TELEGRAMS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 414, 5 December 1874, Page 3

TELEGRAMS.

(From the Dunedin Dailies. )

Auckland, December Ist Cecilia Allen, a child, charged with arson at North Shore, has made a full confession. She said she also tried to set fire to another place. Another case of fever occurred at the Quarantine Station, the sufferer being a child named Smith. Notwithstanding the fresh cases of scarlet fever at the Quarantine Station, the single men and women will be brought up to-morrow. The Public Works Department has intimated to the Harbour Board that the Government cannot permit the substitution of a hydraulic lift for the docks. Under the Loan Act £50,000 worth of debentures of the dock loan have been sent to Sydney, reports from there favouring the possibility of negotiating it. Cecilia A lien's confession indicates that she is possessed of a monomania for fire raising. She attempted to cause several fires at Auckland some time ago, but was stopped by neighbours. December 2nd. Mr. Alex. Saunders reports: — Buyers of National Insurance, £1 8s ; Thames, £1 ; Bright Smile, £2 5s ; Bismarck, 6s ; Tokatea, 9s 3d ; Cure, 7s 6d. Sellers of South British, £2 10s; Caledonian, £5. Wellington, December 2nd. Arrived — Ship Soukar, from London, 104 days out, with 422 souls on board, all well. Five deaths occurred on tlie voyage, all children. The vessel was towed in by the Phoebe. Christchurch, December 2nd. Madame Goddard's opening concert, last night, was a great success, the hall being crammed to suffocation. Over 200 were refused admittance. The preliminary firing for the selection of representatives to compete' for the Government prizes has been concluded The scoring was generally poor, the highest one being Corporal Perring, the representative of last year, who made 84.

The Inverallan has cleared for London, with a cargo valued at £56,000.

The Champion Billiard Player. — Cook, tbe billiard champion, has recently taken a benefit in England, and an English sporting paper thus writes of him : — Few professionals, not only in billiards, but in any other sporb, hare more justly earned a complimentary benefit than W. Cook', the Champion ; and it is to be regretted that the unfavourable season of the year, when the moors aud the sea draw so many from the town, soould have been chosen for what probably would otherwise have been a gigantic success. It is very rare indeed thairthßnchampio»oliip-Qf_any.^Dort dependent upon nerve and patience,should be won by comparatively speaking a boy ; for it will be borne in mind that W. Cook won that title on the 11th February, 1870, when only twenty years of age. It was on this occasion, too, that he defeated the hitherto unconquered Roberts, who must have played with all the confidence that years of victory invariably give. The David, however, prevailed over , the Goliath, and has since most deservedly been crowned the king of billiard players. It is, we believe, the intention of Cook to leave England before long, on a visit to America, where we trust he will meet with the reception he moßt justly merits, and that he may find in some American players a foeman worthy of his steel. In, such opponents as Roberts, junior, Stanley, and Taylor, he has lately had a stimulus to exertion, in the shape of plenty of practice and a healthy life ; and it would be greatly to be regretted I that the removal of such stimulus should be the cause of his growing careless in these respects, as in such case, on his re- ., turn to England, he might find his well:, earned laurels, plucked from his brow. With rising young players in existence, who are known to be capable of making 500 off the balls, and who are content to practice six hours a day on a bottle of lemonade, the championship of billiards can never long remain a certainty to any man, not even to one who has proved himself to be so incomparably superior to all others as the present champion has. W,e trust that Cook will return the better for his trip, and that he may take back at least some of the Alabama's Claims' money with him.