginnity’s motion could not be considered until the resolution with reference to “ Climie’s scheme” was rescinded. It should have read “ Clark’s scheme.”

By a proclamation in the Gazette, the following list of books are added to those already provided for use in the public schools by section 1 of an order in Council, of the 24th September, 1878 : —Colonial Fourth Beading Book (Philip and Son), Sortwell’s Second Arthmetic (Philip and Son), Bowden’s Mental Arithmetic (Bowden and Sous), First Geography (Philip and Son), Hughes’s Class Book of Modern Geography (Philip and Son), Bowden’s Manual of New Zealand Geography (Philip and Son), Smith’s Primary History of Britain (Murray), History of England for Junior Classes (Nelson), and Kichardson’s Temperance Lesson Book (W. Tweedie and Co., publishers). The meetings of the ladies of St. Paul’s parish have lately been largely attended, and the committee are hopeful of being able to make a substantial addition to the funds of the parish at the end of the year. We understand that the making of children’s dresses and millinery is undertaken by the ladies, as well as the ordinary calico work. In the present scarcity of workwomen this will be found a convenience to many ladies.

A man named Harry Holmes, aged 45 years, fell into an excavation for a well, 18 feet deep, at the back of the Junction Hotel, on Tuesday. It is supposed the unfortunate man struck his head against a stage which was half-way down, and that he must have received some very severe injuries, from which he died at eight o’clock the following morning. The hole was left uncovered through the neglect of a man left in charge of it. Messrs. J. and H, Barber’s new butchery establishment, at the corner of Willis and Old Custom House streets, was lit up last evening for the first time. There was a good display of every kind of meat, and the window facing Willis-street was quite tastefully decorated. The new shop is built entirely of brick, with an arched front to Old Custom House-street. The pillars are stuccoed, and the effect is very pleasing to the eye. The large frontage to Willis-street, formerly occupied by the butchery, Willis-street, will be converted into shops, which will give that aide of Willisstreet an improved appearance.

A man named Terence Buchanan was brought up before Messrs. Dransfield and Levy, J.P’s., yesterday afternoon, charged with being of unsound mind. Accused asked for the protection of the Court, stating that he had been in the Asylum once before for three months, and that had it not been for the kindness of the Hon. Mr. Buckley he would have been there yet. Drs. Collins and Tripe examined the accused, and proclaimed him as being of unsound mind. The Bench sent him to the Lunatic Asylum,

The trustees of the Basin Reserve have kindly placed the grand stand at the disposal of the Reform Football Club for the accommodation of ladies visiting their match this afternoon. Miss Beatrice took her benefit at the Imperial Opera House last night, and received a very fair share of patronage. The piece chosen for the occasion was, “A Woman of the People,” a highly sensational drama, in four acts. The part taken by the beneficiare was Annie Laurie—a character which Miss Beatrice did ample Justice to. In the first act she sang very sweetly “I’ve heard the Mavis singing,” for which she was vociferously encored, Mr. Ogden the part of Sol. David, “ a chum who knows his way about,” and it is almost needless to say he made the most of it, and created considerable merriment. Mr. Hamilton sustained the part of Donald Deering, a journeyman carpenter, and did full justice to the character. The remainder of the parts were well sustained by the different members of the company. The piece was well mounted, and the scenic effects had evidently been arranged with great care. Miss Beatrice and Mr. Ogden were several times called before the curtain. This afternoon there will be a performance for the convenience of families and young people, when “ Ten Nights in a Bar-rOom ” will be produced. To-night a grand double bill is announced, when “ The Husband’s Revenge ” and “ That Mother-in-law of Mine ” will constitute the bill of fare.

A meeting of the Philosophical Society takes place this evening, at 8 o'clock, at the Colonial Museum. Dr. Buller, Mr. G. Beetham, and Mr. W. Collie will contribute papers.

