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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6581, 12 June 1883, Page 2

The letters of our own correspondents at Hastings and Ormondville will be found on the foortli page. The Government have accepted the i tender of Messrs Jay and Haynes, of i Paltnerston North, for the Tahoraite con- , tract on the Napier railway, the amount ' being £13,615. There were five other "■ tenders, the highest being £17,535. In the list of civil cases for trial at the J present sittings of the Supreme Court, ' which, we published yesterday, tlie case s of Davidson and Irvine v. Robjohns t should have been stated as James Irvine and Alexander Davidson v. Eobjohns. } Yesterday afternoon was unusually cold for Napier, and the jurors in the Supreme Court were shivering, and at the rising of ' the Court made loud complaints. We do I not wonder at it. The court-house in t winter is little inferior to a frozen-meat . chamber, and one little register stove is supposed (by a legal fiction) to warm it. [ Some better arrangements for warming ' and ventilation are most certainly required . ' . The following deeds which have been ■ submitted to Captain Preece, Trust Com- : missioner, for examination will be certified to if no objections are lodged within the next four days :— -Lease of undivided interest, Heketa te Awa to Henry Gaisford, Oringi Waiaruha block 81n., of • 12,000 acres; ditto XJrupare to Henry Gaisford, Otawhao block 80n., of 4588 acres ; conveyance of undivided interest, Hemei te Purei and Merania te Kanewhai to; Hugh 'Campbell, Peka Peka No. 1 block of 1120 acres. ... At the '/Resident j Magistrate's Court yesterday, before Captain Preece, Ji.M., Patrick Lynch, after a week's liberty, was brought up on a charge of vagrancy,

but was dismissed with a caution. John. Efarkins was fitied 5s and costs for drunkenness with the usual alternative. Frank Higgins pleaded guilty, on an information laid by the Inspector of Nuir sanccs, with keeping an unclean yard, and was fined 10s and costs. P. N. Bartlett was fined 2s and costs for lightmg a fire in the open air. Thomas Perry, a seaman of the barque Electra, charged with wilful disobedience, was ordered to be taken on board, to forfeit one day's pay, and to pay the costs, 7s. Kate Smith,, charged "with being of unsound mind, was remanded for a week for medical examination. As the Duke of Norfolk has claimed arrears of fees due to him as Earl of - Surrey for defending his county, it is presumed thai all earls are on the same footing ; in fact, Mr Courtney explained this item .of the estimates in that sense. The amount fixed, he said, was £60 a year, and as the grant dates from the time "of Eichard the Third, those earls who had not made the country pay up may have large cheques waiting for them on demand. Of course they will have to prove that they defended their county, or were ready in sufficient strength of retainers to do so, else the law might quibble. Te Whiti's opinion of newspapers is not very complimentary to the Fourth Estate. In Mr Ward s book of "Wanderings with the Prophets " he makes Te WMti sa y — "Do you think the newspapers tell the truth when any great event happens ? No fear ; they dare not. The Government tell them what to say, and they say ifc. If any particular paper does not publish what the Government want the.-.' people to read, that paper is suppressed, . and another one which will do as the Government wishes is sold to the people. The Government are not fools." We have no doubt the Ministry wish they had the power Te "Whiti ascribes to them. : The Americans have . built a steamer which they hope will cross the Atlantic in five days. She has extra powerful machinery, and is dome-decked, so that if launched upside down, whether light or loaded, she will right herself in the water. She is the first dome-decked vessel ever builb thus from stem to stern, and her covering is as strong as her sides, the spans being unbroken. In. fact, every arch in her is one unbroken span. Some, idea of her shape can be got by cutting in. two the ordinary spinning top.. It is proposed to , build steamers after this model for ocean travel that will carry 4000 tons of freight, 600 first-class passengers, 2000 steerage passengers and 600 tons of mail and express matter. ; There is one woman in London who has her wits about her. In the Strand a thief suddenly snatched her purse from her and instantly disappeared in the crowd. In the purse was some small' money and a cheque for £10. The lady spent no time in a fruitless attempt to catch the thief or find a policeman. . Shewent to the nearest post-office, took a telegraph blank and sent a despatch to the bank saying, "When anyone presents' a cheque signed by r for £10, arrest him and detain him till I corned' . tsh& then got into a cab and drove to the bank.. When she .?"' there she found a police', man explaining to a very astonished young: man that he would have to wait a little, as they expected a lady visitor. The : young man will have three years to get over his astonishment. The American correspondent of the Otago Times writes : — " The Mormon Church is sending three missionaries to New Zealand this spring, and 76 in all have this year been sent out for two. years' work. They bear all their own expenses. Fifty odd sailed last week for England and Northern Europe. Three hundred Mormons landed at Castle Garden last week- One young woman turned backslider, and refused to go on to Utah. She was protected by the authorities. Utah is the most attractive country between the Sacramento Valley and the ' Missouri Elver, and compares favorably with points east of Missouri, but its theocratic government keeps it back. Nevertheless, the Mormon people, young and old, come forward and pay their tithes to the Church, manifesting unbounded faith in ita truth and divine mission. The Mormons are making great headway in the Southern States. Mormonissm is the question of the future in America." German naval men who have had opportunities o£ going on board some of the latest additions to the Chinese navy cannot, says the Home Neios, refrain from expressing their surprise at the evident predilection of the Chinese Government for complicated machinery. From all accounts the officer who may be blessed with the command of one of these veesels will certainly hold a position as yet unknown in any service, viz., one in which, he will be perfectly free from envy. " One large engine-room " is the best descriptisn that can be given of them, as almost every modern naval invention has found a place on board. For instance, electric light and telegraph, . steam, hydraulic, and hand-power boat-lowering gear, torpedo apparatus, steam winches, pumps of almost every kind, and manyOther complicated contrivances too numerous to mention. If German officers turn pale at the sight of such clockwork, what must be the feelings of a Chinese captain with a comparatively undisciplined crewP The Chineae Government are therefore wise in trying to get British, officers to command their ships. The Hobart Mercury says that when the Westmeath left Hobarfc she sailed without 20 men who had stowed away in the coal tenders, and who have remained behind to push their fortunes in Tasmania.. They were mostly firemen and sailors who were working their passages to Auckland at the customary wage of Is a month. Our contemporary adds : — " Many of the emigrants by the Westmeath also tried to get ashore here on the quiet. Few, however succeeded in their desire, though it seems that a great number of them, from the accounts that they had heard of the colony during their stay in port, had entertained a decided preference to this place over Auckland, where they are bound to. Some amusing tales are told of the ingenuity of some of the women who were desirous of leaving the Westmeath here. To their tender pleadings to stow them away in the coal tenders the crew turned a deaf ear. One girl implored a craftsman very hard indeed to pull her through a porthole and hide her in hia craft. The majority of those who succeeded in leaving the vessel, with their traps, are young men who should find no trouble in obtaining remunerative employment."