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Southland Times, Issue 1297, 23 August 1870, Page 2

The G-reymouth Star says that Mr W. H. Harrison, in advocating the annexation of that portion of the County of Westland, lying north of the Teremakau, to Nelson, has incurred the wrath of Hokitika, the consequence of which is he is no longer Educational Inspector, his salary having been omitted frosi the County estimates. Telegrams can now be forwarded from any station in the colony to England and the Continent of Europe, via San Francisco and New York. The charge is £2 4s for ten words. Mr James Wallace, of Otahuhu, Auckland, has manufactured a double-furrow plough. A public trial of it took place in the presence of a large number of farmers, all of whom are said to have been astonished at the performance of the implement. The Taranaki News is endeavoring to persuade' the settlers to undertake the growth of apples, there, in order that the province may be supplied with that useful fruit without importing trom Nelson. The N. Z. Herald, complains of the wholesale destruction of oysters going on along the coast, and suggests* a license, and stringent regulations for the fishermen, to stop the waste going on. 1 The Corporation of Fiji Settlers has been organised and its constitution adopted. The object is to enable the white men and natives to work together, in keeping peace, and administering justice. A London company is constructing a railway in South America, and photographs of the completed portions of the road have to be sent to London as vouchers for the work done by the contractors before they can receive the successive instalments of their pay. A census is being taken in California at present, and it is estimated that it will show the population of the state to be about 530,000. The population of San Francisco at the beginning of the present year was 170,250. The value of the real and personal property in the State ia set down by the official assessors at 240,000,000 dollars, or £50,000,000. The Bulletin, however, considers that this is only about a third of the true value. In an article on the tariff proposals of the Government, the Westport Times says : — " It cannot, however, be for one moment supposed that the Colonial Treasurer is a believer in this exploded doctrine. The proposals in question will be the means of an increased revenue, and the Treasurer believes in that if not in protection ; and it will also Herve as an allurement to the largely represented constituencies of the Middle Island. Canterbury, Otago, and Southland will gain considerably by a duty upon grain and flour, as also by the remission of duty upon the various articles exclusively used by the farmers and agriculturists ; and as these provinces alone return 29 members out of the 76 comprising the entire representation of the Colony, it will be readily seen what a very considerable support may be calculated upon by the Government in submitting their proposals." Two poems, entitled respectively "Beautiful Snow " and " Beautiful Child," have been published by a number of colonial newspapers, and among these by a Southland print, with very romantic and sensational histories attached to them. The " beautiful " illusion (with regard to the latter piece at least) is rudely dispelled by the Melbourne Leader, which clearly shows that "Beautiful Child " is a gross plagiarism of a poem from the pen of Mr Sheldon Chadwick, which appeared several years ago in the London Journal, entitled " A Mother musing o'er her Child." The Herald says : — " At Wanganui, a few days ago, Mr Low, auctioneer, sold cattle, sheep, poultry, &c, the donations of settlers to the Presbyterian Church there. The sale realised somewhere about £50."

The Cape Standard of the 24th of May 9avs — "The Montrosa called in ' hero in consequence of damage sustained in a gale whilst off the Cape. Had it been known when she left Zanzibar that she would have called here, l)r Kirk would have undoubtedly written to Sir Thomas Maclear, forwarding the news he had received of Dr Livingstone. But it was not known that the Montrose would put into Table Bay, and we have not therefore the information with regard to the great traveller with all the particulars as we should desire to have it. We have, however, the fact— and that settles ali doubts as , tl . <• . n . ttt-.i. n^^.r.l- thaJLJlr "Livingstone lives. Captain Anderson stateß that" " he had had a conversation with Dr Kirk, the political agent at Zanzibar, and he had informed him that "he had just received a letter from Dr Livingstone ; that the doctor was quite well, and would shortly make his appearance at one of the European settlements. Captain Anders ; on remembers nothing more than this ; but Dr Kirk had said that he was perfectly assured throughout that the rumors of Dr Livingstone's death were unfounded." Under the heading of "An Infernal Crime," the New York Herald of the 28th May relates the following supposed atrocious attempt to fire a vessel : — " The crime charged against a man named Lange, a dealer in picture frames in this city, is one that should give him a pre-eminence in the criminal catalogue for diabolical intent. He shipped a box on the New Orleans steamer, and secured an insurance on it of 1650 dollars, and the box proved to have been prepared with explosive and inflammable material, and was only prevented from burning the ship by the watchfulness and activity of the captain. In the bos were vessels of alcohol, gasoline, and turpentine, and fire was apparently to have been set to these bya chemical that^jrould L explode with slight TncSonT 'The friction was provided for by mice shut in a box, who, in gnawing their way out were to fire the train that might have destroyed the ship and all her company at sea. Here then, is, if the charge prove true, a man, who deliberately contrives that awful calamity, fire, on a ship at sea — contrives the possible death of twenty or thirty persons— to secure the . small prize of sixteen hundred dollars insurance