GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 298, 16 October 1873, Page 6

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.

The Grand Jury's labors this session were light, and only required about an hour* attention. They returned true bills in five out of the six indictments sent before them. In the case of King, charged with manslaughter at Port Cha'mers, they found no true bill, and the accused was consequently discharged. They have some " cock-shootists " in Sydney. At one of the private practices there lately Mr J. Bashelle and Mr J*. Lynch each scored 54 out of a possible 60, the former scoring ten bull's eyes in succession at 800 and 900 yards. Ob the following Saturday Mr J. J. Slade scored 57 out of a possible 60, made up with twelve bull's eyes and three centres. We are glad, to learn that Mr Henry Clapcott lias been appointed travelling subcommissioner under the Colonial Life Assurance scheme. Notice is given in the last Government Gazette that three or more of the Judges of the Supreme Court of New Zealand will sit at the Supreme Court House, Wellington, on Monday, the 17th day of November next, to hear and determine petitions for the dissolution or for a sentence of nullity of marriage, under section 60 of the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act, 1867, and also for the dispatch of all other business accruing under the said Act. A shocking accident, the result of the common habit among larrikins of stonetbrowing, occurred at Auckland the other day. A boy named Murray was looking at the scene of the great fire, when another boy named South threw a piece of lead and knocked out one of Murray's eyes. Murray fainted, and had to be carried home, and his poor mother swooned when she saw what had befallen him. The eye extruded on to tbe cheek, and was replaced an well as it could be, but the sight will neve return. On Saturday, the 27th ult., a man named Archibald Clark, a shepherd in the employ of Mr D. F. Main, Taieri Lake Station, was drowned in an attempt to cross the river there. He was in company with John Black, who bad in charge two horses, with which he crossed safely. Clark, being on a young mare, would not make th« attempt, but desired Black to send the boat across fur him. He did so, and in trying to haul the boat across the river, the rope broke, and Clark going overboard, was seen no njore, His wife, who was lying ill at the time, in not expected to recover At a recent election of members of the Lyttelton Borough Council, some lively speeches were made, the following fcr instance. Mr W. Webb isext ."poke. He said if he spoke the mind of his family, he could only say he was glad he was defeated. — (Loud laughter.) rig had been connected with politics for many years, and they all knew how he Game to this degraded Colony. —(Roars of laughter. \ Some present might not know of the year 1830. He could only say he felt proud that twenty-four good men and true had been found to vote for him, and fight the battle of their country— (loud laughs) --but he must say he thought the town was degenerating, as at the last election he polled 71 ; but he intended going in for every election of councillors — ( Laughter. ) He would now leave off.— (Cries of "No, no. "/ Yes, he would, and put all sycophants under his feet— (Loud cheering.) Their laughter and grinning would not alter his Republican principles.— (Immense cheering, during which the speaker resumed his seat.) Mr Bradshaw informs us that his Employment of Females in Factories Bill, whichlimits the hours which girls shall work in factories to eight, passed both Houses of the Legislature, and is now law. We notice from our exchanges that a Melbourne gentleman, from the fashionable quarter of South Yarra— Mr Richard Henty — has just compromised with his creditors by paying them the magnificent sum of one penny in the £. The Immigration Officer Las received, notice of the embarkation of Welsh and Whiteh'aven coal miners, numbering fortyfive adultt, per Bhips Lady Jocelyn and Helen Denny for Otago. The Lady Jocelyn sailed from London on Ist August direct for this port, and the Helen Denny on the 7th August for Wellington, from which port the miners are to be transhipped to Dunedin. Three of the number have families, 'the remaining number being young men of between 19 and 26 years of age, and one single woman aged 19. Applications will be received at the Immigration Office for their services. From the monthly police report we find the following table of arrests made in the Province during the month of September :—: — Assault with intent, 1 man ; do on police, 2 men ; violent assault, 1 man ; common do, 3 men ; breach of the peace, 7 men ; do Shipping Act. 1 mani do Railway Bye Jaws, 1 man ; drunkenness, 76 men and 12 women ; damaging property, S( men ; disobeying an order, of the Court, 1 man and 1 woman ; disorderly conduct, 6 men ; forgery and uttering, 1 man; habitiial drunkenness, 2 men, 2 women ; inciting prisoners; 1 man • inde : cent exposure, \ man, J. woman ; illegally on premises, 3, men j keeping houses of ill fame, 1 woman i larceny, § men, 1 woman ; do from dwellings, 3 men, 1 woman ; do from person, 2 men ; lunacy, 8 men, 1 woman ; , maliciously killing cattle, 1 man ; neglected and criminal