MISCELLANEOUS.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 214, 11 September 1886, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS.

Timabu Steam Colliery "'Company has been wound up. fs' Canterbury Society of Arts has a credit balaace of over £300. An Aucklander named Churchill has died at Kimborley goldfiald. Municipal retrenchment at Dunedin effects a saving of £1 100 a year. Lieutenant A. P. Douglas has been appeinted secretary to the Military Council. Crimean vetorans' dinner took place on the night of September 9. Tran>cara are to Ptart running on the Devonport lines in a few days. The advance agent of Miss Minnie Palmer, the octrees, has arrived by the e,e. Coptic. Sir Robert Stout, in reply to a curious querist, stated the other day that he is 42 years of age. During the "brutal game " at Nelson on September 1, a Sydney player splintered a bone in his shoulder. At Wellington on September 5, a further sum of £166 was collected for Hospital and charitable purposes. Judge Broad has been appointed judge of the whole of the District Courts of tne South Island. In Victoria, the average length of the Parliamentary session is 20 weeks ; in New Zealand it is only 14. But New Zealanders sit longer in reality — our average number of hours per session being 500 against Victoria's 400. Goldmining lectures in Auckland district this year are to be left in the hands of the local Professors. The Union Steamship Company have declared a dividend of eight per cent., and pay a bonus of 2s per share. The contractors for the Free Public Library and Art Gallery expect to be finished within a week. A dozen Canterbury settlers and their families have resolved to take up land for fruit-growing at Hokianga. Last year, 15,863 tons of coal were exported from Australia to Portland, Oregon, against 6,1.55 tons from Great Britain. Lieutenant-Colonel C. S. Bailie has been appointed President of the Council of Military Education in New Zealand. The Prisoners' f robation Act passed during the late eee«on will be enforced aa soon as the requisite machinery is provided. They have killed the goose that laid the jolden engs ! Several grains of gold were found inside a gooee killed the other day at rimarn. Mr Burton, photographer, has left for England on a lecturing tour with hia collec ;ion of views illustrative of the late volcanic sruption. Sir Robert Stout declined to tell a Christ;hurch deputation what the intentions of :he Government are with reference to prorective tariffs. Mr Fortunatus Evelyn Wright has been jppointed Consul for Sweden and Norway :n the South Island. Mr Wright is an old Wellington printer. A residence for the gardener in connec:ion with the School of Forests is to be juilt at Whangarei, and a number of fruit ;rees will be planted soon. Captain Cotton, who undertook to walk 100 miles in twenty-four hours at Christ;hurcb, completed the distance with an jour all but three minutes to spare. Major Watt was the other day presented vith a sword by the Wanganui Kifle Corp3, n recognition of his valuable services for 17 years past. At the inquest at Wellington on tho body if George Bradford Donoghue, who died rom a doee of opium, the jury returned a rerdict of felo do se. Noel Lees, a pupil at Dunedin High School, dropped dead while at play in August 25. He waa a son of the Jnion Bank manager. The koura, or fresh water crayfiab, jcculiar to the lakes of Rotomahana disirict, is believed to have been extermilated by the late eruption. The lakes in llotomahana district have low assumed a milky-whito appearance, the ormer pure transparency of their waters laving vanished. During a thunderstorm on Wednesday light a house at Riverton, Southland, was truck by lightning, and badly injured. Che occupants narrowly escaped. Mr Robt. Kaye, Chief Clerk at Auckland Post Office, has been appointed chief postmaster of Wes-tport, on the West Coast jf the South Island. He will leave next month. It is understood that Mr Justice Gillies will shortly take a twelve months' holiday, md that hia duties in the Auckland S v preme Ztourt will be temporarily dischaiged by Mr Justice Ward. Exclusivo of personal property, the assets )f New Zealand in tho shapo of real estate leld by the Crown and private individuals, •ailwaye, telegraphs, and live stock, are )3timated at about £300,000,000. Mr William Brooker, a Whangarei settler, a seeking lettere patent for a new method )f straining fencing wire, to be called 1 Brooker'ts patent one-piece universal wireitrainer." Latest news from London relative to the :onstruction of the Tauranga-Kototua Railway is to the effect that the London com' •>anj expect to make a commencement in ibout two months' time, Government have received a cablegram rom the Agent-General intimating that the idmiralty decline the application of the Sew Zealand Government for H.M.S. Mirandu as a training-ship. The brutal game again ! In a football natch on 2nd inst, between Auckland Drapers and Thames United Second, a player named McCallum kicked another in ;he back and got his own leg broken. It U a fact worthy of romark that the public debt of New Zealand, as proportioned io population, has decreased during the last few-year*. In 1881 it waa £59 4s 8d per iead; in 1881, £58 4s 4d; and now it stands at under £56 per head. Jb opening a Black and White Exhibition of Christchurch Society of Arts on Sept. 9,Mrßeethamstated that the Society had sent home £250 to Sir Frederick Leighton, President of the Royal Society, to select pictures for Christchurch to the value of the remittance. Constable Byan.of New Plymouth,waspreeented on August 25 with the Royal Humane Society's silver medal and certificate' for giving the life of Inspector Pardy last Jirae This is tho first silver medal of the Humane Society that has been awarded to New Zealand. The Canterbury College Board of Governors to-doy voted an additional grant of £150 to Sir Julius Yon Haast for the purpoeo of enabling him to acquire art treasures daring his stay in Europe They hivo al?p extended his leave of absence by s r. months. Prolific Auckland I In July last tho births in the leading towns of New Zealand were as under : —Auckland, 107 ; Wellington, 90 ; Christchurch, 57 ; Dunedin, 46 ; Neleon, 20; Invercargill, 16. The total births in boroughs last month were 35 in excess of the number for June. Healthy Auckland ! Last month tho respective death rates in tho leadine New Zealand towns were: Auckland, 075 per 1,000; Dunedin, 125; Wellington, 135; Christchurch, 183 ; Invercargill, 0"77 ; Kelson, 1 23. Of 197 deathß in boroughs, nearly half were those of children under five ve.irs of age. Mr A. McLeod has applied to the Cron-ti Lands Board for permission to mine for manganese on land occupied by the Bay of Islands Coal Company. It nas agreed that the applicant be informed that tho Board had no objection, provided tho conseut of the Company, who were lessees, were obtained. Mr T. Peacock, M.H.R., has communicated with the Minister of Public Works regarding the proposed new wing for the Auckland Asylum. He received the following reply to-day :—"ln reply, plans Auckland Asylum are being rapidly prepared.—Ed. Richardson." The vote taken for this year amounts altogether to £6.000, which will probably cover the expenditure on any contract that may be let for the extensions, , Mr Wade, architect, acting upon instructions from the Government Insurance Department, has prepared plans o£ new end handsome officer, to be erected on Iho tile of Shera's Buildings, Queen-street, out of the £4,000 vote authoiised by Parliament for that purpose. The building is to be of three stories high, giving accommodation for the insurance offices on the ground floor, while the other floor will be subdivided into offices for letting to the public. Specifications are now being prepared, and probably tenders for the work will soon be called for. The American war-ship Mohican went, according to orders, from Auckland, to Samoa about the end of last month to be present in Ap>a Harbour duiing the sitting of the loternnti< n ii ('on mi'oiiui v hit h is to lnf et Mitre.