■ A match will be played in Mr. Sheehan's paddock (Hobson-street) this afternoon between the following teams, representing respectively the Wellington and Athletic Football Clubs : —Wellington—Barton, Brown, Cargill, Clifford, De Castrb, Duncan, Eames (2), Freeman, Fuller, Gibbes, Holmes, W., Holmes, J., Hoggard, Kreeft, Mcßeth, McDonogh, Pollen, S., Baikes, Ridings, Russell, Somerville, Stewart, Taylor, and Williams. Athletic— Andrew, Beauchamp, Burnes, A., De Castro, 0., Dyer, Gair, Jackson, Kennedy, Leckie, A. W. Kin", Macfarlane, Mansell, Moorhens®, Morrah, Rule, Scales, Snow, and Williams. Play will commence at 2.30, unless the weather should prove so bad as to render a game almost impracticable. On the following Saturday a match between the first fifteen of the same clubs will be played on the Basin Reserve. The boundaries of the licensing districts are not all that could be desired. At Marton, the other day, for instance, applications came from a person living six miles up the Wanganui River, and one actually came from within a distance of five minutes' walk of the Wanganui Court House. It is certainly time the boundary lines were re-adjusted.

The City Council is about undertaking a lot of important street works in the town. Tenders are called for the formation, kerbing, and channelling a large number of streets. The time given to contractors is, however, very short, as tenders must be in by -1 p.m. on Thursday nest.

The Naval Brigade had another parade last evening. There was a large muster, about 110 being present. At the close of the parade, the captain asked what number of men would be willing to volunteer for active service, should their services be required, and the entire brigade, including the officers, gave a ready response, and enrolled their names as volunteers. About twenty new members were enrolled. The corps is progressing remarkably well in drill, and it bids fair to he one of the finest Naval Brigades in the colonies.

Mr. Murray, the engineer to the Rangitikei Highway Board, started on Thursday for the work of laying off the pack-track, and also connecting his- lino with the end of the road through the Paraekaretu. So soon as possible thereafter, he will commence the plan of the new route to Muriraotu, which will be a professional work of considerable magnitude. The Baukof New Zealand is about erecting a branch bank at Halcombc. The framework of tbe building is up, aud the contractors are speedily pushing on the work.

Mr. i). Peat has been elected Chairman of the Wanganui Harbor Board. The natives in the neighborhood of Halcombs are said to lie strongly imbued with tbe current faith in Te Whiti. In consequence, the settlers are agitating for a corps of infantry, and 10 persons have already signified their intention of joining. A definition of drunkenness was given in Tuesday’s R.M. Court proceedings at Martou (says the Advocate), by a witness who held that a man was not drunk till be was unable to walk to bed. This afternoon there will be a special performance at the Opera House of the Rev. Ward Beecher’s moral and temperance drama, “ Ten Nights in a Bar-room,” for the convenience of schools and families. The doors will be open at 2 o’clock, and the performance will commence at 2.30 sharp. The admission to all parts of the house is fixed at the nominal figure of one shilling for adults and sixpence for children. Another popular concert will be given at the Athenaeum on Monday evening, under the management of Mr. R. W. Cary. The railway station at Feilding and Greatford are about to be enlarged. Mr. M. Monaghan, contra tor, has filed a declaration of insolvency, and a meeting of creditors will be held on Monday, the 30th instant. Tenders are invited by tbe Telegraph Department for the supply and delivery of 4000 telegraph poles in Wellington. The sentence on the two young men, committed for rape at Sydney, has been commuted to imprisonment for life. There was intense excitement, and large meetings wore held advocating a remission of the death penalty. The deserter Kind, from H.M.S. Emerald, was sent on to Auckland yesterday by the steamer Taiaroa.