children, 2 boys, 2 girls ; obscene language, 3 men, 4 women ; obtaining goods under false pretences, 1 man ; rescuing prisoners, 1 man; resisting police, 1 man ; ship desertion, 3 men ; vagrancy, 2 men, 8 women ; wife desertion, 2 men : total, 149 men, 34 women. In August tbe number of arrests was 166, of whicn number 87 were for drunkenness. We cull from the annual report of the Postal department a few figures, which are not only interesting but instructive. The number of ppst : offices established in the 1 'olony is 495, • 114 being in Auckland, 12 in Taranaki, 29, in fiawkes Bay, 4Q in 'Wellington, $3 in JNlson, 13lu Marihorougb, 8} m Canterbury, 27 in Westland, 135 in Otago, and lat the CJiathams. The inland services cost qn the average about ihd per' mile ; and the^r performance entails 1,180,364 miles of pountry beiug troyersed in the year. The number of letters received was 3,588,073, or an increase of 291,083 over, those received in 1870 ; letters despatched 3,37u,470, or an increase in the twelve months of 585,763 ; while 2,767,682 newspapers were received,

1,643,409 despatched } those received showing an increase of 459,048, and those despatched a decrease of 227,741. The revenue of the department, however, shows a very satisfactory increase, that for 1872 3 being L 50.586, as against L 47.054 in 1871 -2. The partial redaction of the newspaper postage in the Colony, which came into operation on the first of the year, has not qnite had the effect the department anticipated — viz., an increase in the number of papers posted ; but the revenue remains stationary. From January 1 to June 30, only 390,803 halfpenny and 872,926 peuny stamps, or 1,263,734 stamps in all were sold, as against 1 0 8,823 penny stamps during the same period in 1872, when the revenue from the sale of stamps amounted to L.4,453. This half. year it amounted to L 4,441. In accordance with the agreement arrived at at the Intercolonial Conference last year, the I postage on Intercolonial letters will be reduced from 3 1 to 2d per half -ounce on and after the Ut January next. Under -the division of the report referring to meney orders, we find that the total number issued during the year was 44,660 for sums amounting to the very large sum ot L 191.009 2s, being an increase for the year of 8,369 orders, and 1,33,611 8s sd, or 3,942 orders, and. JL15,890 9s in excess of the increase of the previous year. This most striking increase would indicate, on the part of the public, a more general use of the money order system for -making their remittaaces. Of the money orders issued, 28,156, of the va'ueof Ll2 1,125 143 Bd, were payable in the Colony ; 10,619, of the value of L 44.535 9s 9d. were payable in the United Kingdom ; 5,835, of the value of L 26 347 17 7d, were payable in the Australian Colonies. Of the money orders paid in the Colony, ),504, of the value of L 7,078 8s 6d, were issued in the United Kingdom, and 1,459, of the value of L 6.803 15s 3d, in the Australian Colonies. London telegrams announce the decease of Professor Donati, of Florence, and Dr Nelaton, of Paris, men of distinction in the professions to which they respectively belonged. Professor Donati is known to the world principally in connexion with the discovery made by him on the 2nd June, 1858, of the comet to which his name has been given. Dr Auguste Nelaton was a physician and surgeon of eminence, who obtained considerable fame by his success in extracting a bullet from the foot of General Garibaldi, after the failure of the surgeons who had been previously in attendance. A new and important feature of the Clutha entire show was the offer of a prize of L3i>, besides a guarantee of forty mares for a really good Clydesdale horse to travel for the season in the West Clutha district. For this prize the following horses competed :—: — Southern Chief, Young Lofty, Sir William Wallace, Bismarck, Duke of Edinburgh, Young Major, and Bruce. The judges were — Messrs John Watt, James Bruce, James Wilson, James Cosens, and Alexander Main. After a brief but careful examination had been made of the several horses, Southern Chief w^s declared the winner of the prize — a decision which the Bruct Herald says was endorsed by all who had any pretensions to be able to form a judgment in the matter. The Hon. Colonel Brett, when speaking in the Legislative Council, on the Education Bill, said that "He would refer to the Board of Education at Christchurch. It was composed of seven gentlemen, five being Episcopalians and two Presbyterians. Was that a proper Board ? Should a Board so composed exist? There was one Roman Catholic upon it, a gentleman who had been a Judge in India— a highly intellectual man, of considerable talent and ability j but they made it too hot for him, aud he was obliged to leave. That was what he called intolerance and bigotry. The Secretary of the Board was an Episcopalian, the Inspector was an Episcopalian, the masters were Episcopalians ; and there was no other element of religion. In the district schools, five out of seven of the Committee of these schools were Episcopalians. Therefore what; was the system but Episcopalian? and it would come to this, he suppo ed, that the gates of heaven would not be open to any but Episcopalians.'' The relurni of traffic