PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 118, 27 June 1866, Page 2

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

O . YEVI\,RDAY. The Speaker took the eluiir at 5 o'clock. The iniiuiti'S ol' the last meeting were read mid confirmed. A petition, presented by Mr. Fng.ui from Mr. Gi-orsji' Hell, of tho Hutt. praying tlmt tlie awird of Commissioners of twenty uori s of hind lo his deceased father, should ho put into force, su as to enable him to select tl'i' l.uid, was read, received, and orduvd lo lo printed. The Mult Park mi.l Race Course Bill was read a third time and pusiod. Mr. HAIiUUMBK, ihe LV-Provincial Sccri'tary, moved the suspensh n of the M:indine; orders tor the evening, in order to remote the peculiar position in which the government ot the province was placed. By the re tirciiicut of himself and colleague, a new J'A'ecutivc, with Mr. Borliiso at iis he.id, luid been formed. Under the pii'M-nt " Officer and Contr u'tors' i\et" it was neccssa y tor member* ot Ihe Council accepting any oilicc of unioliiiiiLUit or trust, to yo back to their constituents tor re-election before they could vote ii 1 * the House. It was for ilu 1 pnrpo s e of getting over this difficulty that he now askod leave to move the Mifpension of tin' standing orders, ao that lie might bring in a Bill to repeal the Act, so far as die Executive was concerned. Mr. B()JLtLA.SIiI seconded the motion. Mr HUNTER, who had just entered the Council, wished some further explanation of the subject. !\lr. II A LOOM BE replied that under the existing Act his successors in ofliec would lie compelled to go back to their constituents for re-election, before they could givo a vote in the House, or they would themselves each

">e liable to a penalty of £1 00. The delay con¦wqiient on such a course was obvious, the Vet had been aholished by the General Assembly, and upon these grounds he asked leave to introduce the Bill he had proposed. Mr. R. PIIARAJJYN wished to know of whom the new Executive was to consist ? Mr. BOKLASK replied that if he were to say that he or anyone else were members of the newly formed Government, and then were to give a vote, he would render himself liable to a fine ot £100. Uunder these circumstances, lig would simply say that there was no Executive at present, beyond the one they had known for a length of time. Mr. PITZHERBERT would be ?lad to see that portion of. the Act, which affected the Executive, repealed, and though he would vote for Mr. Haleombe's Bill, he did so with souk; little regtet at the adoption of such a mode of getting over momentary difficulties by the repeal of fundamental laws. Mr. BOKLASE explained that it was merely asked to repeal the Act for the sake of convenience, and to save loss of time. As, howover, the question witli respect to tho foundation o£ an Eve utive, had been put to him so directly hu had no hesitation in saying 1 that the proposed members of it were Mr. W. Hiekson, Provincial Secretary anil Treasurer; himself, Provincial Solicitor; and Mr. Dransfield and Air. Pearce, members of the Executive, without office. After some oIlkT observations, leave was given to suspend the standing orders, and the Bill was read three times and passed. A Bill authorising the Superintendent to outer into a contract for the coif > ,-pHnn of a railroad from Wellington 1.. Hi- ITr.tfc Valley, towards the U'airarapi. afh •¦ su:u° diseus-uon was read a first time. Tho report of tho Audit Commit t-o uv* adopted. A vote of thanks to Mr. Justice Jobnrioiu for the use of the Court House, tnded t!»*. business of tlie sitting, and the Conn oil adjourned at 7.10 until .) o'clock this evening.

Greece is on the point of gelling th<» Island of Syra to the United States for the purpose ot forming a commercial port. At first the request of the Washington Cabinet was peremptorily rejected; but its offers were repeated in such seducing tones, its promise to refrain from doing more than establish a commercial depot was so earnest, and the sums of money it offered were so large and so acceptable to the impoverished treasury of King George, that there seema little doubt that Greece will finish by yielding. On Sunday, Ist April, the stores of Messrs. Thomas Sinclair and Sons, Belfast, the well-known ham and bacon curers, were burnt down, entaili lg a loss of from Xl-20,0:)0 to =£150,000, against which the linn was insured. The Earl of Perth having succeeded some years ago in establishing before the House of Lords his right to" the ancient titles to the Drunnnond and P<-rth peerages, as well as to those of Earl of Mcl fort, Viscount Melfort and Forth, &c , and Lord Drummond, Stobhall and Monti'ex, and who is also Due de Melfort and Comte de Hussan in France, has been served heir male of James Drummond of Perth, better known as third Duke of Perth, and who commanded the left wing of Prince Charles' army in 174 J. It is understood that this is the first step in a new cause celcbre, involving, as it will do, the right of the present possessor of Drummond Castle and the other estates of the ancient earldom of Perth, Lord Ranelagh has been brought up before the Brighton magistrates, charged with assaulting Capt Norton and bound over to keep the peace. A deep enmity appears to cxi^t between the two, the causes of which \H'ie not stated, and a fracas took place when they met the other day on the Hrighton Esplanade. Lord llanelagh made some bellicose remarks in the police court, inasmuch as he expressed his regret that one who had worn her Majesty's uniioim should adopt the course Capt Norton had in issuing a summons. This plainly implied that his lordship would rather have i' iought it out." Jamaica bus again been the scene of a riot, -which -was of a sufficiently serious character to cill for the aid of troops to suppress it. Mr Clifford, in the Times, and Mr. Iloldswnrth, in the Daily News, both report it — tho former describing the matter as an agrarian outrage, and a repetition on a small scale of the riot which led to tho whole of the recent proceedings, and tlie latter passing slightingly over it, and de.soiibing the calling out of the troops as a mere " military promenade," Ghastly S*ckne on Tim SeAFronn. The scene on the gallows at the execution of Mary Anne Ashford at Exeter, on Wednesday, 28th March, was mosi horrible. 'J he Western Morning Xews, after mentioning that on being summoned for execution she fainted, and had to be cirriud t > the pinioning room ; that she had to be convoyed from tlie main bod}' of the uaol to the porch, and thence on to the drop troes on to say :—": — " She wore a brown stuff dres^ and a black turnover shawl. She was both weeping and gasping as she ,vas pi iced in the centre of the scaftbld upon the trap door, and her face was sull'used with color. Across the trap-door

