An idle attempt is being made to suck funds from the people for the reputed purpose of contesting the Education rate. Several messages have been forwarded to us stating that the funds are being provided liberally, etc., etc. But we have not been able to verify the statement by enquiry, and knowing the sources of the rumour we have not given publicity to the .statements. We observe that our contemporary the Herald has manifested a little more greenness, and announces from time to time the preparations for the great Education storm. We trust our friends and readers who may feel inclined to take our guidance will not be deluded into parting with their good money for such a folly. The rate is strictly legal, and has been pronounced so by the recognised leading legal opinion of the colony. The Act may be repealed, and next session is the time for action for those who have been sleeping when the Bill was passing through the Council. Meantime the rate is legal, and will be collected despite the interested advice of briefless lawyers and the stupid bunkum of professional agitators. We recommend all who can to pay the rates. But if they prefer a lawsuit instead we shall have the pleasure of laughing at them—and we will do so too.

At about half-past nine this morning a young woman was observed standing at the edge of the wharf for some minutes contemplating the harbour. Shortly after it was noticed she swayed to and fro, and then toppled over into the water. Mr Landers, the assistant wharfinger, with praiseworthy promptitude, immediately jumped in after her, taking the precaution to take with him the end of a rope which was made fast to the wharf. He was enabled to rescue the woman from a watery grave, and with the assistance of others landed her safely on the wharf. From a remark which afterwards escaped from her lips, that she wished she was dead, it was supposed the woman contemplated the act. She was therefore taken charge of by the poli3e. Medical testimony being pro cured that the woman's mind was disordered, she was brought up at the Police Court this morning, and ordered to be conveyed to the Hospital for medical treatment. The poor creature gave the name of Ann Traynor.

There was a flutter of excitement in the vicinity of St. Paul's cathedral shortly before two o'clock to-day, and the cause of the unwonted animation was soon made apparent when twelve carriages, with drivers wearing wedding rosettes, drove up to the door, including the pick of Messrs Quick and Crowthers establishments. The church, which had been prettily decorated with evergreens for the occasion, was crowded with spectators, chiefly members of the fair sex, who invariably take such an interest in these occasions. The bridegroom was Mr J. M. Shera, of the firm of Me Arthur, Shera and Co., and the bride Miss Balneavis, daughter of our esteemed Sheriff. The bride walked up the aisle leaning upon the arm of her father. Her bridesmaids (Misses Louisa Balneavis, Hamlin, Georgina Balneavis, and Mary Balneavis, Lyell, Isaacs, Thompson, and Wynyard), were escorted by his Honor Mr Justice Johnston, Colonel Lyon, Messrs T. Morrin, A. E. Isaacs, Miller, Bliindell, Bennett, and Balneavis. Mr James Russell waa bridegroom's man. The ceremony was conducted by the Right Rev. the Bishop of Auckland, assisted bf the Rev. 0. M. Nelson, M.A., Incumbent of St. Paul's. The choir, of which Miss Balneavis was a member, had assembled in strong force, and rendered the musical portion of the service, which included the 138 th Psalm with great power and sweetness. In consequence of the indisposition of Mr Livingstone Mr Mainwaring officiated at the organ, and, aa the wedding party was leaving the church, played Mendelssohn's Priests' march,; " Atahalie."

