Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus in jurare in verba magistri. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1872.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1237, 1 February 1872, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus in jurare in verba magistri. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1872.

Last evening the Volunteer Artillery Band gave one of those open-air performances which are held in such high favor bv the public generally. The attendance was moderate, and an attractive programme was gone through in a yery creditable manner. Several couples engaged ii* dancing, and as they were on the windward side of the Band, the dense clouds of dust which arose and swept over the performers (especially jduring the "Overland Mail" galop) jnust tiave been a source of great dis comfort. By shifting their position to Jeewarcl of the platform, both the dancerjji and the band would, we imagine, Jjaye passed'a pleasanter evening. A. report is .current in town, and appears to be generally believed, that small pox has hiade'its appearance at Qmahu pah. If this rumpr is correct, which we hope it is not, the local authorities should no time in dealing with the matter. In the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, James Tqrr was charged, on |he information of Mr Elwiu, with un lawfully rescuing certain sheep while Joeing driven to pound.— Pined £l, and 5s 6d costs.' A correspondent at Tapuaeharuru informs lis that the place is quite lively from tlie' unusually large immber of visitors'at present there. Among these ire four ladies—quite a novelty in that

pgion. Theve were no cases this morning at either the District or Resident Magisifftws Courts.

The export of live stock from Port Ahurui for the month ending 31st January comprised 60 head cattle and 2,790 sheep. We hear that Mr. J. J. Torre has tendered his resignation of the commission he held as lieutenant in the Napier Rifle Volunteers.

The Custom* Revenue afc P.ort Ahurili for the month ending 31st Jan. amounted to £2,437 3s 7d (including pilotage receipts, ,£lO6 6s 2d) Mails close for Wellington and the South, per s.s. Keera, at 11 a.m. tomorrow," at the Port Ahuriri office.

His Honor Mr Justice Johnston held sittings in Banco and in Bankruptcy on Tuesday, 23rd ult, in Wellington. The cases heard in Banco were Koy and others v. Lyon and others, and Hare v. Tiffen. The former case was ordered to stand over till the next Banco sitting in March and in the latter his Honor delivered judgment for the defendant. The rule in the case Buchanan v. Wait was discharged. In Banlouptoy the cases of Win, Robertson and Te Hapnku were adjourned.

From the Wellington Independent we learn that his Excellency the Governor and Lady Bowen left Wellington on the 24th ult. in the Luna for Pjcton, on an official visit to the Pro vince of Marlborough, the only Province which his Excellency has not yet visited. They were expected to return to Wellington in about a week. The Independent adds :— * c We hear that the Governor proposes in March to ride overland from Wellington to Auckland by Hawke's Bay, Lake Taupo, and the Waikato."

A General Government Gazette, of the 16ih January, proclaims t|ie Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870, to be in force in the col on v. Messrs Robert Johnson and Robert Atherton Edwin, botli of Wellington, and the latter, a commander in the Davy, We been appointed Examiners under the Merchant Ships Officer's' Examination Act, 1870. The regulations under the Act are published in a gazette of the 16th January.

His Honor William Rolleston, His Honor Judge Chapman, and the Hon. W. B. B. Mantell have been elected members of the Board of Governors of the New Zealand Institute,. A diorama of the Franco-Prussian War was being exhibited in Auckland at latest dates.

Donato, who is described as a " wonderful one-legged dancer," is now at tracting considerable attention in A uckland by his extraordinary saltatary performances. The Canterbury papers state that steps are being taken to raise funds for the relief of the widows and orphans of the men who were lost in the schooner Rifleman. The can be no doubt now jbath that vessel was lost in the terrific S.E. gale on her passage from Lyttelton to Havelock. A meeting was recently called at the Shades Ho!el to take steps in the matter. Nearly £3O was subscribed by the gentlemen present. An account will be opened at the Bank q'f New Zealand, where subscriptions can be paid. The Lyttelton Time*, in a recent leading article, denies that it is the intention of the government to destroy Provincial institutions. This denial is made on the authority ojf its proprietor (Mr Reeves), one of the Ministry. An amended Constitution is promised. In a New Zealand Gazette of the 16th January is published a despatch from the Governor-General of India, inviting direct correspondence with the Government of Tndia on matters connected with agriculture, commerce, im proved machinery, and the like.

