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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 913, 1 February 1868, Page 2

Assistant Law Officer. — Mr. Bobert Hart has resigned the office of Assistant Law Officer. It is said that his resignation is the result of some difference between himself and the Government arising out of a certain code of Civil Service regulations which was lately published. The salary attached to the office is £600 a year. — Independent. Safety of Dh. Livingstone. — A telegram has been received by the Foreign Office which will be hailed every where with pleasure. It comes virtually from Zanzibar, is dated September 28th, and states that reliable information had reached that place of Dr. Livingstone having been seven months' previously at Marunga, on his voyage towards the north-east, passing to the west of Lake Tanganyika. When the despatch was sent off, Mr. Churchill was about to proceed to the coast to obtain further information. If it be true that Dr. Livingstone was really at the place mentioned in March last, it is quite clear that the story of his death was a fabrication of the men who professed to have seen him attacked. — Home News.

The Pkince in the Inteeioe of Victoria. — A Melbourne paper gives the following somewhat satirical, and probably overtrue description of the Prince's visit to the interior of Victoria : " The Prince's visit up the country lias been attended with the most glowing expressions of loyalty, and the most astonishing consumption of spirituous liquors ever known in the colony. If we may judge from the reports of the special correspondents of the daily journals, the townships on the line of road taken by the Prince and his suite have been helplessly drunk for the last week. At Colac the intoxication has almost reached an heroic pitch. Publicans scorned to serve their customers, dances were danced on bar counters, glasses were broken with mad delight, fights were fought, songs were sung, and every one gave themselves up to the most reckless enjoyment and hideous drunkenness. This is not as it should be, nor as it has been in town. The Prince himself, it would seem, has been rather inclined to shirk addresses, and shire councils have made the astonishing discovery that there are limits to his powers of endurance."

Auckland Provincial Council.^— TJie Council met on the Bth inst., after the Christmas races, but nothing of importance done. The Finance Committee had not sent up their final report ; and the estimates would not be laid before the Council till the 14th. Mr. Ball gave notice of a series of resolutions to meet the existing financial difficulty, the substance of which was that an unpaid commission should be appointed to consider the efficiency of several heads of departments ; that any portion of the £25,000 reverting to the provincial treasury should be applied to the liquidation of the present liabilities ; and that the General Government should bo invited to enforce economy in the administration. The Executive were defeated upon a bill to give powers to Highway Boards to tax the several districts for educational purposes, and expressed their determination to resign unless the vote was rescinded. Mr. Ball was sent for by the Superintendent to form an Executive, but that gentleman not being able to agree with his Honor on the question of land, immigration, and education, the negotiation fell through, and the beaten Executive still remain in office.—-