Quite a number of petty civil cases, were on the list for hearing at the Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday last, 18th, but a goodly number of them had been settled outside, and did not come before his Worship. Those that did were also mostly trivial. The first was Stead v. M'lhtyre, claim for £1 lis 4d, balance of wages, refused on the ground of plaintiff having been very properly dismissed for nonperformance'of duties. Judgment for defendant, with costs, 9s. M'lntyre v. Mitchell, was a suit to recover 15s, hire of a horse to Long Bush, for which plaintiff averred defendant " had become responsible. It appeared, from the evidence of plaintiff and his groom, that some time ago, a stranger had hired the horse in question, which they had ■ declined to give him, until some one who knew him had guaranteed its payment. He had therefore gone in search of Mr Mitchell, the defendant, to become surety for him, and shortly returned with him to the yard, when some conversation ensued between the parties, which induced M'lntyre to let the stranger have the horse. Both, plaintiff and his witne« positively as-j serted that defendant had used the words "I will see you paid," but defendant as positively denied having said «o, or having had any intention of guaranteeing the payment of the hire, not having been asked to do so. He had simply beat plaintiff down a little in his charge, and spoke to its." being all right," that the "man would pay it." Under the circumstances, the bench gave judgment for the defendant, on the ground that " no man is responsible, in law, for the debt of another unless the guarantee be in writing," and remarking at the same time that the parties had evidently misunderstood each other. Tapper v. Reese was a claim for £5 6s 6d, goods sold and delivered; £4 13s had been paid into court, the items making up the difference being disputed as having been paid for when purchased. Judgment for defendant, costs divided. Macrorie v. Cook, £2 17s deficiency and expenses on goods re-Bold at auction in terms of sale when first purchased by defendant. Judgment by default, with costs, 9s. An accident of a serious nature befel a young., man named Frederick Sing on Saturday last. He was engaged falling and splitting timber for his brother, a settler at Limehills, when a tree which he was taking down swerved from the direction it was expected to take in its fall, sprung off the butt, and caught his leg, breaking it just below the knee. He was at once placed in a spring cart, and brought - on to Winton, his brother having ridden on before to make arrangements for his conveyance to town by a returning ballast train. Placed in an empty truck, with sufficient bedding, &0., to make him as comfortable as possible, he was speedily brought in to the hospital, where the fracture was attended to by Dr. Deck. It may be worth mentioning that he found the smooth run of the train a most grateful relicf 1 from the jolting of the buggy, not "experiencing the slightest jar, except when the engine was being brought to a stand. Yesterday the sufferer was progressing most favorably. Yesterday —Easter Monday—was observed as a close holiday at the banks, Government, and principal merchants' offices. The weather was delightfully fine, and was taken advantage of by numbers for a run to the sea-side by the railway, or rambles into the country. In HoMtika it is proposed to levy a special rate of twopence in the pound on all rateable property, for the maintenance of the Fire Brigade.

An American has produced an instrument by means of which .vacoination may be readily performed without pain. "It can," he says, ." be applied to a sleeping infant without waking it," Such an instrument must be a small blessing to babes as well as to mothers. It will no doubt interest many of our readers to know that presbyterianism is stronger in America . then in any other country in the world ; there are about 7,200 ministers, and 731,000 members connected with the several branches of the presbyterian church in America, andictely a union has been effected between the t^id and new schools, two of the largest and most influential bodies, which now number in their united capacity, 4,229 ministers, and 431,463 members. A special thankoffering of 5,000,000 dols. was proposed in commemoration of the Union, and a telegram was at once forwarded to Scotland announcing the happy con- - summation. His Honor the Chief Justice sat ia Bankruptcy at Auckland on the 14th ult. The only opposed case was that of Mr Shaw (late Mayor of HoHtika), who recently filed a deed of arrangement. Mr Richmond, for the trustee, applied for a declaration of the complete execution of the deed, which was stated to have been signed by 67 creditors, representing £4660 of debts, out of a total of 74 creditors and £5317 of debts. Mr Reese was for the arranging debtor. Mr MacCormick appeared on behalf of the Union Bank, to oppose the declaration of complete execution, and to apply for a declaration that the filing of the deed was an act of bankruptcy. The filing of the deed of arrangement was' ultimately allowed. A warning to persons who indulge in the dangerous habit