The New Zealand Herald records a singular accident which occurred at Parnell a few days ago. A baker's cart was standing on the upper road, sorne fjfty yards below the tire bell at the top of the rise, when the road en gine was brought into tpwn. The horse, alarme4 at she appearance of the monster, backed oyer the ed<*e of the road, and, in company with tfte cart, turned a complete somersault, alighting on his feet on the iqwer road, no' worse for lits performance, but considerably a&:oiiished ?

Basil fires were, according to last accounts, very prevalent in the Waikato district, owing to the long drought.

Eleven houses in the Carterton district have been destroyed by a bush-fire, which raged for several days. No lives lost. A fire broke out in the township itself on the 23rd, which destroyed nine dwelling-houses, two of them new buildings, a large number of out-houses, and much fencing. All the people in the neighborhood removed their furniture into the road, as the tire threatened to extend much further than was eventually found to be the case. An investigation was held on the 24th, to discover the origin of the fire, which was still smouldering.

Ma«terton haa been threatened by bush-fires raging in the vicinity : but up to the latest dates Greytown was considered safe.

A fire broke out on the night of the 23rd nit in Mi Jacob Joseph's store, on the Reclaimed Land, Wellington. It was brought under in about a quarter of an hour by the fire brigade ; but considerable damage was done to the stock, which vas drenched with water.

The Coromandel Mai!, Jan. 24, says : —lt is to be feared that the terrible conflagration that swept up the Tokatea range on the evening of Frjclay last has not yet concluded its career of cle kvuction. On Monday evening vast cumuli of smoke were visible on the range dividing us from the water shed of the Waikoromiki. Driven along by a smart breeze from the north, it seemed at one time as if the raging element were about to return upon us and devastate the hitherto undestroyed portions of our magnificent forest. A. fortunate change of wind has for the time prevented such a calamity, and the evil symptoms have now almost altogether subsided.

As affording an illustration of the influence of forest trees on rain, a subject of the greatest importance ai this moment, the Wangamii Chronicle mentions that, more than onne in these close quiet evenings, a settler on the No. 2 Line has not only seen the scud of rain passing over the bush land lying in the upper district, but hasacLually heard the fall and patter of rain in that direction, while not a drop fell on his own dry and parched lands. According to the New Zealand Herald, the Auckland Artillery made a direct but feeble attack upon the clerk of the weather a few days ago ? by firing a few salvos of pop-guns about breakfast time. The morning mists having assumed the form of a cloud, a rush was made for Fort Britomart by a body of would-be rain-makers, and several rounds of blank cartridge were fired, in the hope of startling old Jupiter Pluvius out of his exasperating condition of equanimity. The consequence was, the instant dispersion of the mists, and a wrathful glance from old Father Sol, which made the "Navals" only too glad to hide their diminished heads. The notion of tiring for rain was, in fact, an idea begotten of despair. Gould as much powder have been burned as at the battle of Gravelotte, we suppose that, under favorable circumstances, in nubibus, a few drops might have been extorted. As it was, however, the filing of a few 24-pounders torhalfan hour was one of the most wild-goose notions that we have heard of for some time.

A married woman named M'Eachen, of Alton-street, Nelson, sixty two years of age, who lived alone, was found dead in her house by one of her daughters on the 10th January. She appeared to have fallen forward and dislocated her neck while in the act of sitting down. She had been last seen alive on the previous daw Dr Sealy, who examined the body, stated that death must have been instantaneous.-—An inquest was held on the Utb, and a verdict of "accidental death" returned.

Mr Alfred Saunders, formerly Super intendent of Nelson, has returpe.dto that Province after an absence of five years, and on the 12th January he delivered an interesting lecture in the Provincial Hall, relating his experiences during his absence. At Sydney, on Jan. 13, a little boy, aged 9 years, was drowned by falling into a vat of boiling beer.

