The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Ressurexi. FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1878.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2905, 7 June 1878, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Ressurexi. FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1878.

We have much pleasure in giving pub-

licity to the following telegram, received 'to-day. It explains itself. The grant to each County will be about £2,222 each:—"The appended information is placed r.t your disposal for publication if you so desire—' The payment of forty thousand pounds voted for public works in Auckland will be made to-morrow. The distribution of the amount will be made equally between the eighteen counties having elected councils.—E. Fox.' "

We would remind readers that Count de Zaba's lecture in aid of the funds of the Mechanics' Institute will take place at the Academy of Music this evening. The programme of music has been well chosen and carefully rehearsed, and will

form an agreeable relief, in the stirring passages of the Count's able lecture. The local object to be servred by this lecture does not require to be commended to public attention.

In another column will be found an advertisement for the sale of Mr James Mackie's house in Cochrane and Davy streets. Mr Mackie is leaving the Thames for Auckland, and offers a very desirable family residence for sale; particulars of the accommodation and lease may bo obtained from Mr Mackie.

We learn that the lower mill on the Thames is shortly to be started to work on the kauri bush about Kerikeri.

We are glad to learn that Captain Murray's application for a grant of about five acres of land on the foreshore for a volunteer parade ground has been favorably received by the Harbor .Board, and there is a strong probability of the Government granting the necessary funds for filling in the ground. It is proposed to reclaim from Curtis' wharf in rear of Pacific Hotel towards Holdship's wharf, carrying O'Neill's esplanade along the required distance. It is also contemplated to'build a large hall facing, or on the parade ground, capable of accommodating the whole of the Volunteers at once, and to include orderly rooms, armoury, qua room, and permanent store room. The proposed reclamation will very materially enhance the value of fte adjoining properties, and give a fine appearance to that portion of the town. The Borough Council as well as Harbor authorities are cordially assisting in the preliminaries. We observe, from our late Dunedin files, that the Town Council there ha\re givea a splendid site for a Volunteer Drill Shed, OB which a magnificent building of Oamaru stcne is being erected, which will cost, when completed, about £8000.

The Auckland correspondent of the Lyttelton Times writes:—" Rumours are current of some gigantic land speculation on foot across the Waikato confiscation boundary. Several names are mentioned in connection with it, and the area stated varies from 200,000 to 300,000 acres. The land at present, it is understood, belongs to the Ngatimaniopotos, a tribe of whom Rewi is chief. It is whispered that the bargain is almost closed, and that Sir G. Grey's agreement with the King natives will help to the completion of speculation."

We (Napier Telegraph) do not know what the professional etiquette may be, but the following advertisement appears in the Wananga, which, as purporting to come from a barrister, looks very much like touting for business :—Notice to the whole of the tribes of New Zealand—of Wairarapa, of Taranaki, of Ahuriri, of Taupo and Poverty Bay. This is a notice to you all, that none of you shall sign your names for the sale of lands, of leases, of mortgages, or of anything concerning land. First come all of you to me, that you may understand what you are about to do. From Bees, Lawyer, Napier."

It seems (says a contemporary) that on the West Coast of the Middle Island there are two "lawyers' clerks who are famed for the neatness of their engrossing, their writing being beautifully regular. It is said that Jud&e Weston has publicly announced that one holds the palm for combined neatness and illegibility. The other day Mr Justice Richmond referred to a brief written by the other, and while acknowledging the elegance of each sheet as a whole, said that writing in such a style was a serious nuisance to any one having to peruse a long and difficult case. The characters were described as backhanded and arrow-headed.

The question of abolishing the gold duty is still being agitated in the South. In an article on the subject published in the Dunedin Morning Herald we. find the following:—The miners have persistently refused to listen to these considerations, or to regard the duty in any other light than as a class tax. There is, nevertheless, a more reasonable argument to offer in favour of the abolition of the duty. Gold mining has of late years assumed a new phase. Rich finds, once so frequent, now happen but seldom, and gold mining virtually stands on the same footing as other industries. The margin of profit is often extremely small—so small, indeed, that the duty will turn the scale between profit and loss; hence arises the strong plea that if the duty were abolished a considerable development of mining enterprise would take place. It is* impossible to deny the weight attaching to this argument ; and inasmuch as the duty is now localised, we do not see why, if all the Counties interested are willing to surrender the duty, it should not be abolished. These Counties will certainly have to raise an equivalent amount of revenue by direct taxation, but if they prefer to get an income in that way rather than from the gold duty, no body else has a right to grumble. The real difficulty will be in persuading all the Counties to agree to the repeal of the Gold Duties Acts. The Otago Counties might come to such an arrangement; but how about the Westland Counties ?

The London Stereoscopic Company write:—"Will you permit us to state that the deposition made in the case oi 1 Chambers v. Cur. ey,' heard at Bolton, and reported in the Times of to-day, that we offered £1000 for Mr Gladstone's portrait in his costume as woodcutter, is without the slightest foundation, being simply a ridiculous fabrication?"

"When Dr Thomas, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, was chaplain to the British factory at Hamburg, he applied to a clergyman to permit the burial of an English gentleman in the former's j?ra?eyard. The parson asked of what religion the dead man was, and, on being told a Calvinist, replied that none but Lutherans were buried in his ground. Whereupon, after a little parleying, Dr Thomas told him that the refusal had recalled to him an incident which, some years before, had befallen him in London. While performing a burial service, a woman came and pulled him by the sleeve,, saying she must speak to him immediately.—" Why, sir, you are going to bury a man who died of smallpox near my poor husband, who never had it!"— The relation of this story had the desired effect.

A Vienna mechanician has recently succeeded, after many fruitless trials, in constructing a sewing machine which does not require the person working at it to submit the unpleasant and unhealthy necessity of constant bodily exertion, viz., setting the machine in motion by the foot. Since, for pecuniary reasons, the application of electricity, steam, or waterpower was impossible, the inventor of the new machine was restricted to gravitation or elasticity, and he, preferring the latter force, has contrived to make springs strong enough to keep an ordinavy-sized machine in motion for hours. A system

of cog-wheels is arranged underneath the surface of the table upon which the machine is fixod, find by a handle at the side the spring is wound up with the greatest facility. Tho velocity at which the machine worlts is entirely at the option of the person using it, and can be used ad libitum, and in the simplest manner.