AUCKLAND.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4348, 7 December 1882, Page 2

AUCKLAND.

This day. ■* The Aiuericaa observation party report the observation of the transit of Venus this morning was very successful. Seventyfour photographs were taken up to the time of internal contact, when a thin haze of clouds prevented further photography. They then had recourse to telescopes, and observed the planet up to the time of the internal contact, the clouds not interfering with telescopic observations. The ob* servers say they have never seen such successful results. The photographs will be sentta America by the next outward steamer, and the one following to prevent accident. The party then %o to Sydney for the purpose of continuing the pendu lum experiments.

Thomas James McFadden was killed at Waittku yesterday through his horse falling «n him.

One of the most extraordinary men in Auckland is the Rev. William Comrie, Presbyterian minister, who has Ikied in a house at the top of West Queen street for forty years. By lending money he has accumulated an enormous fortune, but the habit of saving has grown upon him till he could not find it in his heart to afford to himself the common necessaries of life. He lived in a ruinous house in a state of squalor a*d dirt which was shameful to behold. A few days since Mr Comrie was removed from the tumble down dwelling and taken out to his nephew's farm at Pukekohe.