Our respected comtemporary, the Gross,, is so "ineffably pained," so " heart touched with grief," so "harrowed," so "stricken with the intelligence," so " harrowed in the extreme," with the "truly lamentable story," so " heartrending in details, ' and so " frightful to contemplate," and has so " subsided into the sadness of remembrance" as; to let his arithmetic float out to sea, and to have got bewildered in a maze of numbers. His soul is sorely vexed with the exact quantity of human beings that have gone down into the rolling waves off Nova Scotia in the late steamer Atlantic. From 378 to " over seven hundred persons," he drifts in the ecstacies of heart-broken grief, and finally concludes that "no fewer than 560 human beings have met with a watery grave." In the intensity of his sorrow he bethinks him also of the illfated Northfleet, the number of whose victims is nearly doubled, and stands at the appalling figure of " 738 men, women, and children." " That was a truly lamentable story," says our contemporary, but it was nothing to that of the London of many years ago, to which, groaning under the burthen of sorrow from the sea, our contemporary, also refers. In that unfortunate ship, "450 souls went down." Where these souls went doxwn to our contemporary does not say, but the inference is "harrowing in the extreme." It is under the spell of this awful spiritual ruin that our contemporary's figures become perfectly intoxicated with, "the sadness of remembrance." The "560 human beings" of the Atlantic, and the " 738 men, women, and children," of the Northfleet added together make for the two wrecks a "total number of persons drowned 1005 ; " which, added to the four hundred lost '* souls" of the London make 1300 human beings lost. Before such a bewildering loss of men, women, children, souls, ships, and numbers, so appalling is the " effect," that we stand and blubber.

We have no doubt there will be consider- I able agitation among the owners of cabs at the contemplated intervention of the City 3 Council in the matter of fares. We are not < disposed tt> make light of the feelings with which this action will be viewed by those 1 who ply for hire in the conveyance of citizens i from point to point in the city. Many find 1 the means of subsistence for themselves and i 1 their families in this particular occupa- \ \ tion a means limited and precarious enough even in present circumstances, and it will present itself to many as inevitable that the I < lowering of fares will at once diminish their ! receipts in like proportion. If this were to ' be the result of the interference of the City Council, and if this " coming down" on the ' cabstand would be merely to relieve the ' comparativelyirioh who ride, at the expense of men struggling to earn an honest livelihood, we candidly say we should take our place beside the cabstand and fight against all comers. But when we state that in our experience we have never known in the colonies a city where in proportion to the population so few drive as in Auckland, and when we state our conviction that this circumstance is owing to the high rate of cab-fare ruling here, we think we can lay claim to being on the side of cabby and working for his welfare, as well as for tho general good, when we hold that the fixing of a lower fare will be a wise act of the City Council. Every one that has been in other cities in the colonies knows how common it is to see a man popping into a passing cab, or stepping up to the cab-stand, and the horse starting off as if by instinct. Whereas, in Auckland, we observe a man standing on the footpath and fumbling in his breeches-pocket, and inwardly cogitating before he ventures on the investment of a ride, and only indulging when extreme pressure of time, wet weather, or great distance compels the outlay. It is the old, old story of the penny postage j and if the cabmen wish a nearer illustration they may observe it in the vastly increased traffic which has resulted from the lowering of the fares to one-half on our harbour ferries. Times appear tightening, and must be attended by a corresponding diminution in the number of those willing, if even able to patronise the cab-stand ; and we do not hesitate to say that a continuance of high fares would lead to the general employment of that kind of conveyance familiarly known as " Shank's mare." We have been interviewed by Mr W. F. M. Houlton, one of the unsuccessful candidates for the appointment of Market Inspector. Mr Houlton has submitted to us two hundred and fifty-seven testimonials to his general worth and special fitness for the duties of Market Inspector, and we have no hesitation in saying that Mr Houlton