A seaman on board the steamer Albion, named Charles Chatfield, had his leg badly broken yesterday afternoon. The unfortunate man was in (he hold and a sling of sugar was being hoisted out of the hold when the chains broke, and falling on his leg broke the bone just above the ankle. He was removed to the Hospital in an express shortly afterwards. A country paper in New South Wales records the disappearance and supposed drowning in the Murrumbidgee, of a mining character well known in New Zealand, Victorian, and New South Wales goldfields ; one “Tip” McGrath, miner, chiropodist, student, and practiser of herbalism, local preacher, a Rechabite lecturer on intemperance, and alas ! poor fellow, a steady devotee of the bottle. He was a volunteer in New Zealand during the Maori war, saw a good deal of service, in which he was severely wounded, and was promoted to the post of sergeant-major for his gallantry. In Saturday’s paper we published a telegram from the chiefs of the Ngapuhi and Rarawa to the Premier (says the N. Z. Herald) counselling that, in this Taranaki affair, everything should be done to avoid war. An answer was received yesterday, of which the following is a translation ;—“ Friends, salutations. Your telegram in reference to the troubles at Taranaki has reached me. I wish you to know that I am striving to maintain peace, and to settle all matters satisfactorily for both peoples who live on this Island. I thank you for the words of affection contained in your message.” At the last meeting of the Masterton Borough Council, the following “ scene” occurred, according to the report in the Wairarapa Daily : —“Councillor McCardle called tho attention of. the Council to the fact that the footpath recently constructed in Churchstreet was not straight.—Councillor Renall explained that the path was straight, but the kerb had bulged a little through the piles being too far apart. He bad suggested a plan which would make it all right. Did not think Councillor McCardle could see straight.—Councillor McCardle could see as straight as Councillor Renall, at any rate.—His Worship drew the attention of the contending parties to the fact that they were out of order,.no resolution being before the Council.—Councillor McCardle maintained he had a right to ask a question, and, if not understood, to ask again. The path was not straight.—Councillor Renall offered to give Councillor McCardle a ten-pound-note it he could prove it was not straight.—Councillor McCardle : You may want all your money yourself. You think so much of your works that no one dare speak of them. The path is 18in. or 2ft. out.—Councillor Renall : It’s false. The path is as straight as a line ! —Councillor McCardle replied, and a very lively scene took place, resulting in Councillor McCardle retiring indignantly from the Council, after which the Mayor gave Councillor Renall a short lecture on the impropriety of Councillors losing their temper in debate.” The balance of the stock in the assigned estate of Messrs. Purdy and Scott, grocers, Willis-street, will be disposed of by Mr. J. H. Wallace to-day, at two o’clock, on the premises next the Melbourne Hotel. The stock consists of groceries, crockery, hardware, &e., which will be sold in small lots. Mr. Wallace will also sell damaged goods, ex Thames and Isaac Hall, at twelve o’clock.

An important sale of pure-bred Clydesdale entire, horses will take place this day, at the Nag’s Head yards, at two o’clock. Baron of Clyde, one of the horses to be sold, stands seventeen hands high, and took three first prizes in Tasmania, a first prize at Tokomairiro, and a second prize at Dunedin. Sir Walter Scott is nearly seventeen hands high, and is by the famous sire Sir Colin Campbell. Both horses were imported by Mr. Lock, of Nelson, who has been long noted for the good quality of horses which he has introduced to New Zealand.

A Samoan paper states as follows:—“For some time past a large fish of the stingaree species has been regularly noticed in the Ticinity of Salelologa. Mr. W. Robeson determined upon its capture, so ordered special gear from Apia. The fish when secured required the whole of the town, which is not a small one, to land him on the beach. This monster was estimated to weigh not less than two tons! In order that our readers may be enabled to form some idea of the size of the fish, we are informed that the flesh between the eyes and mouth weighed 261 b. However incredible this may appear, it is vouched for by parties who not only saw the fish, but ate some of it. Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. We are informed that two or three other large fish of the same species have since been caught in the same place, but they fell a long way short of the first one in weight.” We are glad to observe (says the Ranyitikci Advocate) that the work of forming the Man-gaone-road has been commenced. This road will conneet Halcombe with Fielding, and will come out on the Makino-road, about three miles from Feilding. It will open some splendid country for settlement, and will run through bush land throughout. The forest has been felled some time, and a portion of the preliminary road-making has been let in several contracts. The distance between the two townships will be about ten miles, but the route will be level and elevated, following a ridge, and will afford some very attractive glimpses of the splendid country on both sides, and undulating tablelands further away in the interior. When finished and metalled, it will be one of the best and most important pieces of road in the Manchester Block. The honest lawyer has been found, A wealthy Scotchman who died recently cut off his relatives without a penny, and gave a' fortune of *IOO,OOO to his lawyer, Thomas Throw, of Dundee. The latter, however, considering the will an injustice to the natural heirs, voluntarily gave up one-half of the bequest to them.