Sbo will intercept She mail steamer Irotn San Francisco at Tutuilu, and tuko (.11'tha United fctatti- representative.Mr Bat-jr. An English man-cf war goes to Fiji to take Mr Thurston to Samoa to represent England ; while Germany will be represented by her Conaul-Gonoral in Australia, Dr Kvuael. It

is not yot known if a German war-ship -will accompany him, but the probabilities are that such will be the case.

The following requisition to Mr Dargavillo, member of tho House of Representatives for AucMaod City "West, has been la'gely signed:—" We, the undersigned electors of City West, being dissatisfied with the position you have taken up upon various qaeetions during the session just concluded, more especially tho attitude you assumed, and the vote you gave in connection with the Stark purchase, havo lost all confidence in you, and now request you to resign your connection with us as our representative so that one in whom we can place more reliance may, before another fossion of the House, be elected in your place." Ooneiderableeeneation was caused at Newmarket on Thursday, August 26, by the newa that a thunderbolt had fallen near the railway bridge at the Manukau Road. Aboub half-past four, a heavy clap of thunder waa heard, and simultaneously a quantity of earth was thrown into the air from a point close to the railway lino. A telegraph wire was fused for a considerable distance, and there seoms no reason to doubt that the phenomenon was caused by the fall of a thunderbolt. An examination this morning of the place where the thunderbolt fell shows that about a ton of earth bad been moved from the side of the old quarry. Mepsra Bower, Grosvenor, and Beveral other persons who were standing at the corner of the Kyber Paiis an* Manukau Reads at the time .state that just as they heard tho thunder-clap, they caw a sheet of flame strike the ground, and immediately after tho earih was thrown up. A train was passing the place at the time, ahd had a narrow escape. Mr Harry Harris, who was in the train, has made the following statement to a Star reporter:—At 25 min'utas past 4 I was in the 4.15 train from Auckland to Onehunga. At about 4.25, while the train was drawing into Newmarket Station, there was a brilliant flash of lightniDg, attended simultaneously by a loud clap oi thunder—the loudest I ever heard. I was standing at the door of the carriage at the time. Jußt after the flash something struck the gully to the right of the railway track about 30 yards from the train. I saw a shower of sparks flying in tho air from the point of contact, and a large quantity of earth was thrown up. The people in the train were very much alarmed at the occurrence.

A very good suggestion has been made by Mr G. \V. Russell, of the " Cambridge News," in a letter to Mr Graves Aickin, President of the Chamber of Commerce Mr Russell saya :— " Having received and read your address to the Chamber of Commerce on July 15, I write to say that your references to railway reform have especially commended themselves to Waikato people, who regard this as a most important element in the future progress of the colony. Our Railway League hopes to receive tho political sympathy of your Chamber in trying to force down railway freights and fares, as the present scale undoubtedly retards settlement and progress. _My special reason, however, in writing is to ask if some method cannot, be devised by vi-hich the Auckland Chamber can be made wider-reaching in its operations than at present. Now it represents almost exclusively the city. Could it not be made to represent the province generally, bo that we might be able to secure the co-operation and influence of the city on railway reform, settlomoot of tho land, and cognate questions ? Under tho provincial Bystem town and country were united in ono provincial whole ; now we mica tho connection, and I cannot see what will supply it unless it be the Chamber of Commerce and kindred institutions. The effect is that no common purpose unites Auckland and its outlying partg, whilst the County system makes those outlying parts units without a common meetingpoint.'^Mr Aickin cordially oommended the suggestion, and submitted the letter to the Cemmitfcee of the Chamber, who appointed a sub-com-mittee consisting of Messrs G. Aickin and John Reid to consider the matter and devise a scheme to promote a closer intercourse between.the commercial body of Auckland and the country settlers. We hope the labours of the commttteo will bring forth good fruits. The only true method of promoting the prosperity of tho towns is by building up tho country.