The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1879.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3177, 25 April 1879, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1879.

OtTB telegraphic agents bare neglected Bending us particulars of the half-yearly meeting of the Sank of New Zealand* held in Auckland yesterday afternoon, from a private telegram we learn that a dividend of 15 per cent, was declared, the same as at the last half-yearly meeting, and £20,0C3 was carried to th 8 reserve fund, leaving a balance of £9700 to be carried forward. This statement should be very satisfactory to the shareholders, and tends to show the New Zealand Bank had not lost much money in the way of bad debts. In another column we publish a telegram which was sent us top late last, evening for insertion, and was evidently intended to supplement and correct a previous wire, which by some mistake did not come to hand, for it says the cash balances at bankers should read one million seven hundred thousand pounds.

Sib George Grey had not left Wellington for Auckland, at least by noon yesterday, for a telegram from him at that hour was received by His Worship the Mayor.

The whole. information required has, we are informed, come to hand to enable a report to be brought up relative to the proposed woollen factory, and, within a few days, the same will be laid before a meeting of the provisional committee, and other persons interested in such an industry being established on the Thames.

We noticed in our Auckland files that the Harbour Board there adopted at their last meeting a new tariff, and we believe our Board has telegraphed to the Chairman, Mr Davies, who is at present in Auckland, to procure a copy of the new regulations, and all the information which may help to arrange a tariff for the Thames.

On Wednesday evening, Hi* Worship the Mayor presented prizes to ; some members of the Juvenile Court of Foresters at the Freemason's Hall. The Court under the superintendence of P.C.K. Comes, and the indefatigable Secretary, P.C.8.. Robinson, is increasing in numbers, and a fair balance is to its credit at the Bank. The payment of the prizes won by the members at the sports at Tararu on Good Friday took place, after which the Mayor promised a prize for the best behaved boy during the next quarter. A prize has also been given for the best recitation, tc be awarded at next Court night.

Thk longest funeral procession seen in London since the Duke of Wellington was carried to St. Paul's has been that whioh followed a cabman's corpse to Kensal Green Cemetery one Monday

lately. It was two miles long, nnd consisted of at least a thousand cabs and hackney carriages. This great demonstration was intended mainly as a protest against the police, who had docked up the deceased for alleged drunkenness, whereas his cab had been into collision and he himself thrown down, causing concussion of the brain. The poor man was so dazed and stupid from the fall that the magistrate fined him for drunkenness. He died two days afterwards, and an inquest brought the truth to light.

Notwithstanding the anxiety of the Governors of the Thames High School to be classed with such clients'"of the Bank, of New Zealand as the Thames County; Council, the Borough Council, and the Harbor Board, the directors of that institution, with a due regard, for their peace of mind, have refused to .giro them an overdraft for a stated period, or an advance to enable them to establish a high sohool. The bank directors no doubt have had quite enough of advancing money on promised endowments, and cannot be blamed if they look upon the Te Aroha land promised to the Board of Governors very much the same situation as the foreshore to the Harbor Board.

Says'the Morning Herald (Dunedin). —A novelty, or rather a pair of novelties,; are now to be seen in the railway work-i shops. It may be 'remembered that a ahort time ago a man named Quarterer, in the employ of the railway department,: met with a serious accident, which necessitated the amputation of, both his legs,! one at the ankle and the other about fouri inches below the knee. It is not expected however that he will be always a useless cripple; for he has ; had ;. made: r foi him, a pair of 'automaton- legs, which it is paid will, "when be has been used to them for a few weeks, carry him as safely over the ground as those with which Nature orißinally endowed hiinJ These leg! have been constructed by a Swede in the employ of the department, who wat for many years engaged in one of the principal surgical instrument maker's' shops in London, and hir work certainly; does him' infinite credit. The lees and! feet are in outward appearance a perfect fac-simile of the genuine article, and'con-; sist of steel and leather binding, sockets for the amputated limbs, and indiarubber supports Land springs for the calves and feet, the latter being an exceedingly ingenious piece of mechanism. Quarterer will in a day or two be affixed to.his new extremities, and will be enabled to go about his work as an engine cleaner. The surgical legs in question are the first ever made in the colony, and do great credit to the maker. ,

The man who shall take a bill-sticker red handed defacing public property never meant for his unhallowed sacrilege,' and then and there, smite him dead,, will deserve a monument more enduring than brass or Geelong tweed. The legitimate bill-posting of Melbourne is as effective and pretty as such a thing can possibly bo. Koff's hoardings cover the face of the city, as a veil does that of a bride, and the artistic manner in which he hides the bald ends of the Parliament buildings with his streamers entitles him to knighthood. It is not with him the Lounger would deal, but his anathemas are hurled at those ruthless ragamuffins who prolong their miserable existence by surreptiously smothering everything with "stickers," or goading the godly into baths with that exasperating class of bills known as gutter-snipes. Once it was fashionable amongst agents and other ruffians tp itencil their infamous perversions of the truth on the pavement, and so " insult our flag." The latest phase of the nuisance is, pasting slips upon the elegant bridges of small size spanning the noble aqueduct which, as our cheffoniers are aware, is navigable for' decaying animals from the Eoyal Mail corner to the Town Hall.—Lounger in the Herald.

A Beidgepoet colored woman, aged 65 years, is suing a colored youth, aged 20 years, for breach of promise of marriage. He owed her for board, and she threatened to arrest him unless he married her. He promised to do bo and then backed out, the heartless scoundrel. She swears she " hain't agoin' to chuck wittles into his black carcas for nuthin', nohow." "Some things," said an excited politician, "■ can be foreseen and foretold ; and now I foresee and.l,will now foretell that the day will soon come when our liberties will be no more. This is as certain, my fellow-citizens, and is as sure as that Borneo founded Rome."