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Southland Times, Issue 1302, 2 September 1870, Page 2

The agreeable weather which has prevailed for some time past was broken up on Wednesday, on the evening of which day a terrific thunderstorm, lasting for fully an hour, burst over this district, the flashes of lightning being intensely bright. ' Heavy falls of hail and rain accompanied tlie thunder, and altogether the night was about as miserable as it is possible to conceive. On this account the Bellringers had no performance. At Honolulu, a bold attempt to run away with a schooner was made by three men. The vessel was lying alongside the wharf, the captain, his wife, and two of the crew being in the cabin asleep. The parties who attempted to carry off the vessel had stolen a boat from the brig Francisco, and after having cut tho fastenings by which the schooner was made fast to the wharf, one of them remained in the boat while the other two steered the vessel and towed her out to the lighthouse, when the rolling of the vessel awoke the captain, who immediately started for the deck ; finding the scuttle over the companion was fastened from the outside, he seized an iron bar, which was fortunately lying in the cabin, forced the skuttle open, and rushedon deck. The rascals who made the attempt to carry off the vessel being frightened by the energetic measures taken by those below, took to their boat and pulled for the shore. The following is an extract from a letter received from a resident of Melbourne now on a visit to California: — "I have now. ..been here upwards of a month, and, as I received my expected [remittance yesterday; Ihope my stay is nearly at an end, for San Frarisisco is not a pleasant place of residence. The weather for a few days after 1 our arrival was very warm, but it has been cooler since. The wind appesrs to be always blowing here, and the dust in the | streets is more troublesome than in Melbourne. Most of the buildings are of wood, and the town has a dirty and smoke-stained appearance. The air here appears dense and misty, and I miss the brilliant atmosphere of Australia. The streets are not well made, nor well kept. . Some are paved with planks, and some with asphalte, and the roadways are sometimes constructed of large pebbles or boulders, and sometimes of planks or blocks — of-^woo— . — Tl»o -ntrnw-of— no— * «*--'<*f — ■Mio streets are rather significant. Battery street is a I noted place for assaults ; "Pacific streets seems to have been named in irony, for it is remarkable for hostile demonstrations. The state of society here is not so settled as one would imagine, and it still seems a place where every mun does what is right in his own eyes to a great extent. Persons are allowed to carry arms, and murderous affrays are of frequent occurrence in the streets. Indeed the trousers are made with a special pocket to carry the breech-loader. I have been once alluded to as a Melbourne Johnny in tho street. ■ Sydney Duck ' is another appellation for immigrants from the colonies, though why they are so styled I know not, for the. Americans excel Australians in quackery. It is very easy here, I am told, to get a doctor's diploma through corruption, and many may truly say, * Corruption!! Thou art my fathor,' though not in the spirit of the man of Uz. The votaries of Mammon, who regard tho rise and fall of stocks more than the decline and fall of the republic, appear to have the most power in the state. I think that, in reference to America, ' publican' form of government would be a better designation than * republican,' for tho * fawning publican' seems to be a fit type of the wilj Yankee politician." The writer gives a very gloomy account of the labor market in San Francisco, stating that there are thousands of unemployed at present in that city. Mr Thos. C. Scott, of Knaphill Farm, Surrey, writes to the London Times as follows, on June 6: — "The following conclusions may now be arrived at as the result of tho peculiarities of the weather of this season : — l. That we shall have a good crop of wheat notwithstanding the severe ravages of the wire-worm and slug, because the seed was got in on a fine tilth, and the plant has since been kept in check and prevented becoming 'winter proud' by a severe winter and an ungenial spring, and this slow growth has had the effect of stiffening the straw, which guarantees the crop against ' lodging' at a future stage, and the rainless summer we have had up to the present time has been equally favorable, as such weather almost invariably results in a good wheat crop. 2. We shall have a light crop of barley, because it has been parched by the sun and scourged by the wire- worm, and no amount of rain can now remedy its stunted growth and deficiency of plants. 3. From the same causes oats will be a light crop, but not to the same extent as barley. A very laughable case of mistaken identity took place recently in Queen-street, Auckland. A gentleman was walking with his wife towards the wharf, when she stopped behind to look at some sweet bonnet. The gentleman did not seem to notice her quitting his side for a minute or bo, as another lady was walking behind him, whom he mistook for his wife. He stopped for a second and said lo her, " Come along my dear, we shall be late." He received no answer, and the lady endeavored to. pass him, but he caught her by the arm, saying "You need not run away." Judge of his surprise, when he got a sound box oh tbe ear, which knocked his hat off, and was told never to dare to insult a lady again. He saw his mistake at once, and his wife coming up at the time, added to the amusement of the spectators, and embarrassment of the unfortunate man who didn't know his own wife. The sixth annual report of the Otago Acclimatisation Society is now published. The Balance Sheet shows an income for tho past year, ending 30th March, from all sources, of £1437 13s 7d, and an expenditure of . £1309 12s, leaving a balance in hand of £128 Is 7d. The stock introduced during the *■ year and distributed by the Society, consist of — 55 English pheasants, 47 Chinese pheasants, 31 partridges, 9 Australian quail, 5 English wild duck, 12 Wonga Wonga pigeons, 6 black swans, 1 white swan, 12 fallow deer, 1 hare, 6 Australian magpies, 2 Australian laughing jackasses, 21 blackbirds, 84 song thrush or mavis, 85 starlings, 61 skylarks, 54 goldfinches, 6 chaffinches, 11 house sparrows, 5 bush kangaroo, 1093 trout, 28 English perch, 18 tench.

