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Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2634, 18 June 1877, Page 2

The Native Lands Court has finished its sittings in Hhortlaud, and adjourned to Ohinemuri. It Mas expected to open at tho latter place to-morrow, but owing to the gale which has been blowing since Saturday night the .Natives have been unable to get away, so that it is more than probable the Court will not be opened to morrow.

On Saturday evening Mr H. C. Crawford, of the Telegraph Department, was entertained at tho Governor Bowen Hotel by a number of friends, and by them presented with a purse of sovereigns, as a testimonial of respect and esteem on his departure from the Thames to a new sphere of duty. Mr Crawford has been tor over six years receiving clerk at the Telegraph Office, in which capacity lie has earned the goodwill of tl">se coming frequently into contact * " h him by his' obliging and courteous <. emeanour. He has also been a prominent member of the football and cricket clubs, having been chosen as one of the Thames representatives to play in the match Auckland v. All-England Eleven. His many friends therefore determined, to give him some mark of their goodwill on his removal to another office, necessitated no doubt by the exigencies of the public service. The company assembled at the Bowen on Saturday afternoon was a numerous one, and comprised representatives of the mining, broking, banking and commercial interests, and Mr Uowe, MiH.Ji., occupied the chair. The chairman in a neat speech expressed the regret of every one at Mr Crawford's removal, wished him speedy advancement and good luck, and in the name of the company presented him with a purse of sovereigns wherewith to purchase some souvenir of his residence on the Thames. The health of Mr Crawford was then drank iv bumpers, and after that gentleman had replied, several other toasts were drank, and the proceedings were kept up for about an hour and a half, during which the company enjoyed themselves, and then bade "good-bye" to the departing guest. Mr Crawford was presented with a valuable gold ring,* made to order, by his brother officers in the Telegraph Office, with some of whom he has been intimately associated for over six years, and who regret his departure. He left for Auckland on Saturday night, being accompanied to the steamer by a number of friends, and his future destination is Napier. . .

The following letter appealed in Saturday's Herald re the Pumping Association: —" Sic, —Since I perused the remarks of your Thames correspondent with reference to the great saving'of fuel effected by the addition of a second balance beam to the United Pumping Association plant, I have come, to the conclusion that it would be only fair to myself to state that when the directors of the Association entrusted me in 1872 to design and erect the machinery necessary to admit of the shaft being sunk to a greater depth, both a second hyrostatic counterpoise and steam capstan were included in my original plans ; and a reference to your columns of the 23rd February, 1874, will show that an estimate of the approximate cost of sinking the shaft to a depth of 600 feet was prepared by me, and in which estimate was included a second beam and sfeam capstan, With reference to the ventilation of the shaft by sinking a subsidiary shaft, I may say that Mr Dewar's (late manager of Tookey's G.M. Co.) plan was submitted in detail to the directors for their approval in March, 1874, and that this is the plan that has now been carried cut. My resignation of the management of the Association alone prevented .the above works being executed under mv instructions. —1 am, &c, Wm. Eebikgt n."

The one-and-a-quarter broker,, whose resources in the matter of advertising are unlimited, hit upon another " fake " on Saturday night to bring his business terms under the notice of the public. A large pumpkin, for some time exhibited in the window of a shop in Albert street, has lately been cut in two, and one half was utilised by the advertising broker (for a consideration) as a transparency, a sheet of paper, with the advertisement on, being placed over the hemisphere of the pumpkin with a lighted candle behind it. This novel way of calling attention to a speciality attracted considerable attention.

The Bay of Plenty Times has received information of a fatal affray at Whakatane between two Maoris. Makitonera was quarrelling with his son-in-law, Hotene, over family matters in their own whare, when a fight ensued, and Hotene struck Makitonera a blow which kuocked him across a box, and he sustained injuries to his spine which 'caused death a few days after. An inquest has been commenced. Prink appears to have been a predisposing cause of the quarrel.

The Hawke's Bay Herald hears that Mr M'Eae, late storekeeper at Havelock, by the death of a relative in Australia, has inherited a legacy of £12,000, and also a considerable quantity of landed property. About nine months ago Mr M'llae found it necessary to enter into a composition with his creditors, by which they got 10s in the pound. We hear, however, that Mr M'Kae now' honorably intends making up the balance.

The Eangiora Standard says :—Next to the present Judge Gillies, Sir Dillon Bell has indeed proved one of the greatest pests of the House of Eepresentatives.

Mb G. B. Moeeis, writing to the Bay of Plenty Times on acclimatisation matters, says :—" It may be interestiugjo some of the patrons of acclimatisation to learn: what has. become of the 'nine salmon that were liberated in the Kaitemaku Creek, running between Mr Jonathan Brown's run and mine. An elderly Maori gentleman of the name of loa, having put down his eel-pot in that creek, was surprisfea, he informed me, to find nine pakeh la fish inside when he lifted it. They were about the length of his finger, and were very good eating. He wishes to have some more turned down."

The Timaru Herald says, in reference to its canard re instructions to Colonial governors in case of England being involved in war :—" We do not pretend to 1 have had access to any special sources of information. The news of the Secretary of State's despatch came to us in the ordinary course, and was certainly known to a good many people before it appeared in our columns. The only wonder to us is that the Herald should have been the only paper in the colony which published the intelligence. A good many have expi'essed a curiosity to know where we ob tamed our -information on this occasion. Would they be surprised to learn, as Mr Hawkins, Q.C, used to say in the Tichborne trial, that the information came straight from one of ,the exalted personages who received the Circular Despatch from* the Secretary of State for the Colonies ? " We should certainly be surprised, but not at the Timaru Herald's assertion that such was the case. .

Ui> to .the tirao of our going to press we had received no further information regarding the fatal drowning case in Auckland ou Thursday last, and nothing has been heard of Mr Rowley, so that the worst anticipations will probably be realised.

The semi-official contradiction of dissensions in the Cabinet disseminated by the Press Agency has evoked a host of comments, and the Otago Daily Times says : —" At present, Mr Whitaker is, as we have previously remarked, the enfant terrible of the most unhappy family that have inhabited the Government cage for years past. We have not an idea how he will smooth over his views on Separation or the Land Fund so as to meet Mr Bowen or Mr McLean ; something will have to be settled, and the Ministry by all accounts are in the pangs of travail about the policy which they are' to bring to the birth next month. Of course the Opposition is v fearfully weak, will have probaoly, like the Ministry, to be reconstructed on some new basis, still to be discovered; but in the meantime we think it very bad for the colony that there should no longer be two parties broadly defined by the policy they support, and that all our Ministries should be made up of pieces, which have little coherence, and no purpose common to all the parts.

What the author of tie following deserves we leave to our readers to say :— When does "Wood," Block 27, require physic?— When Enoch's ill (when he knocks Hill).

President Hayes has set an example by declaring relationship with himself or family to be an insuperable obstacle to appointment to office, and thus has destroyed the policy of nepotism that marked General Grant's administration.

W. Finlay, one of the earliest'established Watch and Clock Makers on the Thames, WISHES IT KNOWN that he has again commenced business in Williamson street, in connection with the Manufacturing Jewellery Business of his brother,' Mr James Finlay, and is prepared to undertake all branches of the Watch and Clock-making business. Repairs executed with promptness. Charges moderate.—[Advt.]