The first sitting at the new Court House at Feilding will take place on the 26th inst. Ice, one-third of an inch in thickness, was broken on Tuesday in Masterton. The frost must have been pretty severe. Mr. Thomas Reid, of South Tokomairiro, brought to the office of the Bruce Herald the other day two fine specimens of chicory root grown on his property. The same gentleman grew about three-quarters of an acre of tbe same last year, which realised £6 10s. per ton, and this year he has eight acres in crop. There are many means for obtaining money (says the Sydney Echo), but one which the Queensland Government have permitted themselves to take advantage of seems so discreditable, that we hope it will never be resorted to again. It appears that the police of Brisbane recently took possession of large quantities of materials purporting to be wines aud spirits, which were found on premises belonging to a man named Spriggs, who lived in the district in which they were stationed. It transpired also that the police, from a perusal of Spriggs’ books, elicited the fact that materials similar to those they seized had been purchased in considerable quantities by Brisbane merchants, and it may be presumed, inflicted upon a confiding but not overwise community, But mark what the Queensland Government did in the matter. They instructed their analyst, Mr. Karl Staiger, to ascertain what the materials were composed of, and in a very short time that gentleman did so. Mr. Staiger’s analyses proved to the Government that some of the stuff seized by the police and labelled Hennessy’s brandy was spirit of wine and essence of prunes ; that some other liquid was spirit of wine and cognac oil ; that some called gin consisted of sugar and bad juniper oil; that some called champagne consisted of ginger aud water, with 25 per cent, of sugar and 15 per cent, of spirits; aud that the quality of a lot of “stout" was so bad that he could not say what it consisted of. The authorities then sold this rubbish on their own behalf, instead of destroying it as they ought to have done, and it has since been taken to Northern Queensland to astonish or destroy the vitals of people there. If an Adulteration of Food Act is ever incorporated in the statute book of Queensland, it is to be hoped that amongst the persons punishable under it will be those guilty of actions as iniquitous as that we have described. Despite the outcry about hard times (says the Lyttelton Times) there is evidently some loose change left. On Saturday one of the , leading retail drapers of the town took upwards of £ISOO in cash. It is satisfactory also to know that the principal “ lines ” dealt in were articles of everyday use rather than of luxury, tending to show that where requisite the people can economise, but have sufficient money left to supply themselves liberally with the necessaries and comforts of life.

The death nf Mr. Samuel Cochrane, a wellknown auctioneer in Auckland, occurred on Sunday last. Tho deceased gentleman came to Auckland twenty-one years ago. Ho was born in New York, but returned to Ireland with his parents. He afterwards went to Montreal, where ho settled in business for some time. Hearing, however, of the genial climate that New Zealand possessed, ho left Canada and came to Auckland in the year 1858. Mr. Cochrane took an active part in the development of the mineral resources of the Coromandel district, and afterwards in that of the Thames goldfield. He was one of the first, if not the first, who opened up steam communication with both places, and he always took a lively interest in everything which tended to advance the interests of Auckland. Mr. Cochrane was in his sixty-fourth year. The unsold portion of the stock in tho bankrupt estate of Mr. Morton will be submitted to auction by Messrs. Laery and Campbell, at their rooms, this day, at half-past ten o'clock. A sale of horses and vehicles will afterwards take place at the horse bazaar, Manners-street, at two o’clock.

A sale of horses, buggies, and traps will take place in Mr. Clare's aaleyasjdn, adjoining tho Arcade, at twelve o’clock this day. Mr. Sidey will also hold a sale of tweeds, merchandise, and furniture, at the Arcade, at one o'clock.