Pr Ttjlev. lata Surgeon-Superintendent of the Hokitika Hospital, is now practising his profession in the Fijis, combined with which he is keeping n billiard table. Tlie local paper says : — *' A former resident of Westport, in a private letter alluding to the dulness of business all over the Australian Colonies, remarks, ' I have been travelling all over New South Wales and Queensland during the past few months, and business everywhere is wretchedly dull. The Victorian district are no better, indeed, worse. Ballarat is pretty nearly cooked, and nothing like the business doing anywhere, that there was a-few years ago. New Zealand, with all its present dulness, is much more healthy and active in a commercial point of view, than any of the colonies here, where nearly every trade is overdone and pricos fearfully cut.' " A correspondent of the Waikouaiti Herald writes as follows : — " While our Southern neighbors have of late been deluged with rain and destructive floods, we in the Upper' Waitaki have had to endure the rigors of an almost arctic winter. Since the 23rd of June, at which date we got a heavy fall of snow (it being fourteen incheß deep on the plains), we have never got rid ,of the disagreeable element. If a partial thaw , did at any time set in, it invariably ended in ] snow ; while the frost has been of unparalleled j intensity. Outdoor station work in the shape of improvements, which is generally carried on in the winter months, has in consequence been greatly retarded. The cold, ungenial weather which has so long prevailed, with Bnow covering so much of their wonted pasture, sheep in many instances are not in the condition that could have been wished at the commencement of the lambing season, which is now close at hand ; and if the weather rlons not Boon take a turn for the better, the percentage of lambs that can be brought to the yards at cutting and tailing time will almost to a certainty bo smaller than in tbrmor years." A special correspondent of the Dunstan Times, writing from Arrowtown, says : — Mr George Rennie the gentloratn who acted so prominent a ' part in the late gold robbery, camenp here about March, 1869, having been engaged 'by .Mr Warden Beetham as Wardsman to the Wakatip Hospital, his wife acting as matron or nurse. He fulfilled his duties satisfactorily for some three | months, when, unfortunately, his wife died, leaving .a baby some few weeks old. Bennie appears to have been a very affectionate husband, and was greatly cut up at his wife's death. He took great care of the child, of which he was very, fond, and placed it in the charge of a worthy couple at Hayes Lake, with whom it now remains. After leaving the Hospital, Bennie commenced business as a shoemaker at Arrow- ' town, and, from his unassuming and obliging manners, was liberally supported. He was excellent company, and his shop used to be full of people on Saturday, nights, discussing the events of the week or the politics of the period. It was his habit to ride out on horseback after church on Sunday afternoons, not returning till the following day. I might also say that' he regularlj attended, service at the Presbyterian Church at Arrowtown,- under the ministrations of the Rev. D. Boss. How he profited by them" I cannot say. My opinion of the part he took in the late robbery is, that he was persuaded into it," and was not a robber by nature. The temptation to take a share in such an easily accomplished I enterprise was so great that many a stronger, minded and better man than Rennie would have i engaged in it. The robbery, as you all know, was cleverly conceived, but clumsily carried out at the finish. To show you how Rennie stood in public estimation, I may say that people were astonished when they heard of the robbery, but more so : when they heard who was one of the principal actors in it. The following destruction of cigars is noted by the Wanganui Chronicle : — Yesterday forenoon lovers of tlie Nicotian weed, might hare seen a sight in the bock yard of W. Finnimore's bonded store enough to make them weep. A large number of boxes of cigars were being consigned to the flames, the value of which, duty included, would have been about £100. It seems that those cigar3—g_re__Bept from Melbourne to a person "here, who refused to "CaEnheni. The Custom House authorities then tried to sell them, but could not thus obtain a price equal to the amount of the duty ; so in the end the cigars were thrown into a fire built in the back yard, and burned. The following is from a Wellington paper : — It will be in the recollection of our readers that at a certain period of the parliamentary history of England, the bluff protector, paying