MISCELLANEOUS.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 58, 12 July 1884, Page 6

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Secretary of the Auckland Rifle AsJ sociation recently wrote to the Secretary of the New South Wales Riflo Association to ascertain what encouragement would be offered for the visit of a local team of rifleI men. He has now received a reply stating 1 ! that tho New South Wales Association had only sent an invitation for a New Zealand team, and that no inducements in the way of concessions could be held out, as thoir rule had been that visiting teams should pay their own expenses. A visiting team uould camp on the ride range, where tents would be provided for. Should any representatives ot the Auckland Volunteers visit Sydney during the match they could be admitted members of tho N.S.W. Association on the same terms as other Volunteers, which would entitle them to compete in about five matches. The Council will meet on the 4th of July, when the letter will be laid beforo them. Tho local Secretary also wroto to Sydney re the procural of Martini Henry rifles, but Colonel Reader informs him there aro none in stock, and that tho Government are not prepared to buy any for Rifle Associations. In the bankruptcy of W. Waring Taylor, merchant, Wellington, a number of trust estates arc involved. Only one Auckland creditor appears in the schedule for a small amount. The following is a synopsis of the estate: Total liabilities, £91,143 13s 4d ; total assets, £78,269 13s 6d -made up of book debts, £4,293 10s ; cash in hand, £483 13s 4d ; furniture, £225 ; stock-in-trade, £29,490 ; property as above, £43,775 10s ; deficiency, £12,S73 19s 9d. The total amount of unsecured debts is £44,642, and the following are the principal losers : — May's estate (agent J. Arundel), £22,525 ; P P. and J. Walker, Wolverhampton, £3,710 ; Mary Taylor, Lecdb, £3,103 ; J. L. Dalrymple, Bulls, £3,018 ; Northern Assurance Company, £1,918; Mrs Raynor, England, £1,485; T. Lloyd (Levin and Co.), £1,400 ; Gillard, £1,163; J. Inglis, England, £1,099; Mr S. 13. Lythe, Whanganui, £1,093. The Oflicial Assignee has had tho stock of tho bankrupt valued by an expert, who says Mr Taylor's valuation was £(5,000; or £7,000 in excess of its worth. The bankrupt has resigned his commission a.% J.P. The Rev. Dr. John Kennedy, of Ding, vail, Rosshire, the most representative of the Free Chinch ministers in the Highlands of Scotland, died at the Bridge of Allan, near Sterling, in the la&t A\eek of Apiil last, on his way home from the South of Europe, where he had been spending the winter for the benefit of his health. Dr. Kennedy was personally known to many in New Zealand and Australia. Born in 1819, he was 63 years of age. As an English and Gaelic preacher ho had few equals, and his labours in the Highlands will ever be remembered. In 1S61 he wroto # "The Days of tho Fathers in Rosshire," a -work which has had a wide circulation at homo and abroad. Ho was albo the biographer of '•The Apostle of the North," the Rev. Dr. McDonald, of Ferintosh, who sometimes preached 22 sormons in one week. Dr. Kennedy's pen was never idle. He wrote a variety of pamphlets on Church questions and against the use of instrumental music in churches. Of late years his sermons were published monthly, as Spurgcon's discourses are. His work on the 23rd psalm is an admirable production. He co-operated largely with the late Rev. Dr. Begg, of Edinburgh, against Sabbath desecration, and all innovations in public worship, as well as any departure from the early-established principles of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. To Detective Walker some credit is due for the arrest of the man Alexander Angus, who is supposed to bo identified with a man of the same name "wanted " at Wellington on a charge of horse-stealing. The detective was in Court while Angus was answering to a charge of assault, and the name struck him as being familiar. Hunting up the " Police Gazette," he found that a warrant was out for a man named Alexander Angus, and, moreover, that his description tallied with the appearance of the defondant in tho assault case. Angus was formally charged with horse-stealing at the Police Court this morning, and remanded for a few days, pending the arrival of the warrant from Wellington. Among tho cases which engaged attention at the Supreme Court lately was one in which the litigants were a father and his two sons. One of the latter was the plaintiff, and his advocate, in opening the action, explained that while lie was of rather weak intellect, yet that he had sufficient skill to have been the author of an invention in brick and tile manufactory, for which a patent had been taken out. His Honor, evidently having in mind a well-known poetic affirmation, thereupon reminded the learned gentleman that the line was very narrow which divided madness from genius. The plaintiff smiled in approbation of 1 the left-handed compliment.