was placed a pHnk on either side of her, upon which her supporters took their stand, anil they appeared to he in no slight degree oppressed by their Imnicn and the painfnlness of their position. All being ready (bi the liiri! mmi.ent. the cxicutiomr placed the nnoee over the convict's head, drew over her face a white cap, and then hastened below to complete his ta^k. The officers drew further apart trom the helpless wretch, and at length they withdrew their grasp, and at that moment, with nn exceedingly loud noise, the trap fell and the body dropped with a dull but distinctly audible sound. The lower portion of the wretched woman's face could be observed to become almost immediately blackonvd, and the body twisted, so that for a moment the convict's buck was turned towards the crowd of hushed onlookers. Uer neck, however, was not broken by the fall, and, notwithstanding that her arms and feet ¦ were secured, she on swinging round caught at one of the planks which by accident had been left level with her hands. Uuth planks were immediately removed, and the unhappy woman then clasped her hands, let them fall, raised them quickly and apart, and ono band seemed to travel rapidly as high as the pinioning would allow towards the rope above it. Such prolonged suffering excited the greatest horror in those who beheld it, and Calcraft, finding tnaf. she continued to struggle, seized hoi bonml legs and instantly weighed her ho W down, so that after about hali a ininulp.' during which her hands moved : „i..0 upwards to her breast, but without '"'tir former vigor, they dropped and reip.imed upon her lap. The portion ol the uivlul ceremony in which the culprit had actually taken part on the gallows occupied precisely seven minutes." SIIII'WRECK AND LoSS OF LIFE. TllC Nosa Scotia and New Brunswick Line of ftteam and Stilling Packets' liner Spirit of the Dco.m, Captain Carey, from London, ior Halifax, was wrecked at a wild spot on the coast of Devon. Out of twenty-nine passengers and a crew of twenty- two the only sitnivois were the mate and three sva'meii. The Spirit of the Ocean was drifting with split sails, tiyinj* to take shelter at Jj.irtmouth. On passing Peartree Rock she became unmana_».Mble, drifted upon a rock berwten .Start Point and Peartree, and went to pieces almost immediately. A terrific gale was blowing at the time from the southward. A soldier named Malic, of the Bth Ucgiment, was find at in Hri 'golbot street, Dublin, on the night of April 21, and wounded severely in the thigh. lie was, the police state, obnoxious to the Fenians. lie was struck by three "hots, and wounded also in the temple and hand. A man named Dowling, a civilian, was wounded less seriously. Both men were decoyed to the phve where the outrage was committed. The police arrested on 20th April, a man mined Conolly, a silk weaver in the establishment of Messrs Pirn, Dublin. Under Conolly 's weaving frame, was a box, containing 1600 percussion caps and some rifle bullets, and at his lodgings was found bis ticket of membership in the National Brotherhood of St. Patrick. The Times of the 27th M.irch, says: — " At Kilpeale, within seven miles ot Casnel, six constables on Sunday last, arrested two reputed head centres. One of them was rescued by a mob of young men. A man named Sheethan, who had been 'on the run' for some time, has been arrested in Limerick. In obedience to the proclamation, a great I number of arms have been surrendered in the j county Kihlare. At Athv admit 200 singlebarrelled guns and sevor.il hundred other wtapmisi, inuhidini; a great number ot expensive revolver.*, were brought in, and ammunition sufficient U supply them for a small campaign. No less than wa-. expended m Athv on tin- purchase of weaponwithin the last three mouths— conclusive of the alarm and apprehensions i'nturL.iiiiud In overyruan having a stake in the locality There were no pikes in the collection, c\ce[>i a few rusty old things."