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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5682, 16 June 1879, Page 2

His Excellency left in the steamer Hinemoa on Saturday night for Auckland. The Hinemoa goes direct to the Manukau. The. Hon. Mr. Stout, Attorney-General, ii is stated, intends resigning his seat, in consequence of the seriaHS illness of his partner Mr. Sievwright. For some time past rumors have been aflbat'that the'hon. gentleman was getting weary, of the, cares of office, and i( would cause ho surprise* if he were to avail himself of the first opportunity to retire from a rather irksome position. Great pressure is likely to be brought to bear on. the Attorney' General to retain his seat,‘and‘it is within the bounds of possibility* that 1 he . will’-consent There was a celebrated Cabinet about a century ago in England, which Lord Macaulay described as being : hoted‘ for its' grand 1 display of critical and oratorical power whilst in opposition ; but when they gained the Ministerial benches, their defects of administrative ability and their want of Unanimity oh ’soveral of the leading questions which agitated the public mind at that time, were just as conspicuous fdr"{Keiff failure "as theirpreviouseffeots-hac been dazzling.,, Histpry repeats itself. | Mr. Jaokson ! s address to the electors of the Hutt 1 appears in our {advertising columns We understand that neither Dr. Duller nor Mr; Hutchison intend to contest the seat, anp up to the present time Mr. Mason has no( definitely decided'upon seeking the. suffrages ql the electors. Therefore;-as yet, Mr. Jacksor is practically the only candidate in the field. Mr; Jackson’s earnest;desire to see an income and property tax imposed will recommend* hinc strongly to many of our readers, and upon this point he* commands our best sympathies. Amongst the many oases of distress which have come under our notice in connection with last night’s fire is one which' from its peculiarly painful; features-is deserving of; pipre .than a passing notice.- We refer} to, that of Mrs. Elder, .who carried- on a fruiterer’s shop,, in Manners-street. Mrs.; Elder, 'has. .only been about two years In.the colony, having arrived from-Englaudin the - Adamant. ,;During the passage she lost her husband, and on arrival she opened a shop, at which she was enabled to support herself. She is now deprived jbf,(her sole' means : of eafning. her; living, her goodfe, stock-in-trade, Ac.,, being entirely destroyed, and we regret to hear that she was uninsured.' Further particulars are given, in our advertismg'cblumn,'which will; no dbuht/prove interesting to those who intend spending an enjoyable evening at the'Atheneeum on, Friday next. 1 }The chances of an agreeable entertainment, such as the soirie : dansdnfe : is likely to be, do not occur very often ; and from the number of persons who have taken an interest in the matter, it -is confidently expected that there will be a large assemblage of ladies and gentlemen present. . The; Metropolitan Hotel had a very narrow escape from .being :burned down on Saturday night. , It appears that after the landlord, Mr. Squires, had retired, he smelt an escape of gas. On searching for the escape he foolishly had ;a lighted candle in his hand, and had an almost miraculous escape from being killed. ' Directly on entering' a small room in which the gas meter, is kept, an explosion took place, knocking the candlestick put 'of Mr. Squire’s hand and breaking a pier glass. - Fortunately people in the, house heard the explosion, and stopped what would have been a serious fife. The fire bells rang out the alarm, and both brigades were on the spot in a remarkably short space of time. Fortunately, however, their services' were not required. ' The following. Wellington candidates are gazetted as having successfully passed--the examination under the Education Act, 1877 : —Class D.—F. J. Cumberworth, J. Horne, Jessie McGowan, J; K. Manning. Elementary Science only—D. 0. M. Gordon,.--

We understand that Mr. Cox purposes treating the subject .of water, upon which he ia to deliver a lecture'atthe St. Paul’s Church room, 'ri'iakori-roadj' this evening, under the following heads r— Ist. Economy of nature ia affording the water which supplies our rivers, streams, and springs, with remarks upon the formation of clouds and the causes producing rain and enow, and also those operating in the formation of glaciers. 2nd. The chemical composition of pure water, and the impurities which are generally held in solution by it. 3rd. The properties of the component parts of water. 