(Specially COMPILED FOR THE " Waikato Times.") Auckland, Thursday."

Waikato Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1182, 24 January 1880, Page 2

(Specially COMPILED FOR THE " Waikato Times.") Auckland, Thursday."

LINCONSHIBE DELEGATES. Yoto friends from Lincolnshire— Messrs Grant and Foster— have proceeded Bouth with the intention of inspecting the land in the various Southern Provincial Districts. They return to Auckland shortly, and will proceed through Tauranga and Grisbome, and then to the Northern districtn. There has been no small amount of talk down here about the " attempts of the Waikato capitalists to prevent tho delegates from going to Kaipara and Whangarei," and some people have very queer ideas on the subject. 1 hey represent that there are hundreds of thousands of acres of magnificent land in the Noith, and consider Waikato but a "potatopatch" compared to it. It is plainly evident that an agent from Kaipara, Whangarei. or the Three Kings has been very busy lately, and his efforts have not by any means assisted to raise Waikato people or Waikato land in the eyes of the public generally.

CONNUBTAL BLISS. It is not unlikely that the domestic troubles of a well-known vocalist and his better half will come very prominently before the public shortly in the form of a action for divorce. The lady rebels against the neglect of her better half, who, it is said, pays more attention to his other female friends than to her he has vowed to ''love, cherish," &c, and therefore she intends to free herself from the chains of matrimony. The gentleman, who has a very decided partiality to comic opera, will doubtless be unable to discover the amusing part in the scene in which it is expected he will have to play a leading role.

AX OLD FEIEND. Many of your Waikato readers will remember James Bailey, C.8., formerly Deputy Commissary- General and Director of Land Transport with General Cameron through the war. He has returned to Auckland from the old country by way of Sydney, and he intends to permanently settle here.

COMIC OPERA. The Bicoardi Opera Company (local talent) are doing very well now in the production of comic opera. " Trial by Jury," "Sorcerer," and several others have drawn fairly, and last night " H.M.S. Pinafore " was placed on the boards before a good house. There i 3 no doubt the company is a good one, and it compares very favorably indeed with the professionals who were playing in the same opera some months ago.

MORMON CONVERTS. Elder Pearce, our local Mormon missionary, has received news fiom his brethren in the South, of a considerable number of conversions to their doctrines at Timaru. A batch of thirty converts is expected here on Monday week, and they leave again for Salt Lake City by way o£ San Jfrancisco on the following day. The elders have not progressed nearly so well as they anticipated in Auckland, no real proselytes having yet announced themselves. There are a few, however, "[almost persuaded," but they have not quite come round. A run through Waikato district by Pearce might have the effect of increasing the female population of Utah.

A HAPPY FAMILY. The Ben Nevis — the last passenger ship from London — has formed the subject of table-talk here for the last week. The passengers have made a series of complaints to the Customs officials ; and indeed so much grumbling from one ship has not been heard for a considerable timo past. They complain of having had Only half allowance of water, <fee., and say the food was not nearly as good as that served out to Government immigrants. The complaints also refer to nearly all tho arrangements of ship management, and judging by them the state of things on board the Ben Nevis was very lively indeed.

'■ SLUBBERDEGULIONISM RAMPANT. Our local poet, painter and philosopher, j Alfred Sharpe, has been in trouble with, his .servant maid, and the result was an enquiry before the Resident Magistrate, which ended in the man of letters being fined. The case was a most amusing 1 , although not by any means an edifying one. The complainant, Jane Patrick, is a very sharp -looking lady indeed, and perhaps I might be excused for saying that she is, well — rather elderly. On a, recent Saturday morning the breakfast was not forthcoming, and according to the poet'a statement, he went upstairs to bring her down. But the lady shocked his modesty by commencing the operation of undressing before him, and he therefore put her outride the room and locked the door. This he says he did with as much tenderness as lie would use in handing a lady into her carriage. Miss Patrick's statement, however, went to show that his mode of handing a lady into a carnage was just a little bit rough, and the poet, painter, and philosopher was thereforo fined. In a letter, under the heading " Slubberdegulionism Rampant," in the Herald, he subsequently defended his conduct, and endeavored to explain how mild his behaviour was. But it wouldn't do.

rBACTICAL, IF ILL-ADVISED. Possibly you have never heard a better illustration of Christian desire to prevent sin than the following instance, which really occurred m Parnell only a few days ago. An elderly and pious gentleman in that district had several fine fruit trees in his garden ; hut from year to year he has always lost a considerable proportion of the fruit owing to the tendency to pilfering possessed by children in the neighborhood. This year the trees bore even better than usually, and were literally loaded with fruit. Thinking the matter over in his mind, therefore, the gentleman in question came to the conclusion that the trees were a great temptation to the rising generation, and no small inducement to sin. He therefore procured an axe and in a very short time they were all hewn down, and the teinjrtations to thieving removed.