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Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4395, 3 February 1883, Page 2

I.'UBING- the past day or two Mr W. Robinson, the inventor of a new crushing machine, has been erecting it outside the Golden Crown battery. It is now in position, and a ti-i.l will be started on Monday next. The machine consists of a large stationary cylinder, in which .nir c iron rollers about fi>e inches in diameter, and one larger one in the centre, are made to revolve bj means of a pulley upon the shaft of the 'centre roller. The tailings will be conducted straight from tbe tables to the machine, which it is expected will be able to reduce them as quickly as they are delivered. They will be fed into it from the side, and will be caught by the rollers and crushed into a fine powder. The gold will be caught in four ripples, charged with quicksilver, in the bottom of tbe cylinder.

Attention is directed to advertisements notifying that the election of members of the Licensing Committee for the Waiotabi Biding will take place at 12 o'clock noon on tbe 9ih in at, and for the Kauaeranga Biding at the same hour on the 10th inut. The former a* the Waiotahi schoolhouse, and the latter at St. George's echoolhouae Rolleston street.

Mas Maria Donovan, charged with assaulting Mrs Jane French was last evening relegated to the cool shades of Mount Eden for one month with hard labor. The pugnacious dame received the announcement of her temporary seclusion with becoming resignation, and begged " His Honor's pardon " once more before leaving the Court.

Thb only business done in tbe B.M. Court this morning asw to deliver judgment, in two cases brought against the Bosemont G.M.Co. by George Ball for £7 3s and J. Riggers for £8 13s. A verdict was given in each case for the amounts claimed and costs.

It will be seen by fan advertisement in another column that the Mutual Improvement Association resume their weekly meetings on Monday next, at 7.30 p.m.

: The New Zealand Electric Light Company have entered into a contract with the Daily Times and Witness Company for the lighting of the office with the Lane Fox incandescent lamps. It. is intended to have 60 lamps of 20 candle-power each.

SlB John Hall has informed the electors of Selwyn district that, owing to continued ill-health, he has been compelled to forward bis resignation to the Speaker of the House.

A HBUOBIAIi to the Minister of Justice is being signed in the Waikato relative to the recent action of Mr Northcote, B.M.

These has been some excitement in Auckland over the exhibition of several diamonds and garnets, stated to be found about four miles from Auckland by Mr Shakespeare, Mr Courtney, and others. Experts are of opinion that they are from the Kimberley diamond field, in South Africa, but Mr Shakespeare denies this. He says ho has sent some to England.

The following are tie additional entries for the Taranaki Race Meeting :—The Light (late St. Cluir), Ngata, Sincerity, and Wilberforoe for the Taranaki Jockey Club, and Autumn Handioap; Parnell (late Totara) for Steeples and Hurdles j and Arbiat for the Nursery Handicap.

In Auckland, with a population of 16,664. there are.two daily newspapers (one morning and one evening), and four weeklies (of whioh one is a society journal); in Wellington, with 20,563 of a population, one morning, one evening, and one weekly paper; in Christ* church, with a population of. 14,213, two morning, three evening, and five weeklies (one being a society and another the licensed victuallers' organ), and in Dunedin, with a popu* lation of 24,872, two morniog, one evening, and two weeklies.

The Union Co.'s steamship Tarawera, which arrived in Dunedin on Thursday night, is the first boat which ever left England with the Edisoa electric light, the Swan system being generally used. She has 150 lamps.

At the Was'e Lands Board meeting held in Auckland on Thursday afternoon, several complaints were received from deferred pay* ment settlers at Te Aroha, re the delay by the Government in the prosecution of the long promised drainage works. The district engineer appended a memo, that he expected instructions to proceed with the work by the next southern mail.

The Eev. Mr Green haa replied to Dr Hector's letter, published in May last, on the height of Mount Cook, in whioh the latter stated, as the result of his calculation, that the height of the spot reached by Green's party was 11,962 feet, and that as the height of the mountain by trigonometrical calculation was 12,349 feet, the explorer's position must bare been 387 feet below the summit. Mr Green says that his own calculations differed from Dr Hector's by about the three hundred feet in question, but he handed over Dr Hector's fiiures when they were received in full to Professor Fitzgerald, of Dublin, who arrived at a height of 12,357 feet. Mr Green thinks the correction required for an aneroid barometer may account for a few feet, but the chief discrepancy arises through Dr Hector misconstruing his decimal places.