4th. The estimation of organic impurities in water for domestic purposes. sth. Summary, including some remarks upon recent theories in connection with water and ice,—lt will be found from our advertising columns that the lecture will he illustrated by experiments throughout, showing the properties of water and its' constituent gases. Views of glaciers will be shown by the aid of lime-light at the close of the lecture. There was a rumor that a massacre had been committed by the natives at Poverty Bay on Sunday ; but there was no foundation whatever for such a report, so far as we have been able to ascertain, and in our latest telegraphic information there is not a word about such a thing having occurred. It was rumored that an aoccident had happened to a man.employed at Messrs. Greenfield and Stewart’s saw-mill, in Courtenay-place, on Saturday, by which he lost one of hia arms ; but we cannot vouch for the truth of the rumor. The steamer Grafton brought from the West Coast a box containing 3750 z. of gold. A splendid lot of specimens of bituminous coal, taken from a drive on Mr. W. Wilson’s land at Wairiri Valley, Malvern, are now on view at Christchurch ; and it is intended to send them to the Sydney Exhibition, A first-dividend of 2s. fid. in the pound will be payable on and after Tuesday, tha 17th instant, in the estate of G. M. Summerfield, tailor. The Rev. W. J. Habeas, B.'A., and Professor J. F. J. Von Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., have been appointed Fellows of the New Zealand University, in lieu of Chief Justice Prendergast and the Hon, R. Campbell. In passing sentence upon a man named Thomas Yardley atTimaru, who was arraigned for assault on a child, four years of age, with intent, his Honor Mr. Justice Johnston said that he could net help stating that the case had been grossly mismanaged by the Crown, as they might easily have known, that a conviction could not be obtained on the first count, and the prisoner should have been indicted for indecent assault, so that he (the Judge) could have ordered him corporal punishment. As the prisoner had been only found guilty of common assault, the heavies', sentence he could give would be too light for the abominable nature of the offence. Prisoner would be sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment with hard labor. At the opening of the Supreme Court at Timaru on Thursday, his Honor Mr. Justice Johnston very pertinently observed that put of some twenty-three cases there were thirteen charges of forgery, and he had to re-echo the' old cry about the carelessness of the trading community in cashing cheques without making proper inquiry about them, or the character of those presenting them. He was, however,'.glad to notice that some people had profited by the advice his Honor had given on former, occasions, and that they had shown a disposition,to be' more careful in the manner in which they negotiated cheques. ■ The first lot of steel rails for the AshburtonForks Railway hare arrived by the Waimate, The London Globe learns from St. Petersburg that intelligence has been received from Vernoo that the Chinese troops have massacred 1009 people at Tash-Balik, near the Kuldja frontier, and at Oofali, three miles from Kashgar, for assisting the insurgents during the recent raids of Khakim Khan. Three thousand Mussulman refugees have arrived at the Russian lines along the Atbasha, seeking protection from the Chinese. An intermittent war between the'Chinese and the Kirghis-still continues. A window in. the shop of Messrs. J. Mulligan and Co:, drapers,' High-street, Christchurch, was broken into last week, and two suits of tweeds, valued at 605., abstracted therefrom.'' Oh missing the articles Mr. Mulligan: made inquiries and learnt that the two suits’ had been found at Cam, on the morning after the robbery by the night porter of the White Hart Hotel in one of the hotel closets, to which access, was had from, the back of the pre- ■ mises." A correspondent of the Lyttelton Times, writing, from Boston .under date May 2, gives the' following sketch 'of affairs in the Great Republic :—“ Here there ia a general feeling that business is improving, and the country taking a new start in prosperity. The West is rich with its grain crops, cotton is rising in price, exports are .very large, imports increasing. On January 1 the Government resumed specie payments without the slightest trouble, and no one wants or asks tor gold except for duties. The credit of the Government is good, and the debt gradually decreasing. I send you a newspaper with, -the last Treasury statement. A fortnight ago the Secretary of the Treasury advertised for sale 150,000,000 of Government 4 per cent, bonds at per cent, premium, to pay off the same amount of 6 pet cents., and in 24 hours it was all taken by a syndicate of New York and Boston banks and banking houses, who were afraid the loan would be snapped up by Englishmen. It now stands at i j premium ! Was not that a large and successful operation ? £30,000,000 ia 24 hours 1” In stating that a fine was inflicted by the Palmerston (South) Bench on a Mr. Blakealey for allowing musio and dancing in hia licensed house, the. Oanlarn Mail says:—Musio and dancing. These are nothing compared with the amusements of the sly-grog selling shanties of Oamaru.’’ Boardinghouse-keeping should prove a profitable business iu the “ white city,” if what our Contemporary states be correct. ’ A company is about being started at Oamaru, to be called “The Oamaru Crown Flour Mills and Baking Company.",,' The-proposed capital is £50,000, aud the number, of shares 10,000, of £5 each. The Oaimlrtl Mail considers that there'.,will be Some! difficulty in,‘floating the company just how. "" ” . . . In a letter to one of, our evening contemporaries, William Moffat denies that he has manufactured gunpowder for the ICingites, and Concludes thus " Indeed, I had no need to manufacture powder, because the Maoris can ■get, and are getting; -plenty from- other sources, which are perhaps well known to the writer of the statement against me.”- ‘ ■ " ;