WELLINGTON.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3091, 14 January 1879, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

This day. A very heavy northwest gale was blowing the greater part of the night. No damage reported from the shipping though several were obliged to pat oat extra lines for safety. A large new house in course of erection near the Albion Hotel was levelled with the ground this morning by the force of the wind.

The Commission on higher education will commence its sittings to*morrow in one of the committee rooms of the General Assembly Building!, but as all the members hare not arrived, the real work will not commence till next week. In the cirii case, O'Neill against the Tramway Company, plaiutiff claimed £325 commission; he was awarded £225. The New Zealander, in an article on the Legislative Council says: — "In their rejection of the Electoral Bill they displayed that amount of insanity which according to the old Latin proverb is apt to precede destruction," and further on it says: "We can hardly conceive it possible that in New Zealand a purely nominee body can be allowed much longer to exercise arbitrary and unconstitutional functions tinder the eorevoi the mere letter of law, and to arrogate to themselves authority never claimed even by the House of Peers."

Delayed telegrams are now sent at rate of a thousand per week, while urgent telegrams reach about five hundred. In addition to the Foresters' Hall blown down this morning, a Wesleyan Church in course of erection was also blown down and wrecked by the wind. A number of minor casualties, such as the roofs off sheds and outhouses being | lifted and fences broken down. James Murphy, recently sentenced for attempted rape on a little girl at Grey* town, received his flogging of twenty-five lashes this morning.