a rather unexpected visit to the House of Commons, electrified the then Sergeant-at-Arms, by requesting hira to remove the mace from the table in somewhat contemptuous term*, saying, . V Take away that bauble." When the House was in committee on the Sales for Non-payment of Rates Bill on Tuesday evening, Mr Gillies caused considerable amusement by calling attention to the fact that the mace, contrary to the usual custom when the Speaker vacates the chair, still remained on the table, and enquired whether the House could proceed while that symbol of authority was in that position- The difficulty was, however, easily solved by the Sergeant-at-arms removing it and placing it under the table, when the business proceeded. Evidently the hon. member does not share in the openly-expressed contempt of the historical personage above alluded to, respecting the time-honored symbol of Parliamentary authority. A very graceful act was performed last week by -the Wellington Association of Licensed Victuallers while performing the funeral rites over their own Society. The Association has been in existence for many years, but its members had gradually arrived at the conclusion that a further continuance of its. existence would serve no useful purpose. But there was a credit balance of over £22, of which £15 was unanimously voted to the fund for the relief of the widows and orphans of those lost in the Tauranga, and the remainder given to a respected member of the Association. A case was decided the other day at the Canterbury County Court, which involves the question of the supposed non-liability of the husband for debts contracted by his wife subsequent to the publication by the former of a notice that he i will not be responsible for the Bame. A Mr i Creed sued one Brown, a miller, for £5 odd, being for the maintenance of defendant's wife, who was daughter of the plaintiff. Brown and Miss Creed were married last year, and shortly afterwards the husband discovered that his wife was running into debt for the necessaries of the household, although he handed her his wagesweekly, amounting to 245.! After several quarrels and reconciliations-, the parties separated, Brown having determined not to live any longer with his wife, who thereupon went to live with her father at Faversham. Brown inserted an advertisement in a local newspaper, stating that he would not be responsible for any credit given to his wife. The claim made by the plaintiff was for board and lodging, at the rate of 8s a week, and for other necessaries supplied to defendant's wife. The Judge, in deciding the case, remarked that defendant had himself put away his wife, and there could be no putting away of a wife so as to relieve a husband from his liability to main-, tain her, unless it was shown she had committed adultery. No such allegation was made in the present case. With respect to the insertion of an advertisement, that only protected a husband . from a wife pledging his credit for what were extravagancies, but it did not by any means relieve him from his liability in respect to what were necessaries, His Honor made au order for the amount claimed. Our' Bluff correspondent, writing yesterday, says : — A severe thunderstorm, accompanied with vivid flashes of lightning, passed over the Bluff between 6 and 7 o'clock on the evening of Wednesday. During the course of the. storm tho lightning struck the schooner Daphne, entering the hold by a small hole in the hatches, and setting fire to two bales of flax which were stowed there. The fire was soon discovered and immediately drowned out. Tho bales of flax are very much burnt on the outside, but I am happy to / say that no damage has been done to the vessel.

Our Riverton orrespondent informs us that the Lancashire Bellringers performed for two evenings there with immense succoss, the Hall on each occasion being well filled with an audience who vastly appreciated the melodious music brought out by the 50 balls which were handled so dexterously by the 6 or 7 talented performers. The peculiar sweetness of the " Bird Waltz" and the " Blue Bells" was much admired, and though some annoyance was experienced from the beating of feet of the juveniles in the dance music, it was really excusable, the music and time being so good that even old legs were anxious to be pa the move. Mr Daniels gave soma very good songs, "The Death of Nelson" and "The Village Blacksmith" being rendorei in fine style, and delighted his listeners with his Irish melodies. To-night is the last appearance of the Bellringers, and the benefit of Mr Daniels, the vocalist of their company, a " combination of circumstances" which will doubtless draw a full house.