has a very large number of testimonials. In fact we do not think we have ever known any one with so many unless Holloway's Ointment and Pills. He has one, we think, from everybody in the city that is anybody ; at least on a cursory perusal—for we have not read all the two hundred and forty-seven— we think he has about as fine a collection of autographs as could well be picked up in the city. Mr Houlton asks us why he did not get the appointment. We really cannot tell, but we do not think it was for want of testimonials, at least if Mr Greenwood has won by the possession of a larger number the new Market Inspector must have a very large quantity of manuscript. If all the fortynine candidates had anything like a proportionate amount of autographs we think it a pity that among the conditions of canefdature it was not necessitated that all the testimonials should become the property of tb.3 Council. These being all deposited in the foundation stone, say of the contemplated works in connection with the Ligar Canal, would have proved of intense interest to aiitiquarian research a thousand years after this, as showing the peculiarity of the chirography of all the early fathers of the city. And as the science, now in its infancy, of reading human character by the handwriting, will then have reached perfection, the valuable collection, after proper fumigation, would prove of incalculable value to the historian in unravelling the motives that prompted the strange vagaries of early colonization. With reference to the appointment made by the Council we are not an a position to offer an opinion, but we have no doubt Mr Greenwood was considered by the members to be the most desirable inspector, and Mr Houlton does not request us to say one word against Mr Greenwood or his fitness for the office ; but feeling it difficult to believe that the successful candidate obtained so many to speak in his favour as two hundred and fiftyseven, he merely desires us to bring the whole matter before the public, which we have much pleasure in doing. Our own opinion is that Mr Houlton frightened the Council, and the members naturally felt that backeoj. up as he might be by these two hundred and fifty seven, he would be too much for the Council, and that putting him on their back; like " the old man of the sea," they would be unable to shake him off. In fact Mr Houlton has been testimonialized to death, and as he assures us that all these two hundred and fifty-seven testimonials were given to him,; and even pressed on him without the least soli-j citation on his part, we conclude he has been killed by kindness. In devoting so much space to Mr Houston's unfortunate candidature we hope we shall not be regarded as giving any encouragement to a visit from the re-^ maining forty-seven who aspired with similar ill-success. We have been appalled at such a waste of effort as is visible in this case, and at such a striking evidence of i decadence in the time-honored custom of testimonialising^ When we think^that two hundred and fifty-, seven persons bearing almost all the best and most influential names in the city and province have thus spontaneously banded themselves together for a particular purpose and failed, there is a "moral," which we shall not insult the intelligence of our readers by deducing for them. It is not for no reason that testi-i monials now-a-days are valueless. For thia the writers of testimonials are responsible, andj we think it is time that the farce was playe dj out. At Onehunga, on Tuesday, licenses were granted to the old houses. When Mr Lun-: don's application for the renewal of the license for the Railway Terminus hotel was heard Major Gordon objected to granting the license because the house was not furnished according to the Act. This hotel has been licensed, but not opened, for the past two years. The other justices granted fhe certificate. '"' Our Onehunga correspondent writes: —The Onehunga Cadets have been without a captain for some time, and seldom show up.—The railway line between the station and the Government wharf is making rapid progress. Some of the land-owners along the route were in high glee, expecting heavy compensation, as in the days of the Auckland and Drury railway. The line is taken along just under high-water mark, and there is an end of their great expectations. . The Hon. Julius Vogel was a passenger by the Nebraska this morning. The remains'of Mrs Elizabeth Holmes, wife of Mr John Holmes, were laid in their last resting place, yesterday afternoon, at the North Shore. The funeral was attended by more than two hundred persons. Deceased was in her forty-seventh year, ftud was greatly respected and esteemed.