Afxru we went to press yesterday the Eesident Magistrate delivered judgment in the case of Say v. Gallagher for trespass, and Neal v. Weathers for the amount of a dishonored promissory note. In the former case be gave a verdict for £3 and costs of Court, solicitors fee and witness' expenses, which amounted to £5 6b. In the other case ho allowed plaintiff the amount claimed and costs £2 6s.

. The largest quantity.of gold exported fr>m Otago in any one year whs in 1863, when 6L4,3870z5, valued at £3,38^,750, passed hrough the Custom House. The previous year, 1862, the quantity was 399,2010z5, and in 1864 it was 436,0120z5. The quantity each year has rapidly decreased from these large figures, until for 1880 the whole amouut was only 118,6660z5, value £457,705. Tne total quautity exported from- the start in 1861 until 1880, nearly 20 years, is 4,018,885o«s, value £15,318,948. The raiue of wool for the same period exported was £15,746,856, leaving a small balance in favour of gold.— Exchange.- .

The members of the present Ministry are very promising young men, but it is seldom that they give such substantial effect to their many promises as the following would make it appear »—On the occueion of the Hon. Mr Rolleston's vi*it to Nateby, he was induced to pay a visit of inspection to the deep shaft recently sunk there by thVlocal Prospecting

Association, but which had to be abandoned for want of funds. Mr. Rolleston expressed himself perfectly satisfied with what he saw, and remarked that it would be a great pity to sue the undertaking collapse for want of a little money. He intimated that it would have'been bo *er had the Association endeavored 'at the outset to have got; the Government to work with them in the affair, instead of which they spent all their means, and then asked Government to finish tho work they had commenced. Finally. Mr Roile3ton promised to grant the Association £350, which would be puid into the bank to its credit, provided it was supplemented by £150 by th« public. In allotting them that, bdqqu t be. was exceeding the proper subsidy that should be given ; but, in consequence of the publio nature of the affair, he was inclined to stretch a point in its

favor The sale of the furniture and effects of the Imperial Hotel, postponed a few days ago, is to take place on Tuesday next.

A OAXiti (the second) of threepence per share has been made in the New Eureka G.M.00., Otunui.

The Rev. A. J. Smith will preach in the Primitive methodist Church to-morrow morning and evening.

The services in the Wesleyan Church tomorrow will be conducted by the Rev. Wm. Rdwse in tbe morning at Shortland and at Grahamstown in the evening.

The item of telegraphic news from Dunedin, which we published on Tuesday evening, relating to tbe purchase of an extensive block of land in the Taupo country,' by Messrs Wbitaker and Russell, solicitors, we are assured is utterly incorrect. Messrs Whitaker and Russell have not purchased, and never contemplated purchasing the land in question. —Star.

Mb Chabiks Shaw, writing to the Auckland Star from Kerikeri, Manukau Heads, encloses a message from the sea, which he picked up the other day io a bottle on the Manukau beach. It is interesting, as showing the length of time which a letter may be preserved in a bottle, and the distance which it may be carried. The message, written on a piece of blue paper, is in good preservation, and is as follows:—" 14th March, 1882. : Ship William Duthie, of Aberdeen, from Sydney New South Wales to London. Latitude 40deg 12min South, longitude 156 dee 32min East. All weII.—WIIMAM McCaixtjm."

The subject of Mr E. H. Taylor's discourse at the Oddfellows' Hall to-morrow evening is, "Will evil be eternal?"

.Among the passengers by the Te Anau yesterday were Bishop Oowie, the Bishop of Waiapu, and a number of the Southern clerical representatives of the Primitive Methodist Church, who had been attending the district meeting of that nhurch in Auckland. We remember on two occasions travelling in steamers with members of Church Synods or Conferences, and on each trip we had a bad time ; once the boat was caught by a heavy gnle and delayed considerably, and the other voyage was also a perilous one. We wonder how much the elementary aggravation will be increased by the presence of a bishop.

A POETION of the English Press is greatly exercised over the viife of Mr Errington to the Vatican. A short time ago intelligence reached us that " Mr Errington had visited the Vatican, and had several interviews with the Pope. It is asserted that he represented England in a semi-official way. Mr Gladstone, however, emphatically denies that Government have in any way entered into communication with the Court of Rome. The matter has created a great sensation in England, and Mr Gladstone's denial is questioned in a good many quarters" Tue dreadful thought that a communication with Borne might interfere with England's national religion, or tend to increase the speed with which many of the Church of England divines are approaching the forms and cer monies of the Church of Borne, appears to have entered the minds of the journalistic old women of Great Britain. \