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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5006, 12 February 1878, Page 2

There was no meeting of the Hawke's Bay County Council yesterday, in consequence of there being no quorum. We learn that all the necessary business has been transacted by the Chairman, who communicated for the purpose with the different members of the Council.

We learn that the election of a committee under the Education Act for the Hawke's Bay district in Ormond and Gisborne will take place on the 26th inst. Further action on the matter of the nomination of two persons to represent that district in the Board will bo taken into consideration afterwards.

In the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, before R. Beetham, Esq., R.M., James Hogan was fined 5s for drunkenness. — Le Quesne v. Robertson and Drummond, claim for £13 7s Id fo.v coals and timber supplied. The plaintiff stated that the firm of Robertson andDrummond had lately dissolved partnership, and that Drummond gave notice that he became responsible for all debts. His Worship gave judgment against Drummond for the amount claimed, with costs 225.

At a meeting held at the Clyde Hotel, Wairoa, on Saturday night, the following resolution was passed :— " That this meeting request the chairman to draw the attention of the Government to the present neglected state of the Wairoa Cemetery, with a view to having the control of the same vested in the Wairoa County Council, or, in default thereof, in trustees, on the grounds that of the three remaining members one is no longer a resideut in the district and the other two are desirous to resign."

We hear that the English actor Mr H. Walton, together with Mr Sam Howard and a dramatic company, are likely to visit Napier shortly.

The Soldene Opera Company are doing excellent business in Christchurch, where their takings have, up to the present, been a trifle over £100 a night.

The last overland mail did not arrive at Wairoa till 10 a.m. on Friday. We {Free Press) are informed that the mailman had a very narrow escape from drowning, his horse having been washed over the bridge by the current at Mr N. Walker's. The bridge is one coustrugted by the late Pro-

vincial Council, and is placed in such a position that it can only be used when the creek is nearly empty ; at such a time the creek is fordable, and when there is a moderate fresh the water is six feet or so over the structure.

The Marquis of Nornianby (says the N.Z. Herald) has definitely arranged to leave Wellington with his family and suite for Auckland on the 7th February. His carriages and horses come with him in the Hinemoa. His Excellency purposes remaining in the North until about the middle of April. It is stated that defective drainage in the Governor's residence at Wellington necessitates a long absence, in order to allow of thorough repairs and alterations in the drains.

The Auckland Star of the 6th has the following: — "Total abstinence from intoxicating liquors was imperatively enjoined by King Tawhiao and his principal advisers during the late meeting at Te Kopua. Nevertheless, a great quantity of spirits was smuggled in from Alexandra, and a fair share of it found its way into the Hauhau tents. Te Ngakau himself, albeit one of the pillars of the new temperance movement, deigned to quaff a friendly glass of P.B. with the Hon. the Native Minister, and our reporter shrewdly suspects that Tawhiao himself was not above following his example when out of sight of his people. It is a noteworthy fact that Te Kooti has a strong antipathy to smoking. Our special reporter, during his interview with this redoubtable savage, was about to enjoy a pipe, when Te Kooti expressed his repugnance to the smell of the nicotian weed, and in reply to questions he said that he had never permitted his men to smoke in his presence.

The Victoria Lodge of Freemasons will hold their monthly meeting this evening. Visiting brethren are invited to attend.

The Auckland Board of Education advertise in another column for a head governess for the Girls' Training and High School.

A valuable consignment o£ shorthorn bulls were lately shipped at Melbourne by the s.s. Hero; They are intended for New Zealand, and are likely, says the Argus, to make their mark in the herds of the sister colony, and keep up the reputation for breeding good cattle Victoria possesses there. They were bred by Mr John Benn, and purchased at the sale held by that gentleman on the 10th inst. , and are descended from imported stock on both sides of the very best strains of English blood.