It -will be seen from an advertisement jvhich appears elsewhere that Mr C. 0. : Montrose has established an agency for conlucting patents business in Wellington, j rhisisawant that has been seriously fell; Dy the public. Hitherto applications . for registrations of patents have been conducted ay solicitors, thereby involving heavy legal ieea, solicitors being neoessarily obliged to iorward the applications to other solicitors m Wellington where the Patent Office is situated. Mr Montrose promises to save much of this expense, and he undertakes to attend to instructions by telegraph, by which, in cases of emergency, much valuable time may besaved. From what we know of Mr Montrose we have every reason to believe that clients could not entrust their business to better hands. An error crept into our list of licenses granted at the meeting of Justices on Tues day. We have Mr Page's Criterion Hotel, Hobson-street, as a ten o'clock license ; it should have been twelve o'clock. We observe that the well-known play o* " Our American Cousin" has been success" fully placed on the stage at the Theatre Royal, Wellington, Mr Hoskins taking the part of Asa Trenchard, in which he has achieved a great name, and Mr Steele «i----personating LorU Dundreary. The companj | may be expected in Auckland shortly. ' Our dividend list is beginning to look healthy again, no less than three mining companies being entered on it aspayingdividends, namely the Golden Crown, which paid two and sixpence per share yesterday, the Kuranui to pay the same amount to-morrow, and the Alburnia, to pay five shillings per share to-morrow also. The return of gold from the Thames mines during the past month was 9,10*2 ozs. from 7,300 tons of stone, being an increase of 457 ozs. over last month. The Wellington Post says that Captain Machell has been appointed His Excellency's private secretary and aide-de-camp, and William. Fitzgerald, Esq., his assistant private secretary. Mrs Colclough, better known as- " Polly Plum," has been reviving the subject of "Woman's Rights" at Alexandra. This, lady represents the Ladies' Vigilant Society," which numbers among its English supporters the most remarkable of the maiden ladywriters and lecturers of the old country, backed by the genius of the philosophic John Stuart Mill, whose writings in favour of the womanhood suffrage set all the literary maids on the shady side of fifty, from Harriet Martineau to Emily Faithfull, dancing in an esctacy of delightful anticipation. The endeavours of Mrs Colclough have,not been without good effect, and we hope her future labours in her new sphere will be blest with future successes. A challenge of a novel character appears in our columns. Mr E. McOleary is an expert dancer, nature having favored him with an extraordinary pair of legs, which almost involuntarily move with the rapidity of a steam engine! Mr McCleary is, desirous of exhibiting these natural hangers-on in public, and challenges all the legs in the city to a leg contest, either in jig, hornpipe, or " Roger de Coverley ;" in big shoes, summer whites, or clogs, for any sum of money not extending beyond the purse-strings of O'Hare, or Forbes, or any other man. Who will accept this challenge ? Who feels leg-strong enough to communicate with Mr Armstrong on this bone and sinew encounter.. A ludicrous and startling scene occurred yesterday morning at Grahamstown. On the arrival of the Challenger a rude wind rushed among the passengers and lifted a white hat from its musing owner's head, and carried it up in triumph to the height of twelve feet, and dropped it unceremoniously into that hungry receptacle for chattels and effects, the surging Thames. The passenger, a plucky European, was not to be robbed in this way by the '' sly and wicked wind," and so he immediately divested himself of his clothing (of course the ladies turned their heads), dived in after his sailing beaver, and caught the fugitive crown preserver riding on a wave. He received the plaudits of the male passengers as he held his hat to the sun and bowed to the spectators. We beg to draw attention to the gran~ concert to take place this evening in aid o* the funds now being raised towards the erection of a Sunday-school in connection with All Saints' Church. The concert will be given in the City Hall, and the programme has already been published in our advertising columns. A rich and rare musical treat is in store for the audience, which we venture to hope will be a large and brilliant one. A concert in aid of the Onehunga Benevolent Society came off in the Choral Hall^ Onehunga, on Tuesday night. There was a good attendance, and the audience was well satisfied with the entertainment. Messrs Stevenson, Turnbull, and others gave sentimental and Christy Minstrels' songs. Mr J, Jackson was down on the programme for the reading a " Vulgar little boy," but gave another instead very successfully. A concert and ball combined were