on the Southland railways, during the month of September, continue to show a highly Satisfactory increase. During last month, 1,736 passengers travelled on the lines, as against 1.117 in the same month last year, and 2, 153 tons of goods were carried, as against 1,481 in September, 1872. The money returns are, September, 1873, L 327 9* 9d ; September, 1872, L 553 8s 3d. Last week the Catholics of Oamaru presented to their pastor, the Rev. Father Donovan, a handsome horse, together with a buggy and harness. The vehicle in question is of superior quality, and the whole cost somewhat over LIOO. The presentation was made by Mr Thos. Dunn, President of the H. A. C. B. S. Many of the brethern appeared in their regalia. The local paper remarks :—: — "This presentation shows the esteem in which the rev. gent'eman is held by his congregation, and it is the unfeigned desire of hia congregation that the rev. gentleman may long continue in the vigorous discharge of his important duties." The proposal for the construction of a light railway ia Seacard Bush has been submitted to ihe Provincial Government by certain merchants of Dunedin. We {Southland Times) understand that these gentlemen offer to cons ruct a light railway, of 3ft. 6in. gauge, and ten miles in length, on condition that they receive a lease, for sawmill purposes, of a considerable area of the' bush. It is a part of the proposal that the company will also provide the necessary rolhng stock of every description, and wdrk the railway for fourteen years at a tariff to be agreed upon. At the end of that period they will hand over the line, free of cost, to the Government, and dispose of their rolling stock at a valution. We understand, that the result of the Superintendent's exertions ia £ho matter of lighthouses, is that the General Government have agreed to place a light on Cape Saunders and another at the entrance of Foveaux Straits. A case came before Mr Bowen, B. M., at Christchurch the other day, of which we are likely to hear a great deal* more. A policeman named Veitch was summoned for having refused to support the child of Mary Scaly, of which he was alleged to be the father. The child was born two yearn and a half ago, and complainant said that accused, when she first threatened to sue him, paid her L 5. Accused positively swore that he had never been intimate with complainant, that he was not father of the child, and that he merely paid the L 5 to prevent the disgrace of having his name brought before the public on such a charge, and not towards the support of the child. He also averred that complainant signed a paper, at a lawyer's office in Dunedin, relieving from him all further annoyance in the matter, but that the' paper was afterwards stolen from his coat-pocket one day while at work. He then asked for a remand, in order to enable him to subpoena the lawyer from Dunedin, and to obtain other evidence. The case was remanded ior a week, in order that inquiries might be made at Timaru aad Dunedin. The following cablegrams have not yet been published here :— Tha British yacht Deerhound, seized by the Spanish Republican Government on the ground that she was carrying to the Carlitt insurgents supplies of arms and ammunition has been released. — The Shah of Persia has arrived at Teheran, and oae declared, that ho will hay© «n jmdi-

enee with his audience with his Minister*, with the object of introducing the Parliamentary institutions of Europe, and an improved system of government in Persia. — Contrary to former report*, it i* officially announced that the Turcomans have been allowed to settle peacefully in the districts previously occupied by the HnsaSan forces, and that General Kaufmann has ordered homeward the troop at Mangyschlack, belonging to the Orenberg detachment. —Tha 2nd battalion of the Scots Fusilier Guards, from Cnrragh ; the 2nd battalion of the Rifle Brigade, from Curragh ; and the 86th Infantry Regiment, from the Cape of Good Hope, are detailed for service ashore at the Gold Cost. —Mr Barnetr, a Conservative, has been elected M.P. for Dover, vice Sir G. Jesse], who was a Liberal member of the House of Commons. Judge Gr«sson is of opinion that it is an inadvisable thing for employers to authorise youths to receive mo sey, as it throws temptations in their way which prompts them to the commission of crime. At a meeting of the Cromwell Jockey Club, held on 'lhursday evening last, to consider what steps should be taken in re the disqualification of Keay by the Lawrence Jockey Club, it was resolved unanimously to sustain the action taken by that Club, and to disqualify Heay for ever from riding or running horses on the Cromwell course. The lub was occup : ed for a long time in considering the matter before they came to a decision. Daring the discussion, the manner in which the disqualification had been removed from Heay by the Dunedin Jockey Clnb was very freely and unfavorably commented upon, seeing that it had been so clearly proved that Atlas had been jostled at the Tuapeka races in such a manner that it was almost a miracle that h« escaped without his legs being broken or his rider killed. The Argus remarks, and we agree with onr contemporary's opinion, that a serious offence like that deserved a punishment that would be felt.