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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6892, 23 June 1884, Page 2

On the fourth page will be found our Waipawa correspondent's letter and several communications from other correspondents. There was no business at the Resident Magistrate's Court on Saturday. The Post looks to the general election to bring about the formation of a strong party of moderate views, with Sir Julius Yogel, Mr Stout, Mr Ormond, Mr Richardson, and probably Mr Bryce as the leaders. A train will run through to Matamau this day, as previously notified, the railway authorities having made good tho damage to the line oaused by the encroachment of the Ngaruroro last week. The steeplechase horses Bateman and King Arthur arrived here from Lyttelton on Saturday. Chandler and Grey Momus landed from Auckland yesterday. The quartette are engaged in the steeplechase meeting on Thursday next. A fire occurred on Friday night at Mr W. Neal's place, Redclyffe, four outhouses being totally destroyed. The origin of the fire is unknown, as everything was left in apparent safety earlier in the evening, when Mr Neal retired to bed. ! The loss will be heavy, as the _ buildings were uninsured. The damage is estimated at £220, the buildings being valued at £150, and tho stores destroyed at about £70. From a return laid on the table of the House last week it appears that tho value o£ all real estate in the colony subject to taxation under the Property Assessment Act, including real estate under leass or other tenure, was £44,810,000 ; the value of all personal estate in the colony subject to such taxation, £40,190,000 ; the amount claimed as entitled to exemption in respect of mortgages, rent charges, and such like on the real estate, £30,016,460 ; the amount claimed as entitled to exemption in respect of debts other than the foregoing, £13,040,000 ; and the amount allowed under the £500 exemption clause, £11,000,000. A somewhat startling statement was mac 1 4 in a recent nautical enquiry. In alluding to tho dangera of navigation along tho Now Zealand coa9t, a barrister mentioned that he had been assured by tho master of a wp!l--known steamer that about 80 per cent, of the soundings shown on the Admiralty charts were iocjrrcct. In one place in the French Pa: b, for instance, whero 20 fathoms of water wero marked on the charts only ten wero now found, while in another locality 20 were fou cl where only half that depth was laid do^v . Since the surveys wore made there had btm upheavals on various parts of tho coast, ami to this circumstance might be attributed som > of the differences bobween the depths of

water as laid down on the charts and those whioh now existed. " Civis," the humorous contributor to the Otago Daily Times, tells a good story at the < expense of cannie Scots. It » worthy of A. Dean Ramsay, and quite equal to PuncWs "Bang went aaxpence." "Collect," is an ambiguous word even in the prayer book. There is a story of a Scotchman who went with an Episcopalian friend* to attend, for the first time in his life, an English service. He spent the first few minutes in turning over the leaves of the prayer book. Presently he rose in haste and left the church. "What did you mean by running away ?" inquired his friend. " Man," said he, "I can stand one collection, but yon book had ' collect,' ' collect,' ' collect,' on every other page !" Says the European Mail-.- All married men know with what tenacity their wives stick to their marriage lines. Well, there is a parish down somewhere in Bedfordshire rejoicing in the name of Stopsley, and the married people there and thereabout have been sadly exercised in respect of the validity of their marriages, owing, strangely enough, to some informality in respect to the act of consecration. This doubt harks back as far as 32 years, and now, at the eleventh hour, the Bishop of Ely has moved the second reading of an Act for legalising the aforesaid marriages. It says much for the connubial felicity of Stopsley that none of the spouses — at least so far as we have heard— have taken advantage of the lapsus to declare their marriages illegal.