given in the Catholic Institute the same night. Although not publicly advertised there was a large number present, and dancing -was kept up till early morning. Next Wednesday will be St. George's Day, and also the anniversary of the birthday oi the immortal bard, William Shakespeare. The Scotch people keep St. Andrew's Day, and the Irish commemorate the nativity oi St. Patrick, and it has been suggested thai the English folks should honor their patror saint with a celebration, of Ma day. Wf believe Mr John Mason would be glad tc inaugurate some kind of sport for St. George's Day, such as an amateur tight-rope perform ance, a skating rink on a large scale, or even s colonists' political union on the judge arid jury principle. We throw out the hint, and leave it to him to give effect to the same. The continuation of Rutland-street is to bt commenced forthwith. Messrs B. Tonka & Co. have received instructions to sell by auction or Monday next the four cottages in Lorne-streel acquired by purchase by the Improvemeni Commissioners, and which are to be pulled down to make room for the new street. Th< formation of Wellesley-street east is pro gressing rapidly, and the work for which th( contract was iet yesterday will shortly b< commenced. On Tuesday next Messrs Tonkf will offer for public competition, by ordei of the commissioners, fourteen valuablf building allotment* in Symorid-street anc Grafton road on lease for ninty-nine years. The celebrated Shakesperian open-air actor, Mr .Smithy has come to grief in Londor through impersonating Macbeth in the classic regions of Bethnal Green. Wildly brandish ing a wooden sword, and shouting " Lay on, ..Macduff, and damned be him thatiirst criei Hold, enough !" his challenge was answerec' by a restless policemen, who, heedless of th< dramatic unities, bid the valiant genera! " Hold his row." True to himself and t< the text, the tragedian struck an appropriat< attitude of horror, and shouted to. th< constable, "Approach thou like the Russiar bear. The armed rhinoceros, or the Hyrcar tiger, take any shape but that." Fate, however, in the shape of a.police-magistrate. ultimately, rewarded Mr .Smith's histrioni< ability with a week's imprisonment. The London JEra says that this is a precedent i 1 should like to see established, for there art many so-called Shakesperian actors whe deserve at least six months for the manner in Which they "apt" th> immortal bard,

Thefawwell toaeflt to Mr zan will take plane at the Prin ■' , theatre to-morrow night. A ii^- class P lO gramme has been prepared. 'i The dopartnre of tho steam <rjS^* has been postponed until elevei . the Saturday morning. The time fc' r c JJj b For mails has inconsequence been cr 1 ei} c " ... particulars we would refer our i-eaders to tiie mail notice published elsewhere'The Hobson Company will he ; J then' l\ sua, weekly master on Friday eve. UIJS next at the head quarters. A very busy day is expected f^o^ the Resident Magistrate's Couf fc- f °rty-one cases are set down for hearing 5 seventeen relate to calls in connection w#> 1"^ oompanios, and the remaining tjjwenty-toui . small debt cases. The case of Fitzgerald against^ Moananui, which occupied the Court the iivh()1 T e ,ot J e terday before his Honor Mr Just[ cfi Jolmston, was concluded last night, and vaulted in a verdict for the plaintiff. The ca 4f of .Jon-as v. Loveday, on the application « ;>1 f r Kee^ was withdrawn, it having been' reterr.f l ~, arbitration. The Court then adjourned uutl| next Monday at ten o'clock,; wheu s P eol<il jury cases will be dealt with./ The firms who sent in tenf*".*" t i he co^' .truction of carriages fortti e Wajkato raiiwtv are, we hear, Messrs rOousins and Atkin, tfe*n Bailey and Bell* (Auckland arms), and Messrs Price Bror.. of the Thames. The result is not yet know *iWe have to apologise our ParnelT subscribers for th n .on-delivery of the Star last night. Tihe regular runner for that district is at present laid up with sickness, and the duty of supplying our Parnell supporters was ; deputed to an erratic youth, who has been anything but regular in the fulfilment of the task. Last night's papers were sent to the 'bus ai3 usual, but the boy, finding that the 'bus had not arrived, left the papers at the Q.C.E. upon a promise made by the barman that, the bundle would bs placed on the first 'bus. This he neglected to do, and the whole of the papers were returned to our office from the "hotel this "morning. Other arrangements have been made, which wiM. prevent future disappointment. Wa Sre very glad to learn that the district .