GENERAL ITEMS.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1186, 26 June 1874, Page 4

GENERAL ITEMS.

The price of sawn timber at Wellington has been raised Is per 100 feet. The demand exceeding the supply, both from local mills and timber laden vessels. The official ratification for the establishment of a second conclave of the Red Cross Knight Order of Freemasons in Wellington, was received by the last English mail. One of the inconveniences of having a wife of too saving a disposition was lately exemplified at Auckland. A Mr William Head received a pair of ln.il pheasants as a present, and .Mrs W. Head sold them without his knowledge and without first taking out a license to; sell game. The Police laid information, and Mr W. Head was thus addressed by the Bench. "We are sorry to say there is no op lion, in this matter left to the Bench. We are here simply to administer the law. Whatever our private feelings in the mutter may be it is our duty to indict a fine of £2O At the same time we believe that it is not the intention of the Legislature to make the fine -so heavy„ without giving discretionary power to the Bench"" and* if you feet inclined to apply for a remission of the fine, the Bench will assist you to any way it can." We learn, says the local'journal, that the General Government has authorised the expenditure of £IOOO for immigrants' cottages at Napier. The grant is to be' repaid in iustahnents which will be met by the rents to bo charged the occupiers of the cottages. The Municipal Council of Wellington has decided that in future the Mayor of the city should be elected by ratepayers direct, and not by the Council, and that the .necessary ,alteration in the law should be made.

In the General Synod held at Wellington, the Bishop of Nelson moved, -"That a Select Committee-be appointed to report on the supply of candidates from tho ministry, their training, <£c." The Bishop of Huuedin seconded the motion, on the ground that the time was not far distant when the supply of clergy from England would practically cease. Tho motion was agreed to, The Hawkers' Licensing ordinance, passed last session by the Taranaki Provincial Council, and wdiereby it was sought to extort a fee of £ L 0 from every new trader, has been disallowed by the Governor, some of the clauses being ultra vires.

An immense casting has been successfully made at Messrs Eraser and Tinne's foundry Auckland. It is a piston .for the Thames Pumping Association, .and when complied will weigh between 3j and 3f tons. The piston-rod, weighing about two tons, has also just been forged under the steam hammer, and is now in the lathe being finished.

A very important, item'of news is forwarded to the Auckland Herald by its correspondent at Malcetu. The result of the To Puke Native meeting has been tho sale of over 10,000 acres and the leasing of 20,000 acres of good land, to the General Government, nearly all of it ready for occupation, and the settlers of which will have a water carriage through the whole of the block. One of the neatest and prettiest things in monumental ornamentation to be seen probably in any part of tho certainly -in any of the Auatra-

lian Colonies, says ilie Melbourne Herald, is that over tbe grave of Signpra Tamburini, Coy's baby. Oil one side of tiro grave is a photo of the child enclosed in wax flowers, and proteeted by a glass ; opposite to it, and similarly placed, is an inscription in Italian. In the middle of the grave is a marble cross, in the contro of which is a picture of a child being borne aloft by angels. Tlio whole affair is exceedingly chaste and artistic. The grave is situato near the Roman Catholic Mortuary Chapel. It will interest Australians to know that great" efforts are being made in France to propagate the breed of kangaroo. The Paris correspondent of the Independence Belgo .say 3 that for several years past several of the greatlanded proprietors/ particularly Mons Cornelly, in his park at Beaujardiu, near Tours, have let.loose kangaroos, which are multiplying very abundantly, and give excellent sport, and are good eating. The Jardin d'Aeclimation, who is desirous of propagating the race, has just received twenty-two pairs of kangaroos, which can now bo seen diverting themselves in the park reserved for them. A rather serious accident recently happened to the Ballarafc and Melbourne coach. Coming down Pyke's hill two hay waggons caused the coach horses to swerve.. The driver put on both brakes, but both gave way, and the coach capsized. The driver was very much injured on the head, and had to be left behind. The other passengers were very little hurt. The North Cross Reef Company declared a dividend of KJs per 10,000 th share, making a total amount of £BOOO. Rather a curious coincidence and ' conjunction of names recently occurred in the Supreme Court Melbourne, when application was made that probate of William Shakespeare's will be made to Ann Shakespeare, his widow. All lovers of our glorious bard will remember that Ann Rathaway was the maiden name of his wife, and the lines, - Ann Hathaway, she hath a way That makefch all men woo her, which are attributed to her husband, will probably occur to them. Such a coincidence, happening at this lapse of I time, and at the antipodes, is, to sav the least of it, worthy of note. A strange/case of Sabbatarianism has occurred at Ballarafc, where a Jew has ,beeu brought up and lined for working on a Sunday. 'Of course, to the local Pecksniffs who instituted the prosecution, it was nothing that the defendant kept his own Sabbath religiously. This was nothing unless he was compelled to keep their's. So the disgraceful old Act of Charles 11., which has been the occasion of so much gross injustice, was put in force, and if the defendant foolishly entortaiuel the idea that he lived in a laud of religious equality where'all creeds were alike before the law, ho has now an opportunity of correcting his error. At Cooktown sixty-five publicans' licenses have been issued, and thirty more applied for. The other places of business are, twenty eating houses, twelve large stores, and twenty smaller ones, six butchers, live bakers, three tinsmiths, four teiit and sailmakers, six hairdressers, seven blacksmiths, four chemists, three doctors, three watchmakers, seven bootmakers, four fancy shops, five saddlers, four Custom-house agents and auctioneers, two printing oilices, three booksellers. There are several billiard rooms and three Chinamen witk.goixls from their gardens. The above are far in excess of the number required ; and as soon as the roads are open seventy-five per cent, will, no doubt, remove somewhere out of Cooktown.

lii the .Supreme Court, Melbourne, a divorce case was recently reported as pending, at the suit of a lady. Ju legal phraselogy it was entitled Bishop v. Bishop. The lady, after some ten years or more experience of married life, complained that, through constitutional defect on her spouse's part, she was still virtually, unmarried, and on. that ground she.desired to be set free. As last reported the case had been in progress sonic days, but it was really almost a private investigation; The public were not admitted, and as a consequence, all sorts of rumors were afloat. • The revelations- are said to have been of an uncommonly exceptionable character. The. lady is described as good looking, somewhat fascinating, and not very sensitive. The ordeal which she passed through was, however, too much for her nerves

on one of the days, and she went off in hysterics ; but in other respects she gave the fullest and most private information, to establish her case, with perfect coolness. Telegraphic intelligence states that the petitioner obtained her verdict, the marriage being ordered to be dissolved. A lively magistrate presides in tho Grant County, Victoria. The Grant correspondent of the Gipps Land Mercury • says :—:" Mr Wyatt, the newly appointed police magistrate and Warden for 'Bairnsdale, Oineo, Bcndoc and Grant, made his'debut' at the latter place orr Monday last, and rather astonished the slow coaches of tbo mountain village by the rapidity -with -■-which he 6h p sed of a number of debt and other cases. .Fifteen' -cases were disposed of, besides sundry which were called on, but to which there was 'no appearance' made, in forty-iivc minutes. A match.against time would not much better that."