A remarkable case of fraud, says the South Australian Register, has just come to our knowledge. A respectable firm in Adelaide received by the ship St. Vincent two packages which were supposed to contain German manufactures to the invoice value of £50 ; but on opening them they contained nothing but small coal cleverly overlaid with straw. The matter has been placed in the hands of the police, but it seems to be one of those cases of fraud for which there is no redress. There is not the slightest suspicion that the packages were tampered with on the St. Vincent ; but where the dishonest trick was played — whether at the manufacturers or during the transit from Hamburg to London, or in the London Docks — it is impossible to say. The packages bore no indications of having been opened since they left the original factory in Germany.

Some of the common lodging-houses in Sydney must be as wretched places to live in as the dirty and overcrowded dens to be found in the old country. The S.M. Se raid of the 26th January says: — " The circumstances of an inquest on the body of a man who had committed suicide in a common lodging-house, drew from the jury and the coroner a strong condemnation of the state of the house in which the man had lived. One juryman said that the state of the house was of itself sufficient to induce the man to commit suicide, and the coroner declared that it showed a terrible state of affairs, when a lodging-house keeper was allowed "to pack five men in a small attic which was covered with cobwebs."

We learn (says the Advocate) that MiAndrew Young, the well known Cobb & Co. of the West Coast, takes liis departure for Europe next month. We, with many more of his travelling companions in this district, wish him a prosperous voyage and speedy return to New Zealand.

A sad occurrence has happened at the Durham Lead, says the Ballarat Courier. A lad named Tait, between eight and nine years of age, was sent by his mother to the Pioneer Hotel for a small quantity of brandy for medical purposes. The boy obtained the brandy, and on his way back to his home drank it. Becoming drowsy, he laid down on the roadside in the full blaze of the sun, and went to sleep. He was subsequently seen by Mr George Richards, a miner, who woke him up and told him to go home. About an hour afterwards, 'Mr Richards'returned to the same spot, and f ound that the lad had fallen asleep again. He lifted him up, and then saw that he was so drunk as to be unable to walk. Richards placed him under a tree, and put some boughs about him, and then left him to sleep off the effects of his potations. An hour and ahalf afterwards two boys came by, and seeing the state of affairs, procured water and bathed the boy's head, and afterwards went for the police. Constable Purcell got a cart and took the lad home, where he lingered two or three hours, and then died.

The New Zealand Times takes an unexpected line on the Victorian political question. It says : — " The Australasian tells us that the present grim reality is exhibited to the people of Victoria of his Excellency the Governor heading a ' band of unscrupulous sans-culoltes to storm the citadel of the Constitution.' We have read the same thing years ago about another Governor of the same colony ; but the Constitution has remained intact (at any rate till a few weeks ago), the country has prospered, and law and order have been maintained. Governor Bowen is by a section of the Victorian Press daily accused of aiding and abetting in the State crimes, insolent and outrageous proceedings, and grossly illegal and unconstitutional acts of the Berry Ministry. As for Graham Berry and his miserable supporters — three-fourths probably of the people of Victoria — they are beyond redemption, and it is useless arguing with them. The Opposition Press state broadly that Mr Berry is insane. It said precisely the same thing fifteen years ago about Mr George Higinbotham, one of greatest men who ever took part in public affairs in the Australian . colonies. Sir Charles Darling was also accused of madness. The newspaper organs of the landsharks and .monopolists do not stick at trifles. The colonists of Victoria have been driven into ultra- democracy by the narrow-minded and selfish policy of that party which is represented by the Upper House. It is a remarkable circumstance that since the introduction of responsible government in Victoria all the representatives of her Majesty have agreed with the , Liberal party, but in almost every in- ! stance have been charged with all sorts of j Illegal acts by the ' wealthy lower orders.' What Britiah people would consent to be ruled by an c aristocracy' who have neither the feelingt of gentlemen nor scholars? They object to payment of members, because under that system they find it a hard matter to bribe the Assembly. Victorian colonists will remember their Parliament of 1862, which we notice was alluded to by the Minister of Railways at a late meeting, when men who did not possess a coin one day were rich the next, and when a job was perpetrated which placed two millions of acres of the finest land in the country in the hands of monopolists. It is in the nature of things that the struggle now going on in Victoria will result in a triumph for the Liberal party."