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Lyttelton Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1192, 4 February 1864, Page 3

The Cause Celebre — l't is rumoured in the region of the Divorce Court, says a contemporary, tlmfc the new judge will soon have to deal with a case more extraordinary than any which occupied the time of his predecessor. It is said that the wife of a clergyman is the respondent, and that the co-respondent is so eminent in position, and luis been so Ion? and so much before the public, that the interest likely to be excited by the case will equal if it do not exceed that created some years ago by a celebrated trial in which Lord Melbourne appeared as defendant. [The distinguished person alluded to is plainly indicated by the parallel drawn between him alid Lord Melbourne; but Ihe cases are widely different, and it is satisfactory to be assured that this mysterious paragraph abounds in errors. A rumour of a compromise, which had been circulated has been contradicted on both sides. The answer in tlio cuse is understood to ho complete and dtH'iMU'.j Home Neirs, Commander Francis V\ iilimu Sullivan, in consideration <>i: the valuable assistance rendered by him during the reeeul .successful operations of her Majestv's troops in New Zealand, as recorded in the 'London Gazette* of the li7lli October, has been Droinoted to the rank of Captain.—Home Xews.

The • Army and Xavy Gazette' says:—"Colonel Warre, <>f the 57tii Hegiment. lias been placed on the New Zealand Staff temporarily, as Colonel on the Stalf. lie is a very accomplished officer, and we have no doubt that General Cameron will find in him a most efficient assistant. Colonel Warre's appointment will not occasion his removal from his Regiment.''—lbid.

Fike Insi'u.vxce Kkvoum. —Heeent events remind us of the unsatisfactory state of fire insurance in another respect. It. is not long sinec the companies threatened to abolish the whole system of defence which has been maintained of late years, and so save the cost of the brigade, and acquit themselves of all responsibility concerning it. On abstract grounds, we don't see why there should be provided by the companies any machinery for the protection of property from fire any more than there is for the protection of the human frame from the assaults of disease and the liability to death. If a ma" is attacked with diptheria or cholera, the company that has issued a policy on his life does not send an army of doctors, and would doubtless spurn the proposal to provide him with a hot bath or a pair of blankets. Nevertheless, the cases are paralleled as regards the risk of loss by the company; a man may hasten his death by dissipation, but if he hastens the destruction of his property by carelessness, there is a fire brigade at the door ready to check the progress of fire, and this at the whole cost of the companies by whom the risk has been incurred. The assurers pay directly for the protection of the property of the uninsured, and as property is not alone at stake when a fire breaks out, but life also is jeopardised, it is demonstrable, we believe, that the public collectively should incur the burden of maintaining Are brigades, and that the companies are greatly to blame for allowing the protective system to remain in so unsatisfactory a state as it is and has been for many years past. Let them be rid of the burden and reduce the rate of assurance proportionately to the saving effected; this would throw upon the whole mass of the possessors of property and life the cost of their defence from fire and add to the inducements to prudence and forethought in the domestic life of the people.—City Press,