of reading in bed, is given by a West Coast paper. In noticing a. fire by which the shop and dwelling-house of Mr Barr, a butcher at the Kanieri, were destroyed, it says: — It appears that Mrs Barr had retired and was reading in bed by candle-light, and it is supposed that the candle had fallen out of the bottle which served the purpose of a candlestick, against the lining of the house. Mrs Barr first saw the flame running up the wall, and in a few minutes" the whole building was one blaze of fire, obliging her and her two children to escape in their night dresses. The only property saved was some boxes of clothing. As Rome waß once saved by geese, so New Zealand is now, it seems, to be saved by pheasants. .T^PWellingtbn correspondent of the Westport Times' writes :— " The welfare of the whole colony depends upon pheasants being introduced into Wellington, and protected till they multiply, so I want you to stir up your readers with a long pole till they subscribe liberally for this purpose. If patriotism abounds in your neighborhood, I am certain that a very few remarks from your able pen will convince your readers that the propagation of pheasants in Wellington is the one panacea for all colonial ills. Ton don't see it ? Well, Til show you. Pheasant shooting attracts the Governor and Ministers to Auckland, and makes , them like the province. From liking the place to voting removal a 'bore is" but one step, and one more leads to endeavors to prevent moving by making Auckland the permanent residence. Now if flre have, pheasant-shooting for H.B. here, he will be content to remain, and the talk of the removal of the seat of Government will cease, and with it one of the clouds that threaten the pros s perity of "the colony. The expense of the removal would be one of the least evils attending it, and one of the worst would be the revival, and with two-fold the original vigor, of the agitation for separation in the Soutk. In every way, therefore, the pheasants are necessary, and you should subBcribe." We have received the prospectus of a new w#ekly journal, to be published in Oamaru on the 2Sth mat., anu to be called the Oamaru Herald. Ite projectors promise to produce a good, readable paper, giving great prominence to agricultural and mining afEairs. f An unfortunate horse managed to tumble into the well at the rear of Mr Scott's residence in Leven street, some time beetween Saturday night and Sunday morning last, and it was with con--1 siderable difficulty that it was extrecated from its perilous position. The mouth of the well had to JtJe extended on one side, and a pair of horses ' Hutched on to the animal before it could be taken f 'out. The horse was placed under the charge of :*• Dr " Horton, and we believe it is now little the worse of the accident. The Qreymovth Star of a recent date has the following :— lnsanity, we are told, is greatly on the increase in Westland. And the cause is said to have been produced from drinking to excess illicitly distilled spirits, very large quantities of which are manufactured in the up-country districts ; and owing to the abundance of water, and the dense — almost impenetrable — nature of the scrub, detection is almost impossible. The spirit which is made and sold to shanty keepers, and even to some of the up-country licensed houses, is, it may be said, almost rank poison ; and when indulged in in considerable quantities, brings on delirium tremens and insanity in their worst forms. The heavy duty of 12s a gallon upon proof spirits - is, of course, a great incentive to persons to engage in defrauding the excise, which we believe is done to an enormous extent. The large sale of spirits at the centres of population outside the main towns of Westland, in comparison to the small quantities which are ordered from the legitimately-licensed spirit-merchants, is sufficient proof that the above statement is substantially correct. Our Riverton correspondent informs us that on Thursday the 7th inst. a marriage .was celebrated there between Capt. Hankinson and Miss Taylor, the only daughter of J. P. Taylor, Esq., the exsuperintendent of Southland. The marriage took place at 3 p.m.. in the parish church, and after entertaining a select -party of friends at Waldeok, the lovely residence of the bride's father, the happy pair left at two next morning for the Bluff en route for Melbourne. —On the evening of the 12th a very influential meeting was held in the Courfc-House to take into consideration the I desirability of forming an Agricultural and Horticultural Society ; the Rev. W. F. Oldham, in the chair. After a few introductory remarks, it was proposed and carried, nem. con., that a Society be immediately formed. Seventeen gentlemen were named to form a Committee pro tern. to put the affair in a proper course, viz. : — The Revs. W. F. Oldham and M'Gillivray, Messrs Instone, Petchell, Daniel, Nurse, Bell, Matthews, Johnson, Gillow, Lyoh, Murchie, Scully, Dyke,. Grant, and Ireland. Mr J. E. Stewart was unanimously appointed secretary. The next public. meeting was announced to take place early in May. The Taranaki is nearly ready for sea, and is being beautifully fitted up.