-■;.:"hool at the North Share is satisfactorily progressing under the auspices of the new committee. The attendance during the last. quarter averaged 73, and at present is nearly 80, with every prospect of increase. On the • re-opening after the holidays the staff of teachers will be increased by the accession of Miss Cole, a trained and certificated teacher, who, for the last two years and upwards, has been .engaged a8 assistant in the Papakura school. It is probable that evening classes will be established in a few weeks. ■ There are thousands of busy people who die every year for want of sleep. Sleeplessness becomes a disease, and precursor of insanity. We speak of sleep as the image of death, and our waking hours as the image of life. Sleep is not like death, for it is the period in which the waste of the system, ceases, or is reduced to its minimum. Sleep' repairs the waste which waking hours have: made. The night is the repair shop of the body. Every part of the system is silently overhauled, and all the organs, tissues, and substances are silently replenished. Waking consumes and exhausts ; sleep replaces and repairs. A man who would be a good worker must be a good sleeper. A man has not as much force in him as he has provided for in sleep. • The quality of mental activity depends upon the quality' of sleep. Men need, on an average, eight hours of sleep in a day. A lymphatic temperament may require nine, a nervous temperament six or seven. A lymphatic man is sluggish, moves and spe.;ks slowly. But a nervous man acts quickly in everything. He does more in one hour than a sluggish man in two hours, and so in his sleep. Every man sleeps according to his temperament; but eight hours is the average. Whoever by work, pleasure, or sorrow, or by any other cause, is regularly diminishing his sleep, is destroying his life. A man may hold out for a time, but the crash will come and he will die. The is a great deal of intemperance besides that of tobacco, opium, and brandy. Men are dissipated who overtax their systems all day, and undersleep every night. A man who dies of delirium tremens is no more a drunkard and a suicide than the. paimster, the editor or the printer, that works expensively all day and sleeps but little all night; Henry Ward Beecher. . The following extract from the JBirminffi ham Post will be read-with interest by Mr Broham, who may be induced to imitate the example for the benefit of colonial tradesmen It tells us that a pictorial exhibition of a rather novel character, on a matter of con-j siderable interest just now to Birmingham' , householders and property ownersj took place at a meeting of the watch committee on ; Tuesday. It consisted of a repoit from the ; chief of police, illustrated by the photogra- ; phic portraits of no less than 822 professional • gentlemen who have done Birmingham*'tlfe • honor to select it as their place of residence. ! It seems that 105 are earningtheir livelihood i under police supervision ; the remaining 7171 i are simply known as returned convicts. | The pain of dying must be distinguished! j from the pain of the previous disease; for I when life ebbs sensibility declines. As; 3 death is the final extinction of the coporeal i feelings, so numbness increases as death j comes on. ' The; prostration of disease; like i healthful fatigue, engenders a growing stupor j1 — a sensation of subsiding softly into covered J repose. The transition resembles what may ii be peen in those lofty mountains whose sides L: exhibit every climate in regular gradation ; I' vegetation luxuriates at their base and" ! dwindles in the approach to the regions of ! snow till its feeblest manifestation is re--5j pressed by the cold. The so-called agony can 1! never be more formidable than when the brain Ji is the last to go, and when the mind prej serves te the end a rational cognizance of the |*i state of the body. Yet persons thus situated [' commonly attest that there are fewj things in 5; life less painful than the close. '" If I had I strength to hold a pen," said William Hunter, 35 "I would "write how easy and delightful it is 5i to die." "If this be dying," said the niece 3! of Newton of Oldney, "itis a pleasant thing [j to die." "That very expression," adds her V uncle, "which another friend of mine made | use of on her death-bed afew years ago." The same words have so often been uttered under 1, similar circumstances that we could fill pages \\ with instances which are only varied by the ' i name of the speaker. ! By the mail steamer Candia, which arrived 31 at Southampton, the Dispatch learns that the I 1 marriage of his Highness the Sheriff of Guazan s with an' English Christian lady, Miss King, l; took place at Tangier on the 17th January. ) The bride rodo to the English Consulate on 31 an Arab horse, covered with a scarlet 3' saddle and cloth embroidered with gold, t and was presented by the bridei groom. The marriage was merely a civil ceremony, and was performed by Sir John Drummond Hay. The bridegroom appeared j: in a flowing Eastern dress of dark blue, and 3 was escorted by a guard of Moorish soldiers, i to the Victoria Hotel, where all the Consu--3 lar body were present. His Highness has > now four wives. Miss King, by her mari riage with a Mahomedan, forfeits all protection to the English law;