GENERAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 906, 28 December 1871, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS.

The " Wellington Independent" hears that there is every probability of a journal to represent the interests of the Roman Catholic portion of the inhabitants of the colony, being started in Wellington, at an early date. A fire at Onehunga on the 18th instant destroyed eight buildings, including the Custom House, containing all the material for the light-house at Manukau Heads, the Exchange Hotel, and two stores. The property is insured to the extent of £I7OO. "The. fire originated in an empty house, and is supposed to be the work of an incendiary. The practice of brewing beer from rice is rapidly coming : into use in Germany. This beer is said to be very clear, of a pale colour, of an extremely pleasant, mild taste, foaming strongly, and yet retaining well its carbonic acid. The Accountant in Bankruptcy has recently issued a notification, in which he calls the attention of trustees in Bankruptcy to Clause 226 of the Bankruptcy Ait of 1867. It runs as follows :—Each trustee shall within fourteen days of the thirty-first December in each year, or on the first lawful day after the expiry of the said fourteen days, deliver free of charge to the Registrar of the Supreme Court or Clerk of the District Court, as the case may be, a return in the form of Schedule B hereunto annexed, of every estate in which he is trustee, and the Registrar or Olerk shall, within fourteen days thereafter transmit in the form of the said schedule to the Accountant a return of all estates brought under the operation of this Act in the district of which he is a registrar or clerk, as the case may be, and'the accountant shall cause the returns so made to be regularly bound up and preserved according to alphabetical order of districts in a volume to be kept at all times in his office, with an index thereto, framed by him, which volume shall be open to all concerned, and anytrustee who shall fail

to make such return shall be removable from his office, at the instance of any one creditor, or of the accountant, or subject to such order as the court which awarded such adjudication or the Supreme Court may think suitable. A telegram from Taranaki states, on the authority of Mr Hector M'Lean, that the natives atNgatimaru are willing, on certain conditions, to allow Europeans to prospect their land. It is said that there is alluvial gold there. '~r~T~ —