Untitled

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1114, 31 December 1869, Page 3

Lightning in Auckland.—The Soilthem Cross states : — That on Monday afternoon the flagstaff erected on Punga Flat was shivered to atoms by lightning, and which rooted up the earth around it. Some of the batteries on the Moanal airari Creek were obliged to stop, owing to the quantity of stones and sand carried into the flumes, which prevented the wator from flowing in its course. The Duke of Edinburgh at Honolulu.—The correspondent of the Alia Galiforriia writejii^^ Q&: Monday the Duke and.seyfe^apij^i^ers dined with the King, and^f|>l^yll; Highness expressing a wish^ltee'M 1. hulahula, pn: Tuesday one was given by the Governor, attended by the King and Dowager Queen, but no white people, aside from the officers of the ship, and many half-caste ladies, who j were married to Europeans, were invited, and their husbands left oufr];, The disgraceful and obscene hulahula dance being part of the programme, the Englishmen who hoisted their flag with pride on the arrival of the Prince, lowered it with disgust. It is a lasting disgrace that an English ship of war, fitted in a most costly manner, commanded by an English Prince, should visit these Christianised lands, and the only question asked was to see the hulahula. The missionaries feel not a little hurt that a Prince from Christian England could treat them so." New Steam Company. —We are glad to learu that there is every prospect that the local steam uavigation'v;company will not bo allowed entirely to'fjjtjsse, a provisional committee havingjfllpen formed, whose object is to start a: flew -company, offering, in the first place, to purchase the plant of the N.Z.S.N. Company at an equitable price, or, failing that, to purchase entirely now vessels, with all the latest improvements. Should the offer for the purchase of the plant of the N.Z.S.N. Company be accepted, shareholders will be invited lo exchange their shares on favorable terms. With the experience gained in the working of the present company it may fairly be concluded that there is every prospect of the new company being a success, and with the example of the Wanganui Company, whose last report shows a most favorable state of affairs, it is not too much to augur, under an energetic management, a similar success. — Independent, Deo. 21,