A Melbourne paper speaks of that town as the " city of rotten bridges." The reproach might be applied with at least equal truth to this province. We learn that the bridge over the Waikivi, on the Mabel road, near Roslyn, is in a- most dangerous condition. One half of the structure, longitudinally, ha 9 given ( way, and dropped to the water, leaving only the Other half, narrow and shaky, for the passage of traffic. On Saturday morning, a settler coming to town with his team, reached the bridge before daylight^ and, unaware of the danger, came near driving right into the river. In & case of such emergency it is to be hoped the Government will see its way to assist the settlers to have the damage at once repaired. Complaints regarding the state of the roads in various districts of the province (says the 06 ago Daily Times), are made in several of the country papers. The main south road , between Milton and Waihola Gorge is described as being in especial need of repair. The prospectus of a new bank (says the Evening Star) has been issued. It is to be conducted upoa the Scottish, principle, on a sound, judicious, and liberal system, under the title of the Dunedin and Provincial Banking Company, Limited. The promoters consider that the establishment of a bank prepared to give special accommodation to farmers, miners, and squatters, in the same spirit of liberality and on the same terms as are accorded to the mercantile community, is an acknowledged want in the Province ; and that the establishment of a bank on such principles oannot but be attended with benefit to the. community. The shares have been fixed at £10, " with a view of enabling the industrial classes to identify themselves with the monetary interests of the country." The Bunstan Times of the Bth mat. says that " the mornings and evenings for the past week have been very cold, reminding us that winter is fast approaching. By the accounts that reach us from the Nevis and other mountainous districts, the weather is very severe, and present indications portend a long and severe winter." " Anglo- Australian," in the European Mail, writes : — " In the various telegraphis projects on the tapis, New Zealand is not forgotten. Two companies propose extension from Tasmania. to the south of the Middle Island." There is now every probability (says the Bruce Herald) of the immediate qrebtion of the tele* graph office at the Mataura, for, which, a vote of the Assembly was passed last session. A gentleman from the district called last week upon his Honor the Superintendent, accompanied by Capt. M'Kenzie, M.P.C., to make enquiries upon ] the matter. His Honor at once telegraphed to Wei-, lington, and no doubt the erection of the necessary building will at once be proceeded with. Mr Honore, a Maori missionary, who has just returned from a missionary tour of three months among the Maoris of the province of Wellington, stated in the course of an address he delivered in Knoi Church, on Sunday night, that Hauhauism, though breaking down as a religion, leaves behind it a deep ssdimant of sullenness and suspicion. He found a wide-spread hatred of the Gospel, with, which the natives associate the many evils which afflict them, and threaten their extinction. In several instances Mr Honore succeeded in removing their prejudices against it, and was invited by the chiefs to visit them again. An apparatus for drying and bleaching flax has been constructed by Mr Armitage, of TaranakL The News furnishes the following particulars regarding its mode of operation : — Mr G-yde's little working model of an osculating engine was used to drive a fan by which a current of air is passed through a furnace, and then passes in a heated state into the drying chambers ; there it meets with the damp flax, which is made to move through them in a direction opposite to the current of air, so that the driest flax comes out where the driest air is going in. The flax is to be hung on rods, supported at each end by endless chains moving on pulleys fixed to the sides of the chambers. There is an arrangement also for mixing the hot air with the bleaching agent, sulphurous acid, or in other words, the fumes of the burning sulphur. We (Thames Advertiser) have heard that an elopement under rather remarkable circumstances took place on Sunday week last. The Adonis is a well known little gentleman lately residing in Shorthand, and the lady fair was, we understand, a mere girl of sixteen. The lady was conducted to churoh on Sunday week by her now disconsolate father, and ha* not since been heard of. •It would appear that the loving couple took advantage of a late steamer proceeding to Auckland, and made a clean skedaddle, without beat of drum. . The present, says the Lyttelton Times, does not appear to have been a very favorable season for pheasant rearing. With the exception of the birds reared under hens in the society's gardens, little success has attended many other similar attempts. Out of 120 pheasants hatched for Mr L. Gt. Cole 7 only five are now living, while Mr Oracroft Wilson, who usually rears a large number, has this year lost aIL The question as to the suitability of the open plains for pheasants has been satisfactorily settled. 'Sufficient cover is afforded by the common tussock grass, but the best cover is supplied by the manuka scrub. A new rock-driller, invented by Mr F. H. Dcßiing, is mentioned in the last number of the Mining Journal. The average time taken by an experienced miner in drilling a hole of eighteen inches in the hardest white granite would be about three hours, while the new driller would do the work in ten or fifteen minutes, allowing for stoppages. A horrible murder by blacks is reported by the Bellinger correspondent of the Macleay Herald as having occurred during last month. On Wednesday morning, the 2nd ultimo, at daylight, a party of blacks, said to be from the Macleay, fell upon a number of blacks camped at Maclean's Falls, and shot one in the head, cut his throat, •mashed his skull in, and out off both arms; they- nearly killed another, and then leisurely started off down the river. Constable Vivian and some of the residents started after them, and overtook them on the beach, when they made them give up all their weapons. Nearly every man was armed.with a gun, and each gun was. loaded with balL As the deed was not witnessed by any white person, they could not take the murderers into custody. According to blackfellow's notions, they had only been doing justice ; and this is supposed to be in return for the slaying of Blue Shirt A Macleay black, called Carpenter, was, I believe, the foremost in the attack. The district of the Macleay, I believe, is the only one in the colony where blacks are allowed to carry guns. Is there not a law against this, which*' fines every nun either giving or selling a blackfellow a gun? ■ -'