The publicans at Tauranga have unanimously decided to strictly observe the 38th clause of the Licensing Amendment Act, prohibiting hotel-keepers from supplying liquor on Sunday to any but bond fide lodgers, and compelling them to keep their houses closed during the whole of that day. The Evening Post writes:—The Napier Telegraph very troly §ays~- " An intelligent number of settlers view with alarm and sorrow the .schemes proposed by the Ministry, and approved by the Assembly/' Some months ago, when the Telegraph was opposing Mr Vogel's Utopian schemes, and more particularly the construction of a railway which is to open up some property belonging to the Minister for Public Works for the Mr Ormond suddenly discovered that advertising expenses were too great in Hawke's Bay, and withdrew all General Government expenses from that paper. Arrangements were then made that the Telegraph should support the Government, and Mr Qrmond discovered with surprising celerity that it was very essential that the Government announcements should re-appear in that journal. Our contemporary must not indulge in paragraphs similar to the one we have quoted, if it desires to retain its share of advertisemental pickings.

Dv Peter m ann, the well-known geographer, writes to several German papers to announce the success of an Arctic expedition. According to a, telegram received by him, dated Trorasoe, October 3, Lieutanants Weyprect and Payer, the one of the German Navy, and the other of the Austrian Engineers, have penetrated to the 79$i degree north latitude, and actually discovered the open Arctic Sea, so long the El Dorado and Fata Morgana of noithern explorers. The feat was accomplished in a Norwegian sloop, penetrating north wards between Spitzbergen ani Nova Zeinbla. The discoverers, who themselves chartered the ship, report having found an open sea from the 42nd deg. to the 60th deg. E longitude, which they navicatated up to. the 78th deg. N. latitude. The greatest width, wan at the 72th deg. NV latitude, and but little ice was to be seen to the northward. As this occurred in September, there seems to be a chance that the. long-sought passage to the extreme north has been found at last.

"It is unfortunate," says the New York Tribune, "that just as England and the United States are entering upon an era of good-ieeling, a vexatious complication should be forced upon us. Statesmanship requires years to smooth away international difficulties, and, then the whole work may be put in ; jeopardy by a single wrong-headed act. Such an act was the cutting out of the. fishing smack E. A. Horton, from the harbor of Guysborough, Nova Scotia, The American schooner E. A. Horton, was seized by the Dominion authorities, for an alleged infraction of the nshing laws. She was taken into, Guysborough, and pending adjucation of the case, was secretly cut out and brought back to the United States. It was reported that a British cruiser followed the fugitive, and the people along the coasts of New England lashed themselves into a frenzy at the bare suggestion that an American vessel should be pursued by a foreign man-of-war, or that f British frigates should patrol the ports of the Great Republic.' The excitement was needless; if any cruiser followed the stolen schoonei, it could only have been with the hope of overtaking her in Canadian waters. Cutting out of Horton, from Guysborough harbor while she was in the cusiody of the legally constituted authorities, was a gross breach of international law. jhe perpetrators have escaped, or are not known, but the vessel is in an American port • and ? if j:be British Government makes a demand for her, she will have to be given up, galling though such a sacrifice may be. It is well to cheer the brave cap: tors, and toss caps in the air when the gallant little craft, with the Stars anil Stripes flying, comes into harbor ; but the facts of the case are as pitiless as they were when we sutrended the prisoners froni the Trent, or would haye given up the rebel cruiser cut out fron) Bahia if she had not been * accidentally sunk' in Hampton Roads."

A married man named Benjamin Townson, a gardener employed by the Bishop of Nelson, took to the bush on the 6th January, while suffering under mental aberration, and has not since been heard of.

A Kanaka, whilst bathing in a creek near Brisbane on Jan. 15, was seized and carried away by a large alligator. William Sibley, a boy bushranger from Sydney, has been captured in the Muiray district. The Melbourne Argus notices the death, by an overdose of opium taken to produce sleep, of a young man named J. Selby Bennett, about 28 years old, a locomotive engineer by profession, who is said to have friends in New Zealand, from which colony he arrived in Victoria eighteen months ago.

".Piptheria is making fearful ravages amongst children in some parts of Victoiia. In one family near Ballarat six out of seven children died from tins complaint, and the father had been also seized with the disorder. Malignant scarlatina is also prevalent.

An exchange pithily remarks: — " Men eat too much, fret too much, exercise too little, sleep too little, and then drink whiskey. Let them turn themselves into the fresh air, eat simple food, sleep enough, and they will be more healthy. Says Dr Guthrie : "If you want to keep a dead man, put him in whiskey ; if you want to kill a living inan, put the whiskey into him."