AUCKLAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 93, 16 October 1852, Page 10

AUCKLAND.

The Elections for the Provincial Council have taken place at Auckland for the city and suburbs, and for the northern division. The nomination of members took place on the 30th August. On the following morning the polling for the contested districts took place. At the close of the poll at 4 o'clock the numbers were declared as follows :— Brown 490 Salmon 4SI Whittaker 454 O'Neill 313 The Returning Officer therefore declared the first-named three candidates duly elected. For the northern division, the numbers at the close were:— Forsaith 148 O'Neill 90 Pa ton 82 Hill 40 The two Candidates highest on the list were declared to be duly elected. Messrs. Macky and Porter were returned for the Southern division, Dr. Cambell for the suburbs, and Mr. Dignan for the Pensioner settlements. The election for members under the Provincial Council's Ordinance took place at New Plymouth on the 30th August, when Mr. C. Brown was elected member for the town of New Plymouth without opposition. For the district of Taranaki three candidates were opposed, Mr. J. T. Wicksteed, Mr. Richmond, and Mr. H. Scotland ; —the show of hands was greatly in favour of Mr. Wicksteed, but a poll having been demanded on the part of the other two candidates, votinsr commenced the next morning at the Court House, when at the close of the poll the numbers were declared to be as follows:— Wicksteed 108 Richmond 30 Scotland 6 Mr. Wicksteed was consequently declared to be duly elected. How to destroy Rats.—A correspondent of the Sydney Herald says that poison on fish is the most efficacious mode of getting rid of rats. " Boil a mullett, put it cut up in slices on a plate, and rub arsenic, a small quantity only, over every part, and I will engage that not a rat will be seen, dead ones excepted, after forty eight hours. As the rats are driven to drink by the raging thirst occasioned, a tin dish of water should be placed at hand, near which they will die." Mr. Disraeli and his Pabty.—The scene in the House of Commons on the Budget night was a curious one. Lord Derby,who sat under the gallery all the time, listening to the Chancellor of the Exchequer unfolding the measures of the last two Governments, proving their entire and perfect success, exclaimed to a friend at the close, " It may be wrong, but I cannot help saying with the King of old, ' I called thee to curse mine enemies, and lo thou bast blessed them altogether.'" Another noble listener jokingly said, " Mr. Wilson must have supplied the figures and reasonings, Sir C. Wood the framework of the budget, and Mr. Disraeli has grouped them together, and varnished them." And no wonder; for if the late Government had continued in office, it is more than probable that the same budget would have been produced ; and certainly it would have been sustained by the same arguments and facts.—Manchester Guardian. The London Dray Horse.—During the reign of George IV., eight of these, coal-black and sleek as satin, were sent as a present to the Shah of Persia. With European potentates the splendour of royalty, the "dread and fear of kings," is much enhanced by rapid, lightning like velocity ; in the East it all depends on slowness, even the solemn elephant is too quick for state. When the Shah beheld these noble animals put to their paces, which neither blandishment nor bullying could stimulate beyond a heavy walk, he clapped his hands in ecstasy, and shouted three times "Bismillah." They were instantly invested with high dignities, lodged in stalls of state, proclaimed sacred, and bowstring and bastinado denounced against all who looked on them without permission. The charger of Caligula, who was created consul, and fed with gilded oats in an ivory manger, was treated with less distinguished honour. The breed has been perpetrated in the royal stables of Ispahan, even as the Hanoverian cream-co-lours are preserved in the mews at St. James.

The Sheep.—ln a lecture delivered at the Society of Arts by Professor Owen, the lecturer noticed the fact that the care of sheep occupied a greater number of the human race than all other occupations put together. From the depths of Central Asia to the newest states of America, the pastoral life was followed, so that, judging from the number of human beings employed in its cultivation, wool was the most important of all the animal products used in manufactures. With respect to the origin of the Ovian race, the Pakeontographic Society had negatively ascertained that they did not exist in the Pliocene period, and therefore it might reasonably be concluded that they were coeval with man. They were not originally natives of Europe, but were brought over by the Asiatic tribes in their migrations ; but both in Asia and in Europe they were mentioned by the most ancient sacred and profane writers. Herodotus speaks of the felt, and Strabo of the wool derived from sheep, and the Bible is full of pastoral allusions. The classical authors of Greece and Rome describe the sheep of North Africa, of Lytia, and of the country which now is Circassia. They passed across the Euxine Sea into Greece, where Homer celebrated the flocks of Thrace and Thessaly and in Greece was situated the famed Arcadia, the abode of Pan, the pastoral paradise of the poets. Sheep were next in Spain, then in Italy, and lastly, in Germany and Gaul, where Csesar found Pe'coris magnos numeros and the various processes for improving the staple of the wool. Diogenes speaks of the method of clothing the sheep in skins to preserve the fleece, and a curious illustration of the value of that process was afforded at the late Exhibition. The most successful exhibitors were the Austrians, next Saxony, then Silesia, and then the Zollvereign. The American wools were distinguished, and next to them came the Russian. Spain exhibited her merinos as good as they were a century ago, but without any of the recent improvements. The French had shown themselves most ingenious in producing a new wool of.unusually silky texture, and so valuable had the jury thought the improvement that they awarded the council medal to the exhibitor of the novelty. The climate of England was unfavourable to the fine descriptions of wools, and consequently we drew on Australia, Tasmania, -and the Cape for the greater part of our supply. The fact was that our immense population made it necessary that the English farmer should direct his attention principally to mutton, not wool. Marrying One's Aunt.—At the Clerkenwell Police-Office, during the sitting, a young man applied to Mr. Corrie, the magistrate, and coolly said, " Please, your worship, I wish to know whether it is lawful for a man to marry his own aunt ?" (a laugh.) Mr. Corrie :Itis a most extraordinary question ; have you married your aunt? Applicant: Yes; my mother's sister. Mr. Corrie: How old are you ? Applicant: Nineteen. Mr. Corrie : What age is your wife 1 Applicant: Twenty. Mr.Corrie said that such a marriage was certainly illegal, according to the Scriptures, and he referred to Leviticus and I the Common Prayer Book. The wife, a good i looking young woman, here said: '' He is a fool; lam willing to do every thing to make him comfortable. Applicant: I can't live with her, she has got such a bad temper. Wife: If the marriage is illegal, and he leaves me, is he not bound to support me ? Mr. Corrie : Oh, no, Wife -. Then can he marry again ? Mr. Corrie; Yes. Wife : Can Idoso ? Mr. Corrie : Yes. j Wife: Ob, then, that's all right (laughter): Applicant: I'll take good care I'll not get married again. I have had enough of it for the last six months. The Applicant then left the Court, followed by his aunt-wife, who continued abusing her nephew until they got out of sight. Mademoiselle Joanna Wagner, a nightingale of great renown, and Mr. Lumley, the lessee of her Majesty's Theatre, have occupied a large share of public interest. The story is very long, as everything is in the Court of Chancery, hut it may be very shortly told. Joanna entered into an engagement with Mr. Lumley to sing at his Opera House, but Mr. Gye, the lessee of the Italian Opera House offered a more tempting salary, and under the injudicious counsel of an avaricious father she broke her engagement with Lumley, and was prepared to sing for Mr. Gye, when Mr. Lumley obtained an injunction from the Vice-Chancellor, and up to this period, Joanna has not been permitted to astonish the musical world. Amongst West Endians, there is no end of disappointment, for Joanna is reported to be inferior only to Jenny Lind.