CAPTURE OF AN INCENDIARY IN AUCKLAND.

It will,be;remetnbered that a short time ago it was reported tliat a pistol had been, fired a. tMr. Russell .of , Aucklapd through his window. A few days later some hay stacks in the immediate neighborhood of his house were set on fire, and there is ; every reason to. believe that the incendiary is a Mr. Cyrus Haley, :i wh6 is now in the hands of the police,'and whose capture is thus related by the Southern Cross : — At 1 o'clock on the morning of the 28th January, a messenger galloped up to the Albert Barracks, ; and communicated: to Ihe police that a large haystack, the property of Mr. Thomas Russell, of the Pa Farm, had, been fired hy an incendiary. Imnaeiiately upon receipt of the information, Mry Broham, Sergeant Egan, Detectives Jeffery and Ternahan, with! mounted trooper Bulled, started for the ■scene, all taking different roads in, the hope of being able to fail 1 in with any suspicious characters who it -might be presumed . had committed the act. Mr. Broham had proceeded, half a mile bey oo.d the toll rgate at Newton, when he perceived .some brie coming alpng ; from the opposite direction at a smart pace. The instant the man saw some one was in front of him, he turned off the road and commenced running at full speed, It was this that aroused Mr. Broham's suspicious ; for when he saw some person ahead of him, be had no, other idea than that it would be one of the residents of the locality either going or. returning from home. But, his suspicions once awakened, Mr. Broham leaped from his horse, divested himself ofhis coat, and securing his riding whip, gaye 1 chase. The man, finding himself pursued, increased his speed, and for a time was loßt to sight. Fortunately Mr. Broham is remarkably swift of foot, there being, with the exception of professional pedestrians, few to equal him in speed in this Colony. In the pursuit, Mr. Broham had to leap a massive stone wall, cross through 'an orchard, and again over a hawthorn fence, . following up the chase over some very rough ground, across ditches, and through thick scrub. ■ The man was still considerably ahead, as he also proved a swift runner ; yet the pace of Mr. Brdham told at last, and every minute the distance be-tween-the two lessened. Becoming quite exhausted, and finding that he must soon be run to' earth, tire pursued, who proved to be Mr. Cyrus Haley, turned at bay, and aimed a revolver at the Inspector. Why it did not take effect will be told hereafter. The two. men then closed in deadly struggle.- In weight and height neither possessed any superiority over the other, but Mr. Broham is almost a trained athlete, and being a man of great activity and muscular power . he ; succeeded in releasing himself from Haley's grip, and tried to seize him by the throat. Then in another instant both grappled, and another desperate i struggle ensuecK There was none at hand to render assistance, and Haley was now making a powerful effort to release himself/ and make another run for his liberty. Then Mr. Broham, using the butt of his riding whip, struck Haley on the head and felled him to the ground. The. man was now his prisoner, and as' soon as he was able to rise from his prostrate position Mr. Broham, with a firm hold of his man, walked him to the Albert Barracks, where he was placed under safe custody until brought down to the city watchhouae. It was then that Sergeant Egan with Mr. Broham, with other constables, went to a house at Newton, where Haley, lived. Here, upon making search, they found a Spider rifle, two revolvers, with their cases, an air-gun, and a third revolvercase/ but without containing the revolver. There was also discovered an enormous quantity of ammunition in the form of cartridges, bullets, gunpowder, wadding, *nd moulds. After the search had been effected, the police proceeded to the scene of the .encounter.: Here they found, lying on the ground, a revolver, but minus the chamber. A three ,• hours' search was made along the track of the chase and where the struggle- had taken place, but nothing further was discovered. On examining, the revolver it was found that the chamber had' fallen off the spindle which holds it to its -place. Yesterday morning, andbefore what we have here related became" generally known, a man

went to a public-house and offered the chamber of ■'■ a revolver for sale for a shilling. He informed the landlord that he had found it early in the morning in. Symonds-slreet. The man did not staie his name, but as immediately afterwards a placard was posted over the .city offering a reward of £5 for a pistol chamber supposed to be loaded. There is little to fear but what the finder will be brought to the police station as soon as he hears of the notification. The prisoner, Cyrus Haley, was formerly the lessee of the Exchange Restaurant and .News Room in the New Insurance Company's building, anct which, as is well known, was burned down on the night previous to the day on which the Kestaurant was to have been opened. The building was insured either for £1000. or £2000, the whole of which was paid over to Haley." The Latest Dodge. — It would seem that specimen stealing is not confined to the Thames, bat is practised in other districts in the most elaborate manner. The latest dodge at Ballarat, as we learn from an Australian exchange, is for the men to " retire up the shaft for prayers." The manager of ohe mine pounced upon one of these, pious parties, and found some of their pockets lined with specimens. Sporting Incident. — At a country race meeting in Auckland a short time ago a rather amusing incident occurred. It appears that for the the leading race of the day only a couple of horses. came up to the starting post, and the consequence was that, as there were two prizes, the race would have fallen through for want of a third entry. A spectator, mounted on what seemed but a sorry nag, was asked for the sake of sport to enter his horse, which he" consented to do. The result was rather startling,, the strange horse, which proved to have been an old racer of renown on the Sydney side, coming in first, and beating the regularly trained horses with whom he was entered. English Synonyms. — The copiousness of the English tongue, as well as the difficulty of acquiring the ability to use ;its immense vocabulary correctly is well exhibited in the following array of synonymous words; which, if not new, are yet' capital illustrations of the : nice distinctions which characterise so many of our vocables. It is no wonder that we slip occasionally, even the wariest of us. A little girl was looking at the picture of a number of ships, when she exclaimed, " See;, what -a flock of ships"! " We corrected her by saying that a, flock of ships is called a fleet, and a fleet of sheep is called a . flock. ; And here w,e may; add for the benefit of the foreigner who is mastering the intricacies of our language in respect to nouns of multitude, that a flock of girls is called a bevy, that a ; bevy of wolves is called a pack, and a pack of thieves is called a gang, t and a, gang, of angels is called a host, acid a host of porpoises is called a shoal, and a shoal of buffaloes is called a herd, and a herd of children is called a troop; and a troop of partridgesia called "a covey,' and a edvey of : beauties is called a galaxy, and a ; galaxy ' of ruffians is called a horde, and a liorde of rubbish is called a heap, and a heap of oxen is palled a drove, and a' drove of blackguards is called a molb, and a mob of; whales; is; called a r scfio6l, and* a;sc'b<i6i of worshippers is 'called a cotigreg^.iibni arid a congregation ; of engineersfJis ' callgjL a corps, and a corps of robbers band,, and a ;'.band q£ .locusts AS-lcalled, i aj-. Swarm, and La's warm of people lV called , -at erjpwd, and a crowd of gentlefolkaisJßailed

the elite, and the elite of tbe.city's thieves and rascals are called the roughs, apd tblo miscellaneous crowd of the city folk is called tlje. community, or the public, according as they are spoken of by the religious i community or the secular public. r-^-Americah Educational Monthly.