money. He should be tried by a jury of sea captains and 6ailois." An Auckland contemporary gives the following account of a lynching which took place at the Thames : — " G-eorge Preston, the informer on and principal witness against James Wilson, who has been committed for trial tp the Supreme Court, on a cnaige of stealing specimens from the Whau Gold Mning Company's ground, was thia morning tarred by the men working on the claim, ani is now in the Hospital suffering from 1 the effects of the treatment he has received. Preston, who lives at the foot of tee Karaka Creek, went up to the claim, but was told by the rest of tbj men that if he went down the shaft he would jiever come up again; The manager thereupon. sent him down from the claim to work at the machine, but the men there would ndt allow him to work. He again returned to the ground, when a number of men seized hold of him, stripped him to below the waist, poured a quantity of tar on his head, and rubbed it on his body. Preston had not the sight of one of hia eye£, and some of the tar got into the other, so a3 to make him, temporarily, almost blind. Oq being released, he set out for home, and a man who was coming down, took compassion on him and led him to the hospital, where he was cleansed, and his eye attended to. There is, we believe, no danger to the sight of the eye, and Preston has suffered no permanent injury whatever." The lollowing item of news by the mail did not appear in our summary :. — Mr J. E. Eitz« ■gerald, formerly the chief member of the Executive Government in New Zealand, and now comptroller of the colonial exchequer, has been gazetted a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. A clergyman of Brisbane — the Rev. O. Searle, formerly of Christchurch and Invercargill — has taken his departure quietly from that city, and Queensland, _to avoid arrests on. a civfl^ suit. ~cnougir~DinyTor" a small amount. The circumstances surrounding the case appear to be bad, as the local journals express a hope that further steps will be taken to make " this individual " satisfy the just claims of his creditors. When the news of the loss of the Tauranga was received in Auckland, many of the shop's were closed, and the newspapers next morning appeared in deep mourning. Ttte gloom caused in Auckland by this event is said to have been very great. In reference to the Clyde robbery, it is reported (says a Dunedin paper) that a telegram has been received in town, giving a few particulars as to how the man Rennie was induced to confess. He was suspected by a person in the employ of Mr Hallenstein, of Qaeenstown, who supplied him with drink, and when he was in a state of intoxication, obtained from him a confession of his share in the robbery. The policeman, M'Lennan, is the son of a respectable Scotch farmer, and by trade is a working engineer. The prisoners were remanded for 8 days. Miss Eoßs, of Maungatua, has now considerably recovered from the effects of her long trance. She is visited by many persons, with whom she converses rationally, but is yet unable to rise. Her case at present is very favorable, but Dr Weber considers it; doubtful whether she will permanently recover. At a public meeting held in Auckland on the 10th to consider the Colonial Reciprocity Bill, the following resolutions were carried : — " That this meeting views with alarm the Bill now before the House of Representatives, entitled the Colonial Reciprocity Act, which provides that the Governor in Council may from time to time declare that any article whatever, when of the growth, produce, or the manufacture of the Australian colonies, or of any one or more of them, is or is not admissible into New Zealand free from duties of Customs, fearing that under such and under the head manufactures, a treaty may be entered into injurious to the trade, and disastrous to the manufactures of New Zealand." " That considerable progress has been made in New Zealand during the last few years in several branches of manufactures, amongst which may be mentioned, shirts and clothing, boots and ] shoes, saddlery and harness, soap and candles, carriages, furniture, and tweed ; and this meeting is of opinion that for some time to come those manufactures require at least that measure of protection which the present tariff affords, and believes that, if such is withdrawn, the result will be that the manufactures already in existence will be crippled, and some of them crushed, and that the establishment of new and similar industries will be prevented." " That in the opinion of this meeting the operation of the Act should be confined to articles the growth and produce of the- Australian colonies, and even then to those articles only which are not and cannot be produced to advantage in New Zealand." " That a petition be presented to the Governor in Council, praying that no duties may be remitted on articles of Australian manufacture, except only such as are not, or cannot at present be, manufactured in New Zealand." The Sydney correspondent of the Argus concludes his remarks on the late conference thus : — We all know now what we want, and we have found out that we nearly all want separate things. Victoria wants supremacy, New South Wales wants free trade. South Australia and Tasmania want a free Victorian market for their produce, and New Zealand wants freedom to increase its customs' revenue as the exigencies of its war taxes may demand. How is it possible to reconcile all these differences ? The Lancashire Bellringers arrived in Invercargill rather unexpectedly, and made a first appearance in the Theatre Eoyal last evening to rather a thin audience. This we at once attribute to the high prices of admission which have been fixed upon, and we would suggest that a reduction should be made in order " to meet the times." The entertainment itself, we may say briefly, is at once novel, clever, and delightful — something which every one can enjoy, and, we ■have no doubt, with the alteration suggested